DETAILED ACTION
Notice of Pre-AIA or AIA Status
The present application, filed on or after March 16, 2013, is being examined under the first inventor to file provisions of the AIA .
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 102
The following is a quotation of the appropriate paragraphs of 35 U.S.C. 102 that form the basis for the rejections under this section made in this Office action:
A person shall be entitled to a patent unless –
(a)(2) the claimed invention was described in a patent issued under section 151, or in an application for patent published or deemed published under section 122(b), in which the patent or application, as the case may be, names another inventor and was effectively filed before the effective filing date of the claimed invention.
Claim(s) 1-11,16-20 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(2) as being anticipated by Von Tuerckheim et al (US 20230134271 A1).
As per claim 1, Von Tuerckheim discloses a method of generating at least two audio channels from audio in an immersive audio format comprising at least one height audio channel and at least two non-height audio channels, for playing back the at least two audio channels with a non- immersive loudspeaker system of at least two audio loudspeakers inside a vehicle (para. 2 vehicle sound systems), the method comprising:
applying a virtual height filter (any of the frequency based processing in para 80 or 81,23) to the at least one height channel (para. 81: the signal such that the signal appears to come from a virtual source) for, when the at least one audio height channel is played back by one of the at least two loudspeakers (para. 81: In case two or more main speakers are used, a plurality of main audio playback channels is generated,),
at least partially attenuating spectral components of the at least one height channel directly emanating from said loudspeaker and for at least partially amplifying spectral components of the at least one height channel the height filtered audio signal is reflected from a roof or an area close to the roof inside the vehicle (the frequency based processing in para 80 and 81 functions to amplify and attenuate frequency portions of the virtual source emanation from two or more loudspeakers to generate the virtual source, where the virtual source is comprised of frequency components defined by the processing of para 80 and 81,23 where, since the virtual audio source is spatially located above the speakers per para 22,99 the outputting of the virtual source by the speakers comprises attenuation of the source directly at the speakers and amplification of the source frequencies at a location near the roof/the walls of the car used to reflect the audio signal to a higher plane that the loudspeakers are located ) to generate at least one virtual height filtered audio signal (the virtual source as produced by the loudspeakers),
and[[,]] [[ -]] mixing the at least one virtual height filtered audio signal with at least one of the two non-height audio channels to generate the at least two audio channels (the virtual source, as processed per para 80 and 81, is mixed with the other audio being sent to each of the loudspeaker channels in order to produce the virtual source/height filtered audio signal per para 81).
As per claim 2, wherein the audio in [[the]] an immersive audio format further comprises at least two further non-height audio channels and wherein the virtual height filtered audio signal is mixed with each one of the non-height audio channels to generate four audio channels (para. 99 the system can use additional height speakers, which may be implemented as non height speakers that reflect off the walls to make the audio appear form above, where those two speakers and the two speakers from the claim 1 rejection make 4 speakers and their respective audio channels).
As per claim 3, The method of claim[[s]] 1, wherein the audio in [[the]] an immersive audio format comprises at least two height audio channels (the channel of signaling to create the virtual source at a height position per the 4 channels cited in the claim 1 and 2 rejections), and
wherein the virtual height filter is applied to each one of the at least two height audio channels to generate at least two virtual height filtered audio signal and wherein each one of the virtual height filtered audio signals is mixed with one of the at least two non-height channels (the individual signals added to each speaker channel in order to create the virtual source).
As per claim 4, the method of claim 1[[s]], wherein the audio in [[the]] an immersive audio format comprises four height audio channels and four non- height audio channels (the four speakers cited in the above rejections, the 4 height audio channels used to create the virtual source based on reflecting as to appear from above),
and wherein the virtual height filter is applied to each one of the four height audio channels to generate four virtual height filtered audio signals (the processing in para 80,81, and 22,23 as applied to each channel in order to create the virtual source)
and wherein each one of the virtual height filtered audio signals is mixed with one of the four non-height channels (the processing audio signal as applied to each speaker channel in order to create the virtual source).
As per claim 5, the method of any one of claim[[s]] 1, wherein the non-immersive loudspeaker system is a stereo or surround loudspeaker system (the speakers surround the user in the car).
As per claim 6, the method of claim[[s]] 1, wherein the virtual height filter has a filter transfer function and wherein the method further comprises determining the filter transfer function of the virtual height filter from one or more parameters identifying the filter transfer function (the processing as applied to the audio signal as applied to each speaker channel per the claim 1-3 rejections are based on a digital system which requires the use of parameters for each digital processing function).
As per claim 7, the method of claim[[s]] 1, wherein the virtual height filter has a filter transfer function having a peak at a first frequency and a notch at a second frequency higher than the first frequency (para 14: the spectral modification may comprise a low-pass filter to reduce the intensity of higher spectral components).
As per claim 8, the method of claim[[s]] 6, wherein the one or more parameters are indicative of at least one value of: a peak, a first frequency, a notch, and a second frequency of the filter transfer function (the filters cited above require indication of peak and notch frequencies in order to have the cited shapes, hpf, lpf and bandpass.
As per claim 9, the method of any one of the previous claiml[[s]], wherein the at least two audio loudspeakers are laterally spaced with respect to a listening position (the loudspeakers cited above are laterally spaced in a car).
As per claim 10, the method of any one of the claim 9, further comprising determining a filter transfer function for the virtual height filter based on a relative distance of the at the least two loudspeakers from the listening position and on an elevation of the roof or area close to the roof relative to the listening position (the spatial processing cited above requires knowledge of the geometric positioning of all loudspeakers, and the walls/areas close to roof which are reflecting the audio, in order to position the audio as desired).
As per claim 11, the method of claim 9, further comprising obtaining a plurality of filter transfer functions for a plurality of virtual height filters based on a range of relative distances of the at the least two loudspeakers from the listening position and on a range of elevations of the roof or area close to the roof relative to the listening position (the processing per the claim rejection, in view of a digital processor implementation, is based on ranges of each parameter, including the geometric positioning of each element within a coordinate system, per the ranges defined in the digital quantization applied to each data and parameter within the processor);
and selecting one filter transfer function from the plurality of filter transfer functions (after the parameters are read by the processor for each of the functions in the claim 1 and 2 rejections, each function is selected/read by the processor as it is performed.
As per claim 16, the method of claim[[s]] 1, further comprising applying a gain or a user-configurable gain to the virtual height filter (an applied gain is part of applying the lpf,hpf or bpf responses per para 75).
As per claim 17, (The method of claim[[s]] 1, wherein the audio in [[the]] an immersive audio format is audio rendered in the immersive audio format and/or wherein the immersive audio format is Dolby Atmos, or any X.Y.Z audio format where X>2 is the number of front or surround audio channels, Y>0 is, when present, a Low Frequency Effects or subwoofer audio channel, and Z >1 is the at least one height audio channel (the system described above is and renders an immersive audio format).
As per claim 18, an apparatus comprising a processor and a memory storing one or more programs including instructions for configured to performing the method of claim 1 (required by the system in the above rejections as it requires at least one digital processor)
As per claim 19, the apparatus of claim 18, wherein the apparatus is [[A]]a vehicle including a loudspeaker system of at least two audio loudspeakers, further comprising the apparatus of claim 18 (per the claim 1 rejection).
As per claim 20, a non-transitory computer-readable storage medium storing one or more programs including comprising instructions that, when executed by a processor, cause the processor to carry out the method according to claim 1 (required for the digital processor which is required to implement the system of the claim 1 rejection).
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 103
The following is a quotation of 35 U.S.C. 103 which forms the basis for all obviousness rejections set forth in this Office action:
A patent for a claimed invention may not be obtained, notwithstanding that the claimed invention is not identically disclosed as set forth in section 102, if the differences between the claimed invention and the prior art are such that the claimed invention as a whole would have been obvious before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to a person having ordinary skill in the art to which the claimed invention pertains. Patentability shall not be negated by the manner in which the invention was made.
Claim(s) 12-15 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Von Tuerckheim et al (US 20230134271 A1) as applied to claims 1-11, and further in view of Brimijoin et al (US 11751003 B1).
As per claim 12, the method of claim 11, wherein the selected filter transfer function is the average of the plurality of filter transfer functions.
Brimijoin teaches that spatial audio systems using HRTFs can use lookup table based processing to implement a transfer function, (para. 45: The stored selection model may be in the form of a look-up table that maps ranges of input parameter values to one of the audio renderers )
wherein the selected filter transfer function is the average of the plurality of filter transfer functions (since it is in a table, it will be selected from among a group a entries which form an average of the one selected due to the nature of a lookup table). Brimijoin teaches that this allows for improved tuning of the accuracy per the bottom of para 60. It would have been obvious to one skilled in the art to implement the claimed table based processing for the HRTF based processing of Tuerckheim for the purpose of implementing improves accuracy control in the transfer functions of Tuerckheim.
As per claim 13, the method of claim 11 as far dependent on any of the claim 6 [[to 8]], wherein determining the filter transfer function includes selecting one filter transfer function from [[the]] a plurality of filter transfer functions includes comprises selecting one or more parameters identifying the selected filter transfer function based on an average distance of the at the least two loudspeakers from the listening position and based on an average elevation of the roof or area close to the roof relative to the listening position (rejected for the same reasons in the claim 12 rejection, the parameters when picked from a lookup table, where the distance between speakers is part of determining a desired HRTF response, where the selected HRTF comprises a set of values/average value per the lookup table.
However, that combination does not explicitly teach the distance parameter or elevation parameter.
The examiner takes official notice it was well known in the art, at the time of filing, that distance between speakers and room geometry including wall distance and roof elevation are common parameters used with HRTFs and reverberation when used to implement 3d or spatial or immersive audio.
As per claim 14, the method of any of the claim[[s]] 11 to 13, wherein the steps of obtaining, selecting, applying and mixing are iteratively applied for each selected filter transfer function until the filter transfer function provides a playback of the at least two channels with maximum perception of sound elevation (the packets/frames of data and metadata are processed iteratively over time to create a rendered virtual audio source at a desired location from a preset set of loudspeakers, where once enough frames/packets have been processed the virtual object is rendered/maximum perception of sound).
As per claim 15, the method of claim[[s]] 6 further comprising storing the one or more parameters in a processor as a look-up table or as an analytical function (lookuptable per the above rejections).
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to ALEXANDER KRZYSTAN whose telephone number is 571-272-7498, and whose email address is alexander.krzystan@uspto.gov
The examiner can usually be reached on m-f 7:30-4:00 est.
If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone or email are unsuccessful, the examiner’s supervisor, Fan Tsang can be reached on (571) 272-7547.
The fax phone numbers for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned are 571-273-8300 for regular communications and 571-273-8300 for After Final communications.
/ALEXANDER KRZYSTAN/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2653
Examiner Alexander Krzystan
June 8, 2026
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