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 .
Specification
The title of the invention is not descriptive. A new title is required that is clearly indicative of the invention to which the claims are directed.
The following title is suggested: Audio Device With Audio Output in an Upward Direction.
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) 1-3 and 8-10 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Tsurumoto (WO 2021/145152) in view of Yasuda (US 2011/0160883).
Regarding claim 1, Tsurumoto teaches An audio device comprising: a first speaker disposed on a left side (Tsurumoto figure 3, Speaker LSP); a second speaker disposed on a right side (Tsurumoto figure 3, Speaker RSP); a third speaker disposed between the first speaker and the second speaker (Tsurumoto figure 3, Speaker CSP); and a controller, wherein: the first to third speakers are arranged to output audio in an upward direction (Tsurumoto figure 3, and ¶0025, “face upward at a predetermined angle with respect to the bottom surface 36E”), however does not explicitly teach the controller generates a third channel signal corresponding to the third speaker based on a first channel signal corresponding to the first speaker and a second channel signal corresponding to the second speaker, and outputs audio corresponding to the third channel signal through the third speaker.
Yasuda teaches the controller generates a third channel signal (Yasuda figure 7, 703c) corresponding to the third speaker (Yasuda figure 7, speaker 706c) based on a first channel signal corresponding to the first speaker (Yasuda figure 7, Stereo digital audio signals signal 701a) and a second channel signal corresponding to the second speaker (Yasuda figure 7, Stereo digital audio signals signal 701b), and outputs audio corresponding to the third channel signal through the third speaker (Yasuda figure 7, speaker 706c).
Therefore, it would have been obvious to a person of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to use the known technique of Yasuda to improve the known audio device of Tsurumoto to achieve the predictable result of reduced power consumption (Yasuda ¶0069, “it is possible to combine L and R in a digital acoustic playback system covering low pass, the low power consumption characteristics of the acoustic playback system can be further optimized”).
Regarding claims 2 and 9, Tsurumoto in view of Yasuda teaches wherein a separation distance between the first speaker and the third speaker is equal to a separation distance between the second speaker and the third speaker (Tsurumoto ¶0067, “when the speaker units are arranged at equal intervals on the same surface”).
Regarding claims 3 and 10, Tsurumoto in view of Yasuda teaches wherein the controller generates the third channel signal based on a result of adding up the first channel signal and the second channel signal (Yasuda figure 7, 703c from summer).
Regarding claim 8, Tsurumoto teaches A method of operating an audio device, the method comprising: the first speaker disposed on a left side (Tsurumoto figure 3, Speaker LSP), the second speaker disposed on a right side (Tsurumoto figure 3, Speaker RSP), and the third speaker disposed between the first speaker and the second speaker (Tsurumoto figure 3, Speaker CSP); wherein the first to third speakers are arranged to output audio in an upward direction (Tsurumoto figure 3, and ¶0025, “face upward at a predetermined angle with respect to the bottom surface 36E”), however does not explicitly teach generating a third channel signal corresponding to a third speaker based on a first channel signal corresponding to a first speaker and a second channel signal corresponding to a second speaker, and outputting audio corresponding to the third channel signal through the third speaker.
Yasuda teaches generating a third channel signal (Yasuda figure 7, 703c) corresponding to a third speaker (Yasuda figure 7, speaker 706c) based on a first channel signal corresponding to a first speaker (Yasuda figure 7, Stereo digital audio signals signal 701a) and a second channel signal corresponding to a second speaker (Yasuda figure 7, Stereo digital audio signals signal 701b), and outputting audio corresponding to the third channel signal through the third speaker (Yasuda figure 7, speaker 706c).
Therefore, it would have been obvious to a person of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to use the known technique of Yasuda to improve the known audio device of Tsurumoto to achieve the predictable result of reduced power consumption (Yasuda ¶0069, “it is possible to combine L and R in a digital acoustic playback system covering low pass, the low power consumption characteristics of the acoustic playback system can be further optimized”).
Claim(s) 4, 6, 11, and 13 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Tsurumoto (WO 2021/145152) in view of Yasuda (US 2011/0160883) in further view of 958’ (KR19980036958).
Regarding claims 4 and 11, Tsurumoto in view of Yasuda does not explicitly teach wherein the controller calculates a correlation coefficient between the first channel signal and the second channel signal, and generates the third channel signal based on the calculated correlation coefficient.
958’ teaches wherein the controller calculates a correlation coefficient between the first channel signal and the second channel signal, and generates the third channel signal based on the calculated correlation coefficient (958’ page 3 ¶7, “That is, the scale ratio of the audio data of the center channel is determined by the correlation between the audio data of the two left and right channels, and the center channel data is generated according to the determined scale ratio, thereby further enhancing the stereoscopic effect of the audio system”).
Therefore, it would have been obvious to a person of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to use the known technique of 958’ to improve the known audio device of Tsurumoto in view of Yasuda to achieve the predictable result of enhancing the stereoscopic effect of the audio system (958’ page 3 ¶7).
Regarding claims 6 and 13, Tsurumoto in view of Yasuda in further view of 958’ teaches wherein the controller is configured to: generate a first output signal corresponding to the first channel signal and a second output signal corresponding to the second channel signal based on the calculated correlation coefficient (958’ figure 2 and Page 3 ¶3, output 19 is based on scale rate table 18 which is determined based on correlation between left and right channel. Calculated correlation from calculator 12 is stored in 10 and 11); output audio corresponding to the first output signal through the first speaker; and output audio corresponding to the second output signal through the second speaker (Tsurumoto figure 3, Speaker LSP and RSP).
Claim(s) 5 and 12 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Tsurumoto (WO 2021/145152) in view of Yasuda (US 2011/0160883) in further view of 958’ (KR19980036958) in further view of Schuijers (US 2005/0177360).
Regarding claims 5 and 12, Tsurumoto in view of Yasuda in further view of 958’ does not explicitly teach herein the controller calculates the correlation coefficient between a waveform of the first channel signal and a waveform of the second channel signal in a time domain based on a predetermined sampling rate, and generates a waveform, corresponding to the waveform of the first channel signal and the waveform of the second channel signal, as the third channel signal based on the calculated correlation coefficient.
Schuijers teaches herein the controller calculates the correlation coefficient between a waveform of the first channel signal and a waveform of the second channel signal in a time domain (Schuijers ¶0026, “a parameter (r) that describes the similarity or dissimilarity of the waveforms” and “ITD”) based on a predetermined sampling rate (Schuijers ¶0057, “the left and right incoming signals are split up in various time frames (2048 samples at 44.1 kHz sampling rate)”), and generates a waveform, corresponding to the waveform of the first channel signal and the waveform of the second channel signal, as the third channel signal based on the calculated correlation coefficient the left and right incoming signals are split up in various time frames (2048 samples at 44.1 kHz sampling rate).
Therefore, it would have been obvious to a person of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to use the known technique of Schuijers to improve the known audio device of Tsurumoto in view of Yasuda in further view of 958’ to achieve the predictable result of reducing artifacts related to parametric multi-channel coding (Schuijers ¶0012).
Claim(s) 7 and 14 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Tsurumoto (WO 2021/145152) in view of Yasuda (US 2011/0160883) in further view of Sakamoto (US 2008/0240474).
Regarding claims 7 and 14, Tsurumoto in view of Yasuda teaches wherein the controller is configured to: generate a reservation signal based on the first channel signal and the second channel signal (Yasuda figure 22, 2203c); and generate the third channel signal based on a result of mixing the reservation channel signal and a fourth channel signal (Yasuda figure 22, ¶0104, “Digital signals (2205a, 2205b) from digital filters (2202a, 2202b) each of which processes L and R digital signals respectively, and the digital signal (2202c) from the digital filter (2202c) which processes the quasi-surround digital signal, are combined and input to the speakers (2206a, 2206b, 2206c, 2206d”), however does not explicitly teach a fourth speaker disposed to output audio in a forward direction in response to the third speaker.
Sakamoto teaches a fourth speaker disposed to output audio in a forward direction in response to the third speaker (Sakamoto ¶0013).
Therefore, it would have been obvious to a person of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to use the known technique of Sakamoto to improve the known audio device of Tsurumoto in view of Yasuda to achieve the predictable result of an adaptive sound field when speaker location changes.
Conclusion
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/NORMAN YU/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2693