DETAILED ACTION
In the response to this office action, the examiner respectfully requests that support be shown for language added to any original claims on amendment and any new claims. That is, indicate support for newly added claim language by specifically pointing to page(s) and line numbers in the specification and/or drawing figure(s). This will assist the examiner in prosecuting this application.
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 .
Drawings
The drawings are objected to as failing to comply with 37 CFR 1.84(p)(5) because they include the following reference character(s) not mentioned in the description:
Figure 6 includes items 2000 and 2010 not found in the written description.
Corrected drawing sheets in compliance with 37 CFR 1.121(d), or amendment to the specification to add the reference character(s) in the description in compliance with 37 CFR 1.121(b) are required in reply to the Office action to avoid abandonment of the application. Any amended replacement drawing sheet should include all of the figures appearing on the immediate prior version of the sheet, even if only one figure is being amended. Each drawing sheet submitted after the filing date of an application must be labeled in the top margin as either “Replacement Sheet” or “New Sheet” pursuant to 37 CFR 1.121(d). If the changes are not accepted by the examiner, the applicant will be notified and informed of any required corrective action in the next Office action. The objection to the drawings will not be held in abeyance.
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)(1) the claimed invention was patented, described in a printed publication, or in public use, on sale, or otherwise available to the public before the effective filing date of the claimed invention.
Claim(s) 1, 2, and 4-7 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(1) as being anticipated by Fujitsu (CN 2008239099 A)(from IDS dated July 12th, 2024 plus translation provided by applicant).
Regarding claim 1, Fujitsu discloses a noise control apparatus (figure 1 vehicle noise control device 1) that generates a cancellation signal (output of speaker sp1) to be reproduced by a cancelling speaker (sp1) by performing an operation (the examiner is not interpreting this as a single means claim due to the generating step above and this performing step, thus requiring two distinct portions of the apparatus) corresponding to position information m (surrounding condition from a navigation system 3, paragraph [0039]) of a moving object (the vehicle, see figure 2) in which the cancelling speaker used in active noise control is installed (see figure 2).
Regarding claim 2, Fujitsu discloses comprising:
processing circuitry (at least 1 of figure 1, paragraph [0029]); and
a noise map information storage unit (at least environmental change prediction unit 13, "route conditions passed from the environmental change prediction unit 13", paragraph [0046], meaning the environmental change prediction part 13 stores "route conditions", may include portions of 12, 14, and 15) that stores information (route condition, figure 3, paragraphs [0042] and [44]) indicating whether or not a position is a position at which a noise characteristic greatly changes, wherein
in a determination processing (via environmental change detection part 11, and parts of 13 and 3) the processing circuitry determines whether or not a position of the position information m is the position at which the noise characteristic greatly changes, with reference to the noise map information storage unit (for portions of 11 see paragraph [0058], for portions of 13 see paragraphs [0054] to [0056]); and
in a suppression signal generation processing the processing circuitry that generates the cancellation signal for suppressing noise by using a sound collection signal of a reference microphone (reference microphone M1) and a model Ma (adaptive filter F11), and updates the model Ma by using the sound collection signal of an error microphone (error microphone M2, refer to paragraph [0034]), and
a different process is executed depending on whether or not the position of the position information m is the position at which the noise characteristic greatly changes (step S107, figure 5).
Regarding claim 4, Fujitsu discloses wherein
the noise map information storage unit stores the information indicating whether or not the position is the position at which the noise characteristic greatly changes (predict where big changes happen, paragraph [0010] “means for estimating” future environments, paragraph [0017], “higher likelihood”, paragraph [0042] and [0044]) and a model (stores updated coefficients for new environment, paragraph [0013]) adapted to a changed noise characteristic at the position at which the noise characteristic greatly changes (paragraphs [0010] to [0016]), and
in a case where the position of the position information m is the position at which the noise characteristic greatly changes (If position is the future position, abstract, “In this vehicle noise control device, a storage part 12 stores a filter coefficient downloaded from a filter coefficient download server 100 and corresponding to a future vehicle interior environment predicted by an environment change prediction part 13”), in the determination processing the processing circuitry extracts a model Mb adapted to the changed noise characteristic corresponding to the position of the position information m from the noise map information storage unit, and changes the model Ma (current model or coefficient set of filter F13) used in the suppression signal generation processing to the model Mb (change from current filter model to new filter model, abstract “a filter coefficient corresponding to the environment change is selected and is copied to an Fx filter F13. Based on the filter coefficient copied to the Fx filter F13, control sound for controlling noise in the vehicle interior is produced”).
Claim 5 is rejected in an analogous manner to claim 1.
Claim 6 is rejected in an analogous manner to claim 2.
Claim 7 is rejected in an analogous manner to claim 1 given embodiment of paragraph [0065].
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) 3 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Fujitsu (CN 2008239099 A)(from IDS dated July 12th, 2024 plus translation provided by applicant) in view of Alpine (CN 2019203919 A)(from IDS dated July 12th, 2024 plus translation provided by applicant).
Regarding claim 3, Fujitsu does not expressly disclose instances wherein active noise control is not performed.
Alpine discloses the feature of stopping the output of a canceling sound (output of 20, see paragraph [0001] and figure 1) when noise characteristics change greatly (paragraphs [0007] and [0017], also see paragraphs [0001] to [0006], and paragraphs [0013] to [0016]).
It would have been obvious to a person of ordinary skill in the art to use the stopping of the output of Alpine in the system of Fujitsu for the benefit of avoiding noise in situations where the system might not act as expected. Therefore, it would have been obvious to combine Alpine with Fujitsu, for the benefits above, to obtain the invention as specified in claim 3.
Conclusion
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to DOUGLAS JOHN SUTHERS whose telephone number is (571)272-0563. The examiner can normally be reached M-F, 8 am -5 pm.
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/DOUGLAS J SUTHERS/ Examiner, Art Unit 2695
/PAUL KIM/ Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2695