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)(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) 1-9 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(1) as being anticipated by Zafeiropoulos (US 10770056).
Regarding claim 1, Zafeiropoulos teaches a noise control apparatus for performing active noise control, wherein the noise control apparatus has suppression information that is information related to noise suppression and is common to another noise control apparatus that is disposed in a same moving body and corresponds to a reference microphone different from a reference microphone of the noise control apparatus, and suppresses noise using the common suppression information (Selective noise cancellation by utilizing reference signals from only front vehicle sensors (or front axles sensors 102a-102b) and all microphones signals while driving front loudspeakers 54a and rear loudspeakers 54b, 54c concurrently to cancel undesired noise in the front zone 58 and the rear zone 58), col 15, ln 18-23).
Regarding claim 2, Zafeiropoulos teaches the noise control apparatus according to The noise control apparatus according to wherein the noise control apparatus uses suppression information of another noise control apparatus corresponding to a more front area than an area corresponding to the noise control apparatus with respect to a traveling direction of the moving body (Selective noise cancellation by utilizing reference signals from only front vehicle sensors (or front axles sensors 102a-102b) and all microphones signals while driving front loudspeakers 54a and rear loudspeakers 54b, 54c concurrently to cancel undesired noise in the front zone 58 and the rear zone 58), col 15, ln 18-23).
Regarding claim 3, Zafeiropoulos teaches a noise control system comprising N noise control apparatuses configured to perform active noise control, wherein the N noise control apparatuses respectively correspond to N reference microphones arranged in a same moving body (Microphones 52a, 52b and loudspeaker 58a may generally be positioned in the front zone 58a. , col 6, ln 25-27), the noise control apparatus generates a cancellation signal for suppressing noise by using a sound collection signal of a corresponding reference microphone and a model (ANC controller with filter matrices, col 5, ln 7-11), the noise control system further comprises a suppression information sharing unit configured to receive suppression information from a certain noise control apparatus and output, to another noise control apparatus, suppression information to be used in the another noise control apparatus in the suppression information (Selective noise cancellation by utilizing reference signals from only front vehicle sensors (or front axles sensors 102a-102b) and all microphones signals while driving front loudspeakers 54a and rear loudspeakers 54b, 54c concurrently to cancel undesired noise in the front zone 58 and the rear zone 58), col 15, ln 18-23), and the another noise control apparatus corresponding to a rear area uses the suppression information of the certain noise control apparatus corresponding to a front area with respect to a traveling direction of the moving body (Selective noise cancellation by utilizing reference signals from only front vehicle sensors (or front axles sensors 102a-102b) and all microphones signals while driving front loudspeakers 54a and rear loudspeakers 54b, 54c concurrently to cancel undesired noise in the front zone 58 and the rear zone 58), col 15, ln 18-23).
Regarding claim 4, Zafeiropoulos teaches the noise control system according to The noise control system according to wherein the noise control apparatus includes processing circuitry configured to execute a determination processing in which the processing circuitry unit configured to determines whether active noise control operates stably or not ( convergence speed of the algorithm employed for the first front adaptive filter 14′ (and the first rear adaptive filter 14″) is defined by the step-size 0.00001-0.01 for an FxLMS algorithm (e.g., the variable μIFFT as set forth in Eq. 1) with standard audio loudspeakers, col 11, ln 31-58) by using a cancellation signal reproduced by a cancellation speaker, and the suppression information includes at least one of: (i) a sound collection signal of a reference microphone; (ii) a cancellation signal reproduced by the cancellation speaker (generating cancellation signal with front speaker, col 12, ln 10-14); (iii) a result of determination by the determination processing unit; or (iv) a model used for generating a cancellation signal from a sound collection signal of a reference microphone.
Claim 5 is substantially similar to claim 1 and is rejected for the same reasons.
Claim 6 is substantially similar to claim 3 and is rejected for the same reasons.
Regarding claim 7, Zafeiropoulos teaches the noise control apparatus according to the noise control apparatus according to wherein the noise control apparatus predicts a sound collection signal to be collected in future by a reference microphone of the noise control apparatus by using a sound collection signal collected by a reference microphone different from the reference microphone of the noise control apparatus, and generates a cancellation signal for suppressing noise by using the predicted sound collection signal (Selective noise cancellation by utilizing reference signals from only front vehicle sensors (or front axles sensors 102a-102b) and all microphones signals while driving front loudspeakers 54a and rear loudspeakers 54b, 54c concurrently to cancel undesired noise in the front zone 58 and the rear zone 58), col 15, ln 18-23; inherently, using front reference for rear control is predictive since the noise occurring in the front will later occur in the rear since that is the direction of travel).
Claim 8 is substantially similar to claim 7 and is rejected for the same reasons.
Regarding claim 9, Zafeiropoulos teaches a non-transitory computer-readable recording medium having recorded thereon a program for causing a computer to function as the noise control apparatus according to claim 1 (col 2, ln 11-15).
Conclusion
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to Kile Blair whose telephone number is (571)270-3544. The examiner can normally be reached M-F.
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/KILE O BLAIR/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2691
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