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 .
DETAILED ACTION
Applicant is advised that the new art unit number is 2692. Please use the new art unit number for all future communications.
Priority
Receipt is acknowledged of certified copies of papers required by 37 CFR 1.55.
Information Disclosure Statement
The information disclosure statement (IDS) submitted on 7/11/2024, 7/12/2024, 1/20/2025 is in compliance with the provisions of 37 CFR 1.97. Accordingly, the information disclosure statement is being considered by the examiner.
Specification
The lengthy specification has not been checked to the extent necessary to determine the presence of all possible minor errors. Applicant's cooperation is requested in correcting any errors of which applicant may become aware in the specification.
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, 2, 5-8, 20 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Kishinami et al. (US 2013/0089218) in view of Caldwell (US 3098307) in view of Applicant’s Admitted Prior Art (hereinafter AAPA).
Regarding claim 20, Kishinami discloses an electronic device comprising a microphone (121) and a speaker, wherein the speaker includes:
a housing (100 or 114) for receiving vibration signals (Fig. 1: vibration signals depicted as emanating from mouth are received by housing of 100 which includes 114); and
a converting component inside the housing for converting the into vibration signals (¶ 0033), wherein the converting component includes:
a transducer (111); and
at least one elastic element (112), wherein the transducer connects to the housing via the at least one elastic element (see Fig. 3), and a resonance frequency of each of the at least one elastic elements is within a predetermined
Kishinami discloses converting component of a speaker instead of a microphone, for converting electrical signals into vibration signals instead of for converting vibration signals into electrical signals.
In a similar field of endeavor, Caldwell discloses that a piezoelectric speaker is reversible to be used as a microphone (detx16, paragraph spanning cols. 2-3).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to use the speaker of Kishinami in reverse (and thus for converting vibration signals into electrical signals instead of for converting electrical signals into vibration signals), as taught by Caldwell, to function as the microphone 121 of Kishinami,
which would result in: wherein the microphone includes:
a housing (114) for receiving vibration signals; and
a converting component inside the housing for converting the vibration signals into electrical signals, wherein the converting component includes:
a transducer (111); and
at least one elastic element (112), wherein the transducer connects to the housing via the at least one elastic element, and a resonance frequency of each of the at least one elastic elements is within a predetermined
the motivation being to provide a structure of the microphone 121 of Kishinami (Caldwell - detx16, paragraph spanning cols. 2-3).
Kishinami-Caldwell is not relied upon to disclose a resonance frequency of each of the at least one elastic elements is within a predetermined voice frequency range.
In a similar field of endeavor, AAPA discloses to set a resonance frequency of a microphone to a voice frequency range in order to improve the SNR or sensitivity of the microphone (Applicant’s specification - ¶ 0003).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to set a resonance frequency of the microphone of Kishinami-Caldwell to a voice frequency range, as taught by AAPA, which according to ¶ 0040-0043 of Kishinami would be done by setting the resonance frequency of the elastic element (112 of Kishinami) to the voice frequency range,
which would result in: a resonance frequency of each of the at least one elastic elements is within a predetermined voice frequency range,
the motivation being to improve the SNR and/or sensitivity of the microphone (AAPA - ¶ 0003).
Claim 1 recites similar limitations as claim 20, and is rejected for the same reasons set forth above in the rejection of claim 20.
Regarding claim 2, Kishinami-Caldwell-AAPA discloses the microphone of claim 1, further comprising a processing circuit (130) for processing the electrical signals (Fig. 1 and ¶ 0054).
Regarding claim 5, Kishinami-Caldwell-AAPA discloses the microphone of claim 1, wherein the transducer includes at least one of a diaphragm, a piezo ceramic plate, a piezo film, or an electrostatic film (¶ 0044: ceramic) (plate as seen in Fig. 3) (¶ 0032: film).
Regarding claim 6, Kishinami-Caldwell-AAPA discloses the microphone of claim 1, wherein a structure of the transducer includes at least one of a film, a cantilever, or a plate (Fig. 3: 111 is a plate) (¶ 0032: film).
Regarding claim 7, Kishinami-Caldwell-AAPA discloses the microphone of claim 1, wherein the vibration signals are caused by at least one of: gas, liquid, or solid (Fig. 1 shows vibration signals caused by air/gas).
Regarding claim 8, Kishinami-Caldwell-AAPA discloses the microphone of claim 1, wherein the vibration signals are transmitted from the housing to the converting component according to a non-contact mode or a contact mode (non-contact mode as seen in Fig. 1; alternatively, contact mode since 111 and 112 contact 114 as seen in Fig. 3).
Claim(s) 3, 4 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Kishinami in view of Caldwell in view of AAPA in view of Onishi (US 2013/0077443) in view of Azima et al. (WO 97/09847).
Regarding claim 3, Kishinami-Caldwell-AAPA discloses the microphone of claim 1.
Kishinami-Caldwell-AAPA is not relied upon to disclose wherein the at least one elastic elements and the transducer are arranged in a predetermined distribution mode.
In a similar field of endeavor, Onishi discloses wherein at least one elastic element (120) and a transducer (210) are arranged in a predetermined distribution mode (see Fig. 4).
Additionally, Azima discloses that a distributed mode speaker can also be used as a microphone (paragraph spanning pages 10-11).
One of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention would have found it obvious to try arranging the elastic element and transducer of Kishinami-Caldwell-AAPA in either a non-distributed mode (as taught by Kishinami and Figs. 1 and 3 of Onishi) or a distributed mode (as taught by Fig. 4 of Onishi) (and which can be used as a microphone as taught by Azima),
the latter of which would result in: wherein the at least one elastic elements and the transducer are arranged in a predetermined distribution mode,
the motivation being to choose from a finite number of identified, predictable solutions, with a reasonable expectation of success to address the issue of what arrangements the elastic element and transducer can have. See MPEP § 2143(E).
Regarding claim 4, Kishinami-Caldwell-AAPA-Onishi-Azima discloses the microphone of claim 3, and Onishi discloses wherein the predetermined distribution mode includes at least one of a horizontal distribution mode, a vertical distribution mode, an array distribution mode, or a random distribution mode (Fig. 4 shows a horizontal and array distribution mode).
The teachings of Onishi relied upon above are combinable with Kishinami-Caldwell-AAPA-Onishi-Azima for the same reasons set forth above in the claim 3 rejection.
Claim(s) 9 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Kishinami in view of Caldwell in view of AAPA in view of Komiyama (JP H06-261389 using an English machine translation).
Regarding claim 9, Kishinami-Caldwell-AAPA discloses the microphone of claim 1.
Kishinami-Caldwell-AAPA is not relied upon to disclose wherein the at least one elastic element includes at least two elastic elements, wherein a resonance frequency of each of the at least two elastic elements is different from each other.
In a similar field of endeavor, Komiyama discloses configuring a plurality of microphones each with a different resonance frequency in order to improve sensitivity and/or suppress deterioration of the frequency characteristic due to high sensitivity processing (Abstract).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to: configure the microphone of Kishinami-Caldwell-AAPA as a plurality of microphones of Kishinami-Caldwell-AAPA, each with a different resonance frequency,
which would result in: wherein the at least one elastic element includes at least two elastic elements, wherein a resonance frequency of each of the at least two elastic elements is different from each other,
the motivation being to: improve sensitivity and/or suppress deterioration of the frequency characteristic due to high sensitivity processing (Komiyama - Abstract).
Claim(s) 10-19 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Kishinami in view of Caldwell in view of AAPA in view of Onishi.
Regarding claim 10, Kishinami-Caldwell-AAPA discloses the microphone of claim 1, and Kishinami discloses
Kishinami-Caldwell-AAPA is not relied upon to disclose further comprising at least one damping film attached to the transducer, wherein the transducer connects to the housing via the at least one elastic element and the at least one damping film.
In a similar field of endeavor, Onishi discloses further comprising (Figs. 1 and 3) at least one damping film (130) attached to the transducer (110), wherein the transducer connects to the housing (121) via the at least one elastic element (120) and the at least one damping film (Fig. 1: a path can be traced from 110 to 121 that passes through 130 and 120).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to: configure a damping film around the transducer (111 of Kishinami) in the manner taught by Figs. 1 and 3 of Onishi,
which would result in: further comprising at least one damping film attached to the transducer, wherein the transducer connects to the housing via the at least one elastic element and the at least one damping film,
the motivation being to flatten the amplitude-frequency characteristic and/or to expand the application range of the microphone (Onishi - ¶ 0053).
Regarding claim 11, Kishinami-Caldwell-AAPA-Onishi discloses the microphone of claim 10, and Onishi discloses wherein the at least one damping film is connected to the transducer and the at least one elastic element respectively (see Fig. 1).
The teachings of Onishi relied upon above are combinable with Kishinami-Caldwell-AAPA-Onishi for the same reasons set forth above in the claim 10 rejection.
Regarding claim 12, Kishinami-Caldwell-AAPA-Onishi discloses the microphone of claim 10, and Onishi discloses wherein the at least one damping film covers at least part of at least one surface of the transducer or disposed on at least one position of the transducer (see Fig. 1).
The teachings of Onishi relied upon above are combinable with Kishinami-Caldwell-AAPA-Onishi for the same reasons set forth above in the claim 10 rejection.
Regarding claim 13, Kishinami-Caldwell-AAPA-Onishi discloses the microphone of claim 12, and Onishi discloses wherein the at least one surface of the transducer or the at least one position of the transducer includes at least one of: an upper surface of the transducer, a lower surface of the transducer, a lateral surface of the transducer, or an internal surface of the transducer (Fig. 1: lateral surface).
The teachings of Onishi relied upon above are combinable with Kishinami-Caldwell-AAPA-Onishi for the same reasons set forth above in the claim 10 rejection.
Regarding claim 14, Kishinami-Caldwell-AAPA-Onishi discloses the microphone of claim 10, and Onishi discloses wherein the at least one damping film is disposed on at least one surface of the transducer at a predetermined angle (Fig. 1: angle of zero degrees; or Fig. 3: damping film 230 forms angles of 90 degrees).
The teachings of Onishi relied upon above are combinable with Kishinami-Caldwell-AAPA-Onishi for the same reasons set forth above in the claim 10 rejection.
Regarding claim 15, Kishinami-Caldwell-AAPA-Onishi discloses the microphone of claim 10, and Onishi discloses wherein the at least one damping film is connected to the housing (Fig. 1: connected via elastic element therebetween).
The teachings of Onishi relied upon above are combinable with Kishinami-Caldwell-AAPA-Onishi for the same reasons set forth above in the claim 10 rejection.
Regarding claim 16, Kishinami-Caldwell-AAPA-Onishi discloses the microphone of claim 10, and Onishi discloses wherein the at least one damping film includes at least two damping films, and the at least two damping films are arranged symmetrically with respect to a center line of the transducer (Fig. 3: damping film 230 can be considered 4 damping films, one film per side of 210, and damping films on opposite sides of 210 are symmetric with respect to a centerline of 210).
The teachings of Onishi relied upon above are combinable with Kishinami-Caldwell-AAPA-Onishi for the same reasons set forth above in the claim 10 rejection.
Regarding claim 17, Kishinami-Caldwell-AAPA-Onishi discloses the microphone of claim 10, and Onishi discloses wherein the at least one damping film covers at least part of at least one surface of each of the at least one elastic elements (see Fig. 1).
The teachings of Onishi relied upon above are combinable with Kishinami-Caldwell-AAPA-Onishi for the same reasons set forth above in the claim 10 rejection.
Regarding claim 18, Kishinami-Caldwell-AAPA-Onishi discloses the microphone of claim 10, and Onishi discloses wherein a width of the at least one damping film or a thickness of the at least one damping film is variable (Fig. 3: thickness around corner varies from thickness along sides).
The teachings of Onishi relied upon above are combinable with Kishinami-Caldwell-AAPA-Onishi for the same reasons set forth above in the claim 10 rejection.
Regarding claim 19, Kishinami-Caldwell-AAPA-Onishi discloses the microphone of claim 10, and Onishi discloses wherein the transducer or the at least one damping film are designed according to a frequency response curve of the microphone (¶ 0053).
The teachings of Onishi relied upon above are combinable with Kishinami-Caldwell-AAPA-Onishi for the same reasons set forth above in the claim 10 rejection.
Conclusion
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/MARK FISCHER/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2692