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 .
Status of Application
This communication is responsive to the applicant's application filed 07/16/2024.
Claims 1-20 are pending.
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, 4, 7-9, 11, 14, and 17-19 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(1) as being anticipated by Iyengar et al (US-2013/0332157, hereinafter, Iyengar).
Regarding claim 1, Iyengar discloses a system (see Fig. 1), comprising: a plurality of microphone devices (41, 42) each configured to generate at least one audio signal based on detected sound, and to generate a noise spectral estimate based on noise in the detected sound (see para [0022], [0026], [0030]); and a comfort noise generator (45) in communication with the plurality of microphone devices (41, 42), the comfort noise generator configured to process the noise spectral estimate from each of the plurality of microphone devices and generate an aggregate comfort noise (see para [0027], [0030]) to be injected into a mixed output audio signal (46).
Regarding claim 4, Iyengar discloses the system of claim 1, wherein the comfort noise generator comprises: an aggregator configured to receive and process the noise spectral estimate from each of the plurality of microphone devices to generate an aggregate noise spectral estimate (see para [0030]); and an equalizer configured to generate the aggregate comfort noise based on the aggregate noise spectral estimate (see para [0045]).
Regarding claim 7, Iyengar discloses the system of claim 1, wherein the noise spectral estimate from each of the plurality of microphone devices comprises one or more noise spectral estimates associated with each channel of the microphone device (see Fig. 1, noise estimators 43 and 44).
Regarding claims 8-9, see para [0046]-[0050].
Method claims 11, 14, and 17-19 are rejected for the same reasoning as set forth for the rejection of apparatus claims 1, 4, and 7-9 since the apparatus claims perform the same functions as the method claims.
Allowable Subject Matter
Claims 2-3, 5-6, 10, 12, 13, 15, 16, and 20 are objected to as being dependent upon a rejected base claim, but would be allowable if rewritten in independent form including all of the limitations of the base claim and any intervening claims.
The following is an Examiner's Statement of Reasons for Allowance:
The closest prior art of Iyengar et al fails to disclose the limitations as recited in dependent claims 2-3, 5-6, 10, 12, 13, 15, 16, and 20.
Conclusion
The prior art made of record and not relied upon is considered pertinent to applicant's disclosure.
Jin et al, Lambert et al, Matheja et al, Jansson et al, Bizjak, Gay et al, and Bouchard et al disclose various systems including microphone circuitries for noise detection and processing.
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/XU MEI/ Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2695 06/27/2026
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