Notice of Pre-AIA or AIA Status
The present application is being examined under the pre-AIA first to invent provisions.
Double Patenting
The nonstatutory double patenting rejection is based on a judicially created doctrine grounded in public policy (a policy reflected in the statute) so as to prevent the unjustified or improper timewise extension of the “right to exclude” granted by a patent and to prevent possible harassment by multiple assignees. A nonstatutory double patenting rejection is appropriate where the claims at issue are not identical, but at least one examined application claim is not patentably distinct from the reference claim(s) because the examined application claim is either anticipated by, or would have been obvious over, the reference claim(s). See, e.g., In re Berg, 140 F.3d 1428, 46 USPQ2d 1226 (Fed. Cir. 1998); In re Goodman, 11 F.3d 1046, 29 USPQ2d 2010 (Fed. Cir. 1993); In re Longi, 759 F.2d 887, 225 USPQ 645 (Fed. Cir. 1985); In re Van Ornum, 686 F.2d 937, 214 USPQ 761 (CCPA 1982); In re Vogel, 422 F.2d 438, 164 USPQ 619 (CCPA 1970); and In re Thorington, 418 F.2d 528, 163 USPQ 644 (CCPA 1969).
A timely filed terminal disclaimer in compliance with 37 CFR 1.321(c) or 1.321(d) may be used to overcome an actual or provisional rejection based on a nonstatutory double patenting ground provided the reference application or patent either is shown to be commonly owned with this application, or claims an invention made as a result of activities undertaken within the scope of a joint research agreement. A terminal disclaimer must be signed in compliance with 37 CFR 1.321(b).
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Claims 1-15 are rejected on the ground of nonstatutory obviousness-type double patenting as being unpatentable over claim 1, 6 and 11 of Patent 9838826 in view of Schevciw (US 2019/0239015). Although the conflicting claims are not identical, they are not patentably distinct from each other because: claims 1, 6 and 11 of Patent 9838826 anticipate all the limitations in claims 1, 6 and 11 of instant application except for wherein the amplitude panning process is based, at least in part, on a location of each of one or more virtual speakers.
Schevciw teaches wherein the amplitude panning process is based, at least in part, on a location of each of one or more virtual speakers (Schevciw ¶0073).
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 Schevciw to improve the known apparatus of Patent 9838826 to achieve the predictable result of more efficient processing during rendering (Schevciw ¶0066).
Dependent claims 2-10, 12-15 are also rejected because they are obvious variants of the patented claims. Patent 9838826 Claims 2-10, 12-15 teaches dependent claims 2-10, 12-15 of the instant application respectively.
Patent 9838826
Instant Application 18/779533
1. A method, comprising: receiving audio reproduction data comprising one or more audio objects and metadata associated with each of the one or more audio objects; receiving reproduction environment data comprising an indication of a number of reproduction speakers in the reproduction environment and an indication of the location of each reproduction speaker within the reproduction environment; and rendering the audio objects into one or more speaker feed signals by applying an amplitude panning process to each audio object, wherein the amplitude panning process is based, at least in part, on the metadata associated with each audio object and
the location of each reproduction speaker within the reproduction environment, and
wherein each speaker feed signal corresponds to at least one of the reproduction speakers within the reproduction environment; wherein the metadata associated with each audio object includes audio object coordinates indicating the intended reproduction position of the audio object within the reproduction environment and zone constraint metadata indicating whether rendering the audio object involves imposing speaker zone constraints.
6. An apparatus, comprising: an interface system; and a logic system configured for: receiving, via the interface system, audio reproduction data comprising one or more audio objects and metadata associated with each of the one or more audio objects; receiving, via the interface system, reproduction environment data comprising an indication of a number of reproduction speakers in the reproduction environment and an indication of the location of each reproduction speaker within the reproduction environment; and rendering the audio objects into one or more speaker feed signals by applying an amplitude panning process to each audio object, wherein the amplitude panning process is based, at least in part, on the metadata associated with each audio object and the location of each reproduction speaker within the reproduction environment, and
wherein each speaker feed signal corresponds to at least one of the reproduction speakers within the reproduction environment; wherein the metadata associated with each audio object includes audio object coordinates indicating the intended reproduction position of the audio object within the reproduction environment and zone constraint metadata indicating whether rendering the audio object involves imposing speaker zone constraints.
11. A non-transitory medium comprising a sequence of instructions, wherein the instructions, when executed by an audio signal processing device, cause the audio signal processing device to perform a method comprising: receiving audio reproduction data comprising one or more audio objects and metadata associated with each of the one or more audio objects; receiving reproduction environment data comprising an indication of a number of reproduction speakers in the reproduction environment and an indication of the location of each reproduction speaker within the reproduction environment; and rendering the audio objects into one or more speaker feed signals by applying an amplitude panning process to each audio object, wherein the amplitude panning process is based, at least in part, on the metadata associated with each audio object and the location of each reproduction speaker within the reproduction environment, and
wherein each speaker feed signal corresponds to at least one of the reproduction speakers within the reproduction environment; wherein the metadata associated with each audio object includes audio object coordinates indicating the intended reproduction position of the audio object within the reproduction environment and zone constraint metadata indicating whether rendering the audio object involves imposing speaker zone constraints.
1. A method, comprising: receiving audio reproduction data comprising one or more audio objects and metadata associated with each of the one or more audio objects; receiving reproduction environment data comprising an indication of a number of reproduction speakers in the reproduction environment and an indication of the location of each reproduction speaker within the reproduction environment; and rendering the audio objects into one or more speaker feed signals by applying an amplitude panning process to each audio object, wherein the amplitude panning process is based, at least in part, on the metadata associated with each audio object, a location of each of one or more virtual speakers, and the location of each reproduction speaker within the reproduction environment, and
wherein each speaker feed signal corresponds to at least one of the reproduction speakers within the reproduction environment; wherein the metadata associated with each audio object includes audio object coordinates indicating the intended reproduction position of the audio object within the reproduction environment and zone constraint metadata indicating whether rendering the audio object involves imposing speaker zone constraints.
6. An apparatus, comprising: an interface system; and a logic system configured for: receiving, via the interface system, audio reproduction data comprising one or more audio objects and metadata associated with each of the one or more audio objects; receiving, via the interface system, reproduction environment data comprising an indication of a number of reproduction speakers in the reproduction environment and an indication of the location of each reproduction speaker within the reproduction environment; and rendering the audio objects into one or more speaker feed signals by applying an amplitude panning process to each audio object, wherein the amplitude panning process is based, at least in part, on the metadata associated with each audio object, a location of each of one or more virtual speakers, and the location of each reproduction speaker within the reproduction environment, and
wherein each speaker feed signal corresponds to at least one of the reproduction speakers within the reproduction environment; wherein the metadata associated with each audio object includes audio object coordinates indicating the intended reproduction position of the audio object within the reproduction environment and zone constraint metadata indicating whether rendering the audio object involves imposing speaker zone constraints.
11. A non-transitory medium comprising a sequence of instructions, wherein the instructions, when executed by an audio signal processing device, cause the audio signal processing device to perform a method comprising: receiving audio reproduction data comprising one or more audio objects and metadata associated with each of the one or more audio objects; receiving reproduction environment data comprising an indication of a number of reproduction speakers in the reproduction environment and an indication of the location of each reproduction speaker within the reproduction environment; and rendering the audio objects into one or more speaker feed signals by applying an amplitude panning process to each audio object, wherein the amplitude panning process is based, at least in part, on the metadata associated with each audio object, a location of each of one or more virtual speakers, and the location of each reproduction speaker within the reproduction environment, and
wherein each speaker feed signal corresponds to at least one of the reproduction speakers within the reproduction environment; wherein the metadata associated with each audio object includes audio object coordinates indicating the intended reproduction position of the audio object within the reproduction environment and zone constraint metadata indicating whether rendering the audio object involves imposing speaker zone constraints.
Allowable Subject Matter
Claims 1-15 would be allowable if a terminal disclaimer is filed to overcome the double patenting rejection(s) set forth in this office action.
The following is an examiner’s statement of reasons for allowance:
Independent claims 1, 6, and 11 are allowed because the closest cited prior art Dressler (US 2012/0230497) either alone or in combination, fails to anticipate or render obvious, the claimed limitation of “wherein the metadata associated with each audio object includes audio object coordinates indicating the intended reproduction position of the audio object within the reproduction environment and zone constraint metadata indicating whether rendering the audio object involves imposing speaker zone constraints” in combination with all other limitations in the claim(s) as defined by the applicant.
Dressler ¶0023 teaches “an audio creation system to create audio objects by associating sound sources with attributes of those sound sources, such as location, velocity, directivity, downmix parameters to specific speaker locations. Then audio objects can be rendered based on the attribute information encoded in the objects based on the object's coordinates and metadata,” however Dressler fails to teach “wherein the metadata associated with each audio object includes audio object coordinates indicating the intended reproduction position of the audio object within the reproduction environment and zone constraint metadata indicating whether rendering the audio object involves imposing speaker zone constraints.”
Consequently, the disclosed independent claims are allowed on behalf of above-discussed reasons. Since the disclosed dependent claims 2-5, 7-10, 12-15 are dependent on one of the independent claims, therefore they are also patentable
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Conclusion
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/NORMAN YU/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2693