DETAILED ACTION
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 1-20 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Nesiba US PG-Pub 2021/0375287 in view of Ali US PG-Pub 2023/0247353.
Regarding claim 1, 8 and 15, Nesiba teaches sending a stimulus signal to a loudspeaker (Fig. 5-504: outputting audio data via loudspeakers); receiving, via a microphone, a measurement signal (Fig. 5-506: capture the output audio data by at least one microphone); comparing specific frequency on the stimulus and measure signal to determining the positional/temporal offset to determine delay difference (Fig. 5-508 & [0011] & [0082]-[0083]).
Nesiba failed to teach transforming the stimulus signal into a stimulus time-frequency representation; transforming the measurement signal into a measured time-frequency representation; selecting at least one frequency value between the stimulus time-frequency representation and the measured time-frequency representation; performing correlation analysis using the selected at least one frequency value; and determining, based on the correlation analysis, a statistical mode to produce a start-time of the stimulus signal.
However, Ali teaches transforming the stimulus signal into a stimulus time-frequency representation; transforming the measurement signal into a measured time-frequency representation; selecting at least one frequency value between the stimulus time-frequency representation and the measured time-frequency representation; performing correlation analysis using the selected at least one frequency value; and determining, based on the correlation analysis, a statistical mode to produce a start-time of the stimulus signal (Fig. 6-Fig. 10 & [0054]-[0060]: Step-254, the audio source-120 start to record the audio signal and the ultrasonic signatures-170 that are being played back by the loudspeakers-140; Step-258 through Step-262, the audio source-120 performs cross-correlation with the receives audio signal playback by the loudspeaker-140 and the original played audio signal, using spectrogram-200 of Fig. 8 [which is a time-frequency representation] and selecting the strongest peak as the actual delay between the audio source-120 and loudspeaker-104; using the delay between sound source-120 and each loudspeakers-104 to synchronize all loudspeakers, by determining their starting time for their own audio stimulus signal).
Nesiba and Ali are analogous art because they are both in the same field of endeavor, namely audio playback. Therefore, 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, because using cross-correlation provides a more reliable measurement of delay between a source and loudspeaker as Ali teaches in [0047].
Regarding claim 2, 9 and 16, Nesiba teaches wherein the stimulus signal is played at one or more speakers (Fig. 5-504: play the audible output via loudspeakers in a vehicle).
Regarding claim 3, 10 and 17, Nesiba teaches calibrating time alignment for the one or more speakers (Fig. 5 & [0070]: recalibrating the delay to have synchronized/time alignment of the vehicles loudspeakers, which is based on the delay). While Nesiba faield to explicitly teach time alignment based on start time. However, when time alignment or synchronization is perform using delay, it is determining and using the start time to be able to synchronize all the loudspeakers, as audio must be synchronized between all loudspeakers and there has to be a start time. Therefore, 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.
Regarding claim 4, 11 and 18, Nesiba teaches wherein the measurement signal is recorded at a computing device ([0012]: microphone can be place at different computing devices).
Regarding claim 5, 12 and 19, Ali teaches wherein the time alignment for the one or more speakers is calibrated for an audio measuring or recording system with a separate playback system and is based on one or more automatically derived statistical features from a spectrogram (Fig. 1-Fig. 3 & Fig. 8 & Fig. 10 & [0070]: the synchronization/time alignment of the loudspeakers recalibrated and being used on different separate playback system like Fig. 1-Fig. 3). Therefore, 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, because the technique of using cross-correlation of a spectrogram can be used with any playback system.
Regarding claim 6 and 13, Nesiba teaches providing tuning of the one or more speakers independent of the stimulus signal, including at least one of pink noise, maximum length sequence, log sine sweeps, multitone, or random-white noise (Fig. 5 & [0011]: synchronizing loudspeakers you can multitone signals like dual, tri or quad tone frequency segments).
Nesiba failed to teach providing a spectrogram-based automatically derived start-time and end-time synchronization for the audio measuring or recording system, wherein the audio measuring or recording system requires alignment of the stimulus signal and the measurement signal.
However, Ali teaches providing a spectrogram-based automatically derived start-time and end-time synchronization for the audio measuring or recording system, wherein the audio measuring or recording system requires alignment of the stimulus signal and the measurement signal (Fig. 3 & Fig. 8-10 & [0065]: using sweep signal to do synchronization/time alignment of the loudspeakers using the spectrogram-200 and cross-correlation).
Nesiba and Ali are analogous art because they are both in the same field of endeavor, namely audio playback. Therefore, 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, because using different type of signal is an inventor choice and no unexpected result will arise.
Regarding claim 7 and 14, Nesiba and Ali teach wherein the alignment of the stimulus signal and the measurement signal is required due to manual, Bluetooth, Wi-Fi or cloud-based communication delay (Nesiba, [0005]-[0006]: delay because of wireless BT transmission; Ali, [0029] & [0037]: delay from radio frequency, software, etc…). Therefore, 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, because there is many different type of delay that has to be accounted for, so signal can be align/synchronized.
Regarding claim 20, Nesiba teaches providing tuning of the one or more speakers independent of the stimulus signal, including at least one of pink noise, maximum length sequence, log sine sweeps, multitone, or random-white noise (Fig. 5 & [0011]: synchronizing loudspeakers you can multitone signals like dual, tri or quad tone frequency segments); the alignment of the stimulus signal and the measurement signal is required due to manual, Bluetooth, Wi-Fi or cloud-based communication delay (Nesiba, [0005]-[0006]: delay because of wireless BT transmission; Ali, [0029] & [0037]: delay from radio frequency, software, etc…).
Nesiba failed to teach providing a spectrogram-based automatically derived start-time and end-time synchronization for the audio measuring or recording system, wherein the audio measuring or recording system requires alignment of the stimulus signal and the measurement signal.
However, Ali teaches providing a spectrogram-based automatically derived start-time and end-time synchronization for the audio measuring or recording system, wherein the audio measuring or recording system requires alignment of the stimulus signal and the measurement signal (Fig. 3 & Fig. 8-10 & [0065]: using sweep signal to do synchronization/time alignment of the loudspeakers using the spectrogram-200 and cross-correlation).
Nesiba and Ali are analogous art because they are both in the same field of endeavor, namely audio playback. Therefore, 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, because using different type of signal is an inventor choice and no unexpected result will arise.
Conclusion
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to WILLIAM A JEREZ LORA whose telephone number is (571)270-5519. The examiner can normally be reached M-F 7am-9am and 11am-6pm.
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/WILLIAM A JEREZ LORA/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2695
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