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 .
Claim Objections
Claim 20 is objected to because of the following informalities: there is no antecedent basis for the “the first communication port” and “the second communication port”. Appropriate correction is required.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 103
In the event the determination of the status of the application as subject to AIA 35 U.S.C. 102 and 103 (or as subject to pre-AIA 35 U.S.C. 102 and 103) is incorrect, any correction of the statutory basis (i.e., changing from AIA to pre-AIA ) for the rejection will not be considered a new ground of rejection if the prior art relied upon, and the rationale supporting the rejection, would be the same under either status.
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.
The factual inquiries for establishing a background for determining obviousness under 35 U.S.C. 103 are summarized as follows:
1. Determining the scope and contents of the prior art.
2. Ascertaining the differences between the prior art and the claims at issue.
3. Resolving the level of ordinary skill in the pertinent art.
4. Considering objective evidence present in the application indicating obviousness or nonobviousness.
Claims 1-4, 7-11, 14, and 15 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Pittenger (US 2011/0210925 A1) in view of Critchlow (US 2003/0050555 A1).
Instant Claim 1: A video display interface (“FIG. 3 is a simplified block diagram showing an electrical system of the person-support apparatus of FIG. 1, the electrical system including an interface module and a plurality of user interfaces;” (Pittenger, paragraph 20) The electrical system of Pittenger corresponds to the video display interface of the claim.)
comprising: a first component (“The interface module 100 (fig 3) may be mounted in, embedded in, or coupled to any suitable physical component of the bed 10 (e.g., within the footboard 44, as shown in FIG. 1).” (Pittenger, Paragraph 31) The component of the bed of Pittenger housing interface module 100 corresponds to the first component of the claim.)
having: a first circuit board, (Referring to fig 3 of Pittenger, the electronic circuitry associated with the interface module 100 corresponds to the first circuit board of the claim.)
a microprocessor electronically coupled to the first circuit board, (“In the illustrative embodiment of the electrical control system of the bed 10 shown in FIG. 3, the interface module 100 includes a processor 120,” (Pittenger, paragraph 43))
and a serializer electronically coupled to the first circuit board and configured to receive a first plurality of signals from the microprocessor, (“Each serializer 126 (fig 3) receives graphics data via the parallel bus 130, converts this graphics data into a serial graphics signal, and transmits the serial graphics signal via the dedicated data link 102, 104 coupled to the corresponding connector 114. ” (Pittenger, paragraph 49) Referring to fig 3 of Pittenger, the serializer 126 receives the graphics data from the microprocessor 120.)
a second component (“As shown in FIG. 3, the interface module 100 further includes a plurality of serial interfaces for communicating with a plurality of user interfaces 12, 14.” (Pittenger, paragraph 47) The user interface 12 of Pittenger corresponds to the second component of the claim.)
having: a second circuit board, (Referring to fig 3 of Pittenger, the electronic circuitry associated with the user interface 12 corresponds to the second circuit board of the claim.)
a plurality of electronic components electronically coupled to the second circuit board, (“The LCD 106 (fig 3) functions as a graphical display for each user interface 12, 14, visually outputting text and graphics to a user of the bed 10 (fig 1), as described above with reference to FIG. 2.” (Pittenger, paragraph 40) The electronics of LCD 106 of Pittenger correspond to the electronic components of the claim.)
and a deserializer electronically coupled to the second circuit board and configured to transmit a second plurality of signals to the plurality of electronic components, (“In the illustrative embodiment, the deserializer 112 of the user interface 12 receives a serial data stream from the dedicated data link 102, decodes the serial data stream into graphics data, and provides the graphics data to the LCD 106 using the parallel signal path 116.” (Pittenger, paragraph 41))
and a … cable having: at least one wire, (“Generally, these interconnects, or signal paths, may be embodied as any number of links, wires, cables, light guides, printed circuit board traces, buses, intervening devices, and/or the like.” (Pittenger, paragraph 24))
wherein the serializer converts the first plurality of signals into a serial data signal that is transmitted through the at least one wire to the deserializer, and wherein the deserializer converts the serial data signal into the second plurality of signals, (“As mentioned above, where the plurality of transmitters 126 (fig 3) are embodied as serializers 126, the plurality of user interfaces 12, 14 will each include a deserializer 112 for reconverting the serial graphics signal into the graphics data.” (Pittenger, paragraph 49))
Pittenger does not teach the following limitations of this claim:
and a coiled cable having: at least one wire, …
and a shield surrounding the at least one wire to protect the plurality of electronic components from interference.
In a similar field of endeavor, however, Critchlow teaches the use of a coiled and shielded cable for a magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) injection system.
and a coiled cable having: at least one wire, … and a shield surrounding the at least one wire to protect the plurality of electronic components from interference. (“This shield may take the form of a spiral braid that is helically coiled around the communications cable and electrically tied to the ground via the enclosure, directly to the battery 135, or in some other way. This type of shielding effectively expands the Faraday cage of the base assembly enclosure 137 and provides EMI protection while maintaining flexibility of the cable.” (Critchlow, paragraph 70))
Before the effective filing date of the claimed invention, it would have been obvious to a person of ordinary skill in the art to combine the electrical system as taught by Pittenger, wherein wires are used to transmit data signals; with the MRI injection system as taught by Critchlow, wherein the cable used is coiled and shielded. Such a combination involves substituting a specific cable wire (Critchlow) in place of the generic wire of Prittenger in order to yield the predictable result of protection from interference.
Instant Claim 2: The interface of claim 1, wherein at least one of the plurality of electronic components is a video display, (“The LCD 106 (fig 3) functions as a graphical display for each user interface 12, 14, visually outputting text and graphics to a user of the bed 10 (Fig 1), as described above with reference to FIG. 2.” (Pittenger, paragraph 40))
wherein at least one of the plurality of first signals and at least one of the plurality of second signals is a video signal. (“Each serializer 126 (fig 3) receives graphics data via the parallel bus 130, converts this graphics data into a serial graphics signal, and transmits the serial graphics signal via the dedicated data link 102, 104 coupled to the corresponding connector 114. ” (Pittenger, paragraph 49) The data signals of Pittenger are graphics (video) signals.)
Instant Claim 3: The interface of claim 2, wherein the video display includes at least one of a low-voltage differential signaling (LVDS) display and a red, green, blue (RGB) display. (“The LCD 106 (fig 3) functions as a graphical display for each user interface 12, 14, visually outputting text and graphics to a user of the bed 10 (Fig 1), as described above with reference to FIG. 2.” (Pittenger, paragraph 40) The LCD 106 of Pittenger may obviously be a color display – red, green, and blue.)
Instant Claim 4: The interface of claim 2, wherein the shield prevents electromagnetic compatibility (EMC) perturbations on the video display. (“This shield may take the form of a spiral braid that is helically coiled around the communications cable and electrically tied to the ground via the enclosure, directly to the battery 135, or in some other way. This type of shielding effectively expands the Faraday cage of the base assembly enclosure 137 and provides EMI protection while maintaining flexibility of the cable.” (Critchlow, paragraph 70))
Instant Claim 7: The interface of claim 1, wherein: the first circuit board includes a first communication port, and the second circuit board includes a second communication port; (“As shown in FIG. 3, each connector 114 is illustratively embodied as an 8-Position/8-Conductor, or "8P8C," modular connector (also referred to in the art as an RJ-45 connector).” (Pittenger, paragraph 42) Referring to fig 3 of Pittenger, both the interface module 100 and the user interface 12 contain connectors 114 as communications ports.)
wherein the coiled cable extends between the first communication port and the second communication port. (“Generally, these interconnects, or signal paths, may be embodied as any number of links, wires, cables, light guides, printed circuit board traces, buses, intervening devices, and/or the like.” (Pittenger, paragraph 24) When Critchlow is combined with Pittenger, the cable connections are coiled.)
Instant Claim 8: The interface of claim 1, wherein the cable includes: a first connector configured to couple to the first circuit board, a second connector configured to couple to the second circuit board, (“Generally, these interconnects, or signal paths, may be embodied as any number of links, wires, cables, light guides, printed circuit board traces, buses, intervening devices, and/or the like.” (Pittenger, paragraph 24) Each end of the cables of Pittenger obviously contain a connector for connecting to the electronic component.)
and a fixation device configured to couple the cable to the first component. (The connector end of the cable of Pittenger connected to the user interface 112 corresponds to the fixation device of the claim.)
Instant Claim 9: The interface of claim 8, wherein: the first connector extends from the fixation device, and a length that the first connector extends from the fixation device is adjustable. (Referring to fig 1 of Critchlow, the length of the coiled cable 212 is adjustable.)
Instant Claim 10: A video display interface comprising: a first component having: a microprocessor, and a serializer configured to receive a first plurality of signals from the microprocessor, a second component (This portion of claim 10 is substantially included within claim 1, and thus, is rejected under similar rationale.)
having: a video display, (“Each user interface 12, 14 shown in FIG. 3 includes a liquid crystal display (LCD) 106, a touchscreen 108,” (Pittenger, paragraph 39) The liquid crystal display 106 of Pittenger corresponds to the video display of the claim.)
and a deserializer configured to transmit a second plurality of signals to the video display, (“In the illustrative embodiment, the deserializer 112 of the user interface 12 receives a serial data stream from the dedicated data link 102, decodes the serial data stream into graphics data, and provides the graphics data to the LCD 106 using the parallel signal path 116.” (Pittenger, paragraph 41))
and a coiled cable having at least one wire, wherein the serializer converts the first plurality of signals into a serial data signal that is transmitted through the at least one wire to the deserializer, wherein the deserializer converts the serial data signal into the second plurality of signals, (This portion of claim 10 is substantially included within claim 1, and thus, is rejected under similar rationale.)
and wherein at least one of the plurality of first signals and at least one of the plurality of second signals is a video signal. (This portion of claim 10 is substantially included within claim 2, and thus, is rejected under similar rationale.)
Instant Claim 11: (Claim 11 is substantially identical to claim 3, and thus, is rejected under similar rationale.)
Instant Claim 14: (Claim 14 is substantially identical to claim 7, and thus, is rejected under similar rationale.)
Instant Claim 15: The interface of claim 10, wherein the cable includes: a first connector configured to couple to a first circuit board of the first component, a second connector configured to couple to a second circuit board of the second component, and a fixation device configured to couple the cable to the first component, (This portion of claim 15 is substantially identical to claim 8, and thus, is rejected under similar rationale.)
wherein the first connector extends from the fixation device, and wherein a length that the first connector extends from the fixation device is adjustable. (This portion of claim 15 is substantially identical to claim 9, and thus, is rejected under similar rationale.)
Claims 5 and 12 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Pittenger, in view of Critchlow, and further in view of Zou (US 2003/0033417 A1).
Instant Claim 5: The interface of claim 1, wherein the at least one wire includes six conductive wires, only two of which are for transmission of the serial data signal, and a drain wire. (Pittenger, in view of Critchlow, teaches the electrical system in accordance with claim 1, but does not explicitly disclose the use of six wires or a drain wire. However, in a similar field of endeavor, Zou teaches the use of multiple such wires in a communication protocol: “Cabling generally used to implement the above structure and operation is nominally on the order of 1.5 meters in length and contains three twisted pairs of conductors, each in turn being multi-strand 30 AWG wire. A foil shield covering is wrapped or otherwise formed above the three twisted pairs, as an additional drain wire.” (Zou, paragraph 124))
Before the effective filing date of the claimed invention, it would have been obvious to a person of ordinary skill in the art to combine the electrical system as taught by Pittenger, in view of Crichlow, wherein wires are used to transmit data signals; with the communication protocol as taught by Zhou, wherein multiple wires and a drain wire are used. Such a combination involves incorporating a known communication protocol wiring design (Zou) into a known electrical system in order to yield the predictable result of effective and reliable wire data transmission.
Instant Claim 12: (Claim 12 is substantially identical to claim 5, and thus, is rejected under similar rationale.)
Claims 6, 13, 16, 17, 19, and 20 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Pittenger, in view of Critchlow, and further in view of Dixon (US 2015/0081335 A1).
Instant Claim 6: The interface of claim 1, wherein: the first component is a mattress, (“The interface module 100 (fig 3) may be mounted in, embedded in, or coupled to any suitable physical component of the bed 10 (e.g., within the footboard 44, as shown in FIG. 1).” (Pittenger, Paragraph 31) Therefore, the interface module 100 of Pittenger may be placed in the mattress.)
and the second component is a handheld pendant configured to control operation of the mattress. (Pittenger teaches the hospital bed electrical system in accordance with claim 1, but does not explicitly disclose the use of a handheld control unit. However, in a similar field of endeavor, Dixon teaches the use of a handheld control unit for a hospital bed: “FIG. 28 is a front elevation view of a second embodiment of a handheld pillow speaker unit showing the pillow speaker unit having a GUI with touchscreen buttons, a manual nurse call button beneath the GUI, a first on/off button for control of a first light, and a second on/off button for control of a second light.” (Dixon, paragraph 109) It would be obvious for the user interface 12 of Pittenger to be handheld, as is the case in Dixon.
Besides calling for the nurse, the handheld control unit of Dixon may obviously control the angle of the mattress, etc.)
Before the effective filing date of the claimed invention, it would have been obvious to a person of ordinary skill in the art to combine the hospital bed electrical system as taught by Pittenger, wherein the user interface unit is attached to the bed; with the hospital bed as taught by Dixon, wherein the control unit is handheld. Such a combination involves incorporating a known feature (Dixon) into a known hospital bed control unit in order to yield the predictable result of enabling the patient of a hospital bed easy access to controls of the hospital bed.
Instant Claim 13: (Claim 13 is substantially identical to claim 6, and thus, is rejected under similar rationale.)
Instant Claim 16: A video display interface (This portion of claim 16 is included within claim 10, and thus, is rejected under similar rationale.)
comprising: a mattress (This portion of claim 16 is substantially included within claim 13, and thus, is rejected under similar rationale.)
having: a microprocessor, and a serializer configured to receive a first plurality of signals from the microprocessor, (This portion of claim 16 is included within claim 10, and thus, is rejected under similar rationale.)
a handheld pendant configured to control operation of the patient support apparatus, the handheld pendant (This portion of claim 16 is substantially included within claim 13, and thus, is rejected under similar rationale.)
having: a video display, and a deserializer configured to transmit a second plurality of signals to the video display, and a coiled cable having: at least one wire, wherein the serializer converts the first plurality of signals into a serial data signal that is transmitted through the at least one wire to the deserializer, wherein the deserializer converts the serial data signal into the second plurality of signals, and wherein at least one of the plurality of first signals and at least one of the plurality of second signals is a video signal, (This portion of claim 16 is included within claim 10, and thus, is rejected under similar rationale.)
and a shield surrounding the at least one wire (This portion of claim 16 is included within claim 1, and thus, is rejected under similar rationale.)
to prevent electromagnetic compatibility (EMC) perturbations on the video display. (This portion of claim 16 is substantially identical to claim 4, and thus, is rejected under similar rationale.)
Instant Claim 17: (Claim 17 is substantially identical to claim 11, and thus, is rejected under similar rationale.)
Instant Claim 19: (Claim 19 is substantially identical to claim 14, and thus, is rejected under similar rationale.)
Instant Claim 20: (Claim 20 is substantially identical to claim 15, and thus, is rejected under similar rationale.)
Claim 18 is rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Pittenger, in view of Critchlow and Dixon, and further in view of Zhou.
Instant Claim 18: (Claim 18 is substantially identical to claim 12, and thus, is rejected under similar rationale.)
Conclusion
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to Yaron Cohen whose telephone number is (571)270-7995. The examiner can normally be reached Monday - Friday 8:30 AM to 5:00 PM.
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/YARON COHEN/Examiner, Art Unit 2626