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 .
This office action is in response to Applicant’s filing dated 8/5/2024, claims 1-21 are currently pending in the application.
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.
Claim(s) 20-21 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Chen et al. (US 20190327555 A1) hereinafter Chen in view of Akino et al. (US 20060285714 A1) hereinafter Akino and further in view of Elko et al. (US 20160073199 A1) hereinafter Elko.
Regarding claim 20, Chen teaches a system (“a circuit and system for audio pickup and play” in ¶[Abstract]) comprising: a plurality of hybrid microphone devices, each hybrid microphone device comprising: a microphone unit configured to detect audio (wireless microphone” in Fig. 1); a multi-directional microphone unit configured to detect audio (“a microphone array for collecting a first audio signal; a first wireless audio transceiver for receiving a second audio signal from a remote wireless microphone” in ¶[0004]); and a processor (“audio processor in Fig. 1) coupled to receive signals derived from output of the microphone unit and from outputs of the multi-directional microphone unit (audio processor in Fig. 1 is connected to “microphone array” and “wireless microphone”), wherein the processor is configured to, in a first operational mode, output audio detected by the microphone unit and mute audio detected by the multi-directional microphone unit, and in a second operational mode, the processor is configured to output audio detected by the multi-directional microphone unit and mute audio detected by the gooseneck microphone unit (“According to an embodiment of the present disclosure, the controller can be configured to choose, based on a distance from the wireless microphone (which is worn by the user for example) to the audio pickup and play circuit, whether to pick up sounds from the microphone array or from the wireless microphone” in ¶[0039]); and an endpoint unit (“controller” in Fig. 1”) in communication with the plurality of hybrid microphone devices “controller is connected to “microphone array in Fig. 1), wherein the endpoint unit is configured to provide a control signal to the plurality of hybrid microphone devices to configure the plurality of hybrid microphone devices to be either in the first operational mode or the second operational mode (“the controller can be configured to choose, based on a distance from the wireless microphone (which is worn by the user for example) to the audio pickup and play circuit, whether to pick up sounds from the microphone array or from the wireless microphone” in ¶[0038]),
Chen does not specifically disclose the system further comprising the microphone being a gooseneck microphone that picks up audio in a relatively narrow angular sector, and the microphone array picking up audio in a relatively wide angular sector range that encompasses the relatively narrow angular sector however,
Since it is known in the art as evidenced by Akino for a system to further comprise the microphone being a gooseneck microphone that picks up audio in a relatively narrow angular sector in (“Therefore, in the case where the narrow directional microphone is used as a sound pickup portion of a gooseneck microphone” in ¶[0014]),
An ordinary skilled in the art would be motivated to modify the invention of Chen with the teachings of Akino for the benefit of improving the quality of the audio output of the system, therefore it would have been obvious to a person of ordinary sill in the art prior to the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify Chen with Akino,
Chen as modified by Akino does not specifically disclose the system further comprising the microphone array picking up audio in a relatively wide angular sector range that encompasses the relatively narrow angular sector however,
Since it is known in the art as evidenced by Elko for a system to further comprise the microphone array picking up audio in a relatively wide angular sector range that encompasses the relatively narrow angular sector in (“This combination enables picking up acoustic signals dependent on their direction of propagation. As such, microphone arrays are sometimes also referred to as spatial filters. Their advantage over conventional directional microphones, such as shotgun microphones, is their high flexibility due to the degrees of freedom offered by the plurality of microphones and the processing of the associated beamformer. The directional pattern of a microphone array can be varied over a wide range” in ¶[0006]),
An ordinary skilled in the art would be motivated to modify the invention of Chen as modified by Akino with the teachings of Elko for the benefit of improving the quality of the audio output of the system, therefore it would have been obvious to a person of ordinary sill in the art prior to the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify Chen as modified by Akino with Elko.
Regarding claim 21, Chen as modified by Akino and Elko teaches the system of claim 20, Chen further teaches the system further comprising wherein the endpoint unit is configured to generate the control signal provided to the plurality of hybrid microphone devices based on analysis of video and/or audio of a conference space (“In a specific embodiment of the present disclosure, the audio pickup and play system further comprises a distance sensor, an image acquisition device, or other suitable means for collecting distance” in ¶[0056]).
Claim(s) 1-3, 9-11 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Chen et al. (US 20190327555 A1) hereinafter Chen in view of Elko et al. (US 20160073199 A1) hereinafter Elko and further in view of Graham et al. (US 20250088795 A1) hereinafter Graham.
Regarding claim 1,Chen teaches an apparatus (“a circuit and system for audio pickup and play” in ¶[Abstract]) comprising: a first microphone unit (“wireless microphone” in Fig. 1); a multi-directional microphone unit (“a microphone array for collecting a first audio signal; a first wireless audio transceiver for receiving a second audio signal from a remote wireless microphone” in ¶[0004]); and a processor coupled to receive signals derived from output of the first microphone unit and from outputs of the multi-directional microphone unit (“audio processor” in Fig. 1 is connected to the signals from “microphone array” and “wireless microphone” via “input switcher”),
Chen does not specifically disclose the apparatus further comprising the multi directional microphone unit is configured to detect audio in a relatively wide angular sector range, wherein the processor is configured to determine a direction of arrival of detected audio from outputs of the multi-directional microphone unit and to provide for output a signal representing audio detected by the first microphone unit when the direction of arrival of the detected audio by the multi-directional microphone unit is a desired direction of arrival however,
Since it is known in the art as evidenced by Elko for an apparatus to further comprise the multi directional microphone unit is configured to detect audio in a relatively wide angular sector range in (“This combination enables picking up acoustic signals dependent on their direction of propagation. As such, microphone arrays are sometimes also referred to as spatial filters. Their advantage over conventional directional microphones, such as shotgun microphones, is their high flexibility due to the degrees of freedom offered by the plurality of microphones and the processing of the associated beamformer. The directional pattern of a microphone array can be varied over a wide range” in ¶[0006]),
An ordinary skilled in the art would be motivated to modify the invention of Chen with the teachings of Elko for the benefit of improving the quality of the audio output of the system, therefore it would have been obvious to a person of ordinary sill in the art prior to the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify Chen with Elko,
Chen as modified by Elko does not specifically disclose the apparatus further comprising wherein the processor is configured to determine a direction of arrival of detected audio from outputs of the multi-directional microphone unit and to provide for output a signal representing audio detected by the first microphone unit when the direction of arrival of the detected audio by the multi-directional microphone unit is a desired direction of arrival however,
Since it is known in the art as evidenced by Graham for an apparatus to further comprise wherein the processor is configured to determine a direction of arrival of detected audio from outputs of the multi-directional microphone unit and to provide for output a signal representing audio detected by the first microphone unit when the direction of arrival of the detected audio by the multi-directional microphone unit is a desired direction of arrival (“Some embodiments implement a mode in which it is trained to enable only a target talker's voice to pass through. In this mode, the target talker's speech is captured in a pre-defined set of one or more audio beams 108 from the BMA 102. In this mode, all speech detected as propagating from a direction of look of the BMA 102 outside of the predefined target directions or beam patterns 130 are identified as being interfering speech, while speech captured from the pre-defined set of target beams or beam patterns 130 is identified as desired speech. In this mode, the embodiment can learn to “mute” all audio coming from undesired directions by suppressing that audio even if some portion of that audio is captured by an audio beam looking in a target direction.” in ¶[0085]),
An ordinary skilled in the art would be motivated to modify the invention of Chen as modified by Elko with the teachings of Graham for the benefit of improving the quality of the audio output of the system, therefore it would have been obvious to a person of ordinary sill in the art prior to the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify Chen as modified by Elko with Graham.
Regarding claim 2, Chen as modified by Elko and Graham teaches the apparatus of claim 1, Graham further teaches the apparatus further comprising wherein the first microphone unit is a gooseneck microphone (“As a result, each user may have access to mute themselves just as if the user was using a gooseneck or headset microphone with a mute button” in ¶[0155]),
Elko further teaches the microphone unit configured to detect audio in a relatively narrow angular sector that is within the relatively wide angular sector range of the multi-directional microphone unit (“This combination enables picking up acoustic signals dependent on their direction of propagation. As such, microphone arrays are sometimes also referred to as spatial filters. Their advantage over conventional directional microphones, such as shotgun microphones, is their high flexibility due to the degrees of freedom offered by the plurality of microphones and the processing of the associated beamformer. The directional pattern of a microphone array can be varied over a wide range” in ¶[0006]).
Regarding claim 3, Chen as modified by Elko and Graham teaches the apparatus of claim 1, Graham further teaches the apparatus further comprising wherein the desired direction of arrival corresponds to a configured allowed angular sector for the direction of arrival of the detected audio (“When a source is within the exclusion zone as determined by the Direction of Arrival (DOA) function, the AI noise reduction could remove it from all the audio signal 108 transmitted by the BMA” in ¶[0086]).
Regarding claim 9, Chen as modified by Elko and Graham teaches the apparatus of claim 1, Graham further teaches the apparatus further comprising wherein the processor is further configured to perform background noise removal on the output of the first microphone unit prior to providing for output the signal representing audio detected by the first microphone unit (“Another processing function implemented in the automatic mixer may include using Artificial Intelligence (AI), Machine Learning (ML), or Deep Learning Networks (DLN) to denoise and/or mute beamformed audio containing speech” in ¶[0012]), and the processor mutes outputs of the multi-directional microphone unit when the direction of arrival of the detected audio by the multi-directional microphone unit is a desired direction of arrival (“Additionally, the BMA may provide information that sound is coming from predefined undesired areas. During these times the BMA may block the incoming audio, prevent selection of the beam, or prevent a change in steering so that the undesirable audio is not heard by the participants.” in ¶[0024]).
Regarding claim 10, claim is rejected for being the method comprising at least the same elements and performing at least the same functions performed by the apparatus of rejected claim 1 (see rejection of claim 1 above).
Regarding claim 11, claim is rejected for being the method comprising at least the same elements and performing at least the same functions performed by the apparatus of rejected claim 3 (see rejection of claim 3 above).
Claim(s) 4-5 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Chen et al. (US 20190327555 A1) hereinafter Chen in view of Elko et al. (US 20160073199 A1) hereinafter Elko and further in view of Graham et al. (US 20250088795 A1) hereinafter Graham and further in view of 360 Nishigushi et al. (US 20230136085 A1) hereinafter Nishigushi.
Regarding claim 4, Chen as modified by Elko and Graham teaches the apparatus of claim 1, Chen as modified by Elko and Graham does not specifically disclose the apparatus further comprising wherein the multi-directional microphone unit comprises a plurality of microphone elements collectively arranged to detect audio in a substantially 360-degree directional range of audio however,
Since it is known in the art as evidenced by Nishigushi for an apparatus to further comprise wherein the multi-directional microphone unit comprises a plurality of microphone elements (Microphones 10 are shown to be at least 4 in Fig. 1) collectively arranged to detect audio in a substantially 360-degree directional range of audio (“The microphone array 10 collects sound in a sound space that is a space where various sounds exist in various places. Specifically, for example, the microphone array 10 acquires sound waves in a plurality of directions for 360 degree” in ¶[0036]),
An ordinary skilled in the art would be motivated to modify the invention of Chen as modified by Elko and graham with the teachings of Nishigushi for the benefit of improving the quality of the audio output of the system, therefore it would have been obvious to a person of ordinary sill in the art prior to the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify Chen as modified by Elko and Graham with Nishigushi.
Regarding claim 5, Chen as modified by Elko, Graham and Nishigushi teaches the apparatus of claim 4, Graham further teaches the apparatus further comprising wherein the processor is configured to perform direction of arrival estimation based on a plurality of signals representing outputs from the plurality of microphone elements of the multi-directional microphone unit to determine the direction of arrival of the detected audio (“The BMAs may form multiple beams, and each of those beams may be designed to have a fixed direction of look. The BMA may then be designed so that it provides information on its overall “direction of look” or direction of arrival, which in this case, corresponds to the selected active beam(s) based on speech activity. The BMA may also provide an estimate” in ¶[0011] and “BMA 102 in the desired direction of look or direction of arrival has an angular coverage pattern that may pick up more than one sound source” in ¶[0071]).
Allowable Subject Matter
Claims 15-19 are allowed over prior art of record.
Most relevant prior art of record is Chen et al. (US 20190327555 A1) hereinafter Chen in view of Elko et al. (US 20160073199 A1) hereinafter Elko and further in view of Graham et al. (US 20250088795 A1) hereinafter Graham.
Regarding claim 15, A hybrid microphone device (“a circuit and system for audio pickup and play” in ¶[Abstract]) comprising: a microphone unit configured to detect audio (“wireless microphone” in Fig. 1); a multi-directional microphone unit (“a microphone array for collecting a first audio signal; a first wireless audio transceiver for receiving a second audio signal from a remote wireless microphone” in ¶[0004]); and a processor coupled to receive signals derived from output of the microphone unit in a relatively narrow angular sector, the multi-directional microphone unit and from outputs of the multi-directional microphone unit (“audio processor” in Fig. 1 is connected to the signals from “microphone array” and “wireless microphone” via “input switcher”),
Chen does not specifically disclose a gooseneck microphone unit configured to detect audio in a relatively narrow angular sector, the multi-directional microphone unit configured to detect audio in a relatively wide angular sector range that encompasses the relatively narrow angular sector, wherein the processor is configured to, in a first operational mode, output a signal representing audio detected by the gooseneck microphone unit when the processor determines determine a direction of arrival of detected audio from outputs of the multi-directional microphone unit is a desired direction of arrival and mute audio detected by the multi-directional microphone unit, and in a second operational mode in which the processor outputs a signal representing audio detected by the multi-directional microphone unit and mutes audio detected by the gooseneck microphone unit however,
Since it is known in the art as evidenced by Elko for an apparatus to further comprise the multi directional microphone unit is configured to detect audio in a relatively wide angular sector range in (“This combination enables picking up acoustic signals dependent on their direction of propagation. As such, microphone arrays are sometimes also referred to as spatial filters. Their advantage over conventional directional microphones, such as shotgun microphones, is their high flexibility due to the degrees of freedom offered by the plurality of microphones and the processing of the associated beamformer. The directional pattern of a microphone array can be varied over a wide range” in ¶[0006]),
An ordinary skilled in the art would be motivated to modify the invention of Chen with the teachings of Elko for the benefit of improving the quality of the audio output of the system, therefore it would have been obvious to a person of ordinary skill in the art prior to the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify Chen with Elko,
Chen as modified by Elko does not specifically disclose the device further comprising wherein the processor is configured to, in a first operational mode, output a signal representing audio detected by the gooseneck microphone unit when the processor determines determine a direction of arrival of detected audio from outputs of the multi-directional microphone unit is a desired direction of arrival and mute audio detected by the multi-directional microphone unit, and in a second operational mode in which the processor outputs a signal representing audio detected by the multi-directional microphone unit and mutes audio detected by the gooseneck microphone unit.
The following is the reason for allowance of claim 15:
Chen alone or in combination with any other prior art of record does not specifically disclose, suggest nor render obvious the limitations wherein the device further comprises the processor is configured to, in a first operational mode, output a signal representing audio detected by the gooseneck microphone unit when the processor determines determine a direction of arrival of detected audio from outputs of the multi-directional microphone unit is a desired direction of arrival and mute audio detected by the multi-directional microphone unit, and in a second operational mode in which the processor outputs a signal representing audio detected by the multi-directional microphone unit and mutes audio detected by the gooseneck microphone unit, therefore the claim is allowed for the limitations above in combination with all the other limitations of the claim.
Regarding claims 16-19, claims are allowed for their dependency on allowed claim 15.
Regarding claim 6-8,12-14, claims 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.
Conclusion
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to AMMAR T HAMID whose telephone number is (571)272-1953. The examiner can normally be reached M-F 9-5, Eastern time.
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AMMAR T. HAMID
Primary Examiner
Art Unit 2695
/AMMAR T HAMID/ Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2695