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 .
Information Disclosure Statement
The information disclosure statement (IDS) submitted on 05/02/2025 is considered by the examiner.
Drawings
The drawing submitted on 08/21/2024 is considered by the examiner.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 101
35 U.S.C. 101 reads as follows:
Whoever invents or discovers any new and useful process, machine, manufacture, or composition of matter, or any new and useful improvement thereof, may obtain a patent therefor, subject to the conditions and requirements of this title.
Claims 1-5 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 101 because the claimed invention is directed to non-statutory subject matter. The claim(s) does/do not fall within at least one of the four categories of patent eligible subject matter because Claims 1-5 are drawn to a "software" per se,(“an on-device mobile application that operates…”) and as such is non-statutory subject matter. See MPEP § 2106.1V.B.1 .a. Data structures not claimed as embodied in computer readable media are descriptive material per se and are not statutory because they are not capable of causing functional change in the computer. See, e.g., Warmerdam, 33 F.3d at 1361, 31 USPQ2d at 1760 (claim to a data structure per se held nonstatutory). Such claimed data structures do not define any structural and functional interrelationships between the data structure and other claimed aspects of the invention, which permit the data structure's functionality to be realized. In contrast, a claimed computer readable medium encoded with a data structure defines structural and functional interrelationships between the data structure and the computer software and hardware components which permit the data structure's functionality to be realized, and is thus statutory. Similarly, computer programs claimed as computer listings per se, i.e., the descriptions or expressions of the programs are not physical "things." They are neither computer components nonstatutory processes, as they are not "acts" being performed. Such claimed computer programs do not define any structural and functional interrelationships between the computer program and other claimed elements of a computer, which permit the computer program's functionality to be realized.
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) 1-15 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(1) as being anticipated by Everman et al.(US 2008/0154611 A1).
Regarding Claim 1, Evermann et al. teach: A system for providing a real-time speech recognition and native visualization tool, for use with data analytics environments, comprising: an on-device mobile application (Device 102 includes voice application software) that operates in combination with an on-device speech-to-text engine (speech recognition software running on mobile device 102) to communicate with a data analytics system or environment (transaction server 110) for purposes of generating, modifying, or interacting with data (to fulfill a search request) visualizations (displaying the search results), including ([0021] Device 102 includes voice application software that, when invoked, confers voice activation capability on the device. [0022] When the user launches the voice application software, it causes device 102 to display main voice command menu 200 (FIG. 2), and activates the device's ability to receive, recognize, and act upon voice commands, i.e., to become voice-activated. Each gate command can be activated by an utterance spoken by the user. This functionality is provided by speech recognition software running on mobile device 102. [0023] When mobile device 102 recognizes one of search commands 204, voice application software on device 102 launches voice-mediated search application (VMSA) software 106. [0024] VMSA 106 implements the mobile search functionality of device 106. This includes: determining what type of search the user is requesting; managing the search-related speech recognition on the device; opening an IP connection to a remote server, if needed, to fulfill the search request; processing and sending the search query over the connection to the server; maintaining a log of the user's actions taken in response to received search results and advertisements; and receiving and displaying the search results. [0059] Transaction server 110 selects one or more content providers 114a,b,c to service the search request. When it receives text corresponding to an uncategorized search, it performs some editing on the search string, such as removing prepositions and articles, and transmits it to a general-purpose content provider, such as Google.): listening for audio received as input from a user (0025] When the user utters one of the search commands, device 102 performs the speech recognition for the command words listed on main voice command menu 200. For example, for search commands 204, the device recognizes the utterances "search ringtones," "directory assistance," and "search." The voice application software on the device determines that the user is making a mobile search request, and activates VMSA 106. ); as the user provides input, detecting pauses for sentence consideration(i.e. SEARCH RINGTONES MADONNA), and building an array of words (grammars or word order) associated with the sentence ([0049] For example, if the user says "SEARCH RINGTONES MADONNA" in a single utterance, VMSA 106 invokes open search command 208, instead of the guided search command "SEARCH RINGTONES" because the latter requires a pause after the word "RINGTONES." The ASR Server obtains a high score by traversing the grammar pathway from 402 to 412 to 414, and identifies the search as belonging to the search ringtone category. The open recognizer also offers alternative grammars for a given category. Thus the open search command provides the same functionality as the guided search commands, but offers more flexibility of word order, and the convenience of speaking the search request in a single continuous utterance.[0050] Searches will not be recognized by the system even if they pertain to one of the predetermined categories if users say a word that is not covered by the grammar. ); determining whether the sentence is capable of being processed without additional server data (ASR 112) and if so performing the step locally; and alternatively sending an input sentence to a server API (Fig.1, search management software 118 running on transaction server 110), in order to determine an intent (speech recognition of complete search requests) associated therewith for use by the server in returning relevant results ([0032] Within each mobile search dialog, VMSA 106 running on device 102 performs some of the speech recognition task locally, and passes on the remainder to a remote server. As mentioned above, the device recognizes the gate search commands locally without the need for any external assistance. In addition, the VMSA has the capacity to recognize whether the user of the device repeats the same voice search queries frequently, and to train itself so as to recognize such queries locally. VMSA 106 also has the ability to add to its speech recognition capability by receiving from a remote server speech recognition information that enables it to perform local speech recognition of complete search requests or of parts of spoken search requests. [0034] When VMSA 106 determines that it needs a data connection to a remote server in order to fulfill a mobile voice search command, it causes device 102 to send a message via the wireless carrier to open connection 108 using the TCP/IP protocol to transaction server 110 (See FIG. 1), which is specified with a particular IP address. [0036] When VMSA 106 determines that the device needs to transmit audio information to transaction server 110 in order to fulfill a mobile search request, it performs signal-processing functions on the audio captured by device 102 to extract speech features that are a compact representation of the user's search utterance. It also collects other information relating to the device and the user, which we refer to as metadata, and transmits both the speech features and the metadata over data connection 108 to transaction server 110. [0038] When transaction server 110 returns the voice search results and associated advertising content to mobile device 102, VMSA 106 receives the information and presents it to the user as text and graphics on the device's display, and also, where appropriate, as an audio or a video message. [0039] Transaction server 110 serves as the hub of the voice-mediated mobile search service. It communicates with one or more speech recognition servers 112 (FIG. 1), one or more content providers 114a, 114b, 114c, and with one or more advertising providers 116a, 116b, 116c. [0040] In general, search management software 118 running on transaction server 110 receives audio and metadata from mobile device 102 via connection 108, and passes the audio and metadata on to automatic speech recognizer (ASR) server 112 via connection 120. ASR Server 112 performs speech recognition on the audio, using the metadata when it can in order to improve recognition accuracy.).
Regarding Claims 2, 7, and 12, Evermann et al. teach: The system of claim 1, wherein the data analytics system or environment is an analytics cloud environment (a data connection to a remote server ) (See rejection of claim 1 and [0034] When VMSA 106 determines that it needs a data connection to a remote server in order to fulfill a mobile voice search command, it causes device 102 to send a message via the wireless carrier to open connection 108 using the TCP/IP protocol to transaction server 110 (See FIG. 1), which is specified with a particular IP address.).
Regarding Claims 3, 8, and 13, Evermann et al. teach: The system of claim 1, wherein the data analytics system or environment includes a data analytics assistant (Screen display) provided by or for use with the data analytics environment in generating data visualizations associated with datasets (See rejection of claim 1 and [0061] Content provider(s) 114a, b, c return search results via connection 132 to transaction server 110. The search results include items that are responsive to the search request. The returned items are also responsive to any metadata that transaction server 110 sent to the content providers along with the search request. The transaction server analyzes the content in an attempt to determine a category of search from the type of returned content. One method involves searching for key words in the results. If it is able to determine a category, it invokes special purpose software that formats the results in a manner that is appropriate to that content. Screen display 302 (FIG. 3) illustrates an example of specialized formatting that displays a map in response to a search for a particular type of business in a specific location.).
Regarding Claims 4, 9, and 14, Evermann et al. teach: The system of claim 1, wherein: the data analytics system or environment receives as input a natural language expression (user utterance), and the input natural language expression is associated with a context (ringtones); a search component (a ringtone provider ) finds a most relevant dataset, which is returned to a data visualization environment for rendering within a user interface (See rejection of claim 1 and [0045] When the user speaks a single utterance starting with the word "search," he invokes open search command 208. ASR Server 112 receives the speech features corresponding to a continuous utterance corresponding to a complete spoken search request via transaction server 110. In contrast to guided search, the ASR server receives no explicit search category information. [0059] Transaction server 110 selects one or more content providers 114a,b,c to service the search request. It uses the category of the search, if that is known, either explicitly via a guided gate search command, or from automatic category detection on ASR Server 112 to guide its selection. For example, if the search is for ringtones, the transaction server passes the request to a ringtone provider, such as a server of the wireless carrier. As another example, if the search is a sports news request, it passes the request to an ESPN server. When it receives text corresponding to an uncategorized search, it performs some editing on the search string, such as removing prepositions and articles, and transmits it to a general-purpose content provider, such as Google. Transaction server 110 can also use the metadata to affect its selection of content provider(s) to service the search request. [0069] After selecting items contained within the search results and one or more advertisements, transaction server 110 sends its selection to mobile device 102 via wireless data connection 138. It formats the display to make it as legible and/or presentable as possible for display on device 102. The results can be multimodal, i.e., include text, graphics audio, and video. Transaction server 110 transmits the combined search results and advertisements to the phone over connection 138 via the wireless carrier.).
Regarding Claims 5, 10 and 15, Evermann et al. teach: The system of claim 1, wherein the data analytics system or environment and digital assistant system or environment are provided or communicate as part of a cloud environment (See rejection of claim 1 and [0059] Transaction server 110 selects one or more content providers 114a,b,c to service the search request. It uses the category of the search, if that is known, either explicitly via a guided gate search command, or from automatic category detection on ASR Server 112 to guide its selection. For example, if the search is for ringtones, the transaction server passes the request to a ringtone provider, such as a server of the wireless carrier. As another example, if the search is a sports news request, it passes the request to an ESPN server. When it receives text corresponding to an uncategorized search, it performs some editing on the search string, such as removing prepositions and articles, and transmits it to a general-purpose content provider, such as Google. Transaction server 110 can also use the metadata to affect its selection of content provider(s) to service the search request.).
Regarding Claim 6, Evermann et al. teach: A method for providing a real-time speech recognition and native visualization tool, for use with data analytics environments, comprising: providing an on-device mobile application that operates in combination with an on-device speech-to-text engine to communicate with a data analytics system or environment for purposes of generating, modifying, or interacting with data visualizations, including: listening for audio received as input from a user; as the user provides input, detecting pauses for sentence consideration, and building an array of words associated with the sentence; determining whether the sentence is capable of being processed without additional server data and if so performing the step locally; and alternatively sending an input sentence to a server API, in order to determine an intent associated therewith for use by the server in returning relevant results (See rejection of claim 1).
Regarding Claim 11, Evermann et al. teach: A non-transitory computer readable storage medium, including instructions stored thereon which when read and executed by one or more computers cause the one or more computers to perform a method comprising ([0085] The device includes at its core a baseband digital signal processor (DSP) 602 for handling the cellular communication functions, including, for example, voiceband and channel coding functions, and an applications processor 604, such as Intel StrongArm SA-1110, on which the operating system, such as Microsoft PocketPC, runs. [0088] Volatile and non-volatile memory for applications processor 604 is provided in the form of SDRAM 624 and flash memory 626, respectively. This arrangement of memory can be used to hold the code for the operating system, all relevant code for operating the device and for supporting its various functionality, including the code for the speech recognition system discussed above and for any applications software included in the device.): providing an on-device mobile application that operates in combination with an on-device speech-to-text engine to communicate with a data analytics system or environment for purposes of generating, modifying, or interacting with data visualizations, including: listening for audio received as input from a user; as the user provides input, detecting pauses for sentence consideration, and building an array of words associated with the sentence; determining whether the sentence is capable of being processed without additional server data and if so performing the step locally; and alternatively sending an input sentence to a server API, in order to determine an intent associated therewith for use by the server in returning relevant results (See rejection of claim 1).
Conclusion
The prior art made of record and not relied upon is considered pertinent to applicant's disclosure. The prior art of record Fanty et al.(US 2013/0132089 A1)teach: CONFIGURABLE SPEECH RECOGNITION SYSTEM USING MULTIPLE RECOGNIZERS (The client/server architecture is configurable to enable network providers to specify a policy directed to a trade-off between reducing recognition latency perceived by a user and usage of network resources. The results of the local and remote speech recognition engines are combined based, at least in part, on logic stored by one or more components of the client/server architecture. An indication of the availability of the remote speech recognition to perform speech recognition at a point in time may be provided to a user of the client device via a user interface of the client device.).
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to MOHAMMAD K ISLAM whose telephone number is (571)270-5878. The examiner can normally be reached Monday -Friday, EST (IFP).
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/MOHAMMAD K ISLAM/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2653
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