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 .
Specification
The abstract of the disclosure is objected to because it has extra characters at the bottom of the abstract. A corrected abstract of the disclosure is required and must be presented on a separate sheet, apart from any other text. See MPEP § 608.01(b).
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(s) 1-2,9-10,13-14,16-17 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Eggers et al. US Patent Application Publication 20090303006 in view of Wu et al. US Patent Application Publication 20190036559.
Regarding claims 1-2, Eggers teaches a method comprising: receiving, with a first apparatus (interrogator), at least one reference signal from a second apparatus in connection with a session of a third apparatus (the interrogator receive information signal from the application processor 101 and format message 200a to the tag(s), paragraph 022); receiving at least one activation signal (interrogator receive a command from application processor 101 for activating the interrogator, paragraph 022) and a reply signal, wherein the at least one activation signal is received from the second apparatus, wherein the reply signal is received from the third apparatus (reply signal receive from tag (paragraph 023). Eggers is silent on teaching determining a combiner, wherein the determined combiner is configured for reading the third apparatus and applying the determined combiner to the at least one activation signal and the reply signal. Wu et al. in an analogous art teaches determining a combiner, wherein the determined combiner is configured for reading the third apparatus and applying the determined combiner to the at least one activation signal and the reply signal (paragraph 0107) in order to remove interference from the transmitted and received signal. Wu et al. teaches determining one or more first conditions of a channel towards the second apparatus, wherein the combiner is determined based, at least partially, on the one or more first conditions (channel estimation module is used to determine channel conditions, paragraph 0107).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art at the time of the invention to modify the system of Eggers as disclosed by Wu et al. because such modification represents an improvement over the system of Eggers by reducing the effect of interference and provide for a more reliable communication system.
Regarding claim 9,14,16, Eggers teaches an apparatus comprising: at least one processor (200); and at least one memory storing instructions that, when executed with the at least one processor (paragraph 039), cause the apparatus at least to: receive at least one reference signal from a second apparatus in connection with a session of a third apparatus (the interrogator receive information signal from the application processor 101 and format message 200a to the tag(s), paragraph 022); receive at least one activation signal and a reply signal, wherein the at least one activation signal is received from the second apparatus (interrogator receive a command from application processor 101 for activating the interrogator, paragraph 022), wherein the reply signal is received from the third apparatus (reply signal receive from tag paragraph 023). Eggers is silent on teaching determining a combiner, wherein the determined combiner is configured for reading the third apparatus and applying the determined combiner to the at least one activation signal and the reply signal. Wu et al. in an analogous art teaches determining a combiner, wherein the determined combiner is configured for reading the third apparatus and applying the determined combiner to the at least one activation signal and the reply signal (paragraph 0107) in order to remove interference from the transmitted and received signal. Wu et al. teaches determining one or more first conditions of a channel towards the second apparatus, wherein the combiner is determined based, at least partially, on the one or more first conditions (channel estimation module is used to determine channel conditions, paragraph 0107). Wu et al. teaches the one or more first conditions comprises at least one of: a channel response of the channel towards the second apparatus at a time at which the at least one reference signal is received (paragraph 036,080).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art at the time of the invention to modify the system of Eggers as disclosed by Wu et al. because such modification represents an improvement over the system of Eggers by reducing the effect of interference and provide for a more reliable communication system.
Regarding claim 10, Eggers teaches the apparatus comprises a reader (103,104,paragraph 022).
Regarding claim 13, Eggers is silent on teaching combiner is configured to at least one of: minimize a contribution of at least one activation signal in a channel towards the second apparatus, or isolate the at least one activation signal in the channel towards the second apparatus. Wu et al. in an analogous art teaches the combiner is configured to at least one of: minimize a contribution of at least one activation signal in a channel towards the second apparatus, or isolate the at least one activation signal in the channel towards the second apparatus (the interference signal replica is extracted, from the reference signal, paragraph 107).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art at the time of the invention to modify the system of Eggers as disclosed by Wu et al. because such modification represents an improvement over the system of Eggers by reducing the effect of interference and provide for a more reliable communication system.
Regarding claim 17, Eggers teaches determine a time at which the at least one activation signal and the reply signal are received based, at least partially, on the one or more first conditions (Application processor transmit command to the interrogator, the antenna received signal from the tag, paragraph 023,026).
Allowable Subject Matter
Claims 3-8,19-24 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.
Regarding claims 3-5, the prior art of record is silent on teaching determining of the combiner comprises: determining one or more second conditions of the channel towards the second apparatus at a time at which the at least one activation signal and the reply signal are received based, at least partially, on the one or more first conditions and a reconstruction function; and determining the combiner based, at least partially, on the one or more second conditions.
Regarding claim 6, the prior art of record is silent on teaching determining one or more second conditions of the channel towards the second apparatus at one or more times earlier than or equal to a time at which the at least one reference signal is received; estimating one or more third conditions of the channel towards the second apparatus at a time at which the at least one activation signal and the reply signal are received, using an autoregressive model, based, at least partially, on the one or more first conditions and the one or more second conditions and determining the combiner based, at least partially, on the one or more estimated third conditions of the channel towards the second apparatus.
Regarding claim 7, the prior art of record is silent on teaching determining one or more second conditions of the channel towards the second apparatus at one or more times earlier than a time at which the at least one activation signal and the reply signal are received; estimating one or more third conditions of the channel towards the second apparatus at the time at which the at least one activation signal and the reply signal are received based, at least partially, on the one or more second conditions; and determining the combiner based, at least partially, on the one or more third conditions, wherein the determined combiner is configured to maximize a quality of a reception of the reply signal.
Regarding claim 8, the prior art of record is silent on teaching determining a first combiner for a time at which the at least one reference signal is received; estimating a difference between the one or more first conditions and one or more second conditions of the channel towards the second apparatus at a time at which the at least one activation signal and the reply signal are received based, at least partially, on partial channel information; and adjusting the first combiner based, at least partially, on the estimated difference, wherein the determined combiner comprises the adjusted combiner.
Regarding claims 19-21, the prior art of record is silent on teaching determining the combiner comprises the instructions, when executed with the at least one processor, cause the apparatus to: determine one or more second conditions of the channel towards the second apparatus at a time at which the at least one activation signal and the reply signal are received based, at least partially, on the one or more first conditions and a reconstruction function; and determine the combiner based, at least partially, on the one or more second conditions.
Regarding claim 22, the prior art of record is silent on teaching determine one or more second conditions of the channel towards the second apparatus at one or more times earlier than or equal to a time at which the at least one reference signal is received; estimate one or more third conditions of the channel towards the second apparatus at a time at which the at least one activation signal and the reply signal are received, using an autoregressive model, based, at least partially, on the one or more first conditions and the one or more second conditions; and determine the combiner based, at least partially, on the one or more estimated third conditions of the channel towards the second apparatus.
Regarding claim 23, the prior art of record is silent on teaching determine a first combiner for a time at which the at least one reference signal is received; estimate a difference between the one or more first conditions and one or more second conditions of the channel towards the second apparatus at a time at which the at least one activation signal and the reply signal are received based, at least partially, on partial channel information.
Regarding claim 24, the prior art of record is silent on teaching estimate a difference between the one or more first conditions and one or more second conditions of the channel towards the second apparatus at a time at which the at least one activation signal and the reply signal are received based, at least partially, on partial channel information; and adjust the first combiner based, at least partially, on the estimated difference, wherein the determined combiner comprises the adjusted combiner.
Conclusion
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/VERNAL U BROWN/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2686