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 .
Priority
Acknowledgment is made of applicant’s claim for foreign priority under 35 U.S.C. 119 (a)-(d). The certified copy has been filed in parent Application No. CN 202210196160.2, filed on Feb 28, 2022.
Information Disclosure Statement
The information disclosure statement (IDS) submitted is in compliance with the provisions of 37 CFR 1.97. Accordingly, the information disclosure statement is being considered by the examiner.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 112
The following is a quotation of 35 U.S.C. 112(b):
(b) CONCLUSION.—The specification shall conclude with one or more claims particularly pointing out and distinctly claiming the subject matter which the inventor or a joint inventor regards as the invention.
Claims 1 – 10 and 17 – 20 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 112(b) or 35 U.S.C. 112 (pre-AIA ), second paragraph, as being indefinite for failing to particularly point out and distinctly claim the subject matter which the inventor or a joint inventor (or for applications subject to pre-AIA 35 U.S.C. 112, the applicant), regards as the invention.
The language “the receiving time interval is a time interval between a moment at which the distance measurement signal starts to be received and a moment at which the distance measurement signal is received” is ambiguous because it is unclear as to how to distinguish when a distance measurement signal starts to be received and when said distance measurement signal is received. As such, the metes and bounds of the claim are not fully defined thus the claims is indefinite.
Dependent claims 2 – 10 and 18 – 20 are rejected due to dependency on a rejected base claims.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 102
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 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.
Claims 1 – 9, 11 – 13, 15 and 17 – 20 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(1) as being anticipated by Agrawala (US 20110268097 A1).
As to claims 1 and 17, Agrawala discloses a distance measurement method, applied to a first device, and comprising:
obtaining first offset time and a first moment, wherein the first offset time is a time difference between a system clock of the first device and a system clock of a second device, the first moment is a moment at which the second device sends a distance measurement signal, and the first moment is obtained based on the system clock of the second device (Para. 119 estimate clock drift between nodes.);
obtaining a second moment at which the distance measurement signal is received (Paragraph 41),
wherein the second moment is obtained based on a third moment at which the first device starts to receive the distance measurement signal and a receiving time interval, the third moment is obtained through conversion based on a fourth moment at which a distance measurement signal receiving chip starts to receive the distance measurement signal, the system clock of the first device, and a chip clock of the distance measurement signal receiving chip (Para. 107 and 109 – 111 considers other clocks in the system.), and
the receiving time interval is a time interval between a moment at which the distance measurement signal starts to be received and a moment at which the distance measurement signal is received (As best understood (please refer to 112b), Para. 107 – 110 describes clock timestamping for all clocks.); and
obtaining a distance between the first device and the second device based on the first offset time, the first moment, and the second moment (Para. 58).
As to claims 2 and 18, Agrawalaa discloses the method according to claim 1 and 17, wherein the obtaining a second moment at which the distance measurement signal is received comprises: obtaining, by the distance measurement signal receiving chip, the fourth moment and sending the fourth moment to a driver of the distance measurement signal receiving chip; correcting, by the driver of the distance measurement signal receiving chip, the fourth moment to the third moment that is based on the system clock of the first device; and sending, by the driver of the distance measurement signal receiving chip, the third moment to an application layer, and adding, at the application layer, the receiving time interval to the third moment to obtain the second moment (Paras. 107 – 110 considers other clocks in the system.).
As to claims 3 and 19, Agrawalaa discloses the method according to claims 2 and 18, wherein the correcting, by the driver of the distance measurement signal receiving chip, the fourth moment to the third moment that is based on the system clock of the first device comprises: when receiving the fourth moment, correcting, by the driver of the distance measurement signal receiving chip, the fourth moment to the third moment that is based on the system clock of the first device; or correcting, by the driver of the distance measurement signal receiving chip in response to a parameter obtaining instruction from the application layer, the fourth moment to the third moment that is based on the system clock of the first device (Paras. 107 – 110 considers other clocks in the system.).
As to claims 4 and 20, Agrawalaa discloses the method according to claims 1 and 4, wherein the obtaining a second moment at which the distance measurement signal is received comprises: obtaining, by the distance measurement signal receiving chip, the fourth moment; in response to a parameter obtaining instruction, obtaining, by a driver of the distance measurement signal receiving chip, the fourth moment from the distance measurement signal receiving chip, and correcting the fourth moment to the third moment that is based on the system clock of the first device; and sending, by the driver of the distance measurement signal receiving chip, the third moment to an application layer, and adding, at the application layer, the receiving time interval to the third moment to obtain the second moment (Paras. 107 – 110 considers other clocks in the system. The MAC reads on chip and other clocks read onto the system.).
As to claim 5, Agrawala discloses the method according to claim 2, wherein the correcting the fourth moment to the third moment that is based on the system clock of the first device comprises: simultaneously obtaining, by using the driver of the distance measurement signal receiving chip, a fifth moment that is based on the system clock of the first device and a sixth moment that is based on the chip clock, wherein a time difference between the fourth moment and the sixth moment is second offset time; and obtaining the third moment based on the fifth moment and the second offset time (Fig. 4).
As to claim 6, Agrawalaa discloses the method according to claim 1, wherein the obtaining a distance between the first device and the second device based on the first offset time, the first moment, and the second moment comprises: obtaining time of flight of the distance measurement signal based on the first offset time, the first moment, and the second moment; and obtaining the distance between the first device and the second device based on a propagation speed of the distance measurement signal in a medium and the time of flight (Paras. 68 – 71 and Para. 91 see also Fig. 1D TOA, TDOA).
As to claim 7, Agrawalaa discloses the method according to claim 6, wherein the obtaining time of flight of the distance measurement signal based on the first offset time, the first moment, and the second moment comprises: correcting, based on the first offset time, the first moment to a seventh moment that is based on the system clock of the first device; and subtracting the seventh moment from the second moment, to obtain the time of flight of the distance measurement signal; or correcting, based on the first offset time, the second moment to an eighth moment that is based on the system clock of the second device; and subtracting the first moment from the eighth moment, to obtain the time of flight of the distance measurement signal (Paras. 118 – 122 Simple Network Time Protocol.).
As to claim 9, Argawala discloses the method according to claim 1, wherein the obtaining a first moment comprises: sending a first moment query instruction to the second device; and receiving at least one first moment sent by the second device (Fig. 1D and Paras. 102 and 118 – 122).
As to claim 11, Agrawalaa discloses the distance measurement method, applied to a second device, and comprising: obtaining a first moment at which a distance measurement signal is sent; sending the first moment to a first device; and sending the distance measurement signal to the first device at the first moment based on a system clock of the second device (Fig. 4 see also Paras. 107 – 110 and 118 – 122).
As to claims 8 and 12, Agrawala discloses the method according to claim 1 and 11, wherein before the sending the distance measurement signal at the first moment based on a system clock of the second device, the method further comprises: receiving at least one synchronization instruction from the first device, and recording, based on the system clock of the second device, an eleventh moment at which each synchronization instruction is received (Para. 118 – 122 and Fig. 4); and sending a synchronization feedback identifier to the first device in response to each synchronization instruction, wherein the synchronization feedback identifier comprises the eleventh moment and a twelfth moment at which the synchronization feedback identifier is sent, and the twelfth moment is recorded based on the system clock of the second device (Para. 118 – 122 and Fig. 4).
As to claim 13, Agrawala discloses the method according to claim 12, wherein the obtaining a first moment at which a distance measurement signal is sent comprises: determining that synchronization with the first device is completed; and using, as the first moment, a moment at which preset duration elapses after it is determined that the synchronization is completed (Para. 130).
As to claim 15, Agrawala discloses the method according to claim 13, wherein the sending the first moment to a first device comprises: sending the first moment to the first device after the first moment is obtained; or sending the at least one first moment to the first device in response to a first moment query instruction from the first device (Fig. 1D and Paras. 102 and 118 – 122).
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.
Claims 10, 14 and 16 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Agrawala in view of Rausch (US 20120201195 A1).
As to claims 10 and 14, Agrawala does not disclose the method according to claim 1 or 11, wherein the obtaining a first moment at which a distance measurement signal is sent comprises: receiving a distance measurement signal sending instruction, and obtaining at least one the first moment comprised in the distance measurement signal sending instruction; or obtaining at least one preset the first moment based on device identification information of the second device.
In the same field of endeavor, Rausch teaches “The method involves a core-network component: (a) receiving a request from a second base station for a time-of-flight delay between a first base station and the second base station, wherein the request includes (i) an identifier of a first base station and (ii) a the geographic location of the second base station, and wherein the second base station is configured to use the time-of-flight delay to synchronize a frame-start timing signal with frames in a broadcast signal of the first base station; (Para. 20).”
In view of the teachings of Rausch, it would have been obvious to a person having ordinary skill in the art before filing to apply an Identifier in order to know which node is currently being positioned thus improving positioning accuracy by pairing the correct signals with the correct node.
As to claim 16, Agrawala in view Rausch teaches the method according to claim 14, wherein the sending the first moment to a first device further comprises: sending the device identification information of the second device to the first device in response to a first moment query instruction from the first device (As modified in claim 14 wherein a request is used to limit the amount of processing to only requesting nodes.).
Conclusion
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to MICHAEL W JUSTICE whose telephone number is (571)270-7029. The examiner can normally be reached 7:30 - 5:30 M-F.
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/MICHAEL W JUSTICE/Examiner, Art Unit 3648
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