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 .
DETAILED ACTION
Applicant is advised that the new art unit number is 2692. Please use the new art unit number for all future communications.
This Office action is in response to the Election filed on 6/22/2026.
Priority
Receipt is acknowledged of certified copies of papers required by 37 CFR 1.55.
Information Disclosure Statement
The information disclosure statement (IDS) submitted on 8/29/2024 is in compliance with the provisions of 37 CFR 1.97. Accordingly, the information disclosure statement is being considered by the examiner.
Specification - Title
The title of the invention is not descriptive. A new title is required that is clearly indicative of the invention to which the claims are directed.
Specification
The lengthy specification has not been checked to the extent necessary to determine the presence of all possible minor errors. Applicant's cooperation is requested in correcting any errors of which applicant may become aware in the specification.
Election/Restrictions
Applicant’s election without traverse of Species II (Figure 5) in the reply filed on 6/22/2026 is acknowledged. Claims 3-7 are withdrawn from further consideration pursuant to 37 CFR § 1.142(b) as being drawn to a nonelected species, there being no allowable generic or linking claim.
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 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Basu et al. (US 11183166) in view of Inoue et al. (US 2022/0238093).
Regarding claim 1, Basu discloses an active noise reduction system (Fig. 3), comprising:
a speaker (324) configured to output a canceling sound (output of 324) for canceling a noise (d[n]) (detx26, paragraph spanning cols. 9-10);
an error microphone (312) configured to generate an error signal (e[n]) based on the noise (d[n]) and the canceling sound (see Fig. 3 and detx26, paragraph spanning cols. 9-10); and
a controller (356) configured to control the speaker based on the error signal (see Fig. 3),
wherein the controller includes:
a control filter (360) configured to generate a control signal (y[n]) for controlling the speaker (Fig. 3 and detx26, paragraph spanning cols. 9-10);
a secondary path filter (362) that represents an estimation value of a transfer function of a secondary path from the speaker to the error microphone (detx27, col. 10, lines 8-23); and
a correction filter (414 and 418 of Fig. 4, which is part of 366 of Fig. 3) that represents a difference between acoustic characteristics at a position of the error microphone and acoustic characteristics at a position of a user (detx31, col. 11, lines 15-36), and
the controller is configured to
generate (via 414 and 418) a correction signal (d̂’*p[n]) by the correction filter (see Fig. 4 and detx34, col. 12, lines 6-12),
generate (via 420) a correction error signal (d̂ v[n]) by correcting the error signal using the correction signal (see Fig. 4 and detx35,37, col. 12, lines 13-30 and paragraph spanning cols. 12-13),
adaptively update (via 320) the control filter based on the correction error signal (d̂ v[n] output from 420 in Fig. 4 (which is 366 in Fig. 3) is used by 320 in Fig. 3 to update 318 (which is also 360)) (detx38, col. 13, lines 11-29),
generate a canceling sound estimation signal (ŷ’[n]) by the secondary path filter (362) based on the control signal (y[n]) (see Fig. 3 and detx27, col. 10, lines 8-23), and
Basu is not relied upon to disclose the controller configured to
adaptively update the secondary path filter based on the canceling sound estimation signal and the correction error signal.
In a similar field of endeavor, Inoue discloses a controller (100) is configured to
adaptively update (via 40a and/or 40b) a secondary path filter (30a and/or 30b) based on a canceling sound estimation signal (y1^) and an
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to:
(i) configure the controller (356 of Basu) to
adaptively update the secondary path filter (362 of Basu) based on the canceling sound estimation signal (ŷ’[n] of Basu) and the correction error signal (d̂ v[n] of Basu); and
(ii) base the update on the correction error signal (d̂ v[n] of Basu) rather than the error signal taught by Inoue,
the motivation being to (i) reduce noise even if a transfer characteristic changes (Inoue - ¶ 0007); and (ii) base the update on an improved estimation of the error signal, the improvement being that it is the error signal at the user’s ear position rather than at the physical microphone (Basu - detx28, col. 10, lines 8-52).
Allowable Subject Matter
Claim 2 is 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.
The following is a statement of reasons for the indication of allowable subject matter:
In regard to claim 2, the prior art of record alone or in combination fails to teach or suggest the following limitations of the claim in combination with the rest of the limitations of the claim:
“wherein the controller further includes a primary path filter that represents an estimation value of a transfer function of a primary path from a noise source to the error microphone, and the correction filter includes:
a first correction filter corresponding to the primary path filter; and
a second correction filter corresponding to the secondary path filter.”
Conclusion
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to MARK FISCHER whose telephone number is (571)270-3549. The examiner can normally be reached Mon-Fri 1-6, 7:30-11:59pm EST.
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If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner’s supervisor, CAROLYN R EDWARDS can be reached on 571-270-7136. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300.
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/MARK FISCHER/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2692
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