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 .
Response to Arguments
Applicant’s arguments, filed 05/29/2026, with respect to the rejections of claims 1-3, 5-18 have been fully considered and are persuasive. Therefore, the rejection has been withdrawn. However, upon further consideration, a new ground(s) of rejection is made in view of Lin et al, US Patent Pub. 20090003632 A1.
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.
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.
Claims 1-3, 5, 8, 10, 13 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Ostler et al, US Patent Pub. 20090152917 A1, in view of Lin et al, US Patent Pub. 20090003632 A1.
Re Claim 1, Ostler et al discloses a loudspeaker system (abstract: speaker system) comprising: a vibration actuator that is fixed to a first vibration face and imparts vibration to the first vibration face to cause the first vibration face to emit sound (abstract: speakers/shakers mounted on the chair/seat output vibrations (para 0057: seats could include motor vehicle seats with the term shaker being used interchangeably with the term speaker); wherein subwoofer/shakers excite vibrations within the chair/seat (paras 0042-0043); whereby the subwoofer and shaker are at different locations of the chair underneath the chair/seat cushion and thus each include their own respective sub-vibration actuators to emit sounds with the subwoofer and shaker both being located on the chair/seat where a user’s back and waist will lean against when seated); and a tweeter that outputs sound in a high-frequency range (para 0042: tweeters also mounted within the chair/seat frame); but fails to disclose the tweeter is disposed overlapping with the vibration actuator when viewed from an axial direction of the vibration actuator. However, Lin et al teaches the concept of a tweeter diaphragm being in an overlapping relationship with other diaphragms, including woofers/vibrators (Lin et al, para 0010). Since Ostler et al teaches that the locations of its tweeters and woofers/vibrators can be positioned in other locations and oriented in other directions, it would have been obvious to modify the Ostler et al such that its tweeters are placed overlappingly with its woofers/vibrators as taught in Lin et al for the purpose of obtaining uniform directional characteristics.
Re Claim 2, the combined teachings of Ostler et al and Lin et al disclose the loudspeaker system according to claim 1, further comprising: a first sub-vibration actuator that is fixed to a second vibration face and imparts vibration to the second vibration face to cause the second vibration face to emit sound (Ostler et al, abstract: speakers/shakers mounted on the chair/seat output vibrations (para 0057: seats could include motor vehicle seats with the term shaker being used interchangeably with the term speaker); wherein subwoofer/shakers excite vibrations within the chair/seat (paras 0042-0043); whereby the subwoofer and shaker are at different locations of the chair underneath the chair/seat cushion and thus each include their own respective sub-vibration actuators to emit sounds with the subwoofer and shaker both being located on the chair/seat where a user’s back and waist will lean against when seated); and a second sub-vibration actuator that is fixed to a third vibration face and imparts vibration to the third vibration face to cause the third vibration face to emit sound (Ostler et al, abstract: speakers/shakers mounted on the chair/seat output vibrations (para 0057: seats could include motor vehicle seats with the term shaker being used interchangeably with the term speaker); wherein subwoofer/shakers excite vibrations within the chair/seat (paras 0042-0043); whereby the subwoofer and shaker are at different locations of the chair underneath the chair/seat cushion and thus each include their own respective sub-vibration actuators to emit sounds with the subwoofer and shaker both being located on the chair/seat where a user’s back and waist will lean against when seated).
Re Claim 3, the combined teachings of Ostler et al and Lin et al disclose the loudspeaker system according to claim 2, wherein the first sub-vibration actuator and the second sub-vibration actuator are provided in a cushion member that a lower back portion of a person comes into contact with when the person is seated on a seat on which the cushion member is placed (Ostler et al, abstract: speakers/shakers mounted on the chair/seat output vibrations (para 0057: seats could include motor vehicle seats with the term shaker being used interchangeably with the term speaker); wherein subwoofer/shakers excite vibrations within the chair/seat (paras 0042-0043); whereby the subwoofer and shaker are at different locations of the chair underneath the chair/seat cushion and thus each include their own respective sub-vibration actuators to emit sounds with the subwoofer and shaker both being located on the chair/seat where a user’s back and waist will lean against when seated), and the first sub-vibration actuator and the second sub-vibration actuator output sound toward the lower back portion (Ostler et al, abstract: speakers/shakers mounted on the chair/seat output vibrations (para 0057: seats could include motor vehicle seats with the term shaker being used interchangeably with the term speaker); wherein subwoofer/shakers excite vibrations within the chair/seat (paras 0042-0043); whereby the subwoofer and shaker are at different locations of the chair underneath the chair/seat cushion and thus each include their own respective sub-vibration actuators to emit sounds with the subwoofer and shaker both being located on the chair/seat where a user’s back and waist will lean against when seated).
Re Claim 5, the combined teachings of Ostler et al and Lin et al disclose the loudspeaker system according to claim 1, wherein the tweeter is disposed side by side with the vibration actuator when viewed from an axial direction of the vibration actuator (Ostler et al, fig. 2A: tweeters, subwoofer and shaker are naturally placed side by side).
Re Claim 8, the combined teachings of Ostler et al and Lin et al disclose the loudspeaker system according to claim 1, wherein the tweeter is disposed at a position corresponding to a central portion of the vibration actuator when viewed from an axial direction of the vibration actuator (Lin et al, para 0010: concept of a tweeter diaphragm being in an overlapping relationship with other diaphragms, including woofers/vibrators implies tweeter disposed at a position corresponding to a central position of the woofer/vibrator).
Re Claim 10, the combined teachings of Ostler et al and Lin et al disclose the loudspeaker system according to claim 2, wherein the loudspeaker system is provided in a vehicle (Ostler et al, abstract: speakers/shakers mounted on the chair/seat output vibrations (para 0057: seats could include motor vehicle seats with the term shaker being used interchangeably with the term speaker); wherein subwoofer/shakers excite vibrations within the chair/seat (paras 0042-0043); whereby the subwoofer and shaker are at different locations of the chair underneath the chair/seat cushion and thus each include their own respective sub-vibration actuators to emit sounds with the subwoofer and shaker both being located on the chair/seat where a user’s back and waist will lean against when seated).
Re Claim 13, the combined teachings of Ostler et al and Lin et al disclose the loudspeaker system according to claim 2, wherein the first sub-vibration actuator and the second sub-vibration actuator output low-frequency vibration (Ostler et al, para 0063: occupant can select a level of frequency below which each of the subwoofer and shaker will transmit vibrations).
Claims 6-7 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Ostler et al, US Patent Pub. 20090152917 A1 and Lin et al, US Patent Pub. 20090003632 A1, as applied to claim 1 above, in view of Lemarquand et al, FR 2967860 A1.
Re Claim 6, the combined teachings of Ostler et al and Lin et al disclose the loudspeaker system according to claim 1, but fail to explicitly disclose wherein the sound in the high-frequency range outputted by the tweeter includes, from among a sound in an audible frequency range and a sound in an inaudible frequency range higher than the audible frequency range, at least the sound in the inaudible frequency range. However, Lemarquand et al teaches the concept of a tweeter that can output high frequency sounds that ranger between the audible frequency range of up to 20kHz and beyond the audible frequency range of 20kHz (Lemarquand et al, PRIOR ART section). It would have been obvious to modify the Ostler et al such that its tweeter can output both audible and inaudible frequency signals as taught in Lemarquand et al for the purpose of affecting brain activity of a person seating on the chair/seat of Ostler et al.
Re Claim 7, the combined teachings of Ostler et al, Lin et al and Lemarqaund et al disclose the loudspeaker system according to claim 6, wherein the sound in the high-frequency range outputted by the tweeter further includes the sound in the audible frequency range (Lemarquand et al, PRIOR ART section: audible and inaudible frequency range; Ostler et al, para 0042: tweeter outputs audible high frequency sounds).
Claim 9 is rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Ostler et al, US Patent Pub. 20090152917 A1 and Lin et al, US Patent Pub. 20090003632 A1, as applied to claim 8 above, in view of Olson, US Patent 2269284 A1.
Re Claim 9, the combined teachings of Ostler et al and Lin et al disclose the loudspeaker system according to claim 8, but fail to disclose further comprising: an elastic member disposed between the tweeter and the vibration actuator. However, Olsen discloses where loudspeaker diaphragms overlap with other loudspeaker diaphragm (Olsen, pg. 2, lines 22-31), where rubber or other plastic is used couple the diaphragms (Olsen, pg. 3, lines 39-50: plastics are elastic). Since the cited portion of Lin et al references the Olsen reference, it would have been obvious to modify the Lin et al reference with the rubber/plastic elastic used to couple the diaphragms as taught in Olsen for the purpose of minimizing friction between the diaphragms.
Claims 11-12 & 14-15 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Ostler et al, US Patent Pub. 20090152917 A1 and Lin et al, US Patent Pub. 20090003632 A1.
Re Claim 11, the combined teachings of Ostler et al and Lin et al disclose the loudspeaker system according to claim 10, but fail to explicitly disclose wherein the first vibration face is an instrument panel of the vehicle, the first sub-vibration actuator and the second sub-vibration actuator are provided below the vibration actuator and the tweeter. Official Notice is taken that both the concepts and advantages of placing a vibration on a vehicle instrument panel are well known to one of ordinary skill in the art. Thus, it would have been obvious to modify Ostler et al such that vibrators along with sub-vibration actuators are also placed on the vehicle instrument panel for the purpose of actuating vibrations from other places within the vehicle other that the chair/seat.
Re Claim 12, the combined teachings of Ostler et al and Lin et al disclose the loudspeaker system according to claim 1, but fail to explicitly disclose wherein the loudspeaker system is provided in a desk. Official Notice is taken that both the concepts and advantages of placing a vibration on desk are well known to one of ordinary skill in the art. Thus, it would have been obvious to modify Ostler et al such that vibrators along with sub-vibration actuators are also placed on a desk for the purpose of actuating vibrations from other furniture devices.
Re Claim 14, the combined teachings of Ostler et al and Lin et al disclose the loudspeaker system according to claim 13, but fail to explicitly disclose wherein the low-frequency vibration includes vibration in a frequency band of at least 40 Hz and at most 90 Hz. However, it would have been obvious to modify the Ostler et al system such that its vibrators are functioning at low frequencies of between 40 Hz and 90 Hz for the purpose of optimizing the vibration performance.
Re Claim 15, the combined teachings of Ostler et al and Lin et al disclose the loudspeaker system according to claim 2, but fail to explicitly disclose wherein the first sub-vibration actuator and the second sub-vibration actuator each include no diaphragm. Official Notice is taken that both the concepts and advantages of using vibrators without a diaphragm such as resonator speakers, surface vibration speakers, bone conduction transducers etc are well known to one of ordinary skill in the art. It would have been obvious to modify the vibrators of Ostler et al such they include diaphragm less vibrators such as bone conduction transducers, surface vibration speakers, resonator speakers for the purpose of being able to easily hide the speaker vibrators beneath the surface of the chair/seat.
Allowable Subject Matter
Claims 16-18 are allowed.
The following are examiner’s statement of reasons for allowable subject matter:
Referring to claim 16, the Ostler et al reference (US Patent Pub. 20090152917 A1) discloses a signal processing device. The Ostler et al reference taken alone or in combination with another, do not disclose, teach or fairly suggest the signal processing device as a whole comprising: wherein the ultrasonic generator: adjusts a pitch of the sound source data by a factor of n, n being a real number greater than 1; extracts a first frequency component included in the sound source data whose pitch has been adjusted by the factor of n, the first frequency component being greater than or equal to 20 kHz; and generates the ultrasonic signal by adding the first frequency extracted to the sound source data obtained, and the low-frequency generator: adjusts the pitch of the sound source data obtained by a factor of 1/l, l being a real number greater than 1; extracts a second frequency component included in the sound source data whose pitch has been adjusted by the factor of 1/l, the second frequency component being less than or equal to 90 Hz; and generates the low-frequency signal by adding the second component extracted to the sound source data obtained as recited in claim 16.
Claim 18 is allowed for the same reason as claim 16.
Claim 17 depends on claim 16.
Contact
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to GEORGE C MONIKANG whose telephone number is (571)270-1190. The examiner can normally be reached Mon. - Fri., 9AM-5PM, ALT. Fridays off.
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/GEORGE C MONIKANG/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2692 07/16/2026
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