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 .
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.
(a)(2) the claimed invention was described in a patent issued under section 151, or in an application for patent published or deemed published under section 122(b), in which the patent or application, as the case may be, names another inventor and was effectively filed before the effective filing date of the claimed invention.
Claim(s) 1 and 13 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(1) as being anticipated by Matsuo (US 20100111325 A1).
Regarding claims 1 and 13, Matsuo discloses a phase difference spectrum estimation device (fig. 3A) that estimates a phase difference spectrum ᶲ(k) of a frequency spectrum X1(k) of an input signal of a first channel and a frequency spectrum X2(k) of an input signal of a second channel with respect to a frequency k, the phase difference spectrum estimation device comprising: a phase difference spectrum estimation circuitry (222 and 224 of fig. 3A), configured to select one of a plurality of phase difference spectrum representative values (DIFF(f) of fig. 3A, [0040]-[0045]), the representative values being stored in a representative value storage circuitry ([0033] and [0036] a memory), being values on a circumference of a unit circle of a complex plane ([0046-[0047]), and being values having different arguments on the complex plane ([0047-0048]), on a basis of a relationship between a value of a real part u(k) and a value of an imaginary part v(k) of a product Y(k) of the frequency spectrum X1(k) of the first channel and a complex conjugate X2(k) of the frequency spectrum X2(k) of the second channel ([0045] The virtual signal spectrum estimator unit 224 also estimates that a virtual noise assumed to be received by the virtual microphone MIC3 at its virtual position and in the direction .theta.(-.pi./2.ltoreq..theta..ltoreq.+.pi./2) and to appear in the virtual sound signal at a particular sound frequency f to be generated by the virtual microphone MIC3 may be defined as the noise in the sound signal of the microphone MIC2 having arrived at the virtual microphone MIC3 at its virtual position with a time advance by the phase difference DIFF(f)), and obtain the selected representative value as the phase difference spectrum ᶲ (k) ([0049] and [0052] DIFF(f)).
Allowable Subject Matter
Claims 2-13 and 14-28 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.
Conclusion
The prior art made of record and not relied upon is considered pertinent to applicant's disclosure.
Nakagomi (US 20070160230 A1) discloses the sound source direction determining method comprises: a first step of obtaining a phase difference spectrum of the acoustic signals through the two channels; a second step of obtaining a power spectrum of at least either one of the acoustic signals through the two channels; and a third step of obtaining a sound source direction of each sound source, based on the phase difference spectrum and the power spectrum.
Contact Information
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to TUNG T VO whose telephone number is (571)272-7340. The examiner can normally be reached Monday-Friday 6:30 AM - 5:00 PM.
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TUNG T. VO
Primary Examiner
Art Unit 2425
/TUNG T VO/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2425