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 § 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.
The following is a quotation of 35 U.S.C. 112 (pre-AIA ), second paragraph:
The specification shall conclude with one or more claims particularly pointing out and distinctly claiming the subject matter which the applicant regards as his invention.
Claims 6, 11 – 13 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.
As to Claims 6, 11, 12, 13, the instant claims recite the limitation "the right and left ears" in line 3 of each claim. There is insufficient antecedent basis for this limitation resulting in unclear scope of the claim. Note that the right and left ears of the user” is recited in claim 5 however instant claims 6, 11, 12, 13 do not depend on claim 5.
Due to claim dependency, claim 19 is also rejected.
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.
Claim(s) 1 – 19 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over U.S. Patent Application Publication No. 2021/0104140 A1 to Park et al. (hereinafter “Park”).
Regarding Claims 1 and 9, Park teaches an odor detection system (see electronic apparatus 100, 100’, 100’’ including plurality of gas sensors 110-1 to 110-n as illustrated at Figs. 1, 6 – 8, see paragraphs [0049] – [0054], [0143] – [0150] respectively describing the gas sensors, see also paragraphs [0156] – [0158], Fig. 9A which illustrates information such as high or low smell/odor obtained using the electronic apparatuses 100, 100’, 100’’) comprising:
a sensor module (see plurality of gas sensors 110-1 to 110-n, see Fig. 1, paragraphs [0049] – [0052])
a sensitive unit having an electrical characteristic value varying in response to that the sensitive unit is exposed to an odor gas (see paragraph [0054] describing the different types of gas sensors having different methods of sensing the gas and includes any of electrochemical method, electric method, reaction coloring method etc., see also Fig. 14 at step S1410 describing that each of the plurality of gas sensors outputs sensing value, hence reading on the invention as claimed), and
a housing in which the sensitive unit is housed, the housing being attached to a user (see description at paragraphs [0050], [0145] describing the apparatus 100 being embodied (i.e., housed) in various forms such as wearable devices including smart watch, a patch, an earphone, an earring, a clothing etc. hence reading on the invention as claimed);
an acquirer configured to acquire, as an output signal of the sensitive unit, data about the electrical characteristic value of the sensitive unit from the sensor module (see processor 120, Fig. 1, see paragraphs [0079] – [0081] describing the processor which may be include CPU, RAM, ROM and implemented as a computer and which controls operation of the electronic apparatus and further may determine the type of corresponding to the sensing value output each of the plurality of gas sensors, hence reading on the invention as claimed);
an identifier configured to input, to a learned model, the output signal acquired by the acquirer to identify a type of the odor gas, the learned model being generated by machine learning using (see paragraph [0092] which states “may sense reference information corresponding to a plurality of sensing values respectively output from the plurality of gas sensors 110-1 to 110-n among a plurality of reference information stored in the storage. In this case, the processor 120 may use an analysis method such as pattern recognition, principal component analysis (PCA), linear discriminant analysis (LDA), or the like, or various algorithms using a neural network” and paragraph [0219] and Fig. 16 at step S1640 which describes “a quantification operation may be performed through machine learning based on a previously stored library at step S1640”, hence reading on the invention as claimed), as input data, two or more output signals of the sensitive unit obtained in two or more states where the sensitive unit is exposed to two or more types of odor gases (see results at Fig. 3, 4, 9A, 10A-10C, which are examples of the data obtained by the sensor system which includes two or more output signals of the sensitive unit as claimed) respectively; and
an outputter configured to output notification information representing an identification result obtained by the identifier (see paragraph [0131] describing the processor 120 which transmits a control command for displaying a UI screen notifying the determined gas type to the display devices, see Figs. 7 and described at paragraph [0139], see also output data at Figs. 9A, 9B, 10 – 13 which illustrates different results displayed on the UI, hence reading on the invention as claimed).
Insofar as Park may be construed as not explicitly teaching the invention as described above in a single embodiment, Park does teach that the invention is not limited to the described exemplary embodiments, but changes can be made without departing from the principles and spirit of the disclosure (see paragraphs [0226]- [0229]).
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one having ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the clamed invention to combine the teachings of the embodiments as described above, since Park does teach that such modifications are well within one of ordinary skill in the art.
Regarding Claim 2, Park as modified above further teaches wherein the housing includes an intake port and an outlet port, and the housing is provided with an air blower (see paragraphs [0012] – [0013], [0022] – [0023] describing the electronic apparatus (which includes the housing as described in claim 1 above), which may further include a fan for providing outside air to the filter which is in the electronic apparatus or the housing as claimed, therefore, it would be obvious to recognize an intake port and an outlet port as claimed since the fan is designed to provide outside air into the housing, hence reading on the invention as claimed), the air blower being disposed to introduce an air outside of the housing into the housing through the intake port, and exhaust the air to an outside of the housing through the outlet port (see paragraphs [0012] – [0013], [0022] – [0023]).
Regarding Claim 3, Park as modified above teaches wherein the sensor module includes a first sensor module and a second sensor module (see plurality of sensor modules at Fig. 13, paragraphs [0180], [0181] which illustrates the electronic apparatus including a plurality of gas sensors embodied as a wearable device such as patch or smart watch), and
the first sensor module and the second sensor module are respectively attached to parts, which are different from each other, of a body of the user (see Fig. 13 illustrating the electronic apparatus as a wearable device such as patch or smart watch and which can be attached to different parts of a body of the user as claimed).
Regarding Claim 4, Park as modified above teaches wherein the identifier is further configured to specify at least one of a direction in which the odor gas is present or an area where the odor gas is present based on (see paragraphs [0182] – [0184] describing the wearable device which may display information on the sensed gas through the display provided in itself or in a user terminal device 1300 and further states “Information on the gas sensed by the wearable device may be displayed on the map along the location path where the user wearing wearable device moves”):
the identification result obtained by inputting, to the learned model, the output signal of the sensitive unit included in the first sensor module; and the identification result obtained by inputting, to the learned model, the output signal of the sensitive unit included in the second sensor module (see paragraph [0092] which states “may sense reference information corresponding to a plurality of sensing values respectively output from the plurality of gas sensors 110-1 to 110-n among a plurality of reference information stored in the storage. In this case, the processor 120 may use an analysis method such as pattern recognition, principal component analysis (PCA), linear discriminant analysis (LDA), or the like, or various algorithms using a neural network” and paragraph [0219] and Fig. 16 at step S1640 which describes “a quantification operation may be performed through machine learning based on a previously stored library at step S1640”, hence reading on the invention as claimed).
Regarding Claims 5 and 10, Park as modified above teaches wherein the first sensor module and the second sensor module are respectively attached to right and left ears of the user (see paragraph [0050] which describes the apparatus 100 which may be embodied in various forms including as an earphone, wearable devices, earrings etc., hence depending on the disclosed design such as an earphone, it will be obvious to dispose the electronic device comprising the sensor modules at the left and right ears of the user as claimed).
Regarding Claims 6, 11, 12, 13, and 14, Park as modified above teaches wherein the outputter is configured to allow a first voice output unit and a second voice output unit, respectively disposed to the right and left ears of the user, to output the notification information (see paragraph [0050] which describes the apparatus 100 which may be embodied in various forms including as an earphone, wearable devices, earrings etc., hence depending on the disclosed design such as an earphone, it will be obvious to dispose the electronic device comprising the outputter at the left and right ears of the user as claimed, see also paragraph [0132] describing the processor 120 of the apparatus 100 outputting alarming sound, hence reading on the invention as claimed).
Regarding Claims 7, 15, 16, 17, 18 and 19, Park as modified above teaches wherein the outputter is configured to allow a communications unit, configured to communicate with a mobile terminal having a communications function, to transmit the notification information to the mobile terminal (see for instance output data at Figs. 6 – 8, 11 – 13 which illustrates various examples of UIs which are in communication with the electronic apparatuses 100, 100’, 100’’ including displaying the UI to a user terminal device, hence reading on the invention as claimed).
Regarding Claim 8, Park as modified above teaches wherein the acquirer, the identifier and the outputter are further housed in the housing of the sensor module (see Figs. 6 – 8 illustrating 100’, 100’’ embodied in an enclosure and which include the sensor module within, hence reading on the invention as claimed).
Conclusion
The prior art made of record and not relied upon is considered pertinent to applicant's disclosure. See PTO-892 form accompanying this office action which includes the following relevant art:
Park et al. (U.S. 2020/0340937 A1) teaches an electronic device and control method including a plurality of different types of gas sensors configured to output sensing values based on sensing a gas, and a processor configured to determine a gas type corresponding to a plurality of sensing values.
Matsuoka et al. (U.S. 2021/0325343 A1) teaches An information processing apparatus includes: a first acquisition unit that acquires odor data obtained by measuring the odor of an object; a second acquisition unit that acquires an acquisition condition for the odor data; and an identification unit that identifies the object from the odor data and the acquisition condition acquired by the first and second acquisition units on the basis of a learned model obtained by performing learning on the odor data of the object and the acquisition condition, and on the object corresponding to the odor data.
Onda et al. (U.S. 11,644,449 B2) teaches a sensing system includes: a sensor apparatus including a filter to remove an odor-causing substance contained in air and a sensor unit including one or more detection elements to detect an amount of the odor-causing substance contained in air; and an information processing apparatus including a difference calculation unit to calculate a difference between a detection value of each of the one or more detection elements.
Watanabe et al. (U.S. 2020/0300798 A1) teaches a server apparatus and an odor sensor data analysis method that are for performing substance detection using an odor sensor capable of detecting a scent or an odor based on substances in the atmosphere, and, furthermore, relates to a computer-readable recording medium that includes a program recorded thereon for realizing the apparatus and method.
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to MARRIT EYASSU whose telephone number is (571)270-1403. The examiner can normally be reached M - F: 9:00AM - 6:00PM.
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/MARRIT EYASSU/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2855
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