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
It is acknowledged that the instant application entered the national stage from International Application No. PCT/TH2023/000002, filed 02/27/2023, under 35 U.S.C. 371 which claims priority to TH-2201001221, filed 02/26/2022.
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, 3-7, and 10-14 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(1) as being anticipated by Bess (Pub. No.: 2015/0106041 A1).
1) In regard to claim 1, Bess discloses the claimed system for controlling the notifications device via surface vibrations caused by the subject (fig. 1: 10a), comprising:
a sensor (fig. 1: 20) for detecting vibrations from a surface in contact with the surface (¶0015);
a processing unit (fig. 1: 30) that processes the vibration data from the sensor to enhance it as a first vibration pattern and compares it to pre-defined vibration patterns (¶0018), and then sends commands for controlling the notifications device (¶0018); and
a receiving module that receives commands from the processing unit (¶0017 and ¶0021).
2) In regard to claim 3 (dependent on claim 1), Bess further discloses the system for controlling the notifications device via surface vibrations caused by the subject according to claim 1, wherein the vibration surface is from the floor and the top of table (¶0014).
3) In regard to claim 4 (dependent on claim 1), Bess further discloses the system for controlling the notifications device via surface vibrations caused by the subject according to claim 1, wherein the surface vibration is caused by the force applied by a part of body of the subject to the surface (¶0015).
4) In regard to claim 5 (dependent on claim 1), Bess further discloses the system for controlling the notifications device via surface vibrations caused by the subject according to claim 1, wherein the parameters used to compare vibration patterns comprises frequency, amplitude, count, and interval (¶0018).
5) In regard to claim 6 (dependent on claim 1), Bess further discloses the system for controlling the notifications device via surface vibrations caused by the subject according to claim 1, wherein the control of the notifications device is the activation or notifications device deactivation of the notifications device (¶0021-¶0022).
6) In regard to claim 7, claim 7 is rejected and analyzed with respect to claim 1 and the references applied.
7) In regard to claim 10 (dependent on claim 7), claim 10 is rejected and analyzed with respect to claim 3 and the references applied.
8) In regard to claim 11 (dependent on claim 7), claim 11 is rejected and analyzed with respect to claim 4 and the references applied.
9) In regard to claim 12 (dependent on claim 7), claim 12 is rejected and analyzed with respect to claim 5 and the references applied.
10) In regard to claim 13 (dependent on claim 7), claim 13 is rejected and analyzed with respect to claim 6 and the references applied.
11) In regard to claim 14 (dependent on claim 7), Bess further discloses the method for controlling notifications device according to claim 7, wherein the control of the notifications device is any combination of sound signal, light signal, text signal, image signal, and vibration signal (¶0021).
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 2 and 9 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Bess (Pub. No.: 2015/0106041 A1) in view of Song (Pub. No.: 2022/0151549 A1).
1) In regard to claim 2 (dependent on claim 1), Bess further discloses the system for controlling the notifications device via surface vibrations caused by the subject according to claim 1.
Bess does not explicitly disclose the vibration sensor is geophone sensor.
However, Song discloses it has been known for a fall monitoring system to utilize a geophone sensor (¶0026-¶0027).
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art at the time the claimed invention was filed to allow the method of Bess to use a geophone sensor as the monitoring device, as taught by Song.
One skilled in the art would be motivated to modify Bess as described above in order to use one of a known method for detecting a fall, as taught by Song (¶0027).
2) In regard to claim 9 (dependent on claim 7), claim 9 is rejected and analyzed with respect to claim 2 and the references applied.
Claim 8 is rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Bess (Pub. No.: 2015/0106041 A1) in view of Cheng (Pub. No.: 2016/0182503 A1)
1) In regard to claim 8 (dependent on claim 7), Bess discloses the method for controlling notifications device according to claim 7.
Bess does not explicitly disclose the second vibration pattern within specified period to deactivate notifications device.
However, Cheng the second vibration pattern within specified period to deactivate notifications device (0017).
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art at the time the claimed invention was filed to allow the method of Bess to have a second vibration pattern to indicate deactivation of the notification device, as taught by Cheng.
One skilled in the art would be motivated to modify Bess as described above in order to indicate the detected pattern is a false alarm, as taught by Cheng (¶0017).
Conclusion
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/CURTIS J KING/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2685