CTNF 18/851,908 CTNF 81295 DETAILED ACTION In the response to this office action, the examiner respectfully requests that support be shown for language added to any original claims on amendment and any new claims. That is, indicate support for newly added claim language by specifically pointing to page(s) and line numbers in the specification and/or drawing figure(s). This will assist the examiner in prosecuting this application. Notice of Pre-AIA or AIA Status 07-03-aia AIA 15-10-aia The present application, filed on or after March 16, 2013, is being examined under the first inventor to file provisions of the AIA. Information Disclosure Statement 06-49-07 AIA The information disclosure statement filed September 27 th , 2024 fails to comply with 37 CFR 1.98(a)(2), which requires a legible copy of each cited foreign patent document; each non-patent literature publication or that portion which caused it to be listed; and all other information or that portion which caused it to be listed. It has been placed in the application file, but the information referred to therein has not been considered. Regarding items 1-3 of the “Foreign Patents Documents” section, no copy has been provided in the file. Drawings 06-22-07 AIA The drawings are objected to as failing to comply with 37 CFR 1.84(p)(5) because they include the following reference character(s) not mentioned in the description: Figure 6 shows item 614 not found in the written description. Figure 8 shows item 800 not found in the written description . Corrected drawing sheets in compliance with 37 CFR 1.121(d), or amendment to the specification to add the reference character(s) in the description in compliance with 37 CFR 1.121(b) are required in reply to the Office action to avoid abandonment of the application. Any amended replacement drawing sheet should include all of the figures appearing on the immediate prior version of the sheet, even if only one figure is being amended. Each drawing sheet submitted after the filing date of an application must be labeled in the top margin as either “Replacement Sheet” or “New Sheet” pursuant to 37 CFR 1.121(d). If the changes are not accepted by the examiner, the applicant will be notified and informed of any required corrective action in the next Office action. The objection to the drawings will not be held in abeyance. Claim Objections 07-29-01 AIA Claim s 6, 9, and 10 are objected to because of the following informalities: Regarding claim 6 refers to “the sound event type” which would be better as “the event type” since only an event type has previously been mentioned and to be consistent with other mentions of “event type”. Claim 9 is objected in an analogous manner. Claim 10 is objected as inheriting the problems as above . Appropriate correction is required. Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 102 07-07-aia AIA 07-07 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 – 07-08-aia AIA (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. 07-15-aia AIA Claim(s) 1-4, 6-9, 12, 14, and 15 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102 (a)(1) as being anticipated by Kim et al. (US 20160004405 A1) . Regarding claim 1, Kim discloses audio processing method, comprising: capturing, with at least one processor (103 of figure 1), a multichannel input audio signal (via microphones 104 of figure 1, paragraphs [0021] and [0036]); generating, with the at least one processor, noise-reduced target sound events of interest (paragraphs [0045]-[0046]) and environment noise for each channel of the multichannel input audio signal (paragraph [0064], sector, channel, microphone specific, also see paragraphs [0066]-[0067], and [0069]); determining, with the at least one processor, an event type for rendering (paragraph [0046], triggering event may be a true or false determination on the presence of defined audio information, paragraph [0120], scene corresponding to a type of location, paragraph [0081], “determining and identifying a scene or object for a particular image. In the example shown in FIG. 3D, audio analyzer may have determined the scene (or current location of device 102 if processing is being conducted in real-time) was seashore based on a capture image (e.g., a beach), currently recorded sound (e.g., waves), or both”); selecting, with the at least one processor, a rendering scheme based on the event type and a speaker layout (paragraphs [0045]-[0046], and [0048], rendering according to speakers available); and rendering, with the at least one processor, a multichannel output audio signal using the selected rendering scheme (paragraphs [0045]-[0046] and [0048]). Regarding claim 2, Kim discloses wherein the event type is determined for each target sound event of the multichannel input audio signal by event classification (paragraphs [0055], [0063], [0065], [0066], and [0072], particular direction, location, angle, left, right, center, wind, waves, paragraph [0081], “scene or object detection”, detects a seashore, beach, ocean waves are not considered noise and are thus not suppressed, paragraph [0084], scene detection based on location, modes of travel, road, railway, or air-travel filter, address, city, city and state, country, or any other identifying information). Regarding claim 3, Kim discloses wherein the event classification is steered by context information (location type, modes of travel, amount of in-use microphones and in-use audio output devices, paragraphs [0055], [0063], [0065], [0066], [0072], [0081], and [0084]). Regarding claim 4, Kim discloses wherein the context information is generated from a context analysis of at least one of input audio, input video or sensor input (paragraph [0044], audio analyzer, paragraphs [0081]-[0082], “scene or object detection”, analyzing the captured image and determining scene based on captured image, paragraph [0083], analyzing an image, GPS position/location for performing scene detection, paragraph [0120], image based scene detection). Regarding claim 6, Kim discloses wherein, for each target sound event (paragraphs [0065]-[0067], [0085]-[0086], speech, voice, wanted sound, speech of particular speaker, commentator's voice), the sound event type (paragraph [0021], record center audio channel, left audio channel, paragraph [0036], encoding multi- microphone signal into 5.1, 7.1 surround, DTS, wavefield synthesis) indicates one of a center rendering event, surround rendering event or height rendering event, (paragraph [0046], five-microphone array being used with a five-speaker surround set-up, paragraph [0063]), wherein for the center rendering event, the rendering is distributed across the speaker layout to create a center channel position in the sound field for the target sound event (center microphone audio signal rendered by center speaker), and for the surround rendering event (rear microphone signals rendered by rear speakers), the rendering is distributed across the speaker layout to provide a wide sound field, and for the height rendering event, the rendering is distributed across the speaker layout to emphasize enhanced height effects (paragraph [0036], Dolby Pro-Logic includes Dolby Pro-Logic IIz, a 9.1 surround sound format which includes elevated channels, paragraph [0063], 22.2 speaker layout). Regarding claim 7, Kim discloses wherein the speaker layout includes three speakers including left and right speakers (e.g. 5.1, 7.1 surround, Dolby Pro-Logic) and a top speaker (paragraph [0036], Dolby Pro-Logic includes Dolby Pro-Logic IIz, a 9.1 surround sound format which includes elevated channels, paragraph [0063], 22.2 speaker layout), and wherein the rendering is distributed across the left and right speakers to provide a wide sound field and distributed to the top speaker to emphasize enhanced height effects (paragraph [0063], 22.2 speaker layout includes elevated speakers, paragraph [0036], Dolby Pro-Logic IIz). Regarding claim 8, Kim discloses wherein the speaker layout includes four speakers including top left and top right speakers and bottom left and bottom right speakers (paragraph [0063], 22.1 speaker layout includes said speakers), wherein for the center rendering event, the rendering is distributed across all four speakers (paragraph [0063], 22.1 speaker layout includes said speakers, required distribution for sound to be in center), for the surround rendering event, the rendering is distributed across the bottom left and right speakers to provide a wide sound field (paragraph [0063], 22.1 speaker layout includes said speakers, required distribution for sound to be in surrounding), and for the height rendering event, the rendering is distributed across the top left and top right speakers to emphasize enhanced height effects (paragraph [0063], 22.1 speaker layout includes said speakers, required distribution for sound to contain height information). Regarding claim 9, Kim discloses wherein the sound event type is determined during capture of the multichannel input audio signal, and stored as metadata for rendering scheme selection in subsequent rendering (paragraphs [0007] and [0040], "may visualize audio information relating to the recordation of audio on a display", paragraph [0109], "audio analyzer 114 may store audio signals 110 in the GUI data 150 or information associated with or otherwise corresponding to the audio signals 110 in the GUI data 150"). Regarding claim 12, Kim discloses wherein rendering the multichannel output audio signal includes applying a mix ratio to the target sound events and the environment noise based on the event type (paragraphs [0064]-[0065], [0072], and [0074], user selectable/modifiable amount of noise suppression). Claims 14 and 15 are rejected in an analogous manner to claim 1 given the memory 109 of figure 1 of Kim . Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 103 07-20-aia AIA 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. 07-21-aia AIA Claim (s) 5 and 11 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Kim et al. (US 20160004405 A1) . Regarding claim 5, Kim discloses wherein the context information is determined as an indoor context or an outdoor context (paragraph [0072], outdoor conference, paragraph [0082], seashore, indoor setting, paragraph [0084], in a car, train, airplane). Although Kim does not expressly disclose using a machine learning model, the examiner takes official notice that using machine learning models to determine data was well known in the art. Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art to further comprise a machine learning model in the system of Kim for the benefit of intelligently determining the context information. Regarding claim 11, Kim discloses further comprising: applying general processing to the rendered multichannel output audio signal (paragraphs [0112] to [0115]). Although Kim does not expressly disclose equalization or dynamic range control (also known as compression), the examiner takes official notice that general audio processing including equalization and compression was well known in the art. Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art to further comprise applying at least one of equalization or dynamic range control to the rendered multichannel output audio signal in the system of Kim for the benefit of allowing for enhanced frequency curves and better volume levels based on user preference . 07-21-aia AIA Claim (s) 13 is rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Kim et al. (US 20160004405 A1) in view of Tang et al. (US 20210058704 A1) . Regarding claim 13, Kim does not expressly disclose a foldable screen. Tang discloses multichannel input audio signal (paragraphs [0046], [0050], and [0054]) rendered by a mobile device (mobile terminal, figures 2-5, paragraph [0052]) that includes a folding screen (201 and 202), and a method further comprises: determining, with the at least one processor, whether the screen is folded or unfolded (step 102 of figure 1, paragraph [0042]); and in accordance with the determining, selecting a first speaker layout for rendering if the screen is folded and a second speaker layout if the screen is unfolded, where the first speaker layout is different than the second speaker layout (step 103 of figure 1, also see figures 7 and 2-5, paragraph [0042]). It would have been obvious to a person of ordinary skill in the art to use the foldable screen and speaker layouts of Tang in the system of Kim for the benefit of intelligently providing sound on a more portable foldable screen. Therefore, it would have been obvious to combine Tang with Kim, for the benefits above, to obtain the invention as specified in claim 13. Allowable Subject Matter Claim 10 would be allowable if rewritten to overcome the claim objections set forth in this Office action and to include all of the limitations of the base claim and any intervening claims. Conclusion Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to DOUGLAS JOHN SUTHERS whose telephone number is (571)272-0563. The examiner can normally be reached M-F, 8 am -5 pm. Examiner interviews are available via telephone, in-person, and video conferencing using a USPTO supplied web-based collaboration tool. To schedule an interview, applicant is encouraged to use the USPTO Automated Interview Request (AIR) at http://www.uspto.gov/interviewpractice. If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner’s supervisor, Vivian Chin can be reached at 571-272-7848. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300. Information regarding the status of published or unpublished applications may be obtained from Patent Center. Unpublished application information in Patent Center is available to registered users. To file and manage patent submissions in Patent Center, visit: https://patentcenter.uspto.gov. Visit https://www.uspto.gov/patents/apply/patent-center for more information about Patent Center and https://www.uspto.gov/patents/docx for information about filing in DOCX format. For additional questions, contact the Electronic Business Center (EBC) at 866-217-9197 (toll-free). If you would like assistance from a USPTO Customer Service Representative, call 800-786-9199 (IN USA OR CANADA) or 571-272-1000. /DOUGLAS J SUTHERS/ Examiner, Art Unit 2695 /PAUL KIM/ Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2695 Application/Control Number: 18/851,908 Page 2 Art Unit: 2695 Application/Control Number: 18/851,908 Page 3 Art Unit: 2695 Application/Control Number: 18/851,908 Page 4 Art Unit: 2695 Application/Control Number: 18/851,908 Page 5 Art Unit: 2695 Application/Control Number: 18/851,908 Page 6 Art Unit: 2695 Application/Control Number: 18/851,908 Page 7 Art Unit: 2695 Application/Control Number: 18/851,908 Page 8 Art Unit: 2695 Application/Control Number: 18/851,908 Page 9 Art Unit: 2695 Application/Control Number: 18/851,908 Page 10 Art Unit: 2695 Application/Control Number: 18/851,908 Page 11 Art Unit: 2695 Application/Control Number: 18/851,908 Page 12 Art Unit: 2695
Prosecution Insights