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 § 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.
This application currently names joint inventors. In considering patentability of the claims the examiner presumes that the subject matter of the various claims was commonly owned as of the effective filing date of the claimed invention(s) absent any evidence to the contrary. Applicant is advised of the obligation under 37 CFR 1.56 to point out the inventor and effective filing dates of each claim that was not commonly owned as of the effective filing date of the later invention in order for the examiner to consider the applicability of 35 U.S.C. 102(b)(2)(C) for any potential 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(2) prior art against the later invention.
Claim(s) 1-20 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over GUAN et al. (US 20200116373 A1) in view of MONIRABBASI et al. (US 20210280292 A1).
Re claim 1. GUAN discloses a utility sensor module (FIG.1 [0085]), comprising:
one or more sensors [0100-0104]; and
an electronic processor [0085] configured to,
receive a pause mode command ([0150] pause button 2640);
initiate a pause mode timer at a first predefined timer value in response to receiving the pause mode command ([0150] pausing a current selected timer);
change an operating mode to a pause mode (based on pause button selection), wherein operation in the pause mode (2640 is the pause button under the timer mode for pausing the current selected timer; pause button 2640 may be text, image, number, any symbol or combination of symbols that have specific semantics; 2630 may indicate that the current mode is the timer mode) causes the sensor module to not generate an alarm when a parameter sensed by the one or more sensors exceeds ([0105] different sensors may work independently; each sensor's detected and/or monitored data, time of sensing, and communication with other modules of the environment control system may be independent) a predetermined threshold ([0086, 0094, 0101, 0104-0105] sensor may perform detecting and/or monitoring functions only when activated (based on user inputs or pre-set commands… each sensor operates independently… based on time data));
transmit a signal to a utility system ([0102-0104] control module 130 receives user commands or other inputs for environmental control to apply specific mode recognition when a bypass of information is performed by sensing module, while processing module 110 can also receive operation data – when a command 830 is received so that such command can be executed 840 – which includes during a pause command by user) indicating that the operating mode has been changed to the pause mode. [0186-0187]
[0105] One sensor may sense one or more items, and the following examples of sensors may be used. Additionally, multiple sensors may be integrated on the sensing module 120, or the external devices 160. For example, a touch screen may be used to recognize text input and hand gestures, and may verify password information. A camera with a microphone may be used to gather inanimate or animate images and sounds. A system integrating microwave, infrared, and thermal induction technologies, may be used to sense movements of humans, animals, and other objects, and apply related judgments. Alight sensing system may detect and/or monitor sunlight intensity, time, visibility, and on/off conditions of lights. A physical switch may adjust lights by detecting and/or monitoring a user's change to the switch. A device capable of sensing sound and light may be used to detect and/or monitor alarm sounds, notification sounds or light flashes generated by an external device. An image detecting device may be used to detect and/or monitor instruments' readings and operations. A sensor may constantly perform the detecting and/or monitoring functions (such as to detect and/or monitor all day), or may perform the detecting and/or monitoring functions at certain time (such as once every minute, once every two minutes, etc), or may perform the detecting and/or monitoring function only when activated (such as, activated under user inputs or pre-set commands, or activated when environmental data exceed a pre-set threshold, etc.). Different sensors may work independently. For example, each sensor's detected and/or monitored data, time of sensing, and communication with other modules of the environment control system may be independent. The above examples only describe some possible functions of the sensing module, and are by no means limiting.
[0150] FIG. 26 is a diagram of the clock user interface. 2610 is the clock mode selection menu for selecting corresponding clock modes. The selectable clock modes may include, and without limitation to, time display mode, timer mode, alarm clock mode, etc. The clock mode selecting interface may be text, image, number, any symbol or combination of symbols that have specific semantics. 2620 is clock mode indication that indicates the current clock mode. The clock mode indication 2620 may be text, image, number, any symbol or combination of symbols that have specific semantics. 2640 is the pause button under the timer mode for pausing the current selected timer. The pause button 2640 may be text, image, number, any symbol or combination of symbols that have specific semantics. 2630 may indicate that the current mode is the timer mode. The clock icon 2640 may be text, image, number, any symbol or combination of symbols that have specific semantics. When the environment control system is initiated, the sensing module 120 (or a temperature sensor, light sensor, current sensor, touching sensor, motion sensor, image sensor initiates) may detect and/or monitor variables of the surrounding environment, and the sensing module 120 may be responsible for converting variables of the surrounding environment into electronic signals. Storage device 520 or cloud server 540 may store predefined or customized trigger events (for example, events to be reminded in a calendar). After analog signals of surrounding environment variables and/or user commands or other inputs are converted into electrical signals, the control module 130 of the environment control system may apply a specific mode recognition method to the electrical signals to recognize them as one or more modes. The mentioned control module 130 of the environment control system may compare the recognized one or more modes to one or more predefined or customized trigger modes. The comparing behavior is based on a specific algorithm, which may include but is not limited to linear discriminant analysis, quadratic discriminant analysis, maximum entropy classifiers, decision trees, decision tables, kernel estimation, K-nearest neighbor, naive Bayes classifier, neural network, perceptron, support vector machines, gene expression programming, hierarchical clustering, k-means clustering, correlation clustering, kernel principal component analysis, lifting scheme, Bayesian networks, Markov random field, multiple linear principal component analysis, Kalman filter, particle filter, Gaussian process regression, linear regression or expansion, independent component analysis, principal component analysis, conditional random field, hidden Markov model, maximum entropy Markov model, recurrent neural networks, association rules, inductive logic programming, the similarity measure learning, deep neuron networks, problems of deep neuron networks, deep belief networks, convolution neural network, and convolution deep belief network, etc. The specific algorithm may be any one of the algorithms described above or any combination thereof. If one or more modes detected by the control module 130 of the environment control system matches the predefined or customized trigger mode (such as count 3 minutes and 30 seconds), then the timer will be initialized.
However, GUAN fails to explicitly disclose:
determine whether the pause mode timer has expired; and
changing the operating mode to a normal operation mode in response to determining that the pause mode timer has expired.
MONIRABBASI teaches (abstract) in similar field of invention, wherein a determination of a pause mode timer has expired ([0038] a start time and expected duration… expected start time may be calculated by averaging the individual start times for preceding instances of the closed-loop operating mode, and the expected duration may be calculated by averaging the respective durations of preceding instances of the closed-loop operating mode) to thereby change operating mode to a normal operation after a time expiration.
[0068] In the illustrated embodiment, the transition diagnosis process 800 initializes or otherwise begins by obtaining operational information pertaining to one or more prior instances of the operating mode being analyzed and calculates or otherwise determines an expected start time and an expected duration of the next subsequent instance of the operating mode based on the operational information for the prior instances (tasks 802, 804). In this regard, the pump control system 520, 600 may store or otherwise maintain historical information pertaining to the previous operation of the infusion device 502 that characterizes prior instances of the different operating modes supported by the pump control system 520, 600. For example, the pump control system 520 may store or otherwise maintain operational information indicative of the respective start times of prior instances of the closed-loop operating mode along with the respective durations (or stop times) of prior instances of the closed-loop operating mode. Based on this historical operational information maintained for the closed-loop operating mode, the pump control system 520, 600 and/or diagnostics module 612 may determine an expected (or anticipated) start time for a subsequent instance of the closed-loop operating mode along with an expected duration for the subsequent instance of the closed-loop operating mode. For example, the expected start time may be calculated by averaging the individual start times for preceding instances of the closed-loop operating mode, and the expected duration may be calculated by averaging the respective durations of preceding instances of the closed-loop operating mode.
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to try using timer expiration to return a paused mode to a normal operating mode once timer expires as taught by MONIRABBASI for a sensor or sensing module in order to provide a means for sensor to return to a fully operational mode, so that sensor can continue sensing for different parameters as necessary.
Re claim 2. GUAN discloses [0129] the utility sensor module of claim 1, wherein the pause mode command is received from a user communication device.
Re claim 3. GUAN discloses (FIG.26) the utility sensor module of claim 1, wherein the pause mode command is received via a user interface of the sensor module.
Re claim 4. GUAN discloses [0146] the utility sensor module of claim 1, wherein the electronic processor is further configured to:
receive a pause mode cancel command (a cancel button commands a cancel function for a mode); and
change the operating mode to the normal operation mode in response to receiving the pause mode cancel command.
Re claim 5. GUAN discloses [0004, 0150] the utility sensor module of claim 1, wherein the electronic processor is further configured to receive a timer modification command, wherein the timer modification command includes a second predefined timer value.
Re claim 6. GUAN discloses [0087, 0150] the utility sensor module of claim 5, wherein the electronic processor is further configured to adjust the pause mode timer to the second predefined timer value in response to receiving the timer modification command.
Re claim 7. GUAN discloses [0005, 0191] the utility sensor module of claim 1, wherein the one or more sensors include a methane detection sensor.
Re claim 8. GUAN as modified by MONIRABBASI discloses (as applied for claim 1) a method for changing an operational mode of a sensor module, comprising: receiving a pause mode command at the sensor module; initiating a pause mode timer at a first predefined timer value in response to receiving the pause mode command; changing an operating mode to a pause mode, wherein operation in the pause mode causes the sensor module to not generate an alarm when a parameter sensed by one or more sensors of the sensor module exceeds a predetermined threshold; transmitting a signal to a utility system indicating that the operating mode has been changed to the pause mode; determining whether the pause mode timer has expired; and changing the operating mode to a normal operating mode in response to determining that the pause mode timer has expired.
Re claim 9 and 16 rejected as for claim 2.
Re claim 10 and 17 rejected as for claim 3.
Re claim 11 rejected as for claim 4.
Re claim 12 and 18 rejected as for claim 5.
Re claim 13 and 19 rejected as for claim 6.
Re claim 14 rejected as for claim 7.
Re claim 15. GUAN as modified by MONIRABBASI discloses (as for claim 1) a utility monitoring system, comprising:
at least one sensor module, including one or more sensors for sensing aspects of a utility system, and configured to generate an alarm when a parameter sensed by the one or more sensors exceeds a predetermined threshold [0105]; and
a hub device (FIG.4-5), the hub device configured to receive data from the at least one sensor module and including an electronic processor configured to: receive a pause mode command; initiate a pause mode timer at a first predefined timer value in response to receiving the pause mode command; change an operating mode to a pause mode, wherein operation in the pause mode causes the hub device to not transmit alarm data received from the at least one sensor module to a utility system when a parameter sensed by the at least one sensor module exceeds a predetermine threshold; transmit a signal to the utility system indicating that the operating mode has been changed to the pause mode; determine whether the pause mode timer has expired; determine whether a pause mode cancel command was received; and change the operating mode to a normal operation mode in response to determining that one of the pause mode timer has expired, or the pause mode cancel command was received.
Re claim 20. GUAN discloses [0105] the utility monitoring system of claim 15, wherein the electronic processor is further configured to, when operating in the pause mode, transmit an alarm in response to a parameter sensed by the at least one sensor module exceeding a pause mode alarm threshold value, wherein the pause mode alarm threshold is greater than the predetermined threshold. (sensor may be customized to detect and/or monitor at a certain time or only when activated due to environmental data exceeding a pre-set threshold)
Conclusion
The prior art made of record and not relied upon is considered pertinent to applicant's disclosure.
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to CARLOS E GARCIA whose telephone number is (571)270-1354. The examiner can normally be reached M-Th 9-6pm F 9-5pm.
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If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner’s supervisor, Brian Zimmerman can be reached at (571) 272-3059. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300.
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CARLOS E. GARCIA
Primary Examiner
Art Unit 2686
/Carlos Garcia/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2686 2/5/2026