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 .
Allowable Subject Matter
Claim(s) 2-7, 9-11, 15, 17, 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.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 102
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)(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, 14, 18 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102 a (2) as being anticipated by Reynold et al. (US 2025/0294276 A1).
Claim 1, Reynolds disclosed a method of using multiple audio streams to enhance an audio output, comprising: electing, by a plurality of computing devices, one of the plurality of computing devices as a leader device (fig.1 (20); par [86]/the leader may be selected by the computing devices (20)); sending, by a first follower device of the plurality of computing devices, a first audio stream to the leader device (fig.1 (20); par [58-60]); processing, by the leader device, the first audio stream to obtain an output based on the first audio stream ( fig.1 (50); par [69-70]/the audio may be output based on audio stream); sending, by the leader device, the output to a second device (fig.1 (20-20B & 70); par [60]/the leader may send via module (70) the output of the audio stream to another audio module (20)); and playing, by a remote device, an enhanced audio stream based on the output, wherein the enhanced audio stream comprises an echo enhanced audio stream and/or a positionally enhanced audio stream (par [59, 69]/the system may use the processor (50) to implement the coordinate grouping with other device to enhance audio stream).
Claim 14, Reynolds disclose of a computer system configured to enhance an audio output, the computer system comprising: a memory; and at least one processor coupled to the memory and configured, responsive to being elected by a plurality of computing devices as a leader device, to (fig.1 (20); par [86]): receive, from a first follower device of the plurality of computing devices, a first audio stream (fig.1 (20); par [58-60]); process the first audio stream to obtain an output based on the first audio stream, the output specifying an enhanced audio stream playable by a remote device, the enhanced audio stream comprising an echo enhanced audio stream and/or a positionally enhanced audio stream; and send the output to a second device (par [59, 69]/the system may use the processor (50) to implement the coordinate grouping with other device to enhance audio stream according to position).
18. A non-transitory computer readable medium storing executable sequences of instructions to enhance an audio output, the sequences of instructions comprising instructions to: receive an election result indicative of being elected as a leader device of a plurality of computing devices (fig.1 (20); par [86]/the leader may be selected by the computing devices (20));; receive, from a first follower device of the plurality of computing devices, a first audio stream (fig.1 (20); par [58-60]); process the first audio stream to obtain an output based on the first audio stream, the output specifying an enhanced audio stream playable by a remote device, the enhanced audio stream comprising an echo enhanced audio stream and/or a positionally enhanced audio stream ( fig.1 (50); par [59, 69-70]/the audio may be output based on audio stream); and send the output to a second device (par [59, 69]/the system may use the processor (50) to implement the coordinate grouping with other device to enhance audio stream).
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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.
Claim(s) 8, 16, 19 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Reynold et al. (US 2025/0294276 A1) and as evidence by Sha (US 12,272,368 B2).
8. The method of claim 1, but the art never specify as wherein: playing the enhanced audio stream comprises playing the echo enhanced audio stream.
But, the examiner takes official notice the concept having such a certain method as playing the enhanced audio stream comprises playing the echo enhanced audio stream is well known in the art as evidence (Sha-col.5 line 15-30). Thus, one of the ordinary skills in the art could have modified the art by adding such specific aspect in regard to method as playing the enhanced audio stream comprises playing the echo enhanced audio stream so as to remove noise so wanted signal could be easily heard by user.
Although, the combined teaching of Reynold and Sha as a whole as currently presented failed to mentioned of, further disclose of sending the first audio stream comprises sending a live audio stream; but, the examiner take official notice such concept is well known related to sending the first audio stream comprises sending a live audio stream (sha-col.3 line 65-col.4 line 5). Thus, one of the ordinary skills in the art could have modified the prior art by adding such exact specific regarding sending the first audio stream comprises sending a live audio stream so as to allow the user to communicate with one another via microphone signals.
The combined teaching of Reynold and Sha as a whole as currently presented further mentioned of processing the first audio stream comprises canceling echo in the live audio stream to obtain the echo enhanced audio stream; processing the first audio stream to obtain the output comprises processing the first audio stream to obtain the echo enhanced audio stream; and sending the output to the second device comprises sending the output to the remote device (sha-col.5 line 15-30).
The claim (s) 16, 19 which in substance disclose of the same feature to that of claim(s) 8 above has been analyzed and rejected accordingly.
Claim(s) 12-13, 20 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Reynold et al. (US 2025/0294276 A1) and Zhang et al. (US 10,149,056 B1).
12. The method of claim 1, However, Reynold never specify as wherein electing the leader device comprises: obtaining a network accessible by the plurality of computing devices; broadcasting, by a respective device of the plurality of computing devices, a respective resource capacity of the respective device via the network or a wireless signal; and executing a consensus process to elect the leader device based on the respective resource capacity.
But Zhang et al. disclose of a similar method as electing the leader device comprises: obtaining a network accessible by the plurality of computing devices; broadcasting, by a respective device of the plurality of computing devices, a respective resource capacity of the respective device via the network or a wireless signal; and executing a consensus process to elect the leader device based on the respective resource capacity (col.4 line 1-40). Thus, one of the ordinary skills in the art could have modified the prior art by adding such concept related to a method as electing the leader device comprises: obtaining a network accessible by the plurality of computing devices; broadcasting, by a respective device of the plurality of computing devices, a respective resource capacity of the respective device via the network or a wireless signal; and executing a consensus process to elect the leader device based on the respective resource capacity so as to select device with greater quality of for communications for maintaining reliability.
Claim 13, the method of claim 12, but the prior art never specify as wherein the consensus process comprises one or more of a Raft process or a Paxos process.
But, the examiner takes official notice the method of having such consensus process comprises one or more of a Raft process or a Paxos process is well known in the art. thus, one of the ordinary skills in the art could have varied the prior art by adding such Raft process or a Paxos process for achieving same result as designating according to a certain define condition or algorithms.
The claim(s) 20 which in substance disclose of the same feature as that of claim(s) 12 has been analyzed and rejected accordingly.
Conclusion
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to DISLER PAUL whose telephone number is (571)270-1187. The examiner can normally be reached 9:00-6:00 M-F.
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/DISLER PAUL/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2695
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