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 .
Oath/Declaration
The Oath or Declaration is being considered by examiner and complies with PTO requirements.
Drawings
The drawings were received on 12/14/2024. These drawings are reviewed and accepted by the Examiner.
Information Disclosure Statement
The information disclosure statement (IDS), submitted on 12/14/2024, is in compliance with the provisions of 37 CRR 1.97. Accordingly, the information disclosure statement is being considered by the examiner.
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.
(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 1-2, 17 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(1) as being anticipated by Park, Aaron et al "Turbocharging Ambient Backscatter Communication" cited in the IDS filed 12/14/2024, hereinafter Park.
Regarding claim 1, Park discloses a method of transmitting a data bit by passing or absorbing, by a wireless device, an incoming signal (par. [4.1: "At a high level, the backscattering device encodes a '1' bit by reflecting the incident ambient signals and a '0' bit by absorbing them. ..."), the method comprising: for a data bit value zero, obtaining a first pattern comprising a number of chips having a predefined duration, for a data bit value one, obtaining a second pattern comprising the number of chips having the predefined duration, and either passing or absorbing, during each chip, the incoming signal in accordance with the first pattern or the second pattern (Par. 5.1 : the transmitter could represent a zero bit by the chip sequence '101110111' and a one bit by the chip sequence '111011011'. The 1s and 0s in the above sequences are the chips used by the transmitter to encode the information. ..."), wherein the first pattern and the second pattern are selected to have an equal number of chips during which the incoming signal is absorbed (in the example given the two sequences used to encode the "zero" and "one" information bits have the same number of 0s, i.e. 2).
Regarding claim 2, Park discloses wherein the first pattern and the second pattern are different (Par. 5.1 shows that the first pattern ('111011011) is different from the second pattern ('101110111').
Regarding claim 17, Park discloses a control circuity, wherein the control circuitry is configured for performing the method according to claim 1 (see Figs. 4 and 5 showing hardware performing the required computation using analog components and the decoding operations using analog components; in LEMMA 5.1 illustrates that If the transmitter continuously sends an alternating sequence of zero and one chips and the receiver computes in-phase (I) and quadrature-phase (Q) components over any duration of N chips).
Allowable Subject Matter
Claims 3-10 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.
Claims 11-16, 18 are allowed.
The following is a statement of reasons for the indication of allowable subject matter: none of the prior art discloses or suggests that a method of receiving a data bit transmitted by a wireless device by passing or absorbing an incoming signal, by a receiver device, the method comprising obtaining a third pattern comprising a number of chips having a predefined duration, wherein a chip of the third pattern is zero if corresponding chips of a first pattern associated with a data bit value zero and a second pattern associated with a data bit value one are equal, wherein a chip of the third pattern has a positive sign if a corresponding chip of the first pattern is greater than a corresponding chip of the second pattern, wherein a chip of the third pattern has a negative sign if a corresponding chip of the first pattern is smaller than a corresponding chip of the second pattern, decoding a received pattern representing the data bit based on the third pattern.
Conclusion
The prior art made of record and not relied upon is considered pertinent to applicant's disclosure.
Engelien-Lopes et al (US 2017/0078125) disclose a radio communication.
Elangovan et al (US 2020/0195058) disclose ambient rf backscatter communication for vehicle remote control and sensing.
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to KHAI TRAN whose telephone number is (571)272-3019. The examiner can normally be reached until 4:00PM.
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/KHAI TRAN/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2632
KT
April 17, 2026
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