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 .
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)(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.
Claim(s) 1-20 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102a1 as being anticipated by Garcia (US 11394356 B1).
As per claims 1,11, Garcia discloses a system and method for processing an audio signal comprising:
one or more algorithms operating on a processor (the following system is digital processor based and requires software and algorithms to enable the cited elements below) and configured to:
generate a block of audio data (fig 2 output of 215),
determine whether a previous block of audio data was processed with clipping active (stage 220, previous via the lookahead delay);
scanning the block of audio data to generate lookahead information if the previous block of audio data was not processed with clipping active (the processing to produce the output 220); and
using adaptive soft clipping if the previous block of audio data was processed with clipping active (the soft clipping adapts based on the output 220, when a peak is detected/when the previous audio was processed with clipping active) (the clipping is performed via the adapted gain applied to 225).
As per claim 2,12, the system of claim 1 wherein using adaptive soft clipping if the previous block of audio data was processed with clipping active comprises using adaptive soft clipping with lookahead (per fig. 2).
As per claim 3,13, the system of claim 1 further comprising applying a same soft clipping to the block of audio data as was applied to the previous block of audio data (via the hold mode in fig. 3, where the gain is held constant over a time period).
As per claims 4,14, the system of claim 1 further comprising applying a same soft clipping to the block of audio data as was applied to the previous block of audio data if it is determined that soft clipping is active (via the hold mode in fig. 3 where the gain is constant over time).
As per claims 5,15, the system of claim 1, further comprising applying hard clipping to the block of audio data (the hold mode where the gain is held constant provides a hard clip relative to the attack and release modes).
As per claims 6,16, the system of claim 1 further comprising applying hard clipping to the block of audio data if it is determined that soft clipping is not active (the indication to implement the hold mode per fig. 3 where the constant gain provides the hard limit).
As per claim 7,17, the system of claim l further comprising determining whether an input signal has dropped below a threshold (since the system is digital every cited signal, including the input signal, is compared to a threshold as part of the normal quantizing inherent to digital processing).
As per claims 8,18, the system of claim I further comprising determining whether an input signal has dropped below a threshold and continuing soft clipping if the input signal has not dropped below the threshold (para. 50, via the block gain value, para 55, the attack mode).
As per claims 9,19, the system of claim I, further comprising determining whether an input signal has dropped below a threshold and continuing hard clipping if the input signal has not dropped below the threshold (para. 50, via the block gain value, para 55, the hold mode).
As per claims 10,20, the system of claim 1 further comprising determining whether an input signal has dropped below a threshold (per para 50) and scanning the block of audio data to generate the lookahead information if the input signal has dropped below the threshold (the lookahead information is generated based on the processing of fig. 2, is based on the input signal and its relationship to the threshold per para 50).
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to ALEXANDER KRZYSTAN whose telephone number is 571-272-7498, and whose email address is alexander.krzystan@uspto.gov
The examiner can usually be reached on m-f 7:30-4:00 est.
If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone or email are unsuccessful, the examiner’s supervisor, Fan Tsang can be reached on (571) 272-7547.
The fax phone numbers for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned are 571-273-8300 for regular communications and 571-273-8300 for After Final communications.
/ALEXANDER KRZYSTAN/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2653
Examiner Alexander Krzystan
June 3, 2026
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