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 § 112
2. The following is a quotation of 35 U.S.C. 112(b):
(b) CONCLUSION.—The specification shall conclude with one or more claims particularly pointing out and distinctly claiming the subject matter which the inventor or a joint inventor regards as the invention.
The following is a quotation of 35 U.S.C. 112 (pre-AIA ), second paragraph:
The specification shall conclude with one or more claims particularly pointing out and distinctly claiming the subject matter which the applicant regards as his invention.
Claims 1 recites the limitation "the processed HRTF" in line 8. There is insufficient antecedent basis for this limitation in the claim.
Claims 2-23 are rejected for the same reason, due to their dependency.
Claims 26-27 recites the limitation "the processed HRTF" in line 10 and 8, respectively. There is insufficient antecedent basis for this limitation in the claim.
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.
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Claim(s) 1-4, 8-13, 15, 18-19, and 26-27 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Brimijoin et al (US 10932083) in view of Minnaar et al (WO 2021063458).
Consider Claim 1. Brimijoin teaches measuring a HRTF of a subject at a measurement angle (See Fig 1, e.g. 110 user representing subject, 130 representing measurement angle, Brimijoin); processing the HRTF to remove features of the HRTF, comprising removing spectral notches from the HRTF (Col 9. lines 13-16, “The template HRTF generating module 430 removes notches in the generic HRTF”, Brimijoin); and synthesizing the HRTF using the HRTF (col. 2, line 45 to col. 3, line 2, Col 4. lines 65-66, “all transform the audio content as it travels from the source location”, Brimijoin).
Brimijoin does not clearly teach calculating a HRTF timbre of the subject comprising subtracting a baseline HRTF from the processed HRTF, the HRTF timbre comprising one or more subject-specific variations in the HRTF.
Minnaar clearly teaches calculating a HRTF timbre (Page 4, lines 24-29, especially line 25, “The timbre of a sound source has to remain constant…”, Minnar) of the subject comprising subtracting a baseline HRTF from the processed HRTF, the HRTF timbre comprising one or more subject-specific variations in the HRTF (Page 10, lines 6-7, “subtracting the determined optimal filter from the original HRTF data thereby obtaining a remaining HRTF data”, e.g. original HRTF as baseline HRTF, optimal filter as processed filter, Minnar).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to utilize the teachings of Minnar into the teachings of Brimijoin, to continue improvising the implementation of dynamic binaural synthesis systems so that users can enjoy.
Consider Claim 2. Brimijoin further teaches an average processed HRTF at the measurement angle calculated over a plurality of subjects (col. 3, lines 36-61; Col 4. lines 30-31, “a template HRTF is generated from a generic HRTF over a population of users”, Brimijoin).
Consider Claim 3. Brimijoin teaches removing pinnae notches from the HRTF (col. 2, line 45 to col. 3, line 2; Col 4. Lines 42-58, “modified to remove individualized notches in the frequency spectrum”, Brimijoin).
Consider Claim 4. Brimijoin further teaches identifying notch boundaries (Col 3, lines 13-15, “identify parameter values for the one or more notch filters”, Brimijoin); removing samples within the notch boundaries (Col 9. lines 13-14, “HRTF generating module 430 removes notches in the generic HRTF over some or all”, Brimijoin); and re-interpolating the HRTF between the notch boundaries (Col 7, lines 30-33, “a high pass (e.g., describes a high frequency shelf), a low pass (e.g., e.g., describes a low frequency shelf), or some combination thereof”, Brimijoin).
Consider Claim 8. Brimijoin teaches removing phase information to remove interaural time delay (ITD) (Col 4, lines 42-57; col. 5, lines 29-39, Brimijoin).
Consider Claim 9. Brimijoin teaches obtaining an input HRTF; and combining the HRTF timbre with the input HRTF (Col 7, lines 50-52, “modify the template HRTF (e.g., adding one or more notches), thereby generating individualized HRTFs”, e.g. adding one or more notches interpreted as combining an input HRTF with HRTF timbre, Brimijoin).
Consider Claim 10. Brimijoin does not teach teach the input HRTF comprises the baseline HRTF.
Minnaar teaches the input HRTF comprises the baseline HRTF (Page 10, lines 6-7, “subtracting the determined optimal filter from the original HRTF”, e.g. original HRTF interpreted as baseline HRTF, Minnaar).
Consider Claim 11. Brimijoin teaches replacing a timbre component of the input HRTF with the HRTF timbre (Col 4, lines 55-57, “modified to remove individualized notches in the frequency spectrum, particularly those between 5 kHz and 10 kHz”, e,g. remove individualized notches interpreted as replacing timbre components of an input HRTF, Brimijoin).
Consider Claim 12. Brimijoin teaches synthesizing the HRTF using the HRTF timbre comprises adding one or more localization features to the HRTF timbre (Col 7, lines 50-52, “modify the template HRTF (e.g., adding one or more notches), thereby generating individualized HRTFs”, e.g. adding one or more notches interpreted as combining an input HRTF with HRTF timbre, Brimijoin).
Consider Claim 13. Brimijoin teaches calculating a plurality of HRTF timbres from different subjects (Col 17, lines 14-15, “calculates the estimated current position of the headset 805 from the sampled data”, Brimijoin); storing the plurality of HRTF timbres (Col 15, lines 43-43, “store individualized HRTFs for a user.”, Brimijoin); selecting an HRTF timbre from the plurality of HRTF timbres (Col 11, lines 29-30, “to select a template HRTF from a plurality of template HRTFs.”, Brimijoin); and synthesizing an HRTF of a user using the selected HRTF timbre (Col 20, lines 7-9, “generating one or more individualized head-related transfer functions (HRTFs) for the user based”, e.g. generating HRTF for user interpreted as synthesizing HRTF of a user using selected HRTF timbre, Brimijoin).
Consider claim 15. Brimijoin teaches storing the plurality of HRTF timbres in a memory (Col 7, line 25, “The data store 410 stores data for use by the server”, Brimijoin) of a video gaming system (Col 18, lines 2-3, “Examples of applications include: gaming applications”, Brimijoin); and generating binaural audio during gameplay based on the synthesized HRTF of the user (Col 8, lines 30-31, “audio data, or some combination thereof”, Brimijoin).
Consider Claim 18. Brimijoin teaches receiving user physiological data (Col 3, lines 6-7, “ acoustic features data describing features of a head of a user and/or the headset.”, Brimijoin); and selecting the HRTF timbre based at least on the user physiological data (Col 12, lines 5-7, “using the acoustic feature data and select a template HRTF that is associated”, Brimijoin); wherein the physiological data comprises: data encoding measurements of a head size or shape of the user, a shoulder size or shape of the user, a torso size or shape of the user, an ear size or shape of the user, or an image of the ears of the user (Col 13, lines 27-30, “For example, the audio controller 620 may derive the anthropometric features using weighted combinations of photos, video, and anthropometric measurements.”, Brimijoin).
Consider Claim 19. Brimijoin teaches inputting the physiological data into a machine learning model that is trained to map (Col 10, lines 19-21, “The ML model is first trained using data collected from a population of users”, Brimijoin) the input physiological data to one or more of the plurality of HRTF timbres (Col 10, lines 27-30, “The acoustic data may include HRTFs measured using audio measurement apparatus and/or simulated “, Brimijoin).
Consider Claim 26. Brimijoin teaches measuring a HRTF of a subject at a measurement angle (See Fig 1, e.g. 110 user representing subject, 130 representing measurement angle, Brimijoin); processing the HRTF to remove localization perception features of the HRTF, comprising removing spectral notches from the HRTF (Col 9. lines 13-14, “The template HRTF generating module 430 removes notches in the generic HRTF”, Brimijoin); and synthesizing the HRTF using the HRTF (Col 4. lines 65-66, “all transform the audio content as it travels from the source location”, Brimijoin).
Brimijoin does not clearly teach calculating a HRTF timbre of the subject comprising subtracting a baseline HRTF from the processed HRTF, the HRTF timbre comprising one or more subject-specific variations in the HRTF.
Minnar clearly teaches calculating a HRTF timbre (Page 4, lines 24-29, especially line 25, “The timbre of a sound source has to remain constant…”, Minnar) of the subject comprising subtracting a baseline HRTF from the processed HRTF, the HRTF timbre comprising one or more subject-specific variations in the HRTF (Page 10, lines 6-7, “subtracting the determined optimal filter from the original HRTF data thereby obtaining a remaining HRTF data”, e.g. original HRTF as baseline HRTF, optimal filter as processed filter, Minnar).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to utilize the teachings of Minnar into the teachings of Brimijoin, to continue improvising the implementation of dynamic binaural synthesis systems so that users can enjoy.
Consider Claim 27. Brimijoin teaches measuring a HRTF of a subject at a measurement angle (See Fig 1, e.g. 110 user representing subject, 130 representing measurement angle, Brimijoin); processing the HRTF to remove localization perception features of the HRTF, comprising removing spectral notches from the HRTF (Col 9. lines 13-14, “The template HRTF generating module 430 removes notches in the generic HRTF”, Brimijoin); and synthesizing the HRTF using the HRTF (Col 4. lines 65-66, “all transform the audio content as it travels from the source location”, Brimijoin).
Brimijoin does not clearly teach calculating a HRTF timbre of the subject comprising subtracting a baseline HRTF from the processed HRTF, the HRTF timbre comprising one or more subject-specific variations in the HRTF.
Minnar clearly teaches calculating a HRTF timbre (Page 4, lines 24-29, especially line 25, “The timbre of a sound source has to remain constant…”, Minnar) of the subject comprising subtracting a baseline HRTF from the processed HRTF, the HRTF timbre comprising one or more subject-specific variations in the HRTF (Page 10, lines 6-7, “subtracting the determined optimal filter from the original HRTF data thereby obtaining a remaining HRTF data”, e.g. original HRTF as baseline HRTF, optimal filter as processed filter, Minnar).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to utilize the teachings of Minnar into the teachings of Brimijoin, to continue improvising the implementation of dynamic binaural synthesis systems so that users can enjoy.
Claim(s) 7 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Brimijoin et al (US 10932083) in view of Minnaar et al (WO 2021063458) and further in view of Hoffman et al (US 11576005).
Consider Claim 7. Brimijoin and Minnaar do not teach a diffuse field equalized HRTF.
Hoffman teaches a diffuse field equalized HRTF (Col 2. lines 41-42, “These fixed equalization filters include free-field equalizers and diffuse-field equalizers”, e,g, diffuse-field equalizers include HRTF, Hoffman).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to utilize the teachings of Hoffman into the teachings of Brimijoin and Minnaar, to reduce sound coloration caused by rendering of a 3D audio signal.
Claim(s) 14 and 16 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Brimijoin et al (US 10932083) in view of Minnaar et al (WO 2021063458) and further in view of McGrath et al (WO 2006039748 A1).
Consider Claim 14. Brimijoin teaches receiving a user selection (Col 3, line 7-9, “For example, the user may provide images and/or video of their head and/or ears…”, e,g, providing images or videos of head or ears interpreted as a user selection where input device receives images or videos, Brimijoin) of HRTF timbres through a user input device (Col 11, lines 53-54, “flowchart illustrating a process 500 for processing a request for one or more individualized HRTFs for a user”, Brimijoin); and synthesizing an HRTF of the user using the combined HRTF timbre (Col 20, lines 7-9, “generating one or more individualized head-related transfer functions (HRTFs) for the user based”, e.g. generating HRTF for user interpreted as synthesizing HRTF of a user using selected HRTF timbre, Brimijoin).
Brimijoin and Minnaar do not clearly teach combining the [user selection of the HRTFs timbres] using averaging or interpolation to generate a combined HRTF timbre
McGrath clearly teaches combining the [user selection of the HRTFs timbres] using averaging or interpolation to generate a combined HRTF timbre ([0033] “The average of the equalized HRTFs substantially equals a desired HRTF for the listener”, McGrath); and synthesizing an HRTF of the user using the combined HRTF timbre ([0098] “A shuffler that includes an adder 51 and a subtracter 52 produces a first signal which is a sum of the left and right audio input signals”, McGrath).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to utilize the teachings of McGrath into the teachings of Brimijoin and Minnaar, to create a unique listening experience for the user where the sounds of a desired virtual speaker in any location is replicated accurately.
Consider Claim 16. Brimijoin teaches receiving a user selection (Col 3, line 7-9, “For example, the user may provide images and/or video of their head and/or ears…”, e,g, providing images or videos of head or ears interpreted as a user selection where input device receives images or videos, Brimijoin) through a user input device (Col 17, lines 33-34, “The I/O interface 815 may include one or more input devices.”, e.g. population of users interpreted as user selection, e.g. one or more input devices interpreted as a user input device, Brimijoin).
Claim(s) 17 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Brimijoin et al (US 10932083) in view of Minnaar et al (WO 2021063458) and further in view of McGrath et al (WO 2006039748 A1) and further in view of Mahlmeister et al (US 20230068527).
Consider Claim 17. Brimijoin teaches applying the synthesized HRTF to an audio signal to provide a binaural audio output to the user (Col 5, lines 45-47, “In the illustrated example, two notches 350 are added to the HRTF template 230 to form the individualized HRTF”, e.g. See Fig 2 below, Brimijoin)
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; varying the HRTF timbre of the synthesized HRTF to vary the binaural audio output to the user (Col 3, lines 64-67, “The ITD describes the difference in arrival time of a sound between the two ears, and this parameter provides a cue to the angle or direction of the sound source from the head”, Brimijoin);
Brimijoin, Minnaar and McGrath do not teach and selecting a HRTF that is currently being applied when the user selection is received.
Mahlmeister teaches and selecting a HRTF that is currently being applied when the user selection is received ([0172] “FIG. 7L-3 illustrates a process for listener selection of a HRTF profile for use by the user. The technique of FIG. 7L-3 employs a version of A/B testing to allow the user to select an HRTF that sounds best to the listener”, See Fig. 7L-3 below, e.g. A/B testing interpreted as switching between option A or option B in selecting HRTF that is currently being applied, Mahlmeister).
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It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to utilize the teachings of Mahlmeister into the teachings of Brimijoin, Minnar, and McGrath to create a unique listening experience for the user where the sounds of a desired virtual speaker in any location is replicated accurately.
Allowable Subject Matter
Claim 5-6, 20-23 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.
Conclusion
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to VIET NGUYEN whose telephone number is (571)270-0174. The examiner can normally be reached 8am-5pm.
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If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner’s supervisor, Duc Nguyen can be reached at (571) 272-7503. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300.
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/V.N./Examiner, Art Unit 2691
/DUC NGUYEN/Supervisory Patent Examiner, Art Unit 2691
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