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 Objections
Claims 1, 4, 6, 8, 10, and 15 are objected to because of the following informalities:
Claim 1 line 6 should be amended to read, “[…] where the instructions, when executed by the one or more processors […]”.
Claim 4 lines 5-7 should be amended to read, “[…] sequentially broadcast two or more request messages comprising an address sequentially selected from the two or more addresses included in the broadcast group at a specified broadcast time point in the transmission time.”
Claim 6 lines 1-2 should be amended to read, “The electronic device of claim 1, wherein the instruction cause the electronic device to, in a case that the at least one external electronic device reallocates […]”.
Claim 8 lines 9-10 should be amended to read, “[…] wherein the address allocated to the at least one external electronic device corresponds to the address included in the ranging request message.”
Claim 10 lines 1-2 should be amended to read, “The method of claim 9, wherein the informing of the dangerous situation, based on the identified degree of risk, comprises: […]”.
Claim 15 lines 12-13 should be amended to read, “[…] wherein the address allocated to the at least one external electronic device corresponds to the address included in the ranging request message.”
Appropriate correction is required.
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.
Claims 1, 6, 8, and 15 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Gupta et al. (US 10856160 B1), hereinafter Gupta, in view of Hahn et al. (US 20100004002 A1), hereinafter Hahn.
Regarding claim 1, Gupta teaches an electronic device comprising:
a communication circuitry (Fig. 3, device 300 contains modules for engaging in communication; see col. 6 line 64 – col. 7 line 2 for evidence that device 300 is representative of device 102),
memory storing instructions (Fig. 3, memory 304), and
one or more processors communicatively coupled to the communication circuitry and the memory (Fig. 3, processing system 302 coupled to memory inside device 300), wherein the instructions, when executed by the one or more processors individually or collectively, cause the electronic device to:
broadcast a ranging request message comprising an address selected from a plurality of addresses configured in a specified broadcast address pool through the communication circuitry using short-range wireless communication (Fig. 5, see steps 510, 512, and 514, where in 514, ranging is performed as in Fig. 2 where computing device 102 sends an FTM/ranging request to wireless device 104, see col. 6 lines 19-23 for evidence that FTM requests are ranging requests; see col. 11 lines 31-47 for further explanation of this ranging procedure; see col. 7 lines 8-14 for evidence that the devices are communicating through Wi-Fi and thus short-range communication; see Iori page 11 lines 11-13 and Hahn para. 25 for further examples of a ranging request containing responder device addresses), and
receive a ranging response message from at least one external electronic device to which an address associated with the least one external electronic device using the specified broadcast address pool is allocated, and wherein the address allocated to the at least one external electronic device corresponds to the address to which the ranging request message was sent (col. 5 lines 59-66, “In 2-sided RTT ranging the computing device 102 initiates the wireless RTT ranging by sending a wireless RTT ranging request to the wireless device 104, and in response the wireless device 104 returns one or more FTM frames that include data [e.g., a timestamp] allowing the computing device 102 to determine when the one or more FTM frames were transmitted by the wireless device 104.”; see col. 11 lines 31-47), but fails to teach
receive a ranging response message from at least one external electronic device to which an address selected by the at least one external electronic device using the specified broadcast address pool is allocated.
However, Hahn teaches
receive a ranging response message from at least one external electronic device to which an address selected by the at least one external electronic device using the specified broadcast address pool is allocated (para. 21, “Further still another object of the present invention is to provide a method of updating a temporary identifier for uniquely identifying a mobile station of an idle mode when the mobile station performs location update.”; para. 43, “According to the sixth aspect of the present invention, the serving base station can perform a location update procedure with the mobile station. Namely, the method further comprises the steps of receiving a ranging request message from the mobile station so as to perform a location update procedure with the mobile station, the ranging request message including the temporary identifier; and transmitting a ranging response message to the mobile station, the ranging response message including the temporary identifier. In this case, the temporary identifier is mapped with a media access control [MAC] address of the mobile station.”; Examiner is construing the identifier update of Hahn as constituting selection of an address by an external electronic device, in accordance with para. 67 of the instant application which equates update of an address to selection).
Gupta and Hahn are considered to be analogous to the claimed invention because they are in the same field of electronic device ranging. Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to have modified Gupta with the teachings of Hahn with the motivation that the updating of a responder device’s address reduces the rate of collision.
Regarding claim 6, Gupta in view of Hahn teaches the electronic device of claim 1, but fails to teach
wherein the instructions cause the electronic device to, in a case that the at least one external electronic device reallocates the address periodically or according to event generation, receive information related to address reallocation from the at least one external electronic device.
However, Hahn teaches
wherein the instructions cause the electronic device to, in a case that the at least one external electronic device reallocates the address periodically or according to event generation, receive information related to address reallocation from the at least one external electronic device (see paras. 43 and 83).
Gupta and Hahn are considered to be analogous to the claimed invention because they are in the same field of wireless networking. Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to have modified Gupta with the teachings of Hahn with the motivation of being able to regularly update external electronic device addresses.
Regarding claim 8, Gupta teaches a method of operating an electronic device, the method comprising:
broadcasting a ranging request message comprising an address selected from a plurality of addresses configured in a specified broadcast address pool through communication circuitry of the electronic device using short-range wireless communication (Fig. 5, see steps 510, 512, and 514, where in 514, ranging is performed as in Fig. 2 where computing device 102 sends an FTM/ranging request to wireless device 104, see col. 6 lines 19-23 for evidence that FTM requests are ranging requests; see col. 11 lines 31-47 for further explanation of this ranging procedure; see col. 7 lines 8-14 for evidence that the devices are communicating through Wi-Fi and thus short-range communication; see Iori page 11 lines 11-13 and Hahn para. 25 for further examples of a ranging request containing responder device addresses), and
receiving a ranging response message from at least one external electronic device to which an address associated with the at least one external electronic device using the specified broadcast address pool are allocated, wherein the address allocated to the at least one external electronic device corresponds to the address included in the ranging request message (col. 5 lines 59-66, “In 2-sided RTT ranging the computing device 102 initiates the wireless RTT ranging by sending a wireless RTT ranging request to the wireless device 104, and in response the wireless device 104 returns one or more FTM frames that include data [e.g., a timestamp] allowing the computing device 102 to determine when the one or more FTM frames were transmitted by the wireless device 104.”; see col. 11 lines 31-47), but fails to teach
receiving a ranging response message from at least one external electronic device to which an address selected by the at least one external electronic device using the specified broadcast address pool are allocated.
However, Hahn teaches
receiving a ranging response message from at least one external electronic device to which an address selected by the at least one external electronic device using the specified broadcast address pool are allocated (para. 21, “Further still another object of the present invention is to provide a method of updating a temporary identifier for uniquely identifying a mobile station of an idle mode when the mobile station performs location update.”; para. 43, “According to the sixth aspect of the present invention, the serving base station can perform a location update procedure with the mobile station. Namely, the method further comprises the steps of receiving a ranging request message from the mobile station so as to perform a location update procedure with the mobile station, the ranging request message including the temporary identifier; and transmitting a ranging response message to the mobile station, the ranging response message including the temporary identifier. In this case, the temporary identifier is mapped with a media access control [MAC] address of the mobile station.”; Examiner is construing the identifier update of Hahn as constituting selection of an address by an external electronic device, in accordance with para. 67 of the instant application which equates update of an address to selection).
Gupta and Hahn are considered to be analogous to the claimed invention because they are in the same field of electronic device ranging. Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to have modified Gupta with the teachings of Hahn with the motivation that the updating of a responder device’s address reduces the rate of collision.
Regarding claim 15, Gupta teaches one or more non-transitory computer-readable storage media storing one or more computer programs comprising computer-executable instructions (Fig. 3, processing system 302 coupled to memory inside device 300) that, when executed by one or more processors of an electronic device individually or collectively, cause the electronic device to perform operations, the operations comprising:
broadcasting a ranging request message comprising an address selected from a plurality of addresses configured in a specified broadcast address pool through a communication circuitry of the electronic device using short-range wireless communication (Fig. 5, see steps 510, 512, and 514, where in 514, ranging is performed as in Fig. 2 where computing device 102 sends an FTM/ranging request to wireless device 104, see col. 6 lines 19-23 for evidence that FTM requests are ranging requests; see col. 11 lines 31-47 for further explanation of this ranging procedure; see col. 7 lines 8-14 for evidence that the devices are communicating through Wi-Fi and thus short-range communication; see Iori page 11 lines 11-13 and Hahn para. 25 for further examples of a ranging request containing responder device addresses), and
receiving a ranging response message from at least one external electronic device to which an address associated with the at least one external electronic device using the specified broadcast address pool are allocated, wherein the address allocated to the at least one external electronic device corresponds to the address included in the ranging request message (col. 5 lines 59-66, “In 2-sided RTT ranging the computing device 102 initiates the wireless RTT ranging by sending a wireless RTT ranging request to the wireless device 104, and in response the wireless device 104 returns one or more FTM frames that include data [e.g., a timestamp] allowing the computing device 102 to determine when the one or more FTM frames were transmitted by the wireless device 104.”; see col. 11 lines 31-47), but fails to teach
receiving a ranging response message from at least one external electronic device to which an address selected by the at least one external electronic device using the specified broadcast address pool are allocated (para. 21, “Further still another object of the present invention is to provide a method of updating a temporary identifier for uniquely identifying a mobile station of an idle mode when the mobile station performs location update.”; para. 43, “According to the sixth aspect of the present invention, the serving base station can perform a location update procedure with the mobile station. Namely, the method further comprises the steps of receiving a ranging request message from the mobile station so as to perform a location update procedure with the mobile station, the ranging request message including the temporary identifier; and transmitting a ranging response message to the mobile station, the ranging response message including the temporary identifier. In this case, the temporary identifier is mapped with a media access control [MAC] address of the mobile station.”; Examiner is construing the identifier update of Hahn as constituting selection of an address by an external electronic device, in accordance with para. 67 of the instant application which equates update of an address to selection).
Gupta and Hahn are considered to be analogous to the claimed invention because they are in the same field of electronic device ranging. Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to have modified Gupta with the teachings of Hahn with the motivation that the updating of a responder device’s address reduces the rate of collision.
Claims 2-3, 9-11, and 16 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Gupta in view of Hahn and further in view of Iori et al. (WO 2021229279 A1), hereinafter Iori.
Regarding claims 2, 9, and 16, Gupta in view of Hahn teaches the electronic device of claim 1, method of claim 8, and the one or more non-transitory computer-readable storage media of claim 15, wherein the instructions cause the electronic device to:
measure a distance between the electronic device and the at least one external electronic device, based on the ranging response message (Gupta; see col. 2 lines 37-49), but fails to teach
identify a degree of risk by the at least one external electronic device, based on the measured distance, and
inform of a dangerous situation, based on the identified degree of risk.
However, Iori teaches
identify a degree of risk by the at least one external electronic device, based on the measured distance (page 12 lines 8-13, “According to this embodiment of the system 200, the mobile device 100 [for example, in the role of initiator] is also configured to calculate an index of ‘offensive power’ Ii of another mobile device 100, which sent the blink message during Discovery, based on the movement data in the blink message itself. In particular, the offensive power index is an index that expresses the risk that the distance between two mobile devices will fall below the threshold distance.”), and
inform of a dangerous situation, based on the identified degree of risk (page 6, lines 15-18, “The signaling device 4, operating under the control of the calculation and control module 1, is such as to generate a visual, vibrational and/or audio signal that informs the user that another mobile device 100 of the same type has reached a distance from each other below a certain threshold value.”; Fig. 1, device 0 contains signaling device 4).
Gupta, Hahn, and Iori are considered to be analogous to the claimed invention because they are in the same field of electronic device ranging. Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to have modified Gupta in view of Hahn with the teachings of Iori with the motivation of being able to alert a user to a risk associated with a measured distance.
Regarding claims 3 and 10, Gupta in view of Hahn teaches the electronic device of claim 2 and the method of claim 9, further comprising:
a display electrically connected to the one or more processors, and an audio circuitry electrically connected to the one or more processors (col. 21 lines 26-42, “The device 1000 can also include an audio and/or video processing system 1028 that generates audio data for an audio system 1030 and/or generates display data for a display system 1032. The audio system and/or the display system may include any devices that process, display, and/or otherwise render audio, video, display, and/or image data.”; see col. 19 lines 44-47 for evidence that the device 1000 may be the computing device 102 which operates as initiator), but fails to teach wherein the instructions cause the electronic device to:
control the display to display information for informing of the dangerous situation, based on the identified degree of risk,
control the audio circuitry to output information for informing of the dangerous situation, based on the identified degree of risk, and
periodically broadcast the ranging request message at a specified transmission time, and wherein the short-range wireless communication is ultra-wideband communication.
However, Iori teaches wherein the instructions cause the electronic device to:
control the display to display information for informing of the dangerous situation, based on the identified degree of risk (page 6 lines 15-18, “The signaling device 4, operating under the control of the calculation and control module 1, is such as to generate a visual, vibrational and/ or audio signal that informs the user that another mobile device 100 of the same type has reached a distance from each other below a certain threshold value.”; the use of a visual signal to communicate information to a user indicates the use of a visual indication unit, for example a display screen or indicator lamp[s]),
control the audio circuitry to output information for informing of the dangerous situation, based on the identified degree of risk (page 6 lines 15-18, “The signaling device 4, operating under the control of the calculation and control module 1, is such as to generate a visual, vibrational and/or audio signal that informs the user that another mobile device 100 of the same type has reached a distance from each other below a certain threshold value.”; taking into account the use of an offensive power index as a risk indicator, the reporting of a threshold breach is considered by Examiner to be a maximum degree of risk), and
wherein the short-range wireless communication is ultra-wideband communication (page 14 line 23 - page 15 line 1, “It is possible to visualize the situation from a spatial point of view with reference to Figures 4 and 5, in which the mobile devices 100 are represented by circles. There is a very large area [for example, tens of meters radius] delimited by the coverage range of the UWB radio [coverage area].”), and
Hahn teaches
periodically broadcast the ranging request message at a specified transmission time (para. 83, “The mobile station can periodically perform a location update procedure before an idle mode timer expires. This will be referred to as timer based location update.”; see para. 43 for evidence that the location update procedure involves broadcasting a ranging request message; transmission times are implicitly specified because a periodic transmission is implemented).
Gupta, Hahn, and Iori are considered to be analogous to the claimed invention because they are in the same field of electronic device ranging. Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to have modified Gupta with the teachings of Iori with the motivation of being able to alert a user to a risk associated with a measured distance, and with the teachings of Hahn with the motivation of being able to regularly update responder device distances.
Regarding claim 11, Gupta in view of Hahn teaches the method of claim 8, but Gupta fails to teach
wherein the ranging request message is periodically broadcasted in a specified transmission time, and
wherein the short-range wireless communication is ultra-wideband communication.
However, Hahn teaches
wherein the ranging request message is periodically broadcasted in a specified transmission time (see paras. 43 and 83), and
Iori teaches
wherein the short-range wireless communication is ultra-wideband communication (see page 14 line 23 - page 15 line 1).
Gupta, Hahn, and Iori are considered to be analogous to the claimed invention because they are in the same field of electronic device ranging. Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to have modified Gupta with the teachings of Iori with the motivation that UWB allows for high data rates, and with the teachings of Hahn with the motivation of being able to regularly update responder device distances.
Claim 4 is rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable Gupta in view of Hahn, and further in view of Iori and Tao (WO 2019165899 A1).
Regarding claim 4, Gupta in view of Hahn and further in view of Iori teaches the electronic device of claim 3, but Gupta fails to teach wherein the instructions cause the electronic device to:
set a broadcast group comprising two or more addresses among the plurality of addresses included in the broadcast address pool, and
sequentially broadcast two or more request messages comprising address sequentially selected from the two or more addresses included in the broadcast group at specified broadcast time point in the transmission time.
However, Iori teaches wherein the instructions cause the electronic device to:
set a broadcast group comprising two or more addresses among the plurality of addresses included in the broadcast address pool (page 11 lines 11-13, “Following this transmission, the other mobile devices will add this address to the list of known devices. In this case the list will be only Device 0 for 1, 2, 3, ... ,N and empty for 0.”; page 18 lines 16-19, “In this step 1, Device 0 transmits a poll message that is received by Device 1 -Device 3 devices. The poll message is transmitted in broadcast mode and carries the addresses of the devices involved (poll01, pol02, pol03). This poll message is a message exchange request for distance measurement purposes.”; broadcast group is implicitly defined by the addresses included), and
Tao teaches wherein the instructions cause the electronic device to:
sequentially broadcast two or more request messages sequentially selected from the two or more addresses included in the broadcast group at a specified broadcast time point in the transmission time (paras. 109-111, “Step 203: The server determines the first base station and sends a ranging command request message to the first base station; the ranging command request message includes second identification information for the ranging request radio frame; The server selects one or more first base stations from all base stations in the network. Specifically, the first base station is a base station that can communicate with the terminal, and the terminal is within the coverage area of each first base station. The server can send ranging command request messages to each first base station in a certain time sequence.”; Examiner is construing an implicit computer on which Tao’s server operates as an electronic device), where Iori teaches
request messages each comprising an address (Iori; see page 18 lines 16-19).
Gupta, Hahn, Iori, and Tao are considered to be analogous to the claimed invention because they are in the same field of electronic device ranging. Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to have modified Gupta in view of Hahn with the teachings of Iori with the motivation of performing ranging with multiple responder devices simultaneously, and with the teachings of Tao with the motivation of being able to regularly update relative distance values with priority given to certain devices.
Claims 5 and 12 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Gupta in view of Hahn and further in view of Kim et al. (US 8311011 B2), hereinafter Kim.
Regarding claim 5, Gupta in view of Hahn teaches the electronic device of claim 1, but fails to teach
wherein the instructions cause the electronic device to, in a case that the address included in the ranging request message has a history of previous reception by the at least one external electronic device, identify that the ranging response message is not received from the at least one external electronic device in a next transmission time.
However, Kim teaches
wherein the instructions cause the electronic device to, in a case that the address included in the ranging request message has a history of previous reception by the at least one external electronic device, identify that the ranging response message is not received from the at least one external electronic device in a next transmission time (Fig. 2, ranging request message includes mobile station MAC address, where Examiner is construing the mobile station of Kim as an electronic device as claimed and the base station of Kim as an external electronic device as claimed; see col. 3 line 11 – col. 4 line 12 for evidence of retransmission of ranging requests from the mobile station to the base station, indicating that the mobile station’s MAC address may have been previously received at least once during initial ranging; col. 25 line 33 – col. 26 line 3, “The mobile station which has received the parameters illustrated in Table 7a and Table 7b performs random backoff by applying initial backoff window for initial ranging to the corresponding parameter. If the mobile station fails to receive the ranging response message, the mobile station can increase backoff window increasing according to index based on the related art backoff window parameter for initial ranging illustrated in Table 2.”).
Gupta, Hahn, and Kim are considered to be analogous to the claimed invention because they are in the same field of electronic device ranging. Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to have modified Gupta in view of Hahn with the teachings of Kim with the motivation of being able to identify faulty, out-of-range, or offline external electronic devices.
Regarding claim 12, Gupta in view of Hahn teaches the method of claim 8, but fails to teach
wherein the receiving of the ranging response message from the at least one external electronic device comprises identifying using the specified broadcast address pool that a ranging response message is not received from another external electronic device to which an address that is different from the address included in the ranging request message is allocated.
However, Kim teaches
wherein the receiving of the ranging response message from the at least one external electronic device comprises identifying using the specified broadcast address pool that a ranging response message is not received from another external electronic device (Fig. 2, ranging request message includes mobile station MAC address, where Examiner is construing the mobile station of Kim as an electronic device as claimed and the base station of Kim as an external electronic device as claimed; see col. 3 line 11 – col. 4 line 12 for evidence of retransmission of ranging requests from the mobile station to the base station, indicating that the mobile station’s MAC address may have been previously received at least once during initial ranging; col. 25 line 33 – col. 26 line 3, “The mobile station which has received the parameters illustrated in Table 7a and Table 7b performs random backoff by applying initial backoff window for initial ranging to the corresponding parameter. If the mobile station fails to receive the ranging response message, the mobile station can increase backoff window increasing according to index based on the related art backoff window parameter for initial ranging illustrated in Table 2.”),
of which an allocated address would be different from the address included in the ranging request message when combined with Iori, who teaches broadcasting a ranging response message to multiple electronic devices defined in a broadcast group (Iori; page 18 lines 16-19, “In this step 1, Device 0 transmits a poll message that is received by Device 1 -Device 3 devices. The poll message is transmitted in broadcast mode and carries the addresses of the devices involved (poll01, pol02, pol03). This poll message is a message exchange request for distance measurement purposes.”; broadcast group is implicitly defined by the addresses included).
Gupta, Hahn, and Kim are considered to be analogous to the claimed invention because they are in the same field of electronic device ranging. Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to have modified Gupta in view of Hahn with the teachings of Kim with the motivation of being able to identify faulty, out-of-range, or offline external electronic devices.
Claim 13 is rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Gupta in view of Hahn and further in view of Iori, Tao, and Kim.
Regarding claim 13, Gupta in view of Hahn teaches the method of claim 11, but fails to teach wherein the broadcasting of the ranging request message through the communication circuitry of the electronic device using the short-range wireless communication comprises:
setting a broadcast group comprising two or more addresses among the plurality of addresses included in the broadcast address pool, and
sequentially broadcasting two or more request messages comprising an address sequentially selected from the two or more addresses included in the broadcast group at specified broadcast time points in the transmission time, and
wherein the receiving of the ranging response message from the at least one external electronic device comprises, in case that the addresses included in the ranging request message has a history of previous reception by the at least one external electronic device, identifying that the ranging response message is not received from the at least one external electronic device in a next transmission time.
However, Iori teaches wherein the broadcasting of the ranging request message through the communication circuitry of the electronic device using the short-range wireless communication comprises:
setting a broadcast group comprising two or more addresses among the plurality of addresses included in the broadcast address pool (page 11 lines 11-13, “Following this transmission, the other mobile devices will add this address to the list of known devices. In this case the list will be only Device 0 for 1, 2, 3, ... ,N and empty for 0.”; page 18 lines 16-19, “In this step 1, Device 0 transmits a poll message that is received by Device 1 -Device 3 devices. The poll message is transmitted in broadcast mode and carries the addresses of the devices involved (poll01, pol02, pol03). This poll message is a message exchange request for distance measurement purposes.”; broadcast group is implicitly defined by the addresses included),
Tao teaches
sequentially broadcasting two or more request messages comprising an address sequentially selected from the two or more addresses included in the broadcast group at specified broadcast time points in the transmission time (paras. 109-111, “Step 203: The server determines the first base station and sends a ranging command request message to the first base station; the ranging command request message includes second identification information for the ranging request radio frame; The server selects one or more first base stations from all base stations in the network. Specifically, the first base station is a base station that can communicate with the terminal, and the terminal is within the coverage area of each first base station. The server can send ranging command request messages to each first base station in a certain time sequence.”; Examiner is construing an implicit computer on which Tao’s server operates as an electronic device), where Iori teaches
request messages each comprising an address (Iori; see page 18 lines 16-19), and
Kim teaches
wherein the receiving of the ranging response message from the at least one external electronic device comprises, in case that the addresses included in the ranging request message has a history of previous reception by the at least one external electronic device, identifying that the ranging response message is not received from the at least one external electronic device in a next transmission time (Fig. 2, ranging request message includes mobile station MAC address, where Examiner is construing the mobile station of Kim as an electronic device as claimed and the base station of Kim as an external electronic device as claimed; see col. 3 line 11 – col. 4 line 12 for evidence of retransmission of ranging requests from the mobile station to the base station, indicating that the mobile station’s MAC address may have been previously received at least once during initial ranging; col. 25 line 33 – col. 26 line 3, “The mobile station which has received the parameters illustrated in Table 7a and Table 7b performs random backoff by applying initial backoff window for initial ranging to the corresponding parameter. If the mobile station fails to receive the ranging response message, the mobile station can increase backoff window increasing according to index based on the related art backoff window parameter for initial ranging illustrated in Table 2.”).
Gupta, Hahn, Iori, Tao, and Kim are considered to be analogous to the claimed invention because they are in the same field of electronic device ranging. Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to have modified Gupta in view of Hahn with the teachings of Iori with the motivation of performing ranging with multiple responder devices simultaneously, with the teachings of Tao with the motivation of being able to implement broadcasting priority to certain devices, and with the teachings of Kim with the motivation of being able to identify faulty, out-of-range, or offline external electronic devices.
Allowable Subject Matter
Claims 7 and 14 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 ERIC K HODAC whose telephone number is (571) 270-0123. The examiner can normally be reached M-Th 8-6.
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If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner’s supervisor, VLADIMIR MAGLOIRE can be reached at (571) 270-5144. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300.
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/ERIC K HODAC/Examiner, Art Unit 3648
/OLUMIDE AJIBADE AKONAI/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 3648
Prosecution Insights