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 .
Double Patenting
The nonstatutory double patenting rejection is based on a judicially created doctrine grounded in public policy (a policy reflected in the statute) so as to prevent the unjustified or improper timewise extension of the “right to exclude” granted by a patent and to prevent possible harassment by multiple assignees. A nonstatutory double patenting rejection is appropriate where the conflicting claims are not identical, but at least one examined application claim is not patentably distinct from the reference claim(s) because the examined application claim is either anticipated by, or would have been obvious over, the reference claim(s). See, e.g., In re Berg, 140 F.3d 1428, 46 USPQ2d 1226 (Fed. Cir. 1998); In re Goodman, 11 F.3d 1046, 29 USPQ2d 2010 (Fed. Cir. 1993); In re Longi, 759 F.2d 887, 225 USPQ 645 (Fed. Cir. 1985); In re Van Ornum, 686 F.2d 937, 214 USPQ 761 (CCPA 1982); In re Vogel, 422 F.2d 438, 164 USPQ 619 (CCPA 1970); In re Thorington, 418 F.2d 528, 163 USPQ 644 (CCPA 1969).
A timely filed terminal disclaimer in compliance with 37 CFR 1.321(c) or 1.321(d) may be used to overcome an actual or provisional rejection based on nonstatutory double patenting provided the reference application or patent either is shown to be commonly owned with the examined application, or claims an invention made as a result of activities undertaken within the scope of a joint research agreement. See MPEP § 717.02 for applications subject to examination under the first inventor to file provisions of the AIA as explained in MPEP § 2159. See MPEP § 2146 et seq. for applications not subject to examination under the first inventor to file provisions of the AIA . A terminal disclaimer must be signed in compliance with 37 CFR 1.321(b).
The filing of a terminal disclaimer by itself is not a complete reply to a nonstatutory double patenting (NSDP) rejection. A complete reply requires that the terminal disclaimer be accompanied by a reply requesting reconsideration of the prior Office action. Even where the NSDP rejection is provisional the reply must be complete. See MPEP § 804, subsection I.B.1. For a reply to a non-final Office action, see 37 CFR 1.111(a). For a reply to final Office action, see 37 CFR 1.113(c). A request for reconsideration while not provided for in 37 CFR 1.113(c) may be filed after final for consideration. See MPEP §§ 706.07(e) and 714.13.
The USPTO Internet website contains terminal disclaimer forms which may be used. Please visit www.uspto.gov/patent/patents-forms. The actual filing date of the application in which the form is filed determines what form (e.g., PTO/SB/25, PTO/SB/26, PTO/AIA /25, or PTO/AIA /26) should be used. A web-based eTerminal Disclaimer may be filled out completely online using web-screens. An eTerminal Disclaimer that meets all requirements is auto-processed and approved immediately upon submission. For more information about eTerminal Disclaimers, refer to www.uspto.gov/patents/apply/applying-online/eterminal-disclaimer.
Claims 1, 3, 4 9, 12 and 16 rejected on the ground of nonstatutory double patenting as being unpatentable over claims 1-12 of U.S. Patent No. 12144320. Although the claims at issue are not identical, they are not patentably distinct from each other because of the same inventive entity or name at least one joint inventor in common and the instant application have a similar invention concept with above patent. Both, the instant application and above patent are teaching a concept of synchronizing multiple electronic animal tag readers using a master reader generated cadence signal to coordinate transmit and receive operation. Below is the analysis of what the instant application disclose and the above patent disclose:
The instant application disclose a master reader transmitting a synchronization signal including a cadence signal, a slave reader generating a local cadence signal, comparing the received cadence signal to the local cadence signal and correcting the local cadence signal to match the received cadence.
The above patent disclose a master reader that generates a synchronization signal, encodes the signal into a byte sequence including cadence information, transmit the signal to the slave readers, slave readers receive and decode the signal, synchronize and operate according to a cadence and adjusting a cadence signal generated by a local cadence signal generator.
The only thing different between the instant application and the above patent is the signal is encoded into a byte sequence but they both carry out the same function of synchronizing multiple electronic animal tag readers information using a master reader generated cadence signal to coordinate transmit and receive operation. Therefore, it would be obviously for one of ordinary skill in the art to utilize the above patent to reject the instant application with non-statutory double patenting. Please see the claims mapping in the non-statutory double patenting table below:
Non-Statutory Double Patenting Table:
Instant Application No. 18918206
US Patenting No. 12144320
1. A system for synchronizing a plurality of electronic animal tag readers, the system comprising: a plurality of electronic animal tags; a plurality of electronic animal tag readers; a wireless synchronization signal that includes a cadence signal; wherein at least one of the plurality of electronic animal tag readers is a master reader;
6. A reader system, comprising: a master reader comprising; a synchronisation signal generator to generate a synchronisation signal; a synchronisation signal encoder module configured to encode the synchronisation signal to generate an encoded synchronisation signal;
wherein at least one of the remaining electronic animal tag readers is a slave reader; wherein the slave reader includes a local cadence signal generator; wherein the master reader sends the wireless synchronization signal to the slave reader
and a synchronisation signal transmission module configured to wirelessly transmit the encoded synchronisation signal to one or more slave readers; wherein the master reader is in communication with the one or more slave readers, each slave reader being an electronic animal identification tag reader configured to read an electronic animal identification tag attached to an animal; wherein the encoded synchronisation signal comprises a byte sequence, wherein the byte sequence comprises a sequence for use in identifying the master reader,
and; the local cadence signal generator generates a local cadence signal; the slave reader compares the cadence signal in the wireless synchronization signal to the local cadence signal and corrects the local cadence signal to match the cadence signal in the wireless synchronization signal.
wherein the byte sequence comprises a sequence for use in identifying a start time of a cadence, and/or wherein the byte sequence comprises a cadence sequence for use in determining a ratio between a transmit period and a receive period and/or a period of a cadence.
3. The system of claim 2, wherein the external signal is a Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS) signal.
5. The method of claim 1, wherein the cadence is based on a pulse received from a GNSS receiver.
4. The system of claim 1, wherein the master reader and slave reader use the cadence signal to calculate a transmit period and a receive period.
8. The system of claim 6, wherein the slave reader calculates the transmit period and the receive period based on the cadence; during the transmit period, transmits a signal to the electronic animal identification tag attached to the animal; and during the receive period, monitors for a received signal from the electronic animal identification tag attached to the animal.
1. A system for synchronizing ……… the local cadence signal generator generates a local cadence signal; the slave reader compares the cadence signal in the wireless synchronization signal to the local cadence signal and corrects the local cadence signal to match the cadence signal in the wireless synchronization signal.
9. The system of claim 7, wherein synchronising the cadence comprises adjusting a cadence signal generated by a cadence signal generator.
10. The system of claim 6, where in the encoding further comprises including a checksum or redundancy information to ensure that the encoded synchronisation signal, and the information it contains is correctly received by the one or more slave readers.
9. The system of claim 1, wherein the master reader encodes the wireless synchronisation signal to generate an encoded wireless synchronisation signal before transmitting the encoded wireless synchronization signal; and wherein the slave reader decodes the encoded wireless synchronization signal before comparing it to the local cadence signal.
7. The reader system of claim 6, further comprising: wherein the one or more slave readers comprise: a synchronisation signal receiver module configured to wirelessly receive an encoded synchronisation signal from the master reader; a synchronisation signal decoding module configured to decode the encoded synchronisation signal to obtain a decoded synchronisation signal; and a cadence synchronisation module configured to synchronise a cadence based on the decoded synchronisation signal; wherein the one or more slave readers are configured to read the electronic animal identification tag attached to the animal according to the cadence.
12. A method for synchronizing a plurality of electronic animal tag readers, the method comprising: a plurality of electronic animal tags; a plurality of electronic animal tag readers including at least one master reader and at least one slave reader;
1. A method for reading an electronic tag attached to an animal, comprising: generating a synchronisation signal; encoding the synchronisation signal to generate an encoded synchronisation signal; and wirelessly transmitting the encoded synchronisation signal to one or more slave readers;
wherein the master reader sends a wireless synchronization signal that includes a cadence signal to the slave reader; wherein the slave reader generates a local cadence signal;
wherein the method is performed by a master reader in communication with the one or more slave readers, each slave reader being an electronic animal identification tag reader configured to read an electronic animal identification tag attached to the animal; wherein the byte sequence comprises a sequence for use in identifying the master reader,
and wherein the slave reader compares the cadence signal in the wireless synchronization signal to the local cadence signal and corrects the local cadence signal to match the cadence signal in the wireless synchronization signal.
wherein the byte sequence comprises a sequence for use in identifying a start time of a cadence, and/or wherein the byte sequence comprises a cadence sequence for use in determining a ratio between a transmit period and a receive period and/or a period of a cadence.
16. The method of claim 12, wherein the master reader encodes the wireless synchronisation signal to generate an encoded wireless synchronisation signal before transmitting the encoded wireless synchronization signal; and wherein the slave reader decodes the encoded wireless synchronization signal before comparing it to the local cadence signal.
2. The method of claim 1, further comprising: wirelessly receiving the encoded synchronisation signal from the master reader; decoding the encoded synchronisation signal to obtain a decoded synchronisation signal; synchronising a cadence based on the decoded synchronisation signal; and operating according to the cadence; wherein the method is performed by the one or more slave readers, the one or more slave readers in communication with the master reader, the one or more slave readers being electronic animal identification tag readers configured to read the electronic animal identification tag attached to the animal.
4. The system of claim 1, wherein the master reader and slave reader use the cadence signal to calculate a transmit period and a receive period.
3. The method of claim 2, wherein the method further comprises: calculating the transmit period and the receive period based on the cadence; during the transmit period, transmitting a signal to the electronic animal identification tag attached to the animal; and during the receive period, monitoring for a received signal from the electronic animal identification tag attached to the animal.
1. A system for synchronizing ……… the local cadence signal generator generates a local cadence signal; the slave reader compares the cadence signal in the wireless synchronization signal to the local cadence signal and corrects the local cadence signal to match the cadence signal in the wireless synchronization signal.
4. The method of claim 2, wherein synchronising the cadence comprises adjusting a cadence signal generated by a cadence signal generator.
12. A method for synchronizing a plurality of electronic animal tag readers, the method comprising: a plurality of electronic animal tags; a plurality of electronic animal tag readers including at least one master reader and at least one slave reader; wherein the master reader sends a wireless synchronization signal that includes a cadence signal to the slave reader; wherein the slave reader generates a local cadence signal; and wherein the slave reader compares the cadence signal in the wireless synchronization signal to the local cadence signal and corrects the local cadence signal to match the cadence signal in the wireless synchronization signal.
11. A method, comprising: receiving an encoded reference cadence signal; decoding the encoded reference cadence signal; generating a local cadence signal at a local cadence signal generator, the local cadence signal corresponding to a transmit period in which the signal is transmitted to an electronic animal identification tag and a receive period in which the signal from the electronic animal identification tag is monitored; determining an error between the reference cadence signal and the local cadence signal; and adjusting the local cadence signal generator based on the error to minimize the difference between the reference cadence signal and the local cadence signal; wherein the method is performed by an electronic animal identification tag reader configured to read the electronic animal identification tag attached to the animal; wherein the encoded reference signal comprises a byte sequence, wherein the byte sequence comprises a sequence for use in identifying a master reader, wherein the byte sequence comprises a sequence for use in identifying a start time of the reference cadence, and/or wherein the byte sequence comprises a reference cadence sequence for use in determining a ratio between the transmit period and the receive period and/or a period of the reference cadence.
1. A system for synchronizing a plurality of electronic animal tag readers, the system comprising: a plurality of electronic animal tags; a plurality of electronic animal tag readers; a wireless synchronization signal that includes a cadence signal; wherein at least one of the plurality of electronic animal tag readers is a master reader; wherein at least one of the remaining electronic animal tag readers is a slave reader; wherein the slave reader includes a local cadence signal generator; wherein the master reader sends the wireless synchronization signal to the slave reader and; the local cadence signal generator generates a local cadence signal; the slave reader compares the cadence signal in the wireless synchronization signal to the local cadence signal and corrects the local cadence signal to match the cadence signal in the wireless synchronization signal.
12. An electronic animal identification tag reader system comprising one or more animal identification tag readers comprising; a synchronisation signal receiver module configured to wirelessly receive an encoded synchronisation signal from a master reader; a synchronisation signal decoding module configured to decode the encoded synchronisation signal to obtain a decoded synchronisation signal; and a cadence synchronisation module configured to synchronise a cadence based on the decoded synchronisation signal; wherein the encoded synchronisation signal comprises a byte sequence, wherein the byte sequence comprises a sequence for use in identifying the master reader, wherein the byte sequence comprises a sequence for use in identifying a start time of the cadence, and/or wherein the byte sequence comprises a cadence sequence for use in determining a ratio between a transmit period and a receive period and/or a period of a cadence.
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.
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.
(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.
Claims 1-5, 9, 11-14, 16 and 18 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102 (a)(1) as being anticipated by Bottazzi et al. US 20150200706.
Regarding claim 1, Bottazzi et al. disclose A system for synchronizing a plurality of electronic animal tag readers, the system comprising: a plurality of electronic animal tags; a plurality of electronic animal tag readers; (Bottazzi et al. US 20150200706 abstract; paragraphs [0007]-[0009]; [0012]-[0017]; [0019]-[0026]; [0033]-[0036]; [0039]-[0043]; [0047]-[0054]; [0069]-[0071]; [0080]-[0084]; [0144]-[0155]; [0159]-[0168]; [0191]-[0195]; [0241]-[0246]; figures 1-16)
A locating system, in particular a real-time locating system, tracks and possibly identifies the location of items--such as objects, persons and animals--using tags attached to the items, and devices often called readers that receive wireless signals from these tags to determine their locations, such as for supply chain management, surveillance, resource management etcetera (Bottazzi et al. par. 7). In an aspect the invention relates to a method of operating a real-time UWB locating system comprising a plurality of UWB readers and a plurality of tags, comprising the steps of (Bottazzi et al. par. 47): providing to at least one UWB reader of the system a master UWB reader unique identifier and a quantity representative of the distance between the UWB reader and a master UWB reader (Bottazzi et al. par. 48). As show in the figure 1 included plurality of tags 14 and readers 12.
a wireless synchronization signal that includes a cadence signal; wherein at least one of the plurality of electronic animal tag readers is a master reader; wherein at least one of the remaining electronic animal tag readers is a slave reader;
The coarse synchronisation in step 420 advantageously provides synchronisation at an information packet level, i.e. it avoids offsets larger than one information bit 30, 31. Thus after coarse synchronisation 420, the i-th bit of the packets transmitted by all readers 12 overlap in time at least in part. The coarse synchronisation in step 420 may also occur through a hardware-based solution, i.e. laying a cable that is used to distribute a synchronization signal to all readers: in order to obtain fine synchronisation to the desired clock accuracy of less than about 1 microsecond, the cables should be of exactly the same length to avoid different propagation delays, unless a delay compensation mechanism is used; however this constraint can be relaxed--and the related costs for deployment and maintenance can be substantially lowered--by only looking for a coarse synchronization, as requested by step 420 (Bottazzi et al. par. 154). In fine synchronisation step 430, a slave reader--including a clock relay reader has to adjusts its own local clock in order to synchronize it with the clock of the or its master reader. According to the invention, this is advantageously performed by exploiting the transmission of UWB pulses by the master reader, and even more preferably those UWB pulses that are transmitted as interrogation signal for the tags 14 as described above. A slave reader will indeed receive the UWB pulses transmitted by the remaining readers in the area 16 or in the cell 161, 162 it is part of, and therefore also the UWB pulses transmitted by its master reader. With operations that will be detailed below with reference to FIG. 3, that resemble the operations made to detect the tags, the slave reader 12 is able to ascertain whether a received sequence of pulses is that transmitted by its master reader, based on the master spreading code (Bottazzi et al. par. 161). As disclose in the paragraphs 7 and 71, the tags and reader is communicated in a wireless.
According to the cited passages and figures, examiner interpret a pulse as a cadence signal. Examiner interprets one of the plurality readers 12 is a master reader.
wherein the slave reader includes a local cadence signal generator;
A Clock signal generator module 503, that may include e.g. a quartz oscillator or other ad-hoc device, provides a coarse clock signal 504 (Bottazzi et al. par. 192). Coarse clock signal 504 comprises a continuous sequence of clock pulses or "tics" having a very high frequency--such as 1 GHz used for the timing of the digital circuits comprising the reader 12, apart from what stated below (Bottazzi et al. par. 193). During the normal operation of the real-time locating system 10, synchronism has to be maintained, because the clocks provided by the clock signal generator modules 503 of the various readers 12, and corrected by the clock adjustment module 505, will in almost all practical cases drift in time and/or become offset in time with respect to each other. Thus, fine synchronisation step 430 is continuously executed, as stated above (Bottazzi et al. par. 241).
According to the cited passages and figures, examiner interprets the clock signal as the local cadence signal.
wherein the master reader sends the wireless synchronization signal to the slave reader and; the local cadence signal generator generates a local cadence signal;
In another aspect, the invention relates to a UWB real-time locating system synchronization method comprising the steps of: (Bottazzi et al. par. 39) cyclically transmitting from a master UWB reader a sequence of UWB pulses having a predetermined pulse period and encoding a master UWB reader unique identifier, (Bottazzi et al. par. 40) receiving at a slave UWB reader UWB pulses, (Bottazzi et al. par. 41) providing at the slave UWB reader a reference clock signal that drives the UWB communication activity, the activity being based on a periodic transmission of a plurality of pulses encoding an information, having a predetermined pulse period (Tp), and, (Bottazzi et al. par. 42).
According to the cited passages and figures, examiner interpret pulses as the cadence signal which is function as timing signal.
the slave reader compares the cadence signal in the wireless synchronization signal to the local cadence signal and corrects the local cadence signal to match the cadence signal in the wireless synchronization signal.
adjusting the reference clock signal at the slave UWB reader until the slave UWB reader receives each UWB pulse of the sequence of UWB pulses having the predetermined pulse period and encoding the master UWB reader unique identifier at an expected time slot within each predetermined pulse period, the expected time slot being related to a distance between the slave UWB reader and a master UWB reader (Bottazzi et al. par. 43). More specifically, in step 410 each reader is told its role selected from (i) master reader and (ii) slave reader and, in a preferred embodiment, also (iii) clock relay reader. A slave reader is a reader that adjusts its own local clock in order to synchronize it with the clock of an elected reader, called master reader herein. A clock relay reader is a reader acting both as a slave with respect to its master, and as a master with respect to other slave or clock relay reader(s). For this reason, any reference to a slave reader hereinbelow should be understood as a reference to a slave reader and/or a clock relay reader in its capacity of being a slave reader, unless otherwise specified. Similarly, any reference to a master reader hereinbelow should be understood as a reference to a master reader and/or a clock relay reader in its capacity of being a master reader, unless otherwise specified (Bottazzi et al. par. 147). During the normal operation of the real-time locating system 10, synchronism has to be maintained, because the clocks provided by the clock signal generator modules 503 of the various readers 12, and corrected by the clock adjustment module 505, will in almost all practical cases drift in time and/or become offset in time with respect to each other. Thus, fine synchronisation step 430 is continuously executed, as stated above (Bottazzi et al. par. 241).
According to the cited passages and figures, examiner interpret there is a comparison between the reference clock signal at the slave UWB reader with the pulse period at the master UWB reader and adjust the reference clock signal at the slave UWB reader to be synchronized with the master UWB reader clock.
Regarding claim 2, Bottazzi et al. disclose The system of claim 1, wherein the wireless synchronization signal is further synchronized to an external signal.
Moreover, in case the real-time locating system 10 is outdoors, the Global Positioning System (GPS), with its accurate GPS time obtained as a side product of self-locating, may be used to obtain coarse synchronization (Bottazzi et al. par. 155).
According to the cited passages and figures, examiner interprets GPS as an external system for provide the external signal.
Regarding claim 3, Bottazzi et al. disclose The system of claim 2, wherein the external signal is a Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS) signal.
Moreover, in case the real-time locating system 10 is outdoors, the Global Positioning System (GPS), with its accurate GPS time obtained as a side product of self-locating, may be used to obtain coarse synchronization (Bottazzi et al. par. 155).
According to the cited passages and figures, examiner interprets GPS as an external system for provide the external signal. Also, GPS is a type of GNSS.
Regarding claim 4, Bottazzi et al. disclose The system of claim 1, wherein the master reader and slave reader use the cadence signal to calculate a transmit period and a receive period.
In another aspect, the invention relates to a UWB real-time locating system synchronization method comprising the steps of: (Bottazzi et al. par. 39) cyclically transmitting from a master UWB reader a sequence of UWB pulses having a predetermined pulse period and encoding a master UWB reader unique identifier, (Bottazzi et al. par. 40) receiving at a slave UWB reader UWB pulses, (Bottazzi et al. par. 41) providing at the slave UWB reader a reference clock signal that drives the UWB communication activity, the activity being based on a periodic transmission of a plurality of pulses encoding an information, having a predetermined pulse period (Tp), and, (Bottazzi et al. par. 42) adjusting the reference clock signal at the slave UWB reader until the slave UWB reader receives each UWB pulse of the sequence of UWB pulses having the predetermined pulse period and encoding the master UWB reader unique identifier at an expected time slot within each predetermined pulse period, the expected time slot being related to a distance between the slave UWB reader and a master UWB reader (Bottazzi et al. par. 43). Stated in general, according to the invention the slave reader will therefore monitor the expected e-th temporal slot with a receiver finger, and decide that the readers are synchronous if the pulse sequence transmitted by its master reader is actually received in the expected time slot e and successfully decoded; otherwise it will adjust its own local clock in order to synchronize it with the clock of its master reader, until the pulse sequence transmitted by its master reader is actually received in the expected e-th temporal slot. In another embodiment, a slave reader 12 decides that synchronization has been achieved if the pulse sequence transmitted by its master is actually received in the expected time slot and if it forms an information (or a part of it) that contains the master's unique identifier in the information packet (Bottazzi et al. par. 164).
According to the cited passages and figures, examiner interprets the pulse sequence with period Tp acts as the cadence signal. Those paragraphs above show the master reader transmitted a sequence pulse have predetermine pulse period and the slave reader received the pulse. Each of the readers (master or slave) having a clock and they also disclose the expected time slots (define as transmitting and receiving window).
Regarding claim 5, Bottazzi et al. disclose The system of claim 1, wherein each reader of the plurality of electronic animal tag readers is associated with a unique location.
Preferably the receiver module is further adapted to check whether the received UWB pulses having the predetermined pulse period encode the UWB reader's own unique identifier and modulated with a unique identifier of a tag (Bottazzi et al. par. 33). As detailed below, in the case of passive and semi-passive tags 14 and CDMA-DS technique, spreading codes are used as unique identifiers, each spreading code being preferably unique to an item of the real-time locating system 10, i.e. each reader 12 and each tag 14 preferably has its own spreading code (Bottazzi et al. par. 84). A synchronization within a comparable order of magnitude, of less than about 1 microsecond, is also looked for in case of active tags 14, to ensure that the measured times at which the "ping" frames autonomously sent by the tags 14 are received by the various readers 12 do not lead to inacceptable location estimation errors (Bottazzi et al. par. 144).
Regarding claim 9, Bottazzi et al. disclose The system of claim 1, wherein the master reader encodes the wireless synchronisation signal to generate an encoded wireless synchronisation signal before transmitting the encoded wireless synchronization signal; and wherein the slave reader decodes the encoded wireless synchronization signal before comparing it to the local cadence signal.
Preferably said unique identifiers are spreading codes and said step of periodically transmitting comprises periodically transmitting a tag interrogation packet from each UWB reader of the system, the tag interrogation packet comprising a plurality of information bits transmitted with an information bit period, each information bit being modulated by a UWB reader's own spreading code into a plurality of chips transmitted with a chip period, each chip being modulated into a predetermined number of pulses transmitted with a pulse period; and said step of checking comprises checking whether the received sequence encodes a master UWB reader spreading code, and in the affirmative case adjusting a clock signal of the receiving UWB reader so that the received sequence is received at an expected time slot within each chip, the expected time slot being related to a distance between the UWB reader and a master UWB reader (Bottazzi et al. par. 52). Stated in general, according to the invention the slave reader will therefore monitor the expected e-th temporal slot with a receiver finger, and decide that the readers are synchronous if the pulse sequence transmitted by its master reader is actually received in the expected time slot e and successfully decoded; otherwise it will adjust its own local clock in order to synchronize it with the clock of its master reader, until the pulse sequence transmitted by its master reader is actually received in the expected e-th temporal slot. In another embodiment, a slave reader 12 decides that synchronization has been achieved if the pulse sequence transmitted by its master is actually received in the expected time slot and if it forms an information (or a part of it) that contains the master's unique identifier in the information packet (Bottazzi et al. par. 164).
Regarding claim 11, Bottazzi et al. disclose The system of claim 1, wherein the system comprises a plurality of systems of slave readers, each system comprising at least one slave reader; and wherein at least one of the plurality of systems of slave readers is synchronized to a different cadence signal than another system of slave readers.
When there is only one master reader, all slave readers directly synchronize their clocks with the clock of the single master reader. When having only one first master reader is not possible or not desired--because as will be better understood below, a slave reader should be preferably in line of sight (LOS) with its master reader--then one or more slave readers having the first master reader in LOS act in turn as masters for one or more other reader(s) not having the first master reader in LOS, i.e. act as clock relay readers. This allows a tree topology or a daisy-chain topology of the UWB locating system 10. (Bottazzi et al. 148). Merely by way of an example, FIG. 10 shows an exemplary real-time UWB locating system 10 wherein reader 121 acts as master reader, readers 122 and 123 act as slave readers, their own master being reader 121; reader 124 acts as a clock relay reader, i.e. is a slave reader with its own master being reader 121, and is in turn a master reader; readers 125, 126, 127, that are not in LOS with reader 121 because of walls 163, 164 and of the presence of reader 124, act as slave readers, their own master being clock relay reader 124. Readers 121-124 may be said to be in or to form a first cell 161, and readers 124-127 may be said to be in or to form a second cell 162. (Bottazzi et al. par. 151).
Regarding claim 12, Bottazzi et al. disclose A method for synchronizing a plurality of electronic animal tag readers, the method comprising: a plurality of electronic animal tags; (Bottazzi et al. US 20150200706 abstract; paragraphs [0007]-[0009]; [0012]-[0017]; [0019]-[0026]; [0033]-[0036]; [0039]-[0043]; [0047]-[0054]; [0069]-[0071]; [0080]-[0084]; [0144]-[0155]; [0159]-[0168]; [0191]-[0195]; [0241]-[0246]; figures 1-16)
A locating system, in particular a real-time locating system, tracks and possibly identifies the location of items--such as objects, persons and animals--using tags attached to the items, and devices often called readers that receive wireless signals from these tags to determine their locations, such as for supply chain management, surveillance, resource management etcetera (Bottazzi et al. par. 7). In an aspect the invention relates to a method of operating a real-time UWB locating system comprising a plurality of UWB readers and a plurality of tags, comprising the steps of (Bottazzi et al. par. 47): providing to at least one UWB reader of the system a master UWB reader unique identifier and a quantity representative of the distance between the UWB reader and a master UWB reader (Bottazzi et al. par. 48). As show in the figure 1 included plurality of tags 14 and readers 12.
a plurality of electronic animal tag readers including at least one master reader and at least one slave reader; wherein the master reader sends a wireless synchronization signal that includes a cadence signal to the slave reader;
The coarse synchronisation in step 420 advantageously provides synchronisation at an information packet level, i.e. it avoids offsets larger than one information bit 30, 31. Thus after coarse synchronisation 420, the i-th bit of the packets transmitted by all readers 12 overlap in time at least in part. The coarse synchronisation in step 420 may also occur through a hardware-based solution, i.e. laying a cable that is used to distribute a synchronization signal to all readers: in order to obtain fine synchronisation to the desired clock accuracy of less than about 1 microsecond, the cables should be of exactly the same length to avoid different propagation delays, unless a delay compensation mechanism is used; however this constraint can be relaxed--and the related costs for deployment and maintenance can be substantially lowered--by only looking for a coarse synchronization, as requested by step 420 (Bottazzi et al. par. 154). In fine synchronisation step 430, a slave reader--including a clock relay reader has to adjusts its own local clock in order to synchronize it with the clock of the or its master reader. According to the invention, this is advantageously performed by exploiting the transmission of UWB pulses by the master reader, and even more preferably those UWB pulses that are transmitted as interrogation signal for the tags 14 as described above. A slave reader will indeed receive the UWB pulses transmitted by the remaining readers in the area 16 or in the cell 161, 162 it is part of, and therefore also the UWB pulses transmitted by its master reader. With operations that will be detailed below with reference to FIG. 3, that resemble the operations made to detect the tags, the slave reader 12 is able to ascertain whether a received sequence of pulses is that transmitted by its master reader, based on the master spreading code (Bottazzi et al. par. 161). As disclose in the paragraphs 7 and 71, the tags and reader is communicated in a wireless.
According to the cited passages and figures, examiner interpret a pulse as a cadence signal. Examiner interprets one of the plurality readers 12 is a master reader.
wherein the slave reader generates a local cadence signal;
A Clock signal generator module 503, that may include e.g. a quartz oscillator or other ad-hoc device, provides a coarse clock signal 504 (Bottazzi et al. par. 192). Coarse clock signal 504 comprises a continuous sequence of clock pulses or "tics" having a very high frequency--such as 1 GHz used for the timing of the digital circuits comprising the reader 12, apart from what stated below (Bottazzi et al. par. 193). During the normal operation of the real-time locating system 10, synchronism has to be maintained, because the clocks provided by the clock signal generator modules 503 of the various readers 12, and corrected by the clock adjustment module 505, will in almost all practical cases drift in time and/or become offset in time with respect to each other. Thus, fine synchronisation step 430 is continuously executed, as stated above (Bottazzi et al. par. 241).
According to the cited passages and figures, examiner interprets the clock signal as the local cadence signal.
and wherein the slave reader compares the cadence signal in the wireless synchronization signal to the local cadence signal and corrects the local cadence signal to match the cadence signal in the wireless synchronization signal.
adjusting the reference clock signal at the slave UWB reader until the slave UWB reader receives each UWB pulse of the sequence of UWB pulses having the predetermined pulse period and encoding the master UWB reader unique identifier at an expected time slot within each predetermined pulse period, the expected time slot being related to a distance between the slave UWB reader and a master UWB reader (Bottazzi et al. par. 43). More specifically, in step 410 each reader is told its role selected from (i) master reader and (ii) slave reader and, in a preferred embodiment, also (iii) clock relay reader. A slave reader is a reader that adjusts its own local clock in order to synchronize it with the clock of an elected reader, called master reader herein. A clock relay reader is a reader acting both as a slave with respect to its master, and as a master with respect to other slave or clock relay reader(s). For this reason, any reference to a slave reader hereinbelow should be understood as a reference to a slave reader and/or a clock relay reader in its capacity of being a slave reader, unless otherwise specified. Similarly, any reference to a master reader hereinbelow should be understood as a reference to a master reader and/or a clock relay reader in its capacity of being a master reader, unless otherwise specified (Bottazzi et al. par. 147). During the normal operation of the real-time locating system 10, synchronism has to be maintained, because the clocks provided by the clock signal generator modules 503 of the various readers 12, and corrected by the clock adjustment module 505, will in almost all practical cases drift in time and/or become offset in time with respect to each other. Thus, fine synchronisation step 430 is continuously executed, as stated above (Bottazzi et al. par. 241).
According to the cited passages and figures, examiner interpret there is a comparison between the reference clock signal at the slave UWB reader with the pulse period at the master UWB reader and adjust the reference clock signal at the slave UWB reader to be synchronized with the master UWB reader clock.
Regarding claim 13, Bottazzi et al. disclose The method of claim 12, wherein the wireless synchronization signal is further synchronized to an external signal.
Moreover, in case the real-time locating system 10 is outdoors, the Global Positioning System (GPS), with its accurate GPS time obtained as a side product of self-locating, may be used to obtain coarse synchronization (Bottazzi et al. par. 155).
According to the cited passages and figures, examiner interprets GPS as an external system for provide the external signal.
Regarding claim 14, Bottazzi et al. disclose The method of claim 13, wherein the external signal is a Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS) signal.
Moreover, in case the real-time locating system 10 is outdoors, the Global Positioning System (GPS), with its accurate GPS time obtained as a side product of self-locating, may be used to obtain coarse synchronization (Bottazzi et al. par. 155).
According to the cited passages and figures, examiner interprets GPS as an external system for provide the external signal. Also, GPS is a type of GNSS.
Regarding claim 16, Bottazzi et al. disclose The method of claim 12, wherein the master reader encodes the wireless synchronisation signal to generate an encoded wireless synchronisation signal before transmitting the encoded wireless synchronization signal; and wherein the slave reader decodes the encoded wireless synchronization signal before comparing it to the local cadence signal.
Preferably said unique identifiers are spreading codes and said step of periodically transmitting comprises periodically transmitting a tag interrogation packet from each UWB reader of the system, the tag interrogation packet comprising a plurality of information bits transmitted with an information bit period, each information bit being modulated by a UWB reader's own spreading code into a plurality of chips transmitted with a chip period, each chip being modulated into a predetermined number of pulses transmitted with a pulse period; and said step of checking comprises checking whether the received sequence encodes a master UWB reader spreading code, and in the affirmative case adjusting a clock signal of the receiving UWB reader so that the received sequence is received at an expected time slot within each chip, the expected time slot being related to a distance between the UWB reader and a master UWB reader (Bottazzi et al. par. 52). Stated in general, according to the invention the slave reader will therefore monitor the expected e-th temporal slot with a receiver finger, and decide that the readers are synchronous if the pulse sequence transmitted by its master reader is actually received in the expected time slot e and successfully decoded; otherwise it will adjust its own local clock in order to synchronize it with the clock of its master reader, until the pulse sequence transmitted by its master reader is actually received in the expected e-th temporal slot. In another embodiment, a slave reader 12 decides that synchronization has been achieved if the pulse sequence transmitted by its master is actually received in the expected time slot and if it forms an information (or a part of it) that contains the master's unique identifier in the information packet (Bottazzi et al. par. 164).
Regarding claim 18, Bottazzi et al. disclose The method of claim 12, wherein the master reader communicates with a plurality of different systems of slave readers and wherein at least one of the plurality of systems of slave readers is synchronized to a different cadence signal than another system of slave readers.
When there is only one master reader, all slave readers directly synchronize their clocks with the clock of the single master reader. When having only one first master reader is not possible or not desired--because as will be better understood below, a slave reader should be preferably in line of sight (LOS) with its master reader--then one or more slave readers having the first master reader in LOS act in turn as masters for one or more other reader(s) not having the first master reader in LOS, i.e. act as clock relay readers. This allows a tree topology or a daisy-chain topology of the UWB locating system 10. (Bottazzi et al. par. 148). Merely by way of an example, FIG. 10 shows an exemplary real-time UWB locating system 10 wherein reader 121 acts as master reader, readers 122 and 123 act as slave readers, their own master being reader 121; reader 124 acts as a clock relay reader, i.e. is a slave reader with its own master being reader 121, and is in turn a master reader; readers 125, 126, 127, that are not in LOS with reader 121 because of walls 163, 164 and of the presence of reader 124, act as slave readers, their own master being clock relay reader 124. Readers 121-124 may be said to be in or to form a first cell 161, and readers 124-127 may be said to be in or to form a second cell 162. (Bottazzi et al. par. 151).
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 103
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.
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 6 is rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Bottazzi et al. US 20150200706 in view of Loosveld et al. US 20110192356.
Regarding claim 6, Bottazzi et al. teach all the limitation of claim 5.
Bottazzi et al. do not explicitly teach The system of claim 5, wherein the unique location is chosen from a race, a barn, a pen, or an entrance or exit to a race, pen, or barn.
Loosveld et al. teach The system of claim 5, wherein the unique location is chosen from a race, a barn, a pen, or an entrance or exit to a race, pen, or barn. (Loosveld et al. US 20110192356 abstract; paragraphs [0010]-[0020]; [0045]-[0051]; figures 1-4)
In an embodiment of the invention, the measuring device 40 is configured for the more or less continuous measurement of the walking speed of the animal 100. The more or less continuous measurement of the walking speed also comprises the reception of a stream of measurement signals separated by a predefined time window, whereby a stream of speed information is received by the sensor 42 at times discretely separated from one another. An advantage of the more or less continuous measurement of the walking speed of the animal 100 is that sudden speed changes can be detected by the measuring device 40 and the control device 50 can adjust the control of the entrance gate depending on the received speed change. Especially if the assembly 10; 12 is used with livestock, the speed with which an animal 100 moves is relatively unpredictable. Especially if a gate system is used wherein the entrance gate 30, 32 is movable, the animal's experience 100 with the entrance gate 30, 32 may be unpleasant, as a result of which the animal 100, on approaching the entrance gate 30, 32 could suddenly and unpredictably change speed. Through more or less continuous measurement, the control device 50 can anticipate the measured change in the walking speed of the animal 100 and the control device 50 can adjust the control of the entrance gate 30, 32 according to the changed walking speed. The measuring device 40 could also be configured to determine the walking speed of more than one animal 100 more or less simultaneously. In an embodiment of this type, the control device 50 could also use the walking speed differences between the different animals 100 to control the entrance gate 30, 32 (Loosveld et al. par. 51).
Therefore, it would have been obviously to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claim invention to substitute the entrance gate location as taught by Loosveld et al. reference into the system Bottazzi et al. reference and the result of the substitution would be predictable for easily tracking the animal passing through the gate.
Claim 7 is rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Bottazzi et al. US 20150200706 in view of Powell US 20080100447.
Regarding claim 7, Bottazzi et al. teach all the limitation of claim 1.
Bottazzi et al. do not explicitly teach The system of claim 1, wherein the mater reader is selected from among the plurality of electronic animal tag readers based on its location.
Powell teaches The system of claim 1, wherein the mater reader is selected from among the plurality of electronic animal tag readers based on its location. (Powell US 20080100447 abstract; paragraphs [0006]-[0009]; [0043]-[0055]; figures 1-7)
In step 412, the master reader selects for each slave reader under its control a unique frequency of operation from the group of frequencies selected in step 410. In an embodiment, if the master reader is cognizant of the relative location of slave readers, it may select frequencies within the group, based on interference range, so as to further decrease interference between slave readers. For example, if a slave reader is relatively close to another slave reader, the master reader may assign the adjacent readers frequencies that are spaced further apart to minimize interference. In an embodiment, the master reader may also select a frequency of operation for itself from the group of frequencies selected in step 410 (Powell par. 49).
According to the cited passages and figures, examiner interprets the reader is space further from another readers will be assigned as the master reader.
Therefore, it would have been obviously to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claim invention to substitute the master reader location space further from the slave reader as taught by Powell reference into the system Bottazzi et al. reference and the result of the substitution would be predictable for minimize interference.
Claims 10 and 17 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Bottazzi et al. US 20150200706 in view of Berggren et al. US 20100185743.
Regarding claim 10, Bottazzi et al. teach all the limitation of claim 9.
Bottazzi et al. do not explicitly teach The system of claim 9, wherein the encoded wireless synchronization signal is smaller than the wireless synchronization signal.
Berggren et al. teach The system of claim 9, wherein the encoded wireless synchronization signal is smaller than the wireless synchronization signal. (Berggren et al. US 20100185743 abstract; paragraph [0059]; figures 1-2)
As seen from Table 1, the short code distance between two short codes obtained through the encoding method for a frame synchronization signal in this embodiment and corresponding to each cell ID or cell group ID is relatively small (the maximum short code distance in Table 1 is only 7), and for the two short codes in the codeword corresponding to each cell ID or cell group ID, the first short code (S1 in Table 1) is smaller than the second short code (S2 in Table 1). Thus, in this embodiment, the encoding method for a frame synchronization signal can ensure that, each S-SCH corresponding to the cell ID or cell group ID can satisfy the conditions that the first short code in each generated S-SCH codeword is larger than the second short code, or the first short code in each generated S-SCH codeword is smaller than the second short code, and the short code distance thereof is relatively small, thereby enhancing the reliability of the frame synchronization (Berggren et al. par. 59).
Therefore, it would have been obviously to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claim invention to substitute the first code smaller than the second code as taught by Berggren et al. reference into the system Bottazzi et al. reference and the result of the substitution would be predictable for enhance the reliability of the frame synchronization.
Regarding claim 17, the combination of Bottazzi et al. and Berggren et al. disclose The method of claim 16, wherein the encoded wireless synchronization signal is smaller than the wireless synchronization signal. (Berggren et al. US 20100185743 abstract; paragraph [0059]; figures 1-2)
As seen from Table 1, the short code distance between two short codes obtained through the encoding method for a frame synchronization signal in this embodiment and corresponding to each cell ID or cell group ID is relatively small (the maximum short code distance in Table 1 is only 7), and for the two short codes in the codeword corresponding to each cell ID or cell group ID, the first short code (S1 in Table 1) is smaller than the second short code (S2 in Table 1). Thus, in this embodiment, the encoding method for a frame synchronization signal can ensure that, each S-SCH corresponding to the cell ID or cell group ID can satisfy the conditions that the first short code in each generated S-SCH codeword is larger than the second short code, or the first short code in each generated S-SCH codeword is smaller than the second short code, and the short code distance thereof is relatively small, thereby enhancing the reliability of the frame synchronization (Berggren et al. par. 59).
Allowable Subject Matter
Claims 8 and 15 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.
The following is an examiner’s statement of reasons for allowance:
Regarding claim 8, Bottazzi et al. US 20150200706, Loosveld et al. US 20110192356, Powell US 20080100447, Melville et al. US 20140218175, Stewart et al. US 20060279406, Dariania et al. US 20090085738, Lawler, Jr. et al. US 20020031997, Gravelle et al. US 20060006986, Andresky et al. US 20070057057, Hardi et al. US 20130092099, Takano et al. US 20060038659 and Brandao et al. US 20180325382 are the closest art. They are teaching every limitation of claim 8 except this limitation cited “The system of claim 1, wherein the plurality of electronic animal tag readers remain synchronized, in absence of the wireless synchronization signal, based at least in part on the local cadence signals.”.
After update search, there are none of the prior arts of record singularly or combination, teaches or fairly suggest the features present in the claim 8 “The system of claim 1, wherein the plurality of electronic animal tag readers remain synchronized, in absence of the wireless synchronization signal, based at least in part on the local cadence signals.”.
Prior arts of record fail to disclose “The system of claim 1, wherein the plurality of electronic animal tag readers remain synchronized, in absence of the wireless synchronization signal, based at least in part on the local cadence signals.”. However, upon consideration of the claim invention, there is no reasoning to combine the applied references to arrive in the context of the claim invention.
Regarding claim 15, Bottazzi et al. US 20150200706, Loosveld et al. US 20110192356, Powell US 20080100447, Melville et al. US 20140218175, Stewart et al. US 20060279406, Dariania et al. US 20090085738, Lawler, Jr. et al. US 20020031997, Gravelle et al. US 20060006986, Andresky et al. US 20070057057, Hardi et al. US 20130092099, Takano et al. US 20060038659 and Brandao et al. US 20180325382 are the closest art. They are teaching every limitation of claim 15 except this limitation cited “The method of claim 12, wherein the plurality of electronic animal tag readers remain synchronized, in absence of the wireless synchronization signal, based on the local cadence signals”.
After update search, there are none of the prior arts of record singularly or combination, teaches or fairly suggest the features present in the claim 15 “The method of claim 12, wherein the plurality of electronic animal tag readers remain synchronized, in absence of the wireless synchronization signal, based on the local cadence signals”.
Prior arts of record fail to disclose “The method of claim 12, wherein the plurality of electronic animal tag readers remain synchronized, in absence of the wireless synchronization signal, based on the local cadence signals. However, upon consideration of the claim invention, there is no reasoning to combine the applied references to arrive in the context of the claim invention.
Conclusion
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/THANG D TRAN/Examiner, Art Unit 2686
/BRIAN A ZIMMERMAN/Supervisory Patent Examiner, Art Unit 2686
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