DETAILED ACTION
Notice of Pre-AIA or AIA Status
The present application, filed on or after March 16, 2013, is being examined under the first inventor to file provisions of the AIA .
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 101
35 U.S.C. 101 reads as follows:
Whoever invents or discovers any new and useful process, machine, manufacture, or composition of matter, or any new and useful improvement thereof, may obtain a patent therefor, subject to the conditions and requirements of this title.
Claims 1-20 rejected under 35 U.S.C. 101 because the claimed invention is directed to data manipulation (sorting, transmitting, receiving, structuring) without significantly more. The claim(s) recite(s) multiple data manipulation steps. This judicial exception is not integrated into a practical application because none of the limitations applies the data manipulation towards improvement of the technology. The claim(s) does/do not include additional elements that are sufficient to amount to significantly more than the judicial exception because the limitations such as “apparatus, memory processor” just refer to generic computer and data manipulations performed by the method is simple data manipulations performed on computer by the human.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 112
The following is a quotation of 35 U.S.C. 112(b):
(b) CONCLUSION.—The specification shall conclude with one or more claims particularly pointing out and distinctly claiming the subject matter which the inventor or a joint inventor regards as the invention.
The following is a quotation of 35 U.S.C. 112 (pre-AIA ), second paragraph:
The specification shall conclude with one or more claims particularly pointing out and distinctly claiming the subject matter which the applicant regards as his invention.
Claim 8 rejected under 35 U.S.C. 112(b) or 35 U.S.C. 112 (pre-AIA ), second paragraph, as being indefinite for failing to particularly point out and distinctly claim the subject matter which the inventor or a joint inventor (or for applications subject to pre-AIA 35 U.S.C. 112, the applicant), regards as the invention.
It is unclear “a total power, a total energy, an average power, an average energy, a power variance, or an energy variance” relates to which parameter. Is it “a total power, a total energy, an average power, an average energy, a power variance, or an energy variance” of received signal, transmitted signal or peak. Also, total power over which period of time?
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 102
The following is a quotation of the appropriate paragraphs of 35 U.S.C. 102 that form the basis for the rejections under this section made in this Office action:
A person shall be entitled to a patent unless –
(a)(1) the claimed invention was patented, described in a printed publication, or in public use, on sale, or otherwise available to the public before the effective filing date of the claimed invention.
Claim(s) 1-3, 16-20 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(1) as being anticipated by D1 US 5837899 A.
Regarding claims 1, 17, 18 D1 teaches data compression method
1, 18 A method, comprising:
obtaining, by an apparatus, a first dataset, wherein the first dataset comprises sampled data of a beam signal from a sensed object; and(abstract “ultrasonic testing system can receive data from at least two ultrasonic transducers”)
sending, by the apparatus(abstract “ storing”), a first signal (abstract “a peak amplitude and associated time-of-flight ”),
wherein the first signal carries first target data(“peak amplitude”) and first location data(“associated time of flight”), the first target data(“peak amplitude”) comprises data that is in a second dataset (ultrasonic data set )and that is of a priority that is greater than or equal to a first preset threshold(col 6 lines 25-35),
the first location data(“time of flight”) comprises location information of the first target data in the second dataset, and the second dataset comprises the first dataset or a dataset converted from the first dataset.(abstract)
17. A method, comprising:
obtaining, by an apparatus, a first signal, wherein the first signal (abstract ultrasonic signal)carries first target data(peak amplitude) and first location data(peak position or time of flight); and
reconstructing, by the apparatus, a first dataset(abstract, dataset which is amplitude and associated time of flight) based on the first target data(“amplitude”) and the first location data(“time of flight”),
wherein the first target data(“amplitude” in signal) comprises data that is in a second dataset(ultrasonic data) and that is of a priority that is greater than or equal to a first preset threshold(col 6 lines 25-35),
the first location data comprises location information(“time of flight”) of the first target data in the second dataset(tof corresponding to the signals with amplitude higher than threshold),
the second dataset comprises the first dataset or a dataset converted from the first dataset, and the first dataset comprises sampled data of a beam signal from a sensed object.(second data set is the same ultrasonic data or all the peaks above threshold or compressed data according to col 4)
2, 19. The method according to claim 1, wherein the priority of the data comprised in the first target data is determined based on a preset parameter.(col 4 lines 52-60 highest amplitude + above threshold{predefined parameter})
3, 20. The method according to claim 2, wherein the preset parameter comprises a power threshold, an energy threshold, a quantity threshold, or a data type.(abstract amplitude threshold is power threshold)
16. The method according to claim 1, wherein the beam signal of the sensed object is reflected by the sensed object.(implicit abstract)
.
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.
Claim(s) 6, 7 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over D1.
Regarding claims 6 and 7 D1 explicitly teaches choosing peaks above threshold and within interval(boundary)(abstract)(col 9 lines 20-24) and storing plurality of the peak information which are above threshold(col 8 lines 37-65)
but does not teach
6. The method according to claim 1, wherein the first location data(stored location data) comprises boundary information of a region in which the first target data is located in the second dataset.
7. The method according to claim 6, wherein the boundary information of the region in which the first target data is located comprises boundary information of a plurality of regions.
Although D1 does not say storing interval data with time of flight information It would be obvious to one of ordinary skills in the art at the time of the filing to modify invention by D1 to store interval data with time of flight information in order identify which TOF+Amplitute correspond to which interval of data and therefore be capable of tracking the object throughout the time.
Claim(s) 8 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over D1 in view of D2 US 20030156054 A1.
Regarding claim 8 D1 teaches first signal includes the amplitude (which is analogous to the power or energy)
But does not teach
8. The method according to claim 1, wherein the first signal further carries a target value of the second dataset, and the target value comprises a total power, a total energy, an average power, an average energy, a power variance, or an energy variance.
D2 teaches calculating additional parameters such as power spectrum[0049] of different points for compression [0065]
It would be obvious to one of ordinary skills in the art at the time of the filing to modify invention by D1 with invention by D2 in order perform further analysis and extraction of the timing information.
Claim(s) 4, 5 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over D1 (and evidenced by WO 2021242065).
Regarding claim 4 D1 teaches
the first target data and first location data
Although D1 does not explicitly teach
compressed first location data, and the compressed first location data is obtained by compressing the first location data based on a tree data structure (It would be obvious modification to compress the data, see for example WO 2021242065 A1).
5. The method according to claim 4, wherein the tree data structure comprises a quad tree or a combination of the quad tree and a binary tree.(using quad tree or binary tree compression is well known, see for example WO 2021242065 A1 )
It would be obvious to one of ordinary skills in the art at the time of the filing to modify invention by D1 in order to save memory which is allocated for first signal.
Claim(s) 9, 10, 11 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over D1 in view of D3 US 20210055116 A1.
Regarding claim 9 D1 does not teach but D3 teaches
receiving, by the apparatus, first resource indication information, wherein the first resource indication information indicates a first time-frequency resource; and sending, by the apparatus, the first signal comprises: sending, by the apparatus, the first signal on the first time-frequency resource.[0242]
It would be obvious to one of ordinary skills in the art at the time of the filing to modify invention by D1 with invention by D3 in order to perform scheduled transmission of the specific information[0239-0246].
Although D1 does not explicitly teach
10. The method according to claim 9, wherein an amount of data carried on the first time-frequency resource is less than a sum of a data amount of second target data and a data amount of second location data, wherein the second target data comprises all data that is in the second dataset and that is of a priority that is greater than or equal to the first preset threshold, the second location data comprises location information of the second target data in the second dataset, the first target data and the first location data are determined based on a priority order and the first time-frequency resource, the second target data comprises the first target data, and the second location data comprises the first location data.
11. The method according to claim 10, the method further comprising: sending, by the apparatus, first indication information, wherein the first indication information indicates that data transmission is not completed; or sending, by the apparatus, second indication information, wherein the second indication information indicates that the data transmission is completed.
Subject matter of claim 10 is just simple design choice of data configuration while claim 11 is obvious modification well known in the data communication and refers to adding preamble and end of the data pointers to the string in order to be able to provide feedback regarding whether the data have been lost during the transmission or not.
It would be obvious to one of ordinary skills in the art at the time of the filing to modify invention by D1 in order to provide desired data structure and add indicators at the beginning and end of the transmission in order to provide feedback regarding the lost data packages.
Claim(s) 12, 13 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over D1 in view of D3 US 20210055116 A1 further in view of Gunnam US 20190179018 A1.
Regarding claims 12, 13 D1 teaches
Identifying peaks according to threshold(priority) and transmitting them
D3 teaches providing resources for different transmissions
And transmitting preamble with communication[0240] which would indicate that the data string comprises of the preamble+data and hence it is obvious that in such situation “an amount of data carried on the first time-frequency resource is greater than a sum of a data amount of the first target data and a data amount of the first location data” will satisfy as “first time-frequency resource” will have additional preamble to the transferred data
But does not teach while Gunnam teaches
Identifying , a third signal on the first time-frequency resource, wherein the third signal carries third target data and third location data, the third target data comprises data that is in the second dataset and that is of a priority that is less than the first preset threshold and is greater than or equal to a second preset threshold, the third location data comprises location information of the third target data in the second dataset, and the second preset threshold is less than the first preset threshold. (fig. 9 identification of multiple peaks [068-070] identifying highest peak removing it from spectra, then identifying next peak ….)
13. identifying, by the apparatus, a fourth signal on the second time-frequency resource, wherein the fourth signal carries fourth target data and fourth location data, the fourth target data is data that is in the second dataset and that is of a priority that is less than the first preset threshold and is greater than or equal to a second preset threshold, the fourth location data comprises location information of the fourth target data in the second dataset, and the second preset threshold is less than the first preset threshold. (fig. 9 identification of multiple peaks [068-070] identifying highest peak removing it from spectra, then identifying next peak ….)
It would be obvious to one of ordinary skills in the art at the time of the filing to modify invention by D1 with invention by D3 in order provide scheduled transmission to different peaks and further modify using Gunnam in order to identify different peaks according to the intensity and send them towards the other station or recording.
Claim(s) 14, 15 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over D1 in view of Gunnam US 20190179018 A1.
Regarding claims 14, 15 D1 does not teach while Gunnam teaches
14. The method according to claim 2, the method further comprising:
receiving, by the apparatus, information about the preset parameter (Gunnam[0050](receiving the pre-set threshold)); and
sending, by the apparatus, an amount of data of each priority in the second dataset.[0052] [0066-70](identifying plurality of peaks)[0085-0087](storing all the peaks from largest peak to lowest peak)
Regarding claim 15 D1 teaches storing peak information but does not teach
15. The method according to claim 2, the method further comprising:
sending, by the apparatus, information about the preset parameter, a quantity of priorities in the second dataset, and an amount of data of each priority in the second dataset.
Gunnam teaches
Setting pre-set threshold and obtaining number of the peaks in the spectrum above pre-set threshold(claim 2)
a quantity of priorities in the second dataset(claim 2 number of peaks),
storing an amount of data of each priority in the second dataset.[0066-070] [0085-0087]
Although D1 or Gunnam do not teach storing/sending pre-set threshold and number of detected peaks It would be obvious to one of ordinary skills in the art at the time of the filing to modify invention by D1 with invention by Gunnam in order store multiple peaks and also store pre-set threshold and number of peaks in order to associate the data amount with cut on threshold and number of identified peaks.
Conclusion
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to HELENA H SERAYDARYAN whose telephone number is (571)270-0706. The examiner can normally be reached M-T 7:30 AM - 5:00 AM.
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/HELENA H SERAYDARYAN/Examiner, Art Unit 3648
/TIMOTHY A BRAINARD/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 3648
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