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 .
Specification
The abstract of the disclosure is objected to because the format is in claim feature legalese. A corrected abstract of the disclosure is required and must be presented on a separate sheet, apart from any other text. See MPEP § 608.01(b).
Claim Objections
Claims 5-10 are objected to because of the following informalities: numerical reference to items listed in the drawings. Please remove the parens reference numbers, from these claims. Appropriate correction is required.
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.
Claim(s) 1-4 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(1) as being anticipated by Ravindran et al (20180286414).
As per claim 1, Ravindran et al (20180286414) teaches a multifunctional compact disc (CD) player interaction method based on artificial intelligence speech control (as ASR of CD/appliances – para 0015, controlling appliances such as a CD player – para 0079), comprising the following steps:
acquiring a speech command from a user (speech command – para 0038), and performing preprocessing and feature extraction on the speech command by means of a voice activity detection (VAD) algorithm (as using VAD to detect speech – para 0050) to obtain a feature vector parameter of the speech command (para 0038 showing derived features, and vector compression of the features – para 0057);
constructing a speech reference model library storing feature vectors of preset action commands of a CD player (as, generating a list of acceptable commands for the appliances – as comparing key phrases with stored key phrases—para 0037, with the identified command for executable instructions for the CD player – para 0079);
performing similarity matching on the feature vector parameter of the speech command and the feature vectors of the preset action commands of the CD player stored in the speech reference model library (as matching the keyphrases to known/stored keyphrases – para 0069; the stored keyphrases are commands for the stored appliances – para 0037, 0079);
and using an action command corresponding to a feature vector with a maximum similarity as a recognition result of the speech command (as determining the best match of the key phrases, and performing the action for the appliance – para 0037, 0038),
and transmitting the obtained recognition result to a control chip of the CD player to control the CD player to implement a corresponding function (as, transmitting the compressed audio features – para 0071, to the companion device – para 0078, which includes a CD player – para 0079; and the CD-Player is defined a having integrated circuits, logic circuit, and microprocessor/microcontroller that also has the key phrase detector, feature extractor, quantizer, etc. – see para 0080)
As per claim 2, Ravindran et al (20180286414) teaches the multifunctional CD player interaction method based on artificial intelligence speech control according to claim 1, wherein the CD player and a specified smart home product are connected to a same router network by means of a wireless gateway (as linked together via a network communication – para 00200; and the CD player uploads a control command to a remote server, and the remote server sends the control command to the specified smart home product (as, the commands are available to all devices on the network – para 0049 – teaching a distributed ASR solution for wearable devices that can be controlled the connectivity channels – para 0049).
As per claim 3, Ravindran et al (20180286414) teaches the multifunctional CD player interaction method based on artificial intelligence speech control according to claim 1, wherein a speech control command is uploaded to a remote server by means of a mobile terminal (as, the audio/speech command features are uploaded to the network – see para 0020, and the remote server sends the speech control command to the CD player to implement a function of the CD player (as the audio compressed command stream is offloaded from the wearable device to the companion device(CD player – para 0051).
As per claim 4, Ravindran et al (20180286414) teaches the multifunctional CD player interaction method based on artificial intelligence speech control according to claim 1, wherein an acoustic signal is converted into an electric signal by means of a mobile terminal (as the speech is converted by the wearable device with microphones – para 0037),
the electric signal is uploaded to a remote server (as the speech is sent via the communication channel for compression/recognition --- para 0038), the remote server sends the electric signal to the CD player, and the CD player amplifies the electric signal and outputs sounds (as, the keyphrase processed audio is share from the server, via the wearable device, to the CD player – see para 0039, with the wearable device transmitting the compressed speech commands to the companion device).
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) 5-10 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Ravindran et al (20180286414) in view of Bareis (5617407).
As per claims 5-10, the vast majority of the claim elements are toward basic functions of CD-players; as can be gleaned from applicants specification, the inventive step of the CD-player technology is to have a speech recognition chip integrated into the CD player. Another feature in the claim, that may be less age-d than a traditional CD player, is the wireless connectivity of the CD player. As noted above in claims 1-4, Ravindran et al (20180286414) teaches Bluetooth wireless communication between the wearable device and the companion device – para 0039; wherein the companion device in Ravindran et al (20180286414) can be a CD player – para 0079. At this juncture, in summary, Ravindran et al (20180286414) teaches the concept of transmitting, wirelessly, compressed audio commands from a wearable device to a CD player, via a network, where it is understood that the CD-Player functions as old and notoriously well known components of CD-Player, at the time of the Ravindran et al (20180286414) disclosure (circa 3/31/2017). (and also noted in applicants specification/drawings, where the inventive step is the integration of a speech recognition chip/module with the CD-player – see applicants spec, para 0017, and Fig 6, subblock 9). What is not necessarily clear, in the Ravindran et al (20180286414) reference, is the format/type of speech command signals that are transmitted to the CD-player. However, Bareis (5617407) teaches a speech recognition processing unit that is integrated into the disc player, and recognizes speech and interprets as a command to play music on the CD – player -- see Bareis (5617407), col. 3 lines 59-64. Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art of integrated CD-players to modify the CD player and transmitted speech recognized commands, as disclosed in Ravindran et al (20180286414), to integrate the speech recognition capability within the CD Player in Bareis (5617407) because it would advantageously improve the efficiency of the user interface for system control (see Bareis (5617407), col. 2 lines 14-26).
At this juncture, the combination of Ravindran et al (20180286414) in view of Bareis (5617407) teaches the concepts of remote server based speech command acquisition and control, with a wireless connection to the CD-player, as well as, speech recognition processing integrated into the CD Player. As to the remaining features found in claims 5-10 the following elements are old and notoriously well know in the design of CD players, that are in claims 5-10:
an upper shell (1), wherein a lower shell (2) is connected to a back side of the upper shell (1), a disc running space (3) is formed on a front side of the upper shell (1), and a detachable cover (4) is connected to an outer side of the disc running space (3); a receiving space (5) is formed in the upper shell (1) and the lower shell (2), and a control assembly (6) and a CD laser head (7) are arranged in the receiving space (5); the control assembly (6) comprises a control chip (8) the CD laser head (7) is electrically connected to the control chip (8), exposed to the disc running space (3) and used for installing a CD; a battery module (10) is arranged in the receiving space (5), and the battery module (10) is electrically connected to the control chip (8) and used for supplying power to the CD player; the control chip (8) comprises a decoding chip (11), a storage chip (12) and a wireless mesh gateway (13); the storage chip (12) is electrically connected to the decoding chip (11) and used for storing data of the CD player; the wireless mesh gateway (13) is in communication connection with the decoding chip (11) by means of a circuit serial port and is used for connecting the CD player to a smart home product as a wireless gateway; an RGB atmosphere lamp (14), and the RGB atmosphere lamp (14) is electrically connected to the control chip (8) and used for indicating an operating mode of the CD player and functions as an audio atmosphere lamp of the CD player; the multifunctional CD player interaction device based amplifier chip (20) is electrically connected to the decoding chip (11) and used for audio power amplification of the CD player; an LCD drive chip (21), and the LCD drive chip (21) is electrically connected to the decoding chip (11) and used for drive control of a touch/LCD screen configured for the CD player; the control chip (8) further comprises an infrared remote control chip (22), and the infrared remote control chip (22) is electrically connected to the decoding chip (11) and used for controlling an infrared remote control unit configured for the CD player; further comprises a key module (23) provided with physical keys exposed to a top of the upper shell (1), and the key module (23) is electrically connected to the control chip (8) and used for key control of the CD player; the multifunctional CD player interaction device based on artificial intelligence speech control further comprises an interface module (15), and the interface module (15) is electrically connected to the control chip (8) and comprises an earphone interface, a USB flash disk interface, a SD card interface and a Type-C charge interface; a desktop stand (24) and a wall-mounted stand (25) are arranged on a back side of the lower shell (2); the multifunctional CD player interaction device based on artificial intelligence speech control further comprises a camera (26), and the camera (26) is connected to the control chip (8) by means of a Wi-Fi module and used for acquiring ambient environmental information of the CD player.
As examples of these old and notoriously well known features of CD Players, examiner points to references such as Volk et al (20050254367), Figures 6,7,8a, 8b (clam shell aspects with mechanical features), Fig. 29A, 29B (toward antenna, and transceiver).
Conclusion
The prior art made of record and not relied upon is considered pertinent to applicant's disclosure. Please see related art listed on the PTO-892 form.
Furthermore, examiner notes the following references found for certain features found in the claims/spec:
As a representation of Home Automation Networks controlling device with distributed speech commands, and using neural networks for improved speech processing:
Li et al (20220028395) teaches a distributed home appliance network, which includes TV, radio, fan, light, CD Player – para 0129, controlled by speech commands – abstract, para 0009, using CTC neural network processing for the speech audio – para 0044
As a representation of a closed audio system with speech control, including a CD-player:
Walker et al (20050107029) para 0019 – speech control of a CD player, DVD player, cassette tape player, etc.
As a representation of speech command systems using VAD, matching scores, machine learning, stored command patterns:
Maeng (20210366473) para 0022, 0066, 0067 teaching master lists of spoken commands for comparison integrated into a machine learning model/technique.
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to Michael Opsasnick, telephone number (571)272-7623, who is available Monday-Friday, 9am-5pm.
If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner's supervisor, Mr. Richemond Dorvil, can be reached at (571)272-7602. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300.
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/Michael N Opsasnick/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2658 05/29/2026
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