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 .
Claims 1 to 20 are presented for examination.
Information Disclosure Statement
The references listed in the information disclosure statement submitted on 10-25-2024 and 10-15-2025 have been considered by the examiner (see attached PTO-1449).
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 to 3, 8 to 11 and 16 to 19 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Park (USPAP 20180350373).
Claims 1 and 17:
Park substantially teaches the claimed invention. Park teaches a method and an apparatus for improving packet loss concealment in wireless audio communication systems, Park teaches that the method comprising: in a Continuously Variable Slope Delta Modulation (CVSD) decoder, receiving audio packets and determining whether the received packet is valid or invalid (see par. 0021 to 0022). Park teaches that the valid encoded bitstreams are saved in a decoder history buffer (see par. 0022).
Park teaches that when it is determined that the received packet is invalid, a determination is made whether the previous packet was invalid as well (see par. 023). Park teaches that packet loss concealment is performed to generate PCM output audio samples for the lost packet (see par. 0023).
Park teaches that CVSD decoding is performed on a predefined bit stream to generate zero input response (ZIR) data to be used by the packet loss concealment algorithm (see par. 0023). Park teaches that the packet loss concealment (PLC) circuit (118), performs packet loss concealment on an invalid audio packet that is encountered in the received sequence (see par. 0027). Park teaches that the PLC history buffer is searched (“comparing”) for a segment of audio that most closely matches the output audio samples (“template-data blocks”) that were generated from the valid packets that immediately precedes the invalid packet (see par. 0028).
Park teaches the decoder state update circuit (116) is configured to update the state of the audio decoder based on state data retrieved from the decoder history buffer. Park teaches that the audio decoder re-decodes the stored encoded bits in the decoder history buffer and decodes the valid audio packets that follows the invalid audio packets (see par. 0029). Park teaches that PLC replacement samples are substituted into the output audio (408) associated with the invalid packets (see par. 0030).
Park fails to specifically teach the claimed limitations of “generating a replacement block based on a first data block following the closest-matching data block; and decoding data, including the valid packets and the replacement block, with a decoder;” however, this teaching is obvious to the teaching of Park, since Park teaches a method and an apparatus for packet loss concealment techniques to reduce audio glitches comprises providing replacement audio samples that approximate the missing audio samples caused by the invalid packet and performing a re-decoding process to update the state of the decoder to the point where the decoder may proceed to decode the valid audio packet that follows the invalid audio packet (see par. 0029). Therefore, it would have been obvious to one having ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify the packet loss concealment technique of Park to include the claimed steps of generating a replacement block and decoding the valid packets and the replacement blocks because Park teaches that it’s known in the art to provide replacement samples to substitute for the missing audio that would otherwise result from the invalid packet and to update the decoder through a re-decoding process to aid in reducing audio glitches. This modification would have been obvious because a person of ordinary skill in the art would have been motivated to employ a packet loss concealment technique reducing audio glitches by utilizing a replacement samples and re-decoding the data as taught by Park (see par. 0051).
As per claims 2 and 18, Park teaches that the replacement samples are substituted for invalid packet read from the history buffer (see par. 0030 et seq.).
As per claim 3, Park teaches a CVSD decoder performs decoding on the packets (see par. 0021). Park teaches that audio encoder and decoder known as a codec is state-based wherein encoding and decoding of each audio bit depends on the value of the previous bits stored in the state data that is maintained on both the encoding and the decoding sides (see par. 0018 et seq.).
As per claim 8, Park teaches that the PCL circuit is configured to search through the PCL history buffer for a segment of audio that most closely matches the output audio samples that were generated from the valid packet and the matching may be based on a suitable metric of similarity such as a comparison of measured pitch periods (see par. 0028). Park teaches that various embodiments may be implemented using hardware elements, software elements or a combination of both such as logic gates (see par. 0054).
As per claim 19, Park teaches that the concealment samples are selected from the subsequent saved audio samples and PCL replacement samples are substituted into the output audio (see par. 0028 and 0030).
Claim 9:
Park substantially teaches the claimed invention. Park teaches a method and an apparatus for improving packet loss concealment in wireless audio communication systems, Park teaches that the apparatus comprising: an audio receiver having a packet loss concealment circuit (118) coupled to a decoder history buffer (404) and a PLC history buffer (406) (see fig. 4 and par. 0024). Park teaches that audio packets are received and a determination is made as to whether the received packets are valid or invalid (see par. 0021 to 0022). Park teaches that the valid encoded bitstreams are saved in decoder history buffer (see par. 0022). Park teaches that when it is determined that the received packet is invalid, a determination is made whether the previous packet was invalid as well (see par. 023). Park teaches that packet loss concealment is performed to generate PCM output audio samples for the lost packet (see par. 0023).
Park teaches that a Continuously Variable Slope Delta Modulation (CVSD) decoder, performs decoding on a predefined bit stream to generate zero input response (ZIR) data to be used by the packet loss concealment algorithm (see par. 0023). Park teaches that the packet loss concealment (PLC) circuit (118), performs packet loss concealment on an invalid audio packet that is encountered in the received sequence (see par. 0027). Park teaches that the PLC history buffer is searched (“comparing”) for a segment of audio that most closely matches the output audio samples (“template-data blocks”) that were generated from the valid packets that immediately precedes the invalid packet (see par. 0028).
Park teaches the decoder state update circuit (116) is coupled to the CVS decoder (400) and is configured to update the state of the audio decoder based on state data retrieved from the decoder history buffer. Park teaches that the audio decoder re-decodes the stored encoded bits in the decoder history buffer and decodes the valid audio packets that follows the invalid audio packets (see par. 0029). Park teaches that PLC replacement samples are substituted into the output audio (408) associated with the invalid packets (see par. 0030).
Park fails to specifically teach the claimed limitations of “generating a replacement block based on a first data block following the closest-matching data block; and decoding data, including the valid packets and the replacement block, with a decoder;” however, this teaching is obvious to the teaching of Park, since Park teaches a method and an apparatus for packet loss concealment techniques to reduce audio glitches comprises providing replacement audio samples that approximate the missing audio samples caused by the invalid packet and performing a re-decoding process to update the state of the decoder to the point where the decoder may proceed to decode the valid audio packet that follows the invalid audio packet (see par. 0029). Therefore, it would have been obvious to one having ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify the packet loss concealment technique of Park to include the claimed steps of generating a replacement block and decoding the valid packets and the replacement blocks because Park teaches that it’s known in the art to provide replacement samples to substitute for the missing audio that would otherwise result from the invalid packet and to update the decoder through a re-decoding process to aid in reducing audio glitches. This modification would have been obvious because a person of ordinary skill in the art would have been motivated to employ a packet loss concealment technique reducing audio glitches by utilizing a replacement samples and re-decoding the data as taught by Park (see par. 0051).
As per claim 10, Park teaches that the replacement samples are substituted for invalid packet read from the history buffer (see par. 0030 et seq.).
As per claim 11, Park teaches a CVSD decoder performs decoding on the packets (see par. 0021). Park teaches that audio encoder and decoder known as a codec is state-based wherein encoding and decoding of each audio bit depends on the value of the previous bits stored in the state data that is maintained on both the encoding and the decoding sides (see par. 0018 et seq.).
As per claim 16, Park teaches that the PCL circuit is configured to search through the PCL history buffer for a segment of audio that most closely matches the output audio samples that were generated from the valid packet and the matching may be based on a suitable metric of similarity such as a comparison of measured pitch periods (see par. 0028). Park teaches that various embodiments may be implemented using hardware elements, software elements or a combination of both such as logic gates (see par. 0054).
Allowable Subject Matter
Claims 4 to 7 and 12 to 15 and 20 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
The prior art made of record and not relied upon is considered pertinent to applicant's disclosure.
Jougit et al. (USPAP 2010/0324911) discloses a CVSD decoder state update after packet loss.
Zopf et al. (USPAP 2009/0281797) bit error concealment for audio coding systems.
Anandakumar et al. (US 7,061,912 B1) discloses a method and an apparatus of packet loss concealment for CVSD coders.
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to SHELLY A CHASE whose telephone number is (571)272-3816. The examiner can normally be reached Mon-Thu 8:00-5:30, 2nd Friday 8:00-4:30.
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/Shelly A Chase/ Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2112