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 § 103
The following is a quotation of 35 U.S.C. 103 which forms the basis for all obviousness rejections set forth in this Office action:
A patent for a claimed invention may not be obtained, notwithstanding that the claimed invention is not identically disclosed as set forth in section 102, if the differences between the claimed invention and the prior art are such that the claimed invention as a whole would have been obvious before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to a person having ordinary skill in the art to which the claimed invention pertains. Patentability shall not be negated by the manner in which the invention was made.
Claims 1-6, 11-14, and 16-19 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being obvious over Halim et al. (“AugerPrime surface detector electronics”; hereinafter Halim) in view of Couture et al. (US 2020/0326436; hereinafter Couture).
Regarding claims 1 and 17, Halim discloses a cosmic ray detector (page 2, §1: "the Auger Collaboration decided to improve the SD sensitivity to the cosmic ray composition. The Observatory is therefore undergoing a significant upgrade of its experimental capabilities called AugerPrime”) with a corresponding method comprising a digital part and an analog part, wherein the digital part includes a WiFi module communicatively coupled to a WiFi antenna connector (page 11: "High-level functions like data handling and interactions with the communications radio transceiver are implemented under Linux"), and the digital part includes a GPS module communicatively coupled to a GPS antenna connector (page 3: "Global Positioning System (GPS) receiver") and the digital part includes a microcontroller (page 6, §3.3: "The UUB architecture is designed with a Xilinx Zynq FPGA containing two embedded ARM Cortex A9 333 MHz microprocessors"; page 10, §4.4: "A powerful 16-bit RISC CPU ultra-lowpower micro-controller (MSP430)"), an analog-to-digital converter (ADC) (page 5, §3.1: "10 ADC analog inputs") and a non-volatile memory (page 6, §3.3: "The FPGA is connected to a 4 Gbit LP-DDR2 memory and a 2 Gbit Flash memory"), wherein the WiFi module, the GPS module, the ADC and the non-volatile memory are communicatively coupled to the microcontroller (fig. 2; page 6, §3.3: "The FPGA implements all basic digital functions such as the readout of the ADCs, the generation of triggers, the interface to LED flasher, GPS receiver, clock generator, and memories"), and the digital part includes a power supply unit electrically coupled to the microcontroller, wherein the power supply unit is configured to provide power to the microcontroller (fig. 2; page 3: "A solar power system provides currently an average of 10 W for the PMTs and electronics package consisting of a processor, Global Positioning System (GPS) receiver, radio transceiver and power controller ... The station power system remains unchanged except for new solar panels to accommodate the increased power consumption due to the RD"), while the analog part includes a top scintillator coupled to a first photomultiplier (PM) and a bottom scintillator coupled to a second photomultiplier (PM) (page 3: "A scintillator-based surface detector (SSD) consists of an aluminum box of 3.8 m x 1.3 m, containing two scintillator panels, each composed of extruded polystyrene scintillator bars of 1.6 m length, 5 cm width, and 1 cm thickness. The scintillator light is read out with wavelength-shifting fibers inserted into straight extruded holes in the scintillator bars. The 1-mm diameter fibers are bundled in a PMMA (poly(methyl methacrylate)) cylinder which is connected to a single PMT ... The UMD basic unit consists of 3 x 10 m2 modules, each segmented into 64 plastic scintillator strips, buried 2.3 m alongside a WCD at a distance of at least 7 m"), wherein the first PM and the second PM each comprise a photodetector configured to detect single photons (page 3: "The PMT is a 1.5-inch diameter bi-alkali Hamamatsu R9420"), and the analog part includes at least one amplifier (fig. 2; §4.2: "For most channels, the amplification of the signal is differential with two amplifier stages"), wherein the first PM and the second PM are coupled to the amplifier (fig. 2), and the analog part includes a DC/DC converter (page 6, §4.1: "a custom-made CAEN A7501 HV DC-DC converter"), and at least one high voltage power supply (HVPS) (page 6, §4.1: "a separate high voltage power supply (HVPS) module"), wherein the DC/DC converter is communicatively coupled to the amplifier (fig. 2) and the amplifier is electrically coupled to the HVPS, and the HVPS is configured to supply voltage to the first SiPM and the second SiPM within a range from 10 V to 100 V (fig. 16), and the DC/DC converter is communicatively coupled to the power supply unit (fig. 16), and the power supply unit is electrically coupled to the HVPS, wherein the DC/DC converter is configured to provide a supply voltage to the amplifier, and further, the analog part includes at least one analog track environment sensor (page 10, §4.4: "a pressure/temperature/humidity on board sensor") and an analog track control unit (page 10, §4.4: "The MSP430 is tied via an I2Cbus to an 256 kbit EEPROM and a pressure/temperature/humidity on board sensor"), wherein the analog track control unit is an independent unit for controlling and monitoring the analog part, electrically coupled to the HVPS and communicatively coupled to the at least one analog track environment sensor, the microcontroller and the DC/DC converter, wherein the DC/DC converter is controlled by the analog track control unit, and the ADC is communicatively coupled to the amplifier (figs. 5-6 and 16).
However, Halim fails to disclose silicon photomultipliers.
Couture teaches silicon photomultipliers (claim 39).
It would have been obvious, to one having ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the invention, to modify Halim with the teaching of Couture, since these detectors were art-recognized equivalents at the time the invention was made, which one of ordinary skill in the art would have found obvious to substitute (Couture: par. 15). One would have been motivated to make such a modification for better detection (par. 153).
Regarding claim 2, Halim discloses wherein one or more of the top scintillator and the bottom scintillator each have the same dimensions (page 3: "A scintillator-based surface detector (SSD) consists of an aluminum box of 3.8 m x 1.3 m, containing two scintillator panels, each composed of extruded polystyrene scintillator bars of 1.6 m length, 5 cm width, and 1 cm thickness. The scintillator light is read out with wavelength-shifting fibers inserted into straight extruded holes in the scintillator bars. The 1-mm diameter fibers are bundled in a PMMA (poly(methyl methacrylate)) cylinder which is connected to a single PMT ... The UMD basic unit consists of 3 x 10 m2 modules, each segmented into 64 plastic scintillator strips, buried 2.3 m alongside a WCD at a distance of at least 7 m").
Regarding claim 3, Halim discloses wherein one or more of the top scintillator and the bottom scintillator each have dimensions of 10 cm × 10 cm × 1 cm (page 3: "A scintillator-based surface detector (SSD) consists of an aluminum box of 3.8 m x 1.3 m, containing two scintillator panels, each composed of extruded polystyrene scintillator bars of 1.6 m length, 5 cm width, and 1 cm thickness. The scintillator light is read out with wavelength-shifting fibers inserted into straight extruded holes in the scintillator bars. The 1-mm diameter fibers are bundled in a PMMA (poly(methyl methacrylate)) cylinder which is connected to a single PMT ... The UMD basic unit consists of 3 x 10 m2 modules, each segmented into 64 plastic scintillator strips, buried 2.3 m alongside a WCD at a distance of at least 7 m").
Regarding claim 4, Halim discloses wherein the digital part includes an internal GPS antenna, the internal GPS antenna being coupled to the GPS antenna connector (fig. 2; pages 5-6: "In the UUB, various functions (front-end, calibration, time tagging, trigger, monitoring) are implemented on a single board. It is designed to fit the existing RF-enclosure, and to accept the SSD PMT and SPMT cables together with the existing PMTs, GPS antenna, and communications cables").
Regarding claim 5, Halim discloses wherein the digital part includes at least one digital environment sensor, and the at least one digital environment sensor is communicatively coupled to the microcontroller (page 10, §4.4: "The MSP430 is tied via an I2C-bus to an 256 kbit EEPROM and a pressure/temperature/humidity on board sensor").
Regarding claim 6, Halim discloses wherein the digital part includes at least one position sensor communicatively coupled to the microcontroller page 3: "Global Positioning System (GPS) receiver").
Regarding claim 11, Halim discloses wherein the at least one analog track environment sensor is a temperature sensor (page 10, §4.4: "a pressure/temperature/humidity on board sensor").
Regarding claim 12, Halim discloses wherein the non-volatile memory is necessarily configured to store configuration settings (page 6, §3.3: "The FPGA is connected to a 4 Gbit LP-DDR2 memory and a 2 Gbit Flash memory").
Regarding claim 13, Halim discloses wherein the non-volatile memory is necessarily configured to store errors and WiFi network settings (page 6, §3.3: "The FPGA is connected to a 4 Gbit LP-DDR2 memory and a 2 Gbit Flash memory").
Regarding claim 14, Halim discloses wherein the at least one analog track environment sensor is configured to monitor at least one of: temperature of individual components, ambient temperature, humidity, or pressure (page 10, §4.4: "a pressure/temperature/humidity on board sensor").
Regarding claim 16, Halim discloses wherein the GPS module is configured to provide a synchronization of a plurality of clocks associated with the cosmic ray detector and determine geographic location of the cosmic ray detector (§3.3 and §4.3).
Regarding claim 18, Halim discloses wherein the amplifier is necessarily configured to condition the weak electrical signal for subsequent processing (fig. 2; §4.2: "For most channels, the amplification of the signal is differential with two amplifier stages").
Regarding claim 19, Halim discloses wherein the microcontroller transmits the analyzed data via the WiFi module (§3.3: "The UUB architecture is designed with a Xilinx Zynq FPGA containing two embedded ARM Cortex A9 333MHz microprocessors. The FPGA is connected to a 4Gbit LP-DDR2 memory and a 2Gbit Flash memory. The FPGA implements all basic digital functions such as the read-out of the ADCs, the generation of triggers, the interface to LED flasher, GPS receiver, clock generator, and memories. High-level functions like the data handling and communications with the radio transceiver are implemented under Linux”).
Claim 7 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being obvious over Halim and Couture as applied to claim 6 above, and further in view of Bryman (US 2006/0180753).
Halim as modified above suggests claim 6. Halim further discloses wherein the position sensor comprises a device, and the device is configured to determine a position of the cosmic ray detector (page 3: "Global Positioning System (GPS) receiver", wherein the GPS receiver as used in D6 for accurate timing must work on the expected GPS principle of accurately knowing the position of GPS receiver in order to provide the accurate time determination).
However, Halim fails to disclose an accelerometer.
Bryman teaches an accelerometer (pars. 35-36).
It would have been obvious, to one having ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the invention, to modify Halim with the teaching of Bryman, since these positioning sensors were art-recognized equivalents at the time the invention was made, which one of ordinary skill in the art would have found obvious to substitute (Bryman: pars. 35-36). One would have been motivated to make such a modification for improved data quality (Bryman: pars. 35-36).
Claim 8 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being obvious over Halim and Couture as applied to claim 1 above, and further in view of Aab et al. (“The Pierre Auger Observatory Upgrade "AugerPrime": Preliminary Design Report"; hereinafter Aab).
Halim as modified above suggests claim 1.
However, Halim fails to disclose wherein the digital part includes a display and the display is communicatively coupled to the microcontroller, and wherein the display is configured to display a status of the cosmic ray detector.
Aab teaches wherein the digital part includes a display and the display is communicatively coupled to the microcontroller, and wherein the display is configured to display a status of the cosmic ray detector (pages 95-96, §7.3: "The Observatory monitoring web site uses the appropriate scripts (PHP, Ajax, etc.) developed to display the information retrieved from the database to control the online SD status").
It would have been obvious, to one having ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the invention, to modify Halim with the teaching of Aab, since one would have been motivated to make such a modification for better monitoring (Aab: pages 95-96, §7.3).
Claims 9-10 and 20 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being obvious over Halim and Couture as applied to claims 1 and 17 above, and further in view of Tseng et al. (US 9664802; hereinafter Tseng).
Regarding claim 9, Halim as modified above suggests claim 1.
However, Halim fails to disclose wherein the digital part includes a micro SD card reader module and the micro SD card reader module is communicatively coupled to the microcontroller.
Tseng teaches wherein the digital part includes a micro SD card reader module and the micro SD card reader module is communicatively coupled to the microcontroller (claim 3).
It would have been obvious, to one having ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the invention, to modify Halim with the teaching of Tseng, since one would have been motivated to make such a modification for easier data management (figs. 1-4).
Regarding claim 10, Tseng teaches wherein the micro SD card reader module is configured to save detection data (claim 3).
Regarding claim 20, Tseng teaches wherein the microcontroller stores the analyzed data using the micro SD card reader module (claim 3).
Claims 15 and 21 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being obvious over Halim and Couture as applied to claims 1 and 17 above, and further in view of Solomon et al. (US 2014/0224964; hereinafter Solomon).
Regarding claim 15, Halim as modified above suggests claim 1.
However, Halim fails to disclose wherein the WiFi module is configured to provide a connection to the Internet.
Solomon teaches wherein the WiFi module is configured to provide a connection to the Internet (pars. 7 and 41).
It would have been obvious, to one having ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the invention, to modify Halim with the teaching of Solomon, since one would have been motivated to make such a modification for easier communication.
Regarding claim 21, Solomon teaches displaying the analyzed data on the display (par. 7).
Allowable Subject Matter
Claims 22-29 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. The following is a statement of reasons for the indication of allowable subject matter.
Regarding claim 22 and its dependent claim(s), if any, the prior art (e.g., Halim) discloses a cosmic ray detector (page 2, §1: "the Auger Collaboration decided to improve the SD sensitivity to the cosmic ray composition. The Observatory is therefore undergoing a significant upgrade of its experimental capabilities called AugerPrime”) comprising a digital part and an analog part, wherein the digital part includes a WiFi module communicatively coupled to a WiFi antenna connector (page 11: "High-level functions like data handling and interactions with the communications radio transceiver are implemented under Linux"), and the digital part includes a GPS module communicatively coupled to a GPS antenna connector (page 3: "Global Positioning System (GPS) receiver") and the digital part includes a microcontroller (page 6, §3.3: "The UUB architecture is designed with a Xilinx Zynq FPGA containing two embedded ARM Cortex A9 333 MHz microprocessors"; page 10, §4.4: "A powerful 16-bit RISC CPU ultra-lowpower micro-controller (MSP430)"), an analog-to-digital converter (ADC) (page 5, §3.1: "10 ADC analog inputs") and a non-volatile memory (page 6, §3.3: "The FPGA is connected to a 4 Gbit LP-DDR2 memory and a 2 Gbit Flash memory"), wherein the WiFi module, the GPS module, the ADC and the non-volatile memory are communicatively coupled to the microcontroller (fig. 2; page 6, §3.3: "The FPGA implements all basic digital functions such as the readout of the ADCs, the generation of triggers, the interface to LED flasher, GPS receiver, clock generator, and memories"), and the digital part includes a power supply unit electrically coupled to the microcontroller, wherein the power supply unit is configured to provide power to the microcontroller (fig. 2; page 3: "A solar power system provides currently an average of 10 W for the PMTs and electronics package consisting of a processor, Global Positioning System (GPS) receiver, radio transceiver and power controller ... The station power system remains unchanged except for new solar panels to accommodate the increased power consumption due to the RD"), while the analog part includes a top scintillator coupled to a first photomultiplier (PM) and a bottom scintillator coupled to a second photomultiplier (PM) (page 3: "A scintillator-based surface detector (SSD) consists of an aluminum box of 3.8 m x 1.3 m, containing two scintillator panels, each composed of extruded polystyrene scintillator bars of 1.6 m length, 5 cm width, and 1 cm thickness. The scintillator light is read out with wavelength-shifting fibers inserted into straight extruded holes in the scintillator bars. The 1-mm diameter fibers are bundled in a PMMA (poly(methyl methacrylate)) cylinder which is connected to a single PMT ... The UMD basic unit consists of 3 x 10 m2 modules, each segmented into 64 plastic scintillator strips, buried 2.3 m alongside a WCD at a distance of at least 7 m"), wherein the first PM and the second PM each comprise a photodetector configured to detect single photons (page 3: "The PMT is a 1.5-inch diameter bi-alkali Hamamatsu R9420"), and the analog part includes at least one amplifier (fig. 2; §4.2: "For most channels, the amplification of the signal is differential with two amplifier stages"), wherein the first PM and the second PM are coupled to the amplifier (fig. 2), and the analog part includes a DC/DC converter (page 6, §4.1: "a custom-made CAEN A7501 HV DC-DC converter"), and at least one high voltage power supply (HVPS) (page 6, §4.1: "a separate high voltage power supply (HVPS) module"), wherein the DC/DC converter is communicatively coupled to the amplifier (fig. 2) and the amplifier is electrically coupled to the HVPS, and the HVPS is configured to supply voltage to the first SiPM and the second SiPM within a range from 10 V to 100 V (fig. 16), and the DC/DC converter is communicatively coupled to the power supply unit (fig. 16), and the power supply unit is electrically coupled to the HVPS, wherein the DC/DC converter is configured to provide a supply voltage to the amplifier, and further, the analog part includes at least one analog track environment sensor (page 10, §4.4: "a pressure/temperature/humidity on board sensor") and an analog track control unit (page 10, §4.4: "The MSP430 is tied via an I2Cbus to an 256 kbit EEPROM and a pressure/temperature/humidity on board sensor"), wherein the analog track control unit is an independent unit for controlling and monitoring the analog part, electrically coupled to the HVPS and communicatively coupled to the at least one analog track environment sensor, the microcontroller and the DC/DC converter, wherein the DC/DC converter is controlled by the analog track control unit, and the ADC is communicatively coupled to the amplifier (figs. 5-6 and 16). The prior art (e.g., Couture) also discloses silicon photomultipliers (claim 39).
However, the prior art fails to disclose or fairly suggest a system for facilitating earthquake prediction by detecting cosmic rays, the system comprising a processing device, a communication device, and a storage device, wherein the communication device is communicatively coupled to the processing device and the storage device, and the storage device is communicatively coupled to the processing device, wherein the communication device is configured to receive a plurality of cosmic rays information from a plurality of cosmic ray detectors, installed in a plurality of locations and the communication device is configured to transmit at least one alert to at least one client device associated with at least one client in at least one seismically risky location, wherein the at least one client device includes at least one of a smartphone, a laptop, a desktop, a smartwatch, a tablet computer, a disaster/emergency alarm system, and the processing device is configured to analyze the plurality of cosmic ray information and to compare the plurality of seismic stability data and the plurality of cosmic ray information and to determine at least one seismic risk factor corresponding to at least one location of the plurality of locations, and , the processing device is configured to identify the at least one seismically risky location of the plurality of locations based on the at least one seismic risk factor and to generate the at least one alert based on the identification, wherein the storage device is configured to store and provide access to the plurality of seismic stability data associated with the plurality of locations, in combination with all of the other recitations in the claim.
Response to Arguments
Applicant’s arguments with respect to claims 1-21 have been considered but are moot in view of the new grounds of rejection.
Conclusion
Applicant's submission of an information disclosure statement under 37 CFR 1.97(c) with the timing fee set forth in 37 CFR 1.17(p) on June 4, 2026, prompted the new ground(s) of rejection presented in this Office action. Accordingly, THIS ACTION IS MADE FINAL. See MPEP § 609.04(b). Applicant is reminded of the extension of time policy as set forth in 37 CFR 1.136(a).
A shortened statutory period for reply to this final action is set to expire THREE MONTHS from the mailing date of this action. In the event a first reply is filed within TWO MONTHS of the mailing date of this final action and the advisory action is not mailed until after the end of the THREE-MONTH shortened statutory period, then the shortened statutory period will expire on the date the advisory action is mailed, and any nonprovisional extension fee (37 CFR 1.17(a)) pursuant to 37 CFR 1.136(a) will be calculated from the mailing date of the advisory action. In no event, however, will the statutory period for reply expire later than SIX MONTHS from the mailing date of this final action.
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to Chih-Cheng Kao whose telephone number is (571)272-2492. The examiner can normally be reached M-F 9-5.
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If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner’s supervisor, David Makiya can be reached at (571) 272-2273. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300.
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/Chih-Cheng Kao/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2884
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