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.
Claim(s) 1-2, 4-7 and 9-11 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Boykin et al. (US 2018/0050800) in view of FANG, Shao-jie (CN 105516473 A).
Claim 1, Boykin teaches an edge device comprising a microphone (Fig. 6, device 16 with microphones 1-4), the edge device being configured to:
determine whether a target sound is within the audio received by the microphone by analyzing audio (par. 89: If the audio processing determines that the sound source was a gunshot 78, a gunshot detection signal is sent); and
send an alert when the target sound is determined to be within the audio (par. 89: If the audio processing determines that the sound source was a gunshot 78, … an emergency announcement, or actionable notification, or request, is sent via the communication network to the police station 14 or to other nearby devices).
Boykin does not teach detect a static position of the edge device for a first time period; and record audio received by the microphone while the static position remains constant.
In the field of endeavor, FANG teaches a portable device includes a speed sensor. The speed sensor is used to initiate recording of audio when a static monitoring mode is detected (Embodiment A, last paragraph).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art at the time of filing to modify Boykin’s device to include a speed sensor for activation of audio recording as taught by FANG for the purpose of conserving power, and further preventing overloading memory capacity, a finding that one of ordinary skill in the art would have recognized that the results of the combination were predictable.
Claim 2, Boykin teaches wherein the target sound comprises a firearm discharge (par. 89: gunshot detection).
Claim 4, Boykin teaches wherein the alert comprises a package of information including a location (par. 177: Such alert may include, e.g., the vector coordinates of the location and a snapshot or video for display on a screen of a device such as a BWC (3348) of a police officer on scene or not or an ICV 3346 of vehicle 3406 or other ICV 3347. Any of these actions may be performed in real time as the location of the sound is detected).
Claim 5, Boykin teaches wherein the alert is configured to cause an immediate order of emergency service or dispatch of additional resources (par. 177: Such alert may include, e.g., the vector coordinates of the location and a snapshot or video for display on a screen of a device such as a BWC (3348) of a police officer on scene or not or an ICV 3346 of vehicle 3406 or other ICV 3347. Any of these actions may be performed in real time as the location of the sound is detected. Such action order dispatch additional resources).
Claim 6, Boykin teaches a method for processing a sound (Fig. 6, device 16 with microphones 1-4 for recording sounds), comprising:
analyzing the recorded audio by the electronic network device to determine whether a target sound is within the recorded audio (par. 89: If the audio processing determines that the sound source was a gunshot 78, a gunshot detection signal is sent); and
causing the electronic network device to send an alert when the target sound is determined to be within the recorded audio (par. 89: If the audio processing determines that the sound source was a gunshot 78, … an emergency announcement, or actionable notification, or request, is sent via the communication network to the police station 14 or to other nearby devices).
Boykin does not teach detecting a static position of an electronic network device for a first time period;
recording audio by the electronic network device while the static position remains constant.
In the field of endeavor, FANG teaches a portable device includes a speed sensor. The speed sensor is used to initiate recording of audio when a static monitoring mode is detected (Embodiment A, last paragraph).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art at the time of filing to modify Boykin’s device to include a speed sensor for activation of audio recording as taught by FANG for the purpose of conserving power, and further preventing overloading memory capacity, a finding that one of ordinary skill in the art would have recognized that the results of the combination were predictable.
Claim 7, the combination teaches wherein the electronic network device is an edge device (Boykin par. 77: this type of classification can be done in or near real-time on the edge device such as an in-car video unit or a wearable device such as a body worn camera. In this description, an “edge” device generally refers to a device used or located at a point of interest).
Claim 9, the combination teaches further comprising the electronic network device sending an alert that includes a package of information including a location (Boykin par. 177: Such alert may include, e.g., the vector coordinates of the location and a snapshot or video for display on a screen of a device such as a BWC (3348) of a police officer on scene or not or an ICV 3346 of vehicle 3406 or other ICV 3347. Any of these actions may be performed in real time as the location of the sound is detected).
Claim 10, the combination teaches further comprising automatically triggering an immediate order of emergency service or dispatch of additional resources in response to the alert sent by the electronic network device (Boykin par. 177: Such alert may include, e.g., the vector coordinates of the location and a snapshot or video for display on a screen of a device such as a BWC (3348) of a police officer on scene or not or an ICV 3346 of vehicle 3406 or other ICV 3347. Any of these actions may be performed in real time as the location of the sound is detected. Such action order dispatch additional resources).
Claim 11, Boykin teaches an emergency vehicle comprising an electronic network device including a microphone (abstract; par. 66: The UAV is configured to dock with a docking station mounted on a police vehicle 10. The UAV may have other components such as a microphone), the electronic network device being configured to:
determine whether a target sound is within the audio received by the microphone by analyzing the recorded audio (par. 89: If the audio processing determines that the sound source was a gunshot 78, a gunshot detection signal is sent); and
send an alert when the target sound is determined to be within the audio (par. 89: If the audio processing determines that the sound source was a gunshot 78, … an emergency announcement, or actionable notification, or request, is sent via the communication network to the police station 14 or to other nearby devices).
Boykin does not teach detect a static position of the emergency vehicle for a first time period; and record audio received by the microphone while the static position of the emergency vehicle remains constant.
In the field of endeavor, FANG teaches a portable device includes a speed sensor. The speed sensor is used to initiate recording of audio when a static monitoring mode is detected (Embodiment A, last paragraph).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art at the time of filing to modify Boykin’s device to include a speed sensor for activation of audio recording as taught by FANG for the purpose of conserving power, and further preventing overloading memory capacity, a finding that one of ordinary skill in the art would have recognized that the results of the combination were predictable.
Claim(s) 3 and 8 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Boykin et al. (US 2018/0050800) in view of FANG, Shao-jie (CN 105516473 A), and further in view of Sharma et al. (US 2014/0108020).
Claim 3, the combination does not teach wherein the edge device is configured to analyze the audio for types of decibel levels and echoes inside the audio that track to the firearm discharge.
Sharma is in the field of audio analysis (title; abstract) and teaches analyzing the audio (Audio signal processes include audio classification and detecting based on classification Feature extraction and matching, Abstract; audio input streams from microphones perform multiple stream analysis include multiple microphones on a device to enable further audio source analysis. This type of analysis is based on the observation that the input audio stream is a combination of sounds from different sound sources, Para. [0046]) for types of decibel levels (measures of sound strength include sound pressure, sound pressure level (in decibels), sound intensity or sound power parameters including sound pressure, frequency, bandwidth and duration. The human auditory system integrates the effects of sound pressure level over a 600-1000 ms window, Para. [0096]) and echoes (detector also provides information about noise, echoes, and temporal distortion that is computed in attempting to detect and synchronize, Para. [0050]).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art, before the relevant date, to modify the combination's audio analysis process to include analyzing decibel levels and echoes as taught by Sharma because, as Sharma discloses, analyzing data using decibel levels and echoes improves analysis and precision of localizing the device relative to other sound sources, providing more contextual information regarding position and orientation relative to all sound sources (Sharma; [0049]).
Claim 8, the combination does not teach further comprising the electronic network device analyzing the recorded audio for types of decibel levels and echoes inside the audio that track to a firearm discharge.
Sharma is in the field of audio analysis (title; abstract) and teaches analyzing the audio (Audio signal processes include audio classification and detecting based on classification Feature extraction and matching, Abstract; audio input streams from microphones perform multiple stream analysis include multiple microphones on a device to enable further audio source analysis. This type of analysis is based on the observation that the input audio stream is a combination of sounds from different sound sources, Para. [0046]) for types of decibel levels (measures of sound strength include sound pressure, sound pressure level (in decibels), sound intensity or sound power parameters including sound pressure, frequency, bandwidth and duration. The human auditory system integrates the effects of sound pressure level over a 600-1000 ms window, Para. [0096]) and echoes (detector also provides information about noise, echoes, and temporal distortion that is computed in attempting to detect and synchronize, Para. [0050]).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art, before the relevant date, to modify the combination's audio analysis process to include analyzing decibel levels and echoes as taught by Sharma because, as Sharma discloses, analyzing data using decibel levels and echoes improves analysis and precision of localizing the device relative to other sound sources, providing more contextual information regarding position and orientation relative to all sound sources (Sharma; [0049]).
Conclusion
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to An T Nguyen whose telephone number is (571)270-5167. The examiner can normally be reached Monday - Friday 9-5 ET.
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/AN T NGUYEN/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2686
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