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
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 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 1-8 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Wu (Pub. No.: 2024/0149624 A1) in view of Strahan (Pub. No.: 2023/0241933 A1) and Kanbayashi (Pub. No.: 2019/0185008 A1).
1) In regard to claim 1, Wu discloses the claimed tire pressure monitoring system wake-up device (fig. 1 and ¶0001) comprising:
an antenna unit (fig. 1: 123),
a main control board unit (fig. 1: 1),
a power supply unit (its inherent the device has a power supply unit),
a radio frequency switch unit (fig. 1: 122), and
a database unit (fig. 1: 11),
the wake-up device wirelessly or wiredly electrically connected to multiple tire pressure sensors and mutually transmits signals (¶0020),
the antenna unit, the main control board unit, the power supply unit, the radio frequency switch unit, and the database unit being interconnected (fig. 1 shows the devices are interconnected),
the power supply unit supplying power to the main control board unit and the antenna unit for operation (note, it is inherent the device has a power supply to power the devices),
the radio frequency switch unit connected to the antenna unit and including a receiving module and a transmitting module (¶0021),
the receiving module receiving signals transmitted by the antenna unit and processing the signals (¶0021),
the main control board unit controlling the power supply unit to supply and shutdown the power, controlling the radio frequency switch unit to be turned on and turned off, and managing the database unit to operate operations, and when the antenna unit receives a signal (¶0020 discloses the signal wakes up the tire monitoring device),
the antenna unit transmits the signal to the receiving module of the radio frequency switch unit within the wake-up device (¶0020-¶0021),
Wu does not explicitly disclose the transmitting module sending the signals to the database unit for comparison, after the receiving module receives and processes the signal, the signals is indirectly sent to the database unit for comparison via the transmitting module, when the signal sent by the transmitting module matches a data range within the database unit, the main control board unit sends comparison result back to the antenna unit, when the antenna unit receives the signal, the antenna unit activates or does not activate each tire pressure sensor to detect and operate on each tire based on a content of the signal.
However, Strahan discloses it is known for a tire monitoring device to determine when an antenna unit receives a signal, the antenna unit activates or does not activate a tire pressure sensor to detect and operate on each tire based on a content of the signal (¶0066).
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art at the time the claimed invention was filed to allow the device of Wu to activate the monitoring device upon receiving an activation signal, as taught by Strahan,
One skilled in the art would be motivated to modify Wu as described above in order to increase the efficiency of the system by allowing the monitoring device to use less power.
However, Kanbayashi discloses it is known for a tire monitoring device to do a comparison by allowing a transmitting module to send signals to a database unit for comparison, after a receiving module receives and processes the signal, the signals is indirectly sent to the database unit for comparison via the transmitting module, when the signal sent by the transmitting module matches a data range within the database unit, the main control board unit sends comparison result back to the antenna unit (¶0055 and ¶0078)
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art at the time the claimed invention was filed to allow the device of Wu to compare received signals with signals in a database, as taught by Kanbayashi.
One skilled in the art would be motivated to modify Wu as described above in order to determine the road surface with high accuracy, as taught by Kanbayashi (¶0003).
2) In regard to claim 2 (dependent on claim 1), Wu, Strahan and Kanbayashi further disclose the tire pressure monitoring system wake-up device as claimed in claim 1, wherein the wake-up device is an independent component, or comprises multiple units separately installed within each tire pressure sensor, or the wake-up device is installed inside a display screen within a vehicle (Strahan fig. 2 and ¶0029).
3) In regard to claim 3 (dependent on claim 1), Wu, Strahan and Kanbayashi further disclose the tire pressure monitoring system wake-up device as claimed in claim 1, wherein the radio frequency switch unit includes a switch module, an initial signal conversion module, and a final signal conversion module, after the receiving module receives the signal transmitted by the antenna unit, the signal transmitted by the antenna unit is converted from analog to digital by the initial signal conversion module, the digital signal is then compared with the data range set in the database unit, and a result of signal comparison is transmitted to the final signal conversion module, the final signal conversion module then converts the result of signal comparison from digital back to analog, the result of the signal comparison with the database unit is simultaneously transmitted to the main control board unit, the main control board unit controls the switch module to be turned on or turned off, when the switch module is turned on, the result of signal comparison that is analog-converted is transmitted to the antenna unit via the transmitting module to emit a signal (Strahan ¶0030; note, converting a signal from analog to digital is well known in the art and is considered an inherent step for communicating an analog signal with a digital device).
4) In regard to claim 4 (dependent on claim 3), Wu, Strahan and Kanbayashi further disclose the tire pressure monitoring system wake-up device as claimed in claim 3, wherein the wake-up device includes a radio frequency detection unit, the radio frequency detection unit is connected to the initial signal conversion module of the radio frequency switch unit and the database unit, the radio frequency detection unit adjusts and filters the signal converted by the initial signal conversion module (Strahan fig. 2: 203).
5) In regard to claim 5 (dependent on claim 4), Wu, Strahan and Kanbayashi further disclose the tire pressure monitoring system wake-up device as claimed in claim 4, wherein the radio frequency detection unit includes a strength filtering analysis module and a frequency band selection module, the strength filtering analysis module filters out noise from the signal converted by the initial signal conversion module, analyzes and categorizes frequency bands, the frequency band selection module then selects the frequency bands to be compared with the database unit (Strahan ¶0031 and ¶0034).
6) In regard to claim 6 (dependent on claim 1), Wu, Strahan and Kanbayashi further disclose the tire pressure monitoring system wake-up device as claimed in claim 1, wherein the wake-up device includes a control selection unit which is connected to the power supply unit and the antenna unit, the control selection unit controls an amount of power provided by the power supply unit that is transmitted to the main control board unit, and the power required by the antenna unit (Strahan fig. 2: 204 and ¶0032).
7) In regard to claim 7 (dependent on claim 6), Wu, Strahan and Kanbayashi further disclose the tire pressure monitoring system wake-up device as claimed in claim 6, wherein the control selection unit includes a GPIO Control module (General-purpose input/output interface control module, GPIO: General-purpose input/output), a MIPI Control module (Mobile Industry Processor Interface control module, MIPI: Mobile Industry Processor Interface), and a Voltage Control module (Strahan fig. 2).
8) In regard to claim 8 (dependent on claim 1), Wu, Strahan and Kanbayashi further disclose the tire pressure monitoring system wake-up device as claimed in claim 1, wherein the antenna unit includes an antenna and an antenna tuner, the antenna receives signals and transmits the signals to the antenna tuner, the antenna tuner quantizes the signals received by the antenna into digital signals and transmits them to the receiving module of the radio frequency switch unit (Strahan fig. 2: 203).
Conclusion
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to CURTIS J KING whose telephone number is (571)270-5160. The examiner can normally be reached Mon-Fri 6:00 - 2:00 EST.
Examiner interviews are available via telephone, in-person, and video conferencing using a USPTO supplied web-based collaboration tool. To schedule an interview, applicant is encouraged to use the USPTO Automated Interview Request (AIR) at http://www.uspto.gov/interviewpractice.
If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner’s supervisor, Quan-Zhen Wang can be reached at 571-272-3114. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300.
Information regarding the status of published or unpublished applications may be obtained from Patent Center. Unpublished application information in Patent Center is available to registered users. To file and manage patent submissions in Patent Center, visit: https://patentcenter.uspto.gov. Visit https://www.uspto.gov/patents/apply/patent-center for more information about Patent Center and https://www.uspto.gov/patents/docx for information about filing in DOCX format. For additional questions, contact the Electronic Business Center (EBC) at 866-217-9197 (toll-free). If you would like assistance from a USPTO Customer Service Representative, call 800-786-9199 (IN USA OR CANADA) or 571-272-1000.
/CURTIS J KING/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2685