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 Objections
Claim 1 is objected to because of the following informalities: “position” (line 1) should read “a position”. Appropriate correction is required.
Claim 1 is objected to because of the following informalities: “solution” (line 4) should read “a solution”. Appropriate correction is required.
Claim 7 is objected to because of the following informalities: “position” (line 1) should read “a position”. Appropriate correction is required.
Claim 7 is objected to because of the following informalities: “the change in the volume scale value before and after the piece is put” (lines 9-10) should read “the change in the volume scale value before and after the piece is put on the weight sensing control module”. Appropriate correction is required.
Claim 8 is objected to because of the following informalities: “born” (line 6) should read “borne”. Appropriate correction is required.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 112
The following is a quotation of 35 U.S.C. 112(b):
(b) CONCLUSION.—The specification shall conclude with one or more claims particularly pointing out and distinctly claiming the subject matter which the inventor or a joint inventor regards as the invention.
The following is a quotation of 35 U.S.C. 112 (pre-AIA ), second paragraph:
The specification shall conclude with one or more claims particularly pointing out and distinctly claiming the subject matter which the applicant regards as his invention.
Claims 1-10 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 112(b) or 35 U.S.C. 112 (pre-AIA ), second paragraph, as being indefinite for failing to particularly point out and distinctly claim the subject matter which the inventor or a joint inventor (or for applications subject to pre-AIA 35 U.S.C. 112, the applicant), regards as the invention.
Claim 1 recites “the identity” (line 1), “the volume” (line 5), “the liquid” (line 5), “the volume scale” (line 8), and “the weight” (line 12). There is insufficient antecedent basis for these limitations in the claim. Dependent claims 2-6 inherit this discrepancy by nature of their dependencies. Appropriate correction is required.
Claim 1 recites “a piece” (lines 1 and 10). The first instance of a claim element should generally subsequently be followed by referring to the element using “the” or “said”. Reciting “a piece” a second time makes it unclear whether the two instances of “a piece” refer to the same claim element or different claim elements. Dependent claims 2-6 inherit this discrepancy by nature of their dependencies. Appropriate correction is required.
Claim 1 recites “it” (line 11). It is unclear what “it” refers to. Rather than trying to use shortcuts, the claim should precisely identify the limitation being referred to. Dependent claims 2-6 inherit this discrepancy by nature of their dependencies. Appropriate correction is required.
Claim 1 recites “position” (lines 1 and 13). The first instance of a claim element should generally subsequently be followed by referring to the element using “the” or “said”. Reciting “position” a second time makes it unclear whether the two instances of “position” refer to the same claim element or different claim elements. Dependent claims 2-6 inherit this discrepancy by nature of their dependencies. Appropriate correction is required.
Claim 2 recites “the board” (line 1), “the square” (line 1), and “the rank” (line 2). There is insufficient antecedent basis for these limitations in the claim. Appropriate correction is required.
Claim 3 recites “each piece” (line 1). It is unclear what “each piece” refers to since only a single “piece” is referenced in claim 1. Appropriate correction is required.
Claim 3 recites “its identity” (line 2). It is unclear what “its” refers to. Rather than trying to use shortcuts, the claim should precisely identify the limitation being referred to. Appropriate correction is required.
Claim 4 recites “the buoyant force” (line 4). There is insufficient antecedent basis for this limitation in the claim. Appropriate correction is required.
Claim 6 recites “the weight sensing chip” (lines 2-3), “the FPC signal line” (line 3), “the board” (line 3), “the mainboard” (line 3). There is insufficient antecedent basis for these limitations in the claim. Appropriate correction is required.
Claim 7 recites “the identity” (line 1), “the volume scale value” (line 5), “the weight” (line 9), “the change” (line 9), and “the identity” (line 11). There is insufficient antecedent basis for these limitations in the claim. Appropriate correction is required.
Claim 7 recites “position” (lines 1 and 11). The first instance of a claim element should generally subsequently be followed by referring to the element using “the” or “said”. Reciting “position” a second time makes it unclear whether the two instances of “position” refer to the same claim element or different claim elements. Dependent claims 2-6 inherit this discrepancy by nature of their dependencies. Appropriate correction is required.
Claim 8 recites “the volume” (line 4), “the weight” (line 8), and “the buoyant force” (lines 8-9). There is insufficient antecedent basis for these limitations in the claim. Appropriate correction is required.
Claim 9 recites “each piece” (line 1). It is unclear what “each piece” refers to since only a single “piece” is referenced in claim 1. Appropriate correction is required.
Claim 3 recites “its identity” (line 2). It is unclear what “its” refers to. Rather than trying to use shortcuts, the claim should precisely identify the limitation being referred to. Appropriate correction is required.
Claim 10 recites “the board” (line 3) and “the rank” (line 3). There is insufficient antecedent basis for these limitations in the claim. Appropriate correction is required.
Prior Art
There are currently no prior art rejections against claims 1-10.
The closest prior art of record includes KR20210028541A assigned to the UNIV DONG EUI IND ACAD COOP FOUND (hereinafter Dong Eui), CN112595395A assigned to UNIV XIJING (hereinafter Xijing), and Knippen, US 2018/0178113 A1 (hereinafter Knippen).
Dong Eui discloses a chess board unit arranged in a grid, a plurality of pieces movable from the top of the chess board unit.
Xijing discloses a water column height weighing scale, comprising a base. The base is provided with a cylinder. The cylinder is filled with water; the water surface is floating with a floating piston. The floating piston side is matched with the inner surface of the cylinder. The floating piston is placed with a weighing article. The cylinder side opening and connected with the transparent pressure measuring tube bottom. The transparent pressure measuring tube upper part side surface is provided with a vent hole. The transparent pressure measuring tube is connected with a scale through the scale fixing card. The scale is fixed along the transparent pressure measuring tube vertical direction. The scale is provided with a reaction transparent pressure measuring tube liquid level height of the scale. The scribed line at the lowest part of the scale is zero graduation line. The invention uses a connector formed by a cylinder and a transparent pressure measuring tube, and reacts the weight of the weighing article by a scale. It has simple structure, no electricity, not easy to cheat. The application prospect is good; the popularization value is large.
Knippen discloses an electronic game board wherein the board comprises a plurality of sensors and indicators such that two or more players may play the same game with each other using two or more different game boards that may communicate with each other either directly or through a server. Knippen further discloses a game piece made of wood, metal, or glass as it is being placed onto a physical game board made of a material such as wood, cardboard, or a metal. The game piece has a physical mass (weight) that can be measured by a sensor. The game piece may be one of many types of game pieces (e.g. a knight or a queen in chess); some game pieces have approximately the same weight (e.g. pawns, or the king and queen). A pressure sensor inside of the game board detects the change in weight when the game piece is placed on top of the sensor, allowing the sensor to detect when a particular piece is placed on top of the sensor. Specifically, based on the weight of the game piece, the sensor can detect what type of piece was placed into the location.
The prior art, alone or in combination, absent hindsight, does not fairly teach or suggest the claimed invention, including at least the following limitations:
a liquid cavity secured to the surface film, wherein the liquid cavity includes solution and a buoyancy plate, and the liquid cavity has volume scale values for indicating the volume of the liquid;
a weight sensing chip circuit, comprising a master control chip positioned thereon; and
a photoelectric sensing component connected to the weight sensing chip circuit, wherein the photoelectric sensing component is configured to read the volume scale value and feed it back to the master control chip, wherein when a piece is put on the surface film and the surface film squeezes downward on the buoyancy plate to at least partially submerge it in the solution, and the master control chip is configured to calculate the weight of the piece based on changes in the volume scale value before and after the piece is put on the surface film, and to identify the identity and position of the piece based on the weight
Conclusion
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to WERNER G GARNER whose telephone number is (571)270-7147. The examiner can normally be reached M-F 7:30-15:30 EST.
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/WERNER G GARNER/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 3715
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