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 .
Remarks
This Office Action is in response to the application filed on 11/13/24. Examiner acknowledged that claims 1-20 are pending.
The information disclosure statement (IDS) submitted 11/13/24 is in compliance with the provisions of 37 CFR 1.97. Accordingly, the information disclosure statement is being considered by the examiner.
Claim Objections
Claims 1, 8 and 15 are objected to because of the following informalities:
Claim 1 ln3, “a plurality of smart lights” should be –the plurality of smart lights--
Claim 8 ln5, “a plurality of smart lights” should be –the plurality of smart lights--
Claim 15 ln8, “a plurality of smart lights” should be –the plurality of smart lights--
Appropriate correction is required.
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.
Claim(s) 1-3, 5, 7-10, 12, 14-17 and 19 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Bora (US 2013/0063042).
Regarding Claim 1, Bora teaches a method for implementing a lighting program ([0194] “sunrise”) by a plurality of smart lights (Fig. 25. IID1-8), the method comprising: receiving, from a controller (Fig. 25: 2550), one or more parameters of a lighting program at a plurality of smart lights (Fig. 25: IID1-8), each smart light having a light index ([0201] “All number of II Devices would include scenes all off and all on related to turning all II Devices off within the addressable network, or turning all II Devices on. As example, for any lighting network containing a group of lights with the word "TV", "Television", "movie", "film", or related word, the application would suggest a lighting scene related to watching a movie, such as a soft blue light emitted from each of the II Devices”); storing (Fig. 1: 108) the one or more parameters of the lighting program; receiving, from the controller, a preliminary synchronization signal ([0256] “When launching the Music Sync application, the application would look for addressable lights”).
Bora does not explicitly teach in Fig. 1 initiating a timer based on the preliminary synchronization signal; configuring a rendering algorithm based on input including at least the light index, the one or more parameters of the lighting program, and a current time on the timer; executing the rendering algorithm to determine a frame value; and implementing a lighting output consistent with the determined frame value. However, [0257] teaches “At any time, the user will be able to reconfigure the arrangement or light themes, 5422…device application will interpret the music file wavelengths to send continuing commands to each II Device previously selected to turn on and off, adjust brightness, and change colors depending on the music construct within that channel at that time and the selected arrangement and theme”; [0261] “When the sunrise program is active, the program will be executed similar to any other automation or alarm program. The suggested colors used in the sunrise program will most likely include orange and red colors that would brighten over time until fully lit when the alarm or timer condition is met. Blue LEDs might also be included to provide the short wavelength light mimicking that of the sun”. It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filling of the claimed invention to combine the teachings of Bora in order to use the sync signal to sync light to music as well as initiate a sunrise timer for the mimicking sunrise since this would allow a user to create a profile and the user can wake up to a gentle calming music as the sunrises. Therefore, the subject matter claimed would have been obvious in view of Bora.
Regarding Claim 2, Bora teaches the method of claim 1, except transmitting, from the plurality of smart lights to the controller, a confirmation of receipt of the one or more parameters of the lighting program. However, Bora teaches a mesh network. It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filling of the claimed invention to combine the teaching of Bora in order to transmit a confirmation of receipt message since mesh network communication includes ACK messaging.
Regarding Claim 3, Bora teaches the method of claim 2, wherein the confirmation of receipt of the one or more parameters of the lighting program is wirelessly transmitted to the controller as a modified 2.4 GHz WiFi packet ([0090] “the communications means might utilize other protocols including but not limited to ZigBee, WiFi, infrared, WiMax, LTE, ZWave, or other protocols not listed”).
Regarding Claim 5, Bora teaches the method of claim 1, wherein the rendering algorithm is executing with an updated current time input at predetermined intervals to determine the frame value ([0203] “a `time to sleep` scene might turn off all the II Devices in the network, except for one II Device on very low blue light in a child's bedroom, and activate the II Device alarms for all bedrooms in the house for a certain time”).
Regarding Claim 7, Bora teaches the method of claim 1, wherein each smart light in the plurality of smart lights has a unique light index ([0074] “A user has the flexibility to personalize the color, atmosphere, and mood of a room to better fit ones preference, time of day, or occasion at hand).
Regarding Claim 8, Bora teaches one or more non-transitory computer-readable media (Fig. 1: 108) comprising one or more computer-readable instructions (Fig. 26-37) that, when executed by one or more processors of a computing device (Fig. 25: 2548; [0076] “An II Device is a single wirelessly enabled lighting apparatus. A wireless device is a computing device such as a smartphone, computer, tablet”; [0178] “remote wireless device RD 2548 would originate the commands and then the localized wireless device WD1 2550 would act as the first network level of the mesh network…remote wireless device (RD) 2548 could be another embodiment of II Device 140”), cause the computing device to perform a method for implementing a lighting program by a plurality of smart lights (Fig. 25: IID1-8), the method comprising: receiving, from a controller (Fig. 25: 2550), one or more parameters of a lighting program at a plurality of smart lights, each smart light having a light index ([0201] “All number of II Devices would include scenes all off and all on related to turning all II Devices off within the addressable network, or turning all II Devices on. As example, for any lighting network containing a group of lights with the word "TV", "Television", "movie", "film", or related word, the application would suggest a lighting scene related to watching a movie, such as a soft blue light emitted from each of the II Devices”); storing the one or more parameters of the lighting program ([0088] “memory 108 stores data from factory defined settings and from user defined setting”); receiving, from the controller, a preliminary synchronization signal ([0256] “When launching the Music Sync application, the application would look for addressable lights”).
Bora does not explicitly teach in Fig. 1 initiating a timer based on the preliminary synchronization signal; configuring a rendering algorithm based on input including at least the light index, the one or more parameters of the lighting program, and a current time on the timer; executing the rendering algorithm to determine a frame value; and implementing a lighting output consistent with the determined frame value. However, [0257] teaches “At any time, the user will be able to reconfigure the arrangement or light themes, 5422…device application will interpret the music file wavelengths to send continuing commands to each II Device previously selected to turn on and off, adjust brightness, and change colors depending on the music construct within that channel at that time and the selected arrangement and theme”; [0261] “When the sunrise program is active, the program will be executed similar to any other automation or alarm program. The suggested colors used in the sunrise program will most likely include orange and red colors that would brighten over time until fully lit when the alarm or timer condition is met. Blue LEDs might also be included to provide the short wavelength light mimicking that of the sun”. It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filling of the claimed invention to combine the teachings of Bora in order to use the sync signal to sync light to music as well as initiate a sunrise timer for the mimicking sunrise since this would allow a user to create a profile and the user can wake up to a gentle calming music as the sunrises. Therefore, the subject matter claimed would have been obvious in view of Bora.
Regarding Claim 9, Bora teaches the one or more non-transitory computer-readable media of claim 8, except transmitting, from the plurality of smart lights to the controller, a confirmation of receipt of the one or more parameters of the lighting program. However, Bora teaches a mesh network. It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filling of the claimed invention to combine the teaching of Bora in order to transmit a confirmation of receipt message since mesh network communication includes ACK messaging.
Regarding Claim 10, Bora teaches the one or more non-transitory computer-readable media of claim 9, wherein the confirmation of receipt of the one or more parameters of the lighting program is wirelessly transmitted to the controller as a modified 2.4 GHz WiFi packet ([0090] “the communications means might utilize other protocols including but not limited to ZigBee, WiFi, infrared, WiMax, LTE, ZWave, or other protocols not listed”).
Regarding Claim 12, Bora teaches the one or more non-transitory computer-readable media of claim 8, wherein the rendering algorithm is executing with an updated current time input at predetermined intervals to determine the frame value ([0203] “a `time to sleep` scene might turn off all the II Devices in the network, except for one II Device on very low blue light in a child's bedroom, and activate the II Device alarms for all bedrooms in the house for a certain time”).
Regarding Claim 14, Bora teaches the one or more non-transitory computer-readable media of claim 8, wherein each smart light in the plurality of smart lights has a unique light index ([0074] “A user has the flexibility to personalize the color, atmosphere, and mood of a room to better fit ones preference, time of day, or occasion at hand).
Regarding Claim 15, Bora teaches a computing device (Fig. 25: 2548; [0076] “An II Device is a single wirelessly enabled lighting apparatus. A wireless device is a computing device such as a smartphone, computer, tablet”; [0178] “remote wireless device RD 2548 would originate the commands and then the localized wireless device WD1 2550 would act as the first network level of the mesh network…remote wireless device (RD) 2548 could be another embodiment of II Device 140”) comprising: one or more processors (Fig. 1: 106); and one or more non-transitory computer-readable media (Fig. 1: 108) comprising one or more computer-readable instructions ([0088] “memory 108 stores data from factory defined settings and from user defined settings”) that, when executed by the one or more processors, cause the computing device to perform a method for implementing a lighting program by a plurality of smart lights (Fig. 25: IID1-8),
the method comprising: receiving, from a controller (Fig. 25: 2550), one or more parameters of a lighting program at a plurality of smart lights, each smart light having a light index ([0201] “All number of II Devices would include scenes all off and all on related to turning all II Devices off within the addressable network, or turning all II Devices on. As example, for any lighting network containing a group of lights with the word "TV", "Television", "movie", "film", or related word, the application would suggest a lighting scene related to watching a movie, such as a soft blue light emitted from each of the II Devices”); storing the one or more parameters of the lighting program ([0088] “memory 108 stores data from factory defined settings and from user defined setting”); receiving, from the controller, a preliminary synchronization signal ([0256] “When launching the Music Sync application, the application would look for addressable lights”).
Bora does not explicitly teach in Fig. 1 initiating a timer based on the preliminary synchronization signal; configuring a rendering algorithm based on input including at least the light index, the one or more parameters of the lighting program, and a current time on the timer; executing the rendering algorithm to determine a frame value; and implementing a lighting output consistent with the determined frame value. However, [0257] teaches “At any time, the user will be able to reconfigure the arrangement or light themes, 5422…device application will interpret the music file wavelengths to send continuing commands to each II Device previously selected to turn on and off, adjust brightness, and change colors depending on the music construct within that channel at that time and the selected arrangement and theme”; [0261] “When the sunrise program is active, the program will be executed similar to any other automation or alarm program. The suggested colors used in the sunrise program will most likely include orange and red colors that would brighten over time until fully lit when the alarm or timer condition is met. Blue LEDs might also be included to provide the short wavelength light mimicking that of the sun”. It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filling of the claimed invention to combine the teachings of Bora in order to use the sync signal to sync light to music as well as initiate a sunrise timer for the mimicking sunrise since this would allow a user to create a profile and the user can wake up to a gentle calming music as the sunrises. Therefore, the subject matter claimed would have been obvious in view of Bora.
Regarding Claim 16, Bora teaches the computing device of claim 15, except transmitting, from the plurality of smart lights to the controller, a confirmation of receipt of the one or more parameters of the lighting program. However, Bora teaches a mesh network. It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filling of the claimed invention to combine the teaching of Bora in order to transmit a confirmation of receipt message since mesh network communication includes ACK messaging.
Regarding Claim 17, Bora teaches the computing device of claim 6, wherein the confirmation of receipt of the one or more parameters of the lighting program is wirelessly transmitted to the controller as a modified 2.4 GHz WiFi packet ([0090] “the communications means might utilize other protocols including but not limited to ZigBee, WiFi, infrared, WiMax, LTE, ZWave, or other protocols not listed”).
Regarding Claim 19, Bora teaches the computing device of claim 15, wherein the rendering algorithm is executing with an updated current time input at predetermined intervals to determine the frame value ([0203] “a `time to sleep` scene might turn off all the II Devices in the network, except for one II Device on very low blue light in a child's bedroom, and activate the II Device alarms for all bedrooms in the house for a certain time”).
Allowable Subject Matter
Claims 4, 6, 11, 13, 18 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
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to HENRY T LUONG whose telephone number is (571)270-7008. The examiner can normally be reached Monday-Thursday: 8:00-6:00.
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If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner’s supervisor, Regis Betsch can be reached at (571) 270-7101. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300.
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/Henry Luong/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2844