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 .
Examiner’s Note
For applicant’s benefit, portions of the cited reference(s) have been cited to aid in the review of the rejection(s). While every attempt has been made to be thorough and consistent within the rejection it is noted that the PRIOR ART MUST BE CONSIDERED IN ITS ENTIRETY, including disclosures that teach away from the claims. See MPEP 2141.02 VI.
“The use of patents as references is not limited to what the patentees describe as their own inventions or to the problems with which they are concerned. They are part of the literature of the art, relevant for all they contain.” In re Heck, 699 F.2d 1331, 1332-33, 216 USPQ 1038, 1039 (Fed. Cir. 1983) (quoting In re Lemelson, 397 F.2d 1006, 1009, 158 USPQ 275, 277 (CCPA 1968)). A reference may be relied upon for all that it would have reasonably suggested to one having ordinary skill in the art, including non-preferred embodiments. Merck & Co. v.Biocraft Laboratories, 874 F.2d 804, 10 USPQ2d 1843 (Fed. Cir.), cert. denied, 493 U.S. 975 (1989). See also Upsher-Smith Labs. v. Pamlab, LLC, 412 F.3d 1319, 1323, 75 USPQ2d 1213, 1215 (Fed. Cir. 2005) See MPEP 2123.
Claim Objections
Claim(s) 2 and 5 is/are objected to because of the following informalities:
Claim 2 recites “the position method further comprises” which contains a typographical error. It is suggested to be amended to “the positioning method further comprises”.
Claim 5 recites “the iterative error being smaller than or equal to the preset second threshold; and , determining the input position coordinates” which contains a typographical error. It is suggested to be amended to “the iterative error being smaller than or equal to the preset second threshold; and[[ ,]] determining the input position coordinates”.
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.
Claim(s) 2-6, and 8-12 is/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 2 recites “acquiring estimated position coordinates corresponding to the current iteration based on the initial arrival time stamp, a historical initial arrival time stamp, a preset moving speed, and historical final position coordinates” which renders the claim indefinite, such that the scope of the claim would not be reasonably ascertainable. It is unclear how the position coordinates would be estimated without a direction/ orientation and only based on the initial arrival time stamp, the historical initial arrival time stamp, the preset moving speed, and the historical final position coordinates. Without a trajectory, it would instead yield a circle of many possible estimated position coordinates.
Claim 3 recites “selecting, from the plurality of sets of signal arrival time differences, a set of signal arrival time differences, which is not selected as a set of signal arrival time differences corresponding to a start of a next iteration” which is unclear, such that the scope of the claim would not be reasonably ascertainable. The claim appears to simultaneously select and not select.
Claim 4 recites “the iterative operations” which renders the claim indefinite because there is insufficient antecedent basis in the claim.
Claim 5 is rejected by virtue of its dependence on claim 4.
Claim 6 recites “determining the estimated position coordinates corresponding to the current iteration based on the moving distance and the historical final position coordinates” which renders the claim indefinite, such that the scope of the claim would not be reasonably ascertainable. It is unclear how the position coordinates would be estimated without a direction/ orientation and only based on the moving distance and the historical final position coordinates. The moving distance and the historical final position coordinates only, without a trajectory, would instead yield a circle of many possible estimated position coordinates.
Claim 8 recites “acquire estimated position coordinates corresponding to the current iteration, based on the initial arrival time stamp, a historical initial arrival time stamp, a preset moving speed, and historical final position coordinates” which renders the claim indefinite, such that the scope of the claim would not be reasonably ascertainable. It is unclear how the position coordinates would be estimated without a direction/ orientation and only based on the initial arrival time stamp, the historical initial arrival time stamp, the preset moving speed, and the historical final position coordinates. Without a trajectory, it would instead yield a circle of many possible estimated position coordinates.
Claim 9 recites “select, from the plurality of sets of signal arrival time differences, a set of signal arrival time differences, which is not selected as a set of signal arrival time differences corresponding to a start of a next iteration” which is unclear, such that the scope of the claim would not be reasonably ascertainable. The claim appears to simultaneously select and not select.
Claim 10 recites “the iterative operations” which renders the claim indefinite because there is insufficient antecedent basis in the claim.
Claim 11 is rejected by virtue of its dependence on claim 10.
Claim 12 recites “determine the estimated position coordinates corresponding to the current iteration based on the moving distance and the historical final position coordinates” which renders the claim indefinite, such that the scope of the claim would not be reasonably ascertainable. It is unclear how the position coordinates would be estimated without a direction/ orientation and only based on the moving distance and the historical final position coordinates. The moving distance and the historical final position coordinates only, without a trajectory, would instead yield a circle of many possible estimated position coordinates.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 101
Claim 14 is rejected under 35 U.S.C. 101 because the claimed invention is directed to non-statutory subject matter. The claim(s) does/do not fall within at least one of the four categories of patent eligible subject matter because:
Claim 14 recites “a computer readable storage medium” that performs various functions. The plain and ordinary meaning of the recited "medium" includes signals per se, such as carrier waves, propagating electrical or electromagnetic signals, etc. Therefore, the recited “computer readable storage medium” does not fall within a statutory process, machine, manufacture or composition of matter. See Ex parte Mewherter. Accordingly, claim 14 fails to recite statutory subject matter as defined in 35 U.S.C. 101.
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, 7, and 13-14 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Ye et al. (US 2020/0382902 A1 “YE”), in view of Qu et al. (CN 112748397 B “QU”).
Regarding claim 1, YE discloses (Examiner’s note: What YE does not disclose is ) a positioning method comprising: acquiring a signal arrival time difference (the signal received by antennas 220 can be processed in the processing unit 225 for a time difference calculation [0040]), wherein the signal arrival time difference is a time difference between a response arrival time stamp at which a response signal transmitted by a responder positioning anchor reaches a target tag, and an initial arrival time stamp at which an initial signal transmitted by an initial positioning anchor reaches the target tag, and wherein the response signal is a signal generated to respond the initial signal by the responder positioning anchor after receiving the initial signal (in one TDOA scheme, a target object can initiate the ranging process by sending a request packet (referred to as a REQ packet) to anchors, and the anchors which have received the REQ packet may respond with a response packet (referred to as a RSP packet). Then, the anchors which have received both REQ and RSP packets can calculate the time difference needed to perform a location estimation [0037]); acquiring, based on the signal arrival time difference, in some TDOA techniques based on location estimations, the distance difference from the target object to two anchors can be estimated at the target object by measuring the time difference of two received ranging signals from each of the pair of anchors. This distance difference can be used in the location estimation of the target object [0035]);
In a same or similar field of endeavor, QU relates to a UWB positioning method. Specifically, QU teaches to use the Chan algorithm to initially calculate the label position, and use the estimated coordinates obtained from the calculation as the initial coordinates of the Taylor iteration method and the coordinates of the known anchor nodes to calculate the actual position coordinates of the unknown node [0012].
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify the system of YE to include the teachings of QU, because doing so would improve detection accuracy and efficiency of the system, as recognized by QU.
Regarding claim 7, YE discloses a positioning apparatus comprising: a signal arrival time difference acquisition module configured to acquire a signal arrival time difference (the signal received by antennas 220 can be processed in the processing unit 225 for a time difference calculation [0040]), wherein the signal arrival time difference is a time difference between a response arrival time stamp at which a response signal transmitted by a responder positioning anchor reaches a target tag, and an initial arrival time stamp at which an initial signal transmitted by an initial positioning anchor reaches the target tag, and wherein the response signal is generated to respond the initial signal by the responder positioning anchor after receiving the initial signal (in one TDOA scheme, a target object can initiate the ranging process by sending a request packet (referred to as a REQ packet) to anchors, and the anchors which have received the REQ packet may respond with a response packet (referred to as a RSP packet). Then, the anchors which have received both REQ and RSP packets can calculate the time difference needed to perform a location estimation [0037]); an initial position coordinate acquisition module configured to acquire, based on the signal arrival time difference, in some TDOA techniques based on location estimations, the distance difference from the target object to two anchors can be estimated at the target object by measuring the time difference of two received ranging signals from each of the pair of anchors. This distance difference can be used in the location estimation of the target object [0035]);
In a same or similar field of endeavor, QU relates to a UWB positioning method. Specifically, QU teaches to use the Chan algorithm to initially calculate the label position, and use the estimated coordinates obtained from the calculation as the initial coordinates of the Taylor iteration method and the coordinates of the known anchor nodes to calculate the actual position coordinates of the unknown node [0012].
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify the system of YE to include the teachings of QU, because doing so would improve detection accuracy and efficiency of the system, as recognized by QU.
Regarding claim 13, YE/ QU discloses an electronic device comprising: a signal receiving apparatus; a processor; and a memory for storing instructions executable by the processor, wherein the processor is configured to execute the instructions, based on a signal received by the signal receiving apparatus, to implement a positioning method as claimed in claim 1 (the article of manufacture includes hardware logic as well as software or programmable code embedded in a computer readable medium that is executed by a processor [YE 0072]).
Regarding claim 14, YE/ QU discloses a computer readable storage medium, wherein instructions stored in the computer readable storage medium, when executed by a processor of an electronic device, cause the electronic device to perform a positioning method of claim 1 (the article of manufacture includes hardware logic as well as software or programmable code embedded in a computer readable medium that is executed by a processor [YE 0072]).
Allowable Subject Matter
Claim(s) 2-6, and 8-12 would be allowable if rewritten to overcome the rejection(s) under 35 U.S.C. 112(b) or 35 U.S.C. 112 (pre-AIA ), 2nd paragraph, set forth in this Office action and to include 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:
The closest prior art YE discloses a method for locating a position of a target object equipped with a plurality of spatially distributed antennas in a network of a plurality of anchors at fixed locations. The method can include assigning a plurality of anchor pairs. Each anchor pair of the plurality of anchor pairs can include at least two anchors of a plurality of anchors. Each anchor pair can be configured to transmit ranging packets according to a transmission schedule by transmitting, by a first anchor of the anchor pair, a range request (REQ) packet. A second anchor of the anchor pair can receive the REQ packet. The second anchor can transmit a range response (RSP) packet in response to the REQ packet. The method can include receiving, by at least one of the plurality of antennas on the target object, the REQ packet. The method can include receiving, by at least one of the plurality of antennas on the target object, the RSP packet. In some implementations, the method can include estimating, for each anchor pair, a distance difference between a first distance from the target object to the first anchor and a second distance from the target object to the second anchor, based on times at which the REQ packet and the RSP packet are received at the target object. In some implementations, the method can include estimating, for each anchor pair, distance differences from the target object to the first anchor and the second anchor, based on times at which the REQ packet and the RSP packet are received by at least two of the plurality of antennas of the target object. The method can include estimating the position of the target object based on the estimated distance differences for each anchor pair.
Furthermore, QU discloses to provide a UWB positioning method based on adaptive BP neural network under non-line-of-sight conditions, and use the K-means++ clustering algorithm based on unsupervised learning to divide the observation data into LOS, NLOS L and NLOS H three categories; then use the GA algorithm to dynamically optimize the weights and thresholds of the BP neural network to further improve the efficiency of the algorithm; then use the Chan algorithm to solve the initial coordinates of the label, and use Taylor to calculate the coordinates and reconstructed data The iterative algorithm updates the label coordinates to make the position positioning more accurate.
Further still, SARK et al. (US 2018/0132064 A1) discloses a method of determining a position of at least one transceiver node comprises, anchor node by anchor node, transmitting respective positioning frames suitable for reception by a transceiver node and by the other anchor nodes. The transceiver node receives the positioning frames transmitted by the anchor nodes and ascertains respective times of reception for each. A solver stage determines the coordinates (xs, ys, zs) of the respective transceiver node and the time ts of transmission of the first positioning frame by an anchor node of first rank in the positioning sequence by numerically solving a non-linear system of at least five equations.
However, Applicant’s claim 2 also encompasses an invention that the prior art does not disclose, teach, or otherwise render obvious. Neither YE, QU, nor SARK anticipates or renders fairly obvious, alone, or in combination, to teach all the additional limitations as cited in claim 2, within the context of Applicant' s claimed invention as a whole, that is, “wherein the signal arrival time difference comprises a plurality of signal arrival time differences, wherein, based on the signal arrival time difference, the acquiring the initial position coordinates of the target position at which the target tag is located comprises acquiring the initial position coordinates in iterative operations, based on the plurality of signal arrival time differences, and wherein, for each of the iterative operations, the position method further comprises: determining a set of signal arrival time differences corresponding to a start of a current iteration, wherein the set of signal arrival time differences is one of a plurality of sets of signal arrival time differences obtained by combining any two of the plurality of signal arrival time differences; acquiring temporary position coordinates of the target position based on two signal arrival time differences contained in the set of signal arrival time differences corresponding to the start of the current iteration; acquiring estimated position coordinates corresponding to the current iteration based on the initial arrival time stamp, a historical initial arrival time stamp, a preset moving speed, and historical final position coordinates, wherein the historical initial arrival time stamp is a time stamp of a historical initial signal arriving at the target tag before the initial signal arrives at the target tag, and wherein the historical final position coordinates are coordinates of a position at which the target tag is located during a course of a history that is acquired based on the historical initial signal; and determining whether the iterative operations are terminated based on the temporary position coordinates and the estimated position coordinates corresponding to the current iteration, wherein temporary position coordinates obtained based on the iterative operations being terminated are determined to be the initial position coordinates” as recited in claim 2 and as similarly recited in claim 8.
Claim(s) 3, 6, 9, and 12 would be allowable by virtue of their dependence on respective claim(s) 2 and 8.
Similarly, Applicant’s claim 4 also encompasses an invention that the prior art does not disclose, teach, or otherwise render obvious. Neither YE, QU, nor SARK anticipates or renders fairly obvious, alone, or in combination, to teach all the additional limitations as cited in claim 4, within the context of Applicant' s claimed invention as a whole, that is, “wherein the obtaining final position coordinates of the target position based on the initial position coordinates, the position coordinates of the initial positioning anchor and the position coordinates of the responder positioning anchor comprises: determining input position coordinates corresponding to a start of a current iteration, wherein the input position coordinates are the initial position coordinates; determining an iterative error and an error compensation corresponding to the current iteration based on the input position coordinates corresponding to the start of the current iteration, the position coordinates of the initial positioning anchor, and the position coordinates of the responder positioning anchor; and determining whether the iterative operations are terminated based on the iterative error and a preset second threshold, wherein input position coordinates based on the iterative operations being terminated are determined as the final position coordinates” as recited in claim 4 and as similarly recited in claim 10.
Claim(s) 5 and 11 would be allowable by virtue of their dependence on respective claim(s) 4 and 10.
Any comments considered necessary by applicant must be submitted no later than the payment of the issue fee and, to avoid processing delays, should preferably accompany the issue fee. Such submissions should be clearly labeled “Comments on Statement of Reasons for Allowance.”
Conclusion
The prior art made of record and not relied upon is considered pertinent to applicant's disclosure.
Sharp et al. (US 2021/0080560 A1) is considered pertinent art for the disclosure overall, and in particular the details of the communications system including a first base station arranged to transmit a first signal to a second base station arranged receive the first signal and transmit a second signal to the first base station in response. The first base station is arranged to receive the second signal and transmit a third signal to the second base station in response to the second signal. delay time measuring unit, round trip time measuring unit, a base station timings unit and a calculating unit are used to calculate a first time difference of arrival based on a first round trip time, first delay time, second round trip time and a second delay time.
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to HAILEY R LE whose telephone number is (571)272-4910. The examiner can normally be reached 9:00 AM - 5:00 PM EST.
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If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner’s supervisor, VLADIMIR MAGLOIRE can be reached at (571) 270-5144. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300.
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/Hailey R Le/Examiner, Art Unit 3648 August 17, 2026
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