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 .
Claims StatusClaims 1-6, 8-11, 15-19, 21-23 are pending and have been rejected.Claims 7, 12, 13, 14, 20 are objected.
Information Disclosure Statement
The information disclosure statement (IDS) submitted on 11/18/2024 & 07/14/2025 is in compliance with the provisions of 37 CFR 1.97. Accordingly, the information disclosure statement is being considered by the examiner.
Allowable Subject Matter
Claim 7, 12, 13, 14, 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.
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.
The factual inquiries for establishing a background for determining obviousness under 35 U.S.C. 103 are summarized as follows:
1. Determining the scope and contents of the prior art.
2. Ascertaining the differences between the prior art and the claims at issue.
3. Resolving the level of ordinary skill in the pertinent art.
4. Considering objective evidence present in the application indicating obviousness or nonobviousness.
Claims 1-6, 8-11, 15-19, 21-23 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Shoari et al. (U.S. Publication 2017/0365157), hereinafter “Shoari” in view of Winter et al. (U.S. Publication 2019/0137559), hereinafter “Winter”.
As to claims 1, Shoari discloses a method of determining the origin of an event in an electrical distribution network of an internet of things (IoT)-enabled industrial facility, comprising: synchronizing a plurality of IoT nodes coupled to a plurality of electrical machines and electrical devices within the electrical distribution network (Shoari, [0035], appliances monitoring sub-system have multiple sensors installed on appliances, wherein the sensors data is being collected from the sensors by the IoT adaptor in order to send it to the central unit. See [0037] and [0044], sub-system gathers useful data from all appliances and store them in a database located in the central monitoring unit, wherein the central monitoring unit captures an informative snapshot of all appliances, room temperatures in any restaurant unit and can provide real-time alerts whenever the temperatures are not set correctly or when there is a failure in an appliance); temporally correlating an event captured by two or more IoT nodes of the plurality of IoT nodes, the event comprising a voltage or current transient or waveform or other voltage and/or current-related characteristic having a unique electrical signature (Shoari, see [0048], the changes in current and voltage of the appliances can be measured and transmitted to the central unit through the Internet of Things adaptor. This data can be analyzed and used in central monitoring unit to identify a possible failure in the system); and Shoari is silent to using a single-line drawing (SLD) of the electrical distribution network and localization information gained from temporally correlating the event, pinpointing an origin of the event within the electrical distribution network. However, Winter discloses using a single-line drawing (SLD) of the electrical distribution network and localization information gained from temporally correlating the event, pinpointing an origin of the event within the electrical distribution network (Winter, [0028] and fig. 3, a single-line diagram locating earth fault in a multi-phase power grid). Therefore, it would have been obvious to a person of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify Shoari in view of Winter in order to further modify the method for monitoring the working appliances to be in pre-defined range and use an Internet of Things gateways to transmit the data to remote control unit from the teachings of Shoari with the method locating earth fault in power grids from the teachings of Winter.
One of ordinary skill in the art would have been motivated because it would allow to determine fault detection, wherein the ground fault is localized based on measurement values representing changes (Winter – Abstract).
As to claim 2, Shoari in view of Winter discloses everything disclosed in claim 1. Shoari further discloses wherein pinpointing the origin of the event comprises determining a root cause of the event, including identifying any machines and/or electrical equipment within the IoT-enabled industrial facility that caused the event or that is/are associated with the event (Shoari, see [0086] and fig. 11, how information about the employee's behavior can be inferred from sensed data by analyzing the signals from the sensors and considering the duration and the sequence of events).
As to claim 3, Shoari in view of Winter discloses everything disclosed in claim 1. Shoari further discloses wherein temporally correlating the event and pinpointing the origin of the event are performed by one or more cloud computers using data captures received from the plurality of IoT nodes, and synchronizing the plurality of IoT nodes is performed by a computer located within the IoT-enabled industrial facility (Shoari, see [0037] and [0044], sub-system gathers useful data from all appliances and store them in a database located in the central monitoring unit, wherein the central monitoring unit captures an informative snapshot of all appliances, room temperatures in any restaurant unit and can provide real-time alerts whenever the temperatures are not set correctly or when there is a failure in an appliance. The sensors have on-chip memories that store different temperature values in a specific period of time. these values will be sent to the Internet of Things (IoT) adaptor unit (or a wireless router, hub, switch or gateway) periodically or upon some event the data transmission and to ensure successful delivery of data).
As to claim 4, Shoari in view of Winter discloses everything disclosed in claim 1. Shoari further discloses wherein synchronizing the plurality of IoT nodes, temporally correlating the event, and pinpointing the origin of the event are performed by one or more cloud computers using data captures received from the plurality of IoT nodes (Shoari, see [0048], the changes in current and voltage of the appliances can be measured and transmitted to the central unit through the Internet of Things adaptor. This data can be analyzed and used in central monitoring unit to identify a possible failure in the system).
As to claim 5, Shoari in view of Winter discloses everything disclosed in claim 1. Shoari further discloses wherein synchronizing the plurality of IoT nodes comprises synchronizing the plurality of IoT nodes to sub-millisecond precision (Shoari, see [0044], the temperature sensors have on-chip memories that store different temperature values in a specific period of time, such as periodically or upon some event).
As to claim 6, Shoari in view of Winter discloses everything disclosed in claim 1. Shoari further discloses wherein temporally correlating the event comprises: identifying sets of IoT nodes from among the plurality of IoT nodes that are coincident (Shoari, see fig. 11, events during a specific time range, wherein multiple events can occur at the same place); and for each identified set of coincident IoT nodes, resolving conflicts among said each identified set of coincident IoT nodes concerning whether the event did or did not occur (Shoari, see fig. 11, information about the employee's behavior can be inferred from sensed data by analyzing the signals from the sensors and considering the duration and the sequence of events).
As to claim 8, Shoari in view of Winter discloses everything disclosed in claim 7. Shoari further discloses wherein the probability detection rates of each IoT node are non-static and vary depending on the type of the event (Shoari, see [0044], the temperature sensors have on-chip memories that store different temperature values in a specific period of time. These values will be sent to the Internet of Things (IoT) adaptor unit (or a wireless router, hub, switch or gateway) periodically or upon some event to save energy on the data transmission and to ensure successful delivery of data).
As to claim 9, Shoari in view of Winter discloses everything disclosed in claim 1. Shoari further discloses wherein temporally correlating the event comprises resolving conflicts among IoT nodes of the plurality of IoT nodes as to whether the event occurred or did not occur (Shoari, see fig. 11, information about the employee's behavior can be inferred from sensed data by analyzing the signals from the sensors and considering the duration and the sequence of events).
As to claim 10, Shoari in view of Winter discloses everything disclosed in claim 9. Shoari further discloses further comprising storing and updating over time probability detection rates of IoT nodes from the plurality of IoT nodes that properly detected the event and probability detection rates of other IoT nodes from the plurality of IoT nodes that should have detected the event but did not (Shoari, see [0044], the sensors have on-chip memories that store different temperature values in a specific period of time. these values will be sent to the Internet of Things (IoT) adaptor unit (or a wireless router, hub, switch or gateway) periodically or upon some event the data transmission and to ensure successful delivery of data. See [0060], room temperature can change from the preset values during or after working hours).
As to claim 11, Shoari in view of Winter discloses everything disclosed in claim 10. Shoari further discloses wherein storing and updating over time the probability detection rates further comprises storing and updating over time probability detection rates for other events of other types different from said event (Shoari, see [0044], the sensors have on-chip memories that store different temperature values in a specific period of time. these values will be sent to the Internet of Things (IoT) adaptor unit (or a wireless router, hub, switch or gateway) periodically or upon some event the data transmission and to ensure successful delivery of data. See [0060], room temperature can change from the preset values during or after working hours).
As to claim 15, Shoari in view of Winter discloses an industrial internet of things (IIoT) system, comprising: an IoT-enabled industrial facility including an electrical distribution network having a plurality of electrical machines and other electrical devices and a plurality of IoT nodes coupled to the plurality of electrical machines and other electrical devices (Shoari, [0035], appliances monitoring sub-system have multiple sensors installed on appliances, wherein the sensors data is being collected from the sensors by the IoT adaptor in order to send it to the central unit. See [0037] and [0044], sub-system gathers useful data from all appliances and store them in a database located in the central monitoring unit, wherein the central monitoring unit captures an informative snapshot of all appliances, room temperatures in any restaurant unit and can provide real-time alerts whenever the temperatures are not set correctly or when there is a failure in an appliance); and a cloud-based computing platform, communicatively coupled to the IoT-enabled industrial facility, including one or more cloud computers configured to temporally correlate events contained in data captures captured by IoT nodes of the plurality of IoT nodes (Shoari, see [0048], the changes in current and voltage of the appliances can be measured and transmitted to the central unit through the Internet of Things adaptor. This data can be analyzed and used in central monitoring unit to identify a possible failure in the system) and, Shoari is silent to based on localization information produced from the temporal correlation of a given event, pinpoint a location within the IoT-enabled industrial facility that the given event originated.
However, Winter discloses based on localization information produced from the temporal correlation of a given event, pinpoint a location within the IoT-enabled industrial facility that the given event originated (Winter, [0028] and fig. 3 locating earth fault in a multi-phase power grid). Therefore, it would have been obvious to a person of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify Shoari in view of Winter in order to further modify the method for monitoring the working appliances to be in pre-defined range and use an Internet of Things gateways to transmit the data to remote control unit from the teachings of Shoari with the method locating earth fault in power grids from the teachings of Winter.
One of ordinary skill in the art would have been motivated because it would allow to determine fault detection, wherein the ground fault is localized based on measurement values representing changes (Winter – Abstract).
As to claim 16, Shoari in view of Winter discloses everything disclosed in claim 15. Shoari further discloses wherein the one or more cloud computers are configured to synchronize the plurality of IoT nodes to a common time reference, prior to temporally correlating the given event (Shoari, see [0048], the changes in current and voltage of the appliances can be measured and transmitted to the central unit through the Internet of Things adaptor. This data can be analyzed and used in central monitoring unit to identify a possible failure in the system).
As to claim 17, Shoari in view of Winter discloses everything disclosed in claim 15. Shoari further discloses wherein the one or more cloud computers is/are further configured to resolve conflicts among coincident IoT nodes concerning whether the given event occurred or did not occur (Shoari, see fig. 11, information about the employee's behavior can be inferred from sensed data by analyzing the signals from the sensors and considering the duration and the sequence of events).
As to claim 18, Shoari in view of Winter discloses everything disclosed in claim 17. Shoari further discloses further comprising an event statistics database configured to catalog probability detection rates of each IoT node of the plurality of IoT nodes (Shoari, see [0075], the central database is located in the central control unit and stores all raw data from the sensors).
As to claim 19, Shoari in view of Winter discloses everything disclosed in claim 18, wherein the probability detection rates are event-type dependent and the one or more cloud computers is/are configured to record and update probability detection rates for multiple event types in the event statistics database for each IoT node (Shoari, see [0044], the temperature sensors have on-chip memories that store different temperature values in a specific period of time. These values will be sent to the Internet of Things (IoT) adaptor unit (or a wireless router, hub, switch or gateway) periodically or upon some event to save energy on the data transmission and to ensure successful delivery of data).
As to claim 21, Shoari in view of Winter discloses everything disclosed in claim 18, wherein the event statistics database is stored on one or more cloud-based storage devices within the cloud-based computing platform (Shoari, see [0037], the sub-system gathers useful data from all appliances and store them in a database located in the central monitoring unit).
As to claim 22, Shoari in view of Winter discloses everything disclosed in claim 18. Shoari further discloses wherein the event statistics database is stored locally on a storage device within the IoT-enabled industrial facility (Shoari, see [0075], the central database is located in the central control unit and stores all raw data from the sensors).
As to claim 23, Shoari in view of Winter discloses everything disclosed in claim 18, wherein the event statistics database is stored and updated distributive in a blockchain (Shoari, see [0037], the sub-system gathers useful data from all appliances and store them in a database located in the central monitoring unit).
Conclusion
The prior art made of record and not relied upon is considered pertinent to applicant’s disclosure. This includes: U.S. Publication 2016/0292938, which describes accurately sensing user location in an IoT system.
U.S. Publication 2017/0315168, which describes fault location during pole-open condition.
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to TANIA M PENA-SANTANA whose telephone number is (571)270-0627. The examiner can normally be reached Monday - Friday 8am to 4pm EST.
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/TANIA M PENA-SANTANA/Examiner, Art Unit 2443
/CHRISTOPHER B ROBINSON/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2443
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