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 8 is objected to because of the following informalities:
Claim 8, line 1 recites, “updating a database”. This seems to be an inadvertent error. The limitation should be amended to read, “updating the database”, since a database was introduced in claim 1.
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.
Claims 16-35 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over US 20110140848 A1 (Abukawa et al., hereinafter Abukawa) in view of US 20150279380 A1 (Sung et al., hereinafter Sung).
Regarding claim 16, Abukawa discloses a method of error concealment of an audio signal for a mobile radio (Fig. 1, par. [0012], “broadcast receiver shown in FIG. 1…enables users to continuously view and listen to the identical broadcast content by changing the frequency band of the broadcast wave to be received.”; par. [0026]; par. [0034], “error concealment mode switching unit 14 switches the video/audio decoding unit 8a to an error concealment mode”; and par. [0072]), the method comprising:
receiving a current location value provided by a spatial location receiver (Fig. 1 and pars. [0013], [0019], “current position of the vehicle acquired by this moving object position acquiring unit 1a…”);
determining whether at least one signal quality parameter associated with the current location value is available in a database (par. [0016], “reception state acquiring unit 3 acquires information showing the reception state of the above-mentioned broadcast wave … field intensity of the broadcast wave… field intensity of the broadcast wave…SNR (Signal Noise Rate)”; par. [0019], “state information is stored, as one history information, in the storage unit 7 together with the position information about the vehicle, the information showing the reception state of the above-mentioned broadcast wave, decoding state information”; par. [0025], “state history extracting unit (an extracting unit) 9 reads the history information corresponding to the current vehicle position acquired by the moving object position acquiring unit 1a… when the history information corresponding to the above-mentioned current vehicle position is not stored in the storage unit 7…”; and par. [0032], “When the state history extracting unit 9 cannot acquire the history information (when the history information is not stored in the storage unit 7…”);
in response to the at least one signal quality parameter being available (par. [0019], “state information…stored…”); selecting a first error concealment method for a received audio signal dependent on the at least one signal quality parameter; applying the first error concealment method to the received audio signal (par. [0032], “when the decoding state determining unit 10e can acquire the history information via the state history extracting unit 9, the decoding state determining unit determines whether or not to perform the switching between sending-out stations with reference to the decoding state information included in this history information.” Wherein switching based on the state information being available corresponds to a first error concealment method/procedure); and
in response to the at least one signal quality parameter not being available (par. [0032], “when the state history extracting unit 9 cannot acquire history information (when the history information is not stored in the storage unit 7”), and determining that the received audio signal is corrupted (par. [0023], “the decoding state acquiring unit (an error information acquiring unit) 8b is a component of the broadcast display state acquiring unit 8, and acquires error information about errors occurring in the decoding process carried out by the video/audio decoding unit 8a” where errors indicate a corrupted audio signals);
applying a second error concealment method to the received audio signal (par. [0032], “the decoding state determining unit 10e acquires decoding state information from the decoding state acquiring unit 8b to determine whether or not to perform the switching between sending-out stations according to the result of comparison between a parameter value which constructs this decoding state information and a predetermined threshold.”, where it is implicit from the fact of not having the information stored, the error concealment procedure method is already different from the procedure when the information is available/stored. Please see claims 4-6 for different error concealment methods applied).
However, for the purpose of compact prosecution, a new reference is being introduced to provide a plurality of error concealment methods for selection.
In related art concerning frame error concealment method and apparatus and error concealment scheme, Sung discloses a plurality of error concealment methods for selection (par. [0020], “an adaptive frame error concealment method including selecting one of an overlapping method, a repetition method, and an interpolation method…”).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the invention to use Sung’s teachings about having more than one error concealment method to select from with the broadcast receiver disclosed by Abukawa because one of ordinary skill in the art would have recognized that the additional concealment methods would provide dynamic adaptability to the different error conditions and/or circumstances experienced by the receiver.
Regarding claim 29, Abukawa discloses a controller for a mobile radio (par. [0012], “broadcast receiver”), the controller comprising:
a navigation input configured to be coupled to a spatial location receiver (Fig. 1 and par. [0013], “The car navigation device 1 analyzes 3D map data 1b on the basis of information about the current position of the vehicle acquired by this moving object position acquiring unit 1a to acquire information about the current position of the vehicle on a three-dimensional map shown by the 3D map data 1b”);
a radio reception condition input configured to receive a radio reception condition signal (Fig. 1; pars. [0013] and [0016], “reception state acquiring unit 3 acquires information showing the reception state of the above-mentioned broadcast wave … field intensity of the broadcast wave… field intensity of the broadcast wave…SNR (Signal Noise Rate)”);
an audio input configured to be coupled to an output of a radio receiver (Fig. 1 and par. [0023], input from the “video/audio decoding unit (a playback unit) 8a is a component of the broadcast display state acquiring unit 8, and decodes the broadcast data received by the tuner module 2 to acquire video data and audio data.”); and
an audio output (par. [0024], “played back” and “a serial audio output from an audio decoder”); wherein the controller is configured to:
receive a current location value provided by a spatial location receiver (Fig. 1 and par. [0013], “information about the current position of the vehicle acquired by this moving object position acquiring unit 1a…”);
determine whether at least one signal quality parameter associated with the current location value is available in a database (par. [0016], “reception state acquiring unit 3 acquires information showing the reception state of the above-mentioned broadcast wave … field intensity of the broadcast wave… field intensity of the broadcast wave…SNR (Signal Noise Rate)”; par. [0019], “state information is stored, as one history information, in the storage unit 7 together with the position information about the vehicle, the information showing the reception state of the above-mentioned broadcast wave, decoding state information”; par. [0025], “state history extracting unit (an extracting unit) 9 reads the history information corresponding to the current vehicle position acquired by the moving object position acquiring unit 1a… when the history information corresponding to the above-mentioned current vehicle position is not stored in the storage unit 7…”; and par. [0032], “When the state history extracting unit 9 cannot acquire the history information (when the history information is not stored in the storage unit 7…”);
in response to the at least one signal quality parameter being available (par. [0019], “state information…stored…”); select a first error concealment method for a received audio signal dependent on the at least one signal quality parameter; applying the first error concealment method to the received audio signal (par. [0032], “when the decoding state determining unit 10e can acquire the history information via the state history extracting unit 9, the decoding state determining unit determines whether or not to perform the switching between sending-out stations with reference to the decoding state information included in this history information.” Wherein switching based on the state information being available corresponds to a first error concealment method/procedure); and
in response to the at least one signal quality parameter not being available (par. [0032], “when the state history extracting unit 9 cannot acquire history information (when the history information is not stored in the storage unit 7”), and the controller is further configured to:
predict (Fig. 1, item 5) whether the received audio signal will be corrupted from the radio reception condition signal (par. [0023], “the decoding state acquiring unit (an error information acquiring unit) 8b is a component of the broadcast display state acquiring unit 8, and acquires error information about errors occurring in the decoding process carried out by the video/audio decoding unit 8a” where errors indicate a corrupted audio signals and a pre-stored history information can predict the signal will be corrupted based on previous readings/history/experience);
apply a second error concealment method to the received audio signal in response to determining that the received audio signal will be corrupted (par. [0032], “the decoding state determining unit 10e acquires decoding state information from the decoding state acquiring unit 8b to determine whether or not to perform the switching between sending-out stations according to the result of comparison between a parameter value which constructs this decoding state information and a predetermined threshold.”, where it is implicit from the fact of not having the information stored, the error concealment procedure method is already different from the procedure when the information is available/stored and previous history/information can be predictors for determining if the signals will be corrupted. Please see claims 4-6 for different error concealment methods applied).
However, for the purpose of compact prosecution, a new reference is being introduced to provide a plurality of error concealment methods for selection.
Sung discloses a plurality of error concealment methods for selection (par. [0020], “an adaptive frame error concealment method including selecting one of an overlapping method, a repetition method, and an interpolation method…”).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the invention to use Sung’s teachings about having more than one error concealment method to select from with the broadcast receiver disclosed by Abukawa because one of ordinary skill in the art would have recognized that the additional concealment methods would provide dynamic adaptability to the different error conditions and/or circumstances experienced by the receiver.
Regarding claim 17, Abukawa and Sung disclose all the limitations of claim 16. Abukawa further discloses wherein the at least one signal quality parameter comprises an audio corruption time duration (par. [0068], “the decoding state information… the decoding error frequency can be the number of TS packets in each of which an error indicator is set…the number of breaks occurring in a data signal which is a serial audio output from an audio decoder, or the time interval during which each of the breaks has occurred”).
Regarding claim 18, Abukawa and Sung disclose all the limitations of claim 17. Abukawa further discloses wherein in response to the audio corruption time duration being below a first time threshold value (par. [0068], “the decoding state determining unit 10e compares the above-mentioned decoding state information with a predetermined threshold…”; par. [0007], claims 2 and 7). Abukawa discloses in claim 3 frame prediction by using previous frames which reads on frame repetition. Sung further discloses frame repetition (par. [0020], “an adaptive frame error concealment method including selecting one of an overlapping method, a repetition method, and an interpolation method…”).
Regarding claim 19, Abukawa and Sung disclose all the limitations of claim 17. Abukawa further discloses wherein in response to the audio corruption time duration being below a first time threshold value (pars. [0068]-[0069], “the decoding state determining unit 10e compares the above-mentioned decoding state information with a predetermined threshold…”), the first error concealment method comprises switching to a secondary broadcast signal that is aligned to the received audio signal in at least one of time, spectrum and level (par. [0007], “being able to appropriately switch between broadcast waves providing an identical content which are sent out from different sending-out stations to receive one of the broadcast waves.”; claim 4, “there is a tendency for said reception state to get worse is acquired, determines that the sending-out station from which to receive the broadcast wave by using the receiving unit should be changed”; and par. [0068]).
Regarding claim 20, Abukawa and Sung disclose all the limitations of claim 17. Abukawa further discloses wherein in response to the audio corruption time duration being above a second time threshold value (claim 5, “acquiring information showing an error frequency with which errors occur”), the first error concealment method comprises at least one of audio fade-in and audio fade-out (claim 5, “playback unit for playing back received data… determines whether or not a playback state of the received data of the broadcast wave is at a predetermined level on a basis of information showing the error frequency acquired by said error information acquiring unit”).
Regarding claim 21, Abukawa and Sung disclose all the limitations of claim 17. Abukawa further discloses wherein in response to the audio corruption time duration being above a second time threshold value (claim 6, “showing that there is a tendency for said playback state to get worse is acquired”), the first error concealment method comprises switching to a secondary broadcast signal and fading out at least one of a spectral and level alignment to the received audio signal (claim 6, “determines that the sending-out station from which to receive the broadcast wave by using the receiving unit should be changed”).
Regarding claim 22, Abukawa and Sung disclose all the limitations of claim 17. Abukawa further discloses wherein the at least one signal quality parameter comprises an audio corruption rate (par. [0017], “the reception state further gets worse as the vehicle travels…bit error rate” of the audio).
Regarding claim 23, Abukawa and Sung disclose all the limitations of claim 16. Abukawa further discloses updating a database, the database comprising a plurality of database entries, each database entry comprising a location value and a signal quality parameter (par. [0019], “broadcast wave display state information is stored, as one history information, in th storage unit 7 together with the position information…”; par. [0021], “dynamically-changing-units-of-information storage change commanding unit (a storage unit changing unit) 6b abstract history information which has not been updated or read for a predetermined time period or longer (i.e. history information which is acquired at a position which the vehicle has not visited for a predetermined time period or longer (from among a history information stored in the storage unit 7 to change the units of information to be stored in the storage unit 7”).
Regarding claim 24, Abukawa discloses all the limitations of claim 23. Abukawa further discloses in response to the at least one signal quality parameter not being available: determining the at least one signal quality parameter of the received audio signal; and updating the database with a database entry comprising the at least one signal quality parameter and the current location value (par. [0021], “dynamically-changing-units-of-information storage change commanding unit…”; par. [0028], “when the reception state determining unit 10b cannot acquire the history information from the state history extracting history unit 9, the reception state determining unit 10b compares a parameter value showing th reception state acquired by the reception state acquiring unit 3 with the predetermined threshold to determine the reception state of the broadcast wave according to the comparison result”).
Regarding claim 25, Abukawa and Sung disclose all the limitations of claim 23. Abukawa further discloses wherein each database entry further comprises at least one of a timestamp value and a location visit count value, and the method further comprises updating the database with at least one of a timestamp value and a location visit count value for the current location (par. [0021], where it is well-known that updated entries or entered information is timestamped).
Regarding claim 26, Abukawa and Sung disclose all the limitations of claim 25. Abukawa further discloses wherein updating the database comprises: in response to the number of entries exceeding a maximum entry value, removing a selection of the plurality of database entries based on at least one of the timestamp value and the location visit count value of each database entry (par.[0021], where information updates require the newest information to stay and old/outdated information to be discarded).
Regarding claim 27, Abukawa and Sung disclose all the limitations of claim 16. Abukawa further wherein determining the at least one signal quality parameter comprises determining that the received audio signal is corrupted (claims 12 and 13).
Regarding claim 28, Abukawa and Sung disclose all the limitations of claim 27. Abukawa further discloses wherein the at least one signal quality parameter comprises a proportion of a number of corrupted audio frames during one of a predetermined time duration and predetermined distance (par. [0032], “decoding state determining unit 10e acquires decoding state information from the decoding state acquiring unit 8b to determine whether or not to perform the switching between sending-out stations according to the result of comparison between a parameter value which construct this decoding state information and a predetermined threshold.”; par. [0023], “decoding state acquiring unit (an error information acquiring unit) 8b…acquires error information about errors occurring in the decoding process carried out by the video/audio decoding unit 8a”; par. [0068], “the decoding state information which is compared with the…threshold…can be considered a decoding error frequency”, “for example,… the number of decoding errors occurring in the audio decoding process, the number of breaks occurring in the data signal which is a serial audio output from the audio decoder, or the time interval during which each of the breaks has occurred.”).
Regarding claim 30, Abukawa and Sung disclose all the limitations of claim 29. Abukawa further discloses a control module (Fig. 1, “broadcast receiver” inherently comprising control modules) coupled to a database (Fig. 1, where storage units 6, 7 and the storage unit for 3D Map read on databases, since they hold, organize, manage and retrieve data in an effective manner; par. [0014]), the control module having a first control module input coupled to the navigation input (“Car Navigation Device 1” comprising several input outputs connected to the broadcast receiver), a second module input coupled to the radio reception condition input (Fig. 1, where receivers comprise amplifiers) and a control module output (Fig. 1, “broadcast receiver” comprising output units/modules. Please see lines between different elements corresponding to inputs/output lines); an error concealment module having a first error concealment input coupled to the audio input (Fig. 1, “broadcast receiver” comprising output units/modules. Please see lines between different elements corresponding to inputs/output lines), a second error concealment input coupled to the control module output, and an error concealment output coupled to the audio output (Fig. 1, “broadcast receiver” comprising output units/modules. Please see lines between different elements corresponding to inputs/output lines); wherein in the control module is configured to: receive the current location value; determine whether the at least one signal quality parameter associated with the current location value is available in the database; in response to the at least one signal quality parameter being available: select a first error concealment method for the received audio signal dependent on the at least one signal quality parameter; control the error concealment module to apply the first error concealment method to the received audio signal; in response to the at least one signal quality parameter not being available: determine whether the received audio signal will be corrupted from the radio reception condition signal; control the error concealment module to apply the second error concealment method to the received audio signal (please see claim 29).
Regarding claim 31, Abukawa and Sung disclose all the limitations of claim 29. Abukawa further discloses wherein the at least one signal quality parameter comprises an audio corruption time duration (par. [0068], “the decoding state information… the decoding error frequency can be the number of TS packets in each of which an error indicator is set…the number of breaks occurring in a data signal which is a serial audio output from an audio decoder, or the time interval during which each of the breaks has occurred”), and wherein in response to the audio corruption time duration being below a first time threshold value (pars. [0068]-[0069], “the decoding state determining unit 10e compares the above-mentioned decoding state information with a predetermined threshold…”). Abukawa discloses in claim 3 frame prediction by using previous frames which reads on frame repetition. Sung further discloses frame repetition (par. [0020], “an adaptive frame error concealment method including selecting one of an overlapping method, a repetition method, and an interpolation method…”).
Regarding claim 32, Abukawa and Sung disclose all the limitations of claim 29. Abukawa further discloses wherein the at least one signal quality parameter comprises an audio corruption time duration (par. [0068], “the decoding state information… the decoding error frequency can be the number of TS packets in each of which an error indicator is set…the number of breaks occurring in a data signal which is a serial audio output from an audio decoder, or the time interval during which each of the breaks has occurred”), and wherein in response to the audio corruption time duration being below a first time threshold value (pars. [0068]-[0069], “the decoding state determining unit 10e compares the above-mentioned decoding state information with a predetermined threshold…”), the first error concealment method comprises switching to a secondary broadcast signal that is aligned to the received audio signal in at least one of time, spectrum and level (par. [0007], “being able to appropriately switch between broadcast waves providing an identical content which are sent out from different sending-out stations to receive one of the broadcast waves.”; claim 4, “there is a tendency for said reception state to get worse is acquired, determines that the sending-out station from which to receive the broadcast wave by using the receiving unit should be changed”; and par. [0068]).
Regarding claim 33, Abukawa and Sung disclose all the limitations of claim 29. Abukawa further discloses wherein the at least one signal quality parameter comprises an audio corruption time duration (par. [0068], “the decoding state information… the decoding error frequency can be the number of TS packets in each of which an error indicator is set…the number of breaks occurring in a data signal which is a serial audio output from an audio decoder, or the time interval during which each of the breaks has occurred”), and wherein in response to the audio corruption time duration being above a second time threshold value (claim 5, “acquiring information showing an error frequency with which errors occur”), the first error concealment method comprises at least one of audio fade-in and audio fade-out (claim 5, “playback unit for playing back received data… determines whether or not a playback state of the received data of the broadcast wave is at a predetermined level on a basis of information showing the error frequency acquired by said error information acquiring unit”).
Regarding claim 34, Abukawa and Sung disclose all the limitations of claim 29. Abukawa further discloses a series arrangement (arrangement in series constitutes a mere design choice) of a tuner (Fig. 1, “tuner module 2”), a demodulator (Fig. 1, radio receivers comprise at least a demodulator), a channel decoder (Fig. 1, “audio decoding unit (a playback unit) 8a” for original signal recovery/conversion), and a source decoder (Fig. 1, “audio decoding unit (a playback unit) 8a” for error detection and correction); wherein the tuner is configured to receive a signal from an antenna (Fig. 1, antenna connected to “tuner module 2”), and the source decoder is configured to output a digital audio signal to the controller (“broadcast receiver” reads on controller).
Regarding claim 35, Abukawa and Sung disclose all the limitations of claim 34. Abukawa further discloses further comprising a navigation module coupled to the navigation input (Fig. 1, “Car Navigation Device” having several inputs, hardware and/or software modules interconnected).
Note: the examiner has cited and quoted the European Written Opinion dated 03/13/2024 that is related to this application.
Conclusion
The prior art made of record and not relied upon is considered pertinent to applicant's disclosure.
US Patent 5758264 relates to display of geographic location with correlated signal quality measurement.
US 2005/0044471 A1 relates to error concealment apparatus and method.
US 2006/0262864 A1 relates to method and apparatus for unified error concealment framework.
US 2022/0014310 A1 relates to decoder and decoder method selecting an error concealment mode.
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/Angelica M. Perez/
Patent Examiner AU 2649
Prosecution Insights