DETAILED ACTION
The present application, filed on or after March 16, 2013, is being examined under the first inventor to file provisions of the AIA .
In the event the determination of the status of the application as subject to AIA 35U.S.C. 102 and 103 (or as subject to pre-AIA 35 U.S.C. 102 and 103) is incorrect, anycorrection of the statutory basis for the rejection will not be considered a new ground ofrejection if the prior art relied upon, and the rationale supporting the rejection, would bethe same under either status.
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 21-40 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.
For claim 21, a feature of the claim reciting “identify a trigger frame received from an AP, the trigger frame associated with causing a second non-AP STA to send a sensing packet with which the non-AP STA is to perform Wi-Fi sensing operations”, renders the claim indefinite. It is not clear (a) whether there are two non-AP STA (i.e. First Non-AP STA and Second Non-AP STA). Wherein, the First Non-AP has not been claimed or mentioned in the claim, or (b) AP is referred to as a First AP and the Non-AP is a Second Non-AP STA for performing Wi-Fi sensing operation.
For claim 29, a feature of the claim reciting “identifying a trigger frame received from an AP, the trigger frame associated with causing a second non-AP STA to send a sensing packet with which the non-AP STA is to perform Wi-Fi sensing operations”, renders the claim indefinite. It is not clear (a) whether there are two non-AP STA (i.e. First Non-AP STA and Second Non-AP STA). Wherein, the First Non-AP has not been claimed or mentioned in the claim, or (b) AP is referred to as a First AP and the Non-AP is a Second Non-AP STA for performing Wi-Fi sensing operation.
For claim 35, a feature of the claim reciting “a trigger frame received from an AP, the trigger frame associated with causing a second non-AP STA to send a sensing packet with which the non-AP STA is to perform Wi-Fi sensing operation”, renders the claim indefinite. It is not clear (a) whether there are two non-AP STA (i.e. First Non-AP STA and Second Non-AP STA). Wherein, the First Non-AP has not been claimed or mentioned in the claim, or (b) AP is referred to as a First AP and the Non-AP is a Second Non-AP STA for performing Wi-Fi sensing operation.
Regarding claims 23-28 and 30-34 and 36-40, these claims depend on claims 21, 29 and 35, respectively, thus carry the same indefiniteness issues as discussed above, and therefore are rejected on the same grounds discussed above.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 102
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 the appropriate paragraphs of 35 U.S.C. 102 that form the basis for the rejections under this section made in this Office action:
A person shall be entitled to a patent unless –
(a)(2) the claimed invention was described in a patent issued under section 151, or in an application for patent published or deemed published under section 122(b), in which the patent or application, as the case may be, names another inventor and was effectively filed before the effective filing date of the claimed invention.
Claim(s) 21, 29 and 35 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(2) as being anticipated by Au et al. (US 2026/0227485 A1).
Regarding claim 21, Au et al. teach an apparatus of a non-access point (non-AP) station device (STA), the apparatus comprising processing circuitry coupled to storage, the processing circuitry configured to (Fig. 17, [0330], a second wireless device, e.g. an Origin 1700, of a system for wireless sensing, according to one embodiment of the present teaching. The Origin 1700 is an example of a device that can be configured to implement the various methods described herein. The Origin 1700 in this example may serve as Origin or Type 2 device or sensing receiver for wireless sensing. As shown in FIG. 17, the Origin 1700 includes a housing 1740 containing a processor 1702, a memory 1704, a transceiver 1710 comprising a transmitter 1712 and a receiver 1714, a power module 1708, a synchronization controller 1706, a channel information extractor 1720, and an optional motion detector 1722),
Au et al. teach identify a trigger frame received from an AP, the trigger frame associated with causing a second non-AP STA to send a sensing packet with which the non-AP STA is to perform Wi-Fi sensing operations (Figs. 4 and 17, [0306, 0354, 0282, 0732], in this case, AP is both the sensing initiator and the sensing transmitter for wireless sensing. An 802.11bf compatible STA may be the sensing responder and the sensing receiver for wireless sensing. In this case, the sensing measurement results (e.g. CSI) may be fed back to the sensing initiator. The AP may be the sensing initiator, or the sensing responder. Sounding signals may be sent from an STA (sensing transmitter) to another STA (sensing receiver). They may be sent from the AP to a non-AP STA, or from the non-AP STA to the AP, or both, or none. If AP is the sensing initiator, trigger-based (TB) sensing may be used. The triggering of sounding signal (e.g. non-data packet (NDP), variant kinds of NDP) transmission may be achieved by the AP sending an NDP announcement frame (NDPA) or a trigger frame variant (TF). A short time (e.g. inter-frame space (IFS), short IFS (SIFS), reduced IFS (RIFS), PCF IFS (PIFS), DCF IFS (DIFS), Arbitrary IFS (AIFS), Extended IFS (EIFS), etc.) after the triggering, NDP may be sent from the AP (sensing initiator) to the non-AP STA (sensing responders). A proxy initiator device (e.g. SBP initiator) may send a proxy sensing request message (e.g. SBP request frame) to a proxy responder device (e.g. SBP responder which may be an AP) to request the proxy responder device to perform wireless sensing (e.g. WLAN/WiFi sensing, WLAN/WiFi sensing procedure(s)) on its behalf. A first sensing responder and a second sensing responder, both being STAs in non-infrastructure mode, may be configured for NDP(s) to be transmitted from the first responder to the second responder, or from the second responder to the first responder, or both),
Au et al. teach identify the sensing packet received from the second non-AP STA (Figs. 4 and 19, [0382, 0385], sensing measurement may be made locally available to applications (e.g. software, firmware) in sensing receiver. Sensing measurement may be optionally transmitted wirelessly from sensing responder (i.e. second non-AP STA) to sensing initiator (i.e. WiFi AP) (e.g. using sensing measurement report frame based on the protocol) and made available to applications (e.g. software, firmware) in sensing initiator, or from sensing receiver to sensing transmitter. A first sensing responder and a second sensing responder, both being STAs in non-infrastructure mode, may be configured for NDP(s) to be transmitted from the first responder to the second responder, or from the second responder to the first responder, or both),
Au et al. teach and determine channel state information based on the sensing packet, the channel state information indicative of motion of people or objects (Figs. 4 and 27, [0306], the sensing measurement results (e.g. CSI) may be fed back to the sensing initiator. Some sensing-based results (e.g. task and applications like breathing detection, fall-down detection) may be computed by the sensing initiator based on the sensing. The optional motion detector 1722 may be configured for detecting sound information from a vibrating object or source in the venue based on motion information. The motion information may be computed based on the time series of CI by the motion detector 1722 or another motion detector outside the origin 1700).
Regarding claim 22, Au et al. teach wherein the sensing packet is a null data packet (NDP) (Fig. 3, [0230], the TF sounding phase may comprise: (a) transmission of a trigger frame (TF) by an AP to solicit NDP transmissions from STAs; and (b) transmission of an NDP by STA(s), after receiving the trigger frame. NDP may be used for the channel measurement (e.g. CI, CSI, CIR, CFR, etc.) between sensing transmitter and sensing receiver(s) (e.g. in sub-7 GHz bands)).
Regarding claim 23, Au et al. teach wherein the non-AP STA is unassociated to the AP (Fig. 4, [0306], in this case, AP is both the sensing initiator and the sensing transmitter for wireless sensing. An 802.11bf compatible STA may be the sensing responder and the sensing receiver for wireless sensing. (Note: as illustrated in the figure, the system includes smart phone/iPhone/laptop. These devices are considered unassociated as they are client devices and are turned on near a Wi-Fi AP, but has not yet completed the connection process to join that network)).
Regarding claim 24, Au et al. teach wherein the processing circuitry is further configured to: identify a frame received from the AP, the frame establishing the Wi-Fi sensing operations (Figs. 4 and 17, [354], the AP may be the sensing initiator, or the sensing responder. Sounding signals may be sent from an STA (sensing transmitter) to another STA (sensing receiver). They may be sent from the AP to a non-AP STA, or from the non-AP STA to the AP, or both, or none. If AP is the sensing initiator, trigger-based (TB) sensing may be used. The triggering of sounding signal (e.g. non-data packet (NDP), variant kinds of NDP) transmission may be achieved by the AP sending an NDP announcement frame (NDPA) or a trigger frame variant (TF). A short time after the triggering, NDP may be sent from the AP (sensing initiator) (i.e. WiFi AP) to the non-AP STA (sensing responders), to generate sensing results).
Regarding claim 25, Au et al. teach wherein the frame establishing the Wi-Fi sensing operations defines a role of the non-AP STA for the Wi-Fi sensing operations (Figs. 4 and 17, [354], the AP may be the sensing initiator, or the sensing responder. Sounding signals may be sent from an STA (sensing transmitter) to another STA (sensing receiver). They may be sent from the AP to a non-AP STA, or from the non-AP STA to the AP, or both, or none. If AP is the sensing initiator, trigger-based (TB) sensing may be used. The triggering of sounding signal (e.g. non-data packet (NDP), variant kinds of NDP) transmission may be achieved by the AP sending an NDP announcement frame (NDPA) or a trigger frame variant (TF). A short time after the triggering, NDP may be sent from the AP (sensing initiator) (i.e. WiFi AP) to the non-AP STA (sensing responders), to generate sensing results. (Note: On receiving the frame, from the WiFi AP, the non-AP acts as a sensing responder and generates sensing results for the WiFi AP. This operation is considered as the role of the non-AP for the WiFi AP sensing operation).
Regarding claim 26, Au et al. teach wherein the trigger frame is a sounding trigger frame variant (Figs. 4 and 17, [0230], the trigger frame (TF) sounding phase may be present in a TB sensing measurement instance if at least one STA that is a sensing transmitter responds in the polling phase. The TF sounding phase may comprise: (a) transmission of a trigger frame (TF) by an AP to solicit NDP transmissions from STAs; and (b) transmission of an NDP by STA(s), after receiving the trigger frame. NDP may be used for the channel measurement (e.g. CI, CSI, CIR, CFR, etc.) between sensing transmitter and sensing receiver(s) (e.g. in sub-7 GHz bands. Note: sounding trigger frame is a specialized control packet sent by the WiFi AP to the non-AP to coordinate and measure the channel characteristics, like CSI (channel state information), CI (channel information) etc.).
Regarding claim 27, Au et al. teach further comprising a transceiver configured to transmit and receive wireless signals comprising the trigger frame and the sensing packet (Fig. 17, [0218, 0230, 0390], a transceiver 1710 comprising a transmitter 1712 and a receiver 1714. A sensing transmitter may be a STA that transmits wireless signals (e.g. physical-layer protocol data units (PPDUs) in WiFi, data packet frame (NDP) (i.e. a sensing packet), NDP announcement (NDPA) frame, or some sounding signal) used for sensing measurements in a wireless sensing procedure. At least one STA (e.g. Type1 device, Type2 device, sensing initiator, sensing responder, sensing transmitter, or another STA) may function as a sensing receiver. A sensing receiver may be a STA that receives wireless signals (e.g. PPDUs in WiFi, NDPA, NDP, or some sounding signal) sent by a sensing transmitter and performs sensing measurements in a WLAN sensing procedure. transmission of a trigger frame (TF) by an AP to solicit NDP transmissions from STAs).
Regarding claim 29, Au et al. teach a non-transitory computer-readable medium storing computer-executable instructions which when executed by one or more processors of a non-access point (non-AP) station device (STA) result in performing operations comprising (Fig. 17, [0151, 0979], The features described above may be implemented advantageously in one or more computer programs that are executable on a programmable system including at least one programmable processor coupled to receive data and instructions from, and to transmit data and instructions to, a data storage system, at least one input device, and at least one output device. A computer program is a set of instructions that may be used, directly or indirectly, in a computer to perform a certain activity or bring about a certain result. The processor may comprise general purpose processor, special purpose processor, microprocessor, microcontroller, embedded processor, digital signal processor, central processing unit (CPU). The memory may be volatile, non-volatile, random access memory (RAM) or other form of non-transitory storage medium known in the art),
Au et al. teach identifying a trigger frame received from an AP, the trigger frame associated with causing a second non-AP STA to send a sensing packet with which the non-AP STA is to perform Wi-Fi sensing operations (Figs. 4 and 17, [0306, 0354, 0282, 0732], in this case, AP is both the sensing initiator and the sensing transmitter for wireless sensing. An 802.11bf compatible STA may be the sensing responder and the sensing receiver for wireless sensing. In this case, the sensing measurement results (e.g. CSI) may be fed back to the sensing initiator. The AP may be the sensing initiator, or the sensing responder. Sounding signals may be sent from an STA (sensing transmitter) to another STA (sensing receiver). They may be sent from the AP to a non-AP STA, or from the non-AP STA to the AP, or both, or none. If AP is the sensing initiator, trigger-based (TB) sensing may be used. The triggering of sounding signal (e.g. non-data packet (NDP), variant kinds of NDP) transmission may be achieved by the AP sending an NDP announcement frame (NDPA) or a trigger frame variant (TF). A short time (e.g. inter-frame space (IFS), short IFS (SIFS), reduced IFS (RIFS), PCF IFS (PIFS), DCF IFS (DIFS), Arbitrary IFS (AIFS), Extended IFS (EIFS), etc.) after the triggering, NDP may be sent from the AP (sensing initiator) to the non-AP STA (sensing responders). A proxy initiator device (e.g. SBP initiator) may send a proxy sensing request message (e.g. SBP request frame) to a proxy responder device (e.g. SBP responder which may be an AP) to request the proxy responder device to perform wireless sensing (e.g. WLAN/WiFi sensing, WLAN/WiFi sensing procedure(s)) on its behalf. A first sensing responder and a second sensing responder, both being STAs in non-infrastructure mode, may be configured for NDP(s) to be transmitted from the first responder to the second responder, or from the second responder to the first responder, or both),
Au et al. teach identifying the sensing packet received from the second non-AP STA (Figs. 4 and 19, [0382, 0385], sensing measurement may be made locally available to applications (e.g. software, firmware) in sensing receiver. Sensing measurement may be optionally transmitted wirelessly from sensing responder (i.e. second non-AP STA) to sensing initiator (i.e. WiFi AP) (e.g. using sensing measurement report frame based on the protocol) and made available to applications (e.g. software, firmware) in sensing initiator, or from sensing receiver to sensing transmitter. A first sensing responder and a second sensing responder, both being STAs in non-infrastructure mode, may be configured for NDP(s) to be transmitted from the first responder to the second responder, or from the second responder to the first responder, or both),
Au et al. teach and determining channel state information based on the sensing packet, the channel state information indicative of motion of people or objects (Figs. 4 and 27, [0306], the sensing measurement results (e.g. CSI) may be fed back to the sensing initiator. Some sensing-based results (e.g. task and applications like breathing detection, fall-down detection) may be computed by the sensing initiator based on the sensing. The optional motion detector 1722 may be configured for detecting sound information from a vibrating object or source in the venue based on motion information. The motion information may be computed based on the time series of CI by the motion detector 1722 or another motion detector outside the origin 1700).
Regarding claim 30, Au et al. teach wherein the sensing packet is a null data packet (NDP) (Fig. 3, [0230], the TF sounding phase may comprise: (a) transmission of a trigger frame (TF) by an AP to solicit NDP transmissions from STAs; and (b) transmission of an NDP by STA(s), after receiving the trigger frame. NDP may be used for the channel measurement (e.g. CI, CSI, CIR, CFR, etc.) between sensing transmitter and sensing receiver(s) (e.g. in sub-7 GHz bands)).
Regarding claim 31, Au et al. teach wherein the non-AP STA is unassociated to the AP (Fig. 4, [0306], in this case, AP is both the sensing initiator and the sensing transmitter for wireless sensing. An 802.11bf compatible STA may be the sensing responder and the sensing receiver for wireless sensing. (Note: as illustrated in the figure, the system includes smart phone/iPhone/laptop. These devices are considered unassociated as they are client devices and are turned on near a Wi-Fi AP, but has not yet completed the connection process to join that network)).
Regarding claim 32, Au et al. teach the operations further comprising: identifying a frame received from the AP, the frame establishing the Wi-Fi sensing operations (Figs. 4 and 17, [354], the AP may be the sensing initiator, or the sensing responder. Sounding signals may be sent from an STA (sensing transmitter) to another STA (sensing receiver). They may be sent from the AP to a non-AP STA, or from the non-AP STA to the AP, or both, or none. If AP is the sensing initiator, trigger-based (TB) sensing may be used. The triggering of sounding signal (e.g. non-data packet (NDP), variant kinds of NDP) transmission may be achieved by the AP sending an NDP announcement frame (NDPA) or a trigger frame variant (TF). A short time after the triggering, NDP may be sent from the AP (sensing initiator) (i.e. WiFi AP) to the non-AP STA (sensing responders), to generate sensing results).
Regarding claim 33, Au et al. teach wherein the frame establishing the Wi-Fi sensing operations defines a role of the non-AP STA for the Wi-Fi sensing operations (Figs. 4 and 17, [354], the AP may be the sensing initiator, or the sensing responder. Sounding signals may be sent from an STA (sensing transmitter) to another STA (sensing receiver). They may be sent from the AP to a non-AP STA, or from the non-AP STA to the AP, or both, or none. If AP is the sensing initiator, trigger-based (TB) sensing may be used. The triggering of sounding signal (e.g. non-data packet (NDP), variant kinds of NDP) transmission may be achieved by the AP sending an NDP announcement frame (NDPA) or a trigger frame variant (TF). A short time after the triggering, NDP may be sent from the AP (sensing initiator) (i.e. WiFi AP) to the non-AP STA (sensing responders), to generate sensing results. (Note: On receiving the frame, from the WiFi AP, the non-AP acts as a sensing responder and generates sensing results for the WiFi AP. This operation is considered as the role of the non-AP for the WiFi AP sensing operation).
Regarding claim 34, Au et al. teach wherein the trigger frame is a sounding trigger frame variant (Figs. 4 and 17, [0230], the trigger frame (TF) sounding phase may be present in a TB sensing measurement instance if at least one STA that is a sensing transmitter responds in the polling phase. The TF sounding phase may comprise: (a) transmission of a trigger frame (TF) by an AP to solicit NDP transmissions from STAs; and (b) transmission of an NDP by STA(s), after receiving the trigger frame. NDP may be used for the channel measurement (e.g. CI, CSI, CIR, CFR, etc.) between sensing transmitter and sensing receiver(s) (e.g. in sub-7 GHz bands. Note: sounding trigger frame is a specialized control packet sent by the WiFi AP to the non-AP to coordinate and measure the channel characteristics, like CSI (channel state information), CI (channel information) etc.).
Regarding claim 35, Au et al. teach a method comprising (Fig. 17, [0330], a second wireless device, e.g. an Origin 1700, of a system for wireless sensing, according to one embodiment of the present teaching. The Origin 1700 is an example of a device that can be configured to implement the various methods described herein. The Origin 1700 in this example may serve as Origin or Type 2 device or sensing receiver for wireless sensing. As shown in fig. 17),
Au et al. teach identifying, by processing circuitry of a non-access point (non-AP) station device (STA), a trigger frame received from an AP, the trigger frame associated with causing a second non-AP STA to send a sensing packet with which the non-AP STA is to perform Wi-Fi sensing operations (Figs. 4 and 17, [0306, 0354, 0282, 0732], in this case, AP is both the sensing initiator and the sensing transmitter for wireless sensing. An 802.11bf compatible STA may be the sensing responder and the sensing receiver for wireless sensing. In this case, the sensing measurement results (e.g. CSI) may be fed back to the sensing initiator. The AP may be the sensing initiator, or the sensing responder. Sounding signals may be sent from an STA (sensing transmitter) to another STA (sensing receiver). They may be sent from the AP to a non-AP STA, or from the non-AP STA to the AP, or both, or none. If AP is the sensing initiator, trigger-based (TB) sensing may be used. The triggering of sounding signal (e.g. non-data packet (NDP), variant kinds of NDP) transmission may be achieved by the AP sending an NDP announcement frame (NDPA) or a trigger frame variant (TF). A short time (e.g. inter-frame space (IFS), short IFS (SIFS), reduced IFS (RIFS), PCF IFS (PIFS), DCF IFS (DIFS), Arbitrary IFS (AIFS), Extended IFS (EIFS), etc.) after the triggering, NDP may be sent from the AP (sensing initiator) to the non-AP STA (sensing responders). A proxy initiator device (e.g. SBP initiator) may send a proxy sensing request message (e.g. SBP request frame) to a proxy responder device (e.g. SBP responder which may be an AP) to request the proxy responder device to perform wireless sensing (e.g. WLAN/WiFi sensing, WLAN/WiFi sensing procedure(s)) on its behalf. A first sensing responder and a second sensing responder, both being STAs in non-infrastructure mode, may be configured for NDP(s) to be transmitted from the first responder to the second responder, or from the second responder to the first responder, or both),
Au et al. teach identifying, by the processing circuitry, the sensing packet received from the second non-AP STA (Figs. 4 and 19, [0382, 0385], sensing measurement may be made locally available to applications (e.g. software, firmware) in sensing receiver. Sensing measurement may be optionally transmitted wirelessly from sensing responder (i.e. second non-AP STA) to sensing initiator (i.e. WiFi AP) (e.g. using sensing measurement report frame based on the protocol) and made available to applications (e.g. software, firmware) in sensing initiator, or from sensing receiver to sensing transmitter. A first sensing responder and a second sensing responder, both being STAs in non-infrastructure mode, may be configured for NDP(s) to be transmitted from the first responder to the second responder, or from the second responder to the first responder, or both),
Au et al. teach and determining, by the processing circuitry, channel state information based on the sensing packet, the channel state information indicative of motion of people or objects (Figs. 4 and 27, [0306], the sensing measurement results (e.g. CSI) may be fed back to the sensing initiator. Some sensing-based results (e.g. task and applications like breathing detection, fall-down detection) may be computed by the sensing initiator based on the sensing. The optional motion detector 1722 may be configured for detecting sound information from a vibrating object or source in the venue based on motion information. The motion information may be computed based on the time series of CI by the motion detector 1722 or another motion detector outside the origin 1700).
Regarding claim 36, Au et al. teach wherein the sensing packet is a null data packet (NDP) (Fig. 3, [0230], the TF sounding phase may comprise: (a) transmission of a trigger frame (TF) by an AP to solicit NDP transmissions from STAs; and (b) transmission of an NDP by STA(s), after receiving the trigger frame. NDP may be used for the channel measurement (e.g. CI, CSI, CIR, CFR, etc.) between sensing transmitter and sensing receiver(s) (e.g. in sub-7 GHz bands)).
Regarding claim 37, Au et al. teach wherein the non-AP STA is unassociated to the AP (Fig. 4, [0306], in this case, AP is both the sensing initiator and the sensing transmitter for wireless sensing. An 802.11bf compatible STA may be the sensing responder and the sensing receiver for wireless sensing. (Note: as illustrated in the figure, the system includes smart phone/iPhone/laptop. These devices are considered unassociated as they are client devices and are turned on near a Wi-Fi AP, but has not yet completed the connection process to join that network)).
Regarding claim 38, Au et al. teach further comprising: identifying a frame received from the AP, the frame establishing the Wi-Fi sensing operations (Figs. 4 and 17, [354], the AP may be the sensing initiator, or the sensing responder. Sounding signals may be sent from an STA (sensing transmitter) to another STA (sensing receiver). They may be sent from the AP to a non-AP STA, or from the non-AP STA to the AP, or both, or none. If AP is the sensing initiator, trigger-based (TB) sensing may be used. The triggering of sounding signal (e.g. non-data packet (NDP), variant kinds of NDP) transmission may be achieved by the AP sending an NDP announcement frame (NDPA) or a trigger frame variant (TF). A short time after the triggering, NDP may be sent from the AP (sensing initiator) (i.e. WiFi AP) to the non-AP STA (sensing responders), to generate sensing results).
Regarding claim 39, Au et al. teach wherein the frame establishing the Wi-Fi sensing operations defines a role of the non-AP STA for the Wi-Fi sensing operations (Figs. 4 and 17, [354], the AP may be the sensing initiator, or the sensing responder. Sounding signals may be sent from an STA (sensing transmitter) to another STA (sensing receiver). They may be sent from the AP to a non-AP STA, or from the non-AP STA to the AP, or both, or none. If AP is the sensing initiator, trigger-based (TB) sensing may be used. The triggering of sounding signal (e.g. non-data packet (NDP), variant kinds of NDP) transmission may be achieved by the AP sending an NDP announcement frame (NDPA) or a trigger frame variant (TF). A short time after the triggering, NDP may be sent from the AP (sensing initiator) (i.e. WiFi AP) to the non-AP STA (sensing responders), to generate sensing results. (Note: On receiving the frame, from the WiFi AP, the non-AP acts as a sensing responder and generates sensing results for the WiFi AP. This operation is considered as the role of the non-AP for the WiFi AP sensing operation).
Regarding claim 40, Au et al. teach wherein the trigger frame is a sounding trigger frame variant (Figs. 4 and 17, [0230], the trigger frame (TF) sounding phase may be present in a TB sensing measurement instance if at least one STA that is a sensing transmitter responds in the polling phase. The TF sounding phase may comprise: (a) transmission of a trigger frame (TF) by an AP to solicit NDP transmissions from STAs; and (b) transmission of an NDP by STA(s), after receiving the trigger frame. NDP may be used for the channel measurement (e.g. CI, CSI, CIR, CFR, etc.) between sensing transmitter and sensing receiver(s) (e.g. in sub-7 GHz bands. Note: sounding trigger frame is a specialized control packet sent by the WiFi AP to the non-AP to coordinate and measure the channel characteristics, like CSI (channel state information), CI (channel information) etc.).
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 non-obviousness.
This application currently names joint inventors. In considering patentability of the claims the examiner presumes that the subject matter of the various claims was commonly owned as of the effective filing date of the claimed invention(s) absent any evidence to the contrary. Applicant is advised of the obligation under 37 CFR 1.56 to point out the inventor and effective filing dates of each claim that was not commonly owned as of the effective filing date of the later invention in order for the examiner to consider the applicability of 35 U.S.C. 102(b)(2)(C) for any potential 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(2) prior art against the later invention.
Claim(s) 28 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Au et al. (US 2026/0227485 A1) and in view of Huang et al. (US 2020/0045555 A1).
Au et al. disclose the claimed limitations as described in paragraph 6 above. Au et al. do not expressly disclose the following features: regarding claim 28, further comprising an antenna coupled to the transceiver to identify the trigger frame and the sensing packet.
Regarding claim 28, Huang et al. teach further comprising an antenna coupled to the transceiver to identify the trigger frame and the sensing packet (Figs. 5, 7 and 12, [0092, 0127, 0151], wireless device 700 may include processing circuitry 708. The processing circuitry 708 may include a transceiver 702, physical layer circuitry (PHY circuitry) 704, and MAC layer circuitry (MAC circuitry) 706, one or more of which may enable transmission and reception of signals to and from other wireless devices 700 (e.g., AP 502, STA 504 and/or other devices) using one or more antennas 712. Master AP 502 may, if the availability window is for uplink channel sounding, during the availability window, encode a trigger frame (TF) for transmission to the STAs 504 associated with the master AP 502 and to the STAs 504 associated with the slave AP 502. In some embodiments, the TF may trigger uplink null data packets (NDPs) from the STAs 504 associated with the master AP 502 and from the STAs 504 associated with the slave AP 502. In some embodiments, the master AP 502 may, during the availability window, perform one or more of: attempt to detect the uplink NDPs; based on detected uplink NDPs, determine uplink channel state information (CSI) of the corresponding STAs 504; and/or other. In some embodiments, the master AP 502 may determine, based on the uplink CSI, downlink CSI for the corresponding STAs 504. Multi-AP group 1210 may need assignment of AP ID to be used in a Trigger frame (layer 2 control frame) to identify the coordinated AP 1214 in a multi-AP group 1210. Assignment of AP ID is a layer 2 behavior, which may not necessarily be done in layer 2.5, which is agnostic to layer 2 behavior. A coordinated AP 1214 in a Multi-AP group 1210 needs to advertise Multi-AP group 1210 information to associate STAs 1216 to facilitate Trigger frame operation).
It would have been obvious to one of the ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify the system of Au et al. et al. by incorporating the features as taught by Huang et al. in order to provide a more effective and efficient system that is capable of identifying the trigger frame and the sensing packet. The motivation is to support an improved method for WLANs and Wi-Fi networks operating in accordance with the IEEE 802.11 family of standards (see [0002]).
Conclusion
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/SYED M BOKHARI/ Examiner, Art Unit 2473
9/2/2026
/KWANG B YAO/Supervisory Patent Examiner, Art Unit 2473
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