Notice of Pre-AIA or AIA Status
The present application is being examined under the pre-AIA first to invent provisions.
DETAILED ACTION
Applicant is advised that the new art unit number is 2692. Please use the new art unit number for all future communications.
This Office action is in response to the Preliminary Amendment filed on 4/21/2025.
Information Disclosure Statement
The information disclosure statement (IDS) submitted on 11/22/2024, 4/21/2025 is in compliance with the provisions of 37 CFR 1.97. Accordingly, the information disclosure statement is being considered by the examiner.
Specification
The lengthy specification has not been checked to the extent necessary to determine the presence of all possible minor errors. Applicant's cooperation is requested in correcting any errors of which applicant may become aware in the specification.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 103
The following is a quotation of pre-AIA 35 U.S.C. 103(a) which forms the basis for all obviousness rejections set forth in this Office action:
(a) A patent may not be obtained though the invention is not identically disclosed or described as set forth in section 102, if the differences between the subject matter sought to be patented and the prior art are such that the subject matter as a whole would have been obvious at the time the invention was made to a person having ordinary skill in the art to which said subject matter pertains. Patentability shall not be negated by the manner in which the invention was made.
Claim 19, 24-27, 31-33 is/are rejected under pre-AIA 35 U.S.C. 103(a) as being unpatentable over Sheen et al. (US 2014/0003625) in view of Hildebrand (US 5727074).
Regarding claim 19, Sheen discloses a method for calibrating a speaker system performed by a portable device, the method comprising:
receiving (from controller, ¶ 0073) a request to initiate calibration of the speaker system from a user of the portable device (¶ 0073); (Sheen625)
initiating, by the portable device in response to receiving the request to initiate calibration of the speaker system, playback of a piece of audio content by the speaker system via a network connection with the speaker system (¶ 0077-0078);
detecting playback of at least a portion of the piece of audio content by a microphone connected to the portable device at a plurality of locations (¶ 0073, 0077-0078);
determining, based at least in part on the detected playback of the at least a portion of the piece of audio content, one or more adjustments to be applied to additional audio content before additional audio content playback from the speaker system (¶ 0088, 0082), wherein determining the one or more adjustments
applying the one or more adjustments to the additional audio content before it is played by the speaker system (¶ 0088).
Sheen is not relied upon to disclose wherein determining the one or more adjustments is based, at least in part, on a transfer function of the microphone connected to the portable device.
In a similar field of endeavor, Hildebrand discloses wherein determining the one or more adjustments is based, at least in part, on a transfer function (frequency response) of the microphone connected to the portable device (bstx43, col. 6, lines 46-61).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art at the time of the applicant’s invention to: wherein determining the one or more adjustments is based, at least in part, on a transfer function of the microphone connected to the portable device, the motivation being to remove imperfections of the microphone (Hildebrand - bstx43, col. 6, lines 46-61).
Regarding claim 24, Sheen-Hildebrand discloses the method of claim 19, and Sheen discloses wherein the portable device comprises a smartphone (¶ 0062).
Regarding claim 25, Sheen-Hildebrand discloses the method of claim 19, and Sheen discloses wherein the portable device comprises a tablet (¶ 0062).
Regarding claim 26, Sheen-Hildebrand discloses the method of claim 19, and Sheen discloses wherein the portable device comprises a laptop computer system (¶ 0062, 0039).
Regarding claim 27, Sheen-Hildebrand discloses the method of claim 19, and Sheen discloses wherein determining the one or more adjustments to be applied to the additional audio content further comprises performing spectral analysis on the detected playback of the piece of audio content (¶ 0082).
Regarding claim 31, Sheen-Hildebrand discloses the method of claim 19, and Sheen discloses wherein the speaker system comprises a plurality of speakers (see Fig. 1B).
Regarding claim 32, Sheen-Hildebrand discloses the method of claim 31, and Sheen discloses wherein the playback of the piece of audio content comprises playback of the audio content sequentially by each speaker of the plurality of speakers (¶ 0078).
Regarding claim 33, Sheen-Hildebrand discloses the method of claim 19, and Sheen discloses wherein applying the one or more adjustments comprises transmitting an indication of the one or more adjustments to the speaker system (¶ 0087).
Claim 20-21 is/are rejected under pre-AIA 35 U.S.C. 103(a) as being unpatentable over Sheen in view of Hildebrand in view of Rabinowitz et al. (US 2003/0179891).
Regarding claim 20, Sheen-Hildebrand discloses the method of claim 19, and Sheen discloses wherein the piece of audio content comprises a favorite track or a series of incremental frequencies spanning the audible frequency range (¶ 0077).
Sheen-Hildebrand is not relied upon to disclose wherein the piece of audio content comprises one or more patterns.
In a similar field of endeavor, Rabinowitz discloses wherein the piece of audio content comprises one or more patterns (¶ 0036: “continuous audio track with a 50% duty cycle of silence interspersed with bursts of test tones”).
One of ordinary skill in the art at the time of the applicant’s invention would have fund it obvious to try any of a favorite track, a series of incremental frequencies spanning the audible frequency range, and one or more patterns as the piece of audio content, and note that the latter would result in:
wherein the piece of audio content comprises one or more patterns,
the motivation being to choose from a finite number of predictable results to address the issue of what audio content to use for a test signal (Sheen - ¶ 0073) (Rabinowitz - ¶ 0036). See MPEP § 2143(B).
Regarding claim 21, Sheen-Hildebrand-Rabinowitz discloses the method of claim 20, and Rabinowitz discloses wherein the one or more patterns comprise one or more synchronization patterns (¶ 0036: “continuous audio track with a 50% duty cycle of silence interspersed with bursts of test tones”).
The teachings of Rabinowitz relied upon above are combinable with Sheen-Hildebrand-Rabinowitz for the same reasons set forth above in the claim 20 rejection.
Claim 22 is/are rejected under pre-AIA 35 U.S.C. 103(a) as being unpatentable over Sheen in view of Hildebrand in view of Rabinowitz in view of DeMartin et al. (US 2010/0042925).
Regarding claim 22, Sheen-Hildebrand-Rabinowitz discloses the method of claim 21.
Sheen-Hildebrand-Rabinowitz is not relied upon to disclose wherein determining the one or more adjustments to be applied to the additional audio content further comprises aligning the detected playback of the piece of audio content with a reference piece of audio content associated with the reference frequency response based, at least in part, on the one or more synchronization patterns.
In a similar field of endeavor, DeMartin discloses wherein at least one of a first portion of a piece of audio content and a second portion of the piece of audio content comprises one or more synchronization patterns (¶ 0058: burst signals); and
wherein determining the one or more adjustments to be applied to the additional audio content further comprises aligning the detected playback of the at least a first portion of the piece of audio content with the detected playback of the at least a second portion of the piece of audio content based, at least in part, on the one or more synchronization patterns (measurement/detection of first burst signal is aligned with the sending of the first burst signal and is based on the predefined sequence of burst signals which includes the first burst signal; and
the measurement/detection of second burst signal is aligned with the sending of the second burst signal and is based on the predefined sequence of burst signals which includes the second burst signal).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art at the time of the applicant’s invention to: wherein determining the one or more adjustments to be applied to the additional audio content further comprises aligning the detected playback of the piece of audio content with a reference piece of audio content associated with the reference frequency response based, at least in part, on the one or more synchronization patterns, as taught by DeMartin, the motivation being to detect playback signals synchronized with the sending of the playback signals (DeMartin - ¶ 0058).
Claim 28-29 is/are rejected under pre-AIA 35 U.S.C. 103(a) as being unpatentable over Sheen in view of Hildebrand in view of Tashev et al. (US 2005/0195988).
Regarding claim 28, Sheen-Hildebrand discloses the method of claim 19, and Hildebrand discloses accessing a microphone transfer function
The teachings if Hildebrand relied upon above are combinable with Sheen-Hildebrand for the same reasons set forth above in the claim 19 rejection.
Sheen-Hildebrand is not relied upon to disclose wherein the method further comprises accessing a microphone transfer function file to determine the transfer function of the microphone.
In a similar field of endeavor, Tashev discloses wherein accessing information identifying the operational characteristics such as sensitivity of a microphone further comprises accessing a system information file of the portable electronic device to determine the sensitivity of the microphone (¶ 0085-0086).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art at the time of the applicant’s invention to: wherein the method further comprises accessing a microphone transfer function file to determine the transfer function of the microphone (a type of operation characteristic similar to sensitivity), the motivation being so that the device can automatically optimize for the specific microphone (Tashev - ¶ 0085-0086).
Regarding claim 29, Sheen-Hildebrand-Tashev discloses the method of claim 28, wherein accessing the microphone transfer function file comprises accessing the microphone transfer function file from local storage of the portable device (Tashev - ¶ 0086: the microphone includes the file) (since the microphone is part of the electronic device 62 in Fig. 5 of Rabinowitz, the file included with the microphone is also thus stored on the electronic device).
The teachings of Tashev relied upon above are combinable with Sheen-Hildebrand-Tashev for the same reasons set forth above in the claim 28 rejection.
Claim 30 is/are rejected under pre-AIA 35 U.S.C. 103(a) as being unpatentable over Sheen in view of Hildebrand in view of Tashev in view of Brooking (US 8401202).
Regarding claim 30, Sheen-Hildebrand-Tashev discloses the method of claim 28.
Sheen-Hildebrand-Tashev is not relied upon to disclose wherein accessing the microphone transfer function file comprises accessing the microphone transfer function file from a remote library.
In a similar field of endeavor, Brooking discloses: to access a speaker transfer function (frequency response) from any of a computer-readable medium, a remote connection, a local connection, or a database over the internet (i.e. a remote library) or over a network (detx74,77, col. 12, lines 6-14 and 26-32).
One of ordinary skill in the art at the time of the applicant’s invention would have found it obvious to try to configure the microphone transfer function file (of Sheen-Hildebrand-Tashev) to be accessed from any of a computer-readable medium, a remote connection, a local connection, or a database over the internet (i.e. a remote library) or over a network, and note that accessing it from a database over the internet would result in:
wherein accessing the microphone transfer function file comprises accessing the microphone transfer function file from a remote library,
the motivation being to choose from a finite number of identified, predictable solutions, with a reasonable expectation of success, to address the issue of what different ways a transfer function of a transducer can be accessed. MPEP § 2143(E).
Allowable Subject Matter
Claim 23 is 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.
The following is a statement of reasons for the indication of allowable subject matter:
In regard to claim 23, the prior art of record alone or in combination fails to teach or suggest the following limitations of the claim in combination with the rest of the limitations of the claim:
“wherein initiating the playback of the piece of audio content by the speaker system comprises transmitting, via the network connection, an electronic file corresponding to the piece of audio content to the speaker system”
Conclusion
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to MARK FISCHER whose telephone number is (571)270-3549. The examiner can normally be reached Mon-Fri 1-6, 7:30-11:59pm EST.
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/MARK FISCHER/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2692
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