DETAILED ACTION
This office action is in response to the initial filing dated December 9, 2024.
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 Status
Claims 1-30 are currently pending.
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.
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.
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, 3-4, 8-9, 17, 20-22, and 26 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Parikh et al. (Parikh; US PG Pub #2022/0141619) in view of Wang (US PG Pub #2018/0288569).
As to claim 1, Parikh discloses a method for locating a first radio-frequency identification (RFID) tag in a multipath environment (para [0013] "...the present disclosure relates to a system and method for location of objects... receiving RF signals from a transmitting tag associated with an object to be located..."), the method comprising:
receiving, by an RFID reader located at a first position in the multipath environment, a reply signal by the first RFID tag sent in response to an interrogation of the first RFID tag, the reply signal being representative of the multipath environment (para [0022] "For an object location operation to locate an object associated with a particular RF tag associated within a to-be-identified subspace within the master space, receiving RF signals at the tag receiver from one or more of the RF beacons within the to-be-identified subspace within the master space..."; Paragraph [0105] teaches that tags transmit on demand where paragraph [0094] teaches that on demand transmission occurs in response to a command to transmit),
obtaining a representation of the multipath environment (para [0016] "used in constructing an RF model of the master space."; Paragraph [0028] teaches data models),
the representation of the multipath environment as input to a machine learning process that executes on the processor, wherein the machine learning process is trained with reference signals received from RFID reference tags and at least one previously obtained representation of the multipath environment (para [0014 and 0028] "Executing the retrieved one or more stored subspace data models using as input parameters the RF beacon signals extracted from the tag data package received from the tag associated with the object to be located, to identify one or more prediction candidates of subspaces in which the object may be located"; para [0105] "...constructing and training data models for object location. Data scans collected from any tags within the master space, whether moving, stationary, or temporarily stationary, provide a corresponding flow of RSS! values that can be used to construct additional data models..."),
estimating, with the machine learning process from the input, a location of the first RFID tag in the multipath environment (para [0028]), and
outputting, from the machine learning process, the location of the first RFID tag (para [0029] "...generate a determined subspace identifier for the object."). Parikh does not disclose constructing, by a processor in communication with the first RFID reader, a signal vector based, at least in part, on the reply signal, providing the signal vector.
In the field of positioning systems, Wang discloses constructing, by a processor in communication with the first RFID reader, a signal vector based, at least in part, on the reply signal (para [0107] “...UE receiver may further estimate the received signal vector value, and compare it with the stored signal vector map..."), providing the signal vector(para [0107]). It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to combine the teachings of Parikh and Wang because construction of signal vectors can aid in determining the location of where the signals originated from (see para [0108]).
As to claim 3, depending from the method of claim 1, Parikh does not disclose wherein the input comprises at least one element based on information derived from a multipath angular signal profile.
In the field of positioning systems, Wang further discloses wherein the input comprises at least one element based on information derived from a multipath angular signal profile (para [0108] "...or non-RSSI based positioning (e.g., where an UE 20 may calculate location based on the angle of departure (from transmit node) and the angle of arrival (for the UE receiver) information).").
As to claim 4, depending from the method of claim 1, Parikh further discloses wherein the input comprises at least one element based on received signal strength or differential phase delay of a radio-frequency carrier wave of the reply signal (para [0209] "...a beacon signal is received (PacketReceiveTime), a beacon identifier (BeaconMAC), and the signal strength measurement...").
As to claim 8, depending from the method of claim 1, Parikh further discloses wherein the RFID reference tags are not present in the multipath environment when the estimating is performed (para [0105] “...tis not necessary to use stationary objects and/or stationary tags in order to monitor for changes in the RF environment that might result from changes to the physical space or placement of objects...").
As to claim 9, depending from the method of claim 1, Parikh further discloses wherein the first RFID tag is attached to a commercial product for product identification and/or product tracking (para [0002] “...a commercial organization needs to know the location of specific objects such as pallets or individual product packages for purposes of retrieval and shipment…”).
As to claim 17, depending from the method of claim 1, Parikh further discloses further comprising:
receiving, by the processor, an actual location of the first RFID tag (para [0022]), and
tuning the machine learning process using the input and the actual location of the first RFID tag (para [0105]).
As to claim 20, depending from the method of claim 1, Parikh further discloses further comprising, before receiving the reply signal by the first RFID tag sent in response to the interrogation of the first RFID tag:
distributing the RFID reference tags in known locations in a training environment (para [0104] ".. master space may be provided with one or more stationary or “reference” objects and/or tags, positioned at various locations within the master space...”),
receiving the reference signals from the RFID reference tags (para [0196] ".. model constructing and training is based on scan data from a tag at prediction time."),
training the machine learning process with the reference signals (para [0190] ".. reinforcement or updating method involves the inclusion of additional scans into the training database in response to... utilization of static or stationary tags..."), and
deploying the machine learning process to the multipath environment (para [0198] "..the training data may be considered completed and ready for use in model construction and object location prediction.").
As to claim 21, Parikh discloses a tag-locating system comprising (para [0013] "the present disclosure relates to a system and method for location of objects... receiving RF signals from a transmitting tag associated with an object to be located...”):
radio-frequency identification (RFID) readers adapted to be mounted at respective locations in a multipath environment containing RFID tags and adapted to interrogate the RFID tags, the RFID readers including a first RFID reader to receive a reply from a first RFID tag of the RFID tags in response to an interrogation of the first RFID tag (para [0288] "...instructions and data which cause a general purpose computer, special purpose computer, or special purpose processing device such as a mobile device processor to perform one specific function or a group of functions."; para [0022]), and
a processor in communication with the RFID readers and adapted to execute a machine learning process to estimate a location of a first RFID tag of the RFID tags within the multipath environment (para [0028]), wherein the processor, when operating, is adapted with code to:
as input to the machine learning process, wherein the machine learning process is trained with reference vectors constructed from reference signals received from RFID reference tags distributed in the multipath environment (para [0014 & 0105]),
estimate, with the machine leaning process from the signal vector, the location of the first RFID tag in the multipath environment (para [0028]), and
output, from the machine learning process, the location of the first RFID tag (para [0029]).
Parikh does not disclose construct a signal vector based, at least in part, on the reply from the reply from the first RFID tag received by the first RFID reader, provide the signal vector.
In the field of positioning systems, Wang discloses construct a signal vector based, at least in part, on the reply from the reply from the first RFID tag received by the first RFID reader (para [0107]), provide the signal vector (para [0107]). It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to combine the teachings of Parikh and Wang because construction of signal vectors can aid in determining the location of where the signals originated from (see para [0108]).
As to claim 22, depending from the tag-locating system of claim 21, Parikh does not disclose wherein at least one of the RFID readers comprises an antenna array having a plurality of antenna elements.
In the field of positioning systems, Wang further discloses wherein at least one of the RFID readers comprises an antenna array having a plurality of antenna elements (Paragraphs [0095]-[0099]). It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date to combine the teachings of Parikh and Wang because using multiple antenna elements achieves space and polarization diversity, improves antenna performance, and/or determines the angle of departure and arrival for a signal (Paragraph [0099]).
As to claim 26, depending from the tag-locating system of claim 21, Parikh further discloses wherein the RFID reference tags are not present in the multipath environment when the estimating is performed (Paragraph [0102]).
Claim 2 is rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Parikh et al. (Parikh; US PG Pub #2022/0141619) in view of Wang (US PG Pub #2018/0288569) as applied to claim 1 above, and further in view of Mindell et al. (Mindell; US PG Pub #2018/0239010).
As to claim 2, depending from the method of claim 1, Parikh does not disclose wherein the input comprises at least one element based on information derived from in-phase and in-quadrature waveforms obtained from the reply signal received by the first RFID reader.
Mindell discloses wherein the input comprises at least one element based on information derived from in-phase and in- quadrature waveforms obtained from the reply signal received by the first RFID reader (para [0047] "...multiple... quadrature phase channels... incorporated in either or both of interrogation or response signals... transponder 42, 420, 421, 423 can have both in phase and 90° out of phase (quadrature) channels with two different diodes where the diodes are modulated...”). It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to combine the teachings of Parikh, Wang, and Mindell because in phase and in quadrature waveforms can be continuously monitored and mined for information (see para [0047]).
Claims 5-6, 16, 18-19, and 28-29 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Parikh et al. (Parikh; US PG Pub #2022/0141619) in view of Wang (US PG Pub #2018/0288569) as applied to claim 1 above, and further in view of Chawla et al. (Chawla; US PG Pub #2013/0181869).
As to claim 5, depending from the method of claim 1, Parikh does not disclose the claimed subject matter.
In the field of positioning systems, Wang discloses determining, by the processor, an angle of arrival (AoA) of the reply signal at the first RFID reader (para [0108]), determining, by the processor, an AoA of the reply signal at the second RFID reader v, the AoA of (para [0108]), the AoA of (para [0108]). As seen above, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to combine the teachings of Parikh and Wang because construction of signal vectors can aid in determining the location of where the signals originated from (see para [0108]).
Neither Parikh nor Wang disclose wherein the RFID reader is a first RFID reader, the location is a first location, and further comprising: detecting, by a second RFID reader located at a second position in the multipath environment, the reply signal sent by the first RFID tag in response to the interrogation of the first RFID. tag, estimating, by the processor, a second location of the first RFID tag using the reply signal at the first RFID reader and the reply signal at the second RFID reader, estimating a third location of the first RFID tag that is based on the first location and the second location, and outputting, by the processor, the third location as ani estimated location of the first RFID tag.
In the field of object localization, Chawla discloses wherein the RFID reader is a first RFID reader, the location is a first location (para [0114] “...a second region corresponding to a second RFID reader”), and further comprising:
detecting, by a second RFID reader located at a second position in the multipath environment, the reply signal sent by the first RFID tag in response to the interrogation of the first RFID tag (para [0114] "...using information about a physical relationship between the RFID reader and the reference location via correlating the measurement power level to the reference power level, and determine a refined region that includes the target by intersecting the region with a second region corresponding to a second RFID reader.”),
estimating, by the processor, a second location of the first RFID tag using the reply signal at the first RFID reader and the reply signal at the second RFID reader (para [0114]),
estimating a third location of the first RFID tag that is based on the first location and the second location (para [0114]), and
outputting, by the processor, the third location as an estimated location of the first RFID tag (para [0099] "..wherein the localization circuit is configured to determine a refined region that includes the target using information about two or more regions established using respective measurement power levels determined corresponding to respective RFID readers."). It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to combine the teachings of Parikh, Wang, and Chawla because deriving location information from more than one reader indifferent locations can enhance an original location estimation made with a single reader (see para [0114]).
As to claim 6, depending from the method of claim 1, Parikh does not disclose wherein obtaining the representation of the multipath environment comprises acquiring at least one image of the multipath environment with a camera.
In the field of object localization, Chawla discloses wherein obtaining the representation of the multipath environment comprises acquiring at least one image of the multipath environment with a camera (para [0004] “ ...additional equipment can, in some examples, include light based (e.g., cameras, vision sensors, laser, or infrared), sound based (e.g., ultrasonic), or tactile sensors (e.g., range-finding, image capture, etc.), such as to augment the information provided by the RFID reader."). It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to combine the teachings of Parikh, Wang, and Chawla because images can be provided to readers as supplemental information to enhance location estimation (see para [0004]).
As to claim 16, depending from the method of claim 1, Parikh does not disclose wherein the RFID reader is a first RFID reader that listens for the reply signal and a second RFID reader spaced apart from the first RFID reader performs the interrogation of the first RFID tag.
In the field of object localization, Chawla discloses wherein the RFID reader is a first RFID reader that listens for the reply signal and a second RFID reader spaced apart from the first RFID reader performs the interrogation of the first RFID tag (para [0114]). It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to combine the teachings of Parikh, Wang, and Chawla because deriving location information from more than one reader in different locations can enhance an original location estimation made with a single reader (see para [0114]).
As to claim 18, depending from the method of claim 1, Parikh does not disclose further comprising: detecting, by a second RFID reader located at a second position in the multipath environment, the reply signal from the first RFID tag in response to the interrogation of the first RFID tag, wherein the input is further based on the reply signal as detected by the second RFID reader.
In the field of object localization, Chawla discloses further comprising: detecting, by a second RFID reader located at a second position in the multipath environment, the reply signal from the first RFID tag in response to the interrogation of the first RFID tag (para [0114]), wherein the input is further based on the reply signal as detected by the second RFID reader (para [0114]). It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to combine the teachings of Parikh, Wang, and Chawla because deriving location information from more than one reader in different locations can enhance an original location estimation made with a single reader (see para [0114]).
As to claim 19, depending from the method of claim 1, Parikh further discloses further comprising: analyzing, by the processor, to determine whether a furnishing supporting the first RFID tag has been moved within the multipath environment (para 0109) "..movement of an object might trigger a transmission of a tag data package that contains a data item indicating object determining a new location and/or orientation of the furnishing (para [0109] "...a movement indication could be used to update the database automatically..."), and tuning, by the processor, the machine learning process in response to determining the new location and the orientation of the furnishing (para [0111] “...adjustments can be made to a data model”). Neither Parikh nor Wang discloses one or more images of the multipath environment from the one or more images based on the one or more images of the multipath environment.
In the field of object localization, Chawla discloses one or more images of the multipath environment (para [0004]), from the one or more images (para [0004]), based on the one or more images of the multipath environment (para [0004]. It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to combine the teachings of Parikh, Wang, and Chawla because images can be provided to readers as supplemental information to enhance location estimation (see para [0004]).
As to claim 28, Parikh discloses a method for locating a radio-frequency identification (RFID) tag in a multipath environment (para. [0013]), the method comprising:
as input to a machine learning model executing on the processor, wherein the machine learning model is trained from reference signals received from RFID reference tags at respective known locations (para [0105]),
estimating, with the machine leaning model a location of the RFID tag in the multipath environment (para [0028]), and outputting, from the machine learning model, the location of the RFID tag (para [0029]).
Parikh does not disclose receiving, by an n-element antenna array, a reply from the RFID tag, where n is an integer greater than 1, constructing, by a processor in communication with the n-element antenna array, a signal vector based on the reply from the RFID tag, obtaining, with a camera, an image of the multipath environment, providing the signal vector and the image with reference vectors constructed based on the signal vector and the image.
In the field of positioning systems, Wang discloses receiving, by an n-element antenna array, a reply from the RFID tag, where n is an integer greater than 1 (para [0107]; para [0015]), constructing, by a processor in communication with the n-element antenna array, a signal vector based on the reply from the RFID tag (para [0107], providing the signal vector (para [0107]), with reference vectors constructed (para [0107)), based on the signal vector (para [0107]). It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to combine the teachings of Parikh and Wang because construction of signal vectors can aid in determining the location of where the signals originated from (see para [0108]).
Neither Parikh nor Wang disclose obtaining, with a camera, an image of the multipath environment, and the image, and the image.
In the field of object localization, Chawla discloses obtaining, with a camera, an image of the multipath environment (para [0004]), and the image (para [0004]), and the image (para [0004]. It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to combine the teachings of Parikh, Wang, and Chawla because images can be provided to readers as supplemental information to enhance location estimation (see para [0004]).
As to claim 29, depending from the method of claim 28, Parikh does not disclose wherein the signal Vector comprises n complex numbers, wherein each of the n complex numbers represents an estimate of a communications channel between the RFID tag and a corresponding antenna element in the n-element antenna array.
In the field of positioning systems, Wang further discloses wherein the signal Vector comprises n complex numbers, wherein each of the n complex numbers represents an estimate of a communications channel between the RFID tag and a corresponding antenna element in the n-element antenna array (para [0107] ...receiver may store a copy of the signal vector map for the multiple antennas 40 of the node 50. An exemplary signal vector map may be a relationship between an angle of departure and its corresponding signal vector value of the N antennas..."). It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to combine the teachings of Parikh and Wang because construction of signal vectors can aid in determining the location of where the signals originated from (see para [0108]).
Claims 10 and 24 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Parikh et al. (Parikh; US PG Pub #2022/0141619) in view of Wang (US PG Pub #2018/0288569) as applied to claims 1 and 21 above, and further in view of Marques et al. (Marques; US PG Pub #2021/0072027).
As to claim 10, depending from the method of claim 1, Parikh further discloses wherein the RFID reference tags (para [0105]), for the first RFID tag (para [0013]).
Neither Parikh nor Wang discloses are spaced more than 15 centimeters apart and an accuracy of the location is less than one meter.
In the field of localization, Marques discloses are spaced more than 15 centimeters apart (para [0040] "..RF to measure distances to anchors 55. Anchors 55 may be mounted throughout an area, in which the user will be using the device to navigate, and all of the anchors may have known positions... density of 1 anchor per 84 square-meters. In another, narrower hall adjacent to this space, there may be 4 anchors covering 70 square-meters such that there is a density of 1 anchor per 18 square-meters.”), and an accuracy of the location Is less than one meter (para [0041] "...typical measurement accuracy may be on the order of 10 centimeters (cm) standard deviation..."). It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to combine the teachings of Parikh, Wang, and CACI because different sized spaced may require different spacing between tags in order to achieve a desired level of accuracy (see para (0040].)
As to claim 24, depending from the tag-locating system of claim 21, Parikh further discloses wherein the machine learning process is trained with the RFID reference tags (para [0190]). Neither Parikh nor Wang disclose having a density value in the multipath environment from 0.01 m-3 to 10 m-3.
In the field of localization, Marques discloses having a density, value in the multipath environment from 0.01 m-3 to 10 m-3 (para [0040] "In some implementations, anchors 55 may be evenly spaced, e.g., at 10 meter intervals..”). It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to combine the teachings of Parikh, Wang, and CACI because different sized spaced may require different spacing between tags in order to achieve a desired level of accuracy (see para [0040].)
Claim 7 is rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Parikh et al. (Parikh; US PG Pub #2022/0141619) in view of Wang (US PG Pub #2018/0288569) as applied to claim 1 above, and further in view of McAllister (US PG Pub #2017/0185954).
As to claim 7, depending from the method of claim 1, Parikh does not disclose wherein obtaining the representation of the multipath environment comprises performing at least one lidar scan of the multipath environment.
In the field of , McAllister discloses wherein obtaining the representation of the multipath environment comprises performing at least one lidar scan of the multipath environment (para 10072] "LIDAR sensors, such as LIDAR-Lite from PulsedLight, Inc. of Bend, Oreg. are used for determining the range to surrounding objects, people, or fixtures."). It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to combine the teachings of Parikh, Wang, and McAllister because LIDAR scans can provide information about an environment that might be useful for determining positions of target objects (see para [0072]).
Claim 23 is rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Parikh et al. (Parikh; US PG Pub #2022/0141619) in view of Wang (US PG Pub #2018/0288569) as applied to claim 21 above, and further in view of Bassan-Eskenazi et al. (Bassan; US PG Pub #2014/0148195).
As to claim 23, depending from the tag-locating system of claim 21, Parikh further discloses of the RFID readers in the multipath environment (para [0022]). Neither Parikh nor Wang disclose wherein a density is a value from 0.001 m-3 to 0.1 m-3.
In the field of location measurements, Bassan discloses wherein a density is a value from 0.001 m-3 to 0.1 m-3 (para [0096] “.. distance between adjacent wireless tags positioned on a same side of an object does not exceed 100 centimeters."). It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to combine the teachings of Parikh, Wang, and Bassan because densely collocating wireless elements can enhance the ability of the system to locate objects of interest (see para [0735]).
Claims 11-15 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Parikh et al. (Parikh; US PG Pub #2022/0141619) in view of Wang (US PG Pub #2018/0288569) as applied to claim 1 above, and further in view of Duggan et al. (Duggan; US PG Pub #2015/0248797).
As to claim 11, depending from the method of claim 1, Parikh further discloses further comprising: identifying, by the processor, at least one region in the multipath environment where the first RFID tag can be located (para [0022]). Nether Parikh nor Wang discloses and rejecting an estimated location of the first RFID tag that falls outside the at least one region.
In the field of location detection, Duggan discloses and rejecting an estimated location of the first RFID tag that falls outside the at least one region (para [0010] "...a revised location determination of the tag in the location environment, the revised location determination calculated by the processor by applying attributes of the at [east one exclusion zone to the original location determination of the at least one tag If it is determined that the original location determination is cospatial with the at least one exclusion zone..."). It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to combine the teachings of Parikh, Wang, and Duggan because the use of an excluded zone can be used to refine and enhance the accuracy of location predictions for tags (see para [0010]).
As to claim 12, depending from the method of claim 1, Parikh does not disclose further comprising: identifying, by the processor, an excluded region in the multipath environment where the first RFID tag is not located, and rejecting an estimated location of the first RFID tag that falls within the excluded region.
In the field of location detection, Duggan discloses further comprising: identifying, by the processor, an excluded region in the multipath environment where the first RFID tag is not located (para [0032] "...impossible (excluded) zones for an exclusion zone map 200 as employed by embodiments. As referenced, tags cannot appear in some areas of the environment in which the system is operating.”), and rejecting an estimated location of the first RFID tag that falls within the excluded region (para [0010]). It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to combine the teachings of Parikh, Wang, and Duggan because the use of an excluded zone can be used to refine and enhance the accuracy of location predictions for tags (see para [0010]).
As to claim 13, depending from the method of claim 12, Parikh does not disclose wherein the identifying comprises: analyzing, by the processor, the representation of the multipath environment to identify the excluded region as a region where an RFID tag cannot be physically located.
In the field of location detection, Duggan further discloses wherein the identifying comprises: analyzing, by the processor, the representation of the multipath environment to identify the excluded region as a region where an RFID tag cannot be physically located (para [0032]). It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to combine the teachings of Parikh, Wang, and Duggan because the use of an excluded zone can be used to refine and enhance the accuracy of location predictions for tags (see para [0010]).
As to claim 14, depending from the method of claim 12, Parikh does not disclose wherein the identifying comprises, analyzing, by the processor, the representation of the multipath environment to identify the excluded region as an aisle or open space where RFID tags are not normally located.
In the field of location detection, Duggan further discloses wherein the identifying comprises, analyzing, by the processor, the representation of the multipath environment to identify the excluded region as an aisle or open space where RFID tags are not normally located (para [0032]). It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to combine the teachings of Parikh, Wang, and Duggan because the use of an excluded zone can be used to refine and enhance the accuracy of location predictions for tags (see para [0010]).
As to claim 15, depending from the method of claim 1, Parikh does not disclose further comprising: analyzing, by the. processor, the representation of the multipath environment to identify an excluded region as an aisle or open space where RFID tags are not normally located, determining that the location of the first RFID tag falls within the excluded region, analyzing, by the processor, an image of the excluded region captured concurrently with the reply signal to determine whether a person, cart, or machine that can transport the first RFID tag Is present at the excluded region, and outputting the location of the first RFID tag in response to determining that the person, cart, or machine is present at the excluded region.
In the field of location detection, Duggan discloses further comprising: analyzing, by the processor, the representation of the multipath environment to identify an excluded region as an aisle or open space where RFID tags are not normally located (para [0032]), determining that the location of the first RFID tag falls within the excluded region (para [0010]), analyzing, by the processor, an image of the excluded region captured concurrently with the reply signal to determine whether a person, cart, or machine that can transport the first RFID tag is present at the excluded region (para [0032] "...an exclusion zones binary image with black color denoting impossible (excluded) zones and white color denoting allowed locations."; para [0040] “the network Is then prepared to process various patterns and output where it thinks the tag is located, based on everything it has been taught...”) whether person, cart, machine that can transport RFID tag present at excluded region (para [0055] "...comparing the location estimate with the no-fly exclusion zone polyhedron region 1620; determining if the location estimate is within the no-fly exclusion zone polyhedron...” and outputting the location of the first RFID tag in response to determining that the person, cart, or machine is present at the excluded region (para [0040]). It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to combine the teachings of Parikh, Wang, and Duggan because the use of an excluded zone can be used to refine and enhance the accuracy of location predictions for tags (see para [0010]).
Claim 25 is rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Parikh et al. (Parikh; US PG Pub #2022/0141619) in view of Wang (US PG Pub #2018/0288569) and further in view of Bassan-Eskenazi et al. (Bassan; US PG Pub #2014/0148195) as applied to claim 23 above, and further in view of Marques et al. (Marques; US PG Pub #2021/0072027).
As to claim 25, depending from the tag-locating system of claim 23, Parikh does not disclose wherein an accuracy of one standard deviation in estimating the location is less than one meter.
In the field of localization, Marques discloses wherein an accuracy of one standard deviation in estimating the location is less than one meter (para [0041]). It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to combine the teachings of Parikh, Wang, Bassan, and Marques because precise localization of objects will likely require accuracy in the order of 10 centimeters (see para [0053]).
Claim 27 is rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Parikh et al. (Parikh; US PG Pub #2022/0141619) in view of Wang (US PG Pub #2018/0288569) as applied to claim 21 above, and further in view of Chawla et al. (Chawla; US PG Pub #2013/0181869) and Duggan et al. (Duggan; US PG Pub #2015/0248797).
As to claim 27, depending from the tag-locating system of claim 21, Parikh further discloses further comprising: identifying, at least one region in the multipath environment where the first RFID tag can be located (para [0022]).
In the field of object localization, Chawla further discloses one or more cameras each arranged to capture one or more images of at least portions of the multipath environment (para [0004]), wherein the processor is further adapted to: from the one or more images of the multipath environment captured by the one or more cameras (para [0004]). It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to combine the teachings of Parikh, Wang, and Chawla because images can be provided to readers as supplemental information to enhance location estimation (see para [0004]).
Neither Parikh, Wang, nor Chawla disclose and reject an estimated second location of the first RFID tag that falls outside the at least one region.
In the field of location detection, Duggan discloses and reject an estimated second location of the first RFID tag that falls outside the at least one region (para [0010]). It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to combine the teachings of Parikh, Wang, Chawla, and Duggan because the use of an excluded zone can be used to refine and enhance the accuracy of location predictions for tags (see para [0010]).
Claim 30 is rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Parikh et al. (Parikh; US PG Pub #2022/0141619) in view of Wang (US PG Pub #2018/0288569) and further in view of Chawla et al. (Chawla; US PG Pub #2013/0181869) as applied to claim 28 above, and further in view of Nikitin et al. (Nikitin; US PG Pub #2020/0034583).
As to claim 30, depending from the method of claim 28, Parikh further discloses wherein the RFID tag is a first RFID tag (para [0013]), tuning the machine learning model based on and the location of the second RFID tag (para [0190]), but does not disclose the remained claimed subject matter.
In the field of positioning systems, Wang further discloses the signal vector is a first signal vector (para [0107], receiving, by the n-element antenna array, a reply from the second RFID tag (para [0107]; para [0015]), constructing, by the processor, a second signal vector based on the reply from the second RFID tag (para [0107]), and the second signal vector (para [0107]). It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to combine the teachings of Parikh and Wang because construction of signal vectors can aid in determining the location of where the signals originated from (see para [0108]). Neither Parikh, Wang, nor Chawla disclose and further comprising: obtaining, with the camera, an image of a second RFID tag, determining a location of the second RFID tag from the image of the second RFID tag.
In the field of locating RFID tags, Nikitin discloses and further comprising: obtaining, with the camera, an image of a second RFID tag (para [0078] “...obtain stored image information that is correlated with acquired phase information for the plurality of RFID tags 108 (such as with timestamping) and used to aid or facilitate locating the plurality of RFID tags 108 (such as presenting the user with location information to help more easily identify the physical location of the plurality of RFID tags 108)."), determining a location of the second RFID tag from the image of the second RFID tag (para [0078]). It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to combine the teachings of Parikh, Wang, Chawla, and Nikitin because images of tags can aid a user in identifying the location of a tag (see para [0078]).
Conclusion
The prior art made of record and not relied upon is considered pertinent to applicant's disclosure.
Dupray (US PG Pub #2008/0133126) teaches a system and method for locating wireless mobile units (Paragraph [0002]) in a multipath environment (Paragraphs [0212]-[0214]).
Contact Information
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/RYAN W SHERWIN/ Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2688