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 .
Information Disclosure Statement
The information disclosure statements (IDS) submitted on 12/11/2024, 07/24/2025, 12/04/2025, and 12/31/2025 are in compliance with the provisions of 37 CFR 1.97. Accordingly, the information disclosure statements are being considered by the examiner.
Drawings
The drawings were submitted on 12/11/2024. These drawings are reviewed and accepted by the examiner.
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 1-22 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.
The terms “high”, “lower”, and “fewer” in claims 1, 17, and 22 are relative terms which renders the claim indefinite. The terms “high”, “lower”, and “fewer” are not defined by the claim, the specification does not provide a standard for ascertaining the requisite degree, and one of ordinary skill in the art would not be reasonably apprised of the scope of the invention. Therefore, the claimed bit count real and imaginary parts, bit count angles and amplitudes, and bits have been rendered indefinite by the use of the terms “high”, “lower”, and “fewer.” Claims 2-16 and 18-21 depend independent claims 1 and 17 and are therefore rejected under the same rationale.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 101
35 U.S.C. 101 reads as follows:
Whoever invents or discovers any new and useful process, machine, manufacture, or composition of matter, or any new and useful improvement thereof, may obtain a patent therefor, subject to the conditions and requirements of this title.
Claims 1-22 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 101 because the claimed invention is directed to an abstract idea without significantly more. The claim(s) recite(s) converting frequency spectrum data and storing frequency spectrum in the polar coordinate form, all of which are mathematical calculations.
Step 2A, Prong One:
The claims recite mathematical concepts. For example, in claims 1, 17, and 22: “converting frequency spectrum data of a segment of an input audio signal from complex number form to polar coordinate form”. Limitations such as “scaling the frequency spectrum data”, “transforming the segment… to a discrete frequency domain”, “convolving the frequency spectrum data…”, etc. all recite mathematical relationships and calculations.
Step 2A, Prong Two:
The claims are a method and include steps like “storing frequency spectrum” and “storing the scaling factor.” These are generic computer functions involving data gathering, processing (mathematical), decision-making, and output. Merely applying an abstract idea on a generic computer or using conventional speech recognition does not integrate the exception into a practical application. See Alice Corp. v. CLS Bank Int’l, 573 U.S. 208 (2014); Credit Acceptance Corp. v. Westlake Servs., 859 F.3d 1044 (Fed. Cir. 2017).
The claims do not recite an improvement to the functioning of a computer or to another technology/technical field. There is no recitation of a specific, technological improvement. Constraints like “playing the reconstructed time domain data” are field-of-use and post-solution activity that do not meaningfully limit the abstract idea.
Step 2B:
Beyond the abstract ideas, the claims recite generic computer implementation: converting audio data and storing data. The specification, as reflected by the claim language, does not require any unconventional hardware or a particular machine.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 102
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) 1-12 and 14-22 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(2) as being anticipated by Cho et al. (US 20240153513 A1).
Regarding claim 1, 17, and 22, Cho teaches:
“a) converting frequency spectrum data of a segment of an input audio signal from complex number form to polar coordinate form, wherein the complex number form has a high bit count real and imaginary parts, and wherein the polar coordinate form has a lower bit count angles and amplitude” (par. 0014; ‘The performing of the polar quantization for each subband may comprise: performing magnitude quantization and phase quantization on the complex frequency coefficient scaled for each subband based on a bit constraint configured for each subband.’; par. 0150; ‘FIG. 8 is a diagram illustrating spectrograms of audio applied with an audio signal encoding/decoding technique based on complex number quantization according to an embodiment of the present disclosure.’; par. 0151; ‘First, with reference to the left graph 810 for the case of using polar quantization for only Mode 2, it can be observed that the representation of the components with large sound pressure in the low frequencies of the speech spectrogram is blurred, which is expressed as unclear speech.’; par. 0152; ‘The right graph 820 in FIG. 8 depicts the spectrogram of audio encoded and decoded using polar quantization for Mode 1 and Mode 2 in the audio encoding/decoding technique according to an embodiment of the present disclosure, as illustrated in FIGS. 1 to 4.’);
“b) storing frequency spectrum of a segment of the input audio signal in the polar coordinate form wherein storing the frequency spectrum of the segment of the input signal in polar coordinate form requires fewer bits than storing the frequency spectrum data of the segment of the input signal in complex number form” (par. 0172; ‘According to embodiments of the present disclosure, it is advantageous, compared to quantizing the real and imaginary parts individually, that polar quantization is capable of diversifying the subband-specific bit allocation for phase without the need for additional bits by using quantized/inverse-quantized magnitude information from the previous stages in the phase quantization/inverse quantization process, as well as increasing coding efficiency.’).
Regarding claims 2 (dep. on claim 1) and 19 (dep. on claim 17), Cho further teaches:
“removing high frequency bins from the frequency spectrum data of the segment of the input audio signal, wherein the high frequency bins correspond to frequencies that are imperceptible to humans” (par. 0047; ‘For example, technologies involving the use of a psychoacoustic model (PAM) for encoding/decoding audio signals and techniques for transforming audio signals into complex coefficients using methods such as MDCT, DFT, MCLT, and the like may be employed as technologies known prior to the filing of this application, and at least part of these known technologies may be applied as essential elements for implementing the present disclosure.’; par. 0124; ‘P(fb) represents the decoded phase index for the fbth frequency bin, and it may have integer values ranging from 1 to K(fb).’).
Regarding claim 3 (dep. on claim 2), Cho further teaches:
“scaling the frequency spectrum data of the segment of the input audio signal by a scaling factor and storing the scaling factor in a high frequency bin of the frequency spectrum data of the segment of the input signal after the high frequency bins are removed” (par. 0052; ‘That is, the audio signal encoding method based on complex number quantization according to an embodiment of the present disclosure includes estimating scale factors for subbands for the input audio signal 160 as denoted by reference number 130, performing complex magnitude scaling for each subband based on the scale factors as denoted by reference number 130, and polar-quantizing scaled complex frequency coefficients 310 for each subband as denoted by reference number 120.’).
Regarding claims 4 (dep. on claim 1) and 20 (dep. on claim 17), Cho further teaches:
“scaling the frequency spectrum data of the segment of the input audio signal by a scaling factor” (par. 0053; ‘The scale factors determined by the bit rate controller 140 may be transmitted to control the subband scaler 130 and polar quantizer 120. The output obtained from the subband scaler 130 may be delivered to a bit multiplexer 180 along with the output from the lossless encoder 170.’).
Regarding claims 5 (dep. on claim 1) and 21 (dep. on claim 17), Cho further teaches:
“transforming the segment of the input audio signal from a time domain to a discrete frequency domain to generate the frequency spectrum data of the segment of the input audio signal, wherein the frequency spectrum data is in complex number form” (par. 0077; ‘The audio signal encoding method according to an embodiment of the present disclosure may further include transforming the input audio signal 160 into the frequency domain signal through DFT 150 before subband-specific complex magnitude scaling by the subband scaler 130.’).
Regarding claim 6 (dep. on claim 5), Cho further teaches:
“wherein transforming the segment of the input audio signal includes applying Discrete Fourier Transform to the input audio signal” (par. 0077; ‘The audio signal encoding method according to an embodiment of the present disclosure may further include transforming the input audio signal 160 into the frequency domain signal through DFT 150 before subband-specific complex magnitude scaling by the subband scaler 130.’).
Regarding claim 7 (dep. on claim 1), Cho further teaches:
“wherein the input audio signal is an impulse response signal” (par. 0147; ‘Afterward, a finite impulse response (FIR) filter is designed with the quantized complex LPC coefficients as coefficients.’).
Regarding claim 8 (dep. on claim 1), Cho further teaches:
“convolving the frequency spectrum data of the segment of the input audio signal in the polar coordinate form with frequency spectrum data of a segment of a second audio signal in the polar coordinate form to generate a convolved signal of the impulse response signal and the second audio signal” (par. 0063; ‘DFT is typically conducted in the form of overlap-and-add.’).
Regarding claim 9 (dep. on claim 1), Cho further teaches:
“converting the frequency spectrum data of the segment of the input audio signal from a 32-bit format to 16-bit format before conversion to the polar coordinate form” (par. 0097; ‘Here, the vector p, predetermined by the bit constraint 390, represents a vector containing the number of uniform quantization cells for each magnitude cell. The bit constraint 390 input for phase quantization at step S350 may also be defined differently for each subband. That is, the vector p may be calculated differently for each subband. Each element of the vector p is a power of 2 from the set {2, 4, 8, 16, Kmax} and increases monotonically as the index increases.’).
Regarding claim 10 (dep. on claim 1), Cho further teaches:
“wherein the complex number form includes 16-bit or more real parts and 16-bit or more imaginary parts” (par. 0097; ‘Here, the vector p, predetermined by the bit constraint 390, represents a vector containing the number of uniform quantization cells for each magnitude cell. The bit constraint 390 input for phase quantization at step S350 may also be defined differently for each subband. That is, the vector p may be calculated differently for each subband. Each element of the vector p is a power of 2 from the set {2, 4, 8, 16, Kmax} and increases monotonically as the index increases.’).
Regarding claim 11 (dep. on claim 1), Cho further teaches:
“wherein the polar coordinate form includes 8-bit or less angles and 8-bit or less amplitudes” (par. 0097; ‘Here, the vector p, predetermined by the bit constraint 390, represents a vector containing the number of uniform quantization cells for each magnitude cell. The bit constraint 390 input for phase quantization at step S350 may also be defined differently for each subband. That is, the vector p may be calculated differently for each subband. Each element of the vector p is a power of 2 from the set {2, 4, 8, 16, Kmax} and increases monotonically as the index increases.’).
Regarding claim 12 (dep. on claim 11), Cho further teaches:
“wherein the polar coordinate form further includes a 16 bit per segment scaling factor” (par. 0097; ‘Here, the vector p, predetermined by the bit constraint 390, represents a vector containing the number of uniform quantization cells for each magnitude cell. The bit constraint 390 input for phase quantization at step S350 may also be defined differently for each subband. That is, the vector p may be calculated differently for each subband. Each element of the vector p is a power of 2 from the set {2, 4, 8, 16, Kmax} and increases monotonically as the index increases.’).
Regarding claim 14 (dep. on claim 1), Cho further teaches:
“wherein one or more of the angles is treated as a change of +π or −π from a previous angle value” (par. 0133; ‘Once the magnitude quantization cell is determined, the number of divisions K 550 for uniformly quantizing the complex number phase is determined based on the magnitude quantization cell, boundaries (gray scale blocks) are defined to evenly divide this range in consideration of the phase ranging from 0 to 2π, and the complex number to be quantized is assigned, based on these boundaries, to a quantization cell and converted into a phase index.’).
Regarding claim 15 (dep. on claim 1), Cho further teaches:
“wherein for a sequence of bins of the frequency spectrum, amplitude values for which decay as the frequency decreases, storing the frequency spectrum includes storing a first value at a first bin of the sequence of bins, and storing a second value at a last bin of the sequence of bins, whereby a straight line between the first value and the last value is at or above the maximum value at any bin in the sequence of bins” (par. 0027-0028; ‘The inverse polar quantizer may determine a first mode applying a scalar inverse quantization technique as the magnitude inverse quantization mode based on the magnitude quantization index being equal to or greater than the threshold value.’ ‘The inverse polar quantizer may determine a second mode for inverse polar quantization of the magnitude quantization index based on a function of a quantization cell size boundary value as the magnitude inverse quantization mode based on the magnitude quantization index being less than the threshold value.’).
Regarding claim 16 (dep. on claim 1), Cho further teaches:
“converting the frequency spectrum of the segment of the input audio signal in the polar coordinate form to complex number form and convolving the frequency spectrum of the segment of the input audio signal in the complex number form with a frequency spectrum of a segment of a second audio signal in the complex number form” (par. 0106; ‘The audio signal decoding method based on complex number quantization according to an embodiment of the present disclosure may further include inversely transforming the de-quantized (inverse polar quantized) complex coefficients 470 into a time domain audio signal through an inverse transform technique 250 corresponding to the frequency domain transform technique used in the encoding process.’).
Regarding claim 18 (dep. on claim 17), Cho further teaches:
“a speaker and wherein the program instructions further include converting the frequency spectrum of the segment of the input signal in the polar coordinate form back to the complex number form, applying an inverse transform to the frequency spectrum of the segment of the input signal in the complex number form to reconstruct time domain data of the segment of the input audio signal and playing the reconstructed time domain data of the segment of the input audio signal with the speaker” (par. 0106; ‘The audio signal decoding method based on complex number quantization according to an embodiment of the present disclosure may further include inversely transforming the de-quantized (inverse polar quantized) complex coefficients 470 into a time domain audio signal through an inverse transform technique 250 corresponding to the frequency domain transform technique used in the encoding process.’).
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.
Claim(s) 13 is rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Cho in view of Dally (US 20150326255 A1).
Regarding claim 13 (dep. on claim 11), Cho does not expressly teach 6-bit integers, as in:
“wherein the angles are 6-bit integers.”
Dally teaches:
“wherein the angles are 6-bit integers” (par. 0031; ‘To avoid precision loss due to format conversion, in one embodiment, the I and Q components are translated by the compute unit 210 to a higher precision phase-magnitude representation to produce 6 bits of phase and 5 bits of magnitude.’).
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention modify Cho’s polar form by incorporating Dally’s method of phase-magnitude representation to produce 6 bits of phase in order to avoid precision loss due to format conversion. (Dally: par. 0031)
Conclusion
Other pertinent prior art are cited in the PTO-892 for the applicant's consideration.
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MARK . VILLENA
Examiner
Art Unit 2658
/MARK VILLENA/Examiner, Art Unit 2658
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