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 .
Priority
Receipt is acknowledged of certified copies of papers required by 37 CFR 1.55.
Information Disclosure Statement
The information disclosure statement filed 12/18/24 has been considered.
Drawings
The drawings filed 12/18/24 are acceptable to the examiner.
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)(1) the claimed invention was patented, described in a printed publication, or in public use, on sale, or otherwise available to the public before the effective filing date of the claimed invention.
Claim(s) 1-11, 14-16, 18-21 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(1) as being anticipated by Lovitt (US 2012/0114130 A1).
Re claim 1: Lovitt teaches an apparatus for spatial audio communication (as seen from figures 2 and 6), comprising: at least one processor (100); and
at least one memory (102) storing instructions that, when executed with the at least one processor (paragraph [0046-0047]), cause the apparatus at least to:
receive multiple audio signals (figure 2, (34) along with paragraphs [0011-0012]) wherein the multiple audio signals comprise at least one spatial audio signal (spatial source as discussed in paragraphs [0014 and 0018]);
obtain information relating to activity of sound sources for at least for the at least one spatial audio signal (see discussion in paragraph [0030], more talkative sound source voice); and
enable spatial processing of the at least one spatial audio signal based, at least in part, on the obtained activity information wherein the spatial processing controls the positioning of the sound sources according to the obtained activity information (paragraph [0031], swap perceived location of sound source voice, figure 4).
Re claim 18: Lovett teaches a method comprising:
receive multiple audio signals (figure 2, (34) along with paragraphs [0011-0012]) wherein the multiple audio signals comprise at least one spatial audio signal (spatial source as discussed in paragraphs [0014 and 0018]);
obtain information relating to activity of sound sources for at least for the at least one spatial audio signal (see discussion in paragraph [0030], more talkative sound source voice); and
enable spatial processing of the at least one spatial audio signal based, at least in part, on the obtained activity information wherein the spatial processing controls the positioning of the sound sources according to the obtained activity information (paragraph [0031], swap perceived location of sound source voice, figure 4).
Re claim 19: Lovitt teaches an apparatus subsystem (102) including a non-transitory storage device (paragraph [0046] that tangibly embodying (holds) a program of instructions executable with an apparatus, paragraph [0045]) to perform operations to
receive multiple audio signals (figure 2, (34) along with paragraphs [0011-0012]) wherein the multiple audio signals comprise at least one spatial audio signal (spatial source as discussed in paragraphs [0014 and 0018]);
obtain information relating to activity of sound sources for at least for the at least one spatial audio signal (see discussion in paragraph [0030], more talkative sound source voice); and
enable spatial processing of the at least one spatial audio signal based, at least in part, on the obtained activity information wherein the spatial processing controls the positioning of the sound sources according to the obtained activity information (paragraph [0031], swap perceived location of sound source voice, figure 4).
Re claims 2 and 20: see figure 4 along with discussion in paragraphs [0030-0031] positioning audio sources (swap locations of audio sources)
Re claims 4 and 21: the claimed repositioning of an audio signal is taught by the swapping of an audio source location as taught in paragraph [0031], along with figure 4 satisfying the alternatively claimed language set forth
Re claim 3: note discussion in paragraphs [0030=0031] in which the positioning of an audio source is based on at least the activity (more talkative) audio source satisfying the alternative language set forth
Re claim 5: resizing such that the audio with more activity has a larger size is taught by the arrangement of figure 4 in which audio with more activity is swapped with audio with less activity to reduce a cognitive load to a user from dominant talkers since the claim does not define what is meant by resizing an audio to have a larger size.
Re claim 6: to resize the audio using a weighting factor is taught by discussion in paragraph [0032], determining weighting factors and in which the resize can include the angular span of a signal with respect to a user (70) as depicted in figure
Re claim 7: note teaching in figure 4 in which the resizing of an audio signal with respect to a user (70) incudes changes in an angular span
Re claim 8: note in figure 4 the distance between audio signals (74b and 74d) change upon repositioning of the audio signals
Re claim 9: note when repositioning of audio signals (figure 4) the direction of these audio signals with respect to a user (70) change.
Re claim 10: note when repositioning of audio signals (figure 4) audio signals with more activity acquires a more prominent position respect to a user (70)
Re claim 11: note after swapping takes place depicted by time ti, figure 4 user (70) can perceive audio from the combined audio sources but with a reduced cognitive load (paragraph [0031])
Re claim 14: capturing audio from a first scene and a second scene as set forth is taught by the arrangement of figure 4 in which a first scene can be any one of the audio voices such as audio from 74b and the second scene can be any of the audio voices such as audio from 74d since the claimed scenes have not been more specifically defined to distinguish from this teaching
Re claim 15: note the sources of audio provided in Lovett can include at least multi-channel, i.e. multiple client devices such a plural mobile phones satisfying the language used “at least one” as set forth
Re claim 16: note audio is received with multiple channels (34) figure 2 include signals from multiple phones, paragraph [0011]
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.
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) 12-13 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Lovitt in view of Cronk (US 11,832,674 B2).
Re claim 12: the teaching of Lovitt is discussed above and incorporated herein. Lovitt does not positively state that the audio signals present from the mobile phone audio signals are a mono audio signal. Cronk teaches in a similar environment that mobile phone communicates can support both stereo and mono settings each providing a different audio quality of the signal (column 3, lines 26-34). It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the filing of the invention to incorporate such a teaching of Cronk to be used in the apparatus arrangement of Lovitt to predictably provide audio communications to a user in a mono audio setting to predictably provide an alternative way of providing audio to a user with a different audio quality. Therefor the claimed subject matter would have been obvious before the filing of the invention.
Re claim 13: note the repositioning of the audio sources in Lovitt as depicted in figure 4 and as disclosed would equally supply audio to a user no matter if the audio is in a mono or spatial form but with different qualities as taught by Cronk
Conclusion
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to ANDREW SNIEZEK whose telephone number is (571)272-7563. The examiner can normally be reached Monday-Friday 7:00 AM-3:30 PM EST.
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If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner’s supervisor, Ahmad Matar can be reached at 571-272-7488. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300.
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/ANDREW SNIEZEK/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2693
/A.S./Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2693 8/17/26
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