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 .
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) 1-20 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(2) as being anticipated by Simon et al (US 20230276186 A1).
As per claim 1, Simon discloses an apparatus comprising one or more processors and at least one memory, the memory storing computer-executable instructions, the computer-executable instructions configured to, when executed by the one or more processors (the following functions require one or more processor memory and software to be implemented), cause the apparatus to:
receive speaker arrangement data indicating a speaker arrangement associated with a listening space (the L speakers identified per figs 12,13 and as per the processing in para 79 as implemented in the device of fig. 3, and also the locations of users per para 85 are relative to the speakers per the system in fig. 3);
determine receiver data for one or more receivers located within the listening space at a time corresponding to a presentation being provided within the listening space (number of users, para 85, in the system in fig. 3);
determine, based at least in part on the speaker arrangement data and the receiver data, presentation data corresponding to the presentation being provided within the listening space (S140 fig. 1, the output speaker signals); and
adjust one or more parameters of one or more speakers within the listening space based on the presentation data to enable provision of audio associated with the presentation within the listening space (S130 in fig. 1)).
As per claim 2, the apparatus of claim 1, wherein the computer-executable instructions are further configured to, when executed by the one or more processors, cause the apparatus to
determine a particular presentation class for the presentation based at least in part on the speaker arrangement data and the receiver data (sound reproduction mode s120 ) ,
the presentation data is determined at least in part based on the particular presentation class (per the flow of fig. 1),
the particular presentation class is one of a plurality of presentation classes (via the select function in S120), and
each of the plurality of presentation classes corresponds to a respective range of a ratio of quantity of receivers within the listening space, as indicated by the receiver data, to a quantity of speakers of the one or more speakers within the listening space (the selected scheme is based on the quantity of receivers/users per fig. 1, as compared to the number of speakers per the L speakers of figs 12 and 13, and the processing of para 79, noting the comparison/range of a ratio per the processing in figs. 12 and 13, with the number of speakers, relative to the number of users changing via the change in conference configuration per the flow of fig. 1).
As per claim 3, the apparatus of claim 2, wherein the plurality of presentation classes comprises (a) a receiver heavy class corresponding to scenarios where the quantity of receivers within the listening space is greater than the quantity of speakers, (b) a balanced class corresponding to scenarios where the quantity of receivers within the listening space is equal to the quantity of speakers, and (c) a speaker heavy class corresponding to scenarios where the quantity of receivers within the listening space is less than the quantity of speakers. (there is a predetermined number of speakers per per the L speakers cited above, where the change in configuration, when it is the disclosed change in conference users, will define a different configuration relative to the predetermined number of speakers, noting, that as the users increase relative to a fixed numbers of speakers, will define a speaker-heavy, then balanced, then receiver heavy as the number of users increase and the modes/ parameters change accordingly).
As per claim 4, the apparatus of claim 2, wherein at least a portion of the presentation data is determined by presentation solver instructions corresponding to the particular presentation class (the instructions used to automatically determine the filter per s130 in fig. 1, based on the class/mode in s120), and
respective computer executable presentation solver instructions corresponding to each presentation class of the plurality of presentation classes are stored in a memory accessible to the one or more processors (the different selectable modes must be stored in order to be selected, where each mode/class has its own software instructions to inform the next steps after s120 per the flow in fig. 1).
As per claim 5, the apparatus of claim 4, wherein the respective presentation solver instructions differ from one another in at least one of an algorithm performed by execution of the respective computer-executable instructions (the modes define different algorithms per the different parameters applied as the speaker parameters).
As per claim 6, the apparatus of claim 1,
wherein the receiver data indicates:
a quantity of receivers within the listening space (the number of users),
respective locations of the one or more receivers within the listening space (the user location per claim 1 rejection), and
respective orientations of the one or more receivers within the listening space (para. 39).
As per claim 7, the apparatus of claim 1, wherein a receiver data application is configured to determine the receiver data based at least in part on at least one of processing audio data captured by one or more audio capture devices within the listening space or image data captured by one or more video capture devices within the listening space to identify at least one of respective locations or respective orientations of receivers within the listening space (para 57 user detect tracking system).
As per claim 8, the apparatus of claim 1, wherein a receiver data application is configured to determine the receiver data based at least in part on processing sensor data captured by one or more sensors within the listening space to identify at least respective locations of receivers within the listening space (para 57 user detect tracking system).
As per claim 9, the apparatus of claim 1, wherein the speaker arrangement data indicates a quantity of speakers within the listening space and respective locations of the one or more speakers within the listening space (L speakers as cited above and the respective positioning of the speakers defining each region is a respective location as shown in fig. 11).
As per claim 10, the apparatus of claim 1, wherein the computer-executable instructions are further configured to, when executed by the one or more processors, cause the apparatus to receive or determine acoustic data for the listening space and using the acoustic data in determining the presentation data (para 178-181 any of the inputs used for the the acoustic propagation model).
As per claim 11, the apparatus of claim 10, wherein the acoustic data indicates at least one of a location or a characterization of at least one scatterer within the listening space (para 180: The approximation may account for one or more of reflections, refraction, diffraction or scattering of sound in the acoustic environment.).
As per claim 12, the apparatus of claim 1, wherein the computer-executable instructions are further configured to, when executed by the one or more processors, cause the apparatus to:
determine that a re-solve trigger has been identified during the presentation (changing to a new mode with new set of parameters for any of the adaptive converging processes cited throughout the cited art);
determine updated receiver data for the listening space (based on the tracking of the claim 8 rejection);
determine updated presentation data based at least in part on the updated receiver data (per the flow of fig. 1 in view of the tracked users); and
adjust at least one of the one or more parameters of the one or more speakers within the listening space in accordance with the updated presentation data to enable provision of audio associated with the presentation within the listening space (per the flow of fig. 1).
As per claim 13, the apparatus of claim 1, wherein the apparatus is a speaker driver configured to drive the at least one of the one or more speakers or a computing entity in communication with the speaker driver of the at least one of the one or more speakers (S150 fig. 1).
As per claim 14, an apparatus comprising one or more processors and at least one memory, the memory storing computer-executable instructions, the computer-executable instructions configured to, when executed by the one or more processors, cause the apparatus to:
adjust one or more parameters of one or more speakers within a listening space based at least in part on presentation data corresponding to the listening space to enable provision of audio of at least a portion of a presentation within the listening space (per the flow of fig. 1 and the determined set of filters),
wherein the presentation data is determined based at least in part on respective locations of the one or more speakers, respective locations of one or more receivers within the listening space, and a comparison of a quantity of the one or more speakers and a quantity of the one or more receivers (per the functions cited in the above).
As per claim 15, a method performed by a speaker control apparatus, the method comprising:
receiving, by the speaker control apparatus, speaker arrangement data indicating a speaker arrangement associated with a listening space (per the arrange when implementing the regions relative to the individual speakers as shown in fig. 11);
determining, by the speaker control apparatus, receiver data for one or more receivers located within the listening space at a time corresponding to a presentation being provided within the listening space (the users are tracked/real time/corresponding to presentation);
determining, by the speaker control apparatus and based at least in part on the speaker arrangement data and the receiver data, presentation data corresponding to the presentation being provided within the listening space (per claim 1 rejection); and
adjusting, by the speaker control apparatus, one or more parameters of one or more speakers within the listening space based on the presentation data to enable provision of audio associated with the presentation within the listening space (per the claim 1 rejection).
As per claim 16, the method of claim 15, further comprising determining a particular presentation class for the presentation based at least in part on the speaker arrangement data and the receiver data, wherein the presentation data is determined at least in part based on the particular presentation class, the particular presentation class is one of a plurality of presentation classes, and each of the plurality of presentation classes corresponds to a respective range of a ratio of quantity of receivers within the listening space, as indicated by the receiver data, to a quantity of speakers of the one or more speakers within the listening space. (per claim 2 rejeciton).
As per claim 17,the method of claim 16, wherein the plurality of presentation classes comprises (a) a receiver heavy class corresponding to scenarios where the quantity of receivers within the listening space is greater than the quantity of speakers, (b) a balanced class corresponding to scenarios where the quantity of receivers within the listening space is equal to the quantity of speakers, and (c) a speaker heavy class corresponding to scenarios where the quantity of receivers within the listening space is less than the quantity of speakers (per claim 3 rejection).
As per claim 18, the method of claim 16, wherein at least a portion of the presentation data is determined by presentation solver instructions corresponding to the particular presentation class (the adaptive algorithms/filters implemented per each different mode per fig. 1), and respective computer executable presentation solver instructions corresponding to each presentation class of the plurality of presentation classes are stored in a memory accessible to the speaker control apparatus (the software to support said adaptive algorithms/filters).
As per claim 19, the method of claim 18, wherein the respective presentation solver instructions differ from one another in at least one of an algorithm performed by execution of the respective presentation solver instructions (the different filter/parameters for each different mode).
As per claim 20, the method of claim 15, wherein the method further comprises: determining that a re-solving trigger has been identified during the presentation; determining updated receiver data for the listening space; determining updated presentation data based at least in part on the updated receiver data; and adjusting at least one of the one or more parameters of the one or more speakers within the listening space in accordance with the updated presentation data to enable provision of audio associated with the presentation within the listening space (per the claim 12 rejection).
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to ALEXANDER KRZYSTAN whose telephone number is 571-272-7498, and whose email address is alexander.krzystan@uspto.gov
The examiner can usually be reached on m-f 7:30-4:00 est.
If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone or email are unsuccessful, the examiner’s supervisor, Fan Tsang can be reached on (571) 272-7547.
The fax phone numbers for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned are 571-273-8300 for regular communications and 571-273-8300 for After Final communications.
/ALEXANDER KRZYSTAN/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2653
Examiner Alexander Krzystan
July 15, 2026
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