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) 1-27,30-32 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(2) as being anticipated by Lee (US 20220263883 A1).
As per claim 1, Lee discloses an apparatus for audio processing comprising:
at least one memory; and
at least one processor coupled to the at least one memory and a plurality of audio devices (figs 1a,1b,15, each of the devices requires software and memory and processors in order to be implemented),
wherein the at least one processor is configured to:
determine a plurality of coder-decoder (codec) delay values for the plurality of audio devices, wherein each codec delay value is associated with at least one audio device of the plurality of audio devices (para 166, any of the delay values determined by, or received by the client or server devices);
select a first codec delay value from the plurality of codec delay values, wherein the first codec delay value is associated with a first audio device of the plurality of audio devices (either of the selected delay values/supported delay values that are used to adapt the bitrate and bandwidth that are supported by the server and or client device per para 166);
select, for a second audio device of the plurality of audio devices, a second codec delay value from a plurality of codec delay values associated with the second audio device (the delay values as selected by the server per para 166, for another client device from fig. 1 per the protocol in fig. 15);
determine a calibration time delay between the first codec delay value and the second codec delay value (per para 111-115); and
output the calibration time delay (the synchronization delay determined per fig 6 in the case where multiple streams/client devices are synchronized for simultaneous playback per para 111).
As per claim 2, the apparatus of claim 1, wherein the at least one processor is further configured to:
query audio devices of the plurality of audio devices for available audio codecs (per fig. 15);
receive an indication of the available audio codecs associated with the audio devices of plurality of audio devices (each supported rate cited above is an indication of a different codec); and
associate the available audio codecs of the audio devices and corresponding codec delay values (per the synchronization in the claim 1 rejection).
As per claim 3, the apparatus of claim 2, wherein the at least one processor is further configured to query the plurality of audio devices for codec delay values associated with the plurality of audio devices (per fig. 15).
As per claim 4, the apparatus of claim 3, wherein the at least one processor is further configured to: determine that codec delay values have not been received from a third audio device; and estimate codec delay values for available audio codecs of the third audio device based on the available audio codecs of the third audio device (the process per the claim 1 rejection as applied to a third of the client devices, where the delay values per fig. 15 are estimates as received by each device since the source signaling is transmitted over a network).
As per claim 5, The apparatus of claim 1 wherein the at least one processor is further configured to select the first codec delay value for the first audio device based on a most common codec available for the plurality of audio devices (the supported delays indicate the most common codecs).
As per claim 6, the apparatus of claim 5, wherein the at least one processor is further configured to select the second codec delay value for the second audio device based on a second most common codec of audio devices that are not associated with the most common codec (the set of supported delays/most common codec on the second client device per the above rejections).
As per claim 7, the apparatus of claim 5, wherein the at least one processor is further configured to select the second codec delay value for the second audio device based on a lowest codec delay value from the plurality of codec delay values associated with the second audio device (all of the delay values are compared/selected as per para 166 ).
As per claim 8, the apparatus of claim 1, wherein the at least one processor is further configured to select the first codec delay value based on a lowest codec delay value from the plurality of codec delay values for the plurality of audio devices (all of the delay values are compared/selected as per para 166 ).
As per claim 9, the apparatus of claim 1, wherein the at least one processor is further configured to transmit an output calibration time delay associated with the first audio device to the first audio device with an audio stream (any of the generated or transmitted time delay values cited above, notably the synchronization delay).
As per claim 10, the apparatus of claim 1, wherein the at least one processor is further configured to determine a transmission order for the plurality of audio devices based on selected codec delay values associated with the plurality of audio devices, wherein the transmission order is based on a decreasing order of the selected codec delay values (the transmission delay per para 121 as calculated by the server is based on a comparison of all the delays as reported by the client/sink devices, per fig. 6, the different delays are arranged so that they are ordered such that their distance to T2 decreases as shown in the fig).
As per claim 11, the apparatus of claim 10, wherein the at least one processor is further configured to: schedule transmissions to the first audio device and the second audio device based on the transmission order (per the processing shown in fig. 6), the selected first codec delay value, and the selected second codec delay value (the two different delays as shown in fig. 6); and transmit audio streams to the first audio device and the second audio device based on the scheduled transmissions (the synchronization delay is used to synchronize playback of the devices).
As per claim 12, a method for audio processing comprising:
determining a plurality of coder-decoder (codec) delay values for a plurality of audio devices,
wherein each codec delay value is associated with at least one audio device of the plurality of audio devices;
selecting a first codec delay value from the plurality of codec delay values, wherein the first codec delay value is associated with a first audio device of the plurality of audio devices;
selecting, for a second audio device of the plurality of audio devices, a second codec delay value from a plurality of codec delay values associated with the second audio device;
determining a calibration time delay between the first codec delay value and the second codec delay value; and
outputting the calibration time delay
(per the claim 1 rejection and as per the multiple client devices per figs 1a and b, and the calibration processing surrounding fig. 6 and also the synchronization delay per para 166).
As per claim 13, the method of claim 12, further comprising:
querying audio devices of the plurality of audio devices for available audio codecs (per the protocol of fig. 15);
receiving an indication of the available audio codecs associated with the audio devices of plurality of audio devices (per the different delay values associated with the different, selectable/configurable codecs as cited above); and
associating the available audio codecs of the audio devices and corresponding codec delay values (per claim 2 rejection).
As per claim 14, the method of claim 13, further comprising querying the plurality of audio devices for codec delay values associated with the plurality of audio devices (per claim 3 rejection).
As per claim 15, the method of claim 14, further comprising: determining that codec delay values have not been received from a third audio device (the protocol per fig 15 has moments when the codec delay values have not yet been received yet are expected to be received as per the defined protocol); and
estimating codec delay values for available audio codecs of the third audio device based on the available audio codecs of the third audio device (the received delay values as received over a network are estimates of the intended values when the are received, because the network is an imperfect channel).
As per claim 16, the method of claim 12, further comprising selecting the first codec delay value for the first audio device based on a most common codec available for the plurality of audio devices (per the claim 5 rejection).
As per claim 17, the method of claim 16, further comprising selecting the second codec delay value for the second audio device based on a second most common codec of audio devices that are not associated with the most common codec (per claim 6 rejection).
As per claim 18, the method of claim 16, further comprising selecting the second codec delay value for the second audio device based on a lowest codec delay value from the plurality of codec delay values associated with the second audio device (per claim 7 rejection).
As per claim 19, the method of claim 12, further comprising selecting the first codec delay value based on a lowest codec delay value from the plurality of codec delay values for the plurality of audio devices (per claim 8 rejection).
As per claim 20, the method of claim 12, further comprising transmitting an output calibration time delay associated with the first audio device to the first audio device with an audio stream (per claim 9 rejection).
As per claim 21, the method of claim 12, further comprising determining a transmission order for the plurality of audio devices based on selected codec delay values associated with the plurality of audio devices, wherein the transmission order is based on a decreasing order of the selected codec delay values (per claim 10 rejection).
As per claim 22, the method of claim 21, further comprising: scheduling transmissions to the first audio device and the second audio device based on the transmission order, the selected first codec delay value, and the selected second codec delay value; and
transmitting audio streams to the first audio device and the second audio device based on the scheduled transmissions (per claim 11 rejection).
As per claim 23, a non-transitory computer-readable medium having stored thereon instructions that, when executed by at least one processor, cause the at least one processor (the devices of the claim 1 rejection each require software, processor and memory in order to be implemented) to:
determine a plurality of coder-decoder (codec) delay values for a plurality of audio devices (the delay values per the claim 1 rejection),
wherein each codec delay value is associated with at least one audio device of the plurality of audio devices (the devices of fig. 1);
select a first codec delay value from the plurality of codec delay values, wherein the first codec delay value is associated with a first audio device of the plurality of audio devices (the selected or configured codecs per the claim 1 rejection);
select, for a second audio device of the plurality of audio devices, a second codec delay value from a plurality of codec delay values associated with the second audio device (the selected or configured codec, but for a second client device as per figs 1a 1b);
determine a calibration time delay between the first codec delay value and the second codec delay value (per claim 1 rejection); and
output the calibration time delay (per claim 1 rejection).
As per claim 24, the non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 23, wherein the instructions further cause the at least one processor to: query audio devices of the plurality of audio devices for available audio codecs; receive an indication of the available audio codecs associated with the audio devices of plurality of audio devices; and associate the available audio codecs of the audio devices and corresponding codec delay values (per the claim 2 rejection).
As per claim 25, the non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 24, wherein the instructions further cause the at least one processor to query the plurality of audio devices for codec delay values associated with the plurality of audio devices (per the protocol of fig. 15).
As per claim 26, the non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 25, wherein the instructions further cause the at least one processor to:
determine that codec delay values have not been received from a third audio device; and estimate codec delay values for available audio codecs of the third audio device based on the available audio codecs of the third audio device(per the claim 4 rejection).
As per claim 27, the non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 23, wherein the instructions further cause the at least one processor to select the first codec delay value for the first audio device based on a most common codec available for the plurality of audio devices (per the claim 5 rejection).
As per claim 30, the non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 23, wherein the instructions further cause the at least one processor to select the first codec delay value based on a lowest codec delay value from the plurality of codec delay values for the plurality of audio devices (per claim 7 rejection).
As per claim 31, the non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 23 wherein the instructions further cause the at least one processor to transmit an output calibration time delay associated with the first audio device to the first audio device with an audio stream (per claim 1 rejection).
As per claim 32, The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 23, wherein the instructions further cause the at least one processor to determine a transmission order for the plurality of audio devices based on selected codec delay values associated with the plurality of audio devices, wherein the transmission order is based on a decreasing order of the selected codec delay values (per the claim 10 rejection).
33. (Canceled).
34. (Canceled).
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, Carolyn Edwards can be reached on (571) 270-7136.
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 22, 2026
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