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 .
Allowable Subject Matter
Claims 2 – 3, 5 – 8, 10 – 11, 13 – 16 and 18 – 20 are allowed.
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) 1, 4, 9, 12 and 17 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over CN112055284 (hereinafter CN).
With respect to claims 1, 4, 9 and 17
CN discloses an acoustic echo cancellation system (see paragraphs [52]–[126] and Figures 1–10 of the description). As shown in Figure 1, \(X_{mic}\) is the signal collected by the microphone, \(U_{c}\) is the loudspeaker excitation voltage signal, \(P_{est}\) is the estimated echo signal after passing through a non-linear filter, and y is the output signal after eliminating the echo signal. AEC stands for Acoustic Echo Cancellation, which is used to cancel echo on the microphone signal \(X_{mic}\) based on the acoustic echo signal \(P_{est}\), thereby obtaining the output signal y.
The non-linear loudspeaker system model in the echo cancellation system is obtained through machine learning. Optionally, the non-linear loudspeaker system model can be a deep neural network structured as a non-linear loudspeaker system model. In this embodiment, the specific structure of the non-linear loudspeaker system model is not limited. The input signals of the non-linear loudspeaker system model are the excitation voltage \(u_c(n)\) of the loudspeaker, and the output signal is the acoustic pressure signal \(P_{est}(n)\) of the loudspeaker collected synchronously.
During the training phase, the non-linear loudspeaker system model is trained by calculating the difference between the predicted acoustic pressure signal \(P_{est}(n)\) and the actual acoustic pressure signal \(P_{mea}(n)\), thereby obtaining a highly accurate non-linear loudspeaker system model. The actual acoustic pressure signal \(P_{mea}(n)\) can be acquired through an acoustic sensor. After completing the training, an acoustic sensor is no longer needed. At this point, the predicted acoustic pressure signal can be predicted based on the excitation voltage signal.
Figure 2 is a schematic flowchart of an exemplary embodiment of the echo cancellation method provided in this disclosure. This embodiment can be applied to an electronic device 10. The electronic device 10 includes one or more processors 101 and a storage medium 102. The processor 101 can be a Central Processing Unit (CPU) or another form of processing unit with data processing and/or instruction execution capabilities, and can control other components in the electronic device 10 to perform expected functions. The storage medium 102 can include one or more computer program products. The computer program products can include various forms of computer-readable storage media, such as volatile memory and/or non-volatile memory.
Claim 1 differs from CN in that: the compensation method is applied to the intermodulation distortion compensation of electroacoustic components.
The technical problem to be solved by this feature is how to apply a non-linear distortion compensation control method. It is common knowledge in this technical field that intermodulation distortion is a specific form of non-linear distortion. Applying a non-linear distortion compensation system to the control compensation of intermodulation distortion is an application scenario that would have been obvious to a person skilled in the art.
With respect to claims 9 and 17, such claims would be rejected in a similar manner as claim 1.
With respect to claims 4 and 12, note the rejection of claim 1 above.
Conclusion
The prior art made of record and not relied upon is considered pertinent to applicant's disclosure. Note the Abstracts and Figs. of the additional references cited on the accompanying 892.
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to William Deane whose telephone number is 571 - 272- 7484. The examiner can normally be reached on Monday - FRIDAY from 9:00 A.M. to 5:00 P.M. If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner's supervisor, Ahmad Matar, can be reached on 571-272-7488.
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11July2026
/WILLIAM J DEANE JR/ Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2693
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