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 .
Examiner’s Comments
Drawings
The drawings are objected to under 37 CFR 1.83(a). The drawings must show every feature of the invention specified in the claims. Therefore, the fixing component of claim 12-14 must be shown or the feature(s) canceled from the claim(s). No new matter should be entered.
Corrected drawing sheets in compliance with 37 CFR 1.121(d) are required in reply to the Office action to avoid abandonment of the application. Any amended replacement drawing sheet should include all of the figures appearing on the immediate prior version of the sheet, even if only one figure is being amended. The figure or figure number of an amended drawing should not be labeled as “amended.” If a drawing figure is to be canceled, the appropriate figure must be removed from the replacement sheet, and where necessary, the remaining figures must be renumbered and appropriate changes made to the brief description of the several views of the drawings for consistency. Additional replacement sheets may be necessary to show the renumbering of the remaining figures. Each drawing sheet submitted after the filing date of an application must be labeled in the top margin as either “Replacement Sheet” or “New Sheet” pursuant to 37 CFR 1.121(d). If the changes are not accepted by the examiner, the applicant will be notified and informed of any required corrective action in the next Office action. The objection to the drawings will not be held in abeyance.
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 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Isaac et al (US 20130142355 A1), and further in view of Visser et al (US 20110038489 A1).
As per claim 1, Isaac discloses an array pickup method capable of steplessly/dynamic adjusting a pickup direction, wherein the method is applied to a pickup controller (the means of controlling the functional block in the device of fig. 6) , the pickup controller is in communication connection with a directionality adjustable pickup array (as shown in fig. 6,120,122),
and the method comprises:
if a first audio from the first mic capsule and a second audio from the second mic capsule are received, performing calculation according to a preset audio gain strategy to obtain a gain coefficient corresponding to the first audio and the second audio (para. 22: placement of the acoustic nulls may be dynamic and changes as a determined location of a noise source changes, noting the nulls are created by the gains and delays as shown in fig. 6);
performing gain processing on the first audio according to the gain coefficient to obtain a corresponding first gain audio (via 209 in fig. 6);
performing delay alignment on the second audio according to a preset delay duration to obtain a corresponding auxiliary audio (via 202 in fig. 6);
performing sound mixing processing on the first gain audio and the auxiliary audio according to a preset proportion value to obtain a corresponding sound-mixed audio (via 204 and/or 212 each of which are at preset proportions of 1:1 for inputs); and
performing noise reduction processing (the noise processing per para 40) on the sound-mixed audio according to a preset noise reduction strategy and the gain coefficient to obtain a corresponding target audio (the gain is used to create a desired sound pickup pattern via the dynamic beamformer in para 39).
However, Isaac does not specify the directionality adjustable pickup array consists of a unidirectional/first mic capsule and a nondirectional/second mic capsule.
Visser discloses an adaptive microphone array and teaches that it can comprise any combination of well known microphone response types including omni and uni directional (para 224) to allow for a number of design considerations as described in 224. It would have been obvious to use well known microphone types and pickup patterns including omni and uni directional in the microphones of Isaac for the purpose of implementing well known microphone types and also to implement some of the design considerations from using said microphones, including those cited in para 224 of Visser.
As per claim 2, the array pickup method capable of steplessly adjusting the pickup direction of claim 1, wherein the teachings of Visser further comprises:
acquiring a first test audio and a second test audio that are obtained by performing audio collection on a sound source on a preset position by the mic capsules (the gain calibrations and agm per para 211 of Visser, based on the array of Isaac, which has the preset position via D in fig. 6 of Isaac);
wherein the preset position is a position in a normal direction of a mic capsule connecting line and away from the mic capsule connecting line for a preset distance (D in fig. 6 of Isaac); and
the mic capsule connecting line is a connecting line between the unidirectional mic capsule and the nondirectional mic capsule (the D line connects each microphone); and
configuring calibration coefficients respectively corresponding to the unidirectional mic capsule and another mic capsule according to sound volumes of the first test audio and the second test audio (adapting the gain values for gain matching per para 210),
so that average output sound volumes of the first test audio and the second test audio respectively calibrated according to the calibration coefficients are the same (para 210: equal. An AGM operation adjusts the gain response of at least one channel in response to an offset between the responses of the channels to far-field noise so as to match the gain. Which will also match the average sound levels ).
As per claim 3, the array pickup method capable of steplessly adjusting the pickup direction of claim 2, wherein the performing calculation according to a preset audio gain strategy to obtain a gain coefficient corresponding to the first audio and the second audio comprises:
respectively calculating a first energy function corresponding to the first audio and a second energy function corresponding to the second audio according to an average amplitude function in the audio gain strategy; and
calculating the first energy function and the second energy function according to a gain calculation formula in the audio gain strategy to obtain the gain coefficient corresponding to current audio frames.
(It would have been obvious to one skilled in the art at the time of filing to implement the teachings of Visser to use average amplitude function as per para 159: based on a ratio between sample energy and frame average energy, on each channel of each microphone of the array of Isaac in order to adapt the dynamic parameters of Isaac in order to detect the presence of a directionally coherent signal (Visser para. 157).
As per claim 4, the array pickup method capable of steplessly adjusting the pickup direction of claim 2, wherein the performing calculation according to a preset audio gain strategy to obtain a gain coefficient corresponding to the first audio and the second audio comprises:
respectively performing short-time Fourier transform on the first audio and the second audio according to a transform calculation formula in the audio gain strategy to obtain a corresponding first frequency domain signal and second frequency domain signal (the process taught by Visser above additionally comprises st fourier transform , fft/bins pra 134,216 Visser);
respectively calculating a first energy function corresponding to the first frequency domain signal and a second energy function corresponding to the second frequency domain signal according to an average amplitude function in the audio gain strategy (the bin/frequency domain processing of the energy to obtain the energy spectrum per para 158 of Visser, where each microphone channel has its own calculated energy function); and
calculating the first energy function and the second energy function according to a gain calculation formula in the audio gain strategy to obtain a frequency domain sub-band gain coefficient as the gain coefficient corresponding to current audio frames (the gain calibration in para 119 in view of the fft based bins cited above).
Claim(s) 5-14 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Isaac et al (US 20130142355 A1), and further in view of Visser et al (US 20110038489 A1) and further in view of Barthel et al (US 20080212814 A1).
As per claim 5, an array pickup method capable of steplessly adjusting a pickup direction, wherein the method is applied to a pickup controller, the pickup controller is in communication connection with a composite differential pickup array (the controller and array per claim 1 rejection),
performing calculation according to a preset audio gain strategy to obtain a gain coefficient corresponding to the first audio and the second audio (per claim 1 rejection);
performing gain processing on the first audio according to the gain coefficient to obtain a corresponding first gain audio (per claim 1 rejection);
performing delay alignment on the second audio according to a preset delay duration to obtain a corresponding auxiliary audio (per claim 1 rejection);
performing sound mixing processing on the first gain audio and the auxiliary audio according to a preset proportion value to obtain a corresponding sound-mixed audio (per claim 1 rejection); and
performing noise reduction processing on the sound-mixed audio according to a preset noise reduction strategy and the gain coefficient to obtain a corresponding target audio (per the claim 1 rejection).
But Isaac in view of Visser does not specify
the composite differential pickup array consists of a composite pickup mic capsule and a nondirectional mic capsule, the composite pickup mic capsule is symmetrically combined by two nondirectional mic capsules, and
the method comprises: if a first sub-audio and a second sub-audio that are from the composite pickup mic capsule and a second audio from the nondirectional mic capsule are received, performing audio compositing on the first sub-audio and the second sub-audio according to a preset directionality adjustment parameter to obtain a corresponding first audio;
Berthel teaches that hearing devices can use multiple omni directional microphones to implement a directional microphones per para 6: digital differential directional microphones employing two individual omnidirectional microphones are very popular, because they save on resources and give a directional response. It would have been obvious to one skilled in the art at the time of filing that the unidirectional microphone of Isaac and Visser could be implemented as a composite pickup mic capsule comprising two sub audios, one from each of the omni directional microphones used to implement the unidirectional microphone of Isaac and Visser for the purpose of providing a unidirectional microphone response while saving resources.
With the unidirectional microphone of Isaac and Visser implemented as a composite differential pair as taught by Berthel the system comprises:
the composite differential pickup array consists of a composite pickup mic capsule (the unidirectional implemented as the differential microphone pair) and a nondirectional mic capsule (as taught by Visser above in the claim 1 rejection), the composite pickup mic capsule is symmetrically combined by two nondirectional mic capsules (via the differential configuration as taught by Barthel), and
the method comprises: if a first sub-audio and a second sub-audio that are from the composite pickup mic capsule and a second audio from the nondirectional mic capsule are received, performing audio compositing on the first sub-audio and the second sub-audio according to a preset directionality adjustment parameter to obtain a corresponding first audio (the differential pairs of omni directional microphones are processed with audio compositing in order to implement the directional response/preset directionality as taught by Barthel in para 6 and by the various implementations in figures 1-5 to obtain the desired directional response);
As per claim 9, an array pickup method capable of steplessly adjusting a pickup direction,
wherein the method is applied to a pickup controller and a signal processor, the pickup controller is respectively in communication connection with a directionality adjustable pickup array and the signal processor, the directionality adjustable pickup array consists of a unidirectional mic capsule and a nondirectional/omnidirectional mic capsule (per the claim 1 rejection),
the signal processor is in communication connection with an independent nondirectional mic capsule so as to acquire a corresponding independent pickup audio from the independent nondirectional mic capsule (Visser teaches that hearing devices can be implemented together and in communication per para. 231,232, and further teaches that the headsets can implement the beamforming (para 233: Implementations of apparatus A10 as described herein may be embodied in a variety of audio sensing devices, including headsets and handsets.; and para 117: Multi-microphone noise reduction schemes for handsets and headsets include beamforming approaches ) (; noting that the second or additional headset as part of the headsets comprises the independent pickup audio as it is a separate device with its own microphones), and
the method comprises: if a first audio from the unidirectional mic capsule and a second audio from the nondirectional mic capsule are received, sending the first audio to the signal processor by the pickup controller (the controller required to implement the cited functions for signals received by the cited microphones);
performing calculation by the pickup controller according to a preset audio gain strategy to obtain a gain coefficient corresponding to the first audio and the second audio (per claim 1 rejection);
performing gain processing on the first audio by the pickup controller according to the gain coefficient to obtain a corresponding first gain audio (per claim 1 rejection), and
sending the corresponding first gain audio to the signal processor (the processor required to implement the cited functions received each results of each function it performs);
performing delay alignment on the second audio by the pickup controller according to a preset delay duration to obtain a corresponding auxiliary audio (per claim 1 rejection);
performing, by the signal processor according to a preset blocking matrix, blocking filtering processing on the first audio and the independent pickup audio collected by the independent nondirectional mic capsule to obtain corresponding blocking audios obtained by removing an original audio in a target direction by blocking; (Visser teaches that hearing devices can be implemented together and in communication per para. 231,232, and further teaches that the headsets can implement the beamforming (para 233: Implementations of apparatus A10 as described herein may be embodied in a variety of audio sensing devices, including headsets and handsets.; and para 117: Multi-microphone noise reduction schemes for handsets and headsets include beamforming approaches ) (noting the preblocking matrix is the parameters used to perform the blocking filtering as taught by Visser in order to implement the beamforming and/or noise reduction; noting that the second or additional headset as part of the headsets comprises the independent pickup audio as it is a separate device with its own microphones).
performing adaptive filtering enhancement on the first gain audio by the signal processor according to a preset filtering enhancement strategy and the blocking audios ( the parameters used for the filtering cited above are performed dynamically over time, where the parameters “according to a preset filtering enhancement strategy and the blocking audios” are updated (para 22 of Isaac)
to obtain a corresponding first filtering audio and filter coefficient, and sending the corresponding first filtering audio and filter coefficient to the pickup controller; (the pickup controller must receive the updated parameters for the cited processes above in order to implement the dynamic beamforming per para 22 Isaac)
performing sound mixing processing on the first filtering audio and the auxiliary audio by the pickup controller according to a preset proportion value to obtain a corresponding sound-mixed audio (per the claim 1 rejection in view of the processing cited above in view of the teachings of Barthel); and
performing post-filtering processing on the sound-mixed audio by the pickup controller according to the filter coefficient to obtain a corresponding target audio (the noise processing per the claim 1 rejection).
As per claim 10, an array pickup method capable of steplessly adjusting a pickup direction, wherein the method is applied to a pickup controller (the portion of the processor implementing the system of claim 1 that performs the cited functions)) and a signal processor,
the pickup controller is respectively in communication connection with a composite differential pickup array and the signal processor (per claim 9 rejection the array as taught by Barthel),
the composite differential pickup array consists of a composite pickup mic capsule and a nondirectional mic capsule, the composite pickup mic capsule is symmetrically combined by two nondirectional mic capsules (per the claim 9 rejection, noting the directional array taught by Barthel is implemented with nondirectional/omnidirectional microphone/capsules and are symmetrically/differentially combined)
the signal processor is in communication connection with an independent nondirectional mic capsule so as to acquire a corresponding independent pickup audio from the independent nondirectional mic capsule, (the other headset taught by Visser per the claim 9 rejection) and
the method comprises:
if a first sub-audio and a second sub-audio that are from the composite pickup mic capsule and a second audio from the nondirectional mic capsule are received, performing audio compositing on the first sub-audio and the second sub-audio by the pickup controller according to a preset directionality adjustment parameter to obtain a corresponding first audio, (the processing taught by Barthel per the claim 9 rejection to implement differential microphone pairs performs audio compositing/processing on the sub audios from each microphone to implement the differential microphone pair results according to preset directionality adjustment to produce the desired directional response as cited in the claim 9 rejection).
and
sending the corresponding first audio to the signal processor (the output of the composite state is processed analogous to the unidirectional microphone signal in the system of the rejection of claim 1);
performing calculation by the pickup controller according to a preset audio gain strategy to obtain a gain coefficient corresponding to the first audio and the second audio (gain processing per the claim 1 rejection in view of the dynamic beamforming/null placement disclosed by Isaac as cited above requires calculation to determine the updated parameters needed to dynamically apply beamforming, para 22 Isaac);
performing gain processing on the first audio by the pickup controller according to the gain coefficient to obtain a corresponding first gain audio (per claim 1 rejection), and
sending the corresponding first gain audio to the signal processor (per the claim 9 rejection);
performing delay alignment on the second audio by the pickup controller according to a preset delay duration to obtain a corresponding auxiliary audio (per claim 1 rejection);
performing, by the signal processor according to a preset blocking matrix, blocking filtering processing on the first audio and the independent pickup audio collected by the independent nondirectional mic capsule to obtain corresponding blocking audios obtained by removing an original audio in a target direction by blocking (per claim 9 rejection);
performing adaptive filtering enhancement on the first gain audio by the signal processor according to a preset filtering enhancement strategy and the blocking audios to obtain a corresponding first filtering audio and filter coefficient (per claim 9 rejection), and
sending the corresponding first filtering audio and filter coefficient to the pickup controller (per the claim 9 rejection);
performing sound mixing processing on the first filtering audio and the auxiliary audio by the pickup controller according to a preset proportion value to obtain a corresponding sound-mixed audio (per claim 9 rejection); and
performing post-filtering processing on the sound-mixed audio by the pickup controller according to the filter coefficient to obtain a corresponding target audio (per claim 9 rejection, and or claim 1 rejection via the cited noise filtering in view of the teachings of Barthel).
As per claims 6, the array pickup method capable of steplessly adjusting the pickup direction of claim 1, wherein the teachings of Visser further comprises:
acquiring a first test audio and a second test audio that are obtained by performing audio collection on a sound source on a preset position by the mic capsules (the gain calibrations and agm per para 211 of Visser, based on the array of Isaac, which has the preset position via D in fig. 6 of Isaac);
wherein the preset position is a position in a normal direction of a mic capsule connecting line and away from the mic capsule connecting line for a preset distance (D in fig. 6 of Isaac); and
the mic capsule connecting line is a connecting line between the unidirectional mic capsule and the nondirectional mic capsule (the D line connects each microphone); and
configuring calibration coefficients respectively corresponding to the unidirectional mic capsule and another mic capsule according to sound volumes of the first test audio and the second test audio (adapting the gain values for gain matching per para 210),
so that average output sound volumes of the first test audio and the second test audio respectively calibrated according to the calibration coefficients are the same (para 210: equal. An AGM operation adjusts the gain response of at least one channel in response to an offset between the responses of the channels to far-field noise so as to match the gain. Which will also match the average sound levels ).
As per claims 7, the array pickup method capable of steplessly adjusting the pickup direction of claim 2, wherein the performing calculation according to a preset audio gain strategy to obtain a gain coefficient corresponding to the first audio and the second audio comprises:
respectively calculating a first energy function corresponding to the first audio and a second energy function corresponding to the second audio according to an average amplitude function in the audio gain strategy; and
calculating the first energy function and the second energy function according to a gain calculation formula in the audio gain strategy to obtain the gain coefficient corresponding to current audio frames.
(It would have been obvious to one skilled in the art at the time of filing to implement the teachings of Visser to use average amplitude function as per para 159: based on a ratio between sample energy and frame average energy, on each channel of each microphone of the array of Isaac in order to adapt the dynamic parameters of Isaac in order to detect the presence of a directionally coherent signal (Visser para. 157).
As per claims 8, the array pickup method capable of steplessly adjusting the pickup direction of claim 2, wherein the performing calculation according to a preset audio gain strategy to obtain a gain coefficient corresponding to the first audio and the second audio comprises:
respectively performing short-time Fourier transform on the first audio and the second audio according to a transform calculation formula in the audio gain strategy to obtain a corresponding first frequency domain signal and second frequency domain signal (the process taught by Visser above additionally comprises st fourier transform , fft/bins pra 134,216 Visser);
respectively calculating a first energy function corresponding to the first frequency domain signal and a second energy function corresponding to the second frequency domain signal according to an average amplitude function in the audio gain strategy (the bin/frequency domain processing of the energy to obtain the energy spectrum per para 158 of Visser, where each microphone channel has its own calculated energy function); and
calculating the first energy function and the second energy function according to a gain calculation formula in the audio gain strategy to obtain a frequency domain sub-band gain coefficient as the gain coefficient corresponding to current audio frames (the gain calibration in para 119 in view of the fft based bins cited above).
As per claim 11, an array pickup apparatus capable of steplessly adjusting a pickup direction (per the claim 5,9 and 10 rejections),
wherein the apparatus comprises an apparatus body (the devices as taught by Visser comprise bodies as part of the headsets as shown in fig. 5, the headset body),
a pickup controller and a directionality adjustable pickup array (per claim 5 and 9 rejections),
the pickup controller is used for performing the array pickup method capable of steplessly adjusting the pickup direction of claim 1 (per the claim 1 rejection);
the pickup controller is disposed in the apparatus body (the system cited above is taught to be within the headset as disclosed by Visser fig. 5);
the directionality adjustable pickup array consists of a unidirectional mic capsule and a nondirectional mic capsule (per claim 1 rejection);
the unidirectional mic capsule and the nondirectional mic capsule are both disposed on the same outer surface of the apparatus body (fig. 5 of Visser);
a pickup direction of the unidirectional mic capsule faces away from the nondirectional mic capsule (as shown in fig. 5 of Visser, MC 10 and MC 20); and
the pickup controller is respectively in communication connection with the unidirectional mic capsule and the nondirectional mic capsule (as part of the system described in the claim 1 rejection).
As per claim 12, the array pickup apparatus capable of steplessly adjusting the pickup direction of claim 11, wherein the apparatus further comprises an independent pickup device (per the claim 9 and 10 rejections), the independent pickup device comprises a signal processor and an independent nondirectional mic capsule that are in communication connection (each headset comprises the unidirectional microphones and the wireless means to communicate as described in the above rejections), and
the signal processor is in communication connection with the pickup controller (the microphones in each headset must interface with a pickup controller in communication with the signal processor in order to acquire and transmit the signals from the microphone to be used and processed as disclosed in the claim 1 rejection via a signal processor.) ;
the apparatus body is provided with a fixing component for fixing the independent pickup device (the headset require fixing components to attach to the user’s head/ear so that they may be fixed/operate together); and
during use, the independent pickup device is disassembled from the apparatus device to perform independent pickup and is combined with the apparatus body for use (the other headset is physically separate from the first headset but is combined for use via the beamforming taught by Visser).
As per claim 13, an array pickup apparatus capable of steplessly adjusting a pickup direction,
wherein the apparatus comprises an apparatus body, a pickup controller and a composite differential pickup array, the pickup controller is used for performing the array pickup method capable of steplessly adjusting the pickup direction of claim 5 (per the claim 5,9 and 10 rejections);
the pickup controller is disposed in the apparatus body (as taught by Visser via the headsets in fig. 5);
the composite differential pickup array consists of a composite pickup mic capsule and a nondirectional mic capsule (per claim 5,9,10, rejection),
and the composite pickup mic capsule is symmetrically combined by two nondirectional mic capsules (claim 9,10 rejections);
the composite pickup mic capsule and the nondirectional mic capsule are both disposed on the same outer surface of the apparatus body (Visser Fig. 5 in view of the teachings of Barthel);
the three nondirectional mic capsules are arranged on the same straight line (the microphones are arranged on a common housing which comprises a common straight line, Visser fig. 5 per the body shown), and
a distance between the two nondirectional mic capsules in the composite pickup mic capsule is smaller than a distance between the composite pickup mic capsule and the nondirectional mic capsule disposed alone (the differential microphone pair taught by Barthel is limited in distance per 33 of Barthel noting that the distance between the differential microphone of Barthel as implementing the unidirectional microphone of Isaac/Visser is limited to a smaller distance than that shown in fig. 5 of visser where the differential microphone pair at MC must be smaller than the distance between mc 10 and mc 20 in order to perform the processing disclosed by Barthel ); and
the pickup controller is respectively in communication connection with the three nondirectional mic capsules (the portions of the processor that obtains all the signals in order to do the beamforming on the headsets as taught by Visser).
As per claim 14, the array pickup apparatus capable of steplessly adjusting the pickup direction of claim 13, wherein the apparatus further comprises an independent pickup device, the independent pickup device comprises a signal processor and an independent nondirectional mic capsule that are in communication connection, and the signal processor is in communication connection with the pickup controller (per claim 9 10 rejections); the apparatus body is provided with a fixing component for fixing the independent pickup device (per claim 12 rejection); and during use, the independent pickup device is disassembled from the apparatus device to perform independent pickup and is combined with the apparatus body for use (per 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 6, 2026
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