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 .
Priority
Applicant claims benefit of a prior-filed application under 35 U.S.C. 119(e) or under 35 U.S.C. 120, 121, or 365(c). By reviewing claim limitations filed on 01/06/2025 and comparing limitations of this application with original disclosures of parent applications (18/298,916, 16/984,091, and 15/793,543), none of the parent applications support certain limitations of the instant claims. For example, independent claims 1, 8 and 15 recite:
receiving, over a network and from a meter located at a panelist household of an audience measurement entity, a decompressed version of an audio signal for streaming media accessed over the Internet and presented on a media presentation device, wherein the decompressed version of the audio signal is recorded by the meter, wherein before the streaming media is presented on the media presentation device, the audio signal is compressed, at a streaming media source from which the media presentation receives the media, using an audio compression configuration associated with the media source, and wherein the media source is located remotely from the media presentation device;
The above limitations appear to be inferred / reasoned from a paragraph in the background section (Spec. [0003], audience measurement entities, AMEs) of parent applications. The parent applications further explain that many streaming services, e.g., Youtube, Hulu, do not include audience measurement codes rendering identification of media source difficult (Spec. [0018]). However, the background paragraph ([0003]) does not provide an adequate support for the above limitation recited in newly presented claims of the instant application.
Since the parent applications do not provide adequate supports for the new limitations recited in each of independent claims, the instant application treated as a continuation-in-part (CIP) application. The effective filing date of the instant claims is the actual filing date (01/06/2025) of the instant application.
Information Disclosure Statement
The information disclosure statement (IDS) submitted on 04/04/2025 is in compliance with the provisions of 37 CFR 1.97. Accordingly, the information disclosure statement is being considered by the examiner.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 103
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 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 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 of this title, 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.
Claims 1-20 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. §103 as being unpatentable over Rafii et al. (US PG Pub. 2019/0139559, referred to as Rafii) in view of Goli et al. (US PG Pub. 2017/0180798, referred to as Goli).
Rafii is a published patent application by the same inventors of the instant application. Raffii discloses identifying source of network streaming services by analyzing decompressed audio signals to determine audio compression configurations. Rafii further discloses analyzing time-frequency of decompressed audio to detect compression artifacts (Rafii, [0020-0021]).
Goli discloses determining audience metrics across different media platforms. Goli discloses a meter located at a panelist household of an audience measurement entity, a decompressed version of an audio signal for streaming media accessed over the Internet and the decompressed version of the audio signal is recorded by the meter (Goli, [0030-0031], [0038], [0042], Fig. 1).
Regarding claims 1, 8 and 15, Rafii discloses a non-transitory computer-readable storage medium, a system and a method (Rafii, [0025], Fig. 13, a computer implemented system for identifying audio source based on artifacts in decompressed audio signal from streaming services) comprising:
performing, according to parameters of the audio compression configuration, a time-frequency analysis of the decompressed version of the audio signal to detect a plurality of compression artifacts in samples of the decompressed version of the audio signal (Rafii, [0021], [0034], [0037], [0044]);
based on the plurality of compression artifacts, determining that the audio compression configuration was used to compress the audio signal and that the audio compression configuration is associated with the streaming media source (Rafii, [0019-0020], [0078], Fig. 2, #224, determining streaming sources, Youtube / Hulu, based on a determined compression configuration by analyzing compression artifacts); and
based on the determination that the audio compression configuration is associated with the streaming media source, storing an identifier of the streaming media source (Rafii, [0025], Youtube, Hulu, Netflex, AppleTV etc., [0029], a media source identifier; Fig. 1, #140).
The first limitation (receiving, over a network and from a meter located at a panelist household of an audience measurement entity…) is related to mentions audience measurement entities (AMEs). Rafii only mentions audience measurement entities (AMEs) in a background section ([0003]). Rafii does not give more details.
Goli discloses determining audience metrics across different media platforms. Goli discloses a meter located at a panelist household of an audience measurement entity, a decompressed version of an audio signal for streaming media accessed over the Internet and the decompressed version of the audio signal is recorded by the meter (Goli, [0030-0031], [0038], [0042], Fig. 1).
Both Rafii and Goli are related to streaming audio. It would have been obvious to a person having ordinary skill in the art at the time the invention was filed to combine Rafii’s teaching with Goli’s teaching to include more details about using a meter located at panelist household to perform audience measurement. One having ordinary skill in the art would have been motivated to make such a modification so that streaming media provider could have information how many people watched advertisements.
Regarding claims 2, 9, and 16, Rafii in view of Goli further discloses:
the plurality of compression artifacts comprises discontinuities between data points in spectrograms of windows of the decompressed version of the audio signal (Rafii, [0021]).
Regarding claims 3, 10, and 17, Rafii in view of Goli further discloses:
the plurality of compression artifacts comprises data points in spectrograms having a magnitude below a threshold, wherein the spectrograms are spectrograms of windows of the decompressed version of the audio signal (Rafii, [0021], spectrum points below threshold).
Regarding claims 4, 11, and 18, Rafii in view of Goli further discloses:
generating a plurality of windows of the samples of the decompressed version of the audio signal (Rafii, [0034-0040]),
transforming the plurality of windows into a corresponding plurality of spectrograms (Rafii, [0039-0040]); and
detecting the plurality of compression artifacts in the plurality of spectrograms (Rafii, [0039-0040]).
Regarding claims 5, 12, and 19, Rafii in view of Goli further discloses:
determining offsets that represent locations of ones of the plurality of windows (Rafii, [0040]),
wherein determining that the audio compression configuration was used to compress the audio signal and that the audio compression configuration is associated with the streaming media source is further based on the offsets (Rafii, [0040]).
Regarding claims 6, 13, and 20, Rafii in view of Goli further discloses:
the parameters define an audio coding format of the audio compression configuration (Rafii, [0019], [0025]).
Regarding claims 7 and 14, Rafii in view of Goli further discloses:
performing, according to second parameters of a second audio compression configuration, a time-frequency analysis of the decompressed version of the audio signal to detect a second plurality of compression artifacts in second samples of the decompressed version of the audio signal (Rafii, [0088], [0095-0098]); and
comparing the plurality of compression artifacts to the second plurality of compression artifacts (Rafii, [0088], [0095-0098]),
wherein determining that the audio compression configuration was used to compress the audio signal and that the audio compression configuration is associated with the streaming media source is based on an output of the comparison (Rafii, [0088], [0095-0098]).
Conclusion
The prior art made of record and not relied upon is considered pertinent to applicant's disclosure. The examiner discovered several relevant prior art references that are related to one or more concepts disclosed by the instant application. These references are included in the attached PTO-892 form for completeness of the record.
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to Jialong He, whose telephone number is (571) 270-5359. The examiner can normally be reached on Monday – Friday, 8:00AM – 4:30PM, EST.
If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner's supervisor, Pierre Desir can be reached on (571) 272-7799. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300.
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/JIALONG HE/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2659
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