DETAILED ACTION
This action is in response to the communications filed 1/22/2025. Claims 1-6 are pending and have been examined.
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 .
Information Disclosure Statement
The information disclosure statement (IDS) submitted on 1/22/2025 is in compliance with the provisions of 37 CFR 1.97. Accordingly, the information disclosure statement is being considered by the examiner.
The information disclosure statement (IDS) submitted on 8/22/2025 is in compliance with the provisions of 37 CFR 1.97. Accordingly, the information disclosure statement is being considered by the examiner.
The information disclosure statement (IDS) submitted on 2/16/2026 is in compliance with the provisions of 37 CFR 1.97. Accordingly, the information disclosure statement is being considered by the examiner.
Priority
Receipt is acknowledged of certified copies of papers required by 37 CFR 1.55.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 102
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 (i.e., changing from AIA to pre-AIA ) 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 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.
Claims 1-6 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(2) as being anticipated by Bastyr et al, US Patent No. 10065561 B1.
Regarding Claim 1, Bastyr et al teaches, A sound controller for causing a speaker to output a sound into a cabin of a vehicle (Title/Abstract), the sound controller comprising: one or more processors that execute computer-executable instructions stored in a memory (FIG. 2, Processor 222, Storage Device 216), wherein the one or more processors execute the computer- executable instructions to cause the sound controller to: generate a sound signal that causes the speaker to output the sound (FIG. 3, Step 302, Generate a synthetic sound signal representing a synthetic sound, Step 310, Output a combined synthetic sound including the modulated and unmodulated sound portions.);
acquire an operation value corresponding to an operation performed by a user (FIG. 3, Step 306, and Column 8 Lines 2-12, “At 306, the method includes determining a first vehicle operating parameter using the sensed data. For example, the sensed data may include data from a sensor that indicates (e.g., directly) the first vehicle operating parameter (e.g., a vehicle speed sensor that outputs vehicle speed) and/or data from one or more sensors that may be used to calculate the first vehicle operating parameter as a function of the sensor output(s) (e.g., raw output from a wheel or driveshaft-based sensor that is used to calculate vehicle speed using known relationships between the sensed data and other parameters, such as wheel diameter).”); determine, in a case where the acquired operation value is smaller than a predetermined reference value, a gain to be smaller as a difference between the reference value and the operation value becomes larger (Column 10, Lines 24-34, “The synthetic sound signal, as filtered by low pass filter 504 (e.g., filtered synthetic sound signal and/or at least partially modulated synthetic sound signal, which includes both the modulated and unmodulated portions of the synthetic sound signal), is then optionally passed to an adjustable gain module 508. The adjustable gain module 508 receives a torque and/or pedal input 510 indicating a driver-requested acceleration or engine output to control the amount of gain applied to the filtered synthetic sound signal. For example, a gain applied to the filtered synthetic sound signal may increase with increasing torque/pedal input.”), and determine, in a case where the acquired operation value is larger than the reference value, the gain to be larger as the difference between the reference value and the operation value becomes larger (Previous quotation, as well as Column 10, Lines 34-40, “As a more detailed example, the gain applied to the filtered synthetic sound signal may increase linearly with a linear increase in torque/pedal input. The torque/pedal input 510 may be received directly from a sensor, such as an accelerator pedal sensor, a throttle position sensor, and/or any sensor capable of measuring data indicating engine output.”);
and output to the speaker the sound signal corrected to the determined gain (Column 10, Lines 45-52, “The adjustable gain module 508 may output a combined synthetic sound signal to a speaker 512 (e.g., formed by attenuating a portion of a sound). The speaker 512 may represent any one or more speakers in the vehicle, including integrated vehicle speakers, external vehicle speakers, and/or speakers in communication with the vehicle (e.g., wireless speakers, speakers integrated in mobile devices located in the cabin of the vehicle, etc.).”).
Regarding Claim 2, Bastyr et al teaches all the limitations of claim 1, and further teaches, wherein an amount of change in the gain when the operation value changes by a predetermined amount in a case where the operation value is smaller than the reference value is different from the amount of change in the gain when the operation value changes by the predetermined amount in a case where the operation value is larger than the reference value (Column 12, Lines 37-50, “The synthetic sound signal, as filtered by peak filter 704 (e.g., filtered synthetic sound signal and/or at least partially modulated synthetic sound signal, which includes both the modulated and unmodulated portions of the synthetic sound signal), is then optionally passed to an adjustable gain module 708. The adjustable gain module 708 receives a torque and/or pedal input 710 indicating a driver-requested acceleration or engine output to control the amount of gain applied to the filtered synthetic sound signal. For example, a gain applied to the filtered synthetic sound signal may increase with increasing torque/pedal input. As a more detailed example, the gain applied to the filtered synthetic sound signal may increase linearly with a linear increase in torque/pedal input.”).
Regarding Claim 3, Bastyr et al teaches all the limitations of claim 2, and further teaches, wherein the amount of change in the gain when the operation value changes by the predetermined amount in a case where the operation value is smaller than the reference value is smaller than the amount of change in the gain when the operation value changes by the predetermined amount in a case where the operation value is larger than the reference value (Column 12, Lines 37-50, “The synthetic sound signal, as filtered by peak filter 704 (e.g., filtered synthetic sound signal and/or at least partially modulated synthetic sound signal, which includes both the modulated and unmodulated portions of the synthetic sound signal), is then optionally passed to an adjustable gain module 708. The adjustable gain module 708 receives a torque and/or pedal input 710 indicating a driver-requested acceleration or engine output to control the amount of gain applied to the filtered synthetic sound signal. For example, a gain applied to the filtered synthetic sound signal may increase with increasing torque/pedal input. As a more detailed example, the gain applied to the filtered synthetic sound signal may increase linearly with a linear increase in torque/pedal input.” In the utilization of acceleration to determine the adjustable gain values, the higher the acceleration, the more the gain increases, when compared against the vehicle speed, allowing for a more significant increase at higher speeds than at lower speeds.).
Regarding Claim 4, Bastyr et al teaches all the limitations of claim 1, and further teaches, wherein the operation value is determined by the user operating an operation element displayed on a display unit provided on an instrument panel in the cabin (Column 20, Lines 24-34, “The control signals may also control audio output at one or more speakers of the vehicle's audio system 1032. For example, the control signals may adjust audio output characteristics such as volume, equalization, audio image (e.g., for a paired device), audio distribution among a plurality of speakers, parameters of a low pass filter (e.g., as described with respect to FIG. 5), parameters of a peak filter (e.g., as described with respect to FIG. 7), parameters of a playback rate/pitch adjustment module (e.g., as described with respect to FIG. 9), parameters of a gain adjustment module (e.g., as described with respect to FIGS. 5, 7, and 9), etc.”, and Column 20, Lines 42-45, “One or more elements of the in-vehicle computing system 1000 may be controlled by a user via user interface 1018. User interface 1018 may include a graphical user interface presented on a touch screen”).
Regarding Claim 5, Bastyr et al teaches all the limitations of claim 1, and further teaches, wherein the sound signal is a sound effect signal that causes the speaker to output a sound effect that changes according to a rotational speed of a driving source of the vehicle (Column 14, Lines 2-12, “For example, a playback rate and/or pitch of the input synthetic sound signal may increase with increasing vehicle speed. As a more detailed example, a linear increase in vehicle speed may be mapped to a logarithmic or linear increase in the playback rate and/or pitch adjustment applied to the synthetic sound signal. However, it is to be understood that any suitable relationship between vehicle speed and playback rate/pitch adjustment may be utilized to simulate changes in combustion engine sound (or other simulated sounds, such as simulated sounds of other types of engines) responsive to vehicle speed changes.”).
Regarding Claim 6, Bastyr et al teaches a sound generation method for causing a speaker to output a sound into a cabin of a vehicle (Title/Abstract), the sound generation method comprising: generating a sound signal that causes the speaker to output the sound (FIG. 3, Step 302, Generate a synthetic sound signal representing a synthetic sound, Step 310, Output a combined synthetic sound including the modulated and unmodulated sound portions.); acquiring an operation value corresponding to an operation performed by a user (FIG. 3, Step 306, and Column 8 Lines 2-12, “At 306, the method includes determining a first vehicle operating parameter using the sensed data. For example, the sensed data may include data from a sensor that indicates (e.g., directly) the first vehicle operating parameter (e.g., a vehicle speed sensor that outputs vehicle speed) and/or data from one or more sensors that may be used to calculate the first vehicle operating parameter as a function of the sensor output(s) (e.g., raw output from a wheel or driveshaft-based sensor that is used to calculate vehicle speed using known relationships between the sensed data and other parameters, such as wheel diameter).”);
determining, in a case where the acquired operation value is smaller than a predetermined reference value, a gain to be smaller as a difference between the reference value and the operation value becomes larger ((Column 10, Lines 24-34, “The synthetic sound signal, as filtered by low pass filter 504 (e.g., filtered synthetic sound signal and/or at least partially modulated synthetic sound signal, which includes both the modulated and unmodulated portions of the synthetic sound signal), is then optionally passed to an adjustable gain module 508. The adjustable gain module 508 receives a torque and/or pedal input 510 indicating a driver-requested acceleration or engine output to control the amount of gain applied to the filtered synthetic sound signal. For example, a gain applied to the filtered synthetic sound signal may increase with increasing torque/pedal input.”)), and determining, in a case where the operation value is larger than the reference value, the gain to be larger as the difference between the reference value and the operation value becomes larger (Previous quotation, as well as Column 10, Lines 34-40, “As a more detailed example, the gain applied to the filtered synthetic sound signal may increase linearly with a linear increase in torque/pedal input. The torque/pedal input 510 may be received directly from a sensor, such as an accelerator pedal sensor, a throttle position sensor, and/or any sensor capable of measuring data indicating engine output.”);
and outputting to the speaker the sound signal corrected to the determined gain (Column 10, Lines 45-52, “The adjustable gain module 508 may output a combined synthetic sound signal to a speaker 512 (e.g., formed by attenuating a portion of a sound). The speaker 512 may represent any one or more speakers in the vehicle, including integrated vehicle speakers, external vehicle speakers, and/or speakers in communication with the vehicle (e.g., wireless speakers, speakers integrated in mobile devices located in the cabin of the vehicle, etc.).”).
Conclusion
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to DYLAN M NEECE whose telephone number is (703)756-1941. The examiner can normally be reached 10am - 7pm.
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/DYLAN MAGUIRE NEECE/ Examiner, Art Unit 2692
/CAROLYN R EDWARDS/ Supervisory Patent Examiner, Art Unit 2692
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