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 .
Claims 1, 4, 6 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Plugge et al. (US 6,356,185 B1) in view of Lindgren et al. (US 2003/0033338 A1).
With respect to claim 1,
Plugge teaches an active driving sound effect generator mounted on a vehicle comprising a sound processor 10 integrated with the vehicle's stereo sound system 14 and configured to generate simulated vehicle-engine sound based upon vehicle information, including engine RPM (Fig. 1; col. 2, ll. 51–65; col. 3, ll. 1–20). Plugge's sound memory 2 contains one or more LUTs containing broadband sound signatures recorded over an operating range from idle to maximum RPM, each signature comprising a short temporal period that is continuously replayed (col. 3, ll. 2–13). The audio processor selects the sound signature corresponding to current RPM and continuously replays the periodic signature (col. 3, ll. 14–20). Plugge outputs the generated signal through the vehicle stereo amplifier and speaker system (col. 3, ll. 21–38; Fig. 1).
Plugge therefore teaches vehicle-information-dependent generation of a periodically repeated, broadband sound waveform, but does not expressly disclose the claimed cyclic waveform-table implementation in which the end and beginning of the table are continuous.
However, Lindgren teaches wavetable synthesis wherein stored sample data are accessed at different rates (¶16), the sample-memory address pointer comprises an integer and fractional portion and is referred to as a phase accumulator, and the increment is a phase increment (¶21).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art at the effective filing date to implement Plugge's continuously repeated periodic sound signatures using the known cyclic wavetable playback technique of Lindgren because such implementation provides predictable variable-rate playback of stored periodic waveform data while permitting the generated pitch to be controlled according to vehicle RPM.
combination and thereby provide a desired vehicle sound responsive to vehicle operating conditions.
Claim 4 is rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Plugge in view of Lindgren as applied to claim 1.
Plugge teaches one or more LUTs storing different vehicle sound signatures (col. 3, ll. 2–13) and expressly teaches that mode selector 12 permits the user to select the desired classic-car sound signature, with sound selector 4 controlling sound memory 2, audio processor 1 and filter 3 according to the selected signature (col. 3, ll. 39–44).
Therefore, when the stored signatures are implemented as the cyclic waveform tables of Lindgren, the combination teaches a plurality of waveform tables switchable in response to a user's operation.
With respect to Claim 6, Plugge teaches selecting and reproducing stored sound loops according to current engine RPM (col. 3, ll. 14–20; col. 4, ll. 20–36). Plugge further teaches pitch-interpolated playback based upon measured RPM, wherein stored sound loops are electronically shortened or lengthened to provide the appropriate playback pitch (col. 4, ll. 20–36).
Lindgren teaches the claimed read-position mechanism more specifically. Stored waveform samples are accessed using a memory pointer; increasing the pointer by one reads successive samples, whereas increasing the pointer by two reads every second sample and doubles pitch (¶16). Lindgren further teaches that the memory pointer is a phase accumulator, and its increment value is a phase increment (¶21).
Claims 2 – 3, 5 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Plugge in view of Lindgren as applied to claim 1, and further in view of Honji et al. (US 8,885,845 B2).
Plugge additionally teaches multiple LUTs containing respective sound signatures (col. 4, ll. 1–19; col. 5, ll. 10–23). In another embodiment, first LUT 62 and second LUT 64 provide respective sound signatures that are simultaneously reproduced and summed, and the volume of the second signature is independently modulated before summation (col. 6, ll. 18–35, 38–65; Fig. 3).
Honji teaches individually controlling gains/mixing weights of different engine-sound components according to engine operating conditions, including engine speed; see, e.g., Figs. 14A–14D and 21A–21D.
It would have been obvious to provide respective gain adjustment for the signals generated from the plurality of waveform tables of Plugge/Lindgren, as taught by Honji, to independently control the contribution of the respective sound components before combination and thereby provide a desired vehicle sound responsive to vehicle operating conditions.
With respect to claim 3, Plugge teaches vehicle information including engine RPM (col. 3, ll. 14–20) and broadband sound signatures containing multiple frequency components (col. 3, ll. 2–13).
Honji teaches low- and high-frequency engine-sound components and expressly teaches that when engine speed is low, low tone is enhanced and high tone suppressed, whereas when engine speed is high, low tone is suppressed and high tone enhanced (Figs. 14A and 21A). Honji further identifies low- and high-tone frequency regions and controls gain as a function of engine speed. Thus, the combination teaches or suggests a low-frequency waveform component/table and a relatively higher-frequency waveform component/table, with the relative gains varied according to engine rotational speed as recited.
With respect to claim 5, Plugge teaches user selection among stored vehicle sound signatures (col. 3, ll. 39–44).
Honji teaches storing a plurality of selectable engine-sound parameter sets and further teaches supplying additional parameter sets from flash memory, ROM, a navigation-system hard drive, downloading them from the Internet, or supplying/manually setting them from a connected computer.
It would have been obvious to permit additional sound data for Plugge/Lindgren’s user-selectable vehicle sound effects to be added from an external or downloadable source as taught by Honji, thereby permitting the user to expand the available selectable vehicle sounds without modification of the sound-generation hardware.
Thus, the combination teaches or suggests addition by user operation of additional sound/waveform data and subsequent selection thereof.
With respect to claim 7, Honji teaches that one or a plurality of parameter sets may be stored and that a selected parameter set can be changed according to user operation. Honji further teaches determining a waveform parameter from sensor output using a previously prepared table and expressly states that a parameter set selected by the user includes information for determining the waveform parameter from the sensor output.
It would have been obvious to provide a plurality of user-selectable sets of Plugge/Lindgren's phase-increment/read-increment values corresponding to the respective user-selectable sound modes of Honji because the phase increment determines waveform playback pitch and separate sound modes predictably require respective mappings between vehicle operating condition and generated pitch.
Thus, the combination teaches or suggests a plurality of skip tables switched according to a user's selection operation.
Claim 8 is rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Plugge in view of Lindgren as applied to claim 6, further in view of Yun et al. (US 2016/0118037 A1) and Every et al. (US 2018/0043826 A1).
Yun teaches receiving vehicle information including vehicle speed and engine RPM and storing a mapping table in which protecting-sound frequency information is mapped to vehicle speed. Yun expressly teaches that the protecting-sound frequency is exponentially increased for each vehicle speed (¶¶8–9; Figs. 2–3).
It would have been obvious to arrange the RPM/vehicle-speed-dependent read-increment values of Plugge/Lindgren according to Yun's exponential vehicle-speed/frequency mapping because Yun teaches that the exponential progression provides a vehicle sound whose frequency predictably increases with increasing vehicle speed.
Every teaches a vehicle engine-sound synthesizer employing a Shepard tone responsive to vehicle operating information, including motor RPM and vehicle speed, wherein perceived pitch continuously increases while actual pitch remains within a bounded comfortable range; increasing vehicle speed can increase Shepard-tone pitch.
It would have been obvious to cyclically repeat the exponentially increasing frequency progression of the modified Plugge/Lindgren/Yun system within predetermined lower and upper frequency limits, as taught by Every's bounded Shepard-tone technique, to provide a perceived continuously increasing vehicle sound while maintaining the actual generated frequencies within a desired audible range.
Claim 9 is rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over the references applied to claim 8, and further in view of Maeda (US 5,428,308).
Maeda teaches a frequency-setting circuit in which a phase increment corresponding to the frequency to be generated is programmed; a phase accumulator adds the phase increment to the phase-accumulation value from the preceding clock; the accumulated phase addresses waveform ROM; the ROM output is converted to an analog signal; and a band-pass filter is applied to the generated signal.
More particularly, Maeda teaches that phase increment 11 corresponds to the frequency being generated, phase accumulator 12 accumulates the increment, ROM 14 stores waveform values corresponding to phase, and BPF 22 passes selected frequency components of the resulting signal. Maeda further expressly teaches BPF passbands bounded by predetermined lower and upper frequencies.
It would have been obvious to apply Maeda's BPF to the waveform generated by Plugge/Lindgren/Yun/Every system and to establish its lower and upper passband boundaries at the respective minimum and maximum frequencies generated by the lower- and upper-limit read-increment values, because doing so would pass the intended range of generated sound frequencies while attenuating frequency components outside that intended range.
Accordingly, the combination teaches or suggests the band-pass filter of claim 9 having a pass frequency band between the frequencies corresponding to the lower- and upper-limit skip values.
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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19Sep2026
/WILLIAM J DEANE JR/ Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2693
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