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 .
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 112
The following is a quotation of 35 U.S.C. 112(b):
(b) CONCLUSION.—The specification shall conclude with one or more claims particularly pointing out and distinctly claiming the subject matter which the inventor or a joint inventor regards as the invention.
The following is a quotation of 35 U.S.C. 112 (pre-AIA ), second paragraph:
The specification shall conclude with one or more claims particularly pointing out and distinctly claiming the subject matter which the applicant regards as his invention.
Claims 1-12 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 112(b) or 35 U.S.C. 112 (pre-AIA ), second paragraph, as being indefinite for failing to particularly point out and distinctly claim the subject matter which the inventor or a joint inventor (or for applications subject to pre-AIA 35 U.S.C. 112, the applicant), regards as the invention.
Claim 1 recites “wherein the notification information output by the light emitting unit is recognized by the wireless charger through the light receiving unit, and is notified through the LED of the wireless charger.” It is not definite how wireless charger recognizes output by light emitting unit of the sensor using sensor’s light receiving unit. It would make sense if “the second light receiving unit of the charger” recognizes the output by light emitting unit of the sensor.
It is not definite whether applicant intends to recite “the second light receiving unit” or “the light receiving unit” which belongs to the sensor.
For a purpose of examination, the examiner will interpret the underlined limitation as the second light receiving unit of the wireless charger.
Claim 2 also recites “wherein the charging status information output by the light emitting unit is recognized by the wireless charger through the light receiving unit.”
It is not definite how wireless charger recognizes output by light emitting unit of the sensor using sensor’s light receiving unit. It would make sense if the second light receiving unit of the charger recognizes the output by light emitting unit of the sensor.
It is not definite whether applicant intends to recite “the second light receiving unit” or “the light receiving unit” which belongs to the sensor.
For a purpose of examination, the examiner will interpret the underlined limitation as the second light receiving unit of the wireless charger.
Claims 2-12 are rejected as they inherit rejection of claim 1 due to their dependency upon claim 1 as set forth above.
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 (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 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.
Claims 1-3, 7-8, and 10-12 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over “Kim et al.,” US 2016/0261151 (hereinafter Kim) and “Yang et al.,” US 2018/0191192 (hereinafter Yang).
Regarding to claim 1, Kim teaches a system including a wearable device (wearable device [0048]) and a wireless charger, wherein the wearable device includes:
communication circuitry (communication module [0088]);
a sensor including a light emitting unit and a first light receiving unit (sensor irradiate light and light reflected by the tissue input to the sensor [0224]);
power receiving circuitry (power reception unit receive power using induction or resonance [0086]);
memory storing first instructions (memory [0067]); and
a first processor ( processor [0066]),
wherein the first instructions, when executed by the first processor, cause the wearable device to:
while the wearable device is worn by a user, control the sensor to obtain data associated with biometric information of the user through the light emitting unit and the first light receiving unit (a band-type wearable device wearing the device on his/her wrist and the device includes a sensor capable of sensing the user’s biometric information [0219]), and
wherein the wireless charger (electronic device with wireless charging module Fig. 1B) includes:
power transmitting circuitry (power transmitter [0058]);
memory storing second instructions (memory 130 Fig.1B); and
a second processor (processor 120 Fig. 1B), wherein the second instructions, when executed by the second processor, cause the wireless charger to, while the wearable device is positioned at the wireless charger (if it is determined based on location information of the powerless sensor that is a distance between the electronic device and the sensor is less than a threshold [0093]): control the power transmitting circuitry to wirelessly charge the wearable device (the processor control wireless charging module to transmit the power to the sensor [0093])
Kim does not further disclose (1) wearable device includes a battery, and (2) charger includes a light emitting diode and a second light receiving unit and further details on optical communication between the wearable device and the charger of following limitations:
while the wearable device is positioned at the wireless charger, control the sensor to output data related to information of the wearable device in lights through the light emitting unit, and charge the battery using wireless power received through the power receiving circuitry
recognize the lights output from the light emitting unit of the wearable device through the second light receiving unit, and output lights using the LED based on the recognized lights, wherein the data related to information of the wearable device comprises notification information related to communication with an external device through the communication circuitry of the wearable device, and
wherein the notification information output by the light emitting unit is recognized by the wireless charger through the light receiving unit, and is notified through the LED of the wireless charger.
However, in the analogous field of endeavor in wearable sensor, Yang teaches that a battery is in the electronic device (sensor) and sensor includes LED and photodiode in photometric front end of battery run sensor ([0021]), and optical charging system includes power transmitter which includes a light source such as LED and a photodiode [0018]; power transmitter includes a LED and a photodiode [0019]).
Moreover, Yang further teaches optical communication between sensor and the charger (Wireless communication [0028]) as follows:
while the wearable device is positioned at the wireless charger, control the sensor to output data related to information of the wearable device in lights through the light emitting unit, and charge the battery using wireless power received through the power receiving circuitry (detect current charge level of a battery of sensor and communicate feedback signal to an optical charger via an optical transmitter of the sensor and light signal received from optical charger in response to feedback communication and LED of charger generates light signal and received by the photodiode of the sensor to charge the battery [0040]-[0041] Figure 4)
recognize the lights output from the light emitting unit of the wearable device through the second light receiving unit (LED 134 of sensor communicates to photodiode 116 of charger Fig. 1), and output lights using the LED based on the recognized lights (a light signal generated by LED of the power transmitter [0023]), wherein the data related to information of the wearable device comprises notification information related to communication with an external device through the communication circuitry of the wearable device(data communication using LED of charger and photodiode of the device/sensor and/or LED of the sensor and the photodiode of the charger [0028]), and
wherein the notification information output by the light emitting unit is recognized by the wireless charger through the light receiving unit, and is notified through the LED of the wireless charger (in instances the battery charge status indicates a charge below a second pre-determined threshold, a second control signal generated by the charge management block and communicated via the LED of sensor to the power transmitter (Charger) to initiate charging by turning the LED of charger on [0025]).
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify sensor and charger as taught by Kim to incorporate teaching of Yang, since using optical communication between the sensor and the optical charger was well known in the art as taught by Yang. One of ordinary skill in the art could have combined the elements as claimed by Kim, with no change in their respective functions, placing a battery in the sensor and charger to be optical charger with LED and photodiode and program optical communication and charging between sensor and the optical charger and the combination would have yielded nothing more than predictable results to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention. The motivation would have been to provide device charging while maintain a sealed and waterproof device housing and while sharing an existing device sensor and space-efficient optical charging system ([0017]), and there was reasonable expectation of success.
Regarding to claim 2, Kim and Yang together teach all limitations of claim 1 as set forth above.
Yang further teaches following limitations:
Of claim 2, wherein the data related to information of the wearable device comprises charging status information of the wearable device (charge status [0040] Fig. 4), and wherein the charging status information output by the light emitting unit is recognized by the wireless charger through the light receiving unit (optical transmitter communicates the charge status information to the optical receiver of the charger via the communication link between LED of the sensor and the photodiode of charger, light signal received from the charger, a control signal generated by LED driver and adjust the intensity of the LED 328 Fig. 3A-B and is notified through the LED of the wireless charger [0040]-[0041]).
Of claim 3, wherein the data associated with the biometric information of the user comprises at least one of heart rate information or oxygen saturation information (heart rate of a user [0021]).
Of claim 10, wherein the wireless charger further comprising a connector (connector 206 [0027]), and wherein the second instructions, when executed by the second processor, further cause the wireless charger to: wirelessly charge the wearable device, through the power transmitting circuitry (power transmitter comprise circuitry and can be configured for optical communication with power receiver to provide optical signal for charging the battery [0018]), using power supplied from an external power source connected via the connector (separate power source [0017]).
Of claim 11, wherein the second instructions, when executed by the second processor, further cause the wireless charger to: monitor, using the second light receiving unit, lights from the wearable device while charging the wearable device (optical receiver used tom monitor voltage signals generated by the photodiode, receive feedback information regarding battery status to activate or deactivate charging [0020]).
Regarding to claim 7, Kim and Yang together teach all limitations of claim 1 as set forth above.
Kim further teaches wherein the power receiving circuitry includes a coil to receive the wireless power based on at least one of electromagnetic induction or electromagnetic resonance (power reception unit uses induction or resonance scheme, implemented by a coil [0086] and electromagnetic scheme [0214]).
Regarding to claim 8, Kim and Yang together teach all limitations of claim 7 as set forth above.
Kim further teaches wherein the power receiving circuitry is configured to identify coupling between the wearable device and the wireless charge based on receiving a specified wireless power signal via the coil (electronic device charge a battery by receiving wireless power from wireless power transmitter, transmit a signal for requesting transmission of wireless power, information required for reception of wireless power, status information of the electronic device [0058]; power reception unit receive wireless power from the electronic device using a coil [0086]).
Regarding to claim 12, Kim and Yang together teach all limitations of claim 1 as set forth above.
Kim teaches wherein the communication with the external device is BLUETOOTH® communication (Bluetooth [0074]).
Claims 4-6 and 9 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Kim and Yang as applied to claim 1 above, and further in view of “Woo et al.,” US 2016/0166153 (hereinafter Woo).
Regarding to claims 4 and 9, Kim and Yang together teach all limitations of claim 1 as set forth above.
Yang further teaches wherein the light emitting unit includes at least one LED (LED 134 [0021]), wherein the first light receiving unit includes at least one photodiode (photodiode 132 [0021]).
Yang does not further teaches the sensor using LED and photodiode, measures a heart rate but does not explicitly disclose wherein the at least one LED includes at least one of an infrared (IR) LED, a red LED, or a green LED.
However, in the analogous field of endeavor in wearable optical sensor, Woo teaches a wearable optical sensor comprising LED and photodiode for measuring biometric information of a user, using green light (525nm), red (660nm) and IR (940 nm) ([0026]-[0027]).
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify LED as taught by Kim and Yang to incorporate teaching of Woo, since emitting red, IR and green wavelength lights to a user was well known in the art as taught by Woo. One of ordinary skill in the art could have combined the elements as claimed by Yang with no change in their respective functions, configuring its LED to emit red, IR, and green wavelengths and detect the lights via photodiode, and the combination would have yielded nothing more than predictable results to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention. The motivation would have been to provide measurement of oxygen saturation ([0027]), and there was reasonable expectation of success.
Regarding to claim 5, Kim, Yang, and Woo together teach all limitations of claim 4 as set forth above.
Yang further teaches wherein the first instructions, when executed by the first processor, further cause the wearable device to:
output, using the at least one LED, lights of a specified wavelength or specified strength ([0021]),
receive, using the at least one photodiode, light induced by the at least one LED, and acquire the data associated with the biometric information of the user based on the received light ([0021])
Regarding to claim 6, Kim, Yang, and Woo together teach all limitations of claim 4 as set forth above.
Yang further teaches wherein the light emitting unit including an LED not used for acquiring the data associated with the biometric information of the user (light source, LED integrated within the sensor can be used to communicate optical signals to the light power transmitter for establishing a communication link ([0017]).
Conclusion
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/PATRICIA J PARK/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 3798
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