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 . This Office action is based on the communications filed October 25, 2025. Claims 1 – 5 are currently pending and considered below.
Information Disclosure Statement
The information disclosure statement (IDS) submitted on February 25, 2025 is in compliance with the provisions of 37 CFR 1.97. Accordingly, the information disclosure statement is being considered by the examiner.
Claim Interpretation
The following is a quotation of 35 U.S.C. 112(f):
(f) Element in Claim for a Combination. – An element in a claim for a combination may be expressed as a means or step for performing a specified function without the recital of structure, material, or acts in support thereof, and such claim shall be construed to cover the corresponding structure, material, or acts described in the specification and equivalents thereof.
The following is a quotation of pre-AIA 35 U.S.C. 112, sixth paragraph:
An element in a claim for a combination may be expressed as a means or step for performing a specified function without the recital of structure, material, or acts in support thereof, and such claim shall be construed to cover the corresponding structure, material, or acts described in the specification and equivalents thereof.
The claims in this application are given their broadest reasonable interpretation using the plain meaning of the claim language in light of the specification as it would be understood by one of ordinary skill in the art. The broadest reasonable interpretation of a claim element (also commonly referred to as a claim limitation) is limited by the description in the specification when 35 U.S.C. 112(f) or pre-AIA 35 U.S.C. 112, sixth paragraph, is invoked.
As explained in MPEP § 2181, subsection I, claim limitations that meet the following three-prong test will be interpreted under 35 U.S.C. 112(f) or pre-AIA 35 U.S.C. 112, sixth paragraph:
(A) the claim limitation uses the term “means” or “step” or a term used as a substitute for “means” that is a generic placeholder (also called a nonce term or a non-structural term having no specific structural meaning) for performing the claimed function;
(B) the term “means” or “step” or the generic placeholder is modified by functional language, typically, but not always linked by the transition word “for” (e.g., “means for”) or another linking word or phrase, such as “configured to” or “so that”; and
(C) the term “means” or “step” or the generic placeholder is not modified by sufficient structure, material, or acts for performing the claimed function.
Use of the word “means” (or “step”) in a claim with functional language creates a rebuttable presumption that the claim limitation is to be treated in accordance with 35 U.S.C. 112(f) or pre-AIA 35 U.S.C. 112, sixth paragraph. The presumption that the claim limitation is interpreted under 35 U.S.C. 112(f) or pre-AIA 35 U.S.C. 112, sixth paragraph, is rebutted when the claim limitation recites sufficient structure, material, or acts to entirely perform the recited function.
Absence of the word “means” (or “step”) in a claim creates a rebuttable presumption that the claim limitation is not to be treated in accordance with 35 U.S.C. 112(f) or pre-AIA 35 U.S.C. 112, sixth paragraph. The presumption that the claim limitation is not interpreted under 35 U.S.C. 112(f) or pre-AIA 35 U.S.C. 112, sixth paragraph, is rebutted when the claim limitation recites function without reciting sufficient structure, material or acts to entirely perform the recited function.
Claim limitations in this application that use the word “means” (or “step”) are being interpreted under 35 U.S.C. 112(f) or pre-AIA 35 U.S.C. 112, sixth paragraph, except as otherwise indicated in an Office action. Conversely, claim limitations in this application that do not use the word “means” (or “step”) are not being interpreted under 35 U.S.C. 112(f) or pre-AIA 35 U.S.C. 112, sixth paragraph, except as otherwise indicated in an Office action.
This application includes one or more claim limitations that do not use the word “means,” but are nonetheless being interpreted under 35 U.S.C. 112(f) or pre-AIA 35 U.S.C. 112, sixth paragraph, because the claim limitation(s) uses a generic placeholder that is coupled with functional language without reciting sufficient structure to perform the recited function and the generic placeholder is not preceded by a structural modifier. Such claim limitation(s) is/are: “generating apparatus that generates,” “estimation apparatus that estimates,” “presenting apparatus that presents,” in claim 3.
Because this/these claim limitation(s) is/are being interpreted under 35 U.S.C. 112(f) or pre-AIA 35 U.S.C. 112, sixth paragraph, it/they is/are being interpreted to cover the corresponding structure described in the specification as performing the claimed function, and equivalents thereof.
If applicant does not intend to have this/these limitation(s) interpreted under 35 U.S.C. 112(f) or pre-AIA 35 U.S.C. 112, sixth paragraph, applicant may: (1) amend the claim limitation(s) to avoid it/them being interpreted under 35 U.S.C. 112(f) or pre-AIA 35 U.S.C. 112, sixth paragraph (e.g., by reciting sufficient structure to perform the claimed function); or (2) present a sufficient showing that the claim limitation(s) recite(s) sufficient structure to perform the claimed function so as to avoid it/them being interpreted under 35 U.S.C. 112(f) or pre-AIA 35 U.S.C. 112, sixth paragraph.
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.
Claim(s) 3 and 4 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(2) as being anticipated by Ahrens et al. (US 11,564,038 B1), hereinafter Ahrens.
Claim 3: Ahrens discloses an acoustic event presenting system comprising:
at least four microphones disposed on a head of a human body (see at least, “Described herein is an audio system for spherical harmonic decomposition of a sound field detected by an equa-torial acoustic sensor array (EASA). The audio system includes an EASA and a controller. The EASA includes a plurality of acoustic sensors ( e.g., microphones). Some or all of the acoustic sensors may be included in a plane. The plurality of acoustic sensors have an arrangement, the arrangement may, e.g., for a circle ( e.g., in the plane), a semi-circle, ellipse, etc. The EASA is coupled to an object. The object may be, e.g., a headset, a headset worn by a user, a spherical scatter, etc. In some embodiments, the audio system and the EASA are integrated into a headset,” Ahrens Column 2 Lines 66 – Column 3 Lines 10, “Note that conventionally SMAs are used to capture a sound field, but they require a very large number of microphones to do so. For example, to achieve 8th spherical harmonic order, a SMA requires at least 81 microphones. In contrast, the audio system described herein can achieve 8th 30 spherical harmonic order, using an EASA having 17 microphones. The massive reduction in the number of microphones also equates to lower cost, less complexity, and a lower power budget, relative to conventional SMA based audio systems,” Ahrens Column 3 Lines 26 – 35);
a pseudo-ambisonics signal generating apparatus that generates a pseudo-ambisonics signal from acoustic signals acquired by the microphones (see at least, “The EASA captures a portion of a sound field in a local area. The controller is configured to process the captured portion of the sound field from the EASA such that it can perform a spherical harmonic decomposition of the entire sound field. The spherical harmonic decomposition describes the entire sound field with a set of SH coefficients,” Ahrens Column 3 Lines 10 – 16);
an estimation apparatus that estimates a direction and a type of a sound source from the pseudo-ambisonics signal (see at least, “The audio controller 150 may be configured to generate
direction of arrival (DOA) estimates, generate acoustic transfer functions (e.g., array transfer functions and/or headrelated transfer functions), track the location of sound sources, form beams in the direction of sound sources, classify sound sources, generate sound filters for the speakers 160, or some combination thereof,” Ahrens Column 6 Lines 40 – 46, “The DOA analysis may include analyzing the intensity, spectra, and/or arrival time of each sound at the EASA 220 to determine the direction from which the sounds originated,” Ahrens Column 9 Line 31 – 34, “An ATF includes a number of transfer functions that characterize a relationship between the sound source and the corresponding sound received by the acoustic sensors in the EASA 220. Accordingly, for a sound source there is a corresponding transfer function for each of the acoustic sensors in the EASA 220. And collectively the set of transfer functions is referred to as an ATF. Accordingly, for each sound source there is a corresponding ATF. Note that the sound source may be, e.g., someone or something generating sound in the local area, the user, or one or more transducers of the transducer array 210. The ATF for a particular sound source location relative to the EASA 220 may differ from user to user due to a person's anatomy (e.g., ear shape, shoulders, etc.) that affects the sound as it travels to the person's ears. Accordingly, the ATFs of the EASA 220 are personalized for each user of the audio system 200,” Ahrens Column 12 Lines 15 – 30, “In some embodiments, the tracking module 260 may detect a change in location based on visual information received from the headset or some other external source. The tracking module 260 may track the movement of one or more sound sources over time. The tracking module 260 may store values for a number of sound sources and a location of each sound source at each point in time. In response to a change in a value of the number or locations of the sound sources, the tracking module 260 may deter-mine that a sound source moved. The tracking module 260 may calculate an estimate of the localization variance. The localization variance may be used as a confidence level for each determination of a change in movement,” Ahrens Column 12 Line 59 – Column 13 Line 4, “The beamforming module 270 may isolate an audio signal associated with sound from a particular sound source from other sound sources in the local area based on, e.g., different DOA estimates from the DOA estimation module 240 and the tracking module 260. The beamforming module 270 may thus selectively analyze discrete sound sources in the local area. In some embodiments, the beamforming module 270 may enhance a signal from a sound source. For example, the beamforming module 270 may apply sound filters which eliminate signals above, below, or between certain frequencies. Signal enhancement acts to enhance sounds associated with a given identified sound source relative to other sounds detected by the EASA 220. The sound filter module 280 determines sound filters for the transducer array 210. In some embodiments, the sound filters cause the audio content to be spatialized, such that the audio content appears to originate from a target region. The sound filter module 280 may use HRTFs, acoustic parameters, and one or more sets of SH coefficients to generate the sound filters. In some embodiments, the sound filter module 280 may receive the set of SH coefficients from another audio system and/or a server. The sound filter module 280 may use the received set of SH coefficients and one or more HRTFs of the user for binaural rendering of the reconstructed sound field to the user. The acoustic parameters describe acoustic properties of the local area. The acoustic parameters may include, e.g., a reverberation time, a reverberation level, a room impulse response, etc. In some 4embodiments, the sound filter module 280 calculates one or more of the acoustic parameters. In some embodiments, the sound filter module 280 requests the acoustic parameters from a mapping server (e.g., as described below with regard to FIG. 6),” Ahrens Column 13 Lines 13 – 45); and
a presenting apparatus that presents information on the sound source to a user according to the estimated direction and type of the sound source (see at least, “The audio system may then provide the set of SH coefficients to some other device (e.g., mapping server, an audio system integrated into a headset, etc.). The other device may use the set of SH coefficients for binaural rendering and playback of the sound field to a user of the other device. Likewise the audio system may receive a set of SH coefficients that describe a particular sound field and use the set for binaural rendering and playback of the particular sound field to a user of the audio system,” Ahrens Column 3 Lines 19 – 25, "The audio controller 230 controls operation of the audio system 200. In the embodiment of FIG. 2, the audio con-troller 230 includes a data store 235, a DOA estimation module 240, a decomposition module 245, a transfer function module 250, a tracking module 260, a beamforming module 270, and a sound filter module 280. The audio controller 230 may be located inside a headset, in some embodiments. Some embodiments of the audio controller 230 have different components than those described here,” Column 8 Line 66 – Column 9 Line 7, “The transducer array 210 generates audio content in accordance with instructions from the audio controller 230. In some embodiments, the audio content is spatialized. Spatialized audio content is audio content that appears to originate from a particular direction and/or target region (e.g., an object in the local area and/or a virtual object),” Ahrens Column 8 Lines 24 – 29, “The audio system 650 may generate one or more sound filters using one or more of the acoustic parameters received from the mapping server 625, and use the sound filters to provide audio content to the user,” Ahrens Column 17 Lines 35 – 39).
Claim 4: Ahrens discloses acoustic event presenting system according to claim 3, wherein the presenting apparatus acoustically or visually presents the direction and the type of the sound source (see at least, “The transducer array presents sound to user. The transducer array includes a plurality of transducers,” Ahrens Column 5 Lines 36 – 37, “The transducer array 210 generates audio content in accordance with instructions from the audio controller 230. In some embodiments, the audio content is spatialized. Spatialized audio content is audio content that appears to originate from a particular direction and/or target region (e.g., an object in the local area and/or a virtual object),” Ahrens Column 8 Lines 24 – 29, “In some embodiments, the tracking module 260 may detect a change in location based on visual information received from the headset or some other external source. The tracking module 260 may track the movement of one or more sound sources over time. The tracking module 260 may store values for a number of sound sources and a location of each sound source at each point in time. In response to a change in a value of the number or locations of the sound sources, the tracking module 260 may deter-mine that a sound source moved. The tracking module 260 may calculate an estimate of the localization variance. The localization variance may be used as a confidence level for each determination of a change in movement,” Ahrens Column 12 Line 59 – Column 13 Line 4, “The display assembly 630 displays content to the user in accordance with data received from the console 615,” Ahrens Column 15 Lines 48 – 49).
Allowable Subject Matter
Claims 1, 2, and 5 are allowed.
Conclusion
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to JOSEPH SAUNDERS whose telephone number is (571)270-1063. The examiner can normally be reached Monday-Thursday, 9:00 a.m. - 4 p.m., EST.
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If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner’s supervisor, Carolyn R Edwards can be reached at (571)270-7136. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300.
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/JOSEPH SAUNDERS JR/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2692
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