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 § 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)(1) the claimed invention was patented, described in a printed publication, or in public use, on sale, or otherwise available to the public before the effective filing date of the claimed invention.
Claims 1-3 and 12 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(1) as being anticipated by Hofmeister et al. (US Pub 2021/0227630).
As of claims 1 and 12, Hofmeister discloses an adapter for wireless distribution of sensor and/or control signals to an external network, wherein the adapter is arranged to be mounted in a transmission path of a sensor device and/or a control system (via gateway 102 receiving signals from sensors 106 and transmitting to a control unit 132; see fig. 1) and is configured to:
obtain at least one first sensor signal from the sensor device and/or at least one first control signal from the control system via connection terminals mounted in the transmission path of the sensor device and/or the control system (via antennas 104 receiving sensor signals from sensor 106; see fig. 1);
convert each of the obtained at least one first signals to a corresponding at least one second signal such that each of the obtained at least one first signal is galvanically isolated from its corresponding second signal (via disclosing a galvanic data isolation circuit 186 comprises a suitable optical coupler 190 that prevents electrical signals from directly traveling between the safe side data I/O circuit 142 and the hazardous side data I/O circuit 152. The optical coupler 190 generally translates the data signals 146 received from the hazardous side data I/O circuit 152 into light signals, transmits the light signals through an optical path, translates the light signals into electrical data signals, and outputs the electrical data signals 146 to the safe side data I/O circuit 142; see fig. 6; also see paragraphs [0048]); and
transmit wireless signals corresponding to each of the converted corresponding second signals to the external network wirelessly via at least one wireless communication access point located remotely from the adapter (via gateway 102 wirelessly transmitting sensor signals to the remotely located control unit 132; see fig. 1; also see paragraph [0027]).
As of claims 2-3, Hofmeister discloses that the at least one first signal is an electric signal, the at least one converted corresponding second signal is an optical signal, and wherein the adapter is further configured to convert each of the optical signals into wireless signals to be transmitted to the external network via the at least one wireless communication access point being in communication with the external network, wherein the adapter further comprises one or more optical converter units configured to provide the galvanic isolation between each of the first signals and its corresponding second signal upon converting the at least one first signals to their corresponding second signals.
(via disclosing a galvanic data isolation circuit 186 comprises a suitable optical coupler 190 that prevents electrical signals from directly traveling between the safe side data I/O circuit 142 and the hazardous side data I/O circuit 152. The optical coupler 190 generally translates the data signals 146 received from the hazardous side data I/O circuit 152 into light signals, transmits the light signals through an optical path, translates the light signals into electrical data signals, and outputs the electrical data signals 146 to the safe side data I/O circuit 142; see fig. 6; also see paragraphs [0048]).
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 5-11 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Hofmeister et al. (US Pub 2021/0227630) in view of Gravemaker et al. (US Pub 2024/0324905).
As of claims 5-9, Hofmeister discloses all the limitations of the claimed invention as mentioned in claim 1 above, however it does not explicitly disclose the mesh network connection as claimed in claims 5-9.
Gravemaker discloses a system wherien the adapter (gateway 4) is configured to be wirelessly connectable to at least one other adapter (other gateway 4) comprised in a mesh network, the mesh network comprising at least two adapters and at least one wireless communication access point (via access point 5; see fig. 3; also see paragraphs [0047]-[0050]).
From the teaching of Gravemaker it would have been obvious to one having ordinary skill in the art at the time the invention was filed to modify the system of Hofmeister to include the functionality of mesh network as taught by Hofmeister for efficient communication between the devices.
As of claim 10, the at least one wireless communication access point comprises a first access point 5 and a second access point 11 (see fig. 3), the first access point being in communication with the external network and the second access point being in communication with the first access point, each of the first and the second access points being in wireless communication with at least one adapter, such that the plurality of sensor and/or control signals obtained from the at least two adapters in the mesh network is transmitted to the external network via the first access point (see paragraph [0068] “the network gateway 4 is further configured to establish communication with a backup external network access point 11 when connectivity to the external network access point 5 falls below a reliability threshold. The reliability threshold may be based on connectivity strength, frequency of interruptions, available bandwidth, at similar measures. For example, the network gateway 4 may further be configured to communicate with the external network access point 5 via a wireless local area network protocol, such as Wi-Fi or an IEEE 802.11 based communication protocol, and communicate with the backup external network access point 11 via a telecommunication communication protocol such as 4G or 5G. FIG. 3 presents a schematic illustration of this case).
As of claim 11, Gravemaker discloses that the first and the second access points are configured such that, when the first access point being in communication with the external network becomes unavailable to transmit the plurality of sensor- and/or control signals obtained from the at least two adapters to the external network, the second access point is configured to establish a communication with the external network and replaces the first access point such that the sensor and/or control signals are transmitted to the external network via the second access point the network gateway 4 is further configured to establish communication with a backup external network access point 11 when connectivity to the external network access point 5 falls below a reliability threshold. The reliability threshold may be based on connectivity strength, frequency of interruptions, available bandwidth, at similar measures. For example, the network gateway 4 may further be configured to communicate with the external network access point 5 via a wireless local area network protocol, such as Wi-Fi or an IEEE 802.11 based communication protocol, and communicate with the backup external network access point 11 via a telecommunication communication protocol such as 4G or 5G. FIG. 3 presents a schematic illustration of this case.).
Claim 4 rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Hofmeister et al. (US Pub 2021/0227630).
As of claim 4, Hofmeister does not explicitly disclose that the LED operates in infra-red spectrum, however Examiner takes official notice that it is well known in the art that optical converter comprises LED’s operating in visible light, infra-red or blue light (see Macrae (US Pub 2022/0158744; paragraph [0327]).
Claims 13-15 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Hofmeister et al. (US Pub 2021/0227630) in view of Campbell (US Pub 2022/0187474).
As of claim 13-15, Hofmeister discloses all the limitations of the claimed invention as mentioned in claim 1 above, further based on fig. 1 it can be seen that there are multiple sensors 106, so it will be obvious to use some kind of identification information for the sensors in order to distinguish the different sensor values from each other.
Campbell discloses that when multiple sensors are deployed, each sensor has a unique identifier (see paragraph [0142]). From the teaching of Campbell, it would have been obvious to use sensor identifiers in order to identify sensor transmissions.
Conclusion
The prior art made of record and not relied upon is considered pertinent to applicant's disclosure.
Amrit et al. (US Pub 2020/0374202) discloses an adapter (smart sensor hub 103) for wireless distribution of sensor signals to external network (see fig. 1).
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to NABIL H SYED whose telephone number is (571)270-3028. The examiner can normally be reached 8:00-5:00 M-F.
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If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner’s supervisor, Davetta W Goins can be reached at (571) 272-2957. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300.
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/NABIL H SYED/ Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2689
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