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 Objections
Claim 1 is objected to because of the following informalities: In line 14, after transmit, applicant is suggested to replace “an electromagnetic signal” with ---- the electromagnetic signal --- in order to maintain constancy in the claim. Appropriate correction is required.
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 10-12 and 17-19 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 10 recites the limitation "a third signal" in line 3.
There is a lack of clarity where the claim recites “a third signal ” and does not contain any other recitation of a second signal limitations. The claim is indefinite because it would be unclear if the limitation is making reference to “a third signal” that has no connection to prior signals. Therefore the claim is indefinite for containing limitation whose meaning is unclear.
Claims rejected under 35 U.S.C. 112(b) or 35 U.S.C. 112 (pre-AIA ), second paragraph, as being incomplete for omitting essential steps, such omission amounting to a gap between the steps. See MPEP § 2172.01. The omitted steps are: claim 10 fails to recite a second signal.
Claim 17 recites the limitation "a third signal" in line 9.
There is a lack of clarity where the claim recites “a third signal ” and does not contain any other recitation of a first signal and a second signal limitations. The claim is indefinite because it would be unclear if the limitation is making reference to “a third signal” that has no connection to prior signals. Therefore the claim is indefinite for containing limitation whose meaning is unclear.
Claims rejected under 35 U.S.C. 112(b) or 35 U.S.C. 112 (pre-AIA ), second paragraph, as being incomplete for omitting essential steps, such omission amounting to a gap between the steps. See MPEP § 2172.01. The omitted steps are: claim 17 fails to recite a first signal and a second signal.
Claims 11-12 and 18-19 are also rejected as being dependent upon a rejected base claim.
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.
Claim(s) 1, 4-5, 13-15, and 22-23 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Kim et al (US 20100297937 A1) in view of Tsai et al (US 10855351 B1).
As per claim 1, Kim teaches a communication apparatus, wherein the communication apparatus (see fig.7) comprises: an antenna module (see fig.7 element 30), comprising N antenna units configured to transmit and receive a signal, wherein N is a positive integer greater than 1 (see fig.7 elements ANT1-ANTN and abstract for….. link antenna module through the link antenna path setting module and processes transmission and reception relay signals between the link antenna module and para [0044] for….. The link antenna module 30 may have a plurality of fixed antennas ANT1, ANT2, . . . , ANTN); a signal comparison module, wherein the signal comparison module is coupled to the antenna module, and the signal comparison module (see fig.7 combined elements 406, 233-234, 25) is configured to: detect received signal strengths of respective antenna units among the N antenna units (see fig.7 elements 406 and para [0068] for….The pilot signal detector 406 detects the strength of a pilot signal from each BTS from among the received signals of the antennas); and select M target antenna units with to M strongest received signal strengths from the N antenna units based on the received signal strengths of the respective antenna units among the N antenna units, wherein M is a positive integer less than N (see fig.7 element 233 and para [0069] for…the antenna selection controller 233 stores and updates information about a signal received at each link antenna for each location of the moving object, received from the pilot signal detector 406. To select an appropriate antenna for a corresponding location based on the corresponding information and the stored information, the antenna selection controller 233 has an antenna selection scheduler 2332 for performing a corresponding function and para [0083] for…The antenna selection controller 233 receives the outputs of the pilot signal detectors 406-1 to 406-M, detects the received signal of each antenna for each service provider, and provides control signals CS1, CS3 and CS4 to the per-service provider systems in order to select an appropriate antenna for each service provider.); a signal switching module (see fig.7 element 322 and para [0074] for….In addition, the first switch 322 as illustrated in FIG. 4 has switches 3222 and 3224), wherein the signal switching module is coupled to the signal comparison module (see fig.7 combined elements 406, 233-234, 25) and the antenna module (see fig.7 element 30), respectively, and the signal switching module is configured to: receive information output by the signal comparison module for indicating the M target antenna units (see fig.7 element CS1 and para [0076] for…. The switching control signal CS1 is individually provided to the switches 3222 and 3224, for a different switching operation of each switch.); and select the M target antenna units to transmit a signal based on the information for indicating the M target antenna units (see para [0077-0078] for… When the switch 3222 performs an appropriate switching operation for antenna selection…. The switch 3224 selects an appropriate antenna, for example, a second antenna ANT2 from among the other antennas except the first antenna ANT1 according to a control signal CS1[2].).
However Kim does not teach a communication configured to transmit and receive an electromagnetic signal.
Tsai et al teaches a communication configured to transmit and receive an electromagnetic signal (see col.2, lines 35-40 for…., The wireless AP device may further leverage framework-level data and cloud server computing to determine the best direction at which to transmit and/or receive electromagnetic energy, which includes a choice of whether to use an omnidirectional antenna or a particular directional antenna for each frame that is transmitted and for receipt of acknowledgments.).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art, at the time of filing or before the effective filing date of the claimed invention, to modify Kim to include a communication configured to transmit and receive an electromagnetic signal so that the estimated signal strength information for each infrastructure radio transceiver antenna could be used to populate coverage maps. Furthermore a node location module would then compute the estimated location of the wireless node based on the selected RF coverage maps and the signal strength data reported by the selected infrastructure radio transceivers. Such modification would enhance the accuracy of wireless node location in an RF environment, as sectorization provided by the antenna computationally eliminates, or reduces the effect of, regions outside the beamwidth and/or behind the intended coverage area of the selected antenna.
As per claim 4, Kim and Tsai in combination would teach wherein a received signal strength of an antenna unit of N antenna units is represented by a power of an electromagnetic signal received by the antenna unit (see col.2, lines 35-40 for…., The wireless AP device may further leverage framework-level data and cloud server computing to determine the best direction at which to transmit and/or receive electromagnetic energy, which includes a choice of whether to use an omnidirectional antenna or a particular directional antenna for each frame that is transmitted and for receipt of acknowledgments and col.6,lines 65-67 for…the first antenna 148A may radiate electromagnetic energy in a first direction, the second directional antenna 148B may radiate electromagnetic energy in a second direction, the third directional antenna 148C may radiate electromagnetic energy in a third direction, and a fourth directional antenna 148D may radiate electromagnetic energy in a fourth direction) so that the estimated signal strength information for each infrastructure radio transceiver antenna could be used to populate coverage maps. Furthermore a node location module would then compute the estimated location of the wireless node based on the selected RF coverage maps and the signal strength data reported by the selected infrastructure radio transceivers. Such modification would enhance the accuracy of wireless node location in an RF environment, as sectorization provided by the antenna computationally eliminates, or reduces the effect of, regions outside the beamwidth and/or behind the intended coverage area of the selected antenna.
As per claim 5, Kim and Tsai in combination would teach wherein the information for indicating the M target antenna units comprises identifiers of the M target antenna units (see Tsai and col.17, lines 7-11 for…. an identifier of a transmit antenna and/or receive antenna that have best signal reception from that location (1020). The identifier of each transmit antenna and receive antenna may identify one of the first directional antenna, the second directional antenna, or the omnidirectional antenna and col.15, lines 10-12 for… The antennas of the antenna matrix can be logically represented by identifiers in the arbitration table 117) so that the estimated signal strength information for each infrastructure radio transceiver antenna could be used to populate coverage maps. Furthermore a node location module would then compute the estimated location of the wireless node based on the selected RF coverage maps and the signal strength data reported by the selected infrastructure radio transceivers. Such modification would enhance the accuracy of wireless node location in an RF environment, as sectorization provided by the antenna computationally eliminates, or reduces the effect of, regions outside the beamwidth and/or behind the intended coverage area of the selected antenna.
As per claim 13, Kim teaches a communication method, wherein the method is performed by a communication apparatus, the communication apparatus (see fig.7) comprises: an antenna module (see fig.7 element 30), comprising N antenna units configured to transmit and receive a signal, wherein N is a positive integer greater than 1 (see fig.7 elements ANT1-ANTN and abstract for….. link antenna module through the link antenna path setting module and processes transmission and reception relay signals between the link antenna module and para [0044] for….. The link antenna module 30 may have a plurality of fixed antennas ANT1, ANT2, . . . , ANTN); the method comprises: detecting received signal strengths of respective antenna units among the N antenna units (see fig.7 elements 406 and para [0068] for….The pilot signal detector 406 detects the strength of a pilot signal from each BTS from among the received signals of the antennas); and select M target antenna units with to M strongest received signal strengths from the N antenna units based on the received signal strengths of the respective antenna units among the N antenna units, wherein M is a positive integer less than N (see fig.7 element 233 and para [0069] for…the antenna selection controller 233 stores and updates information about a signal received at each link antenna for each location of the moving object, received from the pilot signal detector 406. To select an appropriate antenna for a corresponding location based on the corresponding information and the stored information, the antenna selection controller 233 has an antenna selection scheduler 2332 for performing a corresponding function and para [0083] for…The antenna selection controller 233 receives the outputs of the pilot signal detectors 406-1 to 406-M, detects the received signal of each antenna for each service provider, and provides control signals CS1, CS3 and CS4 to the per-service provider systems in order to select an appropriate antenna for each service provider.); transmitting a second signal through the M target antenna units (see fig.7 element 3222 or 702-2 or 402-2 or ANT2 and para [0016] for…. and processes transmission and reception relay signals between the link antenna module and the service antenna module and para [0055] for… the second antenna ANT2 can be selected if the signal received from the serving BTS at the second antenna is best under the current propagation environment according to the received signal detection information and page 8, lines 1-2 for… a signal transmitted through the corresponding antenna.).
However Kim does not teach antenna units configured to transmit an electromagnetic signal.
Tsai et al teaches a communication configured to transmit and receive an electromagnetic signal (see col.2, lines 35-40 for…., The wireless AP device may further leverage framework-level data and cloud server computing to determine the best direction at which to transmit and/or receive electromagnetic energy, which includes a choice of whether to use an omnidirectional antenna or a particular directional antenna for each frame that is transmitted and for receipt of acknowledgments.).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art, at the time of filing or before the effective filing date of the claimed invention, to modify Kim to include a communication configured to transmit and receive an electromagnetic signal so that the estimated signal strength information for each infrastructure radio transceiver antenna could be used to populate coverage maps. Furthermore a node location module would then compute the estimated location of the wireless node based on the selected RF coverage maps and the signal strength data reported by the selected infrastructure radio transceivers. Such modification would enhance the accuracy of wireless node location in an RF environment, as sectorization provided by the antenna computationally eliminates, or reduces the effect of, regions outside the beamwidth and/or behind the intended coverage area of the selected antenna.
As per claim 14, Kim and Tsai in combination would teach wherein the method further comprises: receiving a first signal through the M target antenna units (fig.7 element CPL1-CPLN); analyzing the first signal to acquire information carried by the first signal (see Kim fig.7 element 233 para [0036] for… the antenna control module for analyzing the received information and the propagation environment and outputting a control signal for adjusting the steering direction of the direction antenna 202 of the link antenna module 20 according to the present invention) so that the estimated signal strength information for each infrastructure radio transceiver antenna could be used to populate coverage maps. Furthermore a node location module would then compute the estimated location of the wireless node based on the selected RF coverage maps and the signal strength data reported by the selected infrastructure radio transceivers. Such modification would enhance the accuracy of wireless node location in an RF environment, as sectorization provided by the antenna computationally eliminates, or reduces the effect of, regions outside the beamwidth and/or behind the intended coverage area of the selected antenna.
As per claim 15, Kim and Tsai in combination would teach wherein information carried by the second signal is used to respond to the information carried by the first signal (see Kim abstract for…. a movement information module measures current movement information about the moving object and provides the current movement information, a received signal measuring module measures a received signal of the link antenna module and providing current propagation environment information, and an antenna control module detects a current movement state and a current propagation environment based on the information received from the received signal measuring module and the movement information module, stores and/or updates the information in an internal propagation environment information storage) so that the estimated signal strength information for each infrastructure radio transceiver antenna could be used to populate coverage maps. Furthermore a node location module would then compute the estimated location of the wireless node based on the selected RF coverage maps and the signal strength data reported by the selected infrastructure radio transceivers. Such modification would enhance the accuracy of wireless node location in an RF environment, as sectorization provided by the antenna computationally eliminates, or reduces the effect of, regions outside the beamwidth and/or behind the intended coverage area of the selected antenna.
As per claim 22, Kim and Tsai in combination would teach an electronic device comprising the communication apparatus (see Kim fig.1 element 110 and abstract for…. for wirelessly communicating with Mobile Stations (MSs) within the moving object and para [0006] for… Referring to FIG. 1, when an MS 110 moves out of the serving cell area 130 of a serving BTS 120 and enters into another area and Yamazaki para [0273] for…. in the case where radio waves are transmitted and received by an electromagnetic coupling method, when an alternating current (AC) flows in the power feeding device antenna), so as to transmit the second signal through the M target antenna units so that the estimated signal strength information for each infrastructure radio transceiver antenna could be used to populate coverage maps. Furthermore a node location module would then compute the estimated location of the wireless node based on the selected RF coverage maps and the signal strength data reported by the selected infrastructure radio transceivers. Such modification would enhance the accuracy of wireless node location in an RF environment, as sectorization provided by the antenna computationally eliminates, or reduces the effect of, regions outside the beamwidth and/or behind the intended coverage area of the selected antenna..
As per claim 23, Kim and Tsai in combination would teach communication system, wherein the communication system comprises at least one receiving end and at least one transmitting end, wherein at least one of a receiving end of the at least one receiving end or transmitting end of the at least transmitting end comprises the communication (see Kim abstract for….a relay signal processing module is connected to the link antenna module through the link antenna path setting module and processes transmission and reception relay signals between the link antenna module and the service antenna module) so as to transmit the second signal through the M target antenna units so that the estimated signal strength information for each infrastructure radio transceiver antenna could be used to populate coverage maps. Furthermore a node location module would then compute the estimated location of the wireless node based on the selected RF coverage maps and the signal strength data reported by the selected infrastructure radio transceivers. Such modification would enhance the accuracy of wireless node location in an RF environment, as sectorization provided by the antenna computationally eliminates, or reduces the effect of, regions outside the beamwidth and/or behind the intended coverage area of the selected antenna.
----- Claim(s) 2 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Kim et al (US 20100297937 A1) in view of Tsai et al (US 10855351 B1) and in further view of HARIDAS et al (US 20190372199 A1).
As per claim 2, Kim and Tsai in combination do not explicitly teach wherein the antenna module comprises a first array and a second array; the N antenna units are arranged in the first array, and the second array comprises K transmission units for changing a physical state of an electromagnetic signal, K is a positive integer greater than 1, and the physical state of the electromagnetic signal includes one or more of: an amplitude, a phase, or a polarization direction.
HARIDAS et al teaches wherein the antenna module comprises a first array and a second array; the N antenna units are arranged in the first array (see para [0111] for….. Alternatively, it may be that the antenna modules are not identical to each other. For example, the array may comprise a plurality of sub-arrays of antenna modules, wherein the antenna modules of different sub-arrays differ from each other.), and the second array comprises K transmission units for changing a physical state of an electromagnetic signal, K is a positive integer greater than 1, and the physical state of the electromagnetic signal includes one or more of: an amplitude, a phase, or a polarization direction (see para [0174] for…. signal processing circuitry (e.g. transmitter, receiver or transceiver circuitry) configured to process signals received and/or to be transmitted by the said antennas; and the signal processing circuitry comprising one or more MEMS phase shifters or attenuators, the MEMS phase shifter or attenuators comprising MEMS switches, and configured to individually adjust the amplitudes of electromagnetic signals received and/or to be transmitted by each of the antennas of the array).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art, at the time of filing or before the effective filing date of the claimed invention, to modify Kim and Tsai to include antenna module comprises a first array and a second array so that the estimated signal strength information for each infrastructure radio transceiver antenna could be used to populate coverage maps. Furthermore a node location module would then compute the estimated location of the wireless node based on the selected RF coverage maps and the signal strength data reported by the selected infrastructure radio transceivers. Such modification would enhance the accuracy of wireless node location in an RF environment, as sectorization provided by the antenna computationally eliminates, or reduces the effect of, regions outside the beamwidth and/or behind the intended coverage area of the selected antenna.
----- Claim(s) 6 and 9 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Kim et al (US 20100297937 A1) in view of Tsai et al (US 10855351 B1) and in further view of Lan et al (US 20190356349 A1).
As per claim 6, Kim and Tsai in combination do not explicitly teach a signal processing module, wherein the signal processing module is coupled to the signal switching module; the signal switching module is further configured to: acquire a first signal received by the M target antenna units; and output the first signal to the signal processing module; the signal processing module is configured to: analyze the first signal to acquire information carried by the first signal.
Lan et al teaches a signal processing module, wherein the signal processing module (see fig.2a element 1180) is coupled to the signal switching module (see figs.2a- 2b element 1110); the signal switching module (see fig.2b element 1110 and para [0117] for… including a first antenna, a second antenna, a radio frequency switching circuit, a processor) is further configured to: acquire a first signal received by the M target antenna units (see fig.2a elements 1170 and para [0150] for….. The RF circuit 1110 is electrically connected to the at least two antennas 1170 in FIG. 2a. Specifically, the switching switch of the RF circuit 1110 is configured to switch a connection to the antenna (Antenna) 1 or the antenna 2 according to an indication.); and output the first signal to the signal processing module (see para [0150] for… antenna 1170 into an electrical signal, and sends the electrical signal to the processor 1180 for processing) ; the signal processing module is configured to: analyze the first signal to acquire information carried by the first signal (see para [0080-0081] for…. the processor is further configured to: determine a length of the second time period according to the radio-frequency radiation energy generated at the first antenna in the first time period and para [0154] for…. the processor 1180 performs various function applications of the wireless communications device and data processing).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art, at the time of filing or before the effective filing date of the claimed invention, to modify Kim and Tsai to include a signal processing module, wherein the signal processing module is coupled to the signal switching module so that the estimated signal strength information for each infrastructure radio transceiver antenna could be used to populate coverage maps. Furthermore a node location module would then compute the estimated location of the wireless node based on the selected RF coverage maps and the signal strength data reported by the selected infrastructure radio transceivers. Such modification would enhance the accuracy of wireless node location in an RF environment, as sectorization provided by the antenna computationally eliminates, or reduces the effect of, regions outside the beamwidth and/or behind the intended coverage area of the selected antenna.
As per claim 9, Kim and Tsai in combination do not explicitly teach a signal processing module, wherein the communication apparatus further comprises an energy management module, and the energy management module is configured to supply power to the communication apparatus.
Lan et al teaches a signal processing module, wherein the communication apparatus further comprises an energy management module, and the energy management module is configured to supply power to the communication apparatus (see fig.2a element 1190 and para [0160] for…. includes the power supply 1190 (such as a battery) that supplies power to all the components. Preferably, the power supply may be logically connected to the processor 1180 by using a power management system, so as to implement functions such as charging and discharging management and power consumption management by using the power management system.).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art, at the time of filing or before the effective filing date of the claimed invention, to modify Kim and Tsai to include energy management module so that the estimated signal strength information for each infrastructure radio transceiver antenna could be used to populate coverage maps. Furthermore a node location module would then compute the estimated location of the wireless node based on the selected RF coverage maps and the signal strength data reported by the selected infrastructure radio transceivers. Such modification would enhance the accuracy of wireless node location in an RF environment, as sectorization provided by the antenna computationally eliminates, or reduces the effect of, regions outside the beamwidth and/or behind the intended coverage area of the selected antenna.
-----Claim(s) 17-19 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Kim et al (US 20100297937 A1) in view of Yamazaki et al (US-20110199028 A1).
As per claim 17, Kim et al teaches a communication method, wherein the method is performed by a communication apparatus, the communication apparatus comprises N antenna units configured to transmit a signal, N is a positive integer greater than 1 (see fig.7 elements ANT1-ANTN and abstract for….. link antenna module through the link antenna path setting module and processes transmission and reception relay signals between the link antenna module and para [0044] for….. The link antenna module 30 may have a plurality of fixed antennas ANT1, ANT2, . . . , ANTN); the method comprises: detecting received signal strengths of respective antenna units among the N antenna units; selecting M target antenna units with top M strongest received signal strengths from the N antenna units based on the received signal strengths of the respective antenna units among the N antenna units; wherein M is a positive integer less than N(see fig.7 element 233 and para [0069] for…the antenna selection controller 233 stores and updates information about a signal received at each link antenna for each location of the moving object, received from the pilot signal detector 406. To select an appropriate antenna for a corresponding location based on the corresponding information and the stored information, the antenna selection controller 233 has an antenna selection scheduler 2332 for performing a corresponding function and para [0083] for…The antenna selection controller 233 receives the outputs of the pilot signal detectors 406-1 to 406-M, detects the received signal of each antenna for each service provider, and provides control signals CS1, CS3 and CS4 to the per-service provider systems in order to select an appropriate antenna for each service provider.); receiving a signal through the M target antenna units (see para [0083] for…a signal received at each antenna, the repeater according to the fourth embodiment of the present invention is also configured so that the couplers 402-1 to 402-N provide coupling signals CPL1 to CPLN of signals received at the plurality of antennas ANT1 to ANTN to the second switch 404 and the second switch 404 outputs one of the received signals CPL1 to CPLN according to a control signal CS2 received from the antenna selection controller 233).
However Kim does not teach transmit an electromagnetic signal and converting the third signal into electrical energy and storing the electrical energy.
Yamazaki et al teaches transmit an electromagnetic signal (see and para [0257] for…. In the case where a signal is transmitted and received by an electromagnetic induction method and para [0273] for…..in the case where radio waves are transmitted and received by an electromagnetic coupling method, when an alternating current (AC) flows in the power feeding device antenna 303, a magnetic field is generated) and converting a signal into electrical energy and storing the electrical energy (para [0072] for….. receives the charging radio waves in the moving object antenna circuit 102, converts them into an electric signal, and then transmits the electric signal to the signal processing circuit 103. Then, the electric signal is transmitted from the signal processing circuit 103 to the secondary battery 104 in which the electric signal is stored as electric energy).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art, at the time of filing or before the effective filing date of the claimed invention, to modify Kim to include converting the third signal into electrical energy and storing the electrical energy so that the estimated signal strength information for each infrastructure radio transceiver antenna could be used to populate coverage maps. Furthermore a node location module would then compute the estimated location of the wireless node based on the selected RF coverage maps and the signal strength data reported by the selected infrastructure radio transceivers. Such modification would enhance the accuracy of wireless node location in an RF environment, as sectorization provided by the antenna computationally eliminates, or reduces the effect of, regions outside the beamwidth and/or behind the intended coverage area of the selected antenna.
As per claim 18, Kim and Yamazaki in combination would teach wherein the method further comprises: receiving a first signal through the M target antenna units (see Kim para [0016] for….. a received signal measuring module measures a received signal of the link antenna module and provides current propagation environment information, and an antenna control module has an antenna selection controller for detecting a current movement state); analyzing the first signal to acquire information carried by the first signal (see Kim para [0036] for…. a movement information module 25 for acquiring movement information including the current location, traveling direction, and speed of the moving object and providing the movement information to an antenna control module 23 and the antenna control module for analyzing the received information) so that the estimated signal strength information for each infrastructure radio transceiver antenna could be used to populate coverage maps. Furthermore a node location module would then compute the estimated location of the wireless node based on the selected RF coverage maps and the signal strength data reported by the selected infrastructure radio transceivers. Such modification would enhance the accuracy of wireless node location in an RF environment, as sectorization provided by the antenna computationally eliminates, or reduces the effect of, regions outside the beamwidth and/or behind the intended coverage area of the selected antenna.
As per claim 19, Kim and Yamazaki in combination would teach wherein the information carried by the first signal comprises indication information for transmitting a second signal through the M target antenna units, wherein information carried by the second signal is used to respond to the information carried by the first signal (see Kim abstract for…. a movement information module measures current movement information about the moving object and provides the current movement information, a received signal measuring module measures a received signal of the link antenna module and providing current propagation environment information, and an antenna control module detects a current movement state and a current propagation environment based on the information received from the received signal measuring module and the movement information module, stores and/or updates the information in an internal propagation environment information storage) so that the estimated signal strength information for each infrastructure radio transceiver antenna could be used to populate coverage maps. Furthermore a node location module would then compute the estimated location of the wireless node based on the selected RF coverage maps and the signal strength data reported by the selected infrastructure radio transceivers. Such modification would enhance the accuracy of wireless node location in an RF environment, as sectorization provided by the antenna computationally eliminates, or reduces the effect of, regions outside the beamwidth and/or behind the intended coverage area of the selected antenna.
Allowable Subject Matter
Claims 3, 7-8 are objected to as being dependent upon a rejected base claim, but would be allowable if rewritten in independent form including all of the limitations of the base claim and any intervening claims.
Claims 10-12 would be allowable if rewritten to overcome the rejection(s) under 35 U.S.C. 112(b) or 35 U.S.C. 112 (pre-AIA ), 2nd paragraph, set forth in this Office action and to include all of the limitations of the base claim and any intervening claims.
The following is a statement of reasons for the indication of allowable subject matter: L and P are both positive integers greater than 1; each antenna element of the P antenna elements is coupled to a feed port through a delay line, and is configured to change a physical state of an electromagnetic signal received from the feed port, and the physical state of the electromagnetic signal includes one or more of: an amplitude, a phase, or a polarization direction; wherein the first function device, the second function device and the third function device are sequentially spaced in a first direction, and the second function device is located between the first function device and the third function device, as recited in claim 3. Wherein the signal processing module is further coupled to the signal comparison module, and the signal processing module is further configured to: receive the information output by the signal comparison module for indicating the M target antenna units; generate a second signal based on the information for indicating the M target antenna units; and output the second signal to the signal switching module; the signal switching module is further configured to: output the second signal to the M target antenna units, so as to transmit the second signal through the M target antenna units, as recited in claim 7.
Conclusion
The prior art made of record and not relied upon is considered pertinent to applicant's disclosure.
US 20150038079 A1 or US 20120087431 A1 or US 20120064841 A1 or US-20110199028-A1.
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to EMMANUEL BAYARD whose telephone number is (571)272-3016. The examiner can normally be reached 6-9.
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/EMMANUEL BAYARD/ Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2633
Prosecution Insights