Detailed Action
Status of Claims
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 1-3 are presented for examination.
Claims 1-3 are rejected.
This Action is Non-Final.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 101
35 U.S.C. 101 reads as follows:
Whoever invents or discovers any new and useful process, machine, manufacture, or composition of matter, or any new and useful improvement thereof, may obtain a patent therefor, subject to the conditions and requirements of this title.
Claims 1-3 rejected under 35 U.S.C. 101 because the claimed invention is directed to a judicial exception (i.e., a law of nature, a natural phenomenon, or an abstract idea) without significantly more. The claims do not include additional elements that are sufficient to amount to significantly more than the judicial exception when considered individually and in combination because the additional elements, which are recited at a high level of generality, provide conventional functions that do not add meaningful limits to practicing the abstract idea.
6. Claim 1 recites, in part, a method for real-time processing in a distributed fiber optic sensor (DFOS) system, the method comprising “initializing an analog-to-digital converter (ADC) card to interface with the DFOS system such that it is ready to capture IQ data across designated channels,
configuring memory buffers for "ping pong" operation,
capturing real time IQ data from the DFOS system and sending the captured data to a first memory buffer,
establishing, by a graphics processing unit (GPU), computational kernels and streams necessary for processing the IQ data,
processing, by the GPU using parallel computation, the IQ data in the first memory buffer when that buffer is full, while a second buffer simultaneously begins to store newly collected IQ data,
automatically switching, as the GPU processes the IQ data in the first memory buffer, processing the newly collected IQ data in the second buffer such that a seamless data flow is realized and the processed data is transferred to one of dual pinned output buffers,
transferring, by the GPU to output buffers for further analysis, visualization, or immediate use, processed data in the first memory buffer.”. These limitations describe the concept of execution environment in which, as previously noted distributed acoustic sensing (DAS) systems have traditionally implemented a two-level distributed hierarchy: the Interrogator plus an edge computer. The Interrogator, containing a field programmable gate array (FPGA) processing unit, is tasked with handling data acquisition and preliminary digital signal processing. The resulting data is then transmitted to a higher-level computer for further analysis, including detection, pattern classification, and localization (Emphasis added, Paragraph 0031 of the Specification), which corresponds to the concepts identified as abstract ideas by the courts, such as remotely accessing and retrieving user specified information (Int. Ventures v. Erie Ind. (delivering user selected content from Aff. Labs v. Amazon.com is also considered). The abstract idea described in claim 1 is not meaningfully different than those abstract ideas found by the courts, therefore the claim is considered to be directed to an abstract idea.
7. The claim does not include additional elements that are sufficient to amount to significantly more than the judicial exception because the additional elements, when considered both individually and as an ordered combination, do not amount to significantly more than the abstract idea. The claim recites the additional elements of “initializing,…, configuring ,…,capturing real time…,establishing,…, processing,….,automatically switching,…,and transferring,…”. Looking at the limitations as an ordered combination ads nothing that is not already present when looking at the elements taken individually. There is no indication that the combination of elements improves the functioning of a computer or improves another technology. Their collective functions merely provide conventional computer implementations and functions.
8. Dependent claims 2-3 are drawn to the method, further comprising operating continuously with the two buffers swapping roles after each cycle to maintain an uninterrupted data processing pipeline. Also, the method, further comprising monitoring, by the DFOS system, processing efficiency and adapting computational load as necessary to maintain a pre-determined performance level and real-time operation.
9. Independent claim 1 is therefore not drawn to eligible subject matter as they are directed to an abstract idea without significantly more.
Any comments considered necessary by applicant must be submitted no later than the payment of the issue fee and, to avoid processing delays, should preferably accompany the issue fee. Such submissions should be clearly labeled “Comments on Statement of Reasons for Allowance.”
Conclusion
RELEVANT ART CITED BY THE EXAMINER
The following prior art made of record and not relied upon is cited to establish the level of skill in the applicant’s art and those arts considered reasonably pertinent to applicant’s disclosure. See MPEP 707.05(c).
References Considered Pertinent but not relied upon
SINGH et al. (US Patent Application Pub. No: 20240007917 A1) teaches a wireless communication device including a memory configured to store instructions; a processor coupled to the memory configured to execute the instructions stored on the memory, wherein the instructions are configured to receive a request message to update a radio access network (RAN) quantization scheme; determine an updated quantization scheme based on properties of a RAN; determine if the updated quantization scheme satisfies a RAN performance criterion; and generate a message including instructions for the updated quantization scheme.
WANG et al. (US Patent Application Pub. No: 20210266065 A1) teaches aspects of the present disclosure describe optical fiber sensing systems, methods and structures disclosing a distributed optical fiber sensor network constructed on a switched optical fiber telecommunications infrastructure to detect temperatures, acoustic effects, and vehicle traffic—among others—demonstrated with a number of different network topologies.
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to whose telephone number is 571-270-7106. The examiner can normally be reached on 8:00AM-5:00PMSDT.If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner’s supervisor, IDRISS ALROBAYE can be reached on 571-270-1023. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300.Information regarding the status of an application may be obtained from the Patent Application Information Retrieval (PAIR) system. Status information for published applications may be obtained from either Private PAIR or Public PAIR. Status information for unpublished applications is available through Private PAIR only. For more information about the PAIR system, see http://pair-direct.uspto.gov. Should you have questions on access to the Private PAIR system, contact the Electronic Business Center (EBC) at 866-217-9197 (toll-free). If you would like assistance from a USPTO Customer Service Representative or access to the automated information system, call 800-786-9199 (IN USA OR CANADA) or 571-272-1000.
/GETENTE A YIMER/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2181
Prosecution Insights