Patent Application 18536474 - ULTRA-WIDEBAND-ENABLED DEVICES AND SYSTEMS FOR - Rejection

Patent Application 18536474 - ULTRA-WIDEBAND-ENABLED DEVICES AND SYSTEMS FOR

Title: ULTRA-WIDEBAND-ENABLED DEVICES AND SYSTEMS FOR FACILITATING ACCESS CONTROL

Application Information

• Invention Title: ULTRA-WIDEBAND-ENABLED DEVICES AND SYSTEMS FOR FACILITATING ACCESS CONTROL
• Application Number: 18536474
• Submission Date: 2025-05-14T00:00:00.000Z
• Effective Filing Date: 2023-12-12T00:00:00.000Z
• Filing Date: 2023-12-12T00:00:00.000Z
• National Class: 340
• National Sub-Class: 005610
• Examiner Employee Number: 87166
• Art Unit: 2686
• Tech Center: 2600

Rejection Summary

• 102 Rejections: 1
• 103 Rejections: 3

Cited Patents

The following patents were cited in the rejection:

• US 0383624🔗
• US 0349653🔗
• US 0115950🔗
• US 0335759🔗

Office Action Text

    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 .

Allowable Subject Matter
Claim 17 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.

The following is a statement of reasons for the indication of allowable subject matter:  In regards to dependent claim 17, Kadi in view of Hoyer and Karaoguz teaches all of limitations of independent claim 12 as taught below. Neither, Kadi, Hoyer, Karaoguz nor any other prior art of record as a whole teaches wherein the access control system includes a first zone, a second zone, a third zone, and a fourth zone arranged in sequence, wherein the first, second, third zones are on one side of the gate, and the fourth zone is on another side of the gate, and wherein the sending the communication configuration occurs in the first zone, the sending the access token occurs in the second zone, and the receiving the access token occurs in the third zone.


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.


Claim(s) 1, 5 and 8 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(1) as being anticipated by Al-Kadi et al (US 2018/0349653; hereinafter Kadi). 
	
	Per claim 1, Kadi teaches a method for operating an ultra-wideband (UWB) device (abstract teaches facilitating a transaction between devices using UWB protocol), comprising: detecting the UWB device entering an access-controlled area, wherein the access-controlled area includes a gate configured to perform a UWB communication (0032, 0037 and Fig. 6 teaches detecting a user holding a UWB device entering an access control area, wherein the access control area has gates that gives access to the user once authenticated using UWB protocol); retrieving an access token from an application server of the access-controlled area through a wireless communication other than the UWB communication prior to the UWB device entering a predetermined range of the gate (Fig. 6 and paragraph 0027 and 0036-0037 teaches access control device having plurality of different zones. Once a user enters one of the earlier zones, the mobile device can communicate with a reader/server to purchase a ticket/access token using near field communication. 0027 teaches the mobile device is capable of communicating using plurality of different protocols other than UWB communication); and transmitting the access token to the gate through the UWB communication after the UWB device entering the predetermined range of the gate (0038 teaches once the user enters zone B, then the reader authenticates the mobile device/user using the purchased ticket/access token. The communication being done in UWB protocol). 

	Per claim 5, Kadi teaches wherein the access-controlled area is a transport station (paragraph 0002 and 0047).  

	Per claim 8, Kadi teaches wherein the retrieving the access token includes authenticating the UWB device and finalizing a financial transaction through the wireless communication other than the UWB communication (0026-0027 and 0036 teaches communication between mobile device and server to purchase/retrieve a ticket/access token using NFC or other protocols not including UWB).  

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.

The factual inquiries for establishing a background for determining obviousness under 35 U.S.C. 103 are summarized as follows:
1. Determining the scope and contents of the prior art.
2. Ascertaining the differences between the prior art and the claims at issue.
3. Resolving the level of ordinary skill in the pertinent art.
4. Considering objective evidence present in the application indicating obviousness or nonobviousness.
Claims 3, 4, 6, 7, 9-11 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being obvious over Al-Kadi et al (US 2018/0349653; hereinafter Kadi) in view of Hoyer et al (US 2021/0383624). 
Per claim 3, Kadi in paragraph 0030 teaches determining position/location of the user/mobile devices uses known methods such as time-of-flight, triangulation or other methods. But, Kadi does not explicitly teach wherein the detecting the UWB device entering the access-controlled area is through a Global Positioning System (GPS) module of the UWB device.  
In an analogous art, Hoyer teaches system/method for access control for a user/mobile device through a gate (abstract). Hoyer further teaches wherein the detecting the UWB device entering the access-controlled area is through a Global Positioning System (GPS) module of the UWB device (0070 teaches the wearable device 104 having a GPS module that the reader/server can determine location of the device prior to gaining access. 0053 teaches wearable device is UWB communication capability). Therefore, before the effective filling date of the invention, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art for Kadi to use the known GPS method of Hoyer. The rationale would be that using GPS for locating a device is beneficial that it offers precise location calculations.  

	Per claim 4, Hoyer teaches wherein the detecting the UWB device entering the access-controlled area is through receiving a beacon signal from the access-controlled area (0070 teaches mobile device entering a controlled zone is through a beacon signal).  
	
	Per claim 6, Hoyer teaches monitoring location of the UWB device in the access-controlled area by communicating with a plurality of anchor devices located in the access-controlled area, wherein the transmitting the access token is triggered by the monitored location being within the predetermined range of the gate (Fig. 6 teaches having plurality of readers/anchors 112a-c and communicating with the mobile device once in reading range. Paragraph 0115 teaches transmitting the token once in reader read range).  

	Per claim 7, Hoyer teaches wherein the plurality of anchor devices are UWB anchor devices (Fig. 4 and paragraph 0093 teaches the readers are UWB capable).  
	
	Per claim 9 and 11, Kadi in view of Hoyer doesn’t explicitly teach wherein the transmitting the access token is through transmitting a One Way Ranging (OWR)/Two Way Ranging message carrying the access token.  
	However, in the art of tracking using GPS, one-way ranging and Two Way Ranging is well-known in order to determine travel time of a transmitted signal. Hoyer in paragraph 0055 teaches one-way or mutual (two-way) transmission of token for authentication and paragraph 0041 teaches using angle of arrival to determine distance/position. Therefore, examiner will take Official Notice, that before the effective filling date of the invention, it would have been obvious for one of ordinary skill in the art for Kadi and Hoyer to use the well-known method of OWR or TWR to transmit the token. The rationale would be the OWR is beneficial that not only it transmit the token one way but can also help in determining of the distance/position based on the angle of arrival. 

	Per claim 10, Hoyer teaches wherein the gate is configured to: detect an angle of arrival (AoA) of the OWR message (see rejection of claim 9 and paragraph 0041 that teaches angle of arrival), and validate or ignore the access token based on the detected AoA (0056 teaches validation of the token by the reader at the access control).  

Claims 2, 12, 18-20 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being obvious over Al-Kadi et al (US 2018/0349653; hereinafter Kadi) in view of Karaoguz et al (US 2007/0115950). 

Per claim 2, Kadi does not explicitly teach retrieving a communication configuration from the application server of the access-controlled area, wherein the communication configuration includes parameters for configuring the UWB communication and the wireless communication other than the UWB communication, respectively.  
However, in an analogous art, Karaoguz teaches wireless access point configuration between wireless devices having Bluetooth and UWB protocols (abstract and 0081). Karaoguz further teaches retrieving a communication configuration from the application server of the access-controlled area, wherein the communication configuration includes parameters for configuring the UWB communication and the wireless communication other than the UWB communication, respectively (0031 teaches communication between wireless mobile devices and access points and both devices capable of wirelessly communicating using UWB protocol or other known communication protocol such as RF, cellular, Bluetooth, etc. Paragraph 0036, 0026, and abstract teaches retrieving a communication configuration from server, local, non-local source and the communication configuration includes parameters for configuring the mobile/wireless device with specific communication protocol whether its UWB, Bluetooth, radio, cellular etc.). Therefore, before the effective filling date of the invention, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art for Kadi to use the communication configuration of Karaoguz to configure the mobile device in order to be able to communicate with anchors at each zone. The rationale would be that it’s efficient to send/receive the communication configuration to the mobile device so the device knows on which protocol to communicate in order to make it time efficient and less time consuming.   

	Per claim 12, Kadi teaches a method for operating an access control system having a gate configured to perform an ultra-wideband (UWB) communication (Fig. 6 and abstract teaches facilitating a transaction between devices using UWB protocol wherein a reader at the gate/door gives a user/mobile devices access through the barrier), comprising: 
acquiring information of arrival of a UWB device; 
[sending communication configuration to the UWB device, wherein the communication configuration includes parameters for configuring the UWB communication and a wireless communication other than the UWB communication]; 
sending an access token to the UWB device through the wireless communication other than the UWB communication (Fig. 6 and paragraph 0027 and 0036-0037 teaches access control device having plurality of different zones. Once a user enters one of the earlier zones, the mobile device can communicate with a reader/server to purchase a ticket/access token using near field communication. 0027 teaches the mobile device is capable of communicating using plurality of different protocols other than UWB communication; 
receiving by the gate the access token transmitted by the UWB device through the UWB communication (0038 teaches once the user enters zone B, then the reader authenticates the mobile device/user using the purchased ticket/access token. The communication being done in UWB protocol); 
validating by the gate the access token; and opening the gate to pass through the UWB device (Fig. 6, paragraph 0036, 0011 teaches validation at the reader by the gate and if validation is successful, then gate will be opened).  
	But, Kadi does not explicitly teach sending communication configuration to the UWB device, wherein the communication configuration includes parameters for configuring the UWB communication and a wireless communication other than the UWB communication. 
However, in an analogous art, Karaoguz teaches wireless access point configuration between wireless devices having Bluetooth and UWB protocols (abstract and 0081). Karaoguz further teaches sending communication configuration to the UWB device, wherein the communication configuration includes parameters for configuring the UWB communication and a wireless communication other than the UWB communication (0031 teaches communication between wireless mobile devices and access points and both devices capable of wirelessly communicating using UWB protocol or other known communication protocol such as RF, cellular, Bluetooth, etc. Paragraph 0036, 0026, and abstract teaches retrieving a communication configuration from server, local, non-local source and the communication configuration includes parameters for configuring the mobile/wireless device with specific communication protocol whether its UWB, Bluetooth, radio, cellular etc.). Therefore, before the effective filling date of the invention, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art for Kadi to use the communication configuration of Karaoguz to configure the mobile device in order to be able to communicate with anchors at each zone. The rationale would be that it’s efficient to send/receive the communication configuration to the mobile device so the device knows on which protocol to communicate in order to make it time efficient and less time consuming.   

Per claim 18, Kadi teaches an ultra-wideband (UWB) device (abstract teaches facilitating a transaction between devices using UWB protocol), comprising: 
a transceiver operable to perform a UWB communication and a wireless communication other than the UWB communication (paragraph 0030, 0027 and 0038 teaches UWB communication wherein the mobile device (UWB) and reader bi-directionally communicates to each other and the communication can be any known communication protocol such a radio, Bluetooth, cellular, etc.); 
a memory for storing program instructions, a configuration of an access-controlled area, and an access token to access a gate of the access-controlled area; and a processor coupled to the transceiver and to the memory, wherein the processor is operable to execute the program instructions, which, when executed by the processor (0028, 0049-0051 memory for storing program instruction and processor coupled to, transmitter, receiver, etc.), cause the UWB device to perform the following to facilitate hands-free fare validation when a user carrying the UWB device enters the access-controlled area (Fig. 6 and paragraph 0038-0041): 
[receive the configuration of the access-controlled area], 
receive the access token from an application server of the access-controlled area through the wireless communication other than the UWB communication (Fig. 6 and paragraph 0027 and 0036-0037 teaches access control device having plurality of different zones. Once a user enters one of the earlier zones, the mobile device can communicate with a reader/server to purchase a ticket/access token using near field communication. 0027 teaches the mobile device is capable of communicating using plurality of different protocols other than UWB communication), and 
based on a location tracked by a plurality of anchor devices in the access-controlled area, transmit the access token to the gate of the access-controlled area through the UWB communication (0026-0030, abstract, Fig. 6, teaches tracking location by plurality of readers within an access controlled area. 0038 teaches once the user enters zone B, then the reader authenticates the mobile device/user using the purchased ticket/access token. The communication being done in UWB protocol), [wherein parameters of the UWB communication are configured by the received configuration of the access-controlled area]. 
	But, Kadi does not explicitly teach receive the configuration of the access-controlled area and wherein parameters of the UWB communication are configured by the received configuration of the access-controlled area. 

However, in an analogous art, Karaoguz teaches wireless access point configuration between wireless devices having Bluetooth and UWB protocols (abstract and 0081). Karaoguz further teaches receive the configuration of the access-controlled area and wherein parameters of the UWB communication are configured by the received configuration of the access-controlled area (0031 teaches communication between wireless mobile devices and access points and both devices capable of wirelessly communicating using UWB protocol or other known communication protocol such as RF, cellular, Bluetooth, etc. Paragraph 0036, 0026, and abstract teaches retrieving a communication configuration from server, local, non-local source and the communication configuration includes parameters for configuring the mobile/wireless device with specific communication protocol whether its UWB, Bluetooth, radio, cellular etc.). Therefore, before the effective filling date of the invention, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art for Kadi to use the communication configuration of Karaoguz to configure the mobile device in order to be able to communicate with anchors at each zone. The rationale would be that it’s efficient to send/receive the communication configuration to the mobile device so the device knows on which protocol to communicate in order to make it time efficient and less time consuming.

Per claim 19, Kadi teaches wherein the wireless communication other than the UWB communication is one of Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, or cellular data (0027 teaches cellular communication.  

	Per claim 20, Kadi teaches wherein the memory is operable to store a pre-loaded access token prior to the user entering the access-controlled area, and wherein the pre-loaded access token is converted to the access token by the application server of the access-controlled area (Fig. 6, 0036-0038 shows wherein when the user is in zone A which is outside of the range of the reader, the server (which has the ticket stored on) communicates with the mobile phone, wherein the token/ticket is sent to the mobile device and stored in memory of the mobile device and when mobile device is in Zone B, then the token/ticket is converted to access token and sent to the reader for the reader to give access to the mobile device).

Claims 13-16	 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being obvious over Al-Kadi et al (US 2018/0349653; hereinafter Kadi) in view of Karaoguz et al (US 2007/0115950) and further view of Hoyer et al (US 2021/0383624).

	Per claim 13, Kadi in view of Karaoguz does not explicitly teach tracking location of the UWB device through a plurality of anchor devices of the access control system.   
	However, in an analogous art, Hoyer teaches tracking location of the UWB device through a plurality of anchor devices of the access control system ((Fig. 6 teaches having plurality of readers/anchors 112a-c and communicating with the mobile device once in reading range to locate the mobile device which is an UWB device).
	Therefore, before the effective filling date of the invention, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art to use the locating method of Hoyer. The rationale would be that determining location of the device using plurality of readers makes it more precise and efficient. 

	Per claim 14, Kadi in view of Hoyer teaches wherein the sending the access token to the UWB device occurs during the UWB device is tracked by the plurality of anchor devices (see rejection of claim 6 and 16 above wherein Hoyer teaches tracking the mobile device using plurality of anchor devices Also see Fig. 6 and paragraph 0036-0038 of Kadi that teaches sending the access token when the mobile/UWB device is within the plurality of zones that are tracked/read by the reader).    

	Per claim 15, Hoyer teaches after the receiving of the access token, determining an angle of arrival (AoA) of a message carrying the access token, wherein the validating the access token is triggered by the determined AoA (see rejection of claim 9 and paragraph 0041 that teaches angle of arrival. 0056 teaches validation of the token by the reader at the access control).  

	Per claim 16, Kadi in view of Hoyer teaches after the receiving of the access token, evaluating a distance between the gate and the UWB device through a Two Way Ranging (TWR) communication, wherein the validating the access token is triggered by the distance being less than a threshold (see rejection of claim 11 that teaches Two-way communication. 0041 of Hoyer teaches using angle of arrival to determine distance/position. 0040 of Hoyer teaches tracking the UWB device until its within threshold distance of the reader and then allow access). 
 


	

Conclusion
The prior art made of record and not relied upon is considered pertinent to applicant's disclosure. 
Shin et al (US 2022/0335759) Fig. 7
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/OMEED ALIZADA/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2686