Office Action 5: Notice of Allowance (2025-04-28)

CLAIMS:
Listing of claims:

Amendments to Claims:

This listing of claims will replace all prior versions, and listings, of claims in the Application.

1\. (Currently Amended) A device for assessing anesthesia of an animal subject in real-time from electroencephalography (EEG) measurements of the animal subject during application of anesthesia, the device comprising:a signal pre-processor comprising a first filter with a first filtering frequency band, a second filter with a second filtering frequency band, and a down-sampler to pre-process sequentially an incoming measured EEG signal from the EEG measurements of the animal subject;wherein the pre-processing comprises:
removing unwanted signals and noise from the incoming measured EEG signal using the first filter and the second filter to generate a filtered incoming measured EEG signal; and
down-sampling the filtered incoming measured EEG signal by the down- sampler to generate a down-sampled filtered incoming measured EEG signal;
an epoch generator configured to generate an epoch signal containing epochs of 1-second epoch duration each and 10% overlapping of consecutive epochs;wherein the epoch generator comprises a two-input multiplexer, an address generator, and a memory;
wherein the two-input multiplexer is configured to:receive the down-sampled filtered incoming measured EEG signal, a feedback of the epoch signal, and a selector input from the address generator; and generate a multiplexer output from the down-sampled filtered incoming measured EEG signal or the feedback of the epoch signal based on the selector input;
wherein the address generator comprises:

a slow counter configured to generate write addresses, and count from a slow counter start count to a slow counter end count in repeating slow count cycles; and
a fast counter configured to generate read addresses, and count from a fast counter start count to a fast counter end count in repeating fast count cycles that starts after each of the slow count cycles;
wherein the slow counter is further configured to repeat each of the slow count cycles after each of the fast count cycles;
wherein the fast counter is further configured to repeat each of the fast count cycles after each of the slow count cycles;
wherein the address generator is further configured to:generate the selector input to the multiplexer to generate the multiplexer output from the down-sampled filtered incoming measured EEG signal during each of the slow count cycles and from the feedback of the epoch signal during each of the fast count cycles;
wherein the epoch generator is configured to:receive the multiplexer output, the write addresses, and the read addresses;
store the received multiplexer output as data according to the received write addresses; and
retrieve data according to the received read addresses and output the retrieved data as a memory output;
wherein the epoch generator is configured to generate the epoch signal and output the epoch signal from the memory output;
a feature extractor configured to:receive the epoch signal from the epoch generator;
extract a derivative feature of each epoch of the received epoch signal by computing a mean of accumulated squared-differences among epochs in the received epoch signal ; and
extract a variance feature of each epoch of the received epoch signal by computing a square root of an average squared-deviation of epochs in the received epoch signal ;

a classifier configured to:
perform a feature mapping on each derivative feature and each variance feature to its original value\[\[s\]\] and its squared value\[\[s\]\]; and
set a classification boundary from output of the feature mapping to generate a classifier output for each epoch\[\[s\]\] of the received epoch signal, the classifier output being either that the animal subject is awake or that the animal subject is anesthetized; and
a predictor comprising a predictor circuit configured to:accumulate a plurality of the classifier outputs corresponding to each epoch of the received epoch signal; and
predict a likelihood of the animal subject being under anesthesia state from the accumulated classifier outputs.

2\. (Previously Presented) The system of claim 1, wherein the first filter of the signal pre- processor is configured to filter the incoming measured EEG signal at the first filtering frequency band to reduce a power-line interference of the incoming measured EEG signal.

3\. (Currently Amended) The system of claim 1, wherein the second filter of the signal pre- processor is configured to low-pass filter the incoming measured EEG signal at the second filtering frequency band to remove signal components in the incoming measured EEG signal that do not fall within an electroencephalography frequency band of interest.

4\. (Previously Presented) The system of claim 1, wherein the incoming measured EEG signal is down sampled at least ten times after being subjected to the second filter using the down-sampler.

5\. (Canceled)

6\. (Previously Presented) The system of claim 1, wherein the computing of a mean of accumulated squared-differences among the epochs in the received epoch signal comprises:

computing a difference between two consecutive epochs of the epochs in the received epoch signal and a square of the difference to obtain a squared difference;
repeating the computation to obtain a squared difference for each pair of consecutive epochs in the received epoch signal;
accumulating all of the squared differences obtained; and
determining the mean of the accumulated squared differences.

7\. (Currently Amended) The system of claim 1, wherein the computing of a square root of an average squared-deviation of the each epoch\[\[s\]\] in the received epoch signal comprises:obtaining an absolute epoch value of each of the epochs in the received epoch signal;
accumulating all of the absolute epoch values obtained;
determining a mean of the accumulated absolute epoch values;
computing a difference between each of the absolute epoch values and the mean of the accumulated absolute epoch values and a square of each difference to obtain squared deviations;
computing an average of all of the squared deviations for all of the absolute epoch values;
and computing a square root of the average of all of the squared deviations.

8-15. (Canceled)914

OFFICE ACTION:
EXAMINER'S AMENDMENT
An examiner’s amendment to the record appears below. Should the changes and/or additions be unacceptable to applicant, an amendment may be filed as provided by 37 CFR 1.312. To ensure consideration of such an amendment, it MUST be submitted no later than the payment of the issue fee.
Authorization for this examiner’s amendment was given in an email from Ms. Margaret Burke on 21 April 2025.
The application has been amended as follows:
Claim 1 has been amended to replace the phrase “set a classification boundary from output of the feature mapping to generate a classifier output for each epoch of the received epoch signal,” with the phrase - - for each epoch of the received epoch signal, set a classification boundary from an output of the respective feature mappings to generate a classifier output for the epoch”.
Claim 1 has been amended to replace the phrase “accumulate a plurality of the classifier outputs corresponding to each epoch of the received epoch signal; and” with the phrase - - accumulate a plurality of the classifier outputs corresponding to the epochs of the received epoch signal; and”.
Claim 7, line 2 has been amended to replace the phrase “each epoch” with the term - - epochs - -.
The following is an examiner’s statement of reasons for allowance: None of the prior art teaches or suggests, either alone or in combination a device comprising an epoch generator, wherein the epoch generator comprises a two-input multiplexer, an address generator, and a memory, wherein the two-input multiplexer is configured to receive a down-sampled filtered incoming measured EEG signal, a feedback of an epoch signal, and a selector input from the address generator, and further wherein the address generator is configured to generate the selector input to the multiplexer to generate a multiplexer output from the down-sampler output signal during each of a plurality of slow count cycles and from the feedback of the epoch signal during each of a plurality of fast count cycles, in combination with the other claimed elements..
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.”

APPLICANT REBUTTAL: REMARKSBy the present amendment, claims 1, 3, and 7 have been amended; claims 1-4 and 6-7 are pending.Rejection Under 35 U.S.C. 112 The amendments correct minor 112 deficiencies; no new matter has been added and no new issues have been raised. Withdrawal of the rejection is respectfully requested along with entry of the amendment.Conclusion In view of the above amendments and remarks, it is respectfully submitted that all of the claims now pending in the subject patent application are in condition for allowance; early and favorable action is respectfully requested. The Examiner is requested to contact the undersigned (e-mail is preferred due to time zone differences between U.S. and Taiwan) if she can assist in any way in expediting issuance of a patent.Respectfully submitted, Date: April 10, 2025