Appeal No. 95-0953
Application 07/976,328
This is a decision on appeal under 35 U.S.C. § 134 from
the final rejection of claims 1-4, 6-13, and 15-17, all the
claims pending in the application. Claims 5 and 14 have been
cancelled. We affirm-in-part.
The disclosed invention is directed to a stethoscope
chestpiece having an acoustic to electrical transducer mounted
within the acoustic pathway in the chestpiece.
Claim 1, the sole independent claim, is reproduced below.
1. A stethoscope chestpiece for transmitting
auscultatory sounds both acoustically and electrically,
comprising:
a stethoscope housing forming an acoustic pathway
for acoustic auscultation;
a mounting having at least one opening to permit
passage of sound in the acoustic pathway; and
an acoustic to electrical transducer residing within
the mounting and within the acoustic pathway and
positioned within the same acoustic pathway as employed
for acoustic auscultation;
whereby the same pathway of sound is used to receive
both acoustically transmitted information and
electrically generated information from the stethoscope
chestpiece.
The examiner relies on the following references:
Pfeiffer 4,071,694 January 31, 1978
Dufresne et al. (Dufresne) 5,204,500 April 20, 1993
(filed February 20, 1991)
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