Appeal No. 1998-2825
Application No. 08/595,282
The examiner acknowledges (Paper No. 2, pages 2 and 3)
that Crossing does not teach or suggest either a method step
or any apparatus by which the user may selectively change the
upper heart rate and/or the lower heart rate limits after the
limits are calculated by microprocessor 30. The examiner
describes Brink as having the ability to input via a keyboard
the upper and lower rate limits and takes the position that:
[t]o change [the upper limit and the lower limit] is
analogous to inputting them initially. To have such
a feature in the invention of Crossing would have
been seen to have been desirable and obvious since
such a feature allows greater flexibility and
therefore applicability to a greater number of
patients who do not fit into the standard heart rate
ranges.
(Office action, dated 5/23/96, pg. 3)
Our review of Brink reveals that the reference discloses
an apparatus which allows an entertainment device, e.g., a
portable radio, to play only so long as the user's heart rate
lies within a range of heart rates. EKG signals are picked up
by suitably placed electrodes 32, 34, amplified, filtered,
shaped and applied in one arrangement to a programmable
microprocessor 208 (Fig. 3) and in another arrangement to a
-11-
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