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 .
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 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 1-20 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Yamaguchi (US 20170107698 A1) in view of Varekamp (WO 2021160476 A1) in further view of Jiang (US 20220111839 A1)
Regarding claim 1, Yamaguchi teaches A method for operating an excavator, comprising: ([0016] According to the present invention, a position measurement method comprises: [0031] The excavator 1 that is a work machine includes a vehicle body 1B and a work unit 2)
receiving image data of a component of the excavator by a camera module of the excavator, the camera module having multiple camera components; ([0013] As illustrated in FIG. 2, the excavator 1 includes a plurality of imaging devices 30 a, 30 b, 30 c, 30 d inside the operating room 4. [0077] The detection processor 51 obtains the distance ZP from the imaging devices 30L, 30R to the blade tip 8T by using and plugging the obtained disparity d, distance B, and focal distance f into the above formula.)
Yamaguchi does not expressly disclose but Varekamp discloses detecting an incident associated with the camera module; (Page 12 In step 60, it is determined if view of the object in the image of the reference camera is obstructed or not)
in response to the incident, instructing the camera module to collect image data from a subset of the multiple camera components; and (Page 12 The most suitable image from an additional camera is then selected in step 66. This may also take account of obstruction information obtained for all the cameras of the set.)
generating a status image of the component based on the collected image data from the subset of the multiple camera components. (Page 12 In step 68, the image captured by the selected one of the additional cameras is modified such that the region of interest in the modified image is aligned with the region of interest in the image captured by the reference camera. Modifying the image for example comprises applying a homography transformation. The modified image is displayed in step 70.)
Therefore, it would have been obvious to a person having ordinary skill in the art before the effective filling date of the claimed invention to modify Yamaguchi with the teachings of Varekamp with a reasonable expectation of success by providing a clear view of an object to be viewed or recorded continuously without obstruction as taught by Varekamp (Page 12).
Yamaguchi discloses an excavator. Yamaguchi does not expressly disclose but Jiang discloses causing the excavator to operate in a limp mode, wherein the excavator performs a reduced functionality in the limp mode, wherein the reduced functionality includes generating a simulated image from fewer than all of the multiple camera components; ([0041] For example, if a vehicle is traveling at a cruising speed typical of highway driving, and a sensor (e.g., a camera) becomes partially obstructed such that the sensor incorrectly detects an object to be in close range to the vehicle (e.g., due to debris on the sensor), based on various factors that factor into an analysis of an image captured by the sensor, a stereo vision system according to some embodiments of the present technology may determine and output a confidence indicating a relatively low level of certainty for that sensor data corresponding to that object and therefore that sensor data may be disregarded.)
Therefore, it would have been obvious to a person having ordinary skill in the art before the effective filling date of the claimed invention to modify Yamaguchi with the teachings of Jiang with a reasonable expectation of success by increasing passenger safety by enabling driver assistance systems to determine whether a particular sensor is partially or wholly malfunctioning as taught by Jiang ([0042]).
Regarding claim 2, Yamaguchi does not expressly disclose but Jiang discloses The method of claim 1, wherein the multiple camera components include a right grayscale lens, a left grayscale lens, and a color lens positioned between the left and right grayscale lens. ([0049] According to some embodiments of the present technology, the sensors 100 may be comprised of two stereo cameras 100 configured to capture images of the vehicle's environment simultaneously, i.e., at the same or nearly the same moment of time. To simplify notation, the cameras 100 may be referred to herein as “left” and “right” cameras, even though they may be positioned vertically (e.g., top and bottom) relative to each other, or diagonally relative to each other, or offset in different range bins (e.g., one camera is at a front portion of the vehicle and the other camera is at a rear portion of the vehicle). The cameras 100 may be, e.g., color CMOS (complementary metal-oxide-semiconductor) cameras, grayscale CMOS cameras, CCD (charge-coupled device) cameras, SWIR (short-wavelength infrared) cameras, LWIR (long-wavelength infrared) cameras, or focal-plane array sensors.)
Therefore, it would have been obvious to a person having ordinary skill in the art before the effective filling date of the claimed invention to modify Yamaguchi with the teachings of Jiang with a reasonable expectation of success by increasing passenger safety by enabling driver assistance systems to determine whether a particular sensor is partially or wholly malfunctioning as taught by Jiang ([0042]).
Regarding claim 3, Yamaguchi does not expressly disclose but Varekamp discloses The method of claim 1, wherein the multiple camera components include a depth sensor. (Page 7 One option is for the camera to capture a depth map by incorporating a depth sensor.)
Therefore, it would have been obvious to a person having ordinary skill in the art before the effective filling date of the claimed invention to modify Yamaguchi with the teachings of Varekamp with a reasonable expectation of success by providing a clear view of an object to be viewed or recorded continuously without obstruction as taught by Varekamp (Page 12).
Regarding claim 4, Yamaguchi does not expressly disclose but Jiang discloses The method of claim 1, wherein the multiple camera components include an infrared sensor. ([0049] According to some embodiments of the present technology, the sensors 100 may be comprised of two stereo cameras 100 configured to capture images of the vehicle's environment simultaneously, i.e., at the same or nearly the same moment of time. To simplify notation, the cameras 100 may be referred to herein as “left” and “right” cameras, even though they may be positioned vertically (e.g., top and bottom) relative to each other, or diagonally relative to each other, or offset in different range bins (e.g., one camera is at a front portion of the vehicle and the other camera is at a rear portion of the vehicle). The cameras 100 may be, e.g., color CMOS (complementary metal-oxide-semiconductor) cameras, grayscale CMOS cameras, CCD (charge-coupled device) cameras, SWIR (short-wavelength infrared) cameras, LWIR (long-wavelength infrared) cameras, or focal-plane array sensors.)
Therefore, it would have been obvious to a person having ordinary skill in the art before the effective filling date of the claimed invention to modify Yamaguchi with the teachings of Jiang with a reasonable expectation of success by increasing passenger safety by enabling driver assistance systems to determine whether a particular sensor is partially or wholly malfunctioning as taught by Jiang ([0042]).
Regarding claim 5, Yamaguchi does not expressly disclose but Varekamp discloses The method of claim 1, wherein the incident associated with the camera module includes a view obstruction of at least one of the multiple camera components of the camera module. (Page 8 The processor 42 determines if the view of the object 20 in the image of the reference camera R is obstructed or not.)
Therefore, it would have been obvious to a person having ordinary skill in the art before the effective filling date of the claimed invention to modify Yamaguchi with the teachings of Varekamp with a reasonable expectation of success by providing a clear view of an object to be viewed or recorded continuously without obstruction as taught by Varekamp (Page 12).
Regarding claim 6, Yamaguchi teaches The method of claim 1, wherein incident associated with the camera module includes a malfunction or a dysfunction of at least one of the multiple camera components of the camera module. ([0004] in the case where an imaging device constituting a stereo camera captures an image of an object, measurement by the stereo camera may be influenced by a peripheral environment. For example, in the case where a peripheral environment of the imaging device is rainy, snowy, or the like, there may be possibility that measurement cannot be performed by the stereo camera or accuracy of measurement is deteriorated)
Regarding claim 7, Yamaguchi does not expressly disclose but Jiang discloses The method of claim 1, wherein the subset of the multiple camera components includes a color lens and a grayscale lens. ([0049] According to some embodiments of the present technology, the sensors 100 may be comprised of two stereo cameras 100 configured to capture images of the vehicle's environment simultaneously, i.e., at the same or nearly the same moment of time. To simplify notation, the cameras 100 may be referred to herein as “left” and “right” cameras, even though they may be positioned vertically (e.g., top and bottom) relative to each other, or diagonally relative to each other, or offset in different range bins (e.g., one camera is at a front portion of the vehicle and the other camera is at a rear portion of the vehicle). The cameras 100 may be, e.g., color CMOS (complementary metal-oxide-semiconductor) cameras, grayscale CMOS cameras, CCD (charge-coupled device) cameras, SWIR (short-wavelength infrared) cameras, LWIR (long-wavelength infrared) cameras, or focal-plane array sensors.)
Therefore, it would have been obvious to a person having ordinary skill in the art before the effective filling date of the claimed invention to modify Yamaguchi with the teachings of Jiang with a reasonable expectation of success by increasing passenger safety by enabling driver assistance systems to determine whether a particular sensor is partially or wholly malfunctioning as taught by Jiang ([0042]).
Regarding claim 8, Yamaguchi does not expressly disclose but Jiang discloses The method of claim 1, wherein the subset of the multiple camera components includes a left grayscale lens and a right grayscale lens. ([0049] According to some embodiments of the present technology, the sensors 100 may be comprised of two stereo cameras 100 configured to capture images of the vehicle's environment simultaneously, i.e., at the same or nearly the same moment of time. To simplify notation, the cameras 100 may be referred to herein as “left” and “right” cameras, even though they may be positioned vertically (e.g., top and bottom) relative to each other, or diagonally relative to each other, or offset in different range bins (e.g., one camera is at a front portion of the vehicle and the other camera is at a rear portion of the vehicle). The cameras 100 may be, e.g., color CMOS (complementary metal-oxide-semiconductor) cameras, grayscale CMOS cameras, CCD (charge-coupled device) cameras, SWIR (short-wavelength infrared) cameras, LWIR (long-wavelength infrared) cameras, or focal-plane array sensors.)
Therefore, it would have been obvious to a person having ordinary skill in the art before the effective filling date of the claimed invention to modify Yamaguchi with the teachings of Jiang with a reasonable expectation of success by increasing passenger safety by enabling driver assistance systems to determine whether a particular sensor is partially or wholly malfunctioning as taught by Jiang ([0042]).
Regarding claim 9, Yamaguchi does not expressly disclose but Jiang discloses The method of claim 8, further comprising: generating a disparity map based on the collected image data of the subset of the multiple camera components; and generating the status image of the component at least based on the disparity map. ([0007] a first sensor system configured to receive first image data of a scene and to output a first disparity map and a first confidence map based on the first image data. The vehicle control system may be configured to: receive the first disparity map and the first confidence map from the first sensor system, and output a video stream comprised of the first disparity map and the first confidence map)
Therefore, it would have been obvious to a person having ordinary skill in the art before the effective filling date of the claimed invention to modify Yamaguchi with the teachings of Jiang with a reasonable expectation of success by increasing passenger safety by enabling driver assistance systems to determine whether a particular sensor is partially or wholly malfunctioning as taught by Jiang ([0042]).
Regarding claim 10, Yamaguchi does not expressly disclose but Jiang discloses The method of claim 1, wherein the subset of the multiple camera components includes a color lens. ([0049] According to some embodiments of the present technology, the sensors 100 may be comprised of two stereo cameras 100 configured to capture images of the vehicle's environment simultaneously, i.e., at the same or nearly the same moment of time. To simplify notation, the cameras 100 may be referred to herein as “left” and “right” cameras, even though they may be positioned vertically (e.g., top and bottom) relative to each other, or diagonally relative to each other, or offset in different range bins (e.g., one camera is at a front portion of the vehicle and the other camera is at a rear portion of the vehicle). The cameras 100 may be, e.g., color CMOS (complementary metal-oxide-semiconductor) cameras, grayscale CMOS cameras, CCD (charge-coupled device) cameras, SWIR (short-wavelength infrared) cameras, LWIR (long-wavelength infrared) cameras, or focal-plane array sensors.)
Therefore, it would have been obvious to a person having ordinary skill in the art before the effective filling date of the claimed invention to modify Yamaguchi with the teachings of Jiang with a reasonable expectation of success by increasing passenger safety by enabling driver assistance systems to determine whether a particular sensor is partially or wholly malfunctioning as taught by Jiang ([0042]).
Regarding claim 11, Yamaguchi does not expressly disclose but Varekamp discloses The method of claim 1, further comprising: generating the status image of the component based on a trained model with coefficients indicating relationships among data collected via the multiple camera components. (Page 12 In step 68, the image captured by the selected one of the additional cameras is modified such that the region of interest in the modified image is aligned with the region of interest in the image captured by the reference camera. Modifying the image for example comprises applying a homography transformation. The modified image is displayed in step 70.)
Therefore, it would have been obvious to a person having ordinary skill in the art before the effective filling date of the claimed invention to modify Yamaguchi with the teachings of Varekamp with a reasonable expectation of success by providing a clear view of an object to be viewed or recorded continuously without obstruction as taught by Varekamp (Page 12).
Regarding claim 12, Yamaguchi discloses an excavator. Yamaguchi does not expressly disclose but Jiang discloses The method of claim 1, further comprising: in response to the incident, instructing the excavator to switch from a normal mode to a limp mode selected from multiple candidate limp modes. ([0041] For example, if a vehicle is traveling at a cruising speed typical of highway driving, and a sensor (e.g., a camera) becomes partially obstructed such that the sensor incorrectly detects an object to be in close range to the vehicle (e.g., due to debris on the sensor), based on various factors that factor into an analysis of an image captured by the sensor, a stereo vision system according to some embodiments of the present technology may determine and output a confidence indicating a relatively low level of certainty for that sensor data corresponding to that object and therefore that sensor data may be disregarded.)
Therefore, it would have been obvious to a person having ordinary skill in the art before the effective filling date of the claimed invention to modify Yamaguchi with the teachings of Jiang with a reasonable expectation of success by increasing passenger safety by enabling driver assistance systems to determine whether a particular sensor is partially or wholly malfunctioning as taught by Jiang ([0042]).
Regarding claim 13, Yamaguchi does not expressly disclose but Varekamp discloses The method of claim 1, wherein each of the limp mode corresponds to a trained model, and wherein the trained model includes coefficients indicating relationships among data collected via the multiple camera components. (Page 11 In step 54, the processor determines the region of interest in respect of the one or more additional cameras based on the location of the region of interest within the displayed view from the reference camera. Thus, by selecting (or automatically identifying) a region of interest in respect of the reference camera, based on a known positional relationship between the cameras, the region of interest in images from the other cameras can be derived automatically. In particular, the region of interest in the reference view can be warped to a neighbor view using the assumed planar depth in the region of interest of the reference view. This identifies where the region of interest lies in a neighbor view.)
Therefore, it would have been obvious to a person having ordinary skill in the art before the effective filling date of the claimed invention to modify Yamaguchi with the teachings of Varekamp with a reasonable expectation of success by providing a clear view of an object to be viewed or recorded continuously without obstruction as taught by Varekamp (Page 12).
Regarding claim 14, Yamaguchi teaches The method of claim 1, wherein the component of the excavator includes an excavator bucket. ([0077] The detection processor 51 obtains the distance ZP from the imaging devices 30L, 30R to the blade tip 8T by using and plugging the obtained disparity d, distance B, and focal distance f into the above formula.)
Regarding claim 15, Yamaguchi teaches A system comprising: (Fig. 3 position measurement system 40)
a processor; (Fig. 3 Processing unit 51P)
a memory communicably coupled to the processor, the memory comprising computer executable instructions that, when executed by the processor, cause the system to: (Fig. 3 Storage unit 51M)
receive image data of a component of an excavator by a camera module of the excavator, the camera module having multiple camera components; ([0013] As illustrated in FIG. 2, the excavator 1 includes a plurality of imaging devices 30 a, 30 b, 30 c, 30 d inside the operating room 4. [0077] The detection processor 51 obtains the distance ZP from the imaging devices 30L, 30R to the blade tip 8T by using and plugging the obtained disparity d, distance B, and focal distance f into the above formula.)
Yamaguchi does not expressly disclose but Varekamp discloses detect an incident associated with the camera module; (Page 12 In step 60, it is determined if view of the object in the image of the reference camera is obstructed or not)
in response to the incident, instruct the camera module to collect image data from a subset of the multiple camera components; and (Page 12 The most suitable image from an additional camera is then selected in step 66. This may also take account of obstruction information obtained for all the cameras of the set.)
generate a status image of the component based on the collected image data from the subset of the multiple camera components. (Page 12 In step 68, the image captured by the selected one of the additional cameras is modified such that the region of interest in the modified image is aligned with the region of interest in the image captured by the reference camera. Modifying the image for example comprises applying a homography transformation. The modified image is displayed in step 70.)
Therefore, it would have been obvious to a person having ordinary skill in the art before the effective filling date of the claimed invention to modify Yamaguchi with the teachings of Varekamp with a reasonable expectation of success by providing a clear view of an object to be viewed or recorded continuously without obstruction as taught by Varekamp (Page 12).
Yamaguchi discloses an excavator. Yamaguchi does not expressly disclose but Jiang discloses causing the excavator to operate in a limp mode, wherein the excavator performs a reduced functionality in the limp mode; wherein the reduced functionality includes generating a simulated image from fewer than all of the multiple camera components; ([0041] For example, if a vehicle is traveling at a cruising speed typical of highway driving, and a sensor (e.g., a camera) becomes partially obstructed such that the sensor incorrectly detects an object to be in close range to the vehicle (e.g., due to debris on the sensor), based on various factors that factor into an analysis of an image captured by the sensor, a stereo vision system according to some embodiments of the present technology may determine and output a confidence indicating a relatively low level of certainty for that sensor data corresponding to that object and therefore that sensor data may be disregarded.)
Therefore, it would have been obvious to a person having ordinary skill in the art before the effective filling date of the claimed invention to modify Yamaguchi with the teachings of Jiang with a reasonable expectation of success by increasing passenger safety by enabling driver assistance systems to determine whether a particular sensor is partially or wholly malfunctioning as taught by Jiang ([0042]).
Regarding claim 16, Yamaguchi does not expressly disclose but Jiang discloses The system of claim 15, the multiple camera components include a right grayscale lens, a left grayscale lens, and a color lens positioned between the left and right grayscale lens. ([0049] According to some embodiments of the present technology, the sensors 100 may be comprised of two stereo cameras 100 configured to capture images of the vehicle's environment simultaneously, i.e., at the same or nearly the same moment of time. To simplify notation, the cameras 100 may be referred to herein as “left” and “right” cameras, even though they may be positioned vertically (e.g., top and bottom) relative to each other, or diagonally relative to each other, or offset in different range bins (e.g., one camera is at a front portion of the vehicle and the other camera is at a rear portion of the vehicle). The cameras 100 may be, e.g., color CMOS (complementary metal-oxide-semiconductor) cameras, grayscale CMOS cameras, CCD (charge-coupled device) cameras, SWIR (short-wavelength infrared) cameras, LWIR (long-wavelength infrared) cameras, or focal-plane array sensors.)
Therefore, it would have been obvious to a person having ordinary skill in the art before the effective filling date of the claimed invention to modify Yamaguchi with the teachings of Jiang with a reasonable expectation of success by increasing passenger safety by enabling driver assistance systems to determine whether a particular sensor is partially or wholly malfunctioning as taught by Jiang ([0042]).
Regarding claim 17, Yamaguchi does not expressly disclose but Varekamp discloses The system of 15, wherein the incident associated with the camera module includes a view obstruction of at least one of the multiple camera components of the camera module. (Page 8 The processor 42 determines if the view of the object 20 in the image of the reference camera R is obstructed or not.)
Therefore, it would have been obvious to a person having ordinary skill in the art before the effective filling date of the claimed invention to modify Yamaguchi with the teachings of Varekamp with a reasonable expectation of success by providing a clear view of an object to be viewed or recorded continuously without obstruction as taught by Varekamp (Page 12).
Regarding claim 18, Yamaguchi does not expressly disclose but Jiang discloses The system of 15, wherein the subset of the multiple camera components includes a color lens or a grayscale lens. ([0049] According to some embodiments of the present technology, the sensors 100 may be comprised of two stereo cameras 100 configured to capture images of the vehicle's environment simultaneously, i.e., at the same or nearly the same moment of time. To simplify notation, the cameras 100 may be referred to herein as “left” and “right” cameras, even though they may be positioned vertically (e.g., top and bottom) relative to each other, or diagonally relative to each other, or offset in different range bins (e.g., one camera is at a front portion of the vehicle and the other camera is at a rear portion of the vehicle). The cameras 100 may be, e.g., color CMOS (complementary metal-oxide-semiconductor) cameras, grayscale CMOS cameras, CCD (charge-coupled device) cameras, SWIR (short-wavelength infrared) cameras, LWIR (long-wavelength infrared) cameras, or focal-plane array sensors.)
Therefore, it would have been obvious to a person having ordinary skill in the art before the effective filling date of the claimed invention to modify Yamaguchi with the teachings of Jiang with a reasonable expectation of success by increasing passenger safety by enabling driver assistance systems to determine whether a particular sensor is partially or wholly malfunctioning as taught by Jiang ([0042]).
Regarding claim 19, Yamaguchi does not expressly disclose but Jiang discloses The system of 16, wherein the subset of the multiple camera components includes a left grayscale lens and a right grayscale lens, ([0049] According to some embodiments of the present technology, the sensors 100 may be comprised of two stereo cameras 100 configured to capture images of the vehicle's environment simultaneously, i.e., at the same or nearly the same moment of time. To simplify notation, the cameras 100 may be referred to herein as “left” and “right” cameras, even though they may be positioned vertically (e.g., top and bottom) relative to each other, or diagonally relative to each other, or offset in different range bins (e.g., one camera is at a front portion of the vehicle and the other camera is at a rear portion of the vehicle). The cameras 100 may be, e.g., color CMOS (complementary metal-oxide-semiconductor) cameras, grayscale CMOS cameras, CCD (charge-coupled device) cameras, SWIR (short-wavelength infrared) cameras, LWIR (long-wavelength infrared) cameras, or focal-plane array sensors.) and wherein a disparity map is generated based on the collected image data of the subset of the multiple camera components, and wherein the status image of the component is generated at least based on the disparity map. ([0007] a first sensor system configured to receive first image data of a scene and to output a first disparity map and a first confidence map based on the first image data. The vehicle control system may be configured to: receive the first disparity map and the first confidence map from the first sensor system, and output a video stream comprised of the first disparity map and the first confidence map)
Therefore, it would have been obvious to a person having ordinary skill in the art before the effective filling date of the claimed invention to modify Yamaguchi with the teachings of Jiang with a reasonable expectation of success by increasing passenger safety by enabling driver assistance systems to determine whether a particular sensor is partially or wholly malfunctioning as taught by Jiang ([0042]).
Regarding claim 20, Yamaguchi teaches A method for generating a status image of a component of a excavator, comprising: ([0016] According to the present invention, a position measurement method comprises: [0031] The excavator 1 that is a work machine includes a vehicle body 1B and a work unit 2)
collecting image data of a component of the excavator by a camera module of the machine, the camera module having multiple camera components; ([0013] As illustrated in FIG. 2, the excavator 1 includes a plurality of imaging devices 30 a, 30 b, 30 c, 30 d inside the operating room 4. [0077] The detection processor 51 obtains the distance ZP from the imaging devices 30L, 30R to the blade tip 8T by using and plugging the obtained disparity d, distance B, and focal distance f into the above formula.)
Yamaguchi does not expressly disclose but Varekamp discloses analyzing the collected image data of the component so as to identify coefficients indicating relationships among data collected via the multiple camera components; and (Page 11 In step 54, the processor determines the region of interest in respect of the one or more additional cameras based on the location of the region of interest within the displayed view from the reference camera. Thus, by selecting (or automatically identifying) a region of interest in respect of the reference camera, based on a known positional relationship between the cameras, the region of interest in images from the other cameras can be derived automatically. In particular, the region of interest in the reference view can be warped to a neighbor view using the assumed planar depth in the region of interest of the reference view. This identifies where the region of interest lies in a neighbor view.)
generating multiple trained models corresponding to multiple limp modes, wherein each of the limp modes corresponding to an incident associated with at least one of the multiple camera components of the camera module. (Page 12 The most suitable image from an additional camera is then selected in step 66. This may also take account of obstruction information obtained for all the cameras of the set. Page 12 In step 68, the image captured by the selected one of the additional cameras is modified such that the region of interest in the modified image is aligned with the region of interest in the image captured by the reference camera. Modifying the image for example comprises applying a homography transformation. The modified image is displayed in step 70.)
Therefore, it would have been obvious to a person having ordinary skill in the art before the effective filling date of the claimed invention to modify Yamaguchi with the teachings of Varekamp with a reasonable expectation of success by providing a clear view of an object to be viewed or recorded continuously without obstruction as taught by Varekamp (Page 12).
Yamaguchi discloses an excavator. Yamaguchi does not expressly disclose but Jiang discloses causing the excavator to operate in a limp mode, wherein the excavator performs a reduced functionality in the limp mode; wherein the reduced functionality includes generating a simulated image from fewer than all of the multiple camera components; ([0041] For example, if a vehicle is traveling at a cruising speed typical of highway driving, and a sensor (e.g., a camera) becomes partially obstructed such that the sensor incorrectly detects an object to be in close range to the vehicle (e.g., due to debris on the sensor), based on various factors that factor into an analysis of an image captured by the sensor, a stereo vision system according to some embodiments of the present technology may determine and output a confidence indicating a relatively low level of certainty for that sensor data corresponding to that object and therefore that sensor data may be disregarded.)
Therefore, it would have been obvious to a person having ordinary skill in the art before the effective filling date of the claimed invention to modify Yamaguchi with the teachings of Jiang with a reasonable expectation of success by increasing passenger safety by enabling driver assistance systems to determine whether a particular sensor is partially or wholly malfunctioning as taught by Jiang ([0042]).
Response to Arguments
Applicants arguments filed 5/21/2025 have been fully considered as follows:
Applicant argues that the 35 USC 103 rejections to the claims should not be maintained in view of “Applicant respectfully submits that the amended claims provide clarification for the foregoing distinguishment regarding Kohler. Without conceding that Yamaguchi, Varekamp, and Jiang provide the teaching for which they were cited, they nevertheless fail to cure the deficiencies of Kohler. As a result, whether considered individually or in combination, the cited references fail to disclose all features of independent claims 1, 15, and 20 and their dependent claims.” However, Jiang teaches disregarding a camera when there is debris on the camera in [0041]. Therefore, in view of the amendment a new ground of rejection is above.
Conclusion
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/S.A.T./Examiner, Art Unit 3656
/KHOI H TRAN/Supervisory Patent Examiner, Art Unit 3656