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 .
Response to Arguments
Applicant's arguments filed 01/07/2026 have been fully considered but they are moot in view of provided rejection.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 103
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.
Claim(s) 1 and bellow are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over D1 US 9904293 B1 in view of D2 US 10983191 B2 further in view of/ or evidences by Breed US 20050278098 A1 further in view of D0 US 7561886 B1.
Regarding claim 1 D1 teaches
1. A position locating system comprising:
a wave signal generators (44, 46, 48)located on a first object that is one of a marine vessel and a trailer for the marine vessel to emit wave signals from at least three different positions having known relative positional relationships with each other;(fig. 2)
a wave signal receiver(62) located on a second object(fig. 2) that is the other of the marine vessel and the trailer to receive the wave signal emitted from each of the at least three positions of the wave signal generator; and(fig. 2)
a position locator configured or programmed to locate relative position information between the marine vessel and the trailer that includes at least a direction of the second object as viewed from the first object based on the wave signal from each of the at least three positions received by the wave signal receiver.(col; 8 line 45- col 9 line 10 )
wherein the imaging pickup apparatus generates an image including each of the at least three positions as a subject; and
the position locator is configured or programmed to extract bright spots from the image generated and locate the relative position information based on positions of the bright spots within the image and the relative positional relationships.(implicit , signals are collected in case of the laser ranging it will be image(camera) , bright spots are the signals above the background )
but does not teach a wave signal generator(singular ) to emit wave signals from at least three different positions
the position locator is configured or programmed to extract bright spots, each corresponding to one of the at least three positions, from the image and locate the relative position information based on positional relationships among the bright spots within the image and the relative positional relationships
D2 teaches a wave signal generator(processor ) to emit wave signals from at least three different positions (col 5)
D0 teaches
the position locator is configured or programmed to extract bright spots, each corresponding to one of the at least three positions, from the image and locate the relative position information based on positional relationships among the bright spots(line from 16 to 18) within the image and the relative positional relationships(col 8 lines 62-col 9 line 8 )
Although D1 and D2 does not explicitly teach . The position locating system according to claim 1, wherein the wave signals include optical signals, and the wave signal receiver includes an imaging pickup apparatus. Choice of the transmission and reception wave types is completely arbitrary and does not involve any inventive step as one of ordinary skills in the art would recognize that triangulation and trilateration using optical/electromagnetic , acoustical waves are replaceable and involve just well known changes in the sensors and minor changes in software. See for example reference by Breed which teaches same triangulation techniques [0244] by the means of any lidar , radar , sonar or RFID sensors [0085][0121][0480][0540].
It would be obvious to one of ordinary skills in the art at the time of filing to modify teachings by D1 with teaching by Breed in order to perform triangulation using well known commonly equipment’s.
It would be obvious to one of ordinary skills in the art at the time of filing to modify teachings by D1 with teaching by D2 in order to coordinate the operation of the transmission of the data towards the boat and provide some codding so the boat can distinguish between the signals.
It would be obvious to one of ordinary skills in the art at the time of filing to modify teachings by D1 with teaching by D0 in order to provide multiple alternative ways to identify the distance and direction towards the bat and transponder by using different alternative known variables and applying simple geometry.
4. The position locating system according to claim 3, wherein the at least three positions include a first position, a second position different in a front-to-rear direction with respect to the first position, and a third position different in a crosswise direction with respect to the second position, and
which do not line up in a straight line when viewed from a vertical direction.(fig. 2)
5. The position locating system according to claim 4, wherein the position locator is configured or programmed to locate a direction of the first object as viewed from the second object based on a position in a left/right direction of the bright spot corresponding to the first position within the image.(implicit image is radar image and also col 15 line 65 col 16 line 30)
6. The position locating system according to claim 4, wherein the position locator is configured or programmed to locate the direction of the second object as viewed from the first object based on a distance in a left/right direction between an intermediate position between the bright spot corresponding to the second position and the bright spot corresponding to the third position within the image, and the bright spot corresponding to the first position within the image.(col 11 lines 11-45)
7. The position locating system according to claim 6, wherein the position locator is configured or programmed to locate a distance between the first object and the second object based on a distance in the left/right direction between the bright spot corresponding to the second position and the bright spot corresponding to the third position within the image, and
the direction of the second object as viewed from the first object.(col 11 , 12)
8. The position locating system according to claim 4, wherein the second position and the third position are different positions in a vertical direction with respect to the first position.(design choice in order to perform 3D positioning)
9. The position locating system according to claim 2, wherein the wave signals include infrared light.(obvious design choice )
10. The position locating system according to claim 9, wherein the wave signal generator blinks the infrared light in a specific pattern. (obvious design choice )
11. The position locating system according to claim 1, wherein the wave signals are sound signals; and
the wave signal receiver includes two microphones. (obvious design choice )
12. The position locating system according to claim 11, wherein each of the two microphones receives the sound signal emitted from each of the at least three positions; and
the position locator is configured or programmed to locate the relative position information based on generation time of each of the sound signals from each of the at least three positions, reception time of each of the sound signals by the two microphones, and the relative positional relationships.(choice of the waves type is completely arbitrary and can be considered as a design choice)
13. The position locating system according to claim 12, wherein the position locator is configured or programmed to:
locate positions of the two microphones based on the generation time of each of the sound signals from each of the at least three positions, the reception time of each of the sound
signals by the two microphones, and the relative positional relationships; and
locate a distance between the first object and the second object, a direction of the first object as viewed from the second object, and the direction of the second object as viewed from the first object as the relative position information between the marine vessel and the trailer based on the positions of the two microphones.(choice of the waves is a design choice the rest is disclosed in col 11-col 17 )
14. The position locating system according to claim 11, wherein the wave signal generator makes the generation times of the sound signals, which are emitted from the at least three positions, different from each other. .(choice of the waves col 16 is a design choice the rest is disclosed in col 11-col 17 )
15. The position locating system according to claim 11, wherein heights in a vertical direction of the at least three positions of the wave signal generator are the same or substantially the same.(design choice 2D positioning)
16. The position locating system according to claim 11, wherein the sound signals include ultrasonic signals.(design choice)
17. The position locating system according to claim 1, wherein the wave signals emitted from each of the at least three positions are optical signals that have directivity and are directed in different directions from each other;
the wave signal receiver includes a light receiver; and
the position locator is configured or programmed to locate the direction of the second object as viewed from the first object depending on which source of the optical signal received by the light receiver corresponds to which of the at least three
positions.(col 16)
18. The position locating system according to claim 17, wherein irradiation regions of the optical signals emitted from the at least three positions, which are directed in directions adjacent to each other, have regions overlapping each other; and
blinking patterns of the optical signals are different from each other.(col 16 obvious design choice to have blinking pattern which can be considered codding)
19. The position locating system according to claim 17, wherein, the wave signal receiver includes two or more light receivers that have light receiving ranges in different directions from each other; and
the position locator is configured or programmed to locate a direction of the first object as viewed from the second object by the light receiver, which has received the optical signal, among the two or more light receivers.(fig. 3 sensors 38 and 40)
20. The position locating system according to claim 17, wherein the wave signals include infrared light.(obvious ovel col 16)
21. The position locating system according to claim 1, further comprising:
a plurality of light emitters located on the first object to emit optical signals that have directivity and are directed in different directions from each other; and(col 16 and fig. 3)
a light receiver located on the second object to receive the optical signals emitted from the plurality of light emitters;
wherein the position locator is configured or programmed to locate
the direction of the second object as viewed from the first object depending on which optical signal received by the light receiver corresponds to which of the plurality of light emitting units.(col 16 and fig. 3)
22. The position locating system according to claim 1, wherein the first object is the trailer and the second object is the marine vessel.(fig. 3)
23. A marine vessel comprising:
the position locating system according to claim
1; wherein the position locator is located on the marine vessel.(obvious design choice and positioning)
24. A trailer for a marine vessel, the trailer comprising:
the position locating system according to claim
1; wherein the position locator is located on the trailer. .(obvious design choice and positioning)
Conclusion
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/HOVHANNES BAGHDASARYAN/Examiner, Art Unit 3645