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 with respect to claim(s) 08/18/2026 have been considered but are moot because the new ground of rejection does not rely on any reference applied in the prior rejection of record for any teaching or matter specifically challenged in the argument.
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 20220234490 A1 further in view of D00 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 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(52) is configured or programmed to extract bright spots(implicit bright spots corresponding in image to the markers (68 and 70) from the image generated and locate the 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) , col 15 line 65-col 16 line 27 )
D1 also teaches multiple different methods of well known techniques to guide one marine object to the second object see for example see col 1 and col 2 and one of those art will be presented for further rejection
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(primary reference includes two markers), 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
a position locator configured or programmed to locate relative position information between the marine vessel and the trailer that includes at least a distance between the first object and the second object and 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;
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(implicit as tags will generate in image some type of spots[0049]), each corresponding to one of the at least three positions(Fig. 5 ID1 Id 2 Id 3), 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[0059]
Although D1 and D2 does not explicitly teach . D0 teaches 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.[0050] 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.
D00 teaches alternative or additional method to do the positioning by using
a position locator configured or programmed to locate relative position information between the marine vessel and the trailer that includes at least a distance between the first object and the second object and 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 7 lines 20-col 8 line 40)
It will be obvious to one of ordinary skills in the art to modify teachings taught by D1 with teachings by D00 in order to use well known methods for calculating relative distance direction of approach and many other parameters which can be used in docking for obtaining higher accuracy.
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 )
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)
Claim 25 (previously presented): The position locating system according to claim 1, wherein the relative position information is updated at any time during a position locating process.(implicit col 12 lines 20-52 feedback control minimizing means constantly updates all the information while the vessel moves)
Conclusion
Applicant's amendment necessitated the new ground(s) of rejection presented in this Office action. Accordingly, THIS ACTION IS MADE FINAL. See MPEP § 706.07(a). Applicant is reminded of the extension of time policy as set forth in 37 CFR 1.136(a).
A shortened statutory period for reply to this final action is set to expire THREE MONTHS from the mailing date of this action. In the event a first reply is filed within TWO MONTHS of the mailing date of this final action and the advisory action is not mailed until after the end of the THREE-MONTH shortened statutory period, then the shortened statutory period will expire on the date the advisory action is mailed, and any nonprovisional extension fee (37 CFR 1.17(a)) pursuant to 37 CFR 1.136(a) will be calculated from the mailing date of the advisory action. In no event, however, will the statutory period for reply expire later than SIX MONTHS from the mailing date of this final action.
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/HOVHANNES BAGHDASARYAN/Examiner, Art Unit 3645
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