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 Objections
Claim 7 is objected to because of the following informalities: the claim recites the limitation “…resolving the stopping element…” [emphasis added]. There is insufficient antecedent basis for this limitation in the claim. Appropriate correction is required.
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 (i.e., changing from AIA to pre-AIA ) 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.
Claim(s) 1, 3-4, 7-9, 11, 13-14 and 17-19 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over KITANI (US 2014/0035391 A1, hereinafter KITANI) in view of WU et al. (US 2015/0069969 A1, hereinafter WU).
Regarding claims 1 and 11 (claim 1 is considered representative for limitations matching purposes), KITANI discloses an electric moving object of guiding a situation of wireless charging (See Fig.3 and Par.111, disclose a wireless power receiving device comprising an electric vehicle), the electric moving object comprising:
a power reception module unit configured to receive power through a power transmission module unit of a wireless charging device (See Fig.3, Items#30+31, disclose a power receiving coil and a power receiver for receiving wireless power from a power transmitting device 2);
a charging controller configured to control a charging operation (See Fig.3, Items#38+34, and Pars.119, and 127-129 disclose a controller and charge manager, the items together control the charging of the storage battery 33. The controller 38 controls the entire process including charging process the display 36 through display controller 382 which is part of the controller 38) and to generate data associated with a charging obstacle that occurs during a charging abnormality (See Par.119, discloses charge manager 34 monitors input voltage and controls charging and data to display if charging is normally performed. Pars.94 and 98, disclose displaying an error in charging when the amount of charge received is less than a value and providing instructions for the user to make adjustments);
and a processor configured to transmit data associated with the information on the charging situation so that the data is displayed on a user device (See Fig.3, Item#382 and Pars.94 and 98, discloses displaying an error when a small amount of power is received or failure of communication between the charger and the receiver).
However, KITANI does not disclose the charging controller generates data associated with a charging situation including charging progress information.
WU discloses a vehicle guiding a wireless charging, the vehicle comprising a controller which generates data associated with a charging situation including charging progress information (See Fig.4, discloses a graphical user interface providing charging information to the user 402. Fig.5 shows displaying when “alignment failed” and “foreign object detected”. Both considered to be charging obstacles that occur during a charging abnormality).
KITANI and WU are analogous art since they both deal with vehicle wireless charging.
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the invention to modify the invention disclosed by KITANI with the teachings of WU by generating charging progress in addition to charging obstacle information for the benefit of allowing the user to monitor charging progress.
Regarding claims 3 and 13 (Claim 3 is considered representative for limitation matching purposes), KITANI and WU disclose the electric moving object of claim 1 as discussed above, wherein the charging obstacle information is information indicating an element that causes temporary stop of the charging operation or charging failure by the charging abnormality (See KITANI, Pars.94 and 98, disclose displaying an error when a small amount of energy or a communication failure which causes a temporary stop of electric power occurs).
Regarding claims 4 and 14 (claim 4 is considered representative for limitation matching purposes), KITANI and WU disclose the electric moving object of claim 3 as discussed above, wherein the charging obstacle information includes at least one of pairing abnormality information caused by a poor pairing connection between the power transmission unit and the power reception unit (See KITANI, Par.98, discloses detecting failure of normal data communication with the power receiving device 3) or power transmission module abnormality information indicating an abnormal situation of the power transmission module unit (See KITANI, Par.98, discloses detecting an abnormality based on receiving an extremely small amount of power).
Regarding claims 7 and 17, KITANI and WU disclose the electric moving object of claim 3 as discussed above, However, KITANI and WU do not disclose wherein the processor is further configured to display data associated with guide information resolving the stopping element on the user device, when resolving the stopping element in case of stop of charging due to the charging abnormality, and wherein, when the stopping element is not resolved, the processor is further configured to display data associated with the charging obstacle information, which causes the charging failure, on the user device.
WU further discloses displaying data associated with guide information resolving the stopping element on the user device (See Fig.5, Item#502, discloses displaying arrows and a presentation of the location of the charge transmitting device to guide the user to align the charge receiving device with the charge transmitting device), when a stopping element is not resolved, the processor is further configured to display data associated with the charging obstacle information, which causes the charging failure, on the user device (See Fig.5, Item#506 and 508, disclose displaying when alignment fails or when a foreign object is present in the charging area).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the invention to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the invention to modify the invention disclosed by KITANI and WU as applied to claim 3 with the further teachings of WU by adding guidance to resolve a stopping issue (misalignment) and providing an indication when alignment fails for the benefit of alerting the user to take proper action needed for improving the charging efficiency.
Regarding claims 8 and 18 (claim 8 is considered representative for limitation matching purposes), KITANI and WU disclose the electric moving object of claim 1 as discussed above, However KITANI and WU as applied to claim 1 do not disclose wherein the electric moving object is configured to transmit the data associated with the information on the charging situation to a server, and wherein the user device is configured to receive the information on the charging situation, which is generated based on the data, from the server.
WU further teaches performing the execution of the software to identify an error on an external server (See Par.33, discloses performing the functions on a server or a remote computer).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the invention to modify the invention disclosed by KITANI and WU as applied to claim 3 with the further teachings of WU by performing the stopping/abnormality detection on a server for the benefit of reducing the infrastructure cost by centralizing the determination process.
Regarding claims 9 and 19, KITANI and WU disclose the electric moving object of claim 1, wherein, when the electric moving object enters a charging zone of the wireless charging device, the processor is further configured to:
maintain a predetermined distance to an object around the charging zone (See KITANI, Pars.94 and 98, disclose generating an error message when the received power amount is too small or there is a problem in pairing. This is interpreted to be an output that instructs the user to be within a certain distance from the charging coil in order to perform pairing and efficient charging), However, KITANI and WU as applied to claim 1 do not disclose generating information on a charging location that realizes normal pairing between the power transmission module unit and the power reception module unit, and
provide the information on the charging location to any one of a display of the electric moving object and the user device.
WU further teaches generating information on a charging location that realizes normal pairing between the power transmission module unit and the power reception module unit (See Fig.4, Item#410, discloses direction arrows and an indication of the location of the charge transmitting coil to allow the user to perform alignment that realizes normal pairing between the power transmission module and the power reception module), and
provide the information on the charging location to any one of a display of the electric moving object and the user device (See Fig.4, Item#410 and 412, disclose displaying direction of alignment and alignment status to the user).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the invention to modify the invention disclosed by KITNAI and WU as applied to claim 1 with the further teachings of WU by providing information on the charging location that provides normal pairing between the power transmission device and the power reception device for the benefit of allowing the user to steer the vehicle to a position where efficient charging takes place.
Claim(s) 2, 5-6, 10, 12, 15-16 and 20 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over KITANI in view of WU and in further view of FISHER (US 2014/0132208, hereinafter FISHER).
Regarding claims 2 and 12 (claim 2 is considered representative for limitation purposes), KITANI and WU disclose the electric moving object of claim 1 as discussed above, wherein the charging progress information includes charging state information (See KITANI, Pars 94, 98 and 119, discloses the display receives the charging state i.e. normal charge is not performed) which includes a charging amount according to the charging operation (See WU, Fig.4, discloses charging amount 402 is displayed. This feature is disclosed by KITANI in view of WU as applied to claim 1), and pairing information between the power transmission module unit and the power reception module unit (Pars.94 and 98, discloses displaying an error when a failure of communication between the charger and the receiver takes place).
However, KITANI and WU as applied to claim 1 do not disclose the charging progress information which includes charging state information includes charging efficiency and an expected charging time.
WU further teaches displaying information including expected charging time (See Fig.4, Item#408).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the invention to modify the invention disclosed by KITANI and WU as applied to claim 1 with the teachings of WU by displaying the expected charging time for the benefit of alerting the user to the time needed for the vehicle to reach the charging target.
However, KITANI and WU do not disclose the charging progress information which includes charging state information includes charging efficiency.
FISHER discloses a vehicle guiding and wireless charging system, comprising displaying charging efficiency (See Figs.5-6, and Par.35disclose displaying charging efficiency).
KITANI, WU and FISHER are analogous art since they all deal with vehicle wireless charging.
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the invention to modify the invention disclosed by KITANI and WU with the teachings of FISHER by displaying the charging efficiency for the benefit of providing a visual indication to the user of the current charging efficiency to make proper adjustments to increase the charging efficiency.
Regarding claims 5 and 15 (claim 5 is considered representative for limitation matching purposes), KITANI and WU disclose the electric moving object of claim 4 as discussed above, However KITANI and WU do not disclose further including:
an image acquisition unit configured to obtain a surround image of the electric moving object, wherein the pairing misalignment information and the power transmission module abnormality information are provided as an image that estimates the misalignment and the abnormal situation based on the surround image which is obtained from the image acquisition unit during the charging operation.
FISHER discloses a vehicle comprising an image acquisition unit configured to obtain a surround image of the vehicle (See Figs.2-3, Items#38 and Pars.29-39, disclose sensors on the vehicle comprising an imaging device to detect location of the vehicle with respect to the charging device and generate alignment data as shown in Fig.5, Item#50), wherein the pairing misalignment information and the power transmission module abnormality information are provided as an image that estimates the misalignment and the abnormal situation based on the surround image which is obtained from the image acquisition unit during the charging operation (See Figs.5-6 disclose displaying charging efficiency [62] and alignment instructions to the user to correct alignment [50]. KITANI, Pars.94 and 98, disclose detecting pairing/communication misalignment and displaying an error message. KITANI as modified by the teachings of WU and FISHER would provide a visual representation as disclosed by FISHER when one of those detections i.e. pairing misalignment, misalignment detected by camera is detected).
KITANI, WU and FISHER are analogous art since they all deal with vehicle wireless charging.
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the invention to modify the invention disclosed by KITANI and WU with the teachings of FISHER by adding the image acquisition units to detect misalignment between the vehicle and the charger for the benefit of providing an additional way to detect misalignment besides communication/pairing failure in order to ensure proper alignment.
Regarding claims 6 and 16, KITANI, WU and FISHER disclose the electric moving object of claim 5 as discussed above, wherein the power transmission module unit includes a detector configured to detect the abnormal situation, wherein the power transmission module unit is further configured to transmit, to the processor (See KITANI, Pars.94 and 98, disclose detecting that an extremely small amount of power is received i.e. low efficiency and the data is sent to the display to output an error message).
However, KITANI, WU and FISHER as applied to claim 5 do not disclose transmit abnormal situation data associated with presence of an object on the power transmission module unit, which is detected by the detector, and with an impact on the power transmission module unit caused by the object, wherein the processor is further configured to identify the object from the surround image associated with the abnormal situation data, and
wherein the power transmission module abnormality information is provided as an image that estimates the abnormal situation based on the identified object.
WU further discloses detecting a foreign object between a power transmission module and the power receiver and displaying an image alerting the user of the presence of a foreign object (See Par.73 and Fig.5, Item#508, disclose detecting a foreign object, the presence of a foreign object has an adverse effect on power transmission. FISHER further discloses as applied to claim 5 imaging device which detects the area around the vehicle. Therefore, KITANI and modified by WU and FISHER discloses detecting the presence of a foreign object around the vehicle using the imaging device).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the invention to modify the invention disclosed by KITANI, WU and FISHER as applied to claim 5 with the further teachings of WU by using the imaging device to detect the presence of a foreign object for the benefit of alerting the user such that the user takes action by removing the foreign object to enhance the charging efficiency.
Regarding claims 10 and 20 (claim 10 is considered representative for limitation matching purposes), KITANI and WU disclose the electric moving object of claim 9 as discussed above, However, KITANI and WU do not disclose wherein the information on the charging location is displayed to include a virtual charging park line where the electric moving object is parked within the charging zone.
FISHER discloses a vehicle comprising a user device on which information on the charging location is displayed to include a virtual charging park line where the electric moving object is parked within the charging zone (See Figs.4-5, Item#48, disclose a display on which a virtual charging park line is displayed to provide alignment guidance).
KITANI, WU and FISHER are analogous art since they all deal with vehicle wireless charging.
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the invention to modify the invention disclosed by KITANI and WU with the teachings of FISHER by displaying charging park line on the user device for the benefit of provide alignment guidance to the user to achieve efficient charging.
Conclusion
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/AHMED H OMAR/ Examiner, Art Unit 2859