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 .
DETAILED ACTION
This office action is in regards to application # 18/071,311 that was filed on 11/19/2022. Claims 1-18 are currently pending and are under examination.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 112
The following is a quotation of 35 U.S.C. 112(b):
(b) CONCLUSION.—The specification shall conclude with one or more claims particularly pointing out and distinctly claiming the subject matter which the inventor or a joint inventor regards as the invention.
The following is a quotation of 35 U.S.C. 112 (pre-AIA ), second paragraph:
The specification shall conclude with one or more claims particularly pointing out and distinctly claiming the subject matter which the applicant regards as his invention.
Claims 1-18 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 112(b) or 35 U.S.C. 112 (pre-AIA ), second paragraph, as being indefinite for failing to particularly point out and distinctly claim the subject matter which the inventor or a joint inventor (or for applications subject to pre-AIA 35 U.S.C. 112, the applicant), regards as the invention.
Claim 1 recites “ … forming a contour of an object to be separated by connecting peak points among point data of the object to be separated…” in line 3-4. It is not clear how a physical object can be separated as described in the claim? Is the claim mean to say point data that seem to be connected as a single object on a lidar sensor data that needs to be separated to represent distinct objects in the vehicle environment? If that’s what the applicant mean, the claim need to be amended to clarify that. As it stands the examiner is not clear how an object can be separated and it is not clear if the object being separated is data point or a physical object that is being detected outside of the lidar sensor. Therefore, claim 1 is considered vague and indefinite.
Claim 12 recites “ … forming a contour of an object to be separated by connecting peak points among point data of the object to be separated…” in line 4-5. It is not clear how a physical object can be separated as described in the claim? Is the claim mean to say point data that seem to be connected as a single object on a lidar sensor data that needs to be separated to represent distinct objects in the vehicle environment? If that’s what the applicant mean, the claim need to be amended to clarify that. As it stands the examiner is not clear how an object can be separated and it is not clear if the object being separated is data point or a physical object that is being detected outside of the lidar sensor. Therefore, claim 1 is considered vague and indefinite.
Claim 13 recites “ … upon determining that the recognized objects include an object to be separated, to determine, in a contour of the object to be separated formed by connecting peak points among point data of the object to be separated…” in line 4-6. It is not clear how a physical object can be separated as described in the claim? Is the claim mean to say point data that seem to be connected as a single object on a lidar sensor data that needs to be separated to represent distinct objects in the vehicle environment? If that’s what the applicant mean, the claim need to be amended to clarify that. As it stands the examiner is not clear how an object can be separated and it is not clear if the object being separated is data point or a physical object that is being detected outside of the lidar sensor. Therefore, claim 1 is considered vague and indefinite.
All dependent claims are rejected under the same rational as the rejection of the parent claims solely based on their dependency from the rejected parent claims.
Conclusion
The prior art made of record and not relied upon is considered pertinent to applicant's disclosure.
Lo et al. discussed methods for detecting "structure lines" based on the topology of elevation changes in LiDAR point clouds have been studied, where lines are identified by connecting points that represent sharp reliefs or steep changes (peak points).
Andres et al. discloses separation of overlapping objects (2021) by spatiotemporal segmentation to "identify and separate individual change forms" from 3D LiDAR time series data. This addresses the core problem similarly by taking a single cluster of point data and determining how to divide it into distinct, recognized objects.
Samet et al. discussed semi-automatic approaches for the reconstruction of contour lines by following local and geometric properties of point clouds. This includes "reconnecting" broken contour lines based on geometric alignments, which is similar to the concept of connecting peak points to define a boundary.
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to ASSRES H WOLDEMARYAM whose telephone number is (571)272-6607. The examiner can normally be reached Monday-Friday 8AM-5PM.
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Assres H. Woldemaryam
Primary Examiner (Aeronautics and Astronautics)
Art Unit 3642
/ASSRES H WOLDEMARYAM/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 3642