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 § 102
The following is a quotation of the appropriate paragraphs of 35 U.S.C. 102 that form the basis for the rejections under this section made in this Office action:
A person shall be entitled to a patent unless –
(a)(1) the claimed invention was patented, described in a printed publication, or in public use, on sale, or otherwise available to the public before the effective filing date of the claimed invention.
(a)(2) the claimed invention was described in a patent issued under section 151, or in an application for patent published or deemed published under section 122(b), in which the patent or application, as the case may be, names another inventor and was effectively filed before the effective filing date of the claimed invention.
Claim(s) below is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(2) as being anticipated by Sprunk (20220063662).
Referring to claims 1, 8, and 15, Sprunk shows an apparatus comprising:
at least one memory (see paragraph 182); and
at least one processor coupled to the at least one memory (see paragraph 182), the at least one processor configured to:
receive a plurality of Light Detection and Ranging (LiDAR) points corresponding with a real-world object (see paragraph 84);
determine, for each of the plurality of LiDAR points (see paragraph 92), an image texture based on the real-world object (see paragraph 84 and 92);
generate a surfel object representing the real-world object (see figure 5b and 5c), wherein the surfel object is based on the plurality of LIDAR points and the image texture determined for each of the plurality of LiDAR points (see paragraph 144 and 157-158); and
insert the surfel object into a simulated three-dimensional (3D) environment (see paragraph 26 also see figure 3 steps 302-310).
Referring to claims 2, 9, and 16, Sprunk shows the simulated 3D environment comprises one or more geometrically complete 3D objects (see the simulated environment as shown in figure 5C based on real world 3D objects).
Referring to claims 3, 10, and 17, Sprunk shows the simulated 3D environment comprises a simulated autonomous vehicle (AV) (see paragraph 26 note the simulated environment that is used to train a machine learning model for an autonomous vehicle).
Referring to claims 5, 12, and 19, Sprunk shows to generate a surfel object representing the real-world object, the at least one processor is further configured to: determine, for each of the plurality of LIDAR points, a normal vector associated with a corresponding surface location on the real-world object (see paragraph 23).
Referring to claims 7 and 14, Sprunk shows for each of the plurality of LIDAR points, an image texture based on the real-world object, the at least one processor is further configured to:
determine, for each of the plurality of LiDAR points, a color value associated with the corresponding image texture (see paragraph 31 note the RGB patches).
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) 4, 11, and 18 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Sprunk (20220063662) in view of Kumar (20210286068).
Referring to claims 4, 11, and 18 Sprunk fails to show but Kumar shows the simulated AV is configured to collect synthetic LiDAR data associated with the surfel object, and wherein the synthetic LiDAR data corresponds with the plurality of LiDAR points (see paragraph 115 and figure 12). It would have been obvious to include the synthetic LIDAR data as shown by Kumar because this allows for training of a neural network to develop a better autonomous vehicle as shown by Kumar.
Claim(s) 6, 13, and 20 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Sprunk (20220063662) in view of Wang (20220326382).
Referring to claims 6, 13, and 20 Sprunk fails to show but Wang shows at least one processor is further configure to:
down sample the plurality of LIDAR points based on an object distance metric (see paragraph 145). It would have been obvious to include the down sampling as taught by Wang because this allows the LIDAR device to garner more information from points that are further away as taught by Wang.
Conclusion
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to LUKE D RATCLIFFE whose telephone number is (571)272-3110. The examiner can normally be reached M-F 9:00AM-5:00PM EST.
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/LUKE D RATCLIFFE/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 3645