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 .
This is a Final Action on the merits. Claims 1, 4-7, 18, and 21-24 are currently pending and are addressed below.
Response to Amendments
The amendment filed March 17th, 2026 has been considered and entered. Accordingly, claims 1, 4, and 18 have been amended. Claims 3 and 20 have been canceled. Claims 21-24 have been newly added.
Response to Arguments
The applicant’s arguments with respect to claims 1, 4-7, 18, and 21-24 have been considered but are moot in view of the newly formulated grounds of rejection necessitated by the applicant’s amendment.
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.
Claims 1, 18, and 21-24 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Larin (US 20190255949 A1) (“Larin”) in view of Chaochao (CN 113501004 A) (“Chaochao”) (Translation Attached) in view of Sun (US 20230089742 A1) (“Sun”) in view of Karandikar (US 20130184979 A1) (“Karandikar”).
With respect to claim 1, Larin teaches a driver assistance apparatus comprising: a camera installed in a vehicle, having a field of view around the vehicle, and configured to acquire image data (See at least Larin Paragraph 57 “It would be readily appreciated that other user gestures may activate the gear selection GUI 35. In some embodiments, the gear selector 100 comprises an image capturing device, such as a video camera. Here, the centre console display 20 does not need to be a touch screen. Instead, the image capturing device detects the user gesture, such as a hand wave” | Paragraph 68 “FIG. 3 illustrates a method of controlling a gear selection apparatus 100 according to the previously-described embodiments. In a first step 310, a first user gesture is received from user input apparatus, such as a touch screen or camera”);
a communicator configured to communicate with a predesignated electronic device or a predesignated electronic device or a predesignated server (See at least Larin FIG. 4 and Paragraph 78 “If the received gesture does comprise a drag gesture, then in step 450 the control apparatus 55 controls the actuator 212 to change gear in the transmission 208 according to the gear selected by the user. This means that only a deliberate, drag gesture causes the gear selection system of effect a gear change”)
and a controller including a processor configured to process the image data and the detection data, wherein the controller is configured to: identify a gesture1 corresponding to a predesignated reference gesture based on the image data (See at least Larin Paragraph 57 “It would be readily appreciated that other user gestures may activate the gear selection GUI 35. In some embodiments, the gear selector 100 comprises an image capturing device, such as a video camera. Here, the centre console display 20 does not need to be a touch screen. Instead, the image capturing device detects the user gesture, such as a hand wave” | Paragraph 68 “FIG. 3 illustrates a method of controlling a gear selection apparatus 100 according to the previously-described embodiments. In a first step 310, a first user gesture is received from user input apparatus, such as a touch screen or camera”);
and upon identifying the gesture, change a gear state of the vehicle and control a driving device of the vehicle to move the vehicle (See at least Larin FIGS. 3-4 and Paragraphs 74-80 “FIG. 4 illustrates a method of controlling a gear selection apparatus 100 according to another embodiment of the invention. In a first step 410, the gear selection GUI 35 is displayed on the centre console display 20. Advantageously, the gear selection GUI 35 is also displayed on the instrument cluster display 10 which may allow the user to see the gear the vehicle is currently in without having to turn their attention too far from the road. In step 420, a user gesture is received by the touch-sensitive user input device or centre console display 20. In step 430, the control apparatus 55 determines whether the received user gesture comprises a drag gesture … Also, the gear selection system 100 may omit the determination step 430 and step 420 may comprise receiving a user drag gesture, and the method may proceed directly to step 450 to effect the change of gear in accordance with the received drag gesture.”).
Larin, however, fails to explicitly disclose a radar installed in the vehicle and configured to scan surroundings of the vehicle, detect objects, and acquire detection data around the vehicle and upon identifying the gesture, control the communicator to transmit a control permission request signal for the vehicle to the predesignated electronic device or the predesignated server; receive a control permission signal according to a response to the transmitted control permission request signal; and based on the received control permission signal, match objects detected based on the detection data with objects detected based on the image data, acquire information of objects around the vehicle based on matching results, identify whether the vehicle is movable in a first direction by a predesignated reference distance based on at least one of the image data and the detection data; based on the vehicle being movable, change a gear state of the vehicle to correspond to the first direction and control the driving device to move the vehicle in the first direction by the predesignated reference distance; and control a driving device of the vehicle to move the vehicle.
Chaochao teaches a radar installed in the vehicle and configured to scan surroundings of the vehicle, detect objects, and acquire detection data around the vehicle (See at least Chaochao Paragraph 104 “The monitoring results of the vehicle's external monitoring unit; the external monitoring unit may be, for example, an external temperature monitoring unit, an external air quality monitoring unit, an external humidity monitoring unit, an external noise monitoring unit, an infrared detector, radar, an image acquisition unit for the external environment, a driving recorder, etc.; any component or combination of components that can realize the monitoring of the external environment, events, etc. can be used as the external monitoring unit here, and the monitored content may also be the same as the weather, etc. mentioned above” | Paragraph 131 “In one scenario, the following can be achieved: the radar detects that there are no vehicles 100 meters ahead and the road conditions are clear”)
and upon identifying the gesture, control the communicator to transmit a control permission request signal for the vehicle to the predesignated electronic device or the predesignated server; receive a control permission signal according to a response to the transmitted control permission request signal; and based on the received control permission signal (See at least Chaochao Paragraph 72 “The gesture-based control method and device provided in this embodiment of the invention can be applied to vehicle application scenarios. The gesture-based control method and device can be applied to the vehicle's in-vehicle terminal (or vehicle system), or to a server or other terminal.” | Paragraphs 74-78 “S11: Acquire an image of the vehicle's interior; S12: Recognize gesture information in the in-vehicle image; S13: Determine the current control result for the vehicle based on the gesture information and the vehicle control reference information; S14: Execute the current control result. The in-vehicle images can be any images capable of recording the gestures of people inside the vehicle. They can be captured by an in-vehicle image acquisition unit or an external image acquisition unit. The image acquisition unit can be an image acquisition unit connected to the vehicle terminal or an image acquisition unit integrated into the vehicle terminal, or it can be an image acquisition unit of other terminals.” | Paragraph 97-103 “Furthermore, the environmental state includes, but is not limited to, at least one of the following: The geographical area where the vehicle is located; for example, it can refer to a country, a province, a city, a district, a street, a road, a tunnel, a highway, etc … The congestion status of the road where the vehicle is located; it can be, for example, very congested, moderately congested, or clear, and can vary arbitrarily depending on the definition and calculation method of the congestion status … The relative position between the vehicle and a nearby first object; it may include, for example, relative orientation, relative distance, etc.; the first object may be a static object or a dynamic object, which may be a person, an animal, a vehicle, a building, a roadblock, etc. The relative motion state between the vehicle and a nearby second object; the relative motion state includes at least one of the following: whether relative motion occurs, the speed, acceleration, and direction of the relative motion; the second object can be a static object or a dynamic object, and can be a person, an animal, a vehicle, a building, a roadblock, etc.” | Paragraph 110 “In the above scheme, after recognizing the gesture information, the current control result for the vehicle can be determined based on the gesture information and the vehicle control reference information. Then, the vehicle control reference information (such as vehicle status, environmental status, and vehicle) can be used as the basis for vehicle control. At this time, since the basis is more diverse, a single gesture information is no longer limited to achieving only one control result. It can be seen that, based on limited gesture variations, the present invention helps to match more diverse control results. Meanwhile, the present invention incorporates vehicle control reference information during control, which enables the control results to be accurately matched to the vehicle state and/or environmental state, and to meet the user's various needs in various states in a targeted manner”).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to have modified the apparatus of Larin to include a radar installed in the vehicle and configured to scan surroundings of the vehicle, detect objects, and acquire detection data around the vehicle and upon identifying the gesture, control the communicator to transmit a control permission request signal for the vehicle to the predesignated electronic device or the predesignated server; receive a control permission signal according to a response to the transmitted control permission request signal, as taught by Chaochao as disclosed above, in order to ensure optimal vehicle control (Chaochao Paragraph 4 “This invention provides a gesture-based control method, device, electronic device, and storage medium to solve the problem of difficulty in matching diverse control results”).
Larin in view of Chaochao fail to explicitly disclose based on the received control permission signal, match objects detected based on the detection data with objects detected based on the image data, acquire information of objects around the vehicle based on matching results, identify whether the vehicle is movable in a first direction by a predesignated reference distance based on at least one of the image data and the detection data; based on the vehicle being movable, change a gear state of the vehicle to correspond to the first direction and control the driving device to move the vehicle in the first direction by the predesignated reference distance; and control a driving device of the vehicle to move the vehicle.
Sun teaches based on the received control permission signal, match objects detected based on the detection data with objects detected based on the image data, acquire information of objects around the vehicle based on matching results and control a driving device of the vehicle to move the vehicle (See at least Sun FIG. 2 and 6 and Paragraphs 116-128 “S602: During the driving of a vehicle, collect scene information around the vehicle in real time through an on-board camera deployed on the vehicle to obtain at least one driving scene image. S604: Based on road features extracted from the driving scene image, output at least one of a road slope label, a bend curvature label, a road surface adhesion label, a road surface evenness label, a traffic light label, and a traffic sign label by a second road model. S606: Based on traffic features which are extracted from the driving scene image, output at least one of a pedestrian danger level label, a pedestrian congestion condition label, a motor vehicle danger level label, a motor vehicle congestion condition label, a non-motor vehicle danger level label and a non-motor vehicle congestion condition label by a second traffic model. S608: Based on environment features which are extracted from the driving scene image, output at least one of a road visibility label, a weather condition label, and a light intensity label by a second environment model … S626: Determine label confidences corresponding to the road attribute label, the traffic attribute label, and the environment attribute label, respectively; and in a case that the label confidences corresponding to the road attribute label, the traffic attribute label, and the environment attribute label, respectively are greater than or equal to a preset confidence threshold, control the vehicle during driving through the target gear shifting mode to drive according to the target gear at the target gear shifting time.”).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to have modified the apparatus of Larin in view of Chaochao to include based on the received control permission signal, match objects detected based on the detection data with objects detected based on the image data, acquire information of objects around the vehicle based on matching results and control a driving device of the vehicle to move the vehicle, as taught by Sun as disclosed above, in order to ensure an accurate gear selection for a vehicle (Sun Paragraph 62 “In one or more embodiments, after driving scenes during driving are accurately recognized, more reliable environment information may be provided for the vehicle based on these accurately recognized driving scenes, so that the vehicle may generate a more reasonable target gear shifting mode based on such information”).
Larin in view of Chaochao in view of Sun fail to explicitly disclose to identify whether the vehicle is movable in a first direction by a predesignated reference distance based on at least one of the image data and the detection data; based on the vehicle being movable, change a gear state of the vehicle to correspond to the first direction and control the driving device to move the vehicle in the first direction by the predesignated reference distance.
Karandikar teaches to identify whether the vehicle is movable in a first direction by a predesignated reference distance based on at least one of the image data and the detection data (See at least Karandikar FIG. 7 and Paragraph 41 “If the determination in step 706 is that there is one or more objects within the threshold distance of the vehicle, step 710 detects the selected gear position. This information is also sent to the processing unit. Using this information and the information regarding the detection of objects within the threshold distance, step 712 determines if there is a likelihood of confusion. If the conclusion is that there is no likelihood of confusion, again the process can terminate in step 708. If there is a conclusion of the likelihood of a collision, step 714 alerts the driver of the condition. As mention, the driver alert could be some audible or visual message or some effect on the vehicle. Again as in FIG. 6, the likelihood of a collision can be based on sets or combinations of predetermined conditions. Meeting certain predetermined conditions equals a likelihood of a collision condition that will cause the driver to be alerted.”).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to have modified the apparatus of Larin in view of Chaochao in view of Sun to to identify whether the vehicle is movable in a first direction by a predesignated reference distance based on at least one of the image data and the detection data, as taught by Karandikar as disclosed above, such that a gear state of the vehicle is changed to correspond to the first direction and the driving device is controlled to move the vehicle in the first direction by the predesignated reference distance based on the vehicle being movable, in order to ensure safe vehicle movement (Karandikar Paragraph 1 “ The present invention relates to the detection of the gear shift position and determines if the gear shift position is consistent with a movement of the vehicle that will avoid an accident or collision of the vehicle with objects in close proximity to the vehicle.”).
With respect to claim 18, Larin teaches a driver assistance method comprising: acquiring image data corresponding to a field of view around a vehicle; identifying a gesture corresponding to a predesignated reference gesture based on the image data; acquiring detection data around the vehicle (See at least Larin Paragraph 57 “It would be readily appreciated that other user gestures may activate the gear selection GUI 35. In some embodiments, the gear selector 100 comprises an image capturing device, such as a video camera. Here, the centre console display 20 does not need to be a touch screen. Instead, the image capturing device detects the user gesture, such as a hand wave” | Paragraph 68 “FIG. 3 illustrates a method of controlling a gear selection apparatus 100 according to the previously-described embodiments. In a first step 310, a first user gesture is received from user input apparatus, such as a touch screen or camera”);
and based on identifying the gesture, changing a gear state of the vehicle and controlling a driving device of the vehicle to move the vehicle (See at least Larin FIGS. 3-4 and Paragraphs 74-80 “FIG. 4 illustrates a method of controlling a gear selection apparatus 100 according to another embodiment of the invention. In a first step 410, the gear selection GUI 35 is displayed on the centre console display 20. Advantageously, the gear selection GUI 35 is also displayed on the instrument cluster display 10 which may allow the user to see the gear the vehicle is currently in without having to turn their attention too far from the road. In step 420, a user gesture is received by the touch-sensitive user input device or centre console display 20. In step 430, the control apparatus 55 determines whether the received user gesture comprises a drag gesture … Also, the gear selection system 100 may omit the determination step 430 and step 420 may comprise receiving a user drag gesture, and the method may proceed directly to step 450 to effect the change of gear in accordance with the received drag gesture.”).
Larin, however, fails to explicitly disclose a radar installed in the vehicle and configured to scan surroundings of the vehicle, detect objects, and acquire detection data around the vehicle and upon identifying the gesture, control the communicator to transmit a control permission request signal for the vehicle to the predesignated electronic device or the predesignated server; receive a control permission signal according to a response to the transmitted control permission request signal; and based on the received control permission signal, match objects detected based on the detection data with objects detected based on the image data, acquire information of objects around the vehicle based on matching results, identify whether the vehicle is movable in a first direction by a predesignated reference distance based on at least one of the image data and the detection data; based on the vehicle being movable, change a gear state of the vehicle to correspond to the first direction and control the driving device to move the vehicle in the first direction by the predesignated reference distance; and control a driving device of the vehicle to move the vehicle.
Chaochao teaches a radar installed in the vehicle and configured to scan surroundings of the vehicle, detect objects, and acquire detection data around the vehicle (See at least Chaochao Paragraph 104 “The monitoring results of the vehicle's external monitoring unit; the external monitoring unit may be, for example, an external temperature monitoring unit, an external air quality monitoring unit, an external humidity monitoring unit, an external noise monitoring unit, an infrared detector, radar, an image acquisition unit for the external environment, a driving recorder, etc.; any component or combination of components that can realize the monitoring of the external environment, events, etc. can be used as the external monitoring unit here, and the monitored content may also be the same as the weather, etc. mentioned above” | Paragraph 131 “In one scenario, the following can be achieved: the radar detects that there are no vehicles 100 meters ahead and the road conditions are clear”)
and upon identifying the gesture, control the communicator to transmit a control permission request signal for the vehicle to the predesignated electronic device or the predesignated server; receive a control permission signal according to a response to the transmitted control permission request signal; and based on the received control permission signal (See at least Chaochao Paragraph 72 “The gesture-based control method and device provided in this embodiment of the invention can be applied to vehicle application scenarios. The gesture-based control method and device can be applied to the vehicle's in-vehicle terminal (or vehicle system), or to a server or other terminal.” | Paragraphs 74-78 “S11: Acquire an image of the vehicle's interior; S12: Recognize gesture information in the in-vehicle image; S13: Determine the current control result for the vehicle based on the gesture information and the vehicle control reference information; S14: Execute the current control result. The in-vehicle images can be any images capable of recording the gestures of people inside the vehicle. They can be captured by an in-vehicle image acquisition unit or an external image acquisition unit. The image acquisition unit can be an image acquisition unit connected to the vehicle terminal or an image acquisition unit integrated into the vehicle terminal, or it can be an image acquisition unit of other terminals.” | Paragraph 97-103 “Furthermore, the environmental state includes, but is not limited to, at least one of the following: The geographical area where the vehicle is located; for example, it can refer to a country, a province, a city, a district, a street, a road, a tunnel, a highway, etc … The congestion status of the road where the vehicle is located; it can be, for example, very congested, moderately congested, or clear, and can vary arbitrarily depending on the definition and calculation method of the congestion status … The relative position between the vehicle and a nearby first object; it may include, for example, relative orientation, relative distance, etc.; the first object may be a static object or a dynamic object, which may be a person, an animal, a vehicle, a building, a roadblock, etc. The relative motion state between the vehicle and a nearby second object; the relative motion state includes at least one of the following: whether relative motion occurs, the speed, acceleration, and direction of the relative motion; the second object can be a static object or a dynamic object, and can be a person, an animal, a vehicle, a building, a roadblock, etc.” | Paragraph 110 “In the above scheme, after recognizing the gesture information, the current control result for the vehicle can be determined based on the gesture information and the vehicle control reference information. Then, the vehicle control reference information (such as vehicle status, environmental status, and vehicle) can be used as the basis for vehicle control. At this time, since the basis is more diverse, a single gesture information is no longer limited to achieving only one control result. It can be seen that, based on limited gesture variations, the present invention helps to match more diverse control results. Meanwhile, the present invention incorporates vehicle control reference information during control, which enables the control results to be accurately matched to the vehicle state and/or environmental state, and to meet the user's various needs in various states in a targeted manner”).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to have modified the method of Larin to include a radar installed in the vehicle and configured to scan surroundings of the vehicle, detect objects, and acquire detection data around the vehicle and upon identifying the gesture, control the communicator to transmit a control permission request signal for the vehicle to the predesignated electronic device or the predesignated server; receive a control permission signal according to a response to the transmitted control permission request signal, as taught by Chaochao as disclosed above, in order to ensure optimal vehicle control (Chaochao Paragraph 4 “This invention provides a gesture-based control method, device, electronic device, and storage medium to solve the problem of difficulty in matching diverse control results”).
Larin in view of Chaochao fail to explicitly disclose based on the received control permission signal, match objects detected based on the detection data with objects detected based on the image data, acquire information of objects around the vehicle based on matching results, identify whether the vehicle is movable in a first direction by a predesignated reference distance based on at least one of the image data and the detection data; based on the vehicle being movable, change a gear state of the vehicle to correspond to the first direction and control the driving device to move the vehicle in the first direction by the predesignated reference distance; and control a driving device of the vehicle to move the vehicle.
Sun teaches based on the received control permission signal, match objects detected based on the detection data with objects detected based on the image data, acquire information of objects around the vehicle based on matching results, change a gear state of the vehicle based on the acquired information of the objects around the vehicle, and control a driving device of the vehicle to move the vehicle (See at least Sun FIG. 2 and 6 and Paragraphs 116-128 “S602: During the driving of a vehicle, collect scene information around the vehicle in real time through an on-board camera deployed on the vehicle to obtain at least one driving scene image. S604: Based on road features extracted from the driving scene image, output at least one of a road slope label, a bend curvature label, a road surface adhesion label, a road surface evenness label, a traffic light label, and a traffic sign label by a second road model. S606: Based on traffic features which are extracted from the driving scene image, output at least one of a pedestrian danger level label, a pedestrian congestion condition label, a motor vehicle danger level label, a motor vehicle congestion condition label, a non-motor vehicle danger level label and a non-motor vehicle congestion condition label by a second traffic model. S608: Based on environment features which are extracted from the driving scene image, output at least one of a road visibility label, a weather condition label, and a light intensity label by a second environment model … S626: Determine label confidences corresponding to the road attribute label, the traffic attribute label, and the environment attribute label, respectively; and in a case that the label confidences corresponding to the road attribute label, the traffic attribute label, and the environment attribute label, respectively are greater than or equal to a preset confidence threshold, control the vehicle during driving through the target gear shifting mode to drive according to the target gear at the target gear shifting time.”).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to have modified the method of Larin in view of Chaochao to include based on the received control permission signal, match objects detected based on the detection data with objects detected based on the image data, acquire information of objects around the vehicle based on matching results, change a gear state of the vehicle based on the acquired information of the objects around the vehicle, and control a driving device of the vehicle to move the vehicle, as taught by Sun as disclosed above, in order to ensure an accurate gear selection for a vehicle (Sun Paragraph 62 “In one or more embodiments, after driving scenes during driving are accurately recognized, more reliable environment information may be provided for the vehicle based on these accurately recognized driving scenes, so that the vehicle may generate a more reasonable target gear shifting mode based on such information”).
Larin in view of Chaochao in view of Sun fail to explicitly disclose to identify whether the vehicle is movable in a first direction by a predesignated reference distance based on at least one of the image data and the detection data; based on the vehicle being movable, change a gear state of the vehicle to correspond to the first direction and control the driving device to move the vehicle in the first direction by the predesignated reference distance.
Karandikar teaches to identify whether the vehicle is movable in a first direction by a predesignated reference distance based on at least one of the image data and the detection data (See at least Karandikar FIG. 7 and Paragraph 41 “If the determination in step 706 is that there is one or more objects within the threshold distance of the vehicle, step 710 detects the selected gear position. This information is also sent to the processing unit. Using this information and the information regarding the detection of objects within the threshold distance, step 712 determines if there is a likelihood of confusion. If the conclusion is that there is no likelihood of confusion, again the process can terminate in step 708. If there is a conclusion of the likelihood of a collision, step 714 alerts the driver of the condition. As mention, the driver alert could be some audible or visual message or some effect on the vehicle. Again as in FIG. 6, the likelihood of a collision can be based on sets or combinations of predetermined conditions. Meeting certain predetermined conditions equals a likelihood of a collision condition that will cause the driver to be alerted.”).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to have modified the method of Larin in view of Chaochao in view of Sun to to identify whether the vehicle is movable in a first direction by a predesignated reference distance based on at least one of the image data and the detection data, as taught by Karandikar as disclosed above, such that a gear state of the vehicle is changed to correspond to the first direction and the driving device is controlled to move the vehicle in the first direction by the predesignated reference distance based on the vehicle being movable, in order to ensure safe vehicle movement (Karandikar Paragraph 1 “ The present invention relates to the detection of the gear shift position and determines if the gear shift position is consistent with a movement of the vehicle that will avoid an accident or collision of the vehicle with objects in close proximity to the vehicle.”).
With respect to claim 21, and similarly claim 23, Larin in view of Chaochao in view of Sun in view of Karandikar the controller is further configured to:identify an object approaching the vehicle based on at least one of the image data and the detection data; control a speaker to output a warning sound in response to a distance between the vehicle and the approaching object being equal to or less than a first reference distance; and based on the distance between the vehicle and the object being a predesignated second distance that is shorter than the predesignated first reference distance, change a gear state of the vehicle (See at least Karandikar FIG. 7 and Paragraph 41 “If the determination in step 706 is that there is one or more objects within the threshold distance of the vehicle, step 710 detects the selected gear position. This information is also sent to the processing unit. Using this information and the information regarding the detection of objects within the threshold distance, step 712 determines if there is a likelihood of confusion. If the conclusion is that there is no likelihood of confusion, again the process can terminate in step 708. If there is a conclusion of the likelihood of a collision, step 714 alerts the driver of the condition. As mention, the driver alert could be some audible or visual message or some effect on the vehicle. Again as in FIG. 6, the likelihood of a collision can be based on sets or combinations of predetermined conditions. Meeting certain predetermined conditions equals a likelihood of a collision condition that will cause the driver to be alerted.”) (See at least Sun FIG. 2 and 6 and Paragraphs 116-128 “S602: During the driving of a vehicle, collect scene information around the vehicle in real time through an on-board camera deployed on the vehicle to obtain at least one driving scene image. S604: Based on road features extracted from the driving scene image, output at least one of a road slope label, a bend curvature label, a road surface adhesion label, a road surface evenness label, a traffic light label, and a traffic sign label by a second road model. S606: Based on traffic features which are extracted from the driving scene image, output at least one of a pedestrian danger level label, a pedestrian congestion condition label, a motor vehicle danger level label, a motor vehicle congestion condition label, a non-motor vehicle danger level label and a non-motor vehicle congestion condition label by a second traffic model. S608: Based on environment features which are extracted from the driving scene image, output at least one of a road visibility label, a weather condition label, and a light intensity label by a second environment model … S626: Determine label confidences corresponding to the road attribute label, the traffic attribute label, and the environment attribute label, respectively; and in a case that the label confidences corresponding to the road attribute label, the traffic attribute label, and the environment attribute label, respectively are greater than or equal to a preset confidence threshold, control the vehicle during driving through the target gear shifting mode to drive according to the target gear at the target gear shifting time.”).
With respect to claim 22, and similarly claim 24, Larin in view of Chaochao in view of Sun in view of Karandikar teach the controller is further configured to: based on identifying the gesture, identify whether the vehicle is movable in a first direction by avoiding collision with the approaching object based on at least one of the image data and the detection data; and based on the vehicle being movable without collision risk, change the gear state of the vehicle to correspond to the first direction and control the driving device to move the vehicle in the first direction while maintaining safe distance from the approaching object (See at least Karandikar FIG. 7 and Paragraph 41 “If the determination in step 706 is that there is one or more objects within the threshold distance of the vehicle, step 710 detects the selected gear position. This information is also sent to the processing unit. Using this information and the information regarding the detection of objects within the threshold distance, step 712 determines if there is a likelihood of confusion. If the conclusion is that there is no likelihood of confusion, again the process can terminate in step 708. If there is a conclusion of the likelihood of a collision, step 714 alerts the driver of the condition. As mention, the driver alert could be some audible or visual message or some effect on the vehicle. Again as in FIG. 6, the likelihood of a collision can be based on sets or combinations of predetermined conditions. Meeting certain predetermined conditions equals a likelihood of a collision condition that will cause the driver to be alerted.”) (See at least Sun FIG. 2 and 6 and Paragraph 39 “The image features are data that may reflect scene features around the vehicle. The image features include road features, traffic features, and environment features. The road features are data used for reflecting road features in the driving scene, and may reflect color value distribution, brightness value distribution, and depth distribution of pixels of a road surface and road facilities. The traffic features are data for reflecting traffic participant features in the driving scene, and may reflect one or more types of feature information such as distances among pedestrians, motor vehicles and non-motor vehicles. The environment features are data for reflecting environment features in the driving scene, and may reflect brightness distribution and depth distribution of pixels such as sky and trees.” | Paragraphs 116-128 “S602: During the driving of a vehicle, collect scene information around the vehicle in real time through an on-board camera deployed on the vehicle to obtain at least one driving scene image. S604: Based on road features extracted from the driving scene image, output at least one of a road slope label, a bend curvature label, a road surface adhesion label, a road surface evenness label, a traffic light label, and a traffic sign label by a second road model. S606: Based on traffic features which are extracted from the driving scene image, output at least one of a pedestrian danger level label, a pedestrian congestion condition label, a motor vehicle danger level label, a motor vehicle congestion condition label, a non-motor vehicle danger level label and a non-motor vehicle congestion condition label by a second traffic model. S608: Based on environment features which are extracted from the driving scene image, output at least one of a road visibility label, a weather condition label, and a light intensity label by a second environment model … S626: Determine label confidences corresponding to the road attribute label, the traffic attribute label, and the environment attribute label, respectively; and in a case that the label confidences corresponding to the road attribute label, the traffic attribute label, and the environment attribute label, respectively are greater than or equal to a preset confidence threshold, control the vehicle during driving through the target gear shifting mode to drive according to the target gear at the target gear shifting time.”).
Claim 4 is rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Larin (US 20190255949 A1) (“Larin”) in view of Chaochao (CN 113501004 A) (“Chaochao”) (Translation Attached) in view of Sun (US 20230089742 A1) (“Sun”) in view of Karandikar (US 20130184979 A1) (“Karandikar”) further in view of Mimura (US 20200290648 A1) (“Mimura”).
With respect to claim 4, Larin in view of Chaochao in view of Sun in view of Karandikar fail to explicitly disclose the controller is configured to identify the first direction based on at least one of the image data or the detection data acquired in a second direction opposite to the first direction.
Mimura teaches that the controller is configured to identify the first direction based on at least one of the image data or the detection data acquired in a second direction opposite to the first direction (See at least Mimura Paragraphs 44-45 “The recognizer 130 recognizes states such as positions, speeds, or acceleration of objects around the own vehicle M based on information input from the camera 10, the radar device 12, and the finder 14 via the object recognition device 16. For example, the positions of the objects are recognized as positions on the absolute coordinates in which a representative point (a center of gravity, a center of a driving shaft, or the like) of the own vehicle M is the origin and are used for control. The positions of the objects may be represented as representative points such as centers of gravity, corners, or the like of the objects or may be represented as expressed regions. A “state” of an object may include acceleration or jerk of the object or an “action state” (for example, whether a vehicle is changing a lane or is attempting to change the lane). The recognizer 130 recognizes, for example, a lane in which the own vehicle M is traveling (a travel lane). For example, the recognizer 130 recognizes the travel lane by comparing patterns of road mark lines (for example, arrangement of solid lines and broken lines) obtained from the second map information 62 with patterns of road mark lines around the own vehicle M recognized from images captured by the camera 10. The recognizer 130 may recognize a travel lane by mainly recognizing runway boundaries (road boundaries) including road mark lines or shoulders, curbstones, median strips, and guardrails without being limited to road mark lines. In this recognition, the position of the own vehicle M acquired from the navigation device 50 or a process result by INS may be added. The recognizer 130 recognizes temporary stop lines, obstacles, red signals, toll gates, and other road events.”).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to have modified the apparatus of Larin in view of Chaochao in view of Sun in view of Karandikar to include that the controller is configured to identify the first direction based on at least one of the image data or the detection data acquired in a second direction opposite to the first direction, as taught by Mimura as disclosed above, in order to ensure safe driving (Mimura Paragraph 5 “The present invention is devised in view of such circumstances and an objective of the present invention is to provide a vehicle control system, a vehicle control method, and a storage medium capable of stopping a vehicle near an occupant with high precision”).
Claims 5-7 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Larin (US 20190255949 A1) (“Larin”) in view of Chaochao (CN 113501004 A) (“Chaochao”) (Translation Attached) in view of Sun (US 20230089742 A1) (“Sun”) in view of Karandikar (US 20130184979 A1) (“Karandikar”) further in view of Han (US 20200172090 A1) (“Han”).
With respect to claim 5, Larin in view of Chaochao in view of Sun in view of Karandikar fails to explicitly disclose that the camera includes at least one of a first camera having a front field of view of the vehicle and a second camera having a rear field of view of the vehicle, and the controller is configured to: based on identifying the gesture based on first image data acquired through the first camera, control the driving device to move the vehicle backward; and based on identifying the gesture based on second image data acquired through the second camera, control the driving device to move the vehicle forward.
Han teaches the camera includes at least one of a first camera having a front field of view of the vehicle and a second camera having a rear field of view of the vehicle (See at least Han Paragraph 42 “The controller 150 may enable first and second cameras (front and rear cameras) to operate for a preset time period from a time point of receiving the first bar code (S120).”), and the controller is configured to: based on identifying the gesture based on first image data acquired through the first camera, control the driving device to move the vehicle backward; and based on identifying the gesture based on second image data acquired through the second camera, control the driving device to move the vehicle forward (See at least Han Paragraphs 43-50 “The controller 150 may determine whether the second bar code 310 displayed on the screen of the second terminal 300 is photographed and recognized, through any one of the first and second cameras … When the second bar code 310 is photographed and recognized through any one of the first and second cameras for the preset time period (S130) and the received first bar code and the recognized second bar code 310 are identical with each other, the controller 150 may control the driver 140 to move the double-parked vehicle 200 in a corresponding to the second bar code 310 (S140) … For example, in FIG. 3A, when the second bar code 310 displayed on the screen of the second terminal 300 is photographed and recognized through the second camera that is the rear camera of the double-parked vehicle 200, the controller 150 may control the driver 140 to move the double-parked vehicle 200 forward in an opposite direction to a direction in which the second camera photographs a rear side. In more detail, when the second bar code 310 displayed on the screen of the second terminal 300 is photographed and recognized through the second camera that is the rear camera, the controller 150 may control the driver 140 to turn on the double-parked vehicle 200, to position a transmission of the double-parked vehicle 200 in stage D, and to move the double-parked vehicle 200 forward. In addition, when the second bar code 310 is not photographed and recognized through the second camera for the preset time period while the double-parked vehicle 200 is moved forward, the controller 150 may control the driver 140 to stop the double-parked vehicle 200 that is currently moved forward, to change the transmission to stage P from stage D, to turn on an electronic parking brake (EPB), and then to turn off the double-parked vehicle 200. In addition, the controller 150 may maintain a state in which the double-parked vehicle 200 is currently moved forward or stop the double-parked vehicle 200 depending on a change in a display size of the second bar code 310 photographed through the camera, according to the procedure of FIGS. 4A and 4B”).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to have modified the apparatus of Larin in view of Chaochao in view of Sun in view of Karandikar to include that the camera includes at least one of a first camera having a front field of view of the vehicle and a second camera having a rear field of view of the vehicle, and the controller is configured to: based on identifying the gesture based on first image data acquired through the first camera, control the driving device to move the vehicle backward; and based on identifying the gesture based on second image data acquired through the second camera, control the driving device to move the vehicle forward, as taught by Han as disclosed above, in order to ensure accurate vehicle movement (Han Paragraph 2 “The present disclosure relates to a vehicle, and more particularly, to an apparatus and method for controlling movement of a double-parked vehicle.”).
With respect to claim 6, Larin in view of Chaochao in view of Sun in view of Karandikar in view of Han teach that the controller is configured to: based on identifying the gesture based on the first image data, change the gear state of the vehicle into a reverse state; and based on identifying the gesture based on the second image data, change the gear state of the vehicle into a drive state (See at least Han Paragraphs 43-50 “The controller 150 may determine whether the second bar code 310 displayed on the screen of the second terminal 300 is photographed and recognized, through any one of the first and second cameras … When the second bar code 310 is photographed and recognized through any one of the first and second cameras for the preset time period (S130) and the received first bar code and the recognized second bar code 310 are identical with each other, the controller 150 may control the driver 140 to move the double-parked vehicle 200 in a corresponding to the second bar code 310 (S140) … For example, in FIG. 3A, when the second bar code 310 displayed on the screen of the second terminal 300 is photographed and recognized through the second camera that is the rear camera of the double-parked vehicle 200, the controller 150 may control the driver 140 to move the double-parked vehicle 200 forward in an opposite direction to a direction in which the second camera photographs a rear side. In more detail, when the second bar code 310 displayed on the screen of the second terminal 300 is photographed and recognized through the second camera that is the rear camera, the controller 150 may control the driver 140 to turn on the double-parked vehicle 200, to position a transmission of the double-parked vehicle 200 in stage D, and to move the double-parked vehicle 200 forward. In addition, when the second bar code 310 is not photographed and recognized through the second camera for the preset time period while the double-parked vehicle 200 is moved forward, the controller 150 may control the driver 140 to stop the double-parked vehicle 200 that is currently moved forward, to change the transmission to stage P from stage D, to turn on an electronic parking brake (EPB), and then to turn off the double-parked vehicle 200. In addition, the controller 150 may maintain a state in which the double-parked vehicle 200 is currently moved forward or stop the double-parked vehicle 200 depending on a change in a display size of the second bar code 310 photographed through the camera, according to the procedure of FIGS. 4A and 4B”).
With respect to claim 7, Larin in view of Chaochao in view of Sun in view of Karandikar fails to explicitly disclose that the controller is configured to, based on the vehicle being moved by a predesignated reference distance, change the gear state of the vehicle into a parking state.
Han teaches that the controller is configured to, based on the vehicle being moved by a predesignated reference distance, change the gear state of the vehicle into a parking state (See at least Han Paragraphs 37-38 “In one embodiment, the driver 140 may turn on the double-parked vehicle 200 under the control of the controller 150, and when the double-parked vehicle 200 needs to be moved forward, the driver 140 may position a transmission in stage D to move the double-parked vehicle 200 forward under the control of the controller 150, may turn on an electronic parking brake (EPB) of the double-parked vehicle 200, which is currently moved forward, under the control of the controller 150, may re-turn off the EPB in an on-state to move the double-parked vehicle 200 forward again under the control of the controller 150, and may turn on the EPB of the double-parked vehicle 200, change a transmission to stage P from stage D, and then turn off the double-parked vehicle 200 under the control of the controller 150. In another embodiment, the driver 140 may turn on the double-parked vehicle 200 under the control of the controller 150, and when the double-parked vehicle 200 needs to be moved backward, the driver 140 may position a transmission in stage R to move the double-parked vehicle 200 backward under the control of the controller 150, may turn on an electronic parking brake (EPB) of the double-parked vehicle 200, which is currently moved backward, under the control of the controller 150, may re-turn off the EPB in an on-state to move the double-parked vehicle 200 backward again under the control of the controller 150, and may turn on the EPB of the double-parked vehicle 200, change a transmission to stage P from stage R, and then turn off the double-parked vehicle 200 under the control of the controller 150”).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to have modified the apparatus of Larin in view of Chaochao in view of Sun in view of Karandikar to include that the controller is configured to, based on the vehicle being moved by a predesignated reference distance, change the gear state of the vehicle into a parking state, as taught by Han as disclosed above, in order to ensure accurate vehicle movement (Han Paragraph 2 “The present disclosure relates to a vehicle, and more particularly, to an apparatus and method for controlling movement of a double-parked vehicle.”).
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.
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to IBRAHIM ABDOALATIF ALSOMAIRY whose telephone number is (571)272-5653. The examiner can normally be reached M-F 7:30-5:30.
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If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner’s supervisor, Faris Almatrahi can be reached at 313-446-4821. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300.
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/IBRAHIM ABDOALATIF ALSOMAIRY/ Examiner, Art Unit 3667 /KENNETH J MALKOWSKI/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 3667
1 There is no limiting definition as to what constitutes a gesture.
Prosecution Insights