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 Amendment
The amendment filed 08/27/2025 has been entered. Claims 1, 4-11, and 13-15 are pending
Response to Arguments
Applicant’s arguments, see Paragraph 2 Page 8, filed 08/27/2025, with respect to the Abstract and claim objections have been fully considered and are persuasive. The objections of the Abstract and claims have been withdrawn.
Applicant’s arguments, see Paragraph 1 and 2 of Page 9, filed 08/27/2025, with respect to claims 1 and 11 have been fully considered and are persuasive. The 112(b) rejection of claims 1 and 11 have been withdrawn.
Applicant’s arguments, see Paragraph 3 Page 9 to Paragraph 2 Page 11, filed 08/27/2025, with respect to the rejection(s) of claim(s) 1 and 11 under 102(a)(1) have been fully considered and are persuasive. Therefore, the rejection has been withdrawn. However, upon further consideration, there is a new form of rejection in view of Jain (US 20200005566 A1) further in view of Kunz (US 20230017983 A1). Additionally, claim 15 is still rejected under U.S.C. 101 as the amendment fails to mention a nontransitory ‘medium’ as per MPEP 2106 (MPEP 2106.03). As claim 15 is currently written it is still considered software.
Additionally, the amendments appear to be the results of using color during track changes and the text appears grey to the Examiner. 37 CFR 1.121(a) says amendments have to comply with 37 CFR 1.52. and, 37 CFR 1.52(a)(1)(iv) says that the text needs to be "in permanent dark ink or its equivalent."
Claim Objections
Claim 1 is objected to because of the following informalities: In the limitation “wherein the second transceiver (14) of the first object (10) is spaced from the first transceiver (12) of the first object (120) by a distance c” the Examiner thinks ‘120’ should be ‘10’.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 101
35 U.S.C. 101 reads as follows:
Whoever invents or discovers any new and useful process, machine, manufacture, or composition of matter, or any new and useful improvement thereof, may obtain a patent therefor, subject to the conditions and requirements of this title.
Claim 15 is rejected under 35 U.S.C. 101 because the claimed invention is directed to non-statutory subject matter. The claim does not fall within at least one of the four categories of patent eligible subject matter because claim 15 discloses “A nontransitory computer program product (200) comprising an executable program code” and the computer program needs to be explicitly attached to a nontransitory physical medium or memory or similarly some storage device for it to be considered nontransitory.
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, 4, 5, 6, 10, 11, 13, 14, 15 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Jain (US 20200005566 A1) in view of Kunz (US 20230017983 A1).
Regarding claim 1 Jain discloses
A method for determining the position of a moving first object (10) relative to another second object (20) (Abstract, “A vehicle access system having a plurality of system nodes arranged throughout a vehicle is disclosed. The vehicle access system employs a communication protocol which utilizes two way ranging (TWR) and time distance of arrival (TDoA) localization processes to determine a position of a target portable device”), comprising the following method steps:- transmitting (S10) a first pulse signal (SI) having a short temporal pulse duration from a first transceiver (12) of the first object (10) to a first transceiver (22) of the second object (20), and returning the first pulse signal (SI) from the first transceiver (22) of the second object (20) to the first transceiver (12) of the first object (10) (Paragraph 0021, "In at least one embodiment, ultra-wideband (UWB) communications are utilized between the system nodes 20 and the target portable device 30 to enable localization thereof" where UWB devices use pulses; Paragraph 0031, "Here, the initiator I sends the poll message 102 with a sequence number seq# and the timestamp t.sub.1. The sequence number seq# is used to differentiate between successive transmissions. Particularly, when messages are not received by the responder R due to bad channel, the responder R needs to know what message it is responding to. The responder R then replies by sending a response message 104 with the sequence number seq# and an expected wait time D.sub.b between the timestamp t.sub.2 at which the responder R received the poll message 102 and a timestamp t.sub.3 at which the responder R sends the response message 104 (i.e., D.sub.b=t.sub.3−t.sub.2). The initiator I receives the response message 104 and records a timestamp t.sub.4 at which the initiator I received the response message 104" where the initiator or responder can be either of the first object or second object ,see Paragraph 0030, and there are multiple transceivers on either object so the designation of first, second, etc. is arbitrary.), wherein a first distance (d1) between the first transceiver (12) of the first object (10) and the first transceiver (22) of the second object (20) can be derived from a travel time (At1) of the first pulse signal (SI) (Paragraph 0029, "A distance between the initiator I and the responder R can be calculated according to the equation d.sub.I.fwdarw.R=C×ToF, where c is the speed of light"); transmitting (S20) a second pulse signal (S2) having a short temporal pulse duration from a second transceiver (14) of the first object (10) to the first transceiver (22) of the second object (20) and returning the second pulse signal (S2) from the first transceiver (22) of the second object (20) to the second transceiver (14) of the first object (10) (Paragraph 0021, "In at least one embodiment, ultra-wideband (UWB) communications are utilized between the system nodes 20 and the target portable device 30 to enable localization thereof" where UWB devices use pulses; Paragraph 0031, "Here, the initiator I sends the poll message 102 with a sequence number seq# and the timestamp t.sub.1. The sequence number seq# is used to differentiate between successive transmissions. Particularly, when messages are not received by the responder R due to bad channel, the responder R needs to know what message it is responding to. The responder R then replies by sending a response message 104 with the sequence number seq# and an expected wait time D.sub.b between the timestamp t.sub.2 at which the responder R received the poll message 102 and a timestamp t.sub.3 at which the responder R sends the response message 104 (i.e., D.sub.b=t.sub.3−t.sub.2). The initiator I receives the response message 104 and records a timestamp t.sub.4 at which the initiator I received the response message 104" where the designation of first, second, etc. is arbitrary when there are multiple transceivers/transceivers on the first and second objects), wherein a second distance (d2) between the second transceiver (14) of the first object and the first transceiver (22) of the second object (20) can be derived from a travel time (At2) of the second pulse signal (S2) (Paragraph 0029, "A distance between the initiator I and the responder R can be calculated according to the equation d.sub.I.fwdarw.R=C×ToF, where c is the speed of light"); wherein the second transceiver (14) of the first object (10) is spaced from the first transceiver (12) of the first object (120) by a distance c (Figure 4 element A, B, d_{AB} where d_{AB} is tantamount to c of the instant application); forwarding (S30) the first distance (d1) and/or the travel time (At1) of the first pulse signal (SI) and the second distance (d2) and/or the travel time (At2) of the second pulse signal (S2) to a data processing module (30) (Paragraph 0031, "Here, the initiator I sends the poll message 102 with a sequence number seq# and the timestamp t.sub.1. The sequence number seq# is used to differentiate between successive transmissions. Particularly, when messages are not received by the responder R due to bad channel, the responder R needs to know what message it is responding to. The responder R then replies by sending a response message 104 with the sequence number seq# and an expected wait time D.sub.b between the timestamp t.sub.2 at which the responder R received the poll message 102 and a timestamp t.sub.3 at which the responder R sends the response message 104 (i.e., D.sub.b=t.sub.3−t.sub.2). The initiator I receives the response message 104 and records a timestamp t.sub.4 at which the initiator I received the response message 104….The initiator I calculates the ToF as half the difference between the overall round trip time R.sub.a and the wait time D.sub.b (i.e., ToF=(R.sub.a−D.sub.b)/2)" where the initiator has a processor; Figure 2 elements 22, 32, 42 and the initiator calculates the average travel time from the two individual travel times T1 to T2 and T3 to T4); calculating (S40) a distance (d) and an angle (p3) between the first object (10) and the second object (20) by applying the law of cosines from trigonometry, wherein c2= d12 + d22-2-d1 -d2 -cosy (While referencing Figure 4, Paragraph 0034, "The law of cosines can be used to calculate the angle between any two sides of the triangle. For example, the angle α of a target portable device 30 with respect to the line d.sub.ab can be calculated according to the equation cos(α)=(d.sub.AB.sup.2+d.sub.AT.sup.2−d.sub.BT.sup.2)/(2d.sub.ABd.sub.AT). Similarly, when the angle α and, for example, the distances d.sub.AB and d.sub.AT are known, the distance d.sub.BT from the target portable device 30 to the system node 20 at the position B can be calculated according to the equation d.sub.BT.sup.2=d.sub.AB.sup.2+d.sub.AT.sup.2−2d.sub.ABd.sub.AT Cos(a)"). Jain does not disclose using a sensor module (15) with a camera device for recording further data to eliminate one of two possible locations (P1, P2) that cannot be the location of the second object (20).
Kunz discloses
Using a sensor module (15) with a camera device for recording further data to eliminate one of two possible locations (P1, P2) that cannot be the location of the second object (20) (Figure 6A elements 602, 604, 608, 610 where the multipath 610 shows a second (ghost) 604 that isn't actually there; Paragraph 120, "The reception of reflections that travel multi-bounce path 610 or other indirect paths can cause potential objects to appear within radar measurements. These potential objects, however, can be attributed to the indirect path and may not actually exist within the surrounding environment of vehicle 602 and thus appear as ghost objects within radar measurements and non-existent in other sensor measurements of the environment."; Paragraph 130, "Similarly, the computing device may receive one or more images from a camera coupled to the vehicle and determine that the one or more images lack information corresponding to the first object" where in 6A a camera would eliminate the upper or lower reflection as the ghost target).
As one car with transceivers is sending signals with another car with transceivers, in a congested environment there is potential for multipath reflections and therefore ghost targets. As in Kunz, a camera would help to differentiate between real and ghost targets which is beneficial for autonomous vehicle control. As such, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art prior to the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify Jain with Kunz to include a camera to eliminate fields of view (or points of interest) that don’t contain a relevant radar target, which would facilitate autonomous vehicle control.
Regarding claim 4 Jain further discloses
The method according to claims 1, wherein the first object (10) comprises a third transceiver (17), and the method further comprises transmitting a third pulse signal (S3) having a short temporal pulse duration from the third transceiver (17) of the first object (10) to a second transceiver (24) of the second object (20), the third pulse signal (S3) being returned from the second transceiver (24) of the second object (20) to the third transceiver (17) of the first object (10) (Paragraph 0035, "We note that, based on the distances and angle from only the nodes 20 at positions A and B, it cannot be determined which side of the pair of nodes 20 at positions A and B the target portable device 30 is on. As shown in FIG. 4, the actual location of target portable device 30 is T, however, with respect to the pair of nodes 20 at positions A and B, the target portable device 30 can be at the location T′ as well. To break this tie, we need estimation from 3.sup.rd system node on the vehicle, such as the system node 20 at the position C"), and deriving a third distance (d3) between the third transceiver (17) of the first object (10) and the second transceiver (24) of the second object (20) from a travel time (At3) of the third pulse signal (S3) (Paragraph 0029, "A distance between the initiator I and the responder R can be calculated according to the equation d.sub.I.fwdarw.R=C×ToF, where c is the speed of light").
Regarding claim 5 Jain further discloses,
The method of claim 4, wherein the first object (10) comprises a fourth transceiver (19), and the method further comprising transmitting a fourth pulse signal (S4) having a short temporal pulse duration from the fourth transceiver (19) of the first object (10) to the second transceiver (24) of the second object (20), the fourth pulse signal (S4) being returned from the second transceiver (24) of the second object (20) to the fourth transceiver (19) of the first object (10) (Paragraph 0036, " 5B illustrate a further process for localizing the target portable device 30 based on a time difference of arrival (TDoA) of a message from a target portable device 30 … A plurality of the system nodes 20 (S.sub.1, S.sub.2, S.sub.3, and S.sub.M) receive the blink message 110 and each record a respective timestamp r.sub.1, r.sub.2, r.sub.3, and r.sub.M at which the respective system node 20 received the blink message 110" where the M node counts as the fourth transceiver/transceiver), and deriving a fourth distance (d4) between the fourth transceiver (19) of the first object (10) and the second transceiver (24) of the second object (20) from a travel time (At4) of the fourth pulse signal (S4) (Paragraph 0029, "A distance between the initiator I and the responder R can be calculated according to the equation d.sub.I.fwdarw.R=C×ToF, where c is the speed of light").
Regarding claim 6 Jain further discloses,
The method of claim 5, wherein the pulse signals (P1, P2, P3, P4) are generated by means of ultra-wideband (UWB) technology (Paragraph 0021, "In at least one embodiment, ultra-wideband (UWB) communications are utilized between the system nodes 20 and the target portable device 30 to enable localization thereof").
Regarding claim 10 Jain further discloses,
The method of claim 1, wherein the objects (10,20) are configured as a motor vehicle or as a self-driving vehicle or as an agricultural vehicle such as a combine harvester or as a robot or as a cleaning device such as a self-driving cleaning robot or as a watercraft or as a flying object (Paragraph 0021, "As shown in FIG. 1, the vehicle access system 10 includes a plurality of system nodes 20 arranged at various locations of the vehicle 12"; Paragraph 0030, “For the purpose of localizing the target portable device 30, the initiator I may correspond to either of the target portable device 30 and a respective system node 20 and the responder R may correspond to the other of the target portable device 30 and the respective system node 20” where if the initiator and the responder are interchangeable the invention is capable of the initiator and the responder to both be vehicles).
Regarding claim 11 Jain discloses
A system (100) for determining the position of a moving first object (10) relative to another second object (20) (Abstract, “A vehicle access system having a plurality of system nodes arranged throughout a vehicle is disclosed. The vehicle access system employs a communication protocol which utilizes two way ranging (TWR) and time distance of arrival (TDoA) localization processes to determine a position of a target portable device”), having a data processing module (30) (Figure 2 elements 42 or 32 or 22, both objects have processors capable of calculating the distance) wherein the first object (10) comprises at least a first transmitter (12) and at least a second transmitter (14) (Figure 4 elements 20) that is spaced from the first transceiver (12) by a distance c (Figure 4 element A, B, d_{AB} where d_{AB} is tantamount to c of the instant application), and the second object (20) comprises at least a first receiver (22) (Figure 2B elements 36 where transceivers is plural so it has multiple transmitters/receivers); wherein the first transmitter (12) of the first object (10) is configured to transmit a first pulse signal (S1) having a short temporal pulse duration to the first receiver (22) of the second object (20), and the first receiver (22) of the second object (20) is configured to return the first pulse signal (S1) to the first transmitter (12) of the first object (10) (Paragraph 0021, "In at least one embodiment, ultra-wideband (UWB) communications are utilized between the system nodes 20 and the target portable device 30 to enable localization thereof" where UWB devices use pulses; Paragraph 0031, "Here, the initiator I sends the poll message 102 with a sequence number seq# and the timestamp t.sub.1. The sequence number seq# is used to differentiate between successive transmissions. Particularly, when messages are not received by the responder R due to bad channel, the responder R needs to know what message it is responding to. The responder R then replies by sending a response message 104 with the sequence number seq# and an expected wait time D.sub.b between the timestamp t.sub.2 at which the responder R received the poll message 102 and a timestamp t.sub.3 at which the responder R sends the response message 104 (i.e., D.sub.b=t.sub.3−t.sub.2). The initiator I receives the response message 104 and records a timestamp t.sub.4 at which the initiator I received the response message 104" where the initiator or responder can be either of the first object or second object ,see Paragraph 0030, and there are multiple transceivers on either object so the designation of first, second, etc. is arbitrary.), and the first transmitter (12) of the first object (10) is configured so as to forward a travel time (At1) of the first pulse signal (S1) to the data processing module (30) (Paragraph 0031, "Here, the initiator I sends the poll message 102 with a sequence number seq# and the timestamp t.sub.1. The sequence number seq# is used to differentiate between successive transmissions. Particularly, when messages are not received by the responder R due to bad channel, the responder R needs to know what message it is responding to. The responder R then replies by sending a response message 104 with the sequence number seq# and an expected wait time D.sub.b between the timestamp t.sub.2 at which the responder R received the poll message 102 and a timestamp t.sub.3 at which the responder R sends the response message 104 (i.e., D.sub.b=t.sub.3−t.sub.2). The initiator I receives the response message 104 and records a timestamp t.sub.4 at which the initiator I received the response message 104….The initiator I calculates the ToF as half the difference between the overall round trip time R.sub.a and the wait time D.sub.b (i.e., ToF=(R.sub.a−D.sub.b)/2)" where the initiator has a processor Figure 2 elements 22, 32, 42 and the initiator calculates the average travel time from the two individual travel times T1 to T2 and T3 to T4),wherein the second transmitter (14) of the first object (10) is configured to transmit a second pulse signal (S2) having a short temporal pulse duration to the first receiver (22) of the second object (20), and the first receiver (22) of the second object (20) is configured to return the second pulse signal (S2) to the second transmitter (14) of the first object (10) (Paragraph 0021, "In at least one embodiment, ultra-wideband (UWB) communications are utilized between the system nodes 20 and the target portable device 30 to enable localization thereof" where UWB devices use pulses; Paragraph 0031, "Here, the initiator I sends the poll message 102 with a sequence number seq# and the timestamp t.sub.1. The sequence number seq# is used to differentiate between successive transmissions. Particularly, when messages are not received by the responder R due to bad channel, the responder R needs to know what message it is responding to. The responder R then replies by sending a response message 104 with the sequence number seq# and an expected wait time D.sub.b between the timestamp t.sub.2 at which the responder R received the poll message 102 and a timestamp t.sub.3 at which the responder R sends the response message 104 (i.e., D.sub.b=t.sub.3−t.sub.2). The initiator I receives the response message 104 and records a timestamp t.sub.4 at which the initiator I received the response message 104" where the designation of first, second, etc. is arbitrary when there are multiple transmitters/receivers on the first and second objects), and the second transmitter (14) of the first object is configured to forward a travel time (At2) of the second pulse signal (S2) to the data processing module (30) (Paragraph 0031, "Here, the initiator I sends the poll message 102 with a sequence number seq# and the timestamp t.sub.1. The sequence number seq# is used to differentiate between successive transmissions. Particularly, when messages are not received by the responder R due to bad channel, the responder R needs to know what message it is responding to. The responder R then replies by sending a response message 104 with the sequence number seq# and an expected wait time D.sub.b between the timestamp t.sub.2 at which the responder R received the poll message 102 and a timestamp t.sub.3 at which the responder R sends the response message 104 (i.e., D.sub.b=t.sub.3−t.sub.2). The initiator I receives the response message 104 and records a timestamp t.sub.4 at which the initiator I received the response message 104….The initiator I calculates the ToF as half the difference between the overall round trip time R.sub.a and the wait time D.sub.b (i.e., ToF=(R.sub.a−D.sub.b)/2)" where the initiator has a processor Figure 2 elements 22, 32, 42 and the initiator calculates the average travel time from the two individual travel times T1 to T2 and T3 to T4); and wherein the data processing module (30) is configured so as to derive a first distance (d1) between the first transmitter (12) of the first object (10) and the first receiver (22) of the second object (20) from the travel time (At1) of the first pulse signal (S1) (The responder R calculates the ToF as a difference between the two timestamps t.sub.1 and t.sub.2 (i.e., ToF=t.sub.2−t.sub.1). A distance between the initiator I and the responder R can be calculated according to the equation d.sub.I.fwdarw.R=C×ToF, where c is the speed of light.) and to derive a second distance (d2) between the second transmitter (14) of the first object (10) and the first receiver (22) of the second object (20) from the travel time (At2) of the second pulse signal (S2) (Paragraph 0031, “We note that the response message 104 can also be used to determine the ToF using the one way ranging process above (i.e., ToF=t.sub.4−t.sub.3)”; Paragraph 0029, "A distance between the initiator I and the responder R can be calculated according to the equation d.sub.I.fwdarw.R=C×ToF, where c is the speed of light") to calculate therefrom a distance (d) and an angle (3) between the first object (10) and the second object (20) by applying the law of cosines from geometry where c2= d12 + d22-2-d1 -d2 -cosy (While referencing Figure 4, Paragraph 0034, "The law of cosines can be used to calculate the angle between any two sides of the triangle. For example, the angle α of a target portable device 30 with respect to the line d.sub.ab can be calculated according to the equation cos(α)=(d.sub.AB.sup.2+d.sub.AT.sup.2−d.sub.BT.sup.2)/(2d.sub.ABd.sub.AT). Similarly, when the angle α and, for example, the distances d.sub.AB and d.sub.AT are known, the distance d.sub.BT from the target portable device 30 to the system node 20 at the position B can be calculated according to the equation d.sub.BT.sup.2=d.sub.AB.sup.2+d.sub.AT.sup.2−2d.sub.ABd.sub.AT Cos(a)"). Jain does not disclose and wherein the system further comprises a sensor module (15) with a camera device for recording further data to eliminate one of two possible locations (P1, P2) that cannot be the location of the second object (20).
Kunz discloses
Using a sensor module (15) with a camera device for recording further data to eliminate one of two possible locations (P1, P2) that cannot be the location of the second object (20) (Figure 6A elements 602, 604, 608, 610 where the multipath 610 shows a second (ghost) 604 that isn't actually there; Paragraph 120, "The reception of reflections that travel multi-bounce path 610 or other indirect paths can cause potential objects to appear within radar measurements. These potential objects, however, can be attributed to the indirect path and may not actually exist within the surrounding environment of vehicle 602 and thus appear as ghost objects within radar measurements and non-existent in other sensor measurements of the environment."; Paragraph 130, "Similarly, the computing device may receive one or more images from a camera coupled to the vehicle and determine that the one or more images lack information corresponding to the first object" where in 6A a camera would eliminate the upper or lower reflection as the ghost target).
As one car with transceivers is sending signals with another car with transceivers, in a congested environment there is potential for multipath reflections and therefore ghost targets. As in Kunz, a camera would help to differentiate between real and ghost targets which is beneficial for autonomous vehicle control. As such, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art prior to the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify Jain with Kunz to include a camera to eliminate fields of view (or points of interest) that don’t contain a relevant radar target, which would facilitate autonomous vehicle control.
Regarding claim 13 Jain further discloses,
The system (100) according to claim 11 or 12, wherein the first object (10) comprises a third transceiver (17), and the second object (10) comprises a second transceiver (24), wherein the third transceiver (17) of the first object (10) is configured so as to transmit a third pulse signal (S3) having a short temporal pulse duration to the second transceiver (24) of the second object (20), and the second transceiver (24) of the second object (20) is configured so as to return the third pulse signal (S3) to the third transceiver (17) of the first object (10) (Paragraph 0035, "We note that, based on the distances and angle from only the nodes 20 at positions A and B, it cannot be determined which side of the pair of nodes 20 at positions A and B the target portable device 30 is on. As shown in FIG. 4, the actual location of target portable device 30 is T, however, with respect to the pair of nodes 20 at positions A and B, the target portable device 30 can be at the location T′ as well. To break this tie, we need estimation from 3.sup.rd system node on the vehicle, such as the system node 20 at the position C"), wherein a third distance (d3) between the third transceiver (17) of the first object (10) and the second transceiver (24) of the second object (20) can be derived from a travel time (At3) of the third pulse signal (S3) (Paragraph 0029, "A distance between the initiator I and the responder R can be calculated according to the equation d.sub.I.fwdarw.R=C×ToF, where c is the speed of light").
Regarding claim 14 Jain further discloses,
The system (100) of claim 13, wherein the transceivers (12, 14, 17, 19) of the first object (10) are configured to generate pulse signals (P1, P2, P3) by means of ultra-wideband (UWB) technology (Paragraph 0021, "In at least one embodiment, ultra-wideband (UWB) communications are utilized between the system nodes 20 and the target portable device 30 to enable localization thereof").
Regarding claim 15 Jain further discloses,
A nontransitory computer program product (200) comprising an executable program code (250), which is configured so as to carry out the method of claim 1 (Paragraph 0022, " each system node 20 comprises a processor 22, memory 24, and a transceiver 26. The memory 24 is configured to store program instructions that, when executed by the processor 22, enable the respective system node 20 to perform various operations described elsewhere herein, including localization of the target portable device 30" where program instructions are tantamount to executable program code).
Claims 7, 8, 9 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Jain (US 20200005566 A1) in view of Lee (WO 2021246546 A1) where the description citations will come from a translation attached as a pdf.
Regarding claim 7 Jain discloses,
The method of claim1, wherein the communications link is configured as a cellular link and/or a near field communications link, such as Bluetooth®, Ethernet, NFC (near field communication), or Wi-Fi* (Paragraph 0025, "the transceivers 36 further include additional transceivers which are common to smart phones and/or smart watches, such as Wi-Fi or Bluetooth® transceivers and transceivers configured to communicate via for wireless telephony networks.").
Jain does not disclose wherein the data processing module (30) and/or the transceivers (12, 14, 17, 19) are in communication with a cloud computing infrastructure (70) by means of a communications link (50).
Lee discloses,
The data processing module (30) and/or the transceivers (12, 14, 17, 19) are in communication with a cloud computing infrastructure (70) by means of a communications link (50) (Page 8 Paragraph 12, "Remote driving enables remote drivers or V2X applications to drive remote vehicles on their own or for passengers who cannot drive with remote vehicles in hazardous environments. When variability is limited and routes can be predicted, such as in public transport, driving based on cloud computing can be used").
Jain and Lee are considered analogous art as they both concern sensors determining the position of one object relative to another object. Jain has the means to communicate to a cloud with WIFI or Bluetooth communication. Jain discloses many processors on the vehicle but if it outsourced the processing to a cloud to would be cheaper. Additionally, Jain could be modified for at least partial remote navigation as it is already capable of determining distances/positions. Outsourcing information to a cloud could optimize the processing from its current state. Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art prior to the effective filing date of the claimed invention to improve Jain with Lee by adding the use of cloud computing to optimize the processing and make it cheaper.
Regarding claim 8 Jain discloses,
The method of claim 1. Jain does not disclose wherein the data processing module (30) comprises algorithms of artificial intelligence and machine learning.
Lee discloses
The data processing module (30) comprises algorithms of artificial intelligence and machine learning, in particular neural networks (Page 1 Paragraph 2, "the autonomous driving vehicle establishes a communication connection with the target vehicle"; Paragraph 3, "the present specification aims to implement an intelligent beam prediction method that reduces the beam search time by using a neural network learned from the information of the object").
Jain and Lee are considered analogous art as they both concern sensors determining the position of one object relative to another object. In order to detect an object Jain has to start the process from the very beginning but with a neural network it could learn to skip some steps, speeding up processing time, based on the environment of the car. For example, if there is a wall on the right side of the car the neural network can learn that it needs less transceivers to determine the position of an object in reference to Figure 4 of Jain. Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art prior to the effective filing date of the claimed invention to improve Jain with Lee by adding in the use of neural networks to recognize patterns that could speed up the detection of objects.
Regarding claim 9 Jain discloses,
The method of claim 1. Jain does not disclose wherein the transceivers (12, 14, 17, 19) and/or the data processing module (30) are equipped with radio modules of the 5G standard.
Lee discloses
The transceivers (12, 14, 17, 19) and/or the data processing module (30) are equipped with radio modules of the 5G standard (Page 2 Paragraph 6, "A 5G network including another vehicle communicating with the autonomous driving device may be defined as a second communication device ( 920 in FIG. 1 ), and the processor 921 may perform a detailed autonomous driving operation.").
Jain and Lee are considered analogous art as they both concern sensors determining the position of one object relative to another object. In order to detect an object Jain discloses communication between the several devices but it only specifically mentions WIFI and Bluetooth. With 5G communication the invention could communicate, especially with a cloud, anywhere there is cell service. Additionally, 5G communication has fast data transfer speeds for the processing step. Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art prior to the effective filing date of the claimed invention to improve Jain with Lee to add in 5G communication so that the vehicle could communicate (i.e., with a cloud) in a wider variety of environments to optimize processing power.
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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/PETER DAVON DOZE/Examiner, Art Unit 3648
/VLADIMIR MAGLOIRE/Supervisory Patent Examiner, Art Unit 3648
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