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 .
Election/Restrictions
Applicant’s election of group I identified as claims 1-11 without traverse in the reply filed on 1/13/2026 is acknowledged. Therefore claims 12-15 are withdrawn from consideration
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 103
1. 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 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.
2. 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 of this title, 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.
Claims 1, 4, and 7-10 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over U.S. Publication No US 2016/0332647 to Yanai et al. (hereinafter Yanai) in view of U.S. Publication No US 2019/0219680 to Sugae et al. (hereinafter Sugae)
As to claim 1, Yanai discloses a condition monitoring device that monitors conditions of ground wireless devices and an on-board wireless device which constitute a wireless train control system adopting a time-division multiplexing scheme, the condition monitoring device comprising:
a wired connection circuit to acquire a result of measurement of an error between a transmission timing of a signal in the ground wireless device and a reference timing, from the ground wireless device (Yanai; Fig.1:200; [0026]-[0030]; [0049] shows and discloses ground wireless device 200. [0045] discloses position error caused by a transmission time difference between a signal transmission time from the ground ATP device 200 to the vehicle speed limit unit 100 and a signal transmission time from the ground ATP device 200 to the current position acquisition unit 102 with respect to the current position acquired from the current position acquisition unit 102, as the margin. As a result, thereof, the travel curve generation unit 104 has a sum of the recognition position error of the ATP device and the maximum value of the recognition position error caused by the transmission time difference as the margin);
Yanai discloses of determining or acquiring error of the ground wireless device, but fails to disclose of determining a performance deteriorated condition of the ground wireless device, on the basis of the error. However, Sugae discloses
a deteriorated condition determination circuit to determine a performance deteriorated condition of the ground wireless device, on the basis of the error (Sugae; Fig.16: S1611; [0195]-[0196] shows and discloses In S1611, the ground device 1401 causes the second signal transmission/reception unit 1430 to carry the measurement result in S1610 on a signal based on a sonic wave (ultrasonic wave) and transmit the signal to the on-vehicle device 1500. More specifically, the ground device 1401 causes the second signal transmission/reception unit 1430 to transmit a signal encoded to include the distance measured in S1610 to the on-vehicle device 1500. [0201] discloses a determination result in the first determination unit 1441 indicates that at least one of the first signal transmission unit 1410 and the first signal reception unit 1420 of at least one of the two ground devices 1400 is abnormal (=a performance deteriorated condition of the ground wireless device), and a determination result in the second determination unit 1442 indicates the second signal transmission/reception unit 1430 of at least one of the two ground devices 1400 is abnormal (=a performance deteriorated condition of the ground wireless device). The ground device 1400 transmits a system abnormality signal based on a sonic wave (ultrasonic wave) for notification of abnormality to the on-vehicle device 1500, and the on-vehicle device 1500 finishes execution of communication with the ground device 1400 using a signal based on light and a signal based on a sonic wave (ultrasonic wave) in response to reception of the system abnormality signal)
It is obvious for a person of ordinary skilled in the art to combine the teachings before the effective filing date of the invention. One would be motivated to combine the teachings so that on-vehicle device finishes execution of communication with the ground device using a signal based on light and a signal based on a sonic wave (ultrasonic wave) in response to reception of the system abnormality signal.
As to claims 4, the rejection of claim 1 as listed above is incorporated herein. In addition, Yanai-Sugae discloses wherein the deteriorated condition determination circuit extracts, on the basis of the error, a ground wireless device in which a communication failure is more highly likely to occur (Sugae; Fig.16: S1611; [0195]-[0196] shows and discloses In S1611, the ground device 1401 causes the second signal transmission/reception unit 1430 to carry the measurement result in S1610 on a signal based on a sonic wave (ultrasonic wave) and transmit the signal to the on-vehicle device 1500. More specifically, the ground device 1401 causes the second signal transmission/reception unit 1430 to transmit a signal encoded to include the distance measured in S1610 to the on-vehicle device 1500. [0201] discloses a determination result in the first determination unit 1441 indicates that at least one of the first signal transmission unit 1410 and the first signal reception unit 1420 of at least one of the two ground devices 1400 is abnormal (=a performance deteriorated condition of the ground wireless device), and a determination result in the second determination unit 1442 indicates the second signal transmission/reception unit 1430 of at least one of the two ground devices 1400 is abnormal (=a performance deteriorated condition of the ground wireless device). The ground device 1400 transmits a system abnormality signal based on a sonic wave (ultrasonic wave) for notification of abnormality to the on-vehicle device 1500, and the on-vehicle device 1500 finishes execution of communication with the ground device 1400 using a signal based on light and a signal based on a sonic wave (ultrasonic wave) in response to reception of the system abnormality signal).
As to claims 7, the rejection of claim 1 as listed above is incorporated herein. In addition, Yanai-Sugae discloses wherein
the reference timing is a timing based on an absolute time (Sugae; [0050] the first signal functions as a synchronization signal for synchronization of transmission and reception timings of the second signal. Therefore, a deviation between transmission and reception timings of the second signal is measured with transmission and reception timings of the first signal as references. In the example illustrated in FIG. 3, for simplification, the timing t10 at which the first signal transmission unit 110 starts to transmit the first signal is used as a reference of the time Δt1 and the time Δt2, but, actually, a timing at which the first signal reception unit 210 receives the first signal from the first signal transmission unit 110 may be used as a reference of the time Δt1 and the time Δt2)
As to claims 8, the rejection of claim 1 as listed above is incorporated herein. In addition, Yanai-Sugae discloses wherein
a range is provided in which one of the ground wireless devices by which the error is measured can monitor a signal, and the reference timing is a signal transmission timing of the other of the ground wireless device located in the range (Sugae; [0050] the first signal functions as a synchronization signal for synchronization of transmission and reception timings of the second signal. Therefore, a deviation between transmission and reception timings of the second signal is measured with transmission and reception timings of the first signal as references. In the example illustrated in FIG. 3, for simplification, the timing t10 at which the first signal transmission unit 110 starts to transmit the first signal is used as a reference of the time Δt1 and the time Δt2, but, actually, a timing at which the first signal reception unit 210 receives the first signal from the first signal transmission unit 110 may be used as a reference of the time Δt1 and the time Δt2).
As to claims 9, the rejection of claim 8 as listed above is incorporated herein. In addition, Yanai-Sugae discloses wherein
the deteriorated condition determination circuit weights the error on the basis of a positional relationship between the ground wireless devices, and determines the performance deteriorated condition using the error weighted (Sugae; Fig.16: S1611; [0195]-[0196] shows and discloses In S1611, the ground device 1401 causes the second signal transmission/reception unit 1430 to carry the measurement result in S1610 on a signal based on a sonic wave (ultrasonic wave) and transmit the signal to the on-vehicle device 1500. More specifically, the ground device 1401 causes the second signal transmission/reception unit 1430 to transmit a signal encoded to include the distance measured in S1610 to the on-vehicle device 1500. [0201] discloses a determination result in the first determination unit 1441 indicates that at least one of the first signal transmission unit 1410 and the first signal reception unit 1420 of at least one of the two ground devices 1400 is abnormal (=a performance deteriorated condition of the ground wireless device), and a determination result in the second determination unit 1442 indicates the second signal transmission/reception unit 1430 of at least one of the two ground devices 1400 is abnormal (=a performance deteriorated condition of the ground wireless device). The ground device 1400 transmits a system abnormality signal based on a sonic wave (ultrasonic wave) for notification of abnormality to the on-vehicle device 1500, and the on-vehicle device 1500 finishes execution of communication with the ground device 1400 using a signal based on light and a signal based on a sonic wave (ultrasonic wave) in response to reception of the system abnormality signal)
As to claims 10, the rejection of claim 9 as listed above is incorporated herein. In addition, Yanai-Sugae discloses wherein
the deteriorated condition determination circuit performs weighting so that a weight on an error of the internal time between two ground wireless devices adjacent on a path on which a train travels is increased (Sugae; Fig.16: S1611; [0195]-[0196] shows and discloses In S1611, the ground device 1401 causes the second signal transmission/reception unit 1430 to carry the measurement result in S1610 on a signal based on a sonic wave (ultrasonic wave) and transmit the signal to the on-vehicle device 1500. More specifically, the ground device 1401 causes the second signal transmission/reception unit 1430 to transmit a signal encoded to include the distance measured in S1610 to the on-vehicle device 1500. [0201] discloses a determination result in the first determination unit 1441 indicates that at least one of the first signal transmission unit 1410 and the first signal reception unit 1420 of at least one of the two ground devices 1400 is abnormal (=a performance deteriorated condition of the ground wireless device), and a determination result in the second determination unit 1442 indicates the second signal transmission/reception unit 1430 of at least one of the two ground devices 1400 is abnormal (=a performance deteriorated condition of the ground wireless device). The ground device 1400 transmits a system abnormality signal based on a sonic wave (ultrasonic wave) for notification of abnormality to the on-vehicle device 1500, and the on-vehicle device 1500 finishes execution of communication with the ground device 1400 using a signal based on light and a signal based on a sonic wave (ultrasonic wave) in response to reception of the system abnormality signal).
Allowable Subject Matter
Claims 2-3, 5-6 and 11 are objected, but would be allowable if rewritten in independent form including all of the limitations of the base claim and any intervening claims
Conclusion
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/FAISAL CHOUDHURY/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2478
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