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 .
Status of Claims
This action is reply to the Application Number 18/252,114 filed on 01/30/2026.
Claims 1, 2, 4 – 6, 8, 10 are currently pending and have been examined. Claims 1 and 8 are amended. Claim 11 is new.
This action is made FINAL.
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.
Claims 1, 2, 4 – 6, 8 and 10 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Ozawa et al. (US 20100036601 A1), further in view of Onimaru et al. (US 20170147989 A1), Andreas et al. (EP3620751A2), Shogo et al. (JP2018044778A) and Yoichi et al. (JP2016038743A).
Regarding claim 1, Ozawa teaches an information presentation device comprising: (Ozawa: Paragraph 0001: “The present invention relates to an apparatus in a mobile object represented by an in-vehicle device, a mobile phone,”,
Supplemental Note: the in-vehicle device is interpreted to be the information presentation device)
a processor (Ozawa: Paragraph 0115: “FIG. 2 is a block diagram showing, as an example, a hardware structure for realizing the destination prediction apparatus. The destination prediction apparatus is, for example, realized by hardware which includes a Central Processing Unit 3601, a working memory 3602, an LCD device 3603, a touch panel 3604, a hard disk device 3605, a GPS receiving device 3609, and a bus line 3610 that connects these devices. Note that the hardware is an example, and the present invention includes a case where an alternative having an equivalent function is used.”)
determining whether or not a current traveling situation in which a vehicle is currently traveling corresponds to an outward trip based on a traveling history of the past, and (Ozawa: Paragraph 0153: “The travel history accumulating unit 1401 periodically pairs a position of vehicle with a time based on a current point obtained by the current point obtaining unit 101 and a current time obtained by the current time obtaining unit 105, and accumulates it as a travel history.”; Paragraph 0157: “a regular route from a home to an office is accumulated as a travel history of vehicle. Furthermore, a route between the office and a restaurant is also accumulated as a regular travel. Here, in the case of travelling from the office to Business Trip Destination A for the first time, although a travel history from the office to Business Trip Destination A is accumulated, a travel history in which Business Trip Destination A is a departure point does not exist when departing from Business Trip Destination A”; Paragraph 0159: “When the engine is not started, the process proceeds to S1602. When the engine is started, the process proceeds to S1603. When the engine is not started but the vehicle is moving, a current time and a current position are accumulated as a travel history by the travel history accumulating unit 1401 (S1602). After the accumulation, the process returns to S1601”; Paragraphs 0161 – 0162: “It is judged whether or not the number of departures is zero (S1604). In the case where the number is not zero, that is, it is not the first departure, as the travel history in which the current point is a departure point is accumulated by the travel history accumulating unit 1401, the process proceeds to S1606 and a destination is predicted using the travel history. Note that the method, for example, disclosed in Patent Reference: WO 2004/034725, can be applied in predicting the destination using the travel history. In the case of the first departure, as the travel history in which the current point is the departure point is not accumulated, the process proceeds to S1605 and a destination is predicted using the stay characteristic accumulating unit 103.”,
Supplemental Note: an outward trip is equivalent to a business trip destination that is not in the travel history when traveling from that location. The travel history unit and accumulating unit in this example is responsible for this function in conjunction)
… that includes a course starting from the base and returning back to the base, (Ozawa: Paragraph 0122: “The stay characteristic accumulating unit 103 accumulates the stay characteristic information obtained from the user by the stay characteristic setting unit 102. For example, as shown in FIG. 4, regarding "Home", "Landmark 1", and the like, their registered names, positions by latitude and longitude, and additionally information on stay start times and stay end times are accumulated. The registered stay start times and stay end times here correspond respectively to the return home time, or the arrival time, and the departure time set on the interface shown in FIG. 3 by the user as mentioned above.”; Paragraph 0128: “In the example shown in FIG. 6, a current time is 16:00, and in the case of departing from the current point to Home, an estimated arrival time at Home is 17:30. On the other hand, since a stay start time at Home (regular return home time) is 18:00, a 30-minutes difference from the estimated arrival time is calculated. Moreover, although an estimated arrival time is 17:00 for Office, a stay at Office starts at 9:00, which is a time for coming to Office, according to a stay characteristic accumulated by the stay characteristic accumulating unit 103. Consequently, a difference between the estimated arrival time and the stay start time is calculated as 8:00.”,
Supplemental Note: in the example, the user is returning home from the work. This is interpreted as the full course starting from home and returning back home)
based on the traveling history, determine a first route starting from the base and extending to the main destination as the outward trip, and determine a second route starting from the main destination and extending to the base as the return trip, (Ozawa: Paragraph 0153: “The travel history accumulating unit 1401 periodically pairs a position of vehicle with a time based on a current point obtained by the current point obtaining unit 101 and a current time obtained by the current time obtaining unit 105, and accumulates it as a travel history.”; Paragraph 0157: “a regular route from a home to an office is accumulated as a travel history of vehicle. Furthermore, a route between the office and a restaurant is also accumulated as a regular travel. Here, in the case of travelling from the office to Business Trip Destination A for the first time, although a travel history from the office to Business Trip Destination A is accumulated, a travel history in which Business Trip Destination A is a departure point does not exist when departing from Business Trip Destination A”; Paragraph 0159: “When the engine is not started, the process proceeds to S1602. When the engine is started, the process proceeds to S1603. When the engine is not started but the vehicle is moving, a current time and a current position are accumulated as a travel history by the travel history accumulating unit 1401 (S1602). After the accumulation, the process returns to S1601”; Paragraphs 0161 – 0162: “It is judged whether or not the number of departures is zero (S1604). In the case where the number is not zero, that is, it is not the first departure, as the travel history in which the current point is a departure point is accumulated by the travel history accumulating unit 1401, the process proceeds to S1606 and a destination is predicted using the travel history. Note that the method, for example, disclosed in Patent Reference: WO 2004/034725, can be applied in predicting the destination using the travel history. In the case of the first departure, as the travel history in which the current point is the departure point is not accumulated, the process proceeds to S1605 and a destination is predicted using the stay characteristic accumulating unit 103.”,
Supplemental Note: an outward trip is equivalent to a business trip destination that is not in the travel history when traveling from that location. The travel history unit and accumulating unit in this example is responsible for this function in conjunction)
calculate a predicted staying time at the main destination based on the traveling history, and (Ozawa: Paragraph 0092: “a stay characteristic extracting unit which extracts, from the travel history information, information indicating a previous time period when the mobile object has stayed at a predetermined point; a stay characteristic accumulating unit which accumulates the extracted information as stay characteristic information indicating a time period when the mobile object will likely stay at a predetermined point; and a destination predicting unit which calculates an estimated arrival time in the case where the mobile object departs from a current location to the point and predicts the point as a destination only when a condition that the calculated estimated arrival time and the time period indicated by the stay characteristic information are temporally close is satisfied.”; Paragraph 0094: “In addition, the stay characteristic information may indicate a stay start time which is a time when the mobile object will likely start staying at the point and a stay end time which is a time when the mobile object will likely end staying at the point. The destination predicting unit may predict the point as the destination only when the calculated estimated arrival time falls between the stay start time and the stay end time both indicated by the stay characteristic information.”; Paragraph 0144: “Further, concerning the data displayed by the commercial facility data displaying unit 903, information regarding a point and business hours is accumulated as a stay characteristic by the stay characteristic accumulating unit 103. For example, as shown in FIG. 13, concerning Restaurant A, a service start time is 10:00 and a service end time is 20:00. Similarly, Restaurants B and C each presented as commercial facility data are accumulated in the same manner.”).
In sum, Ozawa teaches an information presentation device comprising: a processor determining whether or not a current traveling situation in which a vehicle is currently traveling corresponds to an outward trip based on a traveling history of the past, and that includes a course starting from the base and returning back to the base, based on the traveling history, determine a first route starting from the base and extending to the main destination as the outward trip, and determine a second route starting from the main destination and extending to the base as the return trip, calculate a predicted staying time at the main destination based on the traveling history. Ozawa however does not teach upon determining that the current traveling situation corresponds to the outward trip teach at which stopping-off on a return trip associated with the outward trip is predicted; and a display device configured to present the estimated time of arrival at the facility at which stopping-off on the return trip is predicted, while the vehicle is traveling on the outward trip.
Onimaru teaches upon determining that the current traveling situation corresponds to the outward trip, (Onimaru: Abstract: “A portable device that displays action plan information which involves a movement within an arbitrary period and/or execution support information of the action plan which involves the movement includes: a display unit, a display control unit, and a spatiotemporal action diagram display control unit“; Paragraph 0095: “Moreover, the destination setting unit 103 sets a refueling recommendation function ON according to an instruction from the user. As will be described later, when the refueling recommendation function is set ON and a gas station is present on a route included in the action plan data or near the user's home, the action planning and navigation server system 1 (the action plan generation unit 104) can include the gas station in the action plan data as a stopover place on the route. By doing so, the portable device 2 (or the on-board navigation device 3) can display a refueling period or a refueling place during the route guidance.”,
Supplemental Note: the outward trip is interpreted in this example as being able to route to a gas station along a route)
… at which stopping-off on a return trip associated with the outward trip is predicted; and (Onimaru: Paragraph 0095: “As will be described later, when the refueling recommendation function is set ON and a gas station is present on a route included in the action plan data or near the user's home, the action planning and navigation server system 1 (the action plan generation unit 104) can include the gas station in the action plan data as a stopover place on the route. By doing so, the portable device 2 (or the on-board navigation device 3) can display a refueling period or a refueling place during the route guidance.”)
… a display device configured to present the estimated time of arrival at the facility at which stopping-off on the return trip is predicted, while the vehicle is traveling on the outward trip, (Onimaru: Paragraph 0141: “As illustrated in FIG. 6, the time table display control unit 2062 displays the time table generated by the time table generation unit 1062, received from the action planning and navigation server system 1 via the communication unit 22 on the display unit 24.”; Abstract: “A portable device that displays action plan information which involves a movement within an arbitrary period and/or execution support information of the action plan which involves the movement includes: a display unit, a display control unit, and a spatiotemporal action diagram display control unit“; Paragraph 0095: “Moreover, the destination setting unit 103 sets a refueling recommendation function ON according to an instruction from the user. As will be described later, when the refueling recommendation function is set ON and a gas station is present on a route included in the action plan data or near the user's home, the action planning and navigation server system 1 (the action plan generation unit 104) can include the gas station in the action plan data as a stopover place on the route. By doing so, the portable device 2 (or the on-board navigation device 3) can display a refueling period or a refueling place during the route guidance.”).
Therefore, it would have been obvious for one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to have been modified the invention disclosed by Ozawa with the teachings of Onimaru with a reasonable expectation of success. Both Ozawa and Onimaru teach systems which can acquire navigational data and predict navigational attributes. For example, both systems are able to gather travel locations a vehicle is to travel to and predict corresponding attributes, such as stay time at each location, travel time, routing, etc. Onimaru differs as it allows the user to set the stay time at each location as Ozawa teaches the stay period to be predicted by the stay characteristic accumulating unit. One with knowledge in the art would find it obvious to try to implement this function of Onimaru with the vehicle system of Ozawa. For example, instead of always predicting a stay period from a stay characteristic accumulating unit, the user has the ability to set that period themselves. If the stay period is different from what is already stored and can be predicted by the stay characteristic accumulating unit, the user defined stay period increases that accuracy. This further aids in the future calculations as if the stay period is different, traffic conditions to the next location may change, thus different routing may be needed. This combination mitigates unknown attributes of a trip that the user is able to provide and further increase the efficiency of the vehicle system. Ozawa in view of Onimaru however still do not teach the processor is configured to: acquire staying times and staying frequencies of a plurality of points in a predetermined time period of the past from the traveling history, determine whether or not a staying time of the acquired staying times and a staying frequency of the acquired staying frequencies of each of the points in the predetermined time period of the past fulfills a corresponding criterion.
Shogo teaches wherein the processor is configured to:
acquire staying times and staying frequencies of a plurality of points in a predetermined time period of the past from the traveling history, (Shogo: Paragraph 0049: “in step S24, it is determined whether or not the maximum value of the number of visits is less than a predetermined third threshold value. If the maximum value is less than the third threshold value (yes), the process proceeds to step S27, (In the case of no), the process proceeds to step S25. In this step, when the number of visits to each site visited by the user is small, since it is difficult to obtain a trend from the number of visits, it is not appropriate to use, so do not use the number of visits to all data )”; Paragraph 0052: “in step S27, it is determined whether or not the maximum value of the average staying time is less than a predetermined fifth threshold value. If it is less than the fifth threshold value (in the case of yes), the present flowchart is terminated, If it is less than the threshold (no), the process proceeds to step S28. In this step, when the staying time at the point visited by the user is short, it is not appropriate to read the trend, so do not use the staying time for all data (unusable). In determining this step, it is judged about a point (maximum value) having the longest average staying time among the average staying time at each point.”; Paragraph 0033: “the visit point history 13, the stopover history 15, and the destination history 16 function as the storage device 55 in FIG. 1”)
determine whether or not a staying time of the acquired staying times and a staying frequency of the acquired staying frequencies of each of the points in the predetermined time period of the past fulfills a corresponding criterion, (Shogo: Paragraph 0014: “the point information includes information on the number of visits per point such as a visit, and the discrimination unit may determine that the number of visits is unusable as a discrimination condition when the maximum value of the number of visits is less than the third threshold value . By doing like this, when the maximum value of the number of visits at the point of visiting is less than the third threshold value, the number of visits is small and the visiting tendency of the user is unknown, so that the number of visits is not used”; Paragraph 0019: “Also, a discrimination method according to an embodiment of the present invention includes: an acquisition step of acquiring point information including a visit or the like point visited or searched by a user; a discrimination between a point of visit or the like as a destination candidate or a stop course candidate for a user And a discrimination step of discriminating the point of visit or the like as a destination candidate or a stop-off point candidate based on a plurality of discrimination conditions for making a visit.”; Paragraph 0052: “in step S27, it is determined whether or not the maximum value of the average staying time is less than a predetermined fifth threshold value. If it is less than the fifth threshold value (in the case of yes), the present flowchart is terminated, If it is less than the threshold (no), the process proceeds to step S28. In this step, when the staying time at the point visited by the user is short, it is not appropriate to read the trend, so do not use the staying time for all data (unusable). In determining this step, it is judged about a point (maximum value) having the longest average staying time among the average staying time at each point.”; Paragraph 0055: “it is decided whether to use each of the three discrimination conditions, such as the number of points of visit per genre, the number of visits, and the staying time, for each genre.”,
Supplemental Note: the discrimination unit is able to determine the staying time and staying frequencies at a location. These are then evaluated if they are above or below a threshold number of visits or staying time).
Therefore, it would have been obvious for one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to have been modified the invention disclosed by Ozawa with the teachings of Shogo with a reasonable expectation of success. Both Ozawa and Shogo teach the ability to acquire vehicle travel data to determine priorities of different locations. Shogo further teaches the ability to determine an outward trip by evaluating the staying frequency and staying time at the various locations. One of ordinary skill in the art would find this function of Shogo as a use of known technique to improve similar devices in the same way when combined with the destination prediction apparatus of Ozawa. The destination prediction apparatus can determine a stay characteristic regarding the time spent at a location and the frequency of departures from it (Ozawa: Paragraph 0212). When combined with the system of Shogo, the destination prediction apparatus will be able to utilize the different thresholds based on staying frequency and staying time to better determine if a location is a destination or a stop-over. This allows for the destination prediction apparatus to better predict what destination the user is to go to, thus improving the apparatus of Ozawa. Ozawa in view of Shogo however, still do not teach initiating a calculation of an estimated time of arrival at a facility and calculate the estimated time of arrival at the facility based on the predicted staying time.
Andreas teaches initiating a calculation of an estimated time of arrival at a facility (Andreas: Paragraph 0016: “In a preferred embodiment, the apparatus comprises a user interface for outputting the at least one adapted route to a user and for receiving a selected route selected by the user. Preferably, a plurality of possible adapted routes are determined, which pass through different charging stations, if appropriate. In order to enable the user (for example the driver of the electric motor vehicle) to be selected, an interaction (output of the options and input of the user's selection) can then take place via a user interface. In contrast to previous approaches, suggested routes are output with pre-planned intermediate stops at charging stations. By the selection, the user can additionally introduce his own preferences (for example by selecting a highway route which is shorter, but slightly more time-consuming than a similarly possible highway route).”; Paragraph 0022: “the charging planning unit is designed to determine a required charging duration at the selected charging station on the basis of the at least one adapted route. It is possible for the charging duration required in each case to be adapted individually. For example, a charging duration, in which the energy store is only partially charged, may be sufficient for the rest of the route. The required charging duration is determined or optimized individually on the basis of the planned route. This makes it possible to achieve a further shortening of the travel time, since only minimal charging takes place at the charging station along the route and the renewed complete charging is shifted to a point in time after reaching the destination.”)
… calculate the estimated time of arrival at the facility based on the predicted staying time (Andreas: Paragraph 0016: “In a preferred embodiment, the apparatus comprises a user interface for outputting the at least one adapted route to a user and for receiving a selected route selected by the user. Preferably, a plurality of possible adapted routes are determined, which pass through different charging stations, if appropriate. In order to enable the user (for example the driver of the electric motor vehicle) to be selected, an interaction (output of the options and input of the user's selection) can then take place via a user interface. In contrast to previous approaches, suggested routes are output with pre-planned intermediate stops at charging stations. By the selection, the user can additionally introduce his own preferences (for example by selecting a highway route which is shorter, but slightly more time-consuming than a similarly possible highway route).”; Paragraph 0022: “the charging planning unit is designed to determine a required charging duration at the selected charging station on the basis of the at least one adapted route. It is possible for the charging duration required in each case to be adapted individually. For example, a charging duration, in which the energy store is only partially charged, may be sufficient for the rest of the route. The required charging duration is determined or optimized individually on the basis of the planned route. This makes it possible to achieve a further shortening of the travel time, since only minimal charging takes place at the charging station along the route and the renewed complete charging is shifted to a point in time after reaching the destination.”).
Therefore, it would have been obvious for one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to have been modified the invention disclosed by Ozawa with the teachings of Andreas with a reasonable expectation of success. As stated above, Ozawa teaches the systems are able to gather travel locations a vehicle is to travel to and predict corresponding attributes such as stay time at each location, travel time, routing, etc. Andreas teaches the ability to identify routes which require the vehicle to be charged at charging locations and how long they need to charge. One with knowledge in the art would find it obvious to try to combine this system of Andreas with the system of Ozawa as to increase the efficiency of the vehicle system. For example, if a destination is too far and requires the vehicle to be charged along the way, the system will now automatically be able to display charging stations that the user can select while also informing the driver about the charging duration. This mitigates the need for the user to perform this task by themselves, saving them time while also increasing their punctuality as they can now receive estimates on long it will take to reach a charging station and how long to charge there. Ozawa in view of Andreas however still do not teach to provide base information indicating that one of the points which has a staying time and a staying frequency fulfilling corresponding criteria is a base, the corresponding criterion for the staying time being that the point indicated as the base has a longer average staying time of the acquired staying times than all other points of the points in the predetermined time period of the past, determine another of the points within the traveling history as a main destination, the other point having a longest staying time except at the base within the traveling history.
Yoichi teaches provide base information indicating that one of the points which has a staying time and a staying frequency fulfilling corresponding criteria is a base, the corresponding criterion for the staying time being that the point indicated as the base has a longer average staying time of the acquired staying times than all other points of the points in the predetermined time period of the past, (Yoichi: Paragraph 0020: “According to the present invention, attribute information such as an area to which a home belongs and an area to which a destination belongs can be estimated based on the movement history of a vehicle.”; Paragraph 0025: “The estimation unit 13 obtains the variation in visit frequency and arrival time for each area based on the movement history information, and among the areas where the visit frequency is equal to or higher than the threshold, the area to which the home has the largest variation in arrival time Area). ”; Paragraph 0046: “ In step S210 of this example, the visit frequency of each area and the average stay time T1, T2 are on the condition that the threshold is exceeded, but the present invention is not limited to this, the visit frequency of each area and the average stay time T1, It may be conditional on the visit frequency and the average stay time T2 of each area, or that only the visit frequency exceeds the threshold.”; Paragraph 0047: “Then, the area attribute estimation device 1 estimates an area having the largest arrival time information amount as a home area among the areas satisfying the condition of step S210 (step S220).”)
determine another of the points within the traveling history as a main destination, the other point having a longest staying time except at the base within the traveling history (Yoichi: Paragraph 0025: “The estimation unit 13 obtains the variation in visit frequency and arrival time for each area based on the movement history information, and among the areas where the visit frequency is equal to or higher than the threshold, the area to which the home has the largest variation in arrival time Area). Further, among the areas where the visit frequency is equal to or higher than the threshold, the estimation unit 13 estimates an area with the smallest variation in arrival time as an area to which the destination belongs. The destination in this example is a place where a user (driver) regularly visits the vehicle, and is, for example, the place where the user works.”).
Therefore, it would have been obvious for one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to have been modified the invention disclosed by Ozawa with the teachings of Yoichi with a reasonable expectation of success. Yoichi teaches an area attribute estimation device that is able to estimate the visit frequency of a location by the user. This is done by evaluating the staying time, frequency, movement and position history of the user in their vehicle, in which the device is able to predict what areas are the user’s home or work (Yoichi: Paragraph 0007; Paragraphs 0012 – 0013). One of ordinary skill in the art would find the area attribute estimation device as a combining prior art elements according to known methods to yield predictable results when combined with the destination prediction apparatus of Ozawa. For example, both device are able to track the user’s staying time and staying frequencies at multiple locations. Ozawa is also able to detect what locations are the user’s home and office while also identifying any other locations, such as a restaurant, and their corresponding staying time and frequencies as well. Both Yoichi and Ozawa yield the same predictable result of identifying destinations of a user based on staying time and staying frequency at the very least.
Regarding claim 2, Ozawa, as modified, does not teach wherein display device is configured to further present associated information regarding the facility or a route to the facility in addition to the estimated time of arrival whereas Andreas does.
Andreas teaches wherein display device is configured to further present associated information regarding the facility or a route to the facility in addition to the estimated time of arrival (Andreas: Paragraph 0016: “In a preferred embodiment, the apparatus comprises a user interface for outputting the at least one adapted route to a user and for receiving a selected route selected by the user. Preferably, a plurality of possible adapted routes are determined, which pass through different charging stations, if appropriate. In order to enable the user (for example the driver of the electric motor vehicle) to be selected, an interaction (output of the options and input of the user's selection) can then take place via a user interface. In contrast to previous approaches, suggested routes are output with pre-planned intermediate stops at charging stations. By the selection, the user can additionally introduce his own preferences (for example by selecting a highway route which is shorter, but slightly more time-consuming than a similarly possible highway route).”; Paragraph 0022: “the charging planning unit is designed to determine a required charging duration at the selected charging station on the basis of the at least one adapted route. It is possible for the charging duration required in each case to be adapted individually. For example, a charging duration, in which the energy store is only partially charged, may be sufficient for the rest of the route. The required charging duration is determined or optimized individually on the basis of the planned route. This makes it possible to achieve a further shortening of the travel time, since only minimal charging takes place at the charging station along the route and the renewed complete charging is shifted to a point in time after reaching the destination.”).
Therefore, it would have been obvious for one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to have been modified the invention disclosed by Ozawa with the teachings of Andreas with a reasonable expectation of success. As stated for claim 1, Ozawa teaches the systems are able to gather travel locations a vehicle is to travel to and predict corresponding attributes such as stay time at each location, travel time, routing, etc. Andreas teaches the ability to identify routes which require the vehicle to be charged at charging locations and how long they need to charge. One with knowledge in the art would find it obvious to try to combine this system of Andreas with the system of Ozawa as to increase the efficiency of the vehicle system. For example, if a destination is too far and requires the vehicle to be charged along the way, the system will now automatically be able to display charging stations that the user can select while also informing the driver about the charging duration. This mitigates the need for the user to perform this task by themselves, saving them time while also increasing their punctuality as they can now receive estimates on long it will take to reach a charging station and how long to charge there. Both Andreas and Ozawa teach a display device in which the routes and times can be displayed. One with knowledge in the art would find both of these to be simple substitutions of one another.
Regarding claim 4, Ozawa, as modified, does not teach wherein the display device also presents information regarding a facility at which stopping- off on the outward trip is predicted together with the estimated time of arrival at the facility at which stopping-off on the return trip is predicted whereas Andreas does.
Andreas teaches wherein the display device also presents information regarding a facility at which stopping- off on the outward trip is predicted together with the estimated time of arrival at the facility at which stopping-off on the return trip is predicted (Andreas: Paragraph 0016: “In a preferred embodiment, the apparatus comprises a user interface for outputting the at least one adapted route to a user and for receiving a selected route selected by the user. Preferably, a plurality of possible adapted routes are determined, which pass through different charging stations, if appropriate. In order to enable the user (for example the driver of the electric motor vehicle) to be selected, an interaction (output of the options and input of the user's selection) can then take place via a user interface. In contrast to previous approaches, suggested routes are output with pre-planned intermediate stops at charging stations. By the selection, the user can additionally introduce his own preferences (for example by selecting a highway route which is shorter, but slightly more time-consuming than a similarly possible highway route).”; Paragraph 0022: “the charging planning unit is designed to determine a required charging duration at the selected charging station on the basis of the at least one adapted route. It is possible for the charging duration required in each case to be adapted individually. For example, a charging duration, in which the energy store is only partially charged, may be sufficient for the rest of the route. The required charging duration is determined or optimized individually on the basis of the planned route. This makes it possible to achieve a further shortening of the travel time, since only minimal charging takes place at the charging station along the route and the renewed complete charging is shifted to a point in time after reaching the destination.”)
Therefore, it would have been obvious for one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to have been modified the invention disclosed by Ozawa with the teachings of Andreas with a reasonable expectation of success. As stated for claim 2, Ozawa teaches the systems are able to gather travel locations a vehicle is to travel to and predict corresponding attributes such as stay time at each location, travel time, routing, etc. Andreas teaches the ability to identify routes which require the vehicle to be charged at charging locations and how long they need to charge. One with knowledge in the art would find it obvious to try to combine this system of Andreas with the system of Ozawa as to increase the efficiency of the vehicle system. For example, if a destination is too far and requires the vehicle to be charged along the way, the system will now automatically be able to display charging stations that the user can select while also informing the driver about the charging duration. This mitigates the need for the user to perform this task by themselves, saving them time while also increasing their punctuality as they can now receive estimates on long it will take to reach a charging station and how long to charge there. Both Andreas and Ozawa teach a display device in which the routes and times can be displayed. One with knowledge in the art would find both of these to be simple substitutions of one another.
Regarding claim 5, Ozawa, as modified, teaches wherein, based on history information including information of a place of departure, a place of arrival, and staying time at the place of arrival, information of a base, the main destination, (Ozawa: Paragraph 0007: “an apparatus according to Patent Reference 1 searches the past travel histories with a current date and time condition and predicts, as a present destination, a place most frequently reached in past driving. For instance, it is assumed that a history of returning home from a company between 17:00 and 18:00 is accumulated. If a current time is 17:30, the present destination is determined to be a home based on the past destination. However, in the case where a current point is far away from the home and it is not possible to arrive there by 18:00 even when going home at the current time of 17:30, the destination is inappropriately determined as the "home".”; Paragraph 0119: “The stay characteristic setting unit 102 obtains stay characteristic information via the touch panel 3604 from a user who is a driver and the like. The stay characteristic information may indicate a stay start time when the user will likely start staying or, along with the stay start time, a stay end time when the user will likely end staying.”; Paragraph 0123: “The travel time calculating unit 104 calculates a travel time from a current point to each point using information of the current point obtained by the current point obtaining unit 101 and position information of each point accumulated by the stay characteristic accumulating unit 103. For instance, linear distance between the current point and each point is calculated, and it becomes possible to calculate the travel time to each point using an average speed of the vehicle (e.g. 10 km/hour). Furthermore, routes to a point pre-registered by the stay characteristic accumulating unit are searched using map information, and a required travel time may be calculated based on costs of each of the routes.”,
Supplemental Note: the place of departure in this example is equivalent to the company location, the place of arrival is the home location. The stay characteristics can be chosen by the user on how long they will stay at a current location so travel time calculating unit can calculate the time needed to reach home based on the various routes. The main destination in this example is the home location, same as the place of arrival)
and the outward trip or the return trip is added to the traveling history by the place of arrival (Ozawa: Paragraph 0124: “For example, as shown in FIG. 5, in the case of departing from a business trip destination at 16:00, "Home", "Office", and "Restaurant" are assumed as three destination candidates. A difference between an estimated arrival time and a stay start time is calculated for all points registered by the stay characteristic accumulating unit 103, and all of the points having the difference equal to or smaller than a predetermined threshold may be extracted as candidates. As a result of calculating a travel time to each destination, a required time for arriving at each point is calculated as shown in FIG. 6. For instance, a required time for travelling from a current point to "Home" is 90 minutes. Moreover, a required time to Office is 60 minutes, and a required time to Restaurant is 30 minutes.”,
Supplemental Note: the system calculates the travel time and travel route to each destination per the travel history as these three are known locations to the system).
Regarding claim 6, Ozawa, as modified, teaches wherein the processor determines that the current traveling situation is the outward trip in a case where the main destination has not been passed by after departing the base (Ozawa: Paragraph 0157: “as shown in FIG. 16, a regular route from a home to an office is accumulated as a travel history of vehicle. Furthermore, a route between the office and a restaurant is also accumulated as a regular travel. Here, in the case of travelling from the office to Business Trip Destination A for the first time, although a travel history from the office to Business Trip Destination A is accumulated, a travel history in which Business Trip Destination A is a departure point does not exist when departing from Business Trip Destination A. Consequently, a destination is predicted using past stay characteristics”; Paragraph 0162: “In the case of the first departure, as the travel history in which the current point is the departure point is not accumulated, the process proceeds to S1605 and a destination is predicted using the stay characteristic accumulating unit 103.”,
Supplemental Note: an outward trip is equivalent to a business trip destination that is not in the travel history when traveling from that location. The base is interpreted to be the home location as that is the location the user it departing from. The main destination is determined to be a destination the systems predicts using a past stay characteristics accumulating unit, therefore the trip to the business trip destination is an outward trip as it is not in the past travel history).
Regarding claim 8, Ozawa teaches an information presentation method executed by an information presentation device presenting predetermined information, the information presentation method comprising: (Ozawa: Paragraph 0001)
determining, by a processor of the information presentation device, (Ozawa: Paragraph 0115)
whether or not a current traveling situation in which a vehicle is currently traveling corresponds to an outward trip based on a traveling history of the past; (Ozawa: Paragraph 0153; Paragraph 0157; Paragraph 0159; Paragraphs 0161 – 0162,
Supplemental Note: an outward trip is equivalent to a business trip destination that is not in the travel history when traveling from that location. The travel history unit and accumulating unit in this example is responsible for this function in conjunction)
… that includes a course starting from the base and returning back to the base, (Ozawa: Paragraph 0122; Paragraph 0128,
Supplemental Note: in the example, the user is returning home from the work. This is interpreted as the full course starting from home and returning back home)
determines a first route starting from the base and extending to the main destination as the outward trip,
determines a second route starting from the main destination and extending to the based as the return trip based on the traveling history, (Ozawa: Paragraph 0153; Paragraph 0157; Paragraph 0159; Paragraphs 0161 – 0162,
Supplemental Note: an outward trip is equivalent to a business trip destination that is not in the travel history when traveling from that location. The travel history unit and accumulating unit in this example is responsible for this function in conjunction)
calculates a predicted staying time at the main destination based on the traveling history, and (Ozawa: Paragraph 0092; Paragraph 0094; Paragraph 0144).
In sum, Ozawa teaches an information presentation method executed by an information presentation device presenting predetermined information, the information presentation method comprising: determining, by a processor of the information presentation device, whether or not a current traveling situation in which a vehicle is currently traveling corresponds to an outward trip based on a traveling history of the past; that includes a course starting from the base and returning back to the base, determines a first route starting from the base and extending to the main destination as the outward trip, determines a second route starting from the main destination and extending to the based as the return trip based on the traveling history, calculates a predicted staying time at the main destination based on the traveling history. Ozawa however does not teach upon determining that the current traveling situation corresponds to the outward trip, at which stopping-off on a return trip associated with the outward trip is predicted; and presenting, by a display device of the information presentation device, the estimated time of arrival at the facility at which stopping-off on the return trip is predicted, while the vehicle is traveling on the outward trip.
Onimaru teaches upon determining that the current traveling situation corresponds to the outward trip, (Onimaru: Abstract; Paragraph 0095,
Supplemental Note: the outward trip is interpreted in this example as being able to route to a gas station along a route)
… at which stopping-off on a return trip associated with the outward trip is predicted; and (Onimaru: Paragraph 0095)
… presenting, by a display device of the information presentation device, the estimated time of arrival at the facility at which stopping-off on the return trip is predicted, while the vehicle is traveling on the outward trip, (Onimaru: Paragraph 0141; Abstract; Paragraph 0095).
Therefore, it would have been obvious for one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to have been modified the invention disclosed by Ozawa with the teachings of Onimaru with a reasonable expectation of success. Please refer to the rejection of claim 1 as both claim the same function and therefore rejected under the same pretenses. Ozawa in view of Onimaru however still do not teach wherein the processor acquires staying times and staying frequencies of a plurality of points in a predetermined time period of the past from the traveling history, determines whether or not a staying time of the acquired staying times and a staying frequency of the acquired staying frequencies of each of the points in the predetermined time period of the past fulfills a corresponding criterion.
Shogo teaches wherein the processor acquires staying times and staying frequencies of a plurality of points in a predetermined time period of the past from the traveling history, (Shogo: Paragraph 0049; Paragraph 0052; Paragraph 0033)
determines whether or not a staying time of the acquired staying times and a staying frequency of the acquired staying frequencies of each of the points in the predetermined time period of the past fulfills a corresponding criterion, (Shogo: Paragraph 0014; Paragraph 0019; Paragraph 0052; Paragraph 0055,
Supplemental Note: the discrimination unit is able to determine the staying time and staying frequencies at a location. These are then evaluated if they are above or below a threshold number of visits or staying time).
Therefore, it would have been obvious for one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to have been modified the invention disclosed by Ozawa with the teachings of Shogo with a reasonable expectation of success. Please refer to the rejection of claim 1 as both claim the same function and therefore rejected under the same pretenses. Ozawa in view of Shogo however still do not teach initiating, by the processor, a calculation of an estimated time of arrival at a facility calculates the estimated time of arrival at the facility based on the predicted staying time.
Andreas teaches initiating, by the processor, a calculation of an estimated time of arrival at a facility (Andreas: Paragraph 0016; Paragraph 0022)
… calculates the estimated time of arrival at the facility based on the predicted staying time (Andreas: Paragraph 0016; Paragraph 0022).
Therefore, it would have been obvious for one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to have been modified the invention disclosed by Ozawa with the teachings of Andreas with a reasonable expectation of success. Please refer to the rejection of claim 1 as both claim the same function and therefore rejected under the same pretenses. Ozawa in view of Andreas however still do not teach to provide base information indicating that one of the points which has a staying time and a staying frequency fulfilling corresponding criteria is a base, the corresponding criterion for the staying time being that the point indicated as the base has a longer average staying time of the acquired staying times than all other points of the points in the predetermined time period of the past, determines another point of the points within the traveling history as the main destination, the other point having a longest staying time except at the base within the traveling history.
Yoichi teaches provides base information indicating that one of the points which has a staying time and a staying frequency fulfilling corresponding criteria is a base, the corresponding criterion for the staying time being that the point indicated as the base has a longer average staying time of the acquired staying times than all other points of the points in the predetermined time period of the past, (Yoichi: Paragraph 0020; Paragraph 0025; Paragraph 0046; Paragraph 0047)
determines another point of the points within the traveling history as the main destination, the other point having a longest staying time except at the base within the traveling history (Yoichi: Paragraph 0025).
Therefore, it would have been obvious for one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to have been modified the invention disclosed by Ozawa with the teachings of Yoichi with a reasonable expectation of success. Please refer to the rejection of claim 1 as both claim the same function and therefore rejected under the same pretenses.
Regarding claim 10, Ozawa, as modified, teaches a computer-readable storage medium comprising an information presentation program stored thereon, the information presentation program being configured to cause a computer to execute the information presentation method according to claim 8 (Ozawa: Claim 12: “The destination prediction apparatus according to claim 1, wherein said destination predicting unit is operable, by causing a Central Processing Unit to execute a pre-stored program, to: read out, to a working memory, the stay characteristic information from said stay characteristic accumulating unit; perform prediction by referring to the stay characteristic information read out to the working memory; and output, to a display device, information indicating a result of the prediction.”,
Supplemental Note: the destination prediction apparatus is the apparatus performing the function stated in claim 8).
Regarding claim 11, Ozawa teaches an information presentation device comprising: (Ozawa: Paragraph 0001,
Supplemental Note: the in-vehicle device is interpreted to be the information presentation device)
a processor (Ozawa: Paragraph 0115)
determining whether or not a current traveling situation in which a vehicle is currently traveling corresponds to an outward trip based on a traveling history of the past, and (Ozawa: Paragraph 0153; Paragraph 0157; Paragraph 0159; Paragraphs 0161 – 0162,
Supplemental Note: an outward trip is equivalent to a business trip destination that is not in the travel history when traveling from that location. The travel history unit and accumulating unit in this example is responsible for this function in conjunction)
… that includes a course starting from the base and returning back to the base, as the main destination, (Ozawa: Paragraph 0122; Paragraph 0128,
Supplemental Note: in the example, the user is returning home from the work. This is interpreted as the full course starting from home and returning back home)
… that includes a course starting from the base and returning back to the base, the base being another point including a staying time and a staying frequency, (Ozawa: Paragraph 0122: “The stay characteristic accumulating unit 103 accumulates the stay characteristic information obtained from the user by the stay characteristic setting unit 102. For example, as shown in FIG. 4, regarding "Home", "Landmark 1", and the like, their registered names, positions by latitude and longitude, and additionally information on stay start times and stay end times are accumulated. The registered stay start times and stay end times here correspond respectively to the return home time, or the arrival time, and the departure time set on the interface shown in FIG. 3 by the user as mentioned above.”; Paragraph 0128: “In the example shown in FIG. 6, a current time is 16:00, and in the case of departing from the current point to Home, an estimated arrival time at Home is 17:30. On the other hand, since a stay start time at Home (regular return home time) is 18:00, a 30-minutes difference from the estimated arrival time is calculated. Moreover, although an estimated arrival time is 17:00 for Office, a stay at Office starts at 9:00, which is a time for coming to Office, according to a stay characteristic accumulated by the stay characteristic accumulating unit 103. Consequently, a difference between the estimated arrival time and the stay start time is calculated as 8:00.”,
Supplemental Note: in the example, the user is returning home from the work. This is interpreted as the full course starting from home and returning back home)
… based on the traveling history, determine a first route starting from the base and extending to the main destination as the outward trip, and determine a second route starting from the main destination and extending to the base as the return trip, (Ozawa: Paragraph 0153; Paragraph 0157; Paragraph 0159; Paragraphs 0161 – 0162,
Supplemental Note: an outward trip is equivalent to a business trip destination that is not in the travel history when traveling from that location. The travel history unit and accumulating unit in this example is responsible for this function in conjunction)
calculate a predicted staying time at the main destination based on the traveling history, and (Ozawa: Paragraph 0092; Paragraph 0094; Paragraph 0144).
In sum, Ozawa teaches an information presentation device comprising: a processor determining whether or not a current traveling situation in which a vehicle is currently traveling corresponds to an outward trip based on a traveling history of the past, and that includes a course starting from the base and returning back to the base, as the main destination, that includes a course starting from the base and returning back to the base, the base being another point including a staying time and a staying frequency, based on the traveling history, determine a first route starting from the base and extending to the main destination as the outward trip, and determine a second route starting from the main destination and extending to the base as the return trip, calculate a predicted staying time at the main destination based on the traveling history. Ozawa however does not teach upon determining that the current traveling situation corresponds to the outward trip at which stopping-off on a return trip associated with the outward trip is predicted; and a display device configured to present the estimated time of arrival at the facility at which stopping-off on the return trip is predicted, while the vehicle is traveling on the outward trip.
Onimaru teaches upon determining that the current traveling situation corresponds to the outward trip, (Onimaru: Abstract; Paragraph 0095,
Supplemental Note: the outward trip is interpreted in this example as being able to route to a gas station along a route)
… at which stopping-off on a return trip associated with the outward trip is predicted; and (Onimaru: Paragraph 0095)
a display device configured to present the estimated time of arrival at the facility at which stopping-off on the return trip is predicted, while the vehicle is traveling on the outward trip, (Onimaru: Paragraph 0141).
Therefore, it would have been obvious for one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to have been modified the invention disclosed by Ozawa with the teachings of Onimaru with a reasonable expectation of success. Please refer to the rejection of claim 1 as both claim the same function and therefore rejected under the same pretenses. Ozawa in view of Onimaru however still do not teach wherein the processor is configured to: acquire staying times and staying frequencies of a plurality of points in a predetermined time period of the past from the traveling history, determine whether or not a staying time of the acquired staying times and a staying frequency of the acquired staying frequencies of each of the points in the predetermined time period of the past fulfills a corresponding criterion, each of the staying time and the staying frequency fulfilling a criterium in a predetermined time period of the past.
Shogo teaches wherein the processor is configured to:
acquire staying times and staying frequencies of a plurality of points in a predetermined time period of the past from the traveling history, (Shogo: Paragraph 0049; Paragraph 0052; Paragraph 0033)
determine whether or not a staying time of the acquired staying times and a staying frequency of the acquired staying frequencies of each of the points in the predetermined time period of the past fulfills a corresponding criterion, (Shogo: Paragraph 0014; Paragraph 0019; Paragraph 0052; Paragraph 0055,
Supplemental Note: the discrimination unit is able to determine the staying time and staying frequencies at a location. These are then evaluated if they are above or below a threshold number of visits or staying time)
… each of the staying time and the staying frequency fulfilling a criterium in a predetermined time period of the past, (Shogo: Paragraph 0014; Paragraph 0019; Paragraph 0052; Paragraph 0055,
Supplemental Note: the discrimination unit is able to determine the staying time and staying frequencies at a location. These are then evaluated if they are above or below a threshold number of visits or staying time).
Therefore, it would have been obvious for one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to have been modified the invention disclosed by Ozawa with the teachings of Shogo with a reasonable expectation of success. Please refer to the rejection of claim 1 as both claim the same function and therefore rejected under the same pretenses. Ozawa in view of Shogo however still do not teach initiating a calculation of an estimated time of arrival at a facility calculate the estimated time of arrival at the facility based on the predicted staying time.
Andreas teaches initiating a calculation of an estimated time of arrival at a facility (Andreas: Paragraph 0016; Paragraph 0022)
… calculate the estimated time of arrival at the facility based on the predicted staying time. (Andreas: Paragraph 0016; Paragraph 0022).
Therefore, it would have been obvious for one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to have been modified the invention disclosed by Ozawa with the teachings of Andreas with a reasonable expectation of success. Please refer to the rejection of claim 1 as both claim the same function and therefore rejected under the same pretenses. Ozawa in view of Andreas however still do not teach to provide base information indicating that one of the points which has a staying time and a staying frequency fulfilling corresponding criteria is a base, the point indicated as the base having the longest staying time of the acquired staying times, determine another of the points within the traveling history, having the second longest staying time within the traveling history the point having a longest staying time except at a base within the traveling history.
Yoichi teaches to provide base information indicating that one of the points which has a staying time and a staying frequency fulfilling corresponding criteria is a base, the point indicated as the base having the longest staying time of the acquired staying times, (Yoichi: Paragraph 0020; Paragraph 0025; Paragraph 0046; Paragraph 0047)
determine another of the points within the traveling history, having the second longest staying time within the traveling history (Yoichi: Paragraph 0025)
the point having a longest staying time except at a base within the traveling history (Yoichi: Paragraph 0025).
Therefore, it would have been obvious for one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to have been modified the invention disclosed by Ozawa with the teachings of Yoichi with a reasonable expectation of success. Please refer to the rejection of claim 1 as both claim the same function and therefore rejected under the same pretenses.
Response to Arguments
Applicant’s arguments, see section II. Rejection under 35 U.S.C. 112 of the REMARKS, filed 01/30/2026, with respect to 35 U.S.C. 112(b) claim indefiniteness rejections of claims 1 and 8 have been fully considered and are persuasive. The 35 U.S.C. 112(b) claim indefiniteness rejections of claims 1 and 8 have been withdrawn.
Applicant’s arguments, see section III. Rejection under 35 U.S.C. 103 of the REMARKS, filed 01/30/2026, with respect to 35 U.S.C. 103 prior art rejection of claims 1, 2, 4 – 6, 8 and 10 have been fully considered and are persuasive. Applicant states the previously used prior art, neither in combination or individually teach the amended claim limitations. Examiner agrees, however, upon further consideration, a new ground(s) of rejection is made in view of Shogo (JP2018044778A) and Yoichi (JP2016038743A).
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 SHIVAM SHARMA whose telephone number is (703)756-1726. The examiner can normally be reached Monday-Friday 8:00-5:00.
Examiner interviews are available via telephone, in-person, and video conferencing using a USPTO supplied web-based collaboration tool. To schedule an interview, applicant is encouraged to use the USPTO Automated Interview Request (AIR) at http://www.uspto.gov/interviewpractice.
If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner’s supervisor, Erin Bishop can be reached at 571-270-3713. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300.
Information regarding the status of published or unpublished applications may be obtained from Patent Center. Unpublished application information in Patent Center is available to registered users. To file and manage patent submissions in Patent Center, visit: https://patentcenter.uspto.gov. Visit https://www.uspto.gov/patents/apply/patent-center for more information about Patent Center and https://www.uspto.gov/patents/docx for information about filing in DOCX format. For additional questions, contact the Electronic Business Center (EBC) at 866-217-9197 (toll-free). If you would like assistance from a USPTO Customer Service Representative, call 800-786-9199 (IN USA OR CANADA) or 571-272-1000.
/SHIVAM SHARMA/ Examiner, Art Unit 3665
/Erin D Bishop/ Supervisory Patent Examiner, Art Unit 3665
Prosecution Insights