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 .
Continued Examination Under 37 CFR 1.114
A request for continued examination under 37 CFR 1.114, including the fee set forth in 37 CFR 1.17(e), was filed in this application after final rejection. Since this application is eligible for continued examination under 37 CFR 1.114, and the fee set forth in 37 CFR 1.17(e) has been timely paid, the finality of the previous Office action has been withdrawn pursuant to 37 CFR 1.114. Applicant's submission filed on 10/20/2025 has been entered.
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, 4-15, 17-20 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(1) as being anticipated over Bae (US 2018/0194365) in view of Fields (US 2022/0089063), and Martin (US 11,040,619), and Homma (US 2022/0196423)
As to claim 1 Bae discloses a method of supporting vehicle driving for a pregnant woman, the method comprising:
determining, by a controller, whether to enter a driving support control for the pregnant woman based on at least one of an entry command or an input biometric information of a driver who is the pregnant woman (Paragraph 203 “When the physical feature is selected according to user input, the display unit 141 may display a screen for selecting any one of an elderly person 621, a disabled person 622 and a pregnant woman 623. According to user input, any one of the elderly person 621, the disabled person 622 and the pregnant woman 623 may be selected.”, Paragraph 268 “In this case, the controller 170 pairs with a wearable device 1220 of the pregnant woman 1210 through the short-range communication module 113. In this case, the controller 170 may receive the biometric information of the pregnant woman sensed by the wearable device 1220.”);
determining, by the controller, a control function to be activated among predetermined control functions in the driving support control for the pregnant woman based on the at least one of the entry command or the biometric information when entering the driving support control for the pregnant woman (Paragraph 263 “If the driver type is a pregnant woman, the controller 170 may perform control to turn the LDW 212, the LKA 213, the TSR 215, the HBA 216, the BSD 217 and the AES 218 on. In addition, the controller 170 may perform control to turn off the AEB 210, the FCW 211 and the SAS 214 capable of performing quick braking.”); and
performing, by the controller, the determined control function(Paragraph 263 “If the driver type is a pregnant woman, the controller 170 may perform control to turn the LDW 212, the LKA 213, the TSR 215, the HBA 216, the BSD 217 and the AES 218 on. In addition, the controller 170 may perform control to turn off the AEB 210, the FCW 211 and the SAS 214 capable of performing quick braking.”).
Bae does not explicitly disclose wherein the determining of the control function includes determining the control function to be activated and a functional priority among the control function to be activated based on one of predetermined periods of pregnancy
Fields teaches determining of the control function includes determining the control function to be activated and a functional priority among the control function to be activated based on one of predetermined periods of pregnancy(Paragraph 47 “n determining a physical configuration of the interior vehicle component 140, the processor 202 may take into account a passenger's preferences and/or characteristics/traits. The passenger profile data storage 238 may contain data indicative of one or more passenger's physical characteristics, biometric traits, pre-existing health conditions, mental health status, and/or any other physiological conditions. Examples of a passenger's preferences may include a passenger selected and/or preferred orientation, position, and/or configuration of the interior vehicle component 140. Examples of passenger profile data include, but are not limited to, a passenger's height, weight, gender, age, education level, profession, disabilities/impairments/limitations, and/or pregnancy status. In some embodiments, passenger profile data is collected using the interior data collection component 120 and/or transmitted to the vehicle computer 200 from a third party device”)
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill to modify Bae to include the teachings of creating a profile for the driver for the purpose of controlling the vehicle behavior suitable for each of the different occupants of the vehicle.
Bae does not explicitly disclose wherein the one of predetermined periods of pregnancy is determined based on biometric information including at least one of a date of conception, a number of days elapsed from the date of conception, an expected date of delivery, a gestational age, a trimester of pregnancy or estimation-based information thereof.
Martin teaches a method wherein the biometric information includes at least one of a date of conception, a number of days elapsed from the date of conception, an expected date of delivery, a gestational age, a trimester of pregnancy or estimation-based information thereof(Column 27 lines 56-Column 28 lines 1-11 “In some embodiments, the processors 106a-106n may determine details of the characteristics of the occupant 452. For example, the characteristics may comprise the detection of facial hair, detecting breast size, detecting an enlarged Adam's apple, detecting a size and/or shape of a nose, determining a hip width, determining a leg length, detecting types and/or styles of clothing worn, detecting accessories worn (e.g., jewelry, watches, piercings, tattoos, etc.), detecting scars, detecting eye color, detecting skin color, detecting hair style, detecting hair length, detecting hair color, etc. In another example, the computer vision operations may detect temporary conditions that may affect a limitation profile of the occupant 452 (e.g., a baby bump indicating that the occupant 452 is pregnant).”) .
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill to modify Bae to include the teachings of creating a profile for the driver for the purpose of controlling the vehicle behavior suitable for each of the different occupants of the vehicle.
Bae does not explicitly disclose wherein the predetermined control functions include providing a route determined based on at least one fatigue-inducing factor and at least one fatigue-reducing factor in at least one candidate route.
Homma teaches wherein the predetermined control functions include providing a route determined based on at least one fatigue-inducing factor and at least one fatigue-reducing factor in at least one candidate route (Paragraph 6 “The circuitry is configured to determine a mental fatigue level of the occupant inside the vehicle on the basis of the image of the occupant inside the vehicle captured by the imaging unit or the acquired information including the biometric information of the occupant inside and outside the vehicle. The circuitry is configured to search for a recommended traveling route and a recommended stop-by point on the basis of a search condition, and propose one or both of the recommended traveling route, the recommended stop-by point to the occupant. The search condition is based on one or both of first determination information regarding the physical fatigue level and determination information regarding the mental fatigue level.”)
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill to modify Bae to include the teachings of providing a route determined based on a fatigue reducing factor for the purpose of providing safe and convenient driving.
As to claim 2 Bae discloses a method wherein the determining of the control function includes determining control parameters based on the at least one of the entry command or the biometric information, and wherein in the performing of the determined control function, the determined control function is performed based on the determined control parameters(Paragraph 203, 268).
As to claim 4 Bae discloses a method further including:
changing, by the controller, at least one of the control function or the control parameters based on whether the biometric information is changed(Paragraph 263, 268)..
As to claim 5 Bae discloses a method wherein the determining of the control function includes:
determining entry into the driving support control for the pregnant woman according to the entry command of the driver(Paragraph 203); and
determining the control function and the control parameters according to a default setting when the biometric information does not exist(Paragraph 203, 263).
As to claim 6 Bae discloses a method further including:
correcting, by the controller, the control parameters according to the default setting based on change in a situation during vehicle driving (Paragraph 160).
As to claim 7 Martin teaches a method wherein the default setting is performed based on a preset period during an entire pregnancy period(Column 27 lines 56-Column 28 lines 1-11) .
As to claim 8 Bae discloses a method wherein the determining of whether to enter the driving support control includes determining whether the pregnant woman is boarded based on at least one of a user profile in which a pregnant woman item is capable of being preset or an occupant posture information (Paragraph 133, 203).
As to claim 9 Bae discloses a method further including:
waiting for, by the controller, a confirmation input on whether the pregnant woman is boarded when the controller concludes that the pregnant woman is boarded (Paragraph 65); and
determining whether to enter the driving support control for the pregnant woman based on the confirmation input(Paragraph 203, 263).
As to claim 10 Martin teaches a method
wherein the determining of the control function includes presetting at least one of a functional priority of the control function, a correction sensitivity to control correction frequency or correction width for each of the control parameters(Column 28 lines 12-34), and
a computational sensitivity to assign a weight to each of the control parameters according to the biometric information (Column 28 lines 12-27).
As to claim 11 Bae discloses a method wherein the determining of the control function includes determining a set of settings corresponding to the biometric information among a plurality of preset sets of settings, and wherein each of the plurality of sets of settings is preset to be different from each other in at least one of the functional priority, the correction sensitivity, or the computational sensitivity(Paragraph 270-273).
As to claim 12 Bae discloses a method wherein the determining of the control function includes determining levels of the control parameters based on at least one of whether an event has occurred for each of the control parameters, a number of event occurrences, a sensor value, a device state value, or a reference value for each parameter (Paragraph 238-239).
As to claim 13 Bae discloses a non-transitory computer-readable recording medium recording a program for executing the method of supporting vehicle driving for the pregnant woman of claim 1 (Paragraph 198).
As to claim 14 the claim is interpreted and rejected as in claim 1.
As to claim 15 the claim is interpreted and rejected as in claim 2.
As to claim 17 the claim is interpreted and rejected as in claim 4.
As to claim 18 the claim is interpreted and rejected as in claim 5.
As to claim 19 the claim is interpreted and rejected as in claim 6.
As to claim 20 the claim is interpreted and rejected as in claim 7.
Claims 21-22 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(1) as being anticipated over Bae (US 2018/0194365) in view of Fields (US 2022/0089063), and Martin (US 11,040,619), and Homma (US 2022/0196423) as applied to claim 1 above, and in further view of Kim (US 2024/0034352)
As to claim 21 Kim teaches a method wherein the predetermined control functions further include adjusting an effect of steering wheel rotation on a steering angle based on the biometric information(Abstract).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill to modify Bae to include the teachings of adjusting an effect of steering wheel rotation on a steering angle for the purpose of providing safe and convenient driving.
As to claim 22 the claim is interpreted and rejected as in claim 21.
Response to Arguments
Applicant’s arguments with respect to claim 1-2, 4-15, 17-22 have been considered but are moot because the new ground of rejection does not rely on any reference applied in the prior rejection of record for any teaching or matter specifically challenged in the argument.
Conclusion
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to IMRAN K MUSTAFA whose telephone number is (571)270-1471. The examiner can normally be reached Mon-Fri 9-5.
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If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner’s supervisor, James J Lee can be reached at 571-270-5965. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300.
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IMRAN K. MUSTAFA
Primary Examiner
Art Unit 3668
/IMRAN K MUSTAFA/ Primary Examiner, Art Unit 3668
1/9/2026