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 office action is in response to application number 18/422,514 filed on 11/24/2025, in which
Claims 1-20 are presented for examination. Applicant amends Claims 1, 3-4, 9, 11-13, 16, and 18-19.
Information Disclosure Statement
The information disclosure statement (IDS) submitted on 1/25/2024 has been received and considered by the examiner.
Response to Arguments
Applicant’s arguments, see pgs. 2, filed 11/24/2025, with respect to the objections to the specification have been fully considered and are persuasive. The objections to the specification of 9/3/2025 have been withdrawn.
In light of the amendments and markup to Claim 1, see pg. 4, filed 11/24/2025, Examiner makes a new objection. Further details are provided below.
Applicant’s arguments, see pg, filed 11/24/2025, with respect to the rejection of Claims 3-4, 9-15, and 18-19 under 35 U.S.C. 112(b) have been fully considered but are not fully persuasive. Examiner maintains the rejection under 35 U.S.C. 112(b) of of 9/3/2025. Further details are provided below. Examiner withdraws the remaining rejections of Claims 3-4, 9-15, and 18-19 under 35 U.S.C. 112(b) set forth in the office action of 9/3/2025.
Applicant’s arguments, see pg, filed 11/24/2025, with respect to the rejection of Claims 1-20 under 35 U.S.C. 103 have been fully considered and are persuasive. Applicant argues that Yu does not disclose “a designated ultra-wideband (UWB) anchor” and instead indicates activating “multiple UWB anchor points” after BLE RSSI determination, and further that the “main module” is not a UWB anchor. Examiner respectfully disagrees that the main module is not a UWB anchor. The broadest reasonable interpretation of "a designated UWB anchor" in the vehicle is a UWB device installed in a vehicle with a known location that can be used for UWB communication with another device, such as the mobile device, where it can be specified among the anchors for performing specific tasks. Yu [pg. 4, lines 5-6], explains that the, "Multiple UWB anchor points and UWB main modules can be installed in different locations on the vehicle to facilitate precise positioning of the UWB key using UWB technology," where [pg. 5, lines 15-16], "The UWB main module communicates with the UWB key of the vehicle and multiple UWB anchor points installed on the vehicle." As stated above, Applicant elaborates that Yu does not disclose activating a plurality of UWB anchors to perform trilateration between the vehicle and the mobile device and instead triggers activating anchors using Bluetooth signal strength (BLE RSSI) determination. And further that Yu does not disclose a second distance threshold with respect to the time of flight (TOF) measurements between the mobile device and designated anchor, and instead four anchor points use TOF measurements based on the activation by the designated anchor using a BLE RSSI threshold. Although Yu is not used to reject the trilateration, Examiner agrees with the argument that Yu does not disclose using TOF measurements between a mobile device and the designated anchor, or UWB main module. Although Yu [pg. 2, lines 18-19], does state that the UWB main module predicts the distance between the UWB key and the vehicle using BLE, which could imply various forms of ranging including TOF measurements, Yu later specifies [pg. 6, lines 29028] that the UWB main module uses the BLE ranging signal to identify the distance using the field strength RSSI value, not TOF measurements.
Finally, Applicant further argues that Smith does not disclose utilizing a subset of anchors to perform continued trilateration, based on the position, and inhibit anchors, other than the subset, to save power. Examiner respectfully disagrees. Smith [pgs. 9-10, paras 0130-132] discusses coordinating and transferring operations among modules, or subsets of modules, and further Smith [pg. 3, para 0063] states that the system is capable of fully and continuously operating in the background, where [pg. 2, paras 0031 and 0034] a primary feature includes locating portable devices, [pg. 16, paras 0212 and 0218], which can utilize trilateration as a technique. Finally, Smith [pg. 10, paras 0133] also states that a purpose of the coordination and transferring is to minimize power consumption.
In light of the arguments regarding the designated anchor performing TOF measurements after a mobile device reaches a threshold distance, Examiner withdraws the rejection of Claims 1-20 under 35 U.S.C. 103 set forth in the office action of 9/3/2025. A summary of the allowable subject matter is provided below.
Claim Objections
Claim 1 is objected to because of the following informalities:
Claim 1 (line 2): “approach of mobile devices” should be “approach [[for]] of mobile devices.”
Appropriate correction is required.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 112
The following is a quotation of 35 U.S.C. 112(b):
(b) CONCLUSION.—The specification shall conclude with one or more claims particularly pointing out and distinctly claiming the subject matter which the inventor or a joint inventor regards as the invention.
The following is a quotation of 35 U.S.C. 112 (pre-AIA ), second paragraph:
The specification shall conclude with one or more claims particularly pointing out and distinctly claiming the subject matter which the applicant regards as his invention.
Claims rejected under 35 U.S.C. 112(b) or 35 U.S.C. 112 (pre-AIA ), second paragraph, as being indefinite for failing to particularly point out and distinctly claim the subject matter which the inventor or a joint inventor (or for applications subject to pre-AIA 35 U.S.C. 112, the applicant), regards as the invention.
In Claim 11 and Claim 12, there is no upper or lower limit applied to “N” and therefore the number of anchors is an open-ended numerical range. For examination purposes, “N” will be read as at least one, similar to Claim 18.
Claim 13 is rejected by dependency on Claim 12.
Allowable Subject Matter
Claims 1-20 are allowed.
As allowable subject matter has been indicated, applicant's reply must either comply with all formal requirements or specifically traverse each requirement not complied with. See 37 CFR 1.111(b) and MPEP § 707.07(a).
Claims 11-13 would be allowable if rewritten to overcome the rejection(s) under 35 U.S.C. 112(b) or 35 U.S.C. 112 (pre-AIA ), 2nd paragraph, set forth in this Office action.
The following is a statement of reasons for the indication of allowable subject matter:
The arts of record, especially Yu, do not singularly or in combination disclose a method, system, and a medium for tracking a mobile device approaching a vehicle by performing distance measurements using a dedicated ultra-wideband anchor based on detecting, using a vehicle transceiver, the mobile device reaching a first distance, activating a plurality of ultra-wideband anchors based on the time of flight distance measurements indicating the mobile device has reached a second distance closer to the vehicle, performing trilateration between the vehicle and the mobile device using the plurality of the UWB anchors, inhibiting a subset of the plurality of the UWB anchors while continuing to perform trilateration, and finally, actuating a component of the vehicle based on the trilateration , as recited in independent Claims 1, 9, and 16.
The uniqueness of the claimed invention is, as recited in Claims 1, 9, and 16, that the designated ultra-wideband anchor uses time of flight measurements to make the distance measurements.
Yu being the closest prior art discloses a vehicle control method, medium, and a system for ultra-wideband positioning using a UWB main module that activates when the UWB key is in a specified range and conducts distance measurements using Bluetooth RSSI measurements, multiple UWB anchors that activate when the UWB key is in a second, closer, specified range and conduct distance measurements using time of flight ranging, and finally, vehicle control actions that occur when the UWB key reaches a third, closer distance, to the vehicle, based on the time of flight distance measurements. However, there are no teachings in Yu pertaining to the claimed designated ultra-wideband anchor using time of flight measurements to make the distance measurements.
Therefore, the allowable subject matter found in the claims that has not been found to have been taught or disclosed in the prior art found at his time is all the claimed limitations of the independent Claims 1, 9, and 16. All the dependent claims, Claims 2-8, 10-15, and 17-20, also contain allowable subject matter by virtue of their dependency on the base claims.
Therefore, Claims 2-8, 10-15, and 17-20 are allowed based on their dependency to Claims 1, 9, and 16, respectively.
Conclusion
The prior art made of record and not relied upon is considered pertinent to applicant's disclosure.
Reference A, Lim, PG Pub US-2023/0058744-A1, discusses using a UWB anchor ON/OFF method to minimize power consumption where a transceiver performs ranging by confirming reception success or failure and turning on a standby mode for UWB anchors that reach a maximum amount of failed reception attempts.
Reference B, Williams, PG Pub US-2016/0193729-A1, discusses a method and a system for determining the position or pose of an object using a robotic device with a transceiver that moves through an environment which has a master node in communication with a plurality of anchor nodes, where the master node distributes a grid of location information to a selection of a number of anchor nodes based on the ranging message responses.
Reference C, Burke er al., PG Pub US-2022/0258692-A1, discusses a computer that uses a machine learning program to output a location of a portable device relative to a vehicle, where the machine learning program is trained using a training dataset and uses an updatable signal to predict location an action of a vehicle user and output operating data for a vehicle component.
Reference D, Smith, PG Pub US-2020/0137817-A1, discusses a system and method to determine the location information of a group portable devices by connecting to the system using sensors, controllers, communication protocols such as Bluetooth and ultra-wideband, and ranging anchors, such as ultra-wideband anchors, which use techniques such as trilateration, time of flight measurements, or angle of departure.
THIS ACTION IS MADE FINAL. Applicant is reminded of the extension of time policy as set forth in 37 CFR 1.136(a).
A shortened statutory period for reply to this final action is set to expire THREE MONTHS from the mailing date of this action. In the event a first reply is filed within TWO MONTHS of the mailing date of this final action and the advisory action is not mailed until after the end of the THREE-MONTH shortened statutory period, then the shortened statutory period will expire on the date the advisory action is mailed, and any nonprovisional extension fee (37 CFR 1.17(a)) pursuant to 37 CFR 1.136(a) will be calculated from the mailing date of the advisory action. In no event, however, will the statutory period for reply expire later than SIX MONTHS from the mailing date of this final action.
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/E.M.H./Examiner, Art Unit 3664
/KITO R ROBINSON/Supervisory Patent Examiner, Art Unit 3664