DETAILED ACTIONS
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 .
Priority
Acknowledgment is made of applicant’s claim this application being in benefit of foreign priority from Chinese Patent Application No. CN202310179510.9 filed on February 28, 2023.
Drawings
The 2-page drawings have been considered and placed on record in the file.
Status of Claims
Claims 1-12 are pending.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 101
35 U.S.C. 101 reads as follows:
Whoever invents or discovers any new and useful process, machine, manufacture, or composition of matter, or any new and useful improvement thereof, may obtain a patent therefor, subject to the conditions and requirements of this title.
Claims 1-12 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 101 because the claimed invention is directed to abstract idea without significantly more.
Regarding claim 1,
Step 1 Analysis: Claim 1 is directed to a method, which falls within one of the four statutory categories. (Step 1: YES)
Step 2A-Prong 1 Analysis: The limitations of “setting a bandwidth distance band_width, a threshold Inter0 of a ratio of an intersection area to a minimum area, a threshold epsilon of a distance between two centroid coordinates, and a threshold min_max0 of a ratio of the minimum area to a maximum area between an initial cluster center and a cluster sample point, as well as an initial value of a cluster category label cluster_id”, “drawing a circle with the cluster center as a center and the bandwidth distance band_width as a radius; circularly computing a centroid distance dis_e, a ratio Inter of an intersection area to a minimum area, and a ratio min_ max of the minimum area to a maximum area between each point within the circle and the cluster center; putting the centroid coordinates of the points within the circle that simultaneously satisfy dis_e<epsilon, Inter<InterO, and min_max<min_maxO and their original data into the list sample_countl and the list sample_count2 respectively; after the points within the circle are looped through, if a length of the list sample_countl is greater than a preset length, computing a mean offset value according to the points in the list sample_countl to obtain a new cluster center; if the distance between the current cluster center and the new cluster center is 2: epsilon, performing step S5; otherwise, repeating step S4 with the new cluster center as a center”, “if the length of the list sample_countl is > the preset length, putting the clustering results stored in the list sample_countl and the list sample_count2 correspondingly into a list groups and a list groups2, and increasing the cluster_id by 1; if the length of the list sample_countl is :S the preset length, skipping storing the clustering results into the list groups 1 and the list groups2; solving a difference between the list type_dblist and the list sample_countl, using the result of the difference as a new list type_dblist”, and “obtaining centroid coordinates of a first cluster in the groups 1, and computing a Euclidean distance between the centroid coordinates of the first cluster and the centroid coordinates of any other cluster; if the distance is less than the bandwidth distance band_width, merging the two clusters into a same cluster, and selecting the
cluster_id of the longer cluster as a new cluster_id; looping through the list groupsl
until all clusters in the list groupsl are determined” , as drafted, is a process that, under its broadest reasonable interpretation, covers performance of the limitation in the mind which falls within the Mathematical concept grouping of abstract ideas. The claim recites Mathematical formulas such as the threshold of a ratio, computing a centroid distance, and computing a Euclidian distance. The claim also recited Mathematical calculation such as calculating a length of a list and calculating a difference between different lists. Accordingly, the claim recites an abstract idea. (Step 2A-Prong 1: YES)
Step 2A-Prong 2 Analysis: The limitation of “obtaining road object data of the crowdsourced map” is considered to be an insignificant extra-solution activity for mere data gathering. An initial step of receiving a road object data does not integrate the exception into a practical application or add significantly more. The claim does not include additional elements that amount to an integration of the judicial exception into a practical application, nor to significantly more than the judicial exception. The claim is not patent eligible. (Step 2A-Prong 2: NO)
Step 2B Analysis: Because the claim fails under Step 2A, the claim is further evaluated under Step 2B. The claim herein does not contain additional elements that are sufficient to amount to significantly more than the judicial exception, because as discussed above with respect to integration of the abstract idea into a practical application, the additional element/limitation obtaining road object data of the crowdsourced map amounts to no more than an insignificant well-understood, routine, and conventional element. Therefore, independent claim 1 is not patent eligible. (Step 2B: NO)
Regarding dependent claims 2-12, they do not overcome the deficiencies of the rejected independent claim 1, and they are also rejected.
Claim 12 is rejected under 35 U.S.C. 101 because the claimed invention is directed to non-statutory subject matter. The claim does not fall within at least one of the four categories of patent eligible subject matter because “a storage medium, storing a computer-readable program” can encompass "any data storage device" including random-access memory and carrier waves. Accordingly, because the BRI of the claims covered both subject matter that falls within a statutory category (the random-access memory), as well as subject matter that does not (the carrier waves), the claims as a whole were not to a statutory category and thus failed the first criterion for eligibility.
Allowable Subject Matter
Claims 1-12 would be allowable if the 101 rejections are overcome.
The following is a statement of reasons for the indication of allowable subject matter: The claimed features such as “obtaining road object data of the crowdsourced map, classifying road object elements, randomly selecting a type of road object data, computing centroid coordinates of road objects, and putting the centroid coordinates of the road objects in a same category into a list type_dblist”, “setting a bandwidth distance band_width, a threshold InterO of a ratio of an intersection area to a minimum area, a threshold epsilon of a distance between two centroid coordinates, and a threshold min_ maxO of a ratio of the minimum area to a maximum area between an initial cluster center and a cluster sample point, as well as an initial value of a cluster category label cluster _id” and “drawing a circle with the cluster center as a center and the bandwidth distance band_width as a radius; circularly computing a centroid distance dis_e, a ratio Inter of an intersection area to a minimum area, and a ratio min_ max of the minimum area to a maximum area between each point within the circle and the cluster center; putting the centroid coordinates of the points within the circle that simultaneously satisfy dis_e<epsilon, Inter<InterO, and min_max<min_maxO and their original data into the list sample_countl and the list sample_count2 respectively; after the points within the circle are looped through, if a length of the list sample_countl is greater than a preset length, computing a mean offset value according to the points in the list sample_countl to obtain a new cluster center; if the distance between the current cluster center and the new cluster center is 2: epsilon, performing step S5; otherwise, repeating step S4 with the new cluster center as a center” claimed in independent claim 1, in combination with the remainder of the limitations of the claims, are neither anticipated nor obvious in view of the prior art of record.
In the closest prior art found during search, Tchuente et al., “Providing more regular road signs infrastructure updates for connected driving: A crowdsourced approach with clustering and confidence level”, teaches clustering road signs with a crowdsourced approach as shown in Fig. 1, Fig. 5 and Section 4.3.
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However, Tchuente fails to teach setting bandwidth distance, threshold of a ratio of an intersection area to a minimum area, a threshold between two centroid coordinates, a threshold of a ratio of the minimum area to a maximum area between an initial cluster center and a cluster sample point, putting the centroid coordinates of the points that simultaneously satisfy the thresholds. Therefore claim 1 is allowable for claiming the limitations “obtaining road object data of the crowdsourced map, classifying road object elements, randomly selecting a type of road object data, computing centroid coordinates of road objects, and putting the centroid coordinates of the road objects in a same category into a list type_dblist”, “setting a bandwidth distance band_width, a threshold InterO of a ratio of an intersection area to a minimum area, a threshold epsilon of a distance between two centroid coordinates, and a threshold min_ maxO of a ratio of the minimum area to a maximum area between an initial cluster center and a cluster sample point, as well as an initial value of a cluster category label cluster _id” and “drawing a circle with the cluster center as a center and the bandwidth distance band_width as a radius; circularly computing a centroid distance dis_e, a ratio Inter of an intersection area to a minimum area, and a ratio min_ max of the minimum area to a maximum area between each point within the circle and the cluster center; putting the centroid coordinates of the points within the circle that simultaneously satisfy dis_e<epsilon, Inter<InterO, and min_max<min_maxO and their original data into the list sample_countl and the list sample_count2 respectively; after the points within the circle are looped through, if a length of the list sample_countl is greater than a preset length, computing a mean offset value according to the points in the list sample_countl to obtain a new cluster center; if the distance between the current cluster center and the new cluster center is 2: epsilon, performing step S5; otherwise, repeating step S4 with the new cluster center as a center”.
Because the cited prior art of records does not teach or suggest each and every feature of independent claim 1, this claim would be allowable. Claims 2-12 would be allowable by virtue of their dependency on independent claim 1.
Conclusion
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/DENISE G ALFONSO/Examiner, Art Unit 2662
/AMANDEEP SAINI/Supervisory Patent Examiner, Art Unit 2662