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 .
DETAILED ACTION
This action is in response to the applicant’s filing on December 05, 2025. Claims 1-4, 7-17, 20 are pending.
Response to Amendment and Arguments
In respond to applicant's arguments based on the filed amendment with respect to 35 U.S.C. 102 rejections of said previous office action have been fully considered; however, upon further consideration, a new ground(s) of rejection is made.
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 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 of this title, if the differences between the claimed invention and the prior art are such that the claimed invention as a whole would have been obvious before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to a person having ordinary skill in the art to which the claimed invention pertains. Patentability shall not be negated by the manner in which the invention was made.
The factual inquiries set forth in Graham v. John Deere Co., 383 U.S. 1, 148 USPQ 459 (1966), that are applied for establishing a background for determining obviousness under 35 U.S.C. 103 are summarized as follows:
1. Determining the scope and contents of the prior art.
2. Ascertaining the differences between the prior art and the claims at issue.
3. Resolving the level of ordinary skill in the pertinent art.
4. Considering objective evidence present in the application indicating obviousness or nonobviousness.
Claims 1-4, 7-17, 20 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Shimizu US2018/0141588 (“Shimizu”) in view of Kosiak US 20190047518 A1 (“Kosiak”).
Regarding claim(s) 1, 15, 20. Shimizu discloses a vehicle, comprising:
at least one imaging device that captures an image of a plurality of roadway lanes in a region external to the vehicle (para. 2, , the automatic steering operation of detecting the position and shape of a white line with devices, such as radar, a camera, a navigator, and an in-vehicle communication device, and applying steering torque to electric power steering to keep in a traffic lane.); and
control circuitry in communication with the at least one imaging device, the control circuitry configured to: receive the image from the imaging device; detect a splash event in the region external based on the image (FIG. 1, in order to prevent a pedestrian P from being splashed with water by swirling the water when traveling on puddles, the driver of a host vehicle 100 performs a steering operation to travel away from a side strip at a point X at which the driver has recognized occurrence of the puddle W1, and performs a steering operation to correct the travel route from a travel route A of the host vehicle in a case where traveling not away from the puddles W1, W2, and W3 to a travel route B of the host vehicle 100 in a case where traveling away from the puddles W1, W2, and W3.);
determine a target lane of the plurality of lanes for the vehicle to move based on the splash event; and generate an output indicating the target lane (para. 70-75, The in-traffic-lane lateral position change request determination 1320 switches the processing to detect a case where the driver steering torque is being generated to balance with the control steering torque after the point Y illustrated in FIG. 4,).
Shimzu does not explicitly disclose detect a splash event and a source of the splash event in the region external based on the image estimate a following distance from the source of the splash event; estimate a depth of the splash event based on the following distance and the image.
Kosiak teaches a windshield-wiper system includes a precipitation-detector, a windshield-wiper actuator, an object-detector, and a controller. The precipitation-detector detects precipitation proximate to a host-vehicle and detect a splash event and a source of the splash event in the region external based on the image estimate a following distance from the source of the splash event ([0026-0035] FIG. 2 illustrates a traffic scenario where the host-vehicle 12 equipped with the system 10 is traveling on the roadway 22 behind a lead-vehicle 36 and an other-vehicle 38 is traveling toward the host-vehicle 12 in an adjacent-lane 42. Precipitation 16 is present (e.g. rain, snow, sleet, slush, etc.) and the other-vehicle 38 is splashing precipitation 16 from the adjacent-lane 42 into a lane traveled by the host-vehicle 12. The controller 34 determines when the precipitation 16 is present based on the precipitation-detector 14, determines the distance 30 from the object 32 to the host-vehicle 12 based on the object-detector 28,); estimate a depth of the splash event based on the following distance and the image (para. 0033, e.g. FOV).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skills in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify the system and method of Shimizu by incorporating the applied teaching of Kosiak to improve the safety of vehicle operation when detecting a water splash event and one of ordinary skill in the art would have recognized that the results of the combination would have been predictable with a reasonable expectation of success.
Regarding claim(s) 2, 16. Shimizu in view of Kosiak further teaches determine a source lane of the plurality of lanes in which the splash event is detected (para. 29, IG. 1, in order to prevent a pedestrian P from being splashed with water by swirling the water when traveling on puddles,).
Regarding claim(s) 3, 17. Shimizu in view of Kosiak further teaches wherein the source lane includes at least one of a first source lane having a first traffic direction and a second source lane having a second traffic direction different than the first traffic direction (para. 31, the driver may desirably travel in a position close to the opposite direction to the vehicle 300 in a case where the vehicle 300 pulling alongside the host vehicle 100 is present. In that case, positioning is performed, at a point X at which the pulling alongside has been recognized, in the opposite direction to the vehicle pulling alongside,).
Regarding claim(s) 4. Shimizu in view of Kosiak further teaches wherein the control circuitry is configured to: classify a splash source of the splash event as vehicular or non-vehicular based on the image (para. 89, in a case where a pedestrian is moving from the outside of the carriageway marking into the roadway ahead of the host vehicle, the safety distance margin from the carriageway marking is increased to improve safety. Similarly, in a case where it is detected that an overtaking vehicle is approaching, the safety distance margin from the carriageway marking is increased so that safety can improve.).
Regarding claim(s) 7. Shimizu in view of Kosiak further teaches a window; a wiper selectively moveable along the window (fig. 1); and a window clearing system in communication with the control circuitry and configured to operate the wiper in response to estimation of the following distance and the depth (Kosiak: para. 35, The signal characteristics may include or be indicative of, but are not limited to, the range (i.e. distance 30) to the object 32 from the host-vehicle 12, the azimuth-angle (not shown) to the object 32 relative to a host-vehicle-longitudinal-axis (not shown), an amplitude (not shown) of the radar-signal, and a relative-velocity of closure (i.e. a range-rate) relative to the object 32.)
Regarding claim(s) 8. Shimizu in view of Kosiak further teaches a speed sensor that measures a speed of the vehicle, wherein the window clearing system is configured to: compare the speed of the vehicle to the splash event; and selectively operate the wiper based further on the comparison of the speed of the vehicle to the splash event (Kosiak: [0026] FIG. 2 illustrates a traffic scenario where the host-vehicle 12 equipped with the system 10 is traveling on the roadway 22 behind a lead-vehicle 36 and an other-vehicle 38 is traveling toward the host-vehicle 12 in an adjacent-lane 42. Precipitation 16 is present (e.g. rain, snow, sleet, slush, etc.) and the other-vehicle 38 is splashing precipitation 16 from the adjacent-lane 42 into a lane traveled by the host-vehicle 12. The controller 34 determines when the precipitation 16 is present based on the precipitation-detector 14, determines the distance 30 from the object 32 to the host-vehicle 12 based on the object-detector 28, and adjusts the speed 26 of the windshield-wiper actuator 24 when the precipitation 16 is detected and the object 32 is less than a distance-threshold 40 away from the host-vehicle 12. That is, the controller 34 predicts when the splash of precipitation 16 from the other-vehicle 38 will contact the windshield 20 of the host-vehicle 12 and increases the speed 26 of the windshield-wiper actuator 24 before the splash reaches the windshield 20.).
Regarding claim(s) 9. Shimizu in view of Kosiak further teaches wherein the control circuitry includes a machine learning model trained to determine the output indicating the target lane based on manual feedback (Kosiak: [0028] FIG. 3 illustrates another traffic scenario where the host-vehicle 12 equipped with the system 10 is traveling on the roadway 22 behind the lead-vehicle 36 in the adjacent-lane 42. Precipitation 16 is present (e.g. rain, snow, sleet, slush, etc.) and the lead-vehicle 36 is splashing precipitation 16 from the adjacent-lane 42 into the lane traveled by the host-vehicle 12. The controller 34 may increase the speed 26 of the windshield-wiper actuator 24 when the lead-vehicle 36 is less than the distance-threshold 40 away from the host-vehicle 12. While not specifically shown, it will be understood that the system 10 would also function in the traffic scenario where the lead-vehicle 36 is traveling in the same lane as the host-vehicle 12 (see FIG. 2) and the lead-vehicle 36 is splashing precipitation 16 behind the lead-vehicle 36 (e.g. road spray) as the host-vehicle 12 approaches the lead-vehicle 36 from behind.).
Regarding claim(s) 10. Shimizu in view of Kosiak further teaches wherein the manual feedback includes at least one of manual operation of the wiper and maneuvering the vehicle to one of the plurality of lanes (Kosiak: [0028] FIG. 3 illustrates another traffic scenario where the host-vehicle 12 equipped with the system 10 is traveling on the roadway 22 behind the lead-vehicle 36 in the adjacent-lane 42. Precipitation 16 is present (e.g. rain, snow, sleet, slush, etc.) and the lead-vehicle 36 is splashing precipitation 16 from the adjacent-lane 42 into the lane traveled by the host-vehicle 12. The controller 34 may increase the speed 26 of the windshield-wiper actuator 24 when the lead-vehicle 36 is less than the distance-threshold 40 away from the host-vehicle 12. While not specifically shown, it will be understood that the system 10 would also function in the traffic scenario where the lead-vehicle 36 is traveling in the same lane as the host-vehicle 12 (see FIG. 2) and the lead-vehicle 36 is splashing precipitation 16 behind the lead-vehicle 36 (e.g. road spray) as the host-vehicle 12 approaches the lead-vehicle 36 from behind.)
Regarding claim(s) 11. Shimizu in view of Kosiak further teaches a distance detection system that tracks a following distance from the vehicle to another vehicle ahead of the vehicle, wherein the control circuitry is configured to determine the target lane based further on the following distance from the vehicle to the other vehicle (para. 88, FIG. 8, and either offset, addition or gain multiplication or both thereof appropriate to the value of the RoadInfo are performed in calculating the safety distance margin from the carriageway marking. With this arrangement, for example, if traveling is being performed on a superhighway, danger may be low even when the traveling is performed in a position close to the carriageway marking. Thus, the safety distance margin from the carriageway marking is set to a value approximate to zero so that the traveling can be performed in a more free position in the roadway.).
Regarding claim(s) 12. Shimizu in view of Kosiak further teaches a display in communication with the control circuitry and configured to indicate the target lane in response to the output (para. 85, the display device is preferably provided in order for the driver to determine whether the control device has received the switch operation or has not received the switch operation due to the influence of disturbance that the driver does not intend).
Regarding claim(s) 13. Shimizu in view of Kosiak further teaches a motion control system in communication with the control circuitry and configured to move the vehicle to the target lane in response to the output indicating the target lane (para. 31, in a case where a bicycle C is traveling on the side of a side strip L1 or in a case where it can be determined that the pulling alongside of the vehicle 300 is in a temporary state in order to avoid an obstruction, the traveling may continue in the travel route A without the route correction to the travel route B.).
Regarding claim(s) 14. Shimizu in view of Kosiak further teaches an automatic speed control system for the vehicle in communication with the control circuitry, wherein the automatic speed control system is configured to control the speed of the vehicle based on the output indicating the target lane (para. 2, the automatic steering operation of detecting the position and shape of a white line with devices, such as radar, a camera, a navigator, and an in-vehicle communication device, and applying steering torque to electric power steering to keep in a traffic lane.).
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 extension fee 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 date of this final action.
Inquiry
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to TRUC M DO whose telephone number is (571)270-5962. The examiner can normally be reached on 9AM-6PM.
If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner’s supervisor, Ramón Mercado, Ph.D. can be reached on (571) 270-5744. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300.
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/TRUC M DO/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 3658