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 .
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 1, 3-5 are 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.
As to claims 1,5 the term “inter-vehicle packing” is unclear and does not distinctly claim the invention.
Claims 3-4 are rejected based on their dependency of the defective parent claim 1.
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, 4-5 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over An (US 2020/0073478) in view of Kim (US 2023/0256966), and Misu (US 20180050696)
As to claim 1 An discloses a vehicle controller for a vehicle comprising a processor, the processor being configured to:
detect a driving state of the vehicle (Paragraph 52 “In addition, the vehicle 100 may further include sensing devices, such as a proximity sensor configured to sense obstacles or other vehicles around the vehicle 100, a rain sensor configured to sense rain and an amount of rainfall, an RPM sensor configured to sense RPM, a position sensor configured to sense a current position of the vehicle 100 by receiving GPS signals, and a speed sensor configured to sense a dynamic state of the vehicle 100.”);
determine whether a predetermined dangerous driving is included in the detected driving state (Paragraph 18 “In accordance with another aspect of the present disclosure, a control method of a vehicle includes acquiring user emotion information indicating a user's emotional state using at least one sensor. The control method includes storing situation information representing the numbers of expressions of respective emotional states in each unit situation and user long-term information representing the numbers of expressions of the respective emotional states for a unit period based on the acquired user emotion information.”);
determine, when determining that the predetermined dangerous driving is included in the detected driving state, whether a mood of a driver of the vehicle is elevated (Paragraph 130 “Further, when the user emotion information includes an anger factor, the controller 260 may prevent acceleration or retaliatory driving of the vehicle 100 by controlling an accelerator pedal device to reduce reactivity of an accelerator pedal of the vehicle 100.”); and
perform, when determining that the mood of the driver is elevated, vehicle control to settle the mood of the driver(Paragraph 130 “Further, when the user emotion information includes an anger factor, the controller 260 may prevent acceleration or retaliatory driving of the vehicle 100 by controlling an accelerator pedal device to reduce reactivity of an accelerator pedal of the vehicle 100.”).
a plurality of times at predetermined intervals, the vehicle control including adjusting a temperature, releasing a scent, controlling an audio device, or any combination thereof (Paragraph 120-121 “The controller 260 may reduce the negative emotion factor by controlling the side window opening and closing device to open and close the side windows to lower the internal temperature of the vehicle 100 and promote air flow in the vehicle 100. The controller 260 may reduce the negative emotion factor by controlling the air conditioner to lower the internal temperature of the vehicle 100.”);
determine, when the vehicle control to settle the mood of the driver is performed, whether the dangerous driving continues or deteriorates for a predetermined time(Paragraph 106 “The controller 260 in accordance with one embodiment may confirm the user's emotional state frequently occurring in the current unit situation in which the vehicle 100 is driven based on the situation information stored in the storage 240. The controller 260 may control the feedback devices to prevent the user's emotional state from frequently occurring in the current unit situation. Therefore, the user may positively maintain his/her emotional state and autonomously suppress negative emotions through feedback. Accordingly, the user's ability to control emotions may be enhanced.”), and
perform, when determining that the dangerous driving continues or deteriorates for the predetermined time, vehicle control intervening in an vehicle operation of the driver (Paragraph 130 “] Further, when the user emotion information includes an anger factor, the controller 260 may prevent acceleration or retaliatory driving of the vehicle 100 by controlling an accelerator pedal device to reduce reactivity of an accelerator pedal of the vehicle 100.”)
An does not explicitly disclose perform a second vehicle control corresponding to the intervening in the vehicle operation in accordance with a first trained machine learning model, the second vehicle control including controlling the vehicle to not accelerate in response to an accelerator pedal being pressed, and
Kim teaches perform a second vehicle control corresponding to the intervening in the vehicle operation in accordance with a first trained machine learning model, the second vehicle control including controlling the vehicle to not accelerate in response to an accelerator pedal being pressed (Paragraph 106 “The machine learning process may include determining the current vehicle speed range to which a current vehicle speed belongs (e.g., in step S20), and performing the learning process for the vehicle speed range (e.g., in step S30). Through the learning process, the vehicle may determine the threshold as described above for each vehicle speed range.”, Paragraph 44 “The adjustment-activation determination unit 120 may be configured to compare the driver information with a threshold range for each vehicle speed range stored in a memory and to determine, when the current driver information exceeds the threshold range, that it is necessary to adjust the acceleration limit level. The acceleration limit adjustment unit 130 may be configured to (e.g., forcibly) adjust the current acceleration limit level if the state in which a value indicating the current driver information exceeds the threshold range remains for a predetermined time or longer.”), and
the first trained machine learning model configured to receive a detection result as input and output an amount of an acceleration or the vehicle speed of the vehicle (Paragraphs 106-107 “The machine learning process may include determining the current vehicle speed range to which a current vehicle speed belongs (e.g., in step S20), and performing the learning process for the vehicle speed range (e.g., in step S30). Through the learning process, the vehicle may determine the threshold as described above for each vehicle speed range. Once the corresponding threshold value is determined for any one of the plurality of vehicle speed ranges, the acceleration limit function may be activated (e.g., in step S70).”),
the predetermined dangerous driving including inter-vehicle packing relative to a first value, excessive vehicle speed relative to a second value, excessive acceleration relative toa third value, or any combination thereof (Paragraph 65 “The adjustment-activation determination unit 120 may determine whether a sudden driving event, such as abrupt brake manipulation by the driver or a rapid decrease in distance between another vehicle and the vehicle of the driver, occurred as well as the change in biometric information of the driver in order to determine whether to activate the acceleration limit adjustment. If the state in which a value associated with the driver information exceeds the threshold range remains for a predetermined time or longer, the acceleration limit adjustment unit 130 may perform an acceleration limit adjustment control to adjust the acceleration limit of the vehicle.”).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill to modify An to include the teachings of controlling the acceleration of the vehicle for the purpose of improving safety by preventing excessive acceleration by the driver.
An does not explicitly disclose controlling the vehicle to automatically reduce a vehicle speed and increase a distance between the vehicle and second vehicle,
Misu teaches controlling the vehicle to automatically reduce a vehicle speed and increase a distance between the vehicle and second vehicle (Paragraph 33-34 “Generally described, the systems and methods provided herein are directed to the uploading and transmission of vehicle data to a remote system when a physiological event for a driver has been detected using one or more sensors. Information such as the driver's heart rate, temperature, voice inflection or facial expression may be monitored to detect the physiological event. Vehicle data, such as gathering or control system data, may be sent once the event has been detected. Selected vehicle data associated with the event or all data during the time of the event may be sent. After receiving the vehicle data, the remote system may process or store it where it may be used to modify automated driving functionalities. Automated driving functionalities may be modified based on the received vehicle data sent after the event has been detected by the physiological sensor. These functionalities may be adjusted on the vehicle itself sending the vehicle data. Typically, the modifications may be made on a number of parameters or other settings on the vehicle. For example, the functionalities may include setting distances for an adaptive cruise control (ACC) system.”)
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill to modify An to include the teachings of using increasing the distance between the vehicles for the purpose of improving safety by controlling the vehicle to maintain a safe distance from the preceding vehicle.
As to claim 4 An discloses a vehicle controller wherein the processor is further configured to:
determine, when determining that the dangerous driving is not included, whether an amount of change in acceleration of the vehicle is deviated from a predetermined change amount based on the detected driving state (Paragraph 130),
determine, when determining that the amount of change in the acceleration of the vehicle is deviated from the predetermined change amount, whether the mood of the driver of the vehicle is elevated (Paragraph 130), and
perform, when determining that the mood of the driver of the vehicle is elevated, vehicle control to settle the mood of the driver(Paragraph 106).
As to claim 5 the claim is interpreted and rejected as in claim 1.
Claim 3 is rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Claims An (US 2020/0073478) in view of Kim (US 2023/0256966), and Misu (US 20180050696) as applied to claim 1 above, and in further view of Kang (US 2020/0269848)
As to claim 3 Kang teaches a vehicle controller for a vehicle wherein whether the mood of the driver is elevated is determined by:
acquiring sensor data from a sensor observing a state of the driver, using the trained machine learning model to estimate the mood of the driver based on the acquired sensor data (Paragraph 43), and
determining whether the mood of the driver is elevated on a basis of a result of the estimation(Paragraph 43).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill to modify An to include the teachings of using machine learning for the purpose of estimating the mood of the driver.
Response to Arguments
Applicant’s arguments with respect to claims 1, 3-5 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
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 IMRAN K MUSTAFA whose telephone number is (571)270-1471. The examiner can normally be reached Mon-Fri 9-5.
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, 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.
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.
IMRAN K. MUSTAFA
Primary Examiner
Art Unit 3668
/IMRAN K MUSTAFA/ Primary Examiner, Art Unit 3668 10/2/2025