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 the application filed on March 31st, 2026. Claims 1-20 are presently pending and are presented for examination.
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and the fee set forth in 37 CFR 1.17(e) has been timely paid, the finality of the previous Office action has been withdrawn pursuant to 37 CFR 1.114.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 March 5th, 2026 has been entered.
Response to Amendment
In response to Applicant’s amendments filed March 5th, 2026, Examiner withdraws the previous 35 U.S.C. 112(b) rejections; withdraws the 35 U.S.C. 102 rejection; and withdraws the previous 35 U.S.C. 103 rejections.
Response to Arguments
Applicant's arguments filed March 5th, 2026 have been fully considered.
Regarding the arguments provided for the rejection of claims 1, 10-12, and 20, as put forth on page 15, applicant arguments have been fully considered. Applicant argues that “each of Shiramasa and Sato teach downloading (or updating) information corresponding to a grid pattern. However, the inventions of Shiramasa and Sato differ in that Shiramasa downloads information corresponding to a predefined out-of-service communication area before the vehicle enters the out-of-service communication area, whereas Sato teaches to update map information surrounding the vehicle at the moment in order to best route for a vehicle to refuel. There would have been no logical reasoning to have combined teachings of Shiramasa and Sato because they are directed to solving very different problems. However, assuming arguendo that
one of ordinary skill in the art would have been motivated to somehow combine the teachings of Shiromasa and Sato, any resulting invention would have merely downloaded (or updated) information in a grid pattern that either corresponds to an out-of-service communication area or an area surrounding the vehicle. Although not disclosed by Shiromasa or Sato, presumably the information is downloaded or updated in a grid pattern as a simple and efficient method of parsing a large geographical area into smaller areas”.
As to point (a), Applicant’s arguments have been fully considered and are not persuasive. In response to applicant’s argument that there is no teaching, suggestion, or motivation to combine the references, the examiner recognizes that obviousness may be established by combining or modifying the teachings of the prior art to produce the claimed invention where there is some teaching, suggestion, or motivation to do so found either in the references themselves or in the knowledge generally available to one of ordinary skill in the art. See In re Fine, 837 F.2d 1071, 5 USPQ2d 1596 (Fed. Cir. 1988), In re Jones, 958 F.2d 347, 21 USPQ2d 1941 (Fed. Cir. 1992), and KSR International Co. v. Teleflex, Inc., 550 U.S. 398, 82 USPQ2d 1385 (2007). In this case, Sato and Shiramasa are analogous art due to both pieces of art being in the art of vehicle control and therefore it would have been motivated to make this combination for the benefit of only updating within a travelable range so as to reduce the load by preventing areas that are unlikely to be traveled from being set as update target areas, thereby avoiding unnecessary partial updates of map data (see at least Sato; [0033]). Regardless, in view of Applicant’s arguments Sato has been withdrawn with regards to the independent claims.
Regarding the arguments provided for the rejection of claims 1, 10-12, and 20, as put forth on page 15, applicant arguments have been fully considered. Applicant argues that “considering that both of the inventions of Shiromasa and Sato are directed to land-based vehicles that travel on predefined roads, it would have made no sense to have downloaded information in a fan-shaped region as this shape would have been arbitrary, unrelated to land-based vehicles, and contrary to the teachings of Shiromasa and Sato.”
As to point (b), Applicant’s arguments have been fully considered and are persuasive. Therefore, the rejection has been withdrawn. However, upon further consideration, a new ground(s) of rejection is made in view of US-20090281718A1 (hereinafter, “Gibran”).
Regarding the arguments provided for the rejection of claims 1, 10-12, and 20, as put forth on page 15-16, applicant arguments have been fully considered. Applicant argues that “Second, in addition to not being remotely taught or suggested by either Shiromasa or Sato, Applicant's recited fan-shaped region centered on the traveling direction of the marine vessel is significant because it takes into account the traveling direction of the marine vessel, the most likely or possible path the marine vessel will travel (see, for example, Fig. 5 of Applicant's drawings), while minimizing the data volume that needs to be downloaded (see again, for example, paragraphs [0061] to [0063] of Applicant's specification). See MPEP 2144.04(IV)(B)… Accordingly, Applicant respectfully submits that it would not have been an obvious matter of design choice to modify the grid patterns disclosed by Shiromasa and Sato to have a fan shape for at least the above reasons”.
As to point (c), Applicant’s arguments have been fully considered and are persuasive. Therefore, the rejection has been withdrawn. However, upon further consideration, a new ground(s) of rejection is made in view of US-20090281718A1 (hereinafter, “Gibran”).
Regarding the arguments provided for the rejection of claims 1, 10-12, and 20, as put forth on page 16, applicant arguments have been fully considered. Applicant argues that “Shiromasa in view of Sato fails to teach or suggest the features and method steps of "determining whether or not the marine vessel has been close to the out-of-service communication area based on the position of the marine vessel and the at least one of the speed of the marine vessel or the traveling direction of the marine vessel," "when it is determined that the marine vessel has been close to the out-of-service communication area: determining a download start timing; setting a target region based on an estimated position of the marine vessel at the download start timing; and downloading, from the server, location information corresponding to the target region including call attention information used to issue a warning regarding a region corresponding to the position of the marine vessel," and "the target region is defined as a fan-shaped region having a predetermined angular range centered on the traveling direction of the marine vessel," as recited in Applicant's claim 1, and similarly recited in each of Applicant's claims 10-12 and 20”.
As to point (d), Applicant’s arguments have been fully considered and are persuasive. Therefore, the rejection has been withdrawn. However, upon further consideration, a new ground(s) of rejection is made in view of US-20090281718A1 (hereinafter, “Gibran”).
Regarding the arguments provided for the rejection of claims 2-9 and 13-19, as put forth on page 17, applicant arguments have been fully considered. Applicant argues that “The Examiner relied upon Sagawa, Choi, and Avello to allegedly cure the deficiencies of Shiromasa and Sato. However, Sagawa, Choi, and Avello also fail to teach or suggest the features and method steps of Applicant's claims 1, 10-12, and 20 discussed above. Thus, Applicant respectfully submits that Sagawa, Choi, and Avello fail to cure the deficiencies of Shiromasa and Sato described above. In view of the foregoing amendments and remarks, Applicant respectfully submits that claims 1, 10-12, and 20 are allowable. Claims 2-9 and 13-19 depend upon claim 1, and are therefore allowable for at least the reasons that claim 1 is allowable.”.
As to point (e), see points (a-d).
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.
The factual inquiries 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.
This application currently names joint inventors. In considering patentability of the claims the examiner presumes that the subject matter of the various claims was commonly owned as of the effective filing date of the claimed invention(s) absent any evidence to the contrary. Applicant is advised of the obligation under 37 CFR 1.56 to point out the inventor and effective filing dates of each claim that was not commonly owned as of the effective filing date of the later invention in order for the examiner to consider the applicability of 35 U.S.C. 102(b)(2)(C) for any potential 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(2) prior art against the later invention.
Claim(s) 1-3, 6, 10-12 and 20 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over WO-2017051731 (hereinafter, “Shiramasa”) in view of US-20090281718A1 (hereinafter, “Gibran”).
Regarding claim 1 Shiramasa discloses an information processing method executed by a computer of a communication apparatus able to communicate with a server to allow a marine vessel to utilize location information at any time during navigation (see at least [Page 1, lines 14-16]; “the present disclosure relates to an in-vehicle communication device and a vehicle communication system that communicate with an information center via a communication network,” and [Page, 4, lines 128-131]; “the entire navigation unit 8, and has, for example, a function of receiving information (data) about the current position of the vehicle from the position detection unit 7 and storing and accumulating the received information about the current position in the memory unit 10,” the control unit continuously receives location information to aid in navigation), the information processing method comprising:
acquiring a position of the marine vessel (see at least [Page 3, lines 115-127]; “the position detection unit 7 is composed of, for example, a GPS receiver and various sensors, and detects the current position of the vehicle and transmits the detected current position to the navigation unit 8,” while Shiramasa does not explicitly disclose the vehicle as a marine vessel, a marine vessel is an old and well-known type of vehicle), and at least one of a speed of the marine vessel or a traveling direction of the marine vessel through a sensor located on the marine vessel (see at least [Page 12, lines 555-556]; “the information may also be configured to take into account information such as the vehicle’s speed and the vehicle’s direction of travel to determine whether the vehicle has approached an out-of-service area,” and [Page 12, lines 555-556]; “obtain information on the vehicle speed from a vehicle speed sensor mounted on the vehicle”);
acquiring communication area information indicating a service communication area and an out- of-service communication area on a chart (see at least [Page 3, lines 119-121]; “the communication unit 5 also had a function of detecting the radio wave strength (radio wave state) of wireless communication in the communication network 3, and transmits the detected radio wave strength to the navigation unit 8,” and [Page 4, lines 159-163]; “the control unit 12 has a function of receiving out-of-service information from the information center 4 via the communication unit 5 at every set time (third set time) (function of the out-of-service information receiving unit 135), and a function of updating the out-of-service information stored in the memory unit 10 based on the received out-of-service information,” based on the radio wave strength the navigation unit is capable of detecting both areas capable of communicating and areas uncapable of communicating)…
…determining whether or not the marine vessel has been close to the out-of-service communication area based on the position of the marine vessel and the at least one of the speed of the marine vessel or the traveling direction of the marine vessel (see at least [Page 9, lines 400-405]; “the information center 4 is configured to determine whether or not a vehicle has approached an out-of-service area based on the distance between the vehicle’s current position and the out-of-service area. However, this is not limited to this, and the information may also be configured to take into account information such as the vehicle’s speed and the vehicle’s direction of travel to determine whether the vehicle has approached an out-of-service area”), wherein the marine vessel is determined to have been close to the out-of-service communication area when at least one of the following conditions is satisfied; (i) a distance between a boundary of the service communication area and the out-of-service communication area and the position of the marine vessel is less than a predetermined value, and (ii) the boundary is included within a predetermined radius from the position of the marine vessel (see at least [Page 6, line 264 – Page 7, line 285]; “the navigation unit 8 calculates the distance between the current position and the nearest out-of-service area (area with a poor communication environment level) based on the current position of the vehicle and the out-of-service area information. Then, the process proceeds to step S120, where it is determined based on the calculated distance whether or not the vehicle has approached an out-of-service area (i.e., whether or not the calculated distance has become equal to or less than a set distance,” it is determined whether the boundary indicating the start of the out-of-service area is within a predetermined distance); and
when it is determined that the marine vessel has been close to the out-of-service communication area (see at least [Page 2, lines 57-59]; “guiding the vehicle to request in advance the download of information that should be obtained before the vehicle enters an area outside the coverage area of the communication network”);
determining a download start timing (see at least [Page 5, lines 206-209]; “The out-of-service information update unit 24 functions as an update unit. The control unit 23 also has a function of transmitting updated out-of-service information or the latest out-of-service information to the in-vehicle communication device 2 of each vehicle at every set time (fourth set time),” and [Page 6, line 261 – Page 7, line 285]; “the control when the vehicle approaches an out-of-service area will be described with reference to Fig. 6. The flow chart in Fig. 6 shows the contents of the control of the navigation unit 8…the navigation unit 8 downloads (receives) information such as content data transmitted collectively from the information center 4. The control shown in Fig. 6is repeatedly executed at set time intervals,” the time to the next time interval would be the download start timing) …
…downloading, from the server, location information corresponding to the target region (see at least [Page 2, lines 58-59]; “guiding the vehicle to request in advance the download of information that should be obtained before the vehicle enters an area outside the coverage area of the communication network,” the information that should be obtained corresponds to the target region) including call attention information used to issue a warning regarding a region corresponding to the position of the marine vessel (see at least [Page 7, lines 266-281]; “Then, the process proceeds to step S120, where it is determined based on the calculated distance whether or not the vehicle has approached an out-of-service area (i.e., whether or not the calculated distance has become equal to or less than a set distance). If the vehicle is not approaching an out-of-service area ("NO" in step S120), the control ends. In step S120, if the vehicle is approaching an out-of-service area ("YES"), the process proceeds to step S130, where the navigation unit 8 determines whether there is any information (content data, etc.) that should be obtained before the vehicle enters the out-of-service area. If there is no information to be acquired ("NO" in step S130), the control ends. On the other hand, if there is information that needs to be acquired in step S130 ("YES"), the process proceeds to step S140, and the navigation unit 8 transmits a request signal to the information center 4 to download all of the content data of the information that needs to be acquired,” and [Page 8, lines 332-342]; “examples of information that should be acquired in advance before entering an out-of-service area include, for example, content data on politics, economics, sports, etc., and traffic information data, if the content data is news. For example, by downloading multiple contents (politics, economics, sports, etc.) in advance from the information center 4 before the vehicle enters an out-of-service area, the user can continue to use services such as viewing news even when the vehicle enters an out-of-service area. In addition, traffic information is usually downloaded from the information center 4 at preset time intervals, but according to this embodiment, traffic information can be downloaded just before the vehicle enters an out-of-service area, even if the preset time has not yet elapsed. This allows the vehicle to travel while referring to traffic information immediately before entering the out-of-service area (the latest traffic information) when the vehicle enters the out-of-service area.”).
Shiramasa does not teach setting a target region based on an estimated position of the marine vessel at the download start timing…wherein the target region is defined as a fan-shaped region having a predetermined angular range centered on the traveling direction of the marine vessel.
Gibran, in the same field of endeavor, teaches setting a target region based on an estimated position of the marine vessel at the download start timing (see at least [0072]; “For the purposes of the flowchart of FIG. 5, the downloading and rendering of map data to generate a map of the current AOI is subsumed within step 600. At step 602, the device begins the process of predictively downloading map data. In other words, at step 602, the device predicts a future AOI. Predicting a future AOI can be done by determining the direction of travel of the device, by identifying a route upon which a user of the device is traveling, or by identifying a programmed route that has been specified by the user in a navigation application,” the future AOI corresponds to Applicant’s target region) …
wherein the target region is defined as a fan-shaped region having a predetermined angular range centered on the traveling direction of the marine vessel (see at least [0078]; “FIG. 7 depicts a sector-based technique for determining an area of interest based on a bearing heading or direction of travel. In this example presented in FIG. 7, four cardinal sectors (north, south, east and west) are defined to subtend an angle of 30 degrees.”).
Therefore, it would have been obvious for one of ordinary skill in the art, before the effective filing date of the claimed invention with a reasonable expectation of success to have modified the information processing apparatus of Shiramasa with the target region determination of Gibran. One of ordinary skill in the art would have been motivated to make this modification for the benefit of enabling a detailed map to be rendered onscreen more efficiently (see at least Gibran; [0005]).
Regarding claim 2 Shiramasa in view of Gibran renders obvious all of the limitations of claim 1. Additionally, Shiramasa discloses further comprising: starting the downloading of the location information at the download start timing being a timing when it is determined that the marine vessel has been close to the out-of- service communication area (see at least [Page 7, lines 266-281]; “Then, the process proceeds to step S120, where it is determined based on the calculated distance whether or not the vehicle has approached an out-of-service area (i.e., whether or not the calculated distance has become equal to or less than a set distance). If the vehicle is not approaching an out-of-service area ("NO" in step S120), the control ends. In step S120, if the vehicle is approaching an out-of-service area ("YES"), the process proceeds to step S130, where the navigation unit 8 determines whether there is any information (content data, etc.) that should be obtained before the vehicle enters the out-of-service area. If there is no information to be acquired ("NO" in step S130), the control ends. On the other hand, if there is information that needs to be acquired in step S130 ("YES"), the process proceeds to step S140, and the navigation unit 8 transmits a request signal to the information center 4 to download all of the content data of the information that needs to be acquired”).
Regarding claim 3 Shiramasa in view of Gibran renders obvious all of the limitations of claim 1. Additionally, Shiramasa discloses further comprising: starting the downloading of the location information when the start timing arrives (see at least [Page 5, lines 206-209]; “The out-of-service information update unit 24 functions as an update unit. The control unit 23 also has a function of transmitting updated out-of-service information or the latest out-of-service information to the in-vehicle communication device 2 of each vehicle at every set time (fourth set time),” and [Page 6, line 261 – Page 7, line 285]; “the control when the vehicle approaches an out-of-service area will be described with reference to Fig. 6. The flow chart in Fig. 6 shows the contents of the control of the navigation unit 8…the navigation unit 8 downloads (receives) information such as content data transmitted collectively from the information center 4. The control shown in Fig. 6is repeatedly executed at set time intervals”).
Regarding claim 6 Shiramasa in view of Gibran renders obvious all of the limitations of claim 1. Additionally, Shiramasa discloses further comprising: determining the target region based on the position of the marine vessel and the at least one of the speed of the marine vessel or the traveling direction of the marine vessel (see at least [Page 9, lines 400-405]; “the information center 4 is configured to determine whether or not a vehicle has approached an out-of-service area based on the distance between the vehicle’s current position and the out-of-service area. However, this is not limited to this, and the information may also be configured to take into account information such as the vehicle’s speed and the vehicle’s direction of travel to determine whether the vehicle has approached an out-of-service area,” the area being approached is determined based on vehicle position, as well as speed and/or direction).
Regarding claim 10 Shiramasa discloses a marine vessel (see at least [Page 1, lines 14-16]; “the present disclosure relates to an in-vehicle communication device and a vehicle communication system that communicate with an information center via a communication network” while Shiramasa does not explicitly disclose the vehicle as a marine vessel, a marine vessel is an old and well-known type of vehicle) comprising:
a functional unit including at least one memory to store a set of instructions (see at least [Page 4, lines 131-133]; “the memory unit 10 is composed of ROM, RAM, flash memory, SD memory, etc., and stores programs and various data, and is configured so that the control unit 12 can read and write data”), and at least one processor configured or programmed (see at least [Page 4, lines 131-133]; “the memory unit 10 is composed of ROM, RAM, flash memory, SD memory, etc., and stores programs and various data, and is configured so that the control unit 12 can read and write data,” the control unit reads the instructions in order to execute the programs stored in the memory) to:
acquire a position of the marine vessel (see at least [Page 3, lines 115-127]; “the position detection unit 7 is composed of, for example, a GPS receiver and various sensors, and detects the current position of the vehicle and transmits the detected current position to the navigation unit 8,”), and at least one of a speed of the marine vessel or a traveling direction of the marine vessel through a sensor located on the marine vessel (see at least [Page 12, lines 555-556]; “the information may also be configured to take into account information such as the vehicle’s speed and the vehicle’s direction of travel to determine whether the vehicle has approached an out-of-service area,” and [Page 12, lines 555-556]; “obtain information on the vehicle speed from a vehicle speed sensor mounted on the vehicle”);
acquire communication area information indicating a service communication area and an out-of-service communication area on a chart (see at least [Page 3, lines 119-121]; “the communication unit 5 also had a function of detecting the radio wave strength (radio wave state) of wireless communication in the communication network 3, and transmits the detected radio wave strength to the navigation unit 8,” and [Page 4, lines 159-163]; “the control unit 12 has a function of receiving out-of-service information from the information center 4 via the communication unit 5 at every set time (third set time) (function of the out-of-service information receiving unit 135), and a function of updating the out-of-service information stored in the memory unit 10 based on the received out-of-service information,” based on the radio wave strength the navigation unit is capable of detecting both areas capable of communicating and areas uncapable of communicating)…
determine whether or not the marine vessel has been close to the out-of-service communication area based on the position of the marine vessel and the at least one of the speed of the marine vessel or the traveling direction of the marine vessel (see at least [Page 9, lines 400-405]; “the information center 4 is configured to determine whether or not a vehicle has approached an out-of-service area based on the distance between the vehicle’s current position and the out-of-service area. However, this is not limited to this, and the information may also be configured to take into account information such as the vehicle’s speed and the vehicle’s direction of travel to determine whether the vehicle has approached an out-of-service area”), wherein the marine vessel is determined to have been close to the out-of-service communication area when at least one of the following conditions is satisfied; (i) a distance between a boundary of the service communication area and the out-of-service communication area and the position of the marine vessel is less than a predetermined value, and (ii) the boundary is included within a predetermined radius from the position of the marine vessel (see at least [Page 6, line 264 – Page 7, line 285]; “the navigation unit 8 calculates the distance between the current position and the nearest out-of-service area (area with a poor communication environment level) based on the current position of the vehicle and the out-of-service area information. Then, the process proceeds to step S120, where it is determined based on the calculated distance whether or not the vehicle has approached an out-of-service area (i.e., whether or not the calculated distance has become equal to or less than a set distance,” it is determined whether the boundary indicating the start of the out-of-service area is within a predetermined distance); and
when it is determined that the marine vessel has been close to the out-of-service communication area (see at least [Page 2, lines 57-59]; “guiding the vehicle to request in advance the download of information that should be obtained before the vehicle enters an area outside the coverage area of the communication network”);
determine a download start timing (see at least [Page 5, lines 206-209]; “The out-of-service information update unit 24 functions as an update unit. The control unit 23 also has a function of transmitting updated out-of-service information or the latest out-of-service information to the in-vehicle communication device 2 of each vehicle at every set time (fourth set time),” and [Page 6, line 261 – Page 7, line 285]; “the control when the vehicle approaches an out-of-service area will be described with reference to Fig. 6. The flow chart in Fig. 6 shows the contents of the control of the navigation unit 8…the navigation unit 8 downloads (receives) information such as content data transmitted collectively from the information center 4. The control shown in Fig. 6is repeatedly executed at set time intervals,” the time to the next time interval would be the download start timing) …
…download location information corresponding to the target region (see at least [Page 2, lines 58-59]; “guiding the vehicle to request in advance the download of information that should be obtained before the vehicle enters an area outside the coverage area of the communication network,” the information that should be obtained corresponds to the target region) including call attention information used to issue a warning regarding a region corresponding to the position of the marine vessel (see at least [Page 7, lines 266-281]; “Then, the process proceeds to step S120, where it is determined based on the calculated distance whether or not the vehicle has approached an out-of-service area (i.e., whether or not the calculated distance has become equal to or less than a set distance). If the vehicle is not approaching an out-of-service area ("NO" in step S120), the control ends. In step S120, if the vehicle is approaching an out-of-service area ("YES"), the process proceeds to step S130, where the navigation unit 8 determines whether there is any information (content data, etc.) that should be obtained before the vehicle enters the out-of-service area. If there is no information to be acquired ("NO" in step S130), the control ends. On the other hand, if there is information that needs to be acquired in step S130 ("YES"), the process proceeds to step S140, and the navigation unit 8 transmits a request signal to the information center 4 to download all of the content data of the information that needs to be acquired,” and [Page 8, lines 332-342]; “examples of information that should be acquired in advance before entering an out-of-service area include, for example, content data on politics, economics, sports, etc., and traffic information data, if the content data is news. For example, by downloading multiple contents (politics, economics, sports, etc.) in advance from the information center 4 before the vehicle enters an out-of-service area, the user can continue to use services such as viewing news even when the vehicle enters an out-of-service area. In addition, traffic information is usually downloaded from the information center 4 at preset time intervals, but according to this embodiment, traffic information can be downloaded just before the vehicle enters an out-of-service area, even if the preset time has not yet elapsed. This allows the vehicle to travel while referring to traffic information immediately before entering the out-of-service area (the latest traffic information) when the vehicle enters the out-of-service area.”).
Shiramasa does not teach set a target region based on an estimated position of the marine vessel at the download start timing…wherein the target region is defined as a fan-shaped region having a predetermined angular range centered on the traveling direction of the marine vessel.
Gibran, in the same field of endeavor, teaches set a target region based on an estimated position of the marine vessel at the download start timing (see at least [0072]; “For the purposes of the flowchart of FIG. 5, the downloading and rendering of map data to generate a map of the current AOI is subsumed within step 600. At step 602, the device begins the process of predictively downloading map data. In other words, at step 602, the device predicts a future AOI. Predicting a future AOI can be done by determining the direction of travel of the device, by identifying a route upon which a user of the device is traveling, or by identifying a programmed route that has been specified by the user in a navigation application,” the future AOI corresponds to Applicant’s target region) …
wherein the target region is defined as a fan-shaped region having a predetermined angular range centered on the traveling direction of the marine vessel (see at least [0078]; “FIG. 7 depicts a sector-based technique for determining an area of interest based on a bearing heading or direction of travel. In this example presented in FIG. 7, four cardinal sectors (north, south, east and west) are defined to subtend an angle of 30 degrees.”).
Therefore, it would have been obvious for one of ordinary skill in the art, before the effective filing date of the claimed invention with a reasonable expectation of success to have modified the information processing apparatus of Shiramasa with the target region determination of Gibran. One of ordinary skill in the art would have been motivated to make this modification for the benefit of enabling a detailed map to be rendered onscreen more efficiently (see at least Gibran; [0005]).
Regarding claim 11 Shiramasa discloses an information processing apparatus (see at least [Page 1, lines 14-16]; “the present disclosure relates to an in-vehicle communication device and a vehicle communication system that communicate with an information center via a communication network”) comprising:
at least one memory to store a set of instructions (see at least [Page 4, lines 131-133]; “the memory unit 10 is composed of ROM, RAM, flash memory, SD memory, etc., and stores programs and various data, and is configured so that the control unit 12 can read and write data”); and
at least one processor configured or programmed to cause the information processing apparatus (see at least [Page 4, lines 131-133]; “the memory unit 10 is composed of ROM, RAM, flash memory, SD memory, etc., and stores programs and various data, and is configured so that the control unit 12 can read and write data,” the control unit reads the instructions in order to execute the programs stored in the memory) to:
acquire a position of a marine vessel (see at least [Page 3, lines 115-127]; “the position detection unit 7 is composed of, for example, a GPS receiver and various sensors, and detects the current position of the vehicle and transmits the detected current position to the navigation unit 8,”), and at least one of a speed of the marine vessel or a traveling direction of the marine vessel through a sensor located on the marine vessel (see at least [Page 12, lines 555-556]; “the information may also be configured to take into account information such as the vehicle’s speed and the vehicle’s direction of travel to determine whether the vehicle has approached an out-of-service area,” and [Page 12, lines 555-556]; “obtain information on the vehicle speed from a vehicle speed sensor mounted on the vehicle”);
acquire communication area information indicating a service communication area and an out-of-service communication area (see at least [Page 3, lines 119-121]; “the communication unit 5 also had a function of detecting the radio wave strength (radio wave state) of wireless communication in the communication network 3, and transmits the detected radio wave strength to the navigation unit 8,” and [Page 4, lines 159-163]; the control unit 12 has a function of receiving out-of-service information from the information center 4 via the communication unit 5 at every set time (third set time) (function of the out-of-service information receiving unit 135), and a function of updating the out-of-service information stored in the memory unit 10 based on the received out-of-service information”);
determine whether or not the marine vessel has been close to the out-of-service communication area based on the position of the marine vessel and the at least one of the speed of the marine vessel or the traveling direction of the marine vessel (see at least [Page 9, lines 400-405]; “the information center 4 is configured to determine whether or not a vehicle has approached an out-of-service area based on the distance between the vehicle’s current position and the out-of-service area. However, this is not limited to this, and the information may also be configured to take into account information such as the vehicle’s speed and the vehicle’s direction of travel to determine whether the vehicle has approached an out-of-service area”), wherein the marine vessel is determined to have been close to the out-of-service communication area when at least one of the following conditions is satisfied; (i) a distance between a boundary of the service communication area and the out-of-service communication area and the position of the marine vessel is less than a predetermined value, and (ii) the boundary is included within a predetermined radius from the position of the marine vessel (see at least [Page 6, line 264 – Page 7, line 285]; “the navigation unit 8 calculates the distance between the current position and the nearest out-of-service area (area with a poor communication environment level) based on the current position of the vehicle and the out-of-service area information. Then, the process proceeds to step S120, where it is determined based on the calculated distance whether or not the vehicle has approached an out-of-service area (i.e., whether or not the calculated distance has become equal to or less than a set distance,” it is determined whether the boundary indicating the start of the out-of-service area is within a predetermined distance); and
when it is determined that the marine vessel has been close to the out-of-service communication area (see at least [Page 2, lines 57-59]; “guiding the vehicle to request in advance the download of information that should be obtained before the vehicle enters an area outside the coverage area of the communication network”);
determine a download start timing (see at least [Page 5, lines 206-209]; “The out-of-service information update unit 24 functions as an update unit. The control unit 23 also has a function of transmitting updated out-of-service information or the latest out-of-service information to the in-vehicle communication device 2 of each vehicle at every set time (fourth set time),” and [Page 6, line 261 – Page 7, line 285]; “the control when the vehicle approaches an out-of-service area will be described with reference to Fig. 6. The flow chart in Fig. 6 shows the contents of the control of the navigation unit 8…the navigation unit 8 downloads (receives) information such as content data transmitted collectively from the information center 4. The control shown in Fig. 6is repeatedly executed at set time intervals,” the time to the next time interval would be the download start timing);
…download location information corresponding to the target region (see at least [Page 2, lines 58-59]; “guiding the vehicle to request in advance the download of information that should be obtained before the vehicle enters an area outside the coverage area of the communication network,” the information that should be obtained corresponds to the target region) including call attention information used to issue a warning regarding a region corresponding to the position of the marine vessel in response to the determination that the marine vessel has been close to the out-of-service communication area (see at least [Page 7, lines 266-281]; “Then, the process proceeds to step S120, where it is determined based on the calculated distance whether or not the vehicle has approached an out-of-service area (i.e., whether or not the calculated distance has become equal to or less than a set distance). If the vehicle is not approaching an out-of-service area ("NO" in step S120), the control ends. In step S120, if the vehicle is approaching an out-of-service area ("YES"), the process proceeds to step S130, where the navigation unit 8 determines whether there is any information (content data, etc.) that should be obtained before the vehicle enters the out-of-service area. If there is no information to be acquired ("NO" in step S130), the control ends. On the other hand, if there is information that needs to be acquired in step S130 ("YES"), the process proceeds to step S140, and the navigation unit 8 transmits a request signal to the information center 4 to download all of the content data of the information that needs to be acquired,” and [Page 8, lines 332-342]; “examples of information that should be acquired in advance before entering an out-of-service area include, for example, content data on politics, economics, sports, etc., and traffic information data, if the content data is news. For example, by downloading multiple contents (politics, economics, sports, etc.) in advance from the information center 4 before the vehicle enters an out-of-service area, the user can continue to use services such as viewing news even when the vehicle enters an out-of-service area. In addition, traffic information is usually downloaded from the information center 4 at preset time intervals, but according to this embodiment, traffic information can be downloaded just before the vehicle enters an out-of-service area, even if the preset time has not yet elapsed. This allows the vehicle to travel while referring to traffic information immediately before entering the out-of-service area (the latest traffic information) when the vehicle enters the out-of-service area.”).
Shiramasa does not disclose set a target region based on an estimated position of the marine vessel at the download start timing…wherein the target region is defined as a fan-shaped region having a predetermined angular range centered on the traveling direction of the marine vessel.
Gibran, in the same field of endeavor, teaches set a target region based on an estimated position of the marine vessel at the download start timing (see at least [0072]; “For the purposes of the flowchart of FIG. 5, the downloading and rendering of map data to generate a map of the current AOI is subsumed within step 600. At step 602, the device begins the process of predictively downloading map data. In other words, at step 602, the device predicts a future AOI. Predicting a future AOI can be done by determining the direction of travel of the device, by identifying a route upon which a user of the device is traveling, or by identifying a programmed route that has been specified by the user in a navigation application,” the future AOI corresponds to Applicant’s target region) …
wherein the target region is defined as a fan-shaped region having a predetermined angular range centered on the traveling direction of the marine vessel (see at least [0078]; “FIG. 7 depicts a sector-based technique for determining an area of interest based on a bearing heading or direction of travel. In this example presented in FIG. 7, four cardinal sectors (north, south, east and west) are defined to subtend an angle of 30 degrees.”).
Therefore, it would have been obvious for one of ordinary skill in the art, before the effective filing date of the claimed invention with a reasonable expectation of success to have modified the information processing apparatus of Shiramasa with the target region determination of Gibran. One of ordinary skill in the art would have been motivated to make this modification for the benefit of enabling a detailed map to be rendered onscreen more efficiently (see at least Gibran; [0005]).
Regarding claim 12 Shiramasa discloses a non-transitory storage medium storing a program to cause a computer of a communication apparatus able to communicate with a server to execute an information processing method (see at least [Page 1, lines 14-16]; “the present disclosure relates to an in-vehicle communication device and a vehicle communication system that communicate with an information center via a communication network,” the information corresponds to a server, and [Page 4, lines 131-133]; “the memory unit 10 is composed of ROM, RAM, flash memory, SD memory, etc., and stores programs and various data, and is configured so that the control unit 12 can read and write data”), the information processing method comprising:
acquiring a position of a marine vessel (see at least [Page 3, lines 115-127]; “the position detection unit 7 is composed of, for example, a GPS receiver and various sensors, and detects the current position of the vehicle and transmits the detected current position to the navigation unit 8,” while Shiramasa does not explicitly disclose the vehicle as a marine vessel, a marine vessel is an old and well-known type of vehicle), and at least one of a speed of the marine vessel or a traveling direction of the marine vessel through a sensor located on the marine vessel (see at least [Page 12, lines 555-556]; “the information may also be configured to take into account information such as the vehicle’s speed and the vehicle’s direction of travel to determine whether the vehicle has approached an out-of-service area,” and [Page 12, lines 555-556]; “obtain information on the vehicle speed from a vehicle speed sensor mounted on the vehicle”);
acquiring communication area information a service communication area and an out- of-service communication area on a chart (see at least [Page 3, lines 119-121]; “the communication unit 5 also had a function of detecting the radio wave strength (radio wave state) of wireless communication in the communication network 3, and transmits the detected radio wave strength to the navigation unit 8,” and [Page 4, lines 159-163]; “the control unit 12 has a function of receiving out-of-service information from the information center 4 via the communication unit 5 at every set time (third set time) (function of the out-of-service information receiving unit 135), and a function of updating the out-of-service information stored in the memory unit 10 based on the received out-of-service information,” based on the radio wave strength the navigation unit is capable of detecting both areas capable of communicating and areas uncapable of communicating)…
determining whether or not the marine vessel has been close to the out-of-service communication area based on the position of the marine vessel and the at least one of the speed of the marine vessel or the traveling direction of the marine vessel (see at least [Page 9, lines 400-405]; “the information center 4 is configured to determine whether or not a vehicle has approached an out-of-service area based on the distance between the vehicle’s current position and the out-of-service area. However, this is not limited to this, and the information may also be configured to take into account information such as the vehicle’s speed and the vehicle’s direction of travel to determine whether the vehicle has approached an out-of-service area”), wherein the marine vessel is determined to have been close to the out-of-service communication area when at least one of the following conditions is satisfied; (i) a distance between a boundary of the service communication area and the out-of-service communication area and the position of the marine vessel is less than a predetermined value, and (ii) the boundary is included within a predetermined radius from the position of the marine vessel (see at least [Page 6, line 264 – Page 7, line 285]; “the navigation unit 8 calculates the distance between the current position and the nearest out-of-service area (area with a poor communication environment level) based on the current position of the vehicle and the out-of-service area information. Then, the process proceeds to step S120, where it is determined based on the calculated distance whether or not the vehicle has approached an out-of-service area (i.e., whether or not the calculated distance has become equal to or less than a set distance,” it is determined whether the boundary indicating the start of the out-of-service area is within a predetermined distance); and
when it is determined that the marine vessel has been close to the out-of-service communication area (see at least [Page 2, lines 57-59]; “guiding the vehicle to request in advance the download of information that should be obtained before the vehicle enters an area outside the coverage area of the communication network”);
determine a download start timing (see at least [Page 5, lines 206-209]; “The out-of-service information update unit 24 functions as an update unit. The control unit 23 also has a function of transmitting updated out-of-service information or the latest out-of-service information to the in-vehicle communication device 2 of each vehicle at every set time (fourth set time),” and [Page 6, line 261 – Page 7, line 285]; “the control when the vehicle approaches an out-of-service area will be described with reference to Fig. 6. The flow chart in Fig. 6 shows the contents of the control of the navigation unit 8…the navigation unit 8 downloads (receives) information such as content data transmitted collectively from the information center 4. The control shown in Fig. 6is repeatedly executed at set time intervals,” the time to the next time interval would be the download start timing) …
…downloading, from the server, location information corresponding to the target region (see at least [Page 2, lines 58-59]; “guiding the vehicle to request in advance the download of information that should be obtained before the vehicle enters an area outside the coverage area of the communication network,” the information that should be obtained corresponds to the target region) including call attention information used to issue a warning regarding a region corresponding to the position of the marine vessel (see at least [Page 7, lines 266-281]; “Then, the process proceeds to step S120, where it is determined based on the calculated distance whether or not the vehicle has approached an out-of-service area (i.e., whether or not the calculated distance has become equal to or less than a set distance). If the vehicle is not approaching an out-of-service area ("NO" in step S120), the control ends. In step S120, if the vehicle is approaching an out-of-service area ("YES"), the process proceeds to step S130, where the navigation unit 8 determines whether there is any information (content data, etc.) that should be obtained before the vehicle enters the out-of-service area. If there is no information to be acquired ("NO" in step S130), the control ends. On the other hand, if there is information that needs to be acquired in step S130 ("YES"), the process proceeds to step S140, and the navigation unit 8 transmits a request signal to the information center 4 to download all of the content data of the information that needs to be acquired,” and [Page 8, lines 332-342]; “examples of information that should be acquired in advance before entering an out-of-service area include, for example, content data on politics, economics, sports, etc., and traffic information data, if the content data is news. For example, by downloading multiple contents (politics, economics, sports, etc.) in advance from the information center 4 before the vehicle enters an out-of-service area, the user can continue to use services such as viewing news even when the vehicle enters an out-of-service area. In addition, traffic information is usually downloaded from the information center 4 at preset time intervals, but according to this embodiment, traffic information can be downloaded just before the vehicle enters an out-of-service area, even if the preset time has not yet elapsed. This allows the vehicle to travel while referring to traffic information immediately before entering the out-of-service area (the latest traffic information) when the vehicle enters the out-of-service area.”).
Shiramasa does not teach setting a target region based on an estimated position of the marine vessel at the download start timing…wherein the target region is defined as a fan-shaped region having a predetermined angular range centered on the traveling direction of the marine vessel.
Gibran, in the same field of endeavor, teaches setting a target region based on an estimated position of the marine vessel at the download start timing (see at least [0072]; “For the purposes of the flowchart of FIG. 5, the downloading and rendering of map data to generate a map of the current AOI is subsumed within step 600. At step 602, the device begins the process of predictively downloading map data. In other words, at step 602, the device predicts a future AOI. Predicting a future AOI can be done by determining the direction of travel of the device, by identifying a route upon which a user of the device is traveling, or by identifying a programmed route that has been specified by the user in a navigation application,” the future AOI corresponds to Applicant’s target region) …
wherein the target region is defined as a fan-shaped region having a predetermined angular range centered on the traveling direction of the marine vessel (see at least [0078]; “FIG. 7 depicts a sector-based technique for determining an area of interest based on a bearing heading or direction of travel. In this example presented in FIG. 7, four cardinal sectors (north, south, east and west) are defined to subtend an angle of 30 degrees.”).
Therefore, it would have been obvious for one of ordinary skill in the art, before the effective filing date of the claimed invention with a reasonable expectation of success to have modified the information processing apparatus of Shiramasa with the target region determination of Gibran. One of ordinary skill in the art would have been motivated to make this modification for the benefit of enabling a detailed map to be rendered onscreen more efficiently (see at least Gibran; [0005]).
Regarding claim 20 Shiramasa discloses an information processing method executed by a computer of a communication apparatus able to communicate with a server to allow a marine vessel to utilize location information at any time during navigation (see at least [Page 1, lines 14-16]; “the present disclosure relates to an in-vehicle communication device and a vehicle communication system that communicate with an information center via a communication network,” and [Page, 4, lines 128-131]; “the entire navigation unit 8, and has, for example, a function of receiving information (data) about the current position of the vehicle from the position detection unit 7 and storing and accumulating the received information about the current position in the memory unit 10,” the control unit continuously receives location information to aid in navigation), the information processing method comprising:
acquiring a position (see at least [Page 3, lines 115-127]; “the position detection unit 7 is composed of, for example, a GPS receiver and various sensors, and detects the current position of the vehicle and transmits the detected current position to the navigation unit 8,” while Shiramasa does not explicitly disclose the vehicle as a marine vessel, a marine vessel is an old and well-known type of vehicle), a speed (see at least [Page 12, lines 555-556]; “the information may also be configured to take into account information such as the vehicle’s speed and the vehicle’s direction of travel to determine whether the vehicle has approached an out-of-service area,” and [Page 12, lines 555-556]; “obtain information on the vehicle speed from a vehicle speed sensor mounted on the vehicle”), and a traveling direction (see at least [Page 8, lines 345-347]; “the approach to an out-of-service area may also be determined by taking into account information such as the vehicle's speed and the vehicle's direction of travel,” the position of the vehicle detected over time would yield the traveling direction) of the marine vessel through a sensor located on the marine vessel (see at least [Page 3, lines 115-127]; “the position detection unit 7 is composed of, for example, a GPS receiver and various sensors,”);
acquiring communication area information indicating a service communication area and an out-of-service communication area on a chart (see at least [Page 3, lines 119-121]; “the communication unit 5 also had a function of detecting the radio wave strength (radio wave state) of wireless communication in the communication network 3, and transmits the detected radio wave strength to the navigation unit 8,” and [Page 4, lines 159-163]; “the control unit 12 has a function of receiving out-of-service information from the information center 4 via the communication unit 5 at every set time (third set time) (function of the out-of-service information receiving unit 135), and a function of updating the out-of-service information stored in the memory unit 10 based on the received out-of-service information,” based on the radio wave strength the navigation unit is capable of detecting both areas capable of communicating and areas uncapable of communicating)…
…determining whether or not the marine vessel has been close to the out-of-service communication area based on the position of the marine vessel, the speed of the marine vessel, and the traveling direction of the marine vessel (see at least [Page 9, lines 400-405]; “the information center 4 is configured to determine whether or not a vehicle has approached an out-of-service area based on the distance between the vehicle’s current position and the out-of-service area. However, this is not limited to this, and the information may also be configured to take into account information such as the vehicle’s speed and the vehicle’s direction of travel to determine whether the vehicle has approached an out-of-service area”), wherein the marine vessel is determined to have been close to the out-of-service communication area when a time required to reach a boundary of the service communication area and the out-of-service communication area calculated based on the position, the speed, and the traveling direction of the marine vessel is less than a predetermined time (see at least [Page 12, lines 549-559]; “where the navigation unit 8 (control unit 12) of the in-vehicle communication device 2 receives the download time from the information center 4. The navigation unit 8 (control unit 12) has a function as an information receiving unit. Next, the process proceeds to step S172, where the navigation unit 8 calculates, based on the vehicle speed information and the out-of-service area information, whether or not the vehicle will enter an out-of-service area within the download time. It is preferable that the navigation unit 8 is configured to obtain information on the vehicle speed from a vehicle speed sensor mounted on the vehicle. The navigation unit 8 (control unit 12) has a function as an out-of-service determination unit during downloading. If it is determined based on the above calculation results that the vehicle will enter an out-of-service area within the download time ("YES" in step S174),” the predetermined time corresponds to the download time, it is determined whether the vehicle would reach the out-of-service area before the download can be complete); and
when it is determined that the marine vessel has been close to the out-of-service communication area (see at least [Page 2, lines 57-59]; “guiding the vehicle to request in advance the download of information that should be obtained before the vehicle enters an area outside the coverage area of the communication network”);
determine a download start timing (see at least [Page 5, lines 206-209]; “The out-of-service information update unit 24 functions as an update unit. The control unit 23 also has a function of transmitting updated out-of-service information or the latest out-of-service information to the in-vehicle communication device 2 of each vehicle at every set time (fourth set time),” and [Page 6, line 261 – Page 7, line 285]; “the control when the vehicle approaches an out-of-service area will be described with reference to Fig. 6. The flow chart in Fig. 6 shows the contents of the control of the navigation unit 8…the navigation unit 8 downloads (receives) information such as content data transmitted collectively from the information center 4. The control shown in Fig. 6is repeatedly executed at set time intervals,” the time to the next time interval would be the download start timing) …
…downloading, from the server, location information corresponding to the target region (see at least [Page 2, lines 58-59]; “guiding the vehicle to request in advance the download of information that should be obtained before the vehicle enters an area outside the coverage area of the communication network,” the information that should be obtained corresponds to the target region) including call attention information used to issue a warning regarding a region corresponding to the position of the marine vessel in response to the determination that the marine vessel has been close to the out-of-service communication area (see at least [Page 7, lines 266-281]; “Then, the process proceeds to step S120, where it is determined based on the calculated distance whether or not the vehicle has approached an out-of-service area (i.e., whether or not the calculated distance has become equal to or less than a set distance). If the vehicle is not approaching an out-of-service area ("NO" in step S120), the control ends. In step S120, if the vehicle is approaching an out-of-service area ("YES"), the process proceeds to step S130, where the navigation unit 8 determines whether there is any information (content data, etc.) that should be obtained before the vehicle enters the out-of-service area. If there is no information to be acquired ("NO" in step S130), the control ends. On the other hand, if there is information that needs to be acquired in step S130 ("YES"), the process proceeds to step S140, and the navigation unit 8 transmits a request signal to the information center 4 to download all of the content data of the information that needs to be acquired,” and [Page 8, lines 332-342]; “examples of information that should be acquired in advance before entering an out-of-service area include, for example, content data on politics, economics, sports, etc., and traffic information data, if the content data is news. For example, by downloading multiple contents (politics, economics, sports, etc.) in advance from the information center 4 before the vehicle enters an out-of-service area, the user can continue to use services such as viewing news even when the vehicle enters an out-of-service area. In addition, traffic information is usually downloaded from the information center 4 at preset time intervals, but according to this embodiment, traffic information can be downloaded just before the vehicle enters an out-of-service area, even if the preset time has not yet elapsed. This allows the vehicle to travel while referring to traffic information immediately before entering the out-of-service area (the latest traffic information) when the vehicle enters the out-of-service area.”).
Shiramasa does not teach setting a target region based on an estimated position of the marine vessel at the download start timing…wherein the target region is defined as a fan-shaped region having a predetermined angular range centered on the traveling direction of the marine vessel.
Gibran, in the same field of endeavor, teaches setting a target region based on an estimated position of the marine vessel at the download start timing (see at least [0072]; “For the purposes of the flowchart of FIG. 5, the downloading and rendering of map data to generate a map of the current AOI is subsumed within step 600. At step 602, the device begins the process of predictively downloading map data. In other words, at step 602, the device predicts a future AOI. Predicting a future AOI can be done by determining the direction of travel of the device, by identifying a route upon which a user of the device is traveling, or by identifying a programmed route that has been specified by the user in a navigation application,” the future AOI corresponds to Applicant’s target region) …
wherein the target region is defined as a fan-shaped region having a predetermined angular range centered on the traveling direction of the marine vessel (see at least [0078]; “FIG. 7 depicts a sector-based technique for determining an area of interest based on a bearing heading or direction of travel. In this example presented in FIG. 7, four cardinal sectors (north, south, east and west) are defined to subtend an angle of 30 degrees.”).
Therefore, it would have been obvious for one of ordinary skill in the art, before the effective filing date of the claimed invention with a reasonable expectation of success to have modified the information processing apparatus of Shiramasa with the target region determination of Gibran. One of ordinary skill in the art would have been motivated to make this modification for the benefit of enabling a detailed map to be rendered onscreen more efficiently (see at least Gibran; [0005]).
Claim(s) 4 is rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Shiramasa in view of Gibran, as applied to claim 3 above, in view of US-20180321047 (hereinafter, “Sagawa”).
Regarding claim 4 Shiramasa in view of Gibran renders obvious all of the limitations of claim 3. Additionally, Shiramasa discloses further comprising: acquiring a communication speed with the server and a data volume of the location information to be downloaded (see at least Page 12, lines 545-548]; “the center terminal 16 of the information center 4 may be configured to calculate the download time from the data amount of the information to be downloaded and the communication speed of the communication network 3,” the data amount corresponds to applicant’s data volume).
Shiramasa does not disclose determining the download start timing based on the communication speed and the data volume.
Sagawa, in the same field of endeavor, teaches determining the download start timing based on the communication speed and the data volume (see at least [0034]; “the update information acquiring unit 12 also acquires a required time that is estimated to be required to download update data from the server 4. The required time can be acquired by dividing the size of the update data by a communication speed (the size of date that can be transferred per unit time),” and [0065-0066]; “On the other hand, when there is a suitable section that has a length sufficient for the required time for the download (S207: yes) in the process of S207 of FIG. 3, a suitable section whose estimated travel time is longer than the required time for the download is set as a download section (S208). The download section indicates a section in which the download of update data is set to be executed in the travel route. When there are a plurality of suitable sections having a sufficient length, the download can be executed with sufficient time by setting a suitable section that has the longest estimated travel time as the download section. Alternatively, when it is desired to download the update data as soon as possible, a suitable section that is located closest to the vehicle 1 on the travel route may be set as the download section. Then, after the setting of the download section (S208), a point where the vehicle 1 first passes in the download section is set as a download starting point (S209). When the required time for the download can be ensured within the download section, the download starting point can also be set at a midpoint in the download section.”)
Therefore, it would have been obvious for one of ordinary skill in the art, before the effective filing date of the claimed invention with a reasonable expectation of success to have modified the information acquiring method of Shiramasa as modified by Gibran with the time communication of Sagawa. One of ordinary skill in the art would have been motivated to make this modification for the benefit of reducing the load and communication cost (see at least Sagawa; [0003-0009]).
Claim(s) 5 and 7 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Shiramasa in view of Gibran, as applied to claim 1 above, in view JP-2006275774A (hereinafter, “Sato”).
Regarding claim 5 Shiramasa in view of Gibran renders obvious all of the limitations of claim 1. Shiramasa does not teach wherein the target region includes a region within a first predetermined distance in the traveling direction.
Sato, in the same field of endeavor, teaches wherein the target region includes a region within a first predetermined distance in the traveling direction (see at least [0028]; “define the driving range as a range within a predetermined distance from the vehicle).
Therefore, it would have been obvious for one of ordinary skill in the art, before the effective filing date of the claimed invention with a reasonable expectation of success to have modified the information acquiring method of Shiramasa as modified by Gibran with the travelable range of Sato. One of ordinary skill in the art would have been motivated to make this modification for the benefit of reducing the load by preventing areas that are unlikely to be traveled from being set as update target areas, thereby avoiding unnecessary partial updates of map data (see at least Sato; [0033]).
Regarding claim 7 Shiramasa in view of Gibran renders obvious all of the limitations of claim 1. Shiramasa does not teach further comprising: acquiring a remaining amount of fuel used to propel the marine vessel.
Sato, in the same field of endeavor, teaches further comprising: acquiring a remaining amount of fuel used to propel the marine vessel (see at least [0018]; “The control circuit 11 receives a signal indicating the amount of remaining fuel detected in the host vehicle. This remaining fuel signal indicates the current remaining fuel amount of the host vehicle. For example, in a gasoline-powered vehicle, the remaining amount of gasoline is expressed as the remaining amount of fuel, and in an electric vehicle, the remaining amount of battery power is expressed as the remaining amount of fuel. This remaining fuel signal is also used to control the indicated value of the fuel gauge in the host vehicle”), and determining the target region based on the remaining amount of fuel, a position of the marine vessel, and the at least one of the speed of the marine vessel or the traveling direction of the marine vessel (see at least [0032]; “Specifically, the driving range is defined as a range within a distance corresponding to the remaining fuel amount along the road from the current position of the vehicle in the traveling direction,” and [0035]; “The mesh numbers of the meshes M2, M3, M5 and M6 that include the travelable range 42 set as described above are transmitted from the navigation device 1 to the update map data distribution center 4 as area identification information. As a result, the update map data for these meshes is downloaded from the update map data distribution center 4 to the navigation device 1, and the map data recorded on the HDD 18 is partially updated.”).
Therefore, it would have been obvious for one of ordinary skill in the art, before the effective filing date of the claimed invention with a reasonable expectation of success to have modified the information acquiring method of Shiramasa as modified by Gibran with the travelable range of Sato. One of ordinary skill in the art would have been motivated to make this modification for the benefit of reducing the load by preventing areas that are unlikely to be traveled from being set as update target areas, thereby avoiding unnecessary partial updates of map data (see at least Sato; [0033]).
Claim(s) 8 and 9 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Shiramasa in view of Gibran, as applied to claim 1 above, in view of US-20230403542 (hereinafter, “Choi”).
Regarding claim 8 Shiramasa discloses all of the limitations of claim 1. Additionally, Shiramasa discloses wherein the location information includes a plurality of pieces of information (see at least [Page 8, lines 332-343]; “In this case, examples of information that should be acquired in advance before entering an out-of-service area include, for example, content data on politics, economics, sports, etc., and traffic information data, if the content data is news. For example, by downloading multiple contents (politics, economics, sports, etc.) in advance from the information center 4 before the vehicle enters an out-of-service area, the user can continue to use services such as viewing news even when the vehicle enters an out-of-service area. In addition, traffic information is usually downloaded from the information center 4 at preset time intervals, but according to this embodiment, traffic information can be downloaded just before the vehicle enters an out-of-service area, even if the preset time has not yet elapsed. This allows the vehicle to travel while referring to traffic information immediately before entering the out-of-service area (the latest traffic information) when the vehicle enters the out-of-service area.”).
Shiramasa does not disclose the information processing method further includes preferentially downloading the call attention information when downloading the location information.
Choi, in the same field of endeavor, discloses the information processing method further includes preferentially downloading the call attention information when downloading the location information (Examiner Note: Applicant defines call attention information as the following; [0048] “The call attention information is information used when a warning is issued, and is, for example, information used to notify "the area is a speed limit area in which the navigation speed is limited", "the area is an audio limit area in which audio volume is limited", "the area is an entry prohibited area in which entry of a marine vessel is prohibited", and the like.”)(see at least [0065]; “in various embodiments, if it is determined that the particular map tile does not have limited or no data access (i.e., that the particular tile has good data access in accordance with the data access map), then the process proceeds to step 226. During step 226, the particular map tile is queued for regular or standard downloading (e.g., when the vehicle enters or is about to enter the geographic area represented by the map tile), without any special priority. Conversely, if it is instead determined that the particular map tile does have limited or no data access (in accordance with the data access map), then the process proceeds instead to step 228. During step 228, the particular map tile is queued into a prioritized sequence for prioritized downloading before the vehicle approaches the geographic area represented by the map tile (i.e., before the vehicle leaves vehicle is expected to lose its data access when approaching the particular map tile). In various embodiments, as part of steps 222-228, a processor (such as the processor 38 of FIG. 1) determines groups of consecutive map tiles with corresponding geographic areas with reduced or no cellular reception, and determines the prioritized sequence for downloading the plurality of map tiles, based on the groups of consecutive map tiles with corresponding geographic areas with reduced or no cellular reception, such that a particular map tile is downloaded prior to any groups of consecutive map tiles with corresponding geographic areas with reduced or no cellular reception that immediately precede the particular map tile.).
Therefore, it would have been obvious for one of ordinary skill in the art, before the effective filing date of the claimed invention with a reasonable expectation of success to have modified the information acquiring method of Shiramasa as modified by Gibran with the preferential downloading of Choi. One of ordinary skill in the art would have been motivated to make this modification for the benefit of ensuring data in areas with low or no reception may still be received to aid in navigation (see at least Choi; [0001-0003]).
Regarding claim 9 Shiramasa in view of Gibran renders obvious all of the limitations of claim 1. Shiramasa does not disclose wherein the location information includes map information and structure information; and
the information processing method further includes:
when downloading the location information, downloading the call attention information, the map information within a second predetermined distance, the structure information, and the map information outside the second predetermined distance, in this order.
Choi, in the same field of endeavor, discloses wherein the location information includes map information and structure information; and
the information processing method further includes:
when downloading the location information, downloading the call attention information, the map information within a second predetermined distance, the structure information, and the map information outside the second predetermined distance, in this order (see at least [0065]; “in various embodiments, if it is determined that the particular map tile does not have limited or no data access (i.e., that the particular tile has good data access in accordance with the data access map), then the process proceeds to step 226. During step 226, the particular map tile is queued for regular or standard downloading (e.g., when the vehicle enters or is about to enter the geographic area represented by the map tile), without any special priority. Conversely, if it is instead determined that the particular map tile does have limited or no data access (in accordance with the data access map), then the process proceeds instead to step 228. During step 228, the particular map tile is queued into a prioritized sequence for prioritized downloading before the vehicle approaches the geographic area represented by the map tile (i.e., before the vehicle leaves vehicle is expected to lose its data access when approaching the particular map tile). In various embodiments, as part of steps 222-228, a processor (such as the processor 38 of FIG. 1) determines groups of consecutive map tiles with corresponding geographic areas with reduced or no cellular reception, and determines the prioritized sequence for downloading the plurality of map tiles, based on the groups of consecutive map tiles with corresponding geographic areas with reduced or no cellular reception, such that a particular map tile is downloaded prior to any groups of consecutive map tiles with corresponding geographic areas with reduced or no cellular reception that immediately precede the particular map tile,” changing the specific order in which the different information is downloaded is a matter of design choice and Choi’s prioritization order would be an obvious variant).
Therefore, it would have been obvious for one of ordinary skill in the art, before the effective filing date of the claimed invention with a reasonable expectation of success to have modified the information acquiring method of Shiramasa as modified by Gibran with the preferential downloading of Choi. One of ordinary skill in the art would have been motivated to make this modification for the benefit of ensuring data in areas with low or no reception may still be received to aid in navigation (see at least Choi; [0001-0003]).
Claim(s) 13-19 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Shiramasa in view of Gibran, as applied to claim 1 above, in view of US-20190236691 (hereinafter, “Avello”).
Regarding claim 13 Shiramasa in view of Sato renders obvious all of the limitations of claim 1. Shiramasa does not disclose further comprising: receiving a start instruction or an end instruction; and
starting a position information acquisition process to acquire position information of the communication apparatus in response to reception of the start instruction, and ending the position information acquisition process in response to reception of the end instruction; wherein
it is determined whether the communication apparatus is located in a sea area or a land area based on the acquired position information of the communication apparatus; and
the position information of the communication apparatus is uploaded to the server on a condition that it is determined that the communication apparatus is located in the sea area.
Avello, in the same field of endeavor, teaches further comprising: receiving a start instruction (see at least [0084]; “After the selected watercraft is unlocked, the watercraft-device may begin tracking the watercraft location and sending watercraft location information to the server via the watercraft-device components,” the unlocking constitutes a start instruction) or an end instruction (see at least [0085]; “When the user returns the watercraft and places the watercraft lock component into the correct configuration with a docking-station lock component of the docking station the watercraft was unlocked from…may place the electrical lock component in a locked state…Once the watercraft device is locked to the docking station, the watercraft device stops tracking the watercraft location, and a signal is sent to the server identifying the watercraft as locked to the docking station and available for use,” the locking constitutes an end instruction); and
starting a position information acquisition process to acquire position information of the communication apparatus in response to reception of the start instruction, and ending the position information acquisition process in response to reception of the end instruction (see at least [0084]; “After the selected watercraft is unlocked, the watercraft-device may begin tracking the watercraft location and sending watercraft location information to the server via the watercraft-device components,” tracking of the watercrafts location is begun after the start instruction of unlocking and ended once locked again); wherein
it is determined whether the communication apparatus is located in a sea area or a land area based on the acquired position information of the communication apparatus (see at least [0085]; “When the user returns the watercraft and places the watercraft lock component into the correct configuration with a docking-station lock component of the docking station the watercraft was unlocked from…may place the electrical lock component in a locked state…Once the watercraft device is locked to the docking station, the watercraft device stops tracking the watercraft location, and a signal is sent to the server identifying the watercraft as locked to the docking station and available for use,” a watercraft is confirmed as having landed based on determining the position of the watercraft as being docked on the land) ; and
the position information of the communication apparatus is uploaded to the server on a condition that it is determined that the communication apparatus is located in the sea area (see at least Fig. 10; “Device on watercraft starts tracking and reporting location data to server,” tracking is begun once device is unlocked and uses the watercraft).
Therefore, it would have been obvious for one of ordinary skill in the art, before the effective filing date of the claimed invention with a reasonable expectation of success to have modified the information processing method of Shiramasa as modified by Gibran with the location tracking of Avello. One of ordinary skill in the art would have been motivated to make this modification for the benefit of allowing a server to catalog and track the location of each watercraft for an easier user experience in determining available vehicles (see at least [0071]).
Regarding claim 14 Shiramasa in view of Gibran and Avello renders obvious all of the limitations of claim 13. Additionally, Avello, in the same field of endeavor, teaches further comprising: ending the position information acquisition process in a case where it is determined that the communication apparatus is located in the land area after the position information acquisition process is started (see at least [0085]; “Once the watercraft device is locked to the docking station, the watercraft device stops tracking the watercraft location,” the tracking is ended once it is determined that the watercraft has been docked on land, it is unclear the difference between interrupting versus ending of the position information acquisition process, Examiner asserts that the two methods of claim 14 and 15 are obvious variants of one another, if applicant disagrees a restriction will be done for the election of species).
Therefore, it would have been obvious for one of ordinary skill in the art, before the effective filing date of the claimed invention with a reasonable expectation of success to have modified the information processing method of Shiramasa as modified by Gibran with the location tracking of Avello. One of ordinary skill in the art would have been motivated to make this modification for the benefit of allowing a server to catalog and track the location of each watercraft for an easier user experience in determining available vehicles (see at least [0071]).
Regarding claim 15 Shiramasa in view of Gibran and Avello renders obvious all of the limitations of claim 13. Additionally, Avello, in the same field of endeavor, teaches further comprising: interrupting the position information acquisition process in a case where it is determined that the communication apparatus is located in the land area after the position information acquisition process is started, and afterwards resuming the position information acquisition process in a case where it is determined that the communication apparatus is located in the sea area (see at least [0085]; “Once the watercraft device is locked to the docking station, the watercraft device stops tracking the watercraft location,” the tracking is ended once it is determined that the watercraft has been docked on land, it is unclear the difference between interrupting versus ending of the position information acquisition process, Examiner asserts that the two methods of claim 14 and 15 are obvious variants of one another, if applicant disagrees a restriction will be done for the election of species).
Therefore, it would have been obvious for one of ordinary skill in the art, before the effective filing date of the claimed invention with a reasonable expectation of success to have modified the information processing method of Shiramasa as modified by Gibran with the location tracking of Avello. One of ordinary skill in the art would have been motivated to make this modification for the benefit of allowing a server to catalog and track the location of each watercraft for an easier user experience in determining available vehicles (see at least [0071]).
Regarding claim 16 Shiramasa in view of Gibran and Avello renders obvious all of the limitations of claim 15. Additionally, Avello, in the same field of endeavor, teaches further comprising: in a case where it is determined that both the communication apparatus and the marine vessel are located in the land area, ending the position information acquisition process even during interruption of the position information acquisition process (see at least [0085]; “Once the watercraft device is locked to the docking station, the watercraft device stops tracking the watercraft location,” the communication apparatus is within the watercraft and therefore at the same location).
Therefore, it would have been obvious for one of ordinary skill in the art, before the effective filing date of the claimed invention with a reasonable expectation of success to have modified the information processing method of Shiramasa as modified by Gibran with the location tracking of Avello. One of ordinary skill in the art would have been motivated to make this modification for the benefit of allowing a server to catalog and track the location of each watercraft for an easier user experience in determining available vehicles (see at least [0071]).
Regarding claim 17 Shiramasa in view of Gibran and Avello renders obvious all of the limitations of claim 13. Additionally, Avello, in the same field of endeavor, teaches further comprising: selectively receiving a first mode and a second mode; wherein
the first mode immediately ends the position information acquisition process in a case where it is determined that the communication apparatus is located in the land area after the position information acquisition process is started (see at least [0085]; “Once the watercraft device is locked to the docking station, the watercraft device stops tracking the watercraft location,” the tracking is ended once it is determined that the watercraft has been docked on land); and
the second mode temporarily interrupts the position information acquisition process in a case where it is determined that the communication apparatus is located in the land area after the position information acquisition process is started, and afterwards resumes the position information acquisition process in a case where it is determined that the communication apparatus is located in the sea area (see at least [0085]; “Once the watercraft device is locked to the docking station, the watercraft device stops tracking the watercraft location,” the tracking is ended once it is determined that the watercraft has been docked on land, but would be resumed if detected as being unlocked and entering the sea area).
Therefore, it would have been obvious for one of ordinary skill in the art, before the effective filing date of the claimed invention with a reasonable expectation of success to have modified the information processing method of Shiramasa as modified by Gibran with the location tracking of Avello. One of ordinary skill in the art would have been motivated to make this modification for the benefit of allowing a server to catalog and track the location of each watercraft for an easier user experience in determining available vehicles (see at least [0071]).
Regarding claim 18 Shiramasa in view of Gibran renders obvious all of the limitations of claim 1. Shiramasa does not disclose further comprising: receiving a start instruction or an end instruction;
starting a position information acquisition process to acquire position information of the communication apparatus in response to reception of the start instruction, and ending the position information acquisition process in response to reception of the end instruction; and
acquiring a distance between the communication apparatus and the marine vessel; wherein
the position information of the communication apparatus is uploaded to the server on a condition that the acquired distance is within a third predetermined distance.
Avello, in the same field of endeavor, teaches further comprising: receiving a start instruction (see at least [0084]; “After the selected watercraft is unlocked, the watercraft-device may begin tracking the watercraft location and sending watercraft location information to the server via the watercraft-device components,” the unlocking constitutes a start instruction) or an end instruction (see at least [0085]; “When the user returns the watercraft and places the watercraft lock component into the correct configuration with a docking-station lock component of the docking station the watercraft was unlocked from…may place the electrical lock component in a locked state…Once the watercraft device is locked to the docking station, the watercraft device stops tracking the watercraft location, and a signal is sent to the server identifying the watercraft as locked to the docking station and available for use,” the locking constitutes an end instruction);
starting a position information acquisition process to acquire position information of the communication apparatus in response to reception of the start instruction, and ending the position information acquisition process in response to reception of the end instruction (see at least [0084]; “After the selected watercraft is unlocked, the watercraft-device may begin tracking the watercraft location and sending watercraft location information to the server via the watercraft-device components,” tracking of the watercrafts location is begun after the start instruction of unlocking and ended once locked again); and
acquiring a distance between the communication apparatus and the marine vessel (see at least the communication apparatus to the server is within the watercraft and therefore the distance between the two is always zero); wherein
the position information of the communication apparatus is uploaded to the server on a condition that the acquired distance is within a third predetermined distance (see at least Fig. 10; “Device on watercraft starts tracking and reporting location data to server,” location is always transmitted to the server regardless of the distance).
Therefore, it would have been obvious for one of ordinary skill in the art, before the effective filing date of the claimed invention with a reasonable expectation of success to have modified the information processing method of Shiramasa as modified by Gibran with the location tracking of Avello. One of ordinary skill in the art would have been motivated to make this modification for the benefit of allowing a server to catalog and track the location of each watercraft for an easier user experience in determining available vehicles (see at least [0071]).
Regarding claim 19 Shiramasa in view of Gibran renders obvious all of the limitations of claim 1. Shiramasa does not disclose further comprising: receiving a start instruction or an end instruction;
starting a position information acquisition process to acquire position information of the communication apparatus in response to reception of the start instruction, and ending the position information acquisition process in response to reception of the end instruction; and
acquiring a communication state between the communication apparatus and a marine vessel; wherein
the position information of the communication apparatus is uploaded to the server on a condition that communication between the communication apparatus and the marine vessel is established.
Avello, in the same field of endeavor, teaches further comprising: receiving a start instruction (see at least [0084]; “After the selected watercraft is unlocked, the watercraft-device may begin tracking the watercraft location and sending watercraft location information to the server via the watercraft-device components,” the unlocking constitutes a start instruction) or an end instruction (see at least [0085]; “When the user returns the watercraft and places the watercraft lock component into the correct configuration with a docking-station lock component of the docking station the watercraft was unlocked from…may place the electrical lock component in a locked state…Once the watercraft device is locked to the docking station, the watercraft device stops tracking the watercraft location, and a signal is sent to the server identifying the watercraft as locked to the docking station and available for use,” the locking constitutes an end instruction);
starting a position information acquisition process to acquire position information of the communication apparatus in response to reception of the start instruction, and ending the position information acquisition process in response to reception of the end instruction (see at least [0084]; “After the selected watercraft is unlocked, the watercraft-device may begin tracking the watercraft location and sending watercraft location information to the server via the watercraft-device components,” tracking of the watercrafts location is begun after the start instruction of unlocking and ended once locked again); and
acquiring a communication state between the communication apparatus and a marine vessel (see at least the communication apparatus to the server is within the watercraft and therefore they are always established); wherein
the position information of the communication apparatus is uploaded to the server on a condition that communication between the communication apparatus and the marine vessel is established (see at least Fig. 10; “Device on watercraft starts tracking and reporting location data to server,” location is always transmitted to the server).
Therefore, it would have been obvious for one of ordinary skill in the art, before the effective filing date of the claimed invention with a reasonable expectation of success to have modified the information processing method of Shiramasa as modified by Gibran with the location tracking of Avello. One of ordinary skill in the art would have been motivated to make this modification for the benefit of allowing a server to catalog and track the location of each watercraft for an easier user experience in determining available vehicles (see at least [0071]).
Conclusion
The prior art made of record and not relied upon is considered pertinent to applicant's disclosure.
US 20180283874 teaches a marine vessel capable of downloading navigation information when navigating in the water
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/ASHLEIGH NICOLE TURNBAUGH/Examiner, Art Unit 3666
/ANSHUL SOOD/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 3667
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