DETAILED ACTION
Notice of Pre-AIA or AIA Status
The present application, filed on or after March 16, 2013, is being examined under the first inventor to file provisions of the AIA .
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 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.
Claim(s) 1-19 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Zeng et al (U.S. 2020/0408529) and further in view of Green (U.S. 2022/0348188).
2. A system for real-time determination of calibration of an inertial measurement unit, the system [Accordingly, the HD map system 100 may store a representation of a network of lanes to allow the vehicle 150 to plan a legal path between a source and a destination and to add a frame of reference for real-time sensing and control of the vehicle 150] (Paragraph. 0082) comprising:
an inertial measurement unit mounted on at least one of a vehicle, a tire supporting the vehicle, and a wheel on which the tire is mounted (Paragraph. 0007);
a processor in electronic communication with the inertial measurement unit;
a road mapping module in electronic communication with the processor (Paragraph. 0028), the road mapping module receiving a vehicle latitude and a vehicle longitude and determining a virtual heading angle of the vehicle (Paragraph. 0027);
a virtual acceleration module in electronic communication with the processor (Paragraph. 0097), the virtual acceleration module receiving the virtual heading angle of the vehicle from the road mapping module and receiving a measured vehicle speed and a measured heading angle (Paragraph. 0051), the virtual acceleration module estimating a virtual lateral acceleration and a virtual longitudinal acceleration;
a correlation module in electronic communication with the processor, the correlation module receiving the virtual lateral acceleration and the virtual longitudinal acceleration from the virtual acceleration module (Paragraph. 0043-044) and receiving a calibrated measured lateral acceleration and a calibrated measured longitudinal acceleration from the inertial measurement unit, the correlation module determining a correlation between the virtual lateral acceleration and the calibrated measured lateral acceleration and between the virtual longitudinal acceleration and the calibrated measured longitudinal acceleration (Paragraph. 0053 & 0116) [Examiner interpreted the correlation between virtual and measured acceleration as relationship between two values]; and
However, Zeng did not disclose a notice being generated by the correlation module, the notice indicating a result of the correlation.
In the same field of endeavor Green disclosed in some embodiments, an alarm signal is generated by the IMU in response to the difference between the corrected tilt angle and the recorded title angle being greater than the threshold (Paragraph. 0014).
It would have been obvious to one having ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date was made to have incorporated in some embodiments, an alarm signal is generated by the IMU in response to the difference between the corrected tilt angle and the recorded title angle being greater than the threshold as taught by Green in the method and system of Zeng to increase the efficiency of tracking the vehicle location.
3. As per claim 2 Zeng-Green disclosed wherein the notice is generated in real time as the vehicle is operating (Zeng, Paragraph. 0082).
4. As per claim 3 Zeng-Green disclosed wherein the vehicle latitude and the vehicle longitude are obtained from a global positioning system unit (Zeng, Paragraph. 0043).
5. As per claim 4 Zeng-Green disclosed wherein the road mapping module is in electronic communication with a map server (Zeng, Paragraph. 0004-0005).
6. As per claim 5 Zeng-Green disclosed wherein the road mapping module corrects a measured trajectory of the vehicle and generates an enhanced trajectory of the vehicle from digital maps of the map server (Zeng, Paragraph. 0129).
7. As per claim 6 Zeng-Green disclosed wherein the measured vehicle speed and the measured heading angle are obtained from a global positioning system unit (Zeng, Paragraph. 0043).
8. As per claim 7 Zeng-Green disclosed wherein the inertial measurement unit executes a calibration routine to generate the calibrated measured longitudinal acceleration and the calibrated measured lateral acceleration (Zeng, Paragraph. 0092).
9. As per claim 8 Zeng-Green disclosed wherein the correlation module generates a longitudinal acceleration correlation coefficient from the correlation between the virtual longitudinal acceleration and the calibrated measured longitudinal acceleration (Zeng, Paragraph. 0097).
10. As per claim 9 Zeng-Green disclosed wherein when a magnitude of the longitudinal acceleration correlation coefficient is high, the notice indicates measurements from the inertial measurement unit are accurate (Zeng, Paragraph. 0057).
11. As per claim 10 Zeng-Green disclosed wherein a high magnitude of the longitudinal acceleration correlation coefficient includes a value of about one (Zeng, Paragraph. 0096).
12. As per claim 11 Zeng-Green disclosed wherein when a magnitude of the longitudinal acceleration correlation coefficient is low, the notice indicates measurements from the inertial measurement unit are not accurate (Zeng, Paragraph. 0096).
13. As per claim 12 Zeng-Green disclosed wherein a low magnitude of the longitudinal acceleration correlation coefficient includes a value of about zero (Zeng, Paragraph. 0096).
14. As per claim 13 Zeng-Green disclosed wherein the correlation module generates a lateral acceleration correlation coefficient from the correlation between the virtual lateral acceleration and the calibrated measured lateral acceleration (Zeng, Paragraph. 0028).
15. As per claim 14 Zeng-Green disclosed wherein when a magnitude of the lateral acceleration correlation coefficient is high, the notice indicates measurements from the inertial measurement unit are accurate (Zeng, Paragraph. 0096).
16. As per claim 15 Zeng-Green disclosed wherein a high magnitude of the lateral acceleration correlation coefficient includes a value of about one (Zeng, Paragraph. 0096).
17. As per claim 16 Zeng-Green disclosed wherein when a magnitude of the lateral acceleration correlation coefficient is low, the notice indicates measurements from the inertial measurement unit are not accurate (Zeng, Paragraph. 0096).
18. As per claim 17 Zeng-Green disclosed wherein a low magnitude of the lateral acceleration correlation coefficient includes a value of about zero (Zeng, Paragraph.0096).
19. As per claim 18 Zeng-Green disclosed wherein the inertial measurement unit is included in a telematic control unit (Zeng, Paragraph. 0047).
20. As per claim 19 Zeng-Green disclosed wherein the notice is transmitted from the processor to an electronic control system of the vehicle (Green, Paragraph 0014). The claim 19 has the same motivation as to claim 1.
Response to Arguments
21. Applicant's arguments filed 11/11/25 have been fully considered but they are not persuasive. Response to applicant’s arguments are as follows.
A. Applicant argued that prior art did not disclose, “a system for real-time determination of calibration of an inertial measurement longitudinal acceleration”.
Zang disclosed, “Accordingly, the HD map system 100 may store a representation of a network of lanes to allow the vehicle 150 to plan a legal path between a source and a destination and to add a frame of reference for real-time sensing and control of the vehicle 150” (Paragraph. 0082).
B. Applicant argued that prior art did not disclose, “the correlation module determining a correlation between the virtual lateral acceleration and the calibrated measured lateral acceleration and between the virtual longitudinal acceleration and the calibrated measured longitudinal acceleration”.
As to applicant’s argument Zeng disclosed, “Additionally or alternatively, when determining the lever arm vector, multiple velocity measurements may be used and/or the aggregate of multiple velocity measurements may be used to help improve the accuracy of the lever arm vector determination, which may improve the calibration accuracy. More specifically, with the three components spelled out, the relationship between the various terms when aggregating the multiple velocity measurements may be as follows (Paragraph. 0116). [Examiner interpreted the correlation between virtual and measured acceleration as relationship between two values. Whereas examiner interpreted the” measure acceleration” as change in velocity meaning multiple velocity measurements during different time provide the measured acceleration].
Conclusion
22. THIS ACTION IS MADE FINAL. Applicant is reminded of the extension of time policy as set forth in 37 CFR 1.136(a).
A shortened statutory period for reply to this final action is set to expire THREE MONTHS from the mailing date of this action. In the event a first reply is filed within TWO MONTHS of the mailing date of this final action and the advisory action is not mailed until after the end of the THREE-MONTH shortened statutory period, then the shortened statutory period will expire on the date the advisory action is mailed, and any nonprovisional extension fee (37 CFR 1.17(a)) pursuant to 37 CFR 1.136(a) will be calculated from the mailing date of the advisory action. In no event, however, will the statutory period for reply expire later than SIX MONTHS from the mailing date of this final action.
23. Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communication from the
examiner should be directed to Adnan Mirza whose telephone number is (571)-272-3885.
24. The examiner can normally be reached on Monday to Friday during normal
business hours. If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the
examiner’s supervisor, Faris Almatrahi can be reached on (313)-446-4821.
25. Information regarding the status of an application may be obtained from the
Patent Application Information Retrieval (PAIR) system. Status information for published
applications may be obtained from either Private PAIR or Public PAIR. Status
information for un published applications is available through Private PAIR only. For
more information about the PAIR system, see http://pair-direct.uspto.gov. Should you
have questions on access to the Private PAIR system, contact the Electronic Business
Center (EBC) at (866)-217-9197 (toll-free).
/ADNAN M MIRZA/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 3667