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 .
Drawings
The drawings were received on January 16th 2024. These drawings are accepted.
Priority
Acknowledgment is made of applicant’s claim for foreign priority under 35 U.S.C. 119 (a)-(d).
The certified copy has been filed on January 26th 2024.
Status of the Claims
This Final action is in response to the applicant’s filing on June 4th 2026.
Claims 1-13 are pending and examined below.
Response to Arguments
Applicant’s amendments with respect to the rejection of claims under 35 USC § 112 have been fully considered and are persuasive. Therefore, the rejection of claims under 35 USC § 112(f) has been withdrawn.
Applicant’s amendments with respect to the rejection of claims under 35 USC § 103 have been fully considered but are moot. While the Examiner notes that the applicant is arguing the claim limitations recite " … together with the text data converted from the speech data, at least a portion of the extracted failure information including a method of handling the failure… “. Therefore, the rejection has been withdrawn; However, upon further consideration a new ground(s) of rejection is made for Claims 1 and 10 over Iimuro (Patent No. US20230315080A1) in view of Hayashi (Patent No. JP2022103018A), Nishi (Patent No. WO2019035427A1) and Koga (Patent No. JP2019007308A).
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.
Claims 1-13 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Iimuro (Patent No. US20230315080A1) in view of Hayashi (Patent No. JP2022103018A), Nishi (Patent No. WO2019035427A1) and Koga (Patent No. JP2019007308A).
Regarding claim 1 Iimuro teaches a shovel management system for managing a shovel comprising: the shovel; (See Iimuro paragraph 0044 and 0039; “…The work machine 10 of Example 1 is a hydraulic shove…FIG. 2 illustrates a configuration example of a work machine management system according to Example 1…”);
and a hardware processor coupled to the memory; (See Iimuro paragraph 0047; “The management server 90 may be constructed using a known computer, and comprises, for example, a computing means, a storage means, an input means, and an output means. The computing means includes a processor…”).
Iimuro does not explicitly teach but Hayashi teaches, a memory configured to store a failure information database including one or more pieces of past failure information about a failure; (See Hayashi paragraph 0017,0087 and 0023; “…a defect such as a failure of equipment… defect information management program recorded in the storage medium in the memory 32… The management database 12 has a defect information management folder that holds defect status information.”);
and configured to convert speech data acquired from the shovel into text data; (See Hayashi paragraph 0032; “The voice conversion unit 13 converts the voice data stored in the management folder 18 or the voice data acquired from the input / output interface unit 11 into text data…”); calculate similarities between the text data and the pieces of past failure information stored in the failure information database; (See Hayashi paragraph 0059-0060; “The management server 3B confirms the status of the management items necessary for defect management with the worker 4 in the form of a question via the call application 6. As a result, the defect information management system 1B can reduce the omission of hearing of the defect status information. Since the defect information management system 1B can analyze voice data only for information about management items, it is possible to improve the analysis accuracy.
The call application 6 asks the worker 4 a question according to the instruction from the management server 3B, and transmits voice data which is an answer to the question to the management server 3B. The folder creation management unit 17 shown in FIG. 2 associates the data of the question item with the voice data of the answer and stores it in the management folder 18. The voice conversion unit 13 shown in FIG. 2 acquires voice data for each question from the management folder 18, and converts the acquired voice data into text data. The character analysis unit 14 shown in FIG. 2 performs an analysis process for extracting a word corresponding to a management item from text data.”).
Iimuro and Hayashi are in the same field of endeavor of work machine management system and apparatus. It would have been obvious for one ordinary skilled in the art before the effective filing date of present invention to modify Iimuro a shovel management system with Hayashi failure information management system and method. No new functionality would arise from the combination and the combination would improve usability of Iimuro by adding Hayashi failure information management system and method to allows better management of the shovel failure informations. Further, finding that one of ordinary skill in the art would have recognized that the results of the combination were predictable.
Iimuro does not explicitly teach but Nishi teaches, extract, from the memory, failure information having a high degree of similarity to the text data; (See Nishi paragraph 0059; “The voice recognition unit 505 recognizes the voice emitted by the operator of the shovel PS. In the example of FIG. 3A, a speech recognition engine is used to convert speech input through the speech input device 44 into text. The speech recognition unit 505 may cause the display device 40 to display a character string representing the recognized speech. This is to make the operator confirm whether the voice emitted by the operator matches the voice recognized by the machine guidance device 50 or not. The speech recognition engine utilizes one or more speech recognition dictionaries to convert input speech into text. The speech recognition dictionary is stored, for example, in the storage device 47. The speech recognition dictionary may be prepared for each dialect such as Kansai dialect, Tohoku dialect or Kyushu dialect. In this case, the voice recognition unit 505 may switch the voice recognition dictionary to be used based on, for example, the current position of the shovel PS detected based on the output of the GPS device D1. For example, when it is determined that the shovel PS is located in the Tohoku region, the speech recognition unit 505 may use a speech recognition dictionary suitable for the Tohoku valve. In addition, the voice recognition unit 505 may be configured to identify a dialect used by the operator based on features (such as accent and intonation) of the input voice. In this case, the speech recognition unit 505 may switch the speech recognition dictionary in accordance with the dialect used by the operator.”).
Iimuro and Nishi are in the same field of endeavor of work machine management system and apparatus for. It would have been obvious for one ordinary skilled in the art before the effective filing date of present invention to modify Iimuro a shovel management system with Nishi speech to text conversion. No new functionality would arise from the combination and the combination would improve usability of Iimuro by adding a function of speech to text it allows better management of the shovel. Further, finding that one of ordinary skill in the art would have recognized that the results of the combination were predictable.
Iimuro does not explicitly teach but Koga teaches, and cause a display device of the shovel to display, together with the text data converted from the speech data, at least a portion of the extracted failure information including a method of handling the failure; (See Koga paragraph 0005, 0075- 0076, 0041, 0046-0048 and 0052; “The state of the excavator when the operator feels uncomfortable may be a sign of failure of the shovel… The controller 30 that executes the audio / text conversion process receives from the speaker attached to the display device 40 a voice such as "which motion feels uncomfortable?", "Voice that is affected by boom"? A message may be output. This is to allow the operator of the shovel to input comments in an interactive manner. The controller 30 that executes the audio / text conversion process receives from the speaker attached to the display device 40 a voice such as "which motion feels uncomfortable?", "Voice that is affected by boom"? A message may be output. This is to allow the operator of the shovel to input comments in an interactive manner… In the case where the voice recognition unit 30 a estimates that the operator feels uncomfortable about the movement of the excavator, the data storage unit 30 b stores the data stored in the volatile memory device 52 during the predetermined period including the estimated time as the reference time Data may be stored in the nonvolatile storage device 53. The same applies to the case where the voice recognition unit 30 a estimates that the operator is satisfied with the movement of the excavator… When it is determined that the predetermined condition concerning speech recognition is satisfied (YES in step ST 1), the controller 30 specifies the range of data to be stored in the nonvolatile storage device 53 (step ST 2). For example, when a negative word is recognized by the voice recognition unit 30 a, the data storage unit 30 b determines that a predetermined condition related to voice recognition has been satisfied. Then, based on the speech point of the negative word, the range of data to be stored in the nonvolatile storage device 53 is specified. For example, the range of data stored in the volatile memory device 52 during the period starting from the point of a predetermined time from the point of utterance as the start point and the point after a predetermined time from the point of utterance as the end point is stored in the nonvolatile storage device 53 As the range of data to be stored.
Thereafter, the data storage unit 30 b stores data (hereinafter referred to as "data set") within the specified range in the nonvolatile storage device 53 (step ST 3). For example, the data stored in the volatile storage device 52 is copied to the nonvolatile storage device 53. The data storage unit 30 b may delete the copied data from the data stored in the volatile storage device 52 or overwrite it.
Thereafter, the controller 30 determines whether or not a predetermined transmission condition is satisfied (step ST 4). The predetermined transmission condition is a condition to be satisfied when the data stored in the nonvolatile storage device 53 is transmitted to the outside. For example, it is determined that the current time has reached the predetermined time, the elapsed time since the previous transmission time Has reached a predetermined time, that a transmission instruction by manual operation by an operator has been received, and the like… Through the above-described data transmission processing, the controller 30 can transmit the data stored in the volatile storage device 52 to the management device 90 during a predetermined period including a time point at which a negative word is issued, for example. The management device 90 can display the received data on the display unit, thereby presenting the received data to the administrator. By looking at the displayed data, the administrator can analyze the cause of the negative word being generated by the operator of the excavator. The same is true when transmitting data to the support device 94.”).
Iimuro and Koga are in the same field of endeavor of work machine management system and apparatus for. It would have been obvious for one ordinary skilled in the art before the effective filing date of present invention to modify Iimuro a shovel management system with Koga failure information including a method of handling it. No new functionality would arise from the combination and the combination would improve usability of Iimuro by adding a function of failure information including a method of handling it allows better management of the shovel. Further, finding that one of ordinary skill in the art would have recognized that the results of the combination were predictable.
Regarding claim 2 Iimuro in view of Hayashi, Nishi and Kongo teaches the shovel management system according to claim 1, Iimuro further teaches, wherein the hardware processor is configured to use operation data acquired from the shovel to calculate a degree of abnormality of the shovel;(See Iimuro paragraph 0113;”… the operation information of a work machine having a greater failure risk is given priority over a work machine having a smaller failure risk, so that the operation information can reach the management server 90 more reliably. As a result, the manager can know abnormality in a work machine having a greater failure risk early and take measures.”); and cause the display device of the shovel to display the calculated degree of abnormality together with the information indicating the met od of handling the failure (See Iimuro Figure 3).
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Regarding claim 3 Iimuro in view of Hayashi, Nishi and Kongo teaches the shovel management system according to claim 1, Iimuro further teaches, wherein the hardware processor is configured to cause the display device of the shovel to display information indicating cause of the failure together with the information indicating the method of handling the failure; (See Iimuro Figure 3 and 6-8)
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Regarding claim 4 Iimuro in view of Hayashi, Nishi and Kongo teaches the shovel management system according to claim 2, Iimuro further teaches, wherein the hardware processor is configured to estimate a part in the shovel where the failure has occurred, and cause the display device of the shovel to display information indicating the part where the failure has occurred, together with the information indicating the method of handling the failure; (See Iimuro paragraph 0061;” The vehicle body priority level may be indicated not as a simple order but as a deviation value taking the distribution of the risk evaluation values into consideration. Further, when the vehicle body priority level is determined, it is not necessary to refer to all of the information shown in FIG. 3(a). For example, the management server 90 may determine the vehicle body priority level based on at least one of the failure probability, work importance level, or the availability of replacement machine. In this case, the input interface screen of FIG. 3(b) is used for inputting at least one of the failure probability, work importance level, or the availability of replacement machine.”).
Regarding claim 5 Iimuro in view of Hayashi, Nishi and Kongo teaches the shovel management system according to claim 2, Iimuro further teaches, in a case where the calculated degree of abnormality is greater than or equal to a predetermined threshold value and the speech data is not acquired; (See Iimuro paragraph 0127; “…the work machine 10 itself can function as a relay to expand the range of communication. In this case, too, because the operation information of a work machine having a greater failure risk is given priority over a work machine having a smaller failure risk, the operation information can reach the management server 90 more reliably. As a result, the manager can know abnormality in a work machine having a greater failure risk early, and take measures.”).
Iimure does not teach but Nishi teaches, wherein the hardware processor configured to cause the display device of the shovel to display information prompting an input of the speech data; (See Nishi paragraph 0021 and 0059; “The display device 40 displays an image including various work information in accordance with an instruction from the controller 30 or the machine guidance device 50. The display device 40 is, for example, a liquid crystal display connected to the machine guidance device 50… FIG. 3A, a speech recognition engine is used to convert speech input through the speech input device 44 into text. The speech recognition unit 505 may cause the display device 40 to display a character string representing the recognized speech….”).
Iimuro and Nishi are in the same field of endeavor of work machine management system and apparatus for. It would have been obvious for one ordinary skilled in the art before the effective filing date of present invention to modify Iimuro a shovel management system with Nishi speech to text conversion. No new functionality would arise from the combination and the combination would improve usability of Iimuro by adding a function of speech to text it allows better management of the shovel. Further, finding that one of ordinary skill in the art would have recognized that the results of the combination were predictable.
Regarding claim 6 Iimuro in view of Hayashi, Nishi and Kongo teaches the shovel management system according to claim 2, Iimuro further teaches, in a case where the calculated degree of abnormality is greater than or equal to a predetermined threshold value and the speech data is not acquired a predetermined period of time; (See Iimuro paragraph 0127; “…the work machine 10 itself can function as a relay to expand the range of communication. In this case, too, because the operation information of a work machine having a greater failure risk is given priority over a work machine having a smaller failure risk, the operation information can reach the management server 90 more reliably. As a result, the manager can know abnormality in a work machine having a greater failure risk early, and take measures.”).
Iimure does not teach but Nishi teaches, wherein the hardware processor is configured to cause the display device of the shovel to display a questionnaire screen about a state of the shovel; (See Nishi paragraph 00103; “…the setting item by asking a question such as “△?” The machine guidance device 50 can be requested to explain the contents of the above. When such a question is recognized by the voice recognition unit 505, the machine guidance device 50 may display a screen for explaining the content of the setting item, and the voice message regarding the content of the setting item is displayed as the voice output device 43. You may output from.”).
Iimuro and Nishi are in the same field of endeavor of work machine management system and apparatus for. It would have been obvious for one ordinary skilled in the art before the effective filing date of present invention to modify Iimuro a shovel management system with Nishi speech to text conversion. No new functionality would arise from the combination and the combination would improve usability of Iimuro by adding a function of speech to text it allows better management of the shovel. Further, finding that one of ordinary skill in the art would have recognized that the results of the combination were predictable.
Regarding claim 7 Iimuro in view of Hayashi, Nishi and Kongo teaches the shovel management system according to claim 1, Iimuro does not teach but Nishi teaches, wherein the hardware processor is configured to search the memory, and extract the failure information from the memory based on a similarity between a content of the text data and each of contents of the one or more pieces of failure information stored in the memory; (See Nishi paragraph 0059; “…The speech recognition engine utilizes one or more speech recognition dictionaries to convert input speech into text. The speech recognition dictionary is stored, for example, in the storage device 47. The speech recognition dictionary may be prepared for each dialect such as Kansai dialect, Tohoku dialect or Kyushu dialect. In this case, the voice recognition unit 505 may switch the voice recognition dictionary to be used based on, for example, the current position of the shovel PS detected based on the output of the GPS device D1. For example, when it is determined that the shovel PS is located in the Tohoku region, the speech recognition unit 505 may use a speech recognition dictionary suitable for the Tohoku valve. In addition, the voice recognition unit 505 may be configured to identify a dialect used by the operator based on features (such as accent and intonation) of the input voice. In this case, the speech recognition unit 505 may switch the speech recognition dictionary in accordance with the dialect used by the operator.”).
Iimuro and Nishi are in the same field of endeavor of work machine management system and apparatus for. It would have been obvious for one ordinary skilled in the art before the effective filing date of present invention to modify Iimuro a shovel management system with Nishi speech to text conversion. No new functionality would arise from the combination and the combination would improve usability of Iimuro by adding a function of speech to text it allows better management of the failure data of the shovel. Further, finding that one of ordinary skill in the art would have recognized that the results of the combination were predictable.
Regarding claim 8 Iimuro in view of Hayashi, Nishi and Kongo teaches the shovel management system according to claim 7, Iimuro further teaches, wherein the hardware processor is configured to send a notification of occurrence of the failure to a terminal associated with a service technician, in a case where an instruction to notify the service technician of the occurrence of the failure is received from the shoves; (See Iimuro paragraph 0110; “In step 905, the retransmission condition of the acquired operation information is confirmed. If the retransmission condition is not satisfied (step 905: YES; for example, when the predetermined number of retransmissions is exceeded, or the predetermined retransmission time-out time is passed), transmission failure is recognized, and the process proceeds to step 906. In step 906, the operation information (more strictly, a corresponding packet) is deleted from the buffer, and a notice of transmission failure is transmitted as a transmission result in step 907 to the relay-requesting work machine 10.”).
Regarding claim 9 Iimuro in view of Hayashi, Nishi and Kongo teaches the shovel management system according to claim 7, Iimuro does not teach but Nishi teaches, wherein the hardware processor causes the display device of the shovel to display an image indicating that a search is in progress while the hardware processor of the management apparatus is searching the memory with the text data; (See Nishi paragraph 00139; “The machine guidance apparatus 50 may display in the status display window 41W whether or not the voice recognition function is operating as shown in FIG. In FIG. 14, the operator is notified that the speech recognition function is operating by displaying a text message of "The speech of the operator can be recognized." When the machine guidance apparatus 50 can not recognize the words issued by the operator, it may display that in the status display window 41W. The machine guidance device 50 may display an icon, an animation or the like in addition to the text message.”).
Iimuro and Nishi are in the same field of endeavor of work machine management system and apparatus for. It would have been obvious for one ordinary skilled in the art before the effective filing date of present invention to modify Iimuro a shovel management system with Nishi speech to text conversion. No new functionality would arise from the combination and the combination would improve usability of Iimuro by adding a function of speech to text it allows better management of the failure data of the shovel. Further, finding that one of ordinary skill in the art would have recognized that the results of the combination were predictable.
Regarding claim 10 Iimuro teaches, a shovel management apparatus for management of a shovel, the shovel management apparatus comprising: a memory configured to store a failure information database including one or more pieces of past failure information about a failure in a past; (See Iimuro paragraph 0045, 0044 and 0039; “…The management server 90 is a computer provided outside the work machines 10, and may be installed in a management center… The work machine 10 of Example 1 is a hydraulic shove…FIG. 2 illustrates a configuration example of a work machine management system according to Example 1…”); and a hardware processor coupled to the memory and; (See Iimuro paragraph 0047; “The management server 90 may be constructed using a known computer, and comprises, for example, a computing means, a storage means, an input means, and an output means. The computing means includes a processor…”).
Iimuro does not explicitly teach but Hayashi teaches, configured to convert speech data acquired from the shovel into text data; (See Hayashi paragraph 0032; “The voice conversion unit 13 converts the voice data stored in the management folder 18 or the voice data acquired from the input / output interface unit 11 into text data…”); calculate similarities between the text data and the pieces of past failure information stored in the failure information database; (See Hayashi paragraph 0059-0060; “The management server 3B confirms the status of the management items necessary for defect management with the worker 4 in the form of a question via the call application 6. As a result, the defect information management system 1B can reduce the omission of hearing of the defect status information. Since the defect information management system 1B can analyze voice data only for information about management items, it is possible to improve the analysis accuracy.
The call application 6 asks the worker 4 a question according to the instruction from the management server 3B, and transmits voice data which is an answer to the question to the management server 3B. The folder creation management unit 17 shown in FIG. 2 associates the data of the question item with the voice data of the answer and stores it in the management folder 18. The voice conversion unit 13 shown in FIG. 2 acquires voice data for each question from the management folder 18, and converts the acquired voice data into text data. The character analysis unit 14 shown in FIG. 2 performs an analysis process for extracting a word corresponding to a management item from text data.”).
Iimuro and Hayashi are in the same field of endeavor of work machine management system and apparatus. It would have been obvious for one ordinary skilled in the art before the effective filing date of present invention to modify Iimuro a shovel management system with Hayashi failure information management system and method. No new functionality would arise from the combination and the combination would improve usability of Iimuro by adding Hayashi failure information management system and method to allows better management of the shovel failure informations. Further, finding that one of ordinary skill in the art would have recognized that the results of the combination were predictable.
Iimuro does not explicitly teach but Nishi teaches, extract, from the memory, failure information having a high degree of similarity to the text data; (See Nishi paragraph 0059; “The voice recognition unit 505 recognizes the voice emitted by the operator of the shovel PS. In the example of FIG. 3A, a speech recognition engine is used to convert speech input through the speech input device 44 into text. The speech recognition unit 505 may cause the display device 40 to display a character string representing the recognized speech. This is to make the operator confirm whether the voice emitted by the operator matches the voice recognized by the machine guidance device 50 or not. The speech recognition engine utilizes one or more speech recognition dictionaries to convert input speech into text. The speech recognition dictionary is stored, for example, in the storage device 47. The speech recognition dictionary may be prepared for each dialect such as Kansai dialect, Tohoku dialect or Kyushu dialect. In this case, the voice recognition unit 505 may switch the voice recognition dictionary to be used based on, for example, the current position of the shovel PS detected based on the output of the GPS device D1. For example, when it is determined that the shovel PS is located in the Tohoku region, the speech recognition unit 505 may use a speech recognition dictionary suitable for the Tohoku valve. In addition, the voice recognition unit 505 may be configured to identify a dialect used by the operator based on features (such as accent and intonation) of the input voice. In this case, the speech recognition unit 505 may switch the speech recognition dictionary in accordance with the dialect used by the operator.”).
Iimuro and Nishi are in the same field of endeavor of work machine management system and apparatus for. It would have been obvious for one ordinary skilled in the art before the effective filing date of present invention to modify Iimuro a shovel management system with Nishi speech to text conversion. No new functionality would arise from the combination and the combination would improve usability of Iimuro by adding a function of speech to text it allows better management of the shovel. Further, finding that one of ordinary skill in the art would have recognized that the results of the combination were predictable.
Iimuro does not explicitly teach but Koga teaches, and cause a display device of the shovel to display, together with the text data converted from the speech data, at least a portion of the extracted failure information including a method of handling the failure; (See Koga paragraph 0005, 0075- 0076, 0041, 0046-0048 and 0052; “The state of the excavator when the operator feels uncomfortable may be a sign of failure of the shovel… The controller 30 that executes the audio / text conversion process receives from the speaker attached to the display device 40 a voice such as "which motion feels uncomfortable?", "Voice that is affected by boom"? A message may be output. This is to allow the operator of the shovel to input comments in an interactive manner. The controller 30 that executes the audio / text conversion process receives from the speaker attached to the display device 40 a voice such as "which motion feels uncomfortable?", "Voice that is affected by boom"? A message may be output. This is to allow the operator of the shovel to input comments in an interactive manner… In the case where the voice recognition unit 30 a estimates that the operator feels uncomfortable about the movement of the excavator, the data storage unit 30 b stores the data stored in the volatile memory device 52 during the predetermined period including the estimated time as the reference time Data may be stored in the nonvolatile storage device 53. The same applies to the case where the voice recognition unit 30 a estimates that the operator is satisfied with the movement of the excavator… When it is determined that the predetermined condition concerning speech recognition is satisfied (YES in step ST 1), the controller 30 specifies the range of data to be stored in the nonvolatile storage device 53 (step ST 2). For example, when a negative word is recognized by the voice recognition unit 30 a, the data storage unit 30 b determines that a predetermined condition related to voice recognition has been satisfied. Then, based on the speech point of the negative word, the range of data to be stored in the nonvolatile storage device 53 is specified. For example, the range of data stored in the volatile memory device 52 during the period starting from the point of a predetermined time from the point of utterance as the start point and the point after a predetermined time from the point of utterance as the end point is stored in the nonvolatile storage device 53 As the range of data to be stored.
Thereafter, the data storage unit 30 b stores data (hereinafter referred to as "data set") within the specified range in the nonvolatile storage device 53 (step ST 3). For example, the data stored in the volatile storage device 52 is copied to the nonvolatile storage device 53. The data storage unit 30 b may delete the copied data from the data stored in the volatile storage device 52 or overwrite it.
Thereafter, the controller 30 determines whether or not a predetermined transmission condition is satisfied (step ST 4). The predetermined transmission condition is a condition to be satisfied when the data stored in the nonvolatile storage device 53 is transmitted to the outside. For example, it is determined that the current time has reached the predetermined time, the elapsed time since the previous transmission time Has reached a predetermined time, that a transmission instruction by manual operation by an operator has been received, and the like… Through the above-described data transmission processing, the controller 30 can transmit the data stored in the volatile storage device 52 to the management device 90 during a predetermined period including a time point at which a negative word is issued, for example. The management device 90 can display the received data on the display unit, thereby presenting the received data to the administrator. By looking at the displayed data, the administrator can analyze the cause of the negative word being generated by the operator of the excavator. The same is true when transmitting data to the support device 94.”).
Iimuro and Koga are in the same field of endeavor of work machine management system and apparatus for. It would have been obvious for one ordinary skilled in the art before the effective filing date of present invention to modify Iimuro a shovel management system with Koga failure information including a method of handling it. No new functionality would arise from the combination and the combination would improve usability of Iimuro by adding a function of failure information including a method of handling it allows better management of the shovel. Further, finding that one of ordinary skill in the art would have recognized that the results of the combination were predictable.
Regarding claim 11 Iimuro in view of Hayashi, Nishi and Kongo teaches shovel management system according to claim 1, Iimuro further teaches, wherein the hardware processor is configured to cause the display device of the shovel to display a screen including the text data converted from the speech data and the extracted failure information retrieved from the memory; (See Iimuro paragraph 0061;” The vehicle body priority level may be indicated not as a simple order but as a deviation value taking the distribution of the risk evaluation values into consideration. Further, when the vehicle body priority level is determined, it is not necessary to refer to all of the information shown in FIG. 3(a). For example, the management server 90 may determine the vehicle body priority level based on at least one of the failure probability, work importance level, or the availability of replacement machine. In this case, the input interface screen of FIG. 3(b) is used for inputting at least one of the failure probability, work importance level, or the availability of replacement machine.”).
Iimuro does not explicitly teach but Koga teaches, the extracted failure information including the method of handling the failure corresponding to the content of the speech data; (See Koga paragraph 0005, 0075- 0076, 0041, 0046-0048 and 0052; “The state of the excavator when the operator feels uncomfortable may be a sign of failure of the shovel… The controller 30 that executes the audio / text conversion process receives from the speaker attached to the display device 40 a voice such as "which motion feels uncomfortable?", "Voice that is affected by boom"? A message may be output. This is to allow the operator of the shovel to input comments in an interactive manner. The controller 30 that executes the audio / text conversion process receives from the speaker attached to the display device 40 a voice such as "which motion feels uncomfortable?", "Voice that is affected by boom"? A message may be output. This is to allow the operator of the shovel to input comments in an interactive manner… In the case where the voice recognition unit 30 a estimates that the operator feels uncomfortable about the movement of the excavator, the data storage unit 30 b stores the data stored in the volatile memory device 52 during the predetermined period including the estimated time as the reference time Data may be stored in the nonvolatile storage device 53. The same applies to the case where the voice recognition unit 30 a estimates that the operator is satisfied with the movement of the excavator… When it is determined that the predetermined condition concerning speech recognition is satisfied (YES in step ST 1), the controller 30 specifies the range of data to be stored in the nonvolatile storage device 53 (step ST 2). For example, when a negative word is recognized by the voice recognition unit 30 a, the data storage unit 30 b determines that a predetermined condition related to voice recognition has been satisfied. Then, based on the speech point of the negative word, the range of data to be stored in the nonvolatile storage device 53 is specified. For example, the range of data stored in the volatile memory device 52 during the period starting from the point of a predetermined time from the point of utterance as the start point and the point after a predetermined time from the point of utterance as the end point is stored in the nonvolatile storage device 53 As the range of data to be stored.
Thereafter, the data storage unit 30 b stores data (hereinafter referred to as "data set") within the specified range in the nonvolatile storage device 53 (step ST 3). For example, the data stored in the volatile storage device 52 is copied to the nonvolatile storage device 53. The data storage unit 30 b may delete the copied data from the data stored in the volatile storage device 52 or overwrite it.
Thereafter, the controller 30 determines whether or not a predetermined transmission condition is satisfied (step ST 4). The predetermined transmission condition is a condition to be satisfied when the data stored in the nonvolatile storage device 53 is transmitted to the outside. For example, it is determined that the current time has reached the predetermined time, the elapsed time since the previous transmission time Has reached a predetermined time, that a transmission instruction by manual operation by an operator has been received, and the like… Through the above-described data transmission processing, the controller 30 can transmit the data stored in the volatile storage device 52 to the management device 90 during a predetermined period including a time point at which a negative word is issued, for example. The management device 90 can display the received data on the display unit, thereby presenting the received data to the administrator. By looking at the displayed data, the administrator can analyze the cause of the negative word being generated by the operator of the excavator. The same is true when transmitting data to the support device 94.”).
Iimuro and Koga are in the same field of endeavor of work machine management system and apparatus for. It would have been obvious for one ordinary skilled in the art before the effective filing date of present invention to modify Iimuro a shovel management system with Koga failure information including a method of handling it. No new functionality would arise from the combination and the combination would improve usability of Iimuro by adding a function of failure information including a method of handling it allows better management of the shovel. Further, finding that one of ordinary skill in the art would have recognized that the results of the combination were predictable.
Regarding claim 13 Iimuro in view of Hayashi, Nishi and Kongo teaches, the shovel management system according to claim 1, Iimuro does not explicitly teach but Hayashi teaches, wherein in a case where the hardware processor determines that there is no failure information whose degree of similarity to the text data is greater than or equal to a predetermined value among the pieces of past failure information stored in the failure information database, the hardware processor is configured to request the shovel to perform a specified movement to acquire operation data during the specified movement; (See Hayashi paragraph 0012; “. The defect information management system accoring to the first embodiment collects information on the manufacturing site by utilizing a call application mounted on the mobile terminal. Further, the defect information management system according to the first embodiment organizes and stores the collected information in a form that can be easily analyzed by creating a database. The worker at the manufacturing site makes a voice status report by activating the call application and talking about the situation at the manufacturing site. In addition, the worker takes a picture of the situation at the manufacturing site using a mobile terminal, and sends the obtained image at the time of reporting the situation. The defect information management system can reduce the time and effort required to report the situation at the manufacturing site as compared with the case where handwriting or manual input by the operator is required. By creating a database of collected information, the defect information management system can easily analyze and manage information about defects at the manufacturing site.”).
Iimuro and Hayashi are in the same field of endeavor of work machine management system and apparatus. It would have been obvious for one ordinary skilled in the art before the effective filing date of present invention to modify Iimuro a shovel management system with Hayashi failure information management system and method. No new functionality would arise from the combination and the combination would improve usability of Iimuro by adding Hayashi failure information management system and method to allows better management of the shovel failure information. Further, finding that one of ordinary skill in the art would have recognized that the results of the combination were predictable.
Allowable Subject Matter
Claim 12 objected to as being dependent upon a rejected base claim, but would be allowable if rewritten in independent form including all of the limitations of the base claim and any intervening claims.
Conclusion
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/L.K./ Examiner, Art Unit 3666
/SCOTT A BROWNE/ Supervisory Patent Examiner, Art Unit 3666
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