DETAILED ACTION
The non-final Office action mailed on 03/06/2026 was issued in error and is hereby withdrawn. The correct non-final Office action is provided below to replace the erroneous version.
The period for reply of 3 MONTHS set in said Office Action is restarted to begin with the mailing date of this letter.
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 .
Response to Election
This is in response to the election filed 2/09/2026.
Claims 1-11 are elected for continued examination without traverse.
Claims 12-15 have been withdrawn due to non-elected claims.
Priority
Receipt is acknowledged of certified copies of papers required by 37 CFR 1.55.
Drawings
The drawings were received on 12/14/2023. These drawings are accepted.
Specification
The lengthy specification has not been checked to the extent necessary to determine the presence of all possible minor errors. Applicant's cooperation is requested in correcting any errors of which applicant may become aware in the specification.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 103
In the event the determination of the status of the application as subject to AIA 35 U.S.C. 102 and 103 (or as subject to pre-AIA 35 U.S.C. 102 and 103) is incorrect, any correction of the statutory basis (i.e., changing from AIA to pre-AIA ) for the rejection will not be considered a new ground of rejection if the prior art relied upon, and the rationale supporting the rejection, would be the same under either status.
The following is a quotation of 35 U.S.C. 103 which forms the basis for all obviousness rejections set forth in this Office action:
A patent for a claimed invention may not be obtained, notwithstanding that the claimed invention is not identically disclosed as set forth in section 102, if the differences between the claimed invention and the prior art are such that the claimed invention as a whole would have been obvious before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to a person having ordinary skill in the art to which the claimed invention pertains. Patentability shall not be negated by the manner in which the invention was made.
Claims 1-4 & 11 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Kuno, Nobuaki et al (US 2022/0345899, hereinafter referred to “Kuno”) in view of Park, Yoonsung et al (US 2021/0044988, hereinafter referred to “Park”).
Regarding claims 1 & 11, Kuno teaches a method and device for radiowave propagation estimation, comprising: an extraction unit that extracts an object including a structure to be identified and map data including the object, the structure of the object which is visible from both a direct or pseudo transmission point of radiowaves and a direct or pseudo reception point of the radiowaves (Kuno describes an estimation device with units for image acquisition, edge extraction, calculation of distances/free-space loss, and ML input generation (Figs. 2–6; S100–S112). Kuno teaches extracts edges from raw 2‑D imagery ( S104–S108, Fig.3). Kuno performs LOS judgments by testing intersection of the Tx‑Rx line segment with extracted edges and computes distance info to nearest buildings; the LOS test shows whether a direct Tx–Rx path is blocked by extracted edges (S208–S212, S214–S220). ; and an estimation unit that estimates a propagation characteristic of the radiowaves by using information indicating a characteristic of the structure of the object extracted by the extraction unit (Kuno teaches generating input data (edge image, distances, free-space loss) and performing machine-learning estimation of propagation characteristics (propagation loss) using those inputs (S100–S112, Fig.4 & Fig.5, ¶¶ 0039-0046).). However, Kuno fails to teach using identification information to extract the object. In analogous art, Park describes an apparatus for analyzing communication environment for an area based on the property information of an object (Abstract). Park expressly teaches determining identification information (shape, size, density information) in the process of determining characteristic of an object (Figure 10; ¶¶ 0128 -0150). Park using the identification information explicitly as the basis for extraction and property mapping (Fig. 15B; ¶¶ 0192-0197). Therefore, it would have been obvious before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to a person having ordinary skill in the art to combine the identification/labeling taught by Park with Kuno’s teaching of the edge/LOS extraction and ML estimator for ID‑based extraction because the combined teachings would provide the modified device and method more precise and automated selection of the relevant scattering surfaces and higher‑quality inputs for the ML estimator for object extraction, thereby improving accuracy and/or reducing manual preprocessing and compute cost.
Regarding claim 2, Kuno teaches all the aspects of the claimed invention as set forth above, except the extraction on basis of color or identification number identifying a surface and the estimation uses number of pixels constituting the surface visible from both Tx and Rx. In analogous art, Park directly teaches color assignment for surfaces (Park: ¶¶ 0049, 0065) and pixel counting of commonly visible pixels for object characteristics (Park ¶¶ 0113, 0137-0138, 0161-0162, 0167-169). Therefore, it would have been obvious before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to a person having ordinary skill in the art to combine teachings of Kuno and Park for ID based extraction and Color/Pixel based estimation.
Regarding claim 3, Kuno teaches all aspects of the claimed invention as set forth above, except wherein the surface of the object is divided into a plurality of regions, and different identification information is assigned to each of the regions. In analogous art, Park teaches dividing the object into a plurality of regions with identification information (Park: Fig.13, ¶¶ 0170-0174). Therefore, it would have been obvious before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to a person having ordinary skill in the art to combine teachings of Kuno and Park for dividing the object into a plurality of regions with different IDs, thereby providing the device and method with higher accuracy by using different identification information for each region.
Regarding claim 4, Kuno teaches wherein the object includes ground around the structure (Kuno: Fig.3).
Regarding claim 10, Kuno further teaches the objects include a reflector capable of dynamically controlling a reflected wave, and the estimation unit controls a characteristic of the reflector to estimate the propagation characteristic (Kuno: ¶¶ 0029, 0030).
Allowable Subject Matter
Claims 5-9 are 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
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to RICKY QUOC NGO whose telephone number is (571)272-3139. The examiner can normally be reached Monday - Friday, 8:00 AM - 5:00 PM.
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/RICKY Q NGO/Supervisory Patent Examiner, Art Unit 2464