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 .
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 in parent Application No. JP2021-119969, filed on 07/20/2021 and parent Application No. PCT/JP2022/027172, filed on 07/08/2022.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 102
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 the appropriate paragraphs of 35 U.S.C. 102 that form the basis for the rejections under this section made in this Office action:
A person shall be entitled to a patent unless –
(a)(1) the claimed invention was patented, described in a printed publication, or in public use, on sale, or otherwise available to the public before the effective filing date of the claimed invention.
(a)(2) the claimed invention was described in a patent issued under section 151, or in an application for patent published or deemed published under section 122(b), in which the patent or application, as the case may be, names another inventor and was effectively filed before the effective filing date of the claimed invention.
Claims 1-12 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(2) as being anticipated by Kurono (US 20180095173 A1).
Regarding claim 1, Kurono discloses
An electronic device (see pg. 1, paragraph 0002, “The present invention relates to a radar device”) comprising:
a transmission antenna configured to transmit a transmission wave (see Fig. 2, transmission unit 10 with transmission antenna 13; pg. 3, paragraph 0045, “The transmission waves SW which are output by the transmission antenna 13…The transmission waves SW transmitted forward from the vehicle A through the transmission antenna 13 are reflected from targets of other vehicles and so on, thereby becoming reflected waves”);
a reception antenna configured to receive a reflected wave that is the transmission wave having been reflected (see Fig. 2, receiving unit 20 with receiving antennae 21; pg. 3, paragraph 0047, “The individual receiving antennae 21 receives reflected waves from targets”); and
a signal processor configured to calculate a distance and a relative velocity between the electronic device and an object that reflects the transmission wave, based on a transmission signal transmitted as the transmission wave and a reception signal received as the reflected wave (see Fig. 2, distance/relative-velocity calculating unit 47; pg. 5, paragraph 0089, the unit “calculates the distances and relative velocities of targets”), wherein
the signal processor is configured to combine the distance and the relative velocity in accordance with a number of combinations set as a number of times the reception signal is combined (see Fig. 8, distance/relative velocity calculating unit 52; pg. 5, paragraph 0089, the analyzing unit combines data of distance bins and velocity bins and uses an FFT process on the combinations; pg. 5, paragraph 0090, “the distance/relative-velocity calculating unit 52 specifies the combinations of the distance bins and the velocity bins at which peaks exist, from the results of the two-dimensional FFT processes.”).
Regarding claim 2, Kurono further discloses
The electronic device according to claim 1, further comprising: a controller (see Fig. 2, processing unit 40; pg. 3, paragraph 0056, the processing unit 40 controls the whole of the radar device) configured to set the number of combinations, based on at least any of a resolution of the distance, a resolution of the relative velocity, or a frame interval or subframe interval of the transmission wave (see pg. 2, paragraphs 0036 and 0038, the transmission periods determine the FFT processes).
Regarding claim 3, Kurono further discloses
The electronic device according to claim 1, wherein
the controller is configured to perform control to make the electronic device operate in a first operation mode and a second operation mode that are different in a transmission mode of the transmission wave (see pg. 4, paragraph 0065, “The parameter changing unit 42 can change the first transmission period T1 depending on the first processing mode and the second processing mode.”; pg. 3, paragraph 0058, “The processing unit 40 performs processing in a processing mode selected from a first processing mode and a second processing mode”),
the first operation mode is a mode in which the electronic device operates with a resolution of the relative velocity that is equal to or greater than a predetermined value (see pg. 3, paragraph 0058, “Selection of a processing mode is performed, for example, on the basis of contents input to an input unit (not shown in the drawings). Also, the processing unit 40 can select a processing mode on the basis of a target detection state (for example, the number of targets and the sizes of targets), the running state of the vehicle A (for example, the velocity of the vehicle A and the type of the road where the vehicle is running), and so on”; pg. 5, paragraph 0089, “The distance/relative-velocity calculating unit 52 specifies distance bins and velocity bins having predetermined values (levels) or more”; pg. 2, paragraph 0039, “In the two-dimensional FFT process, a limited distance range and a limited relative velocity range are determined as objects to be processed… it is possible to…improve velocity resolution”), and
the second operation mode is a mode in which the electronic device operates with the resolution of the relative velocity that is equal to or less than the predetermined value (see pg. 3, paragraph 0058, “Selection of a processing mode is performed, for example, on the basis of contents input to an input unit (not shown in the drawings). Also, the processing unit 40 can select a processing mode on the basis of a target detection state (for example, the number of targets and the sizes of targets), the running state of the vehicle A (for example, the velocity of the vehicle A and the type of the road where the vehicle is running), and so on”; pg. 5, paragraph 0089, “The distance/relative-velocity calculating unit 52 specifies distance bins and velocity bins having predetermined values (levels) or more”; pg. 2, paragraph 0039, “In the two-dimensional FFT process, a limited distance range and a limited relative velocity range are determined as objects to be processed… it is possible to…improve velocity resolution”).
Regarding claim 4, Kurono further discloses
The electronic device according to claim 3, wherein the controller is configured to perform control to make the electronic device operate in the first operation mode when the object is detected in both the first operation mode and the second operation mode and the relative velocity between the electronic device and the object is equal to or greater than a predetermined velocity (see pg. 3, paragraph 0058, “Selection of a processing mode is performed, for example, on the basis of contents input to an input unit (not shown in the drawings). Also, the processing unit 40 can select a processing mode on the basis of a target detection state (for example, the number of targets and the sizes of targets), the running state of the vehicle A (for example, the velocity of the vehicle A and the type of the road where the vehicle is running), and so on”; pg. 5, paragraph 0089, “The distance/relative-velocity calculating unit 52 specifies distance bins and velocity bins having predetermined values (levels) or more”).
Regarding claim 5, Kurono further discloses
The electronic device according to claim 3, wherein the controller is configured to perform control to make the electronic device operate in the second operation mode when the relative velocity between the electronic device and the object is equal to or less than a predetermined velocity (see pg. 3, paragraph 0058, “Selection of a processing mode is performed, for example, on the basis of contents input to an input unit (not shown in the drawings). Also, the processing unit 40 can select a processing mode on the basis of a target detection state (for example, the number of targets and the sizes of targets), the running state of the vehicle A (for example, the velocity of the vehicle A and the type of the road where the vehicle is running), and so on”; pg. 5, paragraph 0089, “The distance/relative-velocity calculating unit 52 specifies distance bins and velocity bins having predetermined values (levels) or more”).
Regarding claim 6, Kurono further discloses
The electronic device according to claim 3, wherein when the object is detected in a mode that is either the first operation mode or the second operation mode, the controller is configured to perform control to make the electronic device to operate in the mode in which the object is detected (see pg. 3, paragraph 0058, “Selection of a processing mode is performed, for example, on the basis of contents input to an input unit (not shown in the drawings). Also, the processing unit 40 can select a processing mode on the basis of a target detection state (for example, the number of targets and the sizes of targets), the running state of the vehicle A (for example, the velocity of the vehicle A and the type of the road where the vehicle is running), and so on”).
Regarding claim 7, Kurono further discloses
The electronic device according to claim 1, wherein the signal processor is configured to calculate a movement distance of the object, based on the relative velocity between the electronic device and the object and a time interval between frames of the transmission wave (see pg. 2, paragraph 0029, “The radar device 1 is an FCM (Fast Chirp Modulation) type radar device configured to detect the distance and relative velocity of each target existing in a detection range L by transmitting chirp waves whose frequency continuously increases or decreases”); and determine whether to combine the distance and the relative velocity in accordance with whether, within the movement distance, there is a movement to an adjacent cell in a distance domain of a result of velocity Fourier transform processing (see Fig. 10; pg. 6, paragraph 0103, Fig. 10 is an example relation between distance and velocity bins and their combinations).
Regarding claim 8, Kurono further discloses
The electronic device according to claim l, wherein the signal processor is configured to
combine the distance and the relative velocity in accordance with the number of combinations prior to threshold-based determination processing using a constant false alarm rate (see pg. 3, paragraph 0050, “The reception signals SR output from the receiving antennae 21 are amplified by amplifiers (not shown in the drawings) (for example, low-noise amplifiers), and then are input to the mixers 31. The mixers 31 partially mix the transmission signals ST and the reception signals SR, and remove unnecessary signal components, thereby generating beat signals SB, and output the beat signals to the A/D converters 32.”).
Regarding claim 9, Kurono further discloses
The electronic device according to claim 3, wherein the controller is configured to switch between the first operation mode and the second operation mode within one frame of the transmission wave (see pg. 3, paragraph 0058, “Selection of a processing mode is performed, for example, on the basis of contents input to an input unit (not shown in the drawings).”; pg. 9, paragraph 0139, transmission unit can transmit one chirp wave in a transmission period).
Regarding claim 10, Kurono further discloses
The electronic device according to claim 3, wherein the first operation mode and the second operation mode are modes in which the resolution of the relative velocity is different depending on a number of chirp signals included in a frame of the transmission wave (see pg. 2, paragraph, 0035, the transmission periods can transmit different number of chirps).
Regarding claim 11, the same cited sections and rationale from claim 1 is applied. The only difference between claim 1 and claim 11 is that claim 1 refers to an apparatus while claim 11 refers to a method. The examiner considers Kurono pg. 1, paragraph 0002 (“The present invention relates to a radar device and a target detecting method”) to show that the radar apparatus performs the radar method of claim 11.
Regarding claim 12, the same cited sections and rationale from claim 11 are applied. Kurono further discloses
A non-transitory computer-readable recording medium storing computer program instructions, which when executed by an electronic device, cause the electronic device to (see pg. 3, paragraph 0057, “The CPU of the micro computer reads out programs from the ROM [read only memory], and executes the programs”):
Conclusion
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to ISABELLA AMEYALI EDRADA whose telephone number is (571)272-4859. The examiner can normally be reached Mon - Fri 9am-5pm EST.
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If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner’s supervisor, William Kelleher can be reached at (571) 272-7753. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300.
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/ISABELLA AMEYALI EDRADA/Examiner, Art Unit 3648
/William Kelleher/Supervisory Patent Examiner, Art Unit 3648