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 .
Application Status
This office action is responsive to the Application Number: 18/588,010, filed on 02/27/2024 (Foreign Priority Date: 03/31/2023).
This action has been made NON-FINAL.
Examiner Remarks
In the spirit of compact prosecution, Applicant is requested to contact the Examiner for an interview to discuss the inventive concepts of the instant application. Applicant may optionally amend the claims to further direct the claims toward a particular inventive concept described in the specification without an interview.
Additionally, the prior art rejection (if applicable) cites particular paragraphs, columns, and/or line numbers in the references for the convenience of the applicant. Although the specified citations are representative of the teachings in the art and are applied to the specific limitations within the individual claim, other passages and figures may apply as well. It is respectfully requested that, in preparing responses, the applicant fully consider the references in their entirety as potentially teaching all or part of the claimed invention, as well as the context of the passage as taught by the prior art.
Priority
Receipt is acknowledged of certified copies of papers required by 37 CFR 1.55.
Information Disclosure Statement
The information disclosure statement (IDS) submitted on 10/22/2025; 06/03/2025; 01/31/2025; 02/27/2024 is being considered by the examiner. A signed IDS is hereby attached.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 103
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) 1-12 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over US KITANI, US Patent Application No.: 20190045092 in view of Zhu, US Patent Application No.: 20080273752.
Claim 1:
KITANI discloses a reproduction system (See KITANI Abstract). However, KITANI failed to explicitly disclose “calculates feature points” and “focus point”. Zhu discloses “focus point” in Paragraphs 0094-0095 and “calculates feature points” in Paragraph 0107. It would have been obvious to a person having ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to have further modified KITANI by the teachings of Zhu to enable improved vehicle detection and tracking, more effectively (See Zhu Abstract). In addition, both of the references teach features that are directed to analogous art and they are directed to the same field of endeavor, such as, processing vehicle image data. This close relation between both of the references highly suggests an expectation of success.
As modified:
The combination of KITANI and Zhu discloses the following:
an acquisition unit that acquires parameters related to a relative behavior of a host vehicle in a surrounding environment in a specific traffic section (See KITANI Paragraph 00271);
a time-series parameter storage unit that stores the parameters in the specific traffic section in a time series as time-series parameter data (See KITANI Paragraph 00562);
a reproduced moving image generation unit that generates a moving image for reproducing (See KITANI Paragraphs 0027; 0089; 00903) a movement history4 of the host vehicle in the specific traffic section5 on the basis of the time-series parameter data (See KITANI Paragraph 0056);
and a display control unit that causes a display device to display the moving image (See KITANI Paragraphs 0027; 0056; 0089; 0090), wherein the reproduced moving image generation unit (See KITANI Paragraph 0027; 0089; 0090) includes a focusing point specification unit that specifies one or more focusing points (See Zhu Paragraph 0107) of the host vehicle in the specific traffic section (See Zhu Paragraphs 0094-0095),
an extraction unit that extracts a group of focusing point parameters related to the focusing points from the time-series parameter data stored in the time-series parameter storage unit (See KITANI Paragraph 0056),
a calculation unit that calculates feature points (See Zhu Paragraphs 0094-0095; 0107) at the focusing points by statistically processing the group of focusing point parameters (See Zhu Paragraphs 0094-0095; 0107),
and a moving image generation unit (See KITANI Paragraphs 0027; 0089; 0090) that generates a moving image for reproducing a movement history of the host vehicle (See KITANI Paragraphs 0027; 0089; 0090) in the specific traffic section on the basis of the feature points (See Zhu Paragraph 0107).
Claim 2:
The combination of KITANI and Zhu discloses a moving image data storage unit (See KITANI Paragraphs 0027; 0089; 0090) that stores possible movements of the host vehicle in the specific traffic section as at least one or a plurality of pieces of moving image data (See KITANI Paragraphs 0027; 0089; 0090),
wherein the reproduced moving image generation unit (See KITANI Paragraphs 0027; 0089; 0090) includes a selection unit that selects generated moving image data from the at least one or plurality of pieces of moving image data (See KITANI Paragraphs 0027; 0089; 0090) stored in the moving image data storage unit (See KITANI Paragraphs 0027; 0089; 0090) on the basis of the time-series parameter data stored in the time-series parameter storage unit (See KITANI Paragraph 0056),
and the moving image generation unit (See KITANI Paragraphs 0027; 0089; 0090) generates a moving image (See KITANI Paragraphs 0027; 0089; 0090) for reproducing the movement history (See KITANI Paragraphs 0027; 0089; 0090) of the host vehicle in the specific traffic section on the basis of the generated moving image data (See KITANI Paragraphs 0027; 0089; 0090) selected by the selection unit and the feature points (See Zhu Paragraph 0107).
Claim 3:
The combination of KITANI and Zhu discloses wherein the calculation unit statistically processes the group of focusing point (See Zhu Paragraphs 0094-0095; 0107) parameters by performing an averaging process or a filtering process on the group of focusing point parameters (See Zhu Paragraphs 0094-0095; 0107).
Claim 4:
The combination of KITANI and Zhu discloses wherein the focusing point specification unit (See Zhu Paragraph 0107) specifies the one or more focusing points (See Zhu Paragraph 0107) on the basis of a change in the behavior of the host vehicle (See KITANI Paragraphs 0027; 0089; 0090).
Claim 5:
The combination of KITANI and Zhu discloses wherein the focusing point specification unit (See Zhu Paragraph 0107) specifies the one or more focusing points (See Zhu Paragraph 0107) on the basis of attributes of a road in the specific traffic section (See KITANI Paragraphs 0027; 0089; 0090).
Claim 6:
The combination of KITANI and Zhu discloses wherein the acquisition unit includes an external detection unit that acquires external information of the host vehicle (See KITANI Paragraph 0027) and a vehicle sensor that acquires vehicle information of the host vehicle (See KITANI Paragraphs 0026-0033),
and the time-series parameter data includes external time-series data (See KITANI Paragraph 0056) which is generated on the basis of the external information and indicates an external status of the host vehicle in a time series and vehicle time-series data (See KITANI Paragraph 0056) which is generated on the basis of the vehicle information and indicates a driving status of the host vehicle in a time series (See KITANI Paragraph 0056).
Claim 7:
The combination of KITANI and Zhu discloses wherein the external detection unit includes an image sensor that captures a forward image of the host vehicle (See KITANI Paragraphs 0026-0033),
the external time-series data includes time-series positions (See KITANI Paragraph 0056) of a stop line and a vehicle traffic division line on a road on which the host vehicle has traveled (See KITANI Figure 3; Paragraphs 0026-0033).,
and the vehicle time-series data (See KITANI Paragraph 0056) is input to the reproduced moving image generation unit through an in-vehicle communication network of the host vehicle (See KITANI Paragraphs 0044-0045).
Claim 8:
The combination of KITANI and Zhu discloses wherein the reproduced moving image generation unit generates a moving image (See KITANI Paragraph 0027; 0089; 0090) for reproducing a movement history of another traffic participant whose path intersects with the host vehicle in the specific traffic section(See KITANI Paragraphs 0027; 0089; 0090), together with the movement history of the host vehicle in the specific traffic section (See KITANI Paragraphs 0027; 0089; 0090), on the basis of the time-series parameter data (See KITANI Paragraph 0056).
Claim 9:
The combination of KITANI and Zhu discloses wherein the reproduced moving image generation unit (See KITANI Paragraph 0027; 0089; 0090) uses information relating to the other traffic participant included in the time-series parameter data (See KITANI Paragraph 0056) to generate abstracted image data (See KITANI Paragraph 0027; 0089; 0090) corresponding to the other traffic participant and display the image data as the other traffic participant in the moving image (See KITANI Paragraph 0027; 0089; 0090).
Claim 10:
The combination of KITANI and Zhu discloses wherein the specific traffic section is a point of intersection (See Zhu Paragraph 00536).
Claim 11:
Claim 11 is similarly rejected on the same basis as claim 1.
Claim 12:
Claim 12 is similarly rejected on the same basis as claim 1.
Pertinent Art
The prior art made of record and not relied upon is considered pertinent to applicant's disclosure.
FUJITA (US 20170334356) relates to an image generation apparatus that generates a composite image viewed from an arbitrary virtual viewpoint.
Contact Information
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to SHEREE N BROWN whose telephone number is (571)272-4229. The examiner can normally be reached M-F 5:30-2:00 PM EST.
Examiner interviews are available via telephone, in-person, and video conferencing using a USPTO supplied web-based collaboration tool. To schedule an interview, applicant is encouraged to use the USPTO Automated Interview Request (AIR) at http://www.uspto.gov/interviewpractice.
If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner’s supervisor, SAID BROOME can be reached at (571) 272-2931. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300.
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/SHEREE N BROWN/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2612 February 10, 2026
1 Paragraph 0027 of KITANI discloses “The display processing system 1 generates a combined moving image combined from images of the surroundings of a vehicle captured by the cameras 3, and allows the touch panel 5 to display the generated combined moving image. The display processing system 1 thereby reproduces the combined moving image of the vehicle surroundings.”
2 Paragraph 0056 of KITANI recites “configured to be displayed from the initial of the moving image or the timing before a certain period of time”, which indicates that storing of time.
3 Paragraphs 0027; 0089; 0090 of KITANI recites “The display processing system 1 thereby reproduces the combined moving image of the vehicle surroundings.”
4 KITANI’s use of the terms “vehicle captured” is the same as the Applicant’s teachings of “movement history.”
5 KITANI’s use of the terms “vehicle surroundings” is the same as the Applicant’s teachings of “traffic section.”
6 Zhu discloses “Region of interests (ROIs)” in paragraph 0053.