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 .
Response to Amendment and Argument
Applicant’s amendment and argument with respect to pending claims 1-6 filed on September 02, 2025 have been fully considered. Examiners response to the applicant’s argument follows below.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 112
Summary of Arguments:
Applicant requests the withdrawal of the rejection of the pending claims under 35 USC § 112(b).
Examiner’s Response:
In view of the amendment of the independent claim 1 to overcome the rejection under 35 USC § 112(b) of the pending claims, the rejection of the claims is withdrawn.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 102
Summary of Arguments:
Regarding claim 1, applicant argues that Quint does not teach the feature of “receiving and storing, in the storage apparatus, data of video images captured by drive recorders of multiple vehicles of the plurality of vehicles… extracting and providing, for the user, an image that the vehicle of the user is viewed in and matches the condition, from among a plurality of data of video images captured by data recorders of the multiple vehicles stored in the storage apparatus” as recited in claim 1 because, “in Quint, a request for video content is sent to multiple vehicles and user devices, and each vehicle or device that receives the request searches its recorded video to determine whether any content satisfies the requested criteria, and responds.”
Examiner’s Response:
Examiner respectfully disagrees.
Quint discloses See FIGS. 1-5, ¶0032, 0048-0052, 0063-0064, 0070, 0077, a cloud-based network 134 hat is communicatively coupled to communications circuitry 132, server 138 and a database 140. Quint further discloses a scenario in which two vehicles are involved in an impact event. For example, vehicle 302 and vehicle 304 and vehicle 502 are additional vehicles near the intersection where the impact event between vehicle 101 and vehicle 301 takes place. Following the impact event, a requestor vehicle 101 may send out a request to vehicles 302 and vehicle 304 for sharing captured video content which may relate to the impact event. Upon receipt of the request from vehicle 101, vehicle 302 and vehicle 304 may be prompted to respond to the request. The rear camera of vehicle 304 may have been able to capture a clear video content of the impact event, or cameras on the vehicle 502 may have been able to capture useful information relating to the impact event between vehicle 101 and 301. The requestor vehicle 101 may send out a request for video content only to vehicles within a specific area of interest 503. The request may additionally or alternatively be sent through a cloud-based network. The remote server 138 may be used to store shared video along with relevant information relating to the video, impact event, sharing party, and requesting party. The request may incorporate specific location and time stamp information of the impact event and this information may be used by the recipient to determine the relevant video content to be shared. The request may include information relating to the license plate of the vehicle 101, a description of the requestor vehicle 101. Thus, Quint teaches “receiving and storing, in the storage apparatus, data of video images captured by drive recorders of multiple vehicles of the plurality of vehicles” (Quint: a server 138 storing shared video data from vehicle 302, vehicle 304 and vehicle 502) “extracting and providing, for the user, an image that the vehicle of the user is viewed in and matches the condition, from among a plurality of data of video images captured by data recorders of the multiple vehicles stored in the storage apparatus” (Quint: i.e., a shared captured video content by vehicles 302, 304, 502 which relate to the impact event between the vehicle 101 and 301 based on the request including conditions such as a specific area of interest 503, information relating to the license plate of the vehicle 101, a location and timestamp information).
Accordingly, the rejection of the pending claims is maintained.
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)(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.
Claim(s) 1, 5, 6 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(2) as being anticipated by Quint (US 20240190417 A1).
Regarding claim 1, Quint discloses an image providing apparatus connected, via a communication network, to a plurality of vehicles, each including a drive recorder (Figs. 1-5, ¶0049, 0064: a system 100 connected via cloud-network 134 or a vehicle-to-vehicle communication to vehicles 101, 301, 304, 502 including cameras), and to a plurality of information input apparatuses (communications circuitry 132). Note that the vehicles 101, 301, 304, 502 communicate using direct vehicle-to-vehicle communication or through a cloud-based network, and require a communication means, the image providing apparatus comprising: a processing apparatus (a processing circuity 102); and a storage apparatus (memory 106, server 138, database 140, cloud storage 134), wherein the processing apparatus of the image providing apparatus performs receiving and storing, in the storage apparatus, data of video images captured by drive recorders of multiple vehicles of the plurality of vehicles (¶0032, 0064, 0070: a server 138 storing shared video data collected from vehicles 101, 302, 304, 502), receiving, from one of the plurality of information input apparatuses, information for identifying a vehicle of a user and a condition for a wanted image the information and the condition being input to said one of the plurality of information input apparatus by the user (¶0063-0066, 0077: The request may be sent through a cloud-based network, according to some embodiments. In some embodiments, the request may incorporate specific location and time stamp information of the impact event and this information may be used by the recipient to determine the relevant video content to be shared. In some embodiments, the request may include information relating to the license plate of the vehicle 101 or another vehicle. In some embodiments, the request may include a description of the requestor vehicle 101 or another vehicle), and extracting and providing, for the user, an image that the vehicle of the user is viewed in and matches the condition, from among a plurality of data of video images captured by data recorders of the multiple vehicles stored in the storage apparatus (¶0048-0052, 0063-0064, 0070, 0077: i.e., a shared captured video content by vehicles 302, 304, 502 which relate to the impact event between the vehicle 101 and 301 based on the request including conditions such as a specific area of interest 503, information relating to the license plate of the vehicle 101, a location and timestamp information).
Regarding claim 5, Quint discloses the image providing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the processing apparatus performs receiving, as the information for identifying the vehicle of the user (¶0069, 0084: identification of the vehicle requesting the video content), information including any of a vehicle type, a color, and a license number of the vehicle of the user from the information input apparatus (¶0077, 0088, 0090: The request may be sent through a cloud-based network, according to some embodiments. In some embodiments, the request may incorporate specific location and time stamp information of the impact event and this information may be used by the recipient to determine the relevant video content to be shared. In some embodiments, the request may include information relating to the license plate of the vehicle 101 or another vehicle. In some embodiments, the request may include a description of the requestor vehicle 101 or another vehicle), and extracting the image that the vehicle of the user is viewed in from among the data of the video image using the information including any of the vehicle type, the color, and the license number of the vehicle of the user (¶0048-0052, 0063-0064, 0070, 0077: i.e., a shared captured video content by vehicles 302, 304, 502 which relate to the impact event between the vehicle 101 and 301 based on the request including conditions such as a specific area of interest 503, information relating to the license plate of the vehicle 101, a location and timestamp information).
Regarding claim 6, Quint teaches the image providing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the extracting and providing includes transmitting, for the user, an image that the vehicle of the user is viewed in from a opposing-traffic lane opposite to a traffic lane of the vehicle (See Figs. 3-5, the image sent to the requester vehicle 101 related to the impact event between the vehicle 101 and 301 includes images captured by vehicles 302, 304 and 502). Note that the vehicles 302, 304 and 502 are capable of capturing image of vehicle 101 from opposing traffic lane of the road, and therefore Quint implicitly teaches the limitation of claim 6.
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) 2-4 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Quint (US 20240190417 A1) in view of Hodge et al. (US 20190174099 A1).
Regarding claim 2, Quint discloses the image providing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the condition includes information of capturing (¶0068, 0077, 0088, 0090: The request may be sent through a cloud-based network, according to some embodiments. In some embodiments, the request may incorporate specific location and time stamp information of the impact event and this information may be used by the recipient to determine the relevant video content to be shared).
Quint does not explicitly disclose the condition includes information of capturing date.
However, Hodge discloses the condition includes information of capturing date (¶0095, 0098-0099: The user can select the camera device or devices it wants to request video from. In an alternative embodiment, the user enters a location, date, and time for which video is desired to generate a sharing request).
It would have been obvious to a person having ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify Quint by incorporating a video-based data collection and sharing system of Hodge in order to share a positively matching video data with one or more users requesting the video data (Hodge: ¶0011, 0014).
Regarding claim 3, Quint in view of Hodge discloses the image providing apparatus according to claim 2. Quint discloses wherein the condition further includes any of information of a background, information of an altitude of the capturing place, and information of an angle of the viewed vehicle of the user (¶0081, 0083: The request may include information regarding the requesting party, information regarding the impact event (e.g., the time of the impact event, the location of the impact event, and/or the direction of the impact event)). Furthermore, Hodge discloses wherein the condition further includes any of information of a background, information of an altitude of the capturing place, and information of an angle of the viewed vehicle of the user (¶0099: respond to an image-query-based request, camera devices located within a given geographical radius at a given time frame and with cameras pointing in a desired orientation may be first identified 802).
Regarding claim 4, Quint discloses the image providing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein: travelling history information is information in which positional information of the vehicle of the user at each time is recorded (¶0029, 0068: collecting information about an impact event using video content captured around the location at the time of the impact event); and the processing apparatus performs searching for data of a video image that has a possibility that the image that matches the condition is able to be extracted, from among the plurality of data of the video images stored in the storage apparatus, using the travelling history information received from the vehicle of the user and image capturing information including information of capturing (¶0068, 0077: The request may be sent through a cloud-based network, according to some embodiments. In some embodiments, the request may incorporate specific location and time stamp information of the impact event and this information may be used by the recipient to determine the relevant video content to be shared).
However, Hodge discloses the condition includes information of capturing date (¶0095, 0098-0099: The user can select the camera device or devices it wants to request video from. In an alternative embodiment, the user enters a location, date, and time for which video is desired to generate a sharing request).
It would have been obvious to a person having ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify Quint by incorporating a video-based data collection and sharing system of Hodge in order to share a positively matching video data with one or more users requesting the video data (Hodge: ¶0011, 0014).
Conclusion
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.
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/NATHNAEL AYNALEM/ Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2488