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/Arguments
The 04/20/2026 amendments to claims are entered. Claims 11, 16, and 21 are amended. Claims 1-10, 12-15, and 19 are canceled. No claims are newly added.
Regarding the Prior Art Rejections
Applicant’s arguments with respect to claims 11 and 21 have been considered but are moot because the new ground of rejection does not rely on any reference applied in the prior rejection of record for any teaching or matter specifically challenged in the argument.
Claim Objections
Claim 18 is objected to because of the following informalities:
In the fourth line, the element “a multiplicity of waypoints on the trajectory recorded during the first journey” appears to contain a typo. The Examiner believes the element should be written “the multiplicity of waypoints on the trajectory recorded during the first journey” to refer to the similarly-named limitation in claim 1.
Appropriate correction or explanation of the difference between the two limitations is required.
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.
Claims 11, 16-18, and 20-21 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over US 20230029321 A1 to Quint, Jason et al. (“Quint”) in view of US 10871377 B1 to Yu, Chen-Ping (“Yu”), further in view of US 20160284125 A1 to Bostick, James et al..
Regarding claim 11, Quint teaches Regarding claim 11, Quint teaches a system designed to assist a driver of a motor vehicle during a second journey along a trajectory recorded within a scope of a first journey ([0018]: “ . . . the recorded travel data . . . may be subsequently retrieved . . . to guide a traveler in later repeating the off-road travel.”), comprising:
a driver assistance system operatively configured to:
ascertain elevational change information in relation to an elevational change of the trajectory recorded within the scope of the first journey ([0018]: “ . . . travel data is recorded representing the off-road travel of the vehicle. In some embodiments and as will be described below, the travel data may include positional coordinates, an elevation . . ..”; [0040]: “ . . . once off-road travel ends, the status window 475 is replaced with a save recording window 775 to inquire whether the user wishes to save the travel data for the off-road trip. The user may select a save option 776 to save the data for later retrieval . . . ”);
ascertain a display trajectory for the second journey taking into account the elevational change information (FIG. 14; [0056]: “ . . . the system 100 enables a user to access information about points along . . . the path ahead 1341 along the selected route 1070 (FIG. 11). . . . a user can select a point 1480 to access an information window 1452 . . . the information window includes . . . an elevation 1454, and an orientation 1455 of the vehicle at the point 1480.” Quint inherently teaches ascertaining a display trajectory by teaching that the path ahead is displayed by broadly taking into account previously-recorded elevational change information (used to discern elevation at any selected point).); and
cause the display trajectory to be displayed on a display of the vehicle (FIG. 14; [0056]: “ . . . the system 100 enables a user to access information about points along . . . the path ahead 1341 along the selected route 1070 (FIG. 11). . . . a user can select a point 1480 to access an information window 1452 . . . the information window includes . . . an elevation 1454, and an orientation 1455 of the vehicle at the point 1480.” );
wherein the first journey comprises an outward journey from a first point to a second point (Quint [0055]: “ . . . the location map 1330 shows a path 1341 that is part of the selected route 1070 that the user elected to follow.” Understood that the user can choose to follow recorded routes.), and the second journey comprises a corresponding return journey from the second point to the first point or another journey from the first point to the second point (Quint [0055]: “ . . . the location map 1330 shows a path 1341 that is part of the selected route 1070 that the user elected to follow.” Understood that the user can choose to follow recorded routes. Note: amending “and” to “or” allows consideration of only one of the presented options.);
wherein during the second journey, the driver assistance system is configured to:
repeatedly ascertain a respective actual position of the vehicle (Quint [0031]: “ . . . as the system 100 continues to move, the vehicle location 435 is maintained at a center 437 of the location map 430.”);
repeatedly update the display trajectory in a manner dependent on the respective actual position ([0031]: “ . . . as the system 100 continues to move, the vehicle location 435 is maintained at a center 437 of the location map 430.”) and dependent on the elevational change information ([0056]: “In various embodiments, by using a digit 190 or another input, a user can select a point 1480 to access an information window 1452 about the point 1480.” The system being able to update the display whenever the location changes and display elevational change information when selected taken as repeated updates of the trajectory at least dependent on both of these pieces of information.); and
repeatedly cause the respective updated display trajectory to be displayed on the display of the vehicle ([0031]: “ . . . as the system 100 continues to move, the vehicle location 435 is maintained at a center 437 of the location map 430.”).
Quint does not appear to expressly teach wherein during the second journey, the driver assistance system is configured to:
ascertain image data in relation to a surround of the vehicle located in front of the vehicle in the direction of travel using at least one camera of the vehicle.
However, Yu teaches a driver assistance system configured to:
ascertain image data in relation to a surround of the vehicle located in front of the vehicle in the direction of travel using at least one camera of the vehicle (Yu [6:16—26]: “Camera 110 may capture images . . . camera 110 is forward . . . facing and captures a frontal . . . view around the vehicle or user. . .”).
Yu further teaches overlaying a trajectory onto the image of the surround of the vehicle in front of the vehicle during the following of a route, see for example FIG. 6 and [11:45-49]: “The AR overlay may be displayed over the live camera image 600.”
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the present invention to have combined the route repeat system that records a route and plays it back overlaid on the surroundings of a vehicle of Quint with the system that displays a trajectory overlaid on image of the surround of the vehicle in front of the vehicle, the image captured by a camera mounted on the vehicle during the following of a route of Yu. Doing so would have improved user convenience by providing easy-to-understand navigational information.
This combination does not appear to expressly teach wherein during the second journey, the driver assistance system is configured to cause, based on the image data, a pictorial representation showing the display trajectory (that is, the second journey repeat trajectory) overlaid on the surround of the vehicle to be displayed on the display;
wherein the driver assistance system is configured to:
determine a projection point:
project a multiplicity of waypoints on the trajectory recorded during the first journey onto a projection plane in a manner dependent on the projection point and dependent on the elevational change information, in order to determine the display trajectory.
However, Bostick teaches wherein during the second journey, the driver assistance system is configured to cause, based on the image data (Bostick [0024]: “In one embodiment of the present invention, virtual overlay program 400 receives image and/or video input from camera 123, and by use of object recognition, may supplement downloaded map data in identifying and virtually displaying paths or trails on AR display device 120.”), a pictorial representation showing the display trajectory ([0042]: “Alternate path 270 presents an optional path, as determined by virtual overlay program 400, based on . . . previous route history . . . .”; [0032]: “History 117 is a collection of recorded paths or trails traversed by a user of AR display device 120 connected to computing device 110.”) overlaid on the surround of the vehicle to be displayed on the display ([0041]: “FIG. 2B depicts an example of virtual overlay 250 of a near-distance route image over steep rocky terrain as viewed through an augmented reality display device, in accordance with an embodiment of the present invention.” One of ordinary skill in the art would have recognized prior to the time of filing that the overlay system of Yu would have been used to show the second-trip overlay of Bostick. See for example Bostick [0020], which suggests other existing AR displays could be used. Yu describes his display as AR too.).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the present invention to have combined the vehicle system that displays a trajectory depicting a previously-recorded trajectory and is capable of overlaying trajectories onto the vehicle’s surroundings taught by the above combination of Quint and Yu with the augmented reality system capable of overlaying a previously-recorded trajectory onto surroundings taught by Bostick. Doing so would have improved user convenience by allowing them to easily repeat a route they took in the past.
As further clarification, the prior art is combined as follows: Quint is relied upon to teach that recording a route including elevation information that is then played back to the driver repeatedly was known in the art before the effective filing date of this invention. Bostick is relied upon to teach that overlaying a previously-recorded route including elevation information on an augmented reality display was known in the art before the effective filing date of this invention. Yu is relied upon to teach that overlaying a trajectory onto a camera image as part of an augmented reality system in the context of driver assistance systems was known in the art before the effective filing date of this invention.
One of ordinary skill in the art would have recognized that this combination further teaches wherein the driver assistance system is configured to:
determine a projection point (Yu FIG. 13: Steps 1300 and 1330, the viewpoint taken as a projection point.):
project a multiplicity of waypoints on the trajectory recorded during the first journey onto a projection plane (Yu [16:24-35]: “At step 1320, the computing device 105 obtains navigation instructions from a navigation system, the navigation instructions generated by obtaining a route including a set of waypoints . . . At step 1325, the computing device 105 generates a route overlay . . . from the navigation instructions.” Using navigation instructions comprising waypoints to generate the route overlay on the image is taken as projecting a multiplicity of waypoints. The display that displays the image with the overlay on top is taken as the projection claim. For further explanation, Yu is relied upon to teach projecting a navigation route comprising points onto an image in a vehicle environment, Bostick is relied upon to teach overlaying a pre-recorded route that includes elevation values, and Quint is relied upon to teach recording the pre-recorded route that comprises points.) in a manner dependent on the projection point and dependent on the elevational change information, in order to determine the display trajectory (Yu FIG. 13: Steps 1330-1335, the overlay is generated and placed on the camera image (taken as the projection plane) based on the viewpoint.).
Regarding claim 16, one of ordinary skill in the art would have recognized that the above combination of Quint, Yu, and Bostick teaches the system according to claim 11, wherein the elevational change information indicates an elevation of the multiplicity of waypoints along an elevation (Quint [0018]: “ . . . travel data is recorded representing the off-road travel of the vehicle. In some embodiments and as will be described below, the travel data may include positional coordinates, an elevation . . ..”; Quint [0040]: “ . . . once off-road travel ends, the status window 475 is replaced with a save recording window 775 to inquire whether the user wishes to save the travel data for the off-road trip. The user may select a save option 776 to save the data for later retrieval . . . ” APOSITA would have understood in the above combination that the recorded elevation data from Quint would have been projected in the manner taught by Yu, considering elevation values as taught by Bostick.); and
the driver assistance system is configured to:
project the multiplicity of waypoints onto the projection plane in a manner dependent on the respective elevation, in order to ascertain the display trajectory axis (Bostick FIG. 2B: APOSITA would have understood in the above combination that the trajectory overlaid on the image of Yu would have displayed the elevation of the waypoints in the manner depicted by Bostick.).
Regarding claim 17, one of ordinary skill in the art would have recognized that the above combination of Quint, Yu, and Bostick teaches the system according to claim 16, wherein
the elevation axis is arranged within the projection plane (Bostick FIG. 2B: Elevation axis depicted as being arranged in the overlay, taken as the projection plane.); and/or
the elevation axis corresponds to a vertical axis of the vehicle when the vehicle is aligned horizontally (Usage of the term “and/or” requires consideration of only one of the two options.).
Regarding claim 18, one of ordinary skill in the art would have recognized that the above combination of Quint, Yu, and Bostick teaches the system according to claim 11, wherein the driver assistance system is configured to:
ascertain trajectory data in relation to the trajectory recorded during the first journey, the trajectory data indicating positions of a multiplicity of waypoints on the trajectory recorded during the first journey and the elevational change information indicating a relative elevation of the multiplicity of waypoints relative to one another (Quint [0041]: “Data associated with the route traveled 840 includes a series of data points captured during the off-road travel, such as Point A 850 and Point B 860. In various embodiments, at regular intervals set by time and/or distance traveled along the route traveled 840, travel data is sampled and recorded for potential storage for a number of such points.” As shown above, Quint teaches the travel data includes elevation data. The elevation at each point is relative to the other points’ elevation inherently because each point includes its own elevation relative to the same reference (evidenced by the ability of the system to calculate an elevation change over a route in [0036]).) and/or an elevation difference between the multiplicity of waypoints; and
take into account the trajectory data when providing the driver assistance during the second journey (Bostick FIG. 2B: One of ordinary skill in the art would have recognized that the travel data of Quint would have been overlaid accounting for elevation as taught by Bostick on the vehicle trajectory overlay screen of Yu.).
Regarding claim 20, one of ordinary skill in the art would have recognized that the above combination of Quint, Yu, and Bostick teaches the system according to claim 11, wherein the driver assistance system is configured to:
read the elevational change information from a memory unit of the vehicle in order to ascertain the elevational change information ([0018]: “ . . . travel data is recorded representing the off-road travel of the vehicle. In some embodiments and as will be described below, the travel data may include positional coordinates, an elevation . . ..”; [0056]: “In various embodiments, the information window includes positional coordinates 1453, an elevation 1454, and an orientation 1455 of the vehicle at the point 1480.”); and
wherein the elevational change information was recorded during the first journey and stored in the memory unit ([0056]: “In various embodiments, the information window includes positional coordinates 1453, an elevation 1454, and an orientation 1455 of the vehicle at the point 1480.” Understood that by disclosing that the elevation at the selected point is the elevation of the vehicle, it is the recorded travel data from the vehicle on the first trip along the route.).
Claim 21 is rejected over similar reasons to claim 11, applied to a method.
Conclusion
The prior art made of record and not relied upon is considered pertinent to applicant's disclosure.
Chang, Jae Woo. US 20190226866 A1. NAVIGATION USING AUGMENTED REALITY.
Jung, Kyungboo. US 20190137294 A1. METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR DISPLAYING VIRTUAL ROUTE.
Kasazumi, Ken’ichi et al.. US 20190196187 A1. DISPLAY APPARATUS.
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/HENRY R HINTON/ Examiner, Art Unit 3665
/HUNTER B LONSBERRY/ Supervisory Patent Examiner, Art Unit 3665
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