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 .
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) 1-10 and 12-15 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(2) as being anticipated by Fudo et al. (WO 2020/250517A1)
With respect to claim 1, Fudo et al. teaches a physical quantity detecting device (100) for detecting a plurality of different physical quantities (load and tire degradation; abstract) on a basis of an output signal waveform (seen in Fig. 2b), the physical quantity detecting device (100) comprising: one sensor element (100) that outputs a sensor signal waveform having a reference level (defined by the x-axis in Fig. 2b), a positive level positively changing from the reference level (as indicated by points a3/a5), and a negative level negatively changing from the reference level (as indicated by points a2/a4 relative to the x-axis in Fig. 2b); and an estimating unit (20) that estimates a first physical quantity (i.e. a degree of deterioration based on estimated tire deformation; [0047]) corresponding to a peak value (a3) of the positive level (as seen in Fig. 2b) and a second physical quantity (load; [0092]) corresponding to a peak value (a2/a4) of the negative level (as seen in Fig. 2b) on a basis of the sensor signal waveform (seen in Fig. 2b) output by the sensor element (100).
With respect to claim 2, Fudo et al. teaches the physical quantity detecting device (100) wherein the estimating unit (20) includes a storage section (30) that stores a first table [0070] of the first physical quantity (i.e. Fudo teaches the table stores relationships relative to the peak values) corresponding to the peak value (a3/a5) of the positive level of the sensor signal waveform (seen in Fig. 2b) and a second table (i.e. a second of the tables disclosed in [00103]) of the second physical quantity (load) corresponding to the peak value (a2/a4) of the negative level of the sensor signal waveform (seen in Fig. 2b), estimates the first physical quantity (i.e. deterioration) by applying the peak value (a3/a5) of the positive level of the sensor signal waveform (seen in Fig. 2b) output by the sensor element (100) to the first table [0099-00103] stored by the storage section (30), and estimates the second physical quantity (i.e. load) by applying the peak value (a2/a4) of the negative level of the sensor signal waveform (seen in Fig. 2b) output by the sensor element (100) to the second table stored by the storage section [0099-00103].
With respect to claim 3, Fudo et al. teaches the physical quantity detecting device (100) wherein the sensor element is a strain sensor (as Fudo teaches the sensor being a piezoelectric sensor having different sensitivities to deformation; [0028]).
With respect to claim 4, Fudo et al. teaches the physical quantity detecting device (100) wherein the estimating unit (20) makes a temperature correction to the peak value of the positive level and the peak value of the negative level of the sensor signal waveform output by the sensor element (as Fudo et al. teaches taking external temperatures into consideration when estimating deformation and load using the peak values; [0052-0054], [0063]) .
With respect to claim 5, Fudo et al. teaches the physical quantity detecting device (100) wherein the estimating unit (20) includes two independent blocks (21 and 22) that respectively estimate the first physical quantity (deterioration) and the second physical quantity (load).
With respect to claim 6, Fudo et al. teaches the physical quantity detecting device (100) wherein the sensor element (100) is disposed in a tire (200), outputs the peak value of the positive level (a3/a5) of the sensor signal waveform (seen in Fig. 2b) in a state in which the tire (200) is in ground contact with a road surface [0072], and outputs the peak value (a2/a4) of the negative level of the sensor signal waveform (seen in Fig. 2b) at a moment that the tire comes into ground contact with or separates from the road surface [0072].
With respect to claim 7, Fudo et al. teaches the physical quantity detecting device (100) wherein the first physical quantity is a wear amount (i.e. deterioration; abstract, [0016]), and the second physical quantity is a load weight (i.e. load; [0092]).
With respect to claim 8, Fudo et al. teaches the physical quantity detecting device (100) wherein the physical quantity detecting device (100) makes the sensor element (100) output the sensor signal waveform (Fig.2b) under conditions of predetermined parameters (i.e. during operation) corresponding to the first table and the second table (as the conditions, insofar as what is structurally recited, have been interpreted as operation conditions of that tire that correspond to the first and second table storing deformation and load data during the operation of the tire under those operation conditions).
With respect to claim 9, Fudo et al. teaches the physical quantity detecting device (100) wherein the physical quantity detecting device (100) makes the sensor element output the sensor signal waveform (Fig. 2b) under conditions under which at least an air pressure, a velocity, and a temperature as parameters of mixed-in signals (as Fudo teaches pressure, velocity and temperature are some of the data used to make the deterioration and load estimates; [0013] [0020]) mixed in the sensor signal waveform (as the data is used in the estimation of deterioration and load) are restricted to predetermined ranges (i.e. once cycle range; [0093]) as conditions of predetermined parameters (i.e. pressure, velocity, and temperature) corresponding to the first table and the second table (storing the peak data).
With respect to claim 10, Fudo et al. teaches the physical quantity detecting device (100) wherein the sensor element (100) is disposed in a tire (200), and the estimating unit (20) obtains a temperature of the tire (used to improve the accuracy of the estimation; [0020]).
With respect to claim 12, Fudo et al. teaches the physical quantity detecting device (100) wherein the sensor element (100) is disposed in a tire (200), and the estimating unit (20) obtains an air pressure of the tire (via a TPMS; [0087]).
With respect to claim 13, Fudo et al. teaches the physical quantity detecting device (100) comprising: a warning processing unit (23) that distinguishes a range of the first physical quantity or the second physical quantity in a plurality of stages (as Fubo et al. teaches the warning unit warns when deterioration or load becomes equal or less than a threshold; [0069]), and warns of a state in each stage (via an outputted signal).
With respect to claim 14, Fudo et al. teaches the physical quantity detecting device (100) wherein the sensor element (100) is disposed at a center in a tire width direction on an inner circumferential side of a tire (200; as seen in Fig. 7).
With respect to claim 15, Fudo et al. teaches the physical quantity detecting device (100) wherein the sensor element (100) is a strain sensor (as Fudo teaches the sensor being a piezoelectric sensor having different sensitivities to deformation; [0028]) including a plurality of detecting units (11 and 12) arranged in a plurality of rows and a plurality of columns in an X-direction and a Y-direction orthogonal to each other (as 11 is disclosed to have 2-5 sensors in the x direction forming rows along the y direction; [0082]) and is disposed in a tire (200) such that either the X- direction in which at least two detecting units (11a-c) are arranged side by side to produce output is set along a rotational direction (L) of the tire (as seen in Fig. 6b).
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) 11 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Fudo et al. (WO 2020/250517A1) in view of Lu et al. (CN 112829526A).
With respect to claim 11, Fudo et al. teaches all that is claimed in the above rejection of claim 1 including the sensor element (100) is disposed in a tire (200) but remains silent regarding the estimating unit (20) obtains a velocity by dividing an outer circumference of the tire by an output cycle of the sensor signal waveform.
Lu et al. teaches a similar device that includes the control logic of obtaining a velocity by dividing an outer circumference of a tire by an output cycle of a sensor signal waveform (as Lu et al. teaches “the speed characteristic parameter is determined as the tire operation speed, he tire operation speed is obtained by dividing the circumference of the tire divided by the period of the z-axis acceleration characteristic waveform”).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing of the instant invention to modify the device of Fudo et al. to include the control logic of Lu et al. because Lu et al. teaches such a modification provides real-timely monitoring of a tire which is good for improving the safety of the driving, with high precision, low cost and high timeliness (Abstract).
Conclusion
The prior art made of record and not relied upon is considered pertinent to applicant's disclosure.
Cyllik et al. (11,067,431) which teaches determining at least one tire characteristic influencing variable in a manner dependent on the at least one analytical characteristic variable.
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/MATTHEW G MARINI/ Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2853
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