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 Arguments
Applicant’s arguments with respect to claim(s) claim 1, on page 11 -12 of Remarks, 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
Claims 3 and 14 are objected to because of the following informalities: claim 3 recites “to the another device by”. Appropriate correction 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 of this title, 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.
The factual inquiries set forth in Graham v. John Deere Co., 383 U.S. 1, 148 USPQ 459 (1966), that are applied for establishing a background for determining obviousness under 35 U.S.C. 103 are summarized as follows:
1. Determining the scope and contents of the prior art.
2. Ascertaining the differences between the prior art and the claims at issue.
3. Resolving the level of ordinary skill in the pertinent art.
4. Considering objective evidence present in the application indicating obviousness or nonobviousness.
Claims 1- 9 and 12-21 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over MABUCHI (US 20170255195) in view of ITU-T (Focus Group on Technologies for Network 2030 (FG NET-2030) from IDS dated 5/20/2024).
Regarding claims 1, 5, 9, 12 and 13, MABUCHI teaches to perform, through a network, at least one of transmission and reception of communication information to be used for control of the control target (Fig. 1, Vehicle), with a communication target device (Fig. 1, 211, 212-214, 215-217, and etc.) provided in the control target;
to acquire measurement information based on a measurement result related to the control subject (Fig. 1, Communication Controller, Fig. 1, 15, Vehicle information, Surrounding image information and [0065] The communication controller 13 is configured to obtain the vehicle information indicating the state of the vehicle 20 and the surrounding image information through the Internet); and
to perform a transmission control being a control related to transmission of the communication information by the communication unit (Fig. 1, remote operation controller 11, Fig. 1, Remote operation apparatus), based on the measurement information acquired by the acquisition unit (Fig. 1, and [0088] the remote operation controller 11 of the remote operation apparatus 10 transmits the remote operation start signal to the vehicle 20 via the communication controller 13).
However, MABUCHI does not expressly teach wherein the transmission control includes reducing at least one of a frame rate, a sampling frequency, and a resolution of the communication information. ITU-T discloses Qualitative Communication Service and further discloses (teaches a resolution of the communication information), on page 27, 2. Overhead: Qualitative communication service comes at the cost of adding metadata information in the packet to identify the chunks, and to assist the network nodes in deciding how to edit the packet to reduce its size when this is needed. Thus, on the one hand, the qualitative communications approach reduces the payload size to deal with congestion. However, on the other hand, it is necessary to add additional information in the header to enable this network service. This results in a trade-off between bandwidth utilization in the normal case vs the error/congestion case. Although a complete analysis of this is an area for research, this overhead is likely to be minimal in future networks where the packet payload size is expected to significantly increase (where underlined teaches the claim limitation “the transmission control includes reducing at least one of a frame rate, a sampling frequency, and a resolution of the communication information”). It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to combine with ITU-T in order to solve the error/congestion case (page 27, ITU-T).
Regarding claims 2 and 6, MABUCHI teaches the circuitry acquires the measurement information indicating an area of interest being an area to which the control subject pays attention, among areas around the control target (Fig. 1 and [0065] The communication controller 13 is configured to obtain the vehicle information indicating the state of the vehicle 20 and the surrounding image information through the Internet), and the transmission control includes a control for promoting transmission of the communication information related to the area of interest (Fig. 1, and [0088] the remote operation controller 11 of the remote operation apparatus 10 transmits the remote operation start signal to the vehicle 20 via the communication controller 13).
Regarding claims 3, 8, MABUCHI teaches wherein the circuitry (Fig. 1, Remote operation apparatus) relays the communication information received from the communication target device (Fig. 1, 211, 212-214, 215-217, [0065] The communication controller 13 is configured to obtain the vehicle information indicating the state of the vehicle 20 and the surrounding image information through the Internet) to another device provided on a side where the control subject is present (Fig. 1, 10) with respect to the network, and the transmission control includes a control for promoting relay of the communication information related to the area of interest, to the another device by (Fig. 1, and [0035] to transmit the control information and the operator information to the vehicle).
Regarding claims 4 and 7, MABUCHI teaches, wherein the transmission control includes a control for promoting transmission of the communication information related to the area of interest, to the communication device by the communication target device ([0035] controller configured to generate control information, which is information for remotely operating the vehicle, and to transmit the control information and the operator information to the vehicle).
Regarding claim 14, MABUCHI teaches wherein the transmission control includes a control for promoting transmission of the communication information related to the area of interest, to the communication device by the communication target device (Fig. 1, 15, Vehicle information, Surrounding image information and [0065] The communication controller 13 is configured to obtain the vehicle information indicating the state of the vehicle 20 and the surrounding image information through the Internet).
Regarding claim 15, MABUCHI teaches as in claim 3 above, to transmits, to the communication target device, the communication information generated by another device provided in the control target, and the transmission control includes a control for adjusting the amount of the communication information, related to the area of interest, to be generated by the another device (see claim 3 above).
Regarding claim 16, MABUCHI teaches to acquires the measurement information indicating an area of interest being an area to which the control subject pays attention, among areas around the control target, the area of interest being determined based on a detection result of a line of sight of the control subject ([0060] The sensor 15 is configured to detect a state of the operator. The sensor 15 particularly has a camera 151 configured to keep photographing the operator, and a line-of-sight detection sensor 152 configured to detect a line of sight of the operator).
Regarding claim 19, MABUCHI teaches to acquires the measurement information indicating an area of interest being an area to which the control subject should pay attention, among areas around the control target (Fig. 1 and [0065] The communication controller 13 is configured to obtain the vehicle information indicating the state of the vehicle 20 and the surrounding image information through the Internet), the area of interest being determined based on a detection result of an object present in the areas around the control target (Fig. 1, and [0088] the remote operation controller 11 of the remote operation apparatus 10 transmits the remote operation start signal to the vehicle 20 via the communication controller 13).
Regarding claim 17 and 20, MABUCHI teaches wherein to transmit the communication information according to a communication setting (table) (Fig. 3, States in Remote Remote operation ECU) for the transmission control, and the communication control unit updates the communication setting (table) based on the measurement information acquired by the acquisition unit (Fig. 3 States in Remote Remote operation ECU, and [0121] the controller 218 controls each of the engine ECU 215, the brake ECU 216, and the steering ECU 217, on the basis of the received remote operation control signal and the respective output signals from the GPS 211, the outer sensor 212, the inner sensor 213, and the camera 214 (step S211)).
MABUCHI does not expressly teach a table. However, it would have been obvious to one having ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to have setting table, since it has been held to be within the general skill of a worker in the art to select a well known material on the basis of its suitability for the intended use as a matter of obvious design choice. In re Leshin, 125 USPQ 416.
Regarding claims 18 and 21, MABUCHI teaches, as in claim 17 above, to transmit request information including the updated communication setting table to the communication target device in order to update a communication setting table of the communication target device (Fig. 3 updates states, Fig. 6 and [0139] the remote operation controller 11 transmits the remote operation start signal to the vehicle 20 via the communication controller 13 (step S305)).
Claims 10.- 11. (Canceled)
Conclusion
Applicant's amendment necessitated the new ground(s) of rejection presented in this Office action. Accordingly, THIS ACTION IS MADE FINAL. See MPEP § 706.07(a). 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.
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to EUNSOOK CHOI whose telephone number is (571)270-1822. The examiner can normally be reached on 8am-4:30pm.
If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner’s supervisor, Hassan Phillips can be reached on 5712723940. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300.
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/EUNSOOK CHOI/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2467
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