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 § 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.
Claims 1-3 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Hayase (US 2011/0234448 A1) and Sawamoto (JP 2004080298 A).
Regarding claim 1, Hayase teaches an object detection device configured to be mounted to a movable body and configured to detect an object present around the movable body, the device comprising:
a wave transmitter configured to transmit a transmission wave corresponding to a transmission signal [[abstract] radar device includes: a frequency modulating unit for modulating a frequency of a transmission signal by a triangular wave; a transmitting unit for pulsing the frequency modulated transmission signal to transmit the pulsed transmission signal as a transmission pulse];
a wave receiver configured to receive, as a reception wave, the transmission wave reflected by the object [[abstract] a receiving unit for generating a beat signal based on a frequency difference between a frequency modulated transmission signal and a reflected received pulse];
a relative speed estimation part configured to estimate a relative speed between the movable body and the object [[abstract] relative velocity calculating unit for calculating a distance to a target and a relative velocity based on the sampled beat signal; [[0002] obtains a distance to a target and a relative velocity, in which a pulse width and a range gate interval (width) are changed depending on a travel environment so as to ensure both of a short-distance precision and a long-distance performance without increasing a calculation amount; [0164] transmission pulse width Tw is set to be larger than the long-distance range gate width Trl so that the received pulses may be sampled by the long-distance range gates; [[0071] As illustrated by an item (b) of FIG. 4, a given number (N in the drawing) of transmission pulses are transmitted during the up phase.].
Hayase does not explicitly teach and yet Sawamoto teaches a correlation processing part configured to change, in accordance with the relative speed, a window width of a reference window that defines a pulse length of the transmission signal used in calculating a correlation value corresponding to similarity between the transmission signal and the reception signal corresponding to the reception wave [[0004] base station 10 obtains delay profile data (correlation power) equal to the cell radius by taking the correlation between the received signal and the despreading code for the mobile station 30a with a timing difference; [0005] since mobile station 30b is moving at speed v, its path timing also changes moment by moment according to the relative speed vr. [0006] Under these circumstances, conventionally, a search window 50 with a relatively narrow width w is set for the delay profile data obtained at the base station 10, thereby detecting a received signal path useful for RAKE reception with fewer search operations within the search window 50.], wherein changing the window width changes a number of pulses of the transmission signal used in calculating the correlation value is obtained [[0007] however, in the above conventional method, since the window width w is fixed, the actual wireless propagation environment is not reflected in the window width w, and therefore it was not possible to detect the reception path efficiently and reliably. In other words, if the window width w is too wide compared to the actual wireless propagation environment, extra search processing for the receiving path becomes necessary, and if the window width w is too narrow, there is a risk that useful receiving paths will be missed. Furthermore, as the mobile station 30 moves, the radio propagation conditions change in various ways, making it difficult to perform consistently efficient and reliable receiving path searches using conventional methods. [0008] The present invention has been made in view of the problems of the prior art described above, and its object is to provide a search window control method that can efficiently set and update a search window of position/width according to the actual wireless propagation environment; [0009]; and a detection part configured to detect information on the object, in a case where the correlation value is determined to indicate similarity at a level equal to or higher than a predetermined level [[0024] path detection unit 20 detects multiple paths that exceed a predetermined threshold Pth for delay profile data equal to the cell radius, and sets the peak levels detected in the time series (locally) for each of these paths as predetermined valid paths].
It would have been obvious to a person having ordinary skill in the art prior to the effective filing date of the invention with a reasonable expectation of success to modify the changing of range gate width in accordance with relative velocity as taught by Hayase, with the adjustable window width and position in response to relative speed as taught by Sawamoto so that correlation search processing is performed efficiently and reliably avoids missing detections (Sawamoto) [[0007]].
Regarding claim 2, Hayase does not explicitly teach and yet Sawamoto teaches the object detection device according to claim 1, wherein the correlation processing part is configured to change the window width in units of code length of the transmission signal [[0020] delay profile data (correlation power) of a specific channel signal by performing correlation calculations between the received signal and a known despreading code while shifting the timing (chip timing, etc.)].
It would have been obvious to a person having ordinary skill in the art prior to the effective filing date of the invention with a reasonable expectation of success to modify the changing of range gate width in accordance with relative velocity as taught by Hayase, with the adjustable window width and position in response to relative speed as taught by Sawamoto using units of time or code length because length of pulses is ultimately related width in units of time.
Regarding claim 3, Hayase does not explicitly teach and yet Sawamoto teaches the object detection device according to claim 1, wherein the correlation processing part is configured to narrow the window width as a magnitude of the relative speed increases and to widen the window width as the magnitude of the relative speed decreases [[0006] search window with a relatively narrow width w is set], wherein, when a magnitude of a second relative speed is greater than a magnitude of a first relative speed, a second window width of the reference window that is narrower than a first window width of the reference window is selected for the second relative speed [[0025] generally, in radio wave propagation environments where the average spacing between effective paths Iave is narrow (i.e., line of sight is good or direct waves can easily reach the target), the domain division width Iave becomes narrower, thus increasing the resolution of the search window; [0031-0032] search window 50 is set to the timing (T1 + T2) / 2 of the midpoint (centroid) of the effective paths P1 and P2. Furthermore, this method can be automatically implemented, for example, by determining whether (T2 - T1) > α (a predetermined threshold). [0032] Figure 6(A) shows the case in which, in addition to the case in Figure 5(B), the magnitudes of the earliest and latest path levels (correlated powers) P1 and P2 are also taken into consideration].
It would have been obvious to a person having ordinary skill in the art prior to the effective filing date of the invention with a reasonable expectation of success to modify the changing of range gate width in accordance with relative velocity as taught by Hayase, with the adjustable window width and position in response to relative speed as taught by Sawamoto so that correlation search processing is performed efficiently and reliably avoids missing detections (Sawamoto) [[0007]].
Allowable Subject Matter
Claim 4 is objected to as being dependent upon a rejected base claim, but would be allowable if rewritten in independent form including all of the limitations of the base claim and any intervening claims.
The following is a statement of reasons for the indication of allowable subject matter: see below.
Regarding claim 4, the closest prior art of record does not appear to teach the object detection device according to claim 1, wherein a relationship between the relative speed and the window width of the reference window is determined in advance and stored as a map, or is calculated each time by using a predetermined calculation formula, and the correlation processing part sets the window width in accordance with the relative speed acquired from the relative speed estimation part, and wherein the object detection device further comprises an envelope processing part configured to obtain an envelope of a waveform of a signal corresponding to the correlation value, and a threshold processing part configured to compare a value of the envelope with a predetermined threshold, the detection part being configured to detect a distance to the object by a time-of-flight method on a basis of a comparison result obtained through the threshold processing part.
Response to Arguments
Applicant’s arguments, see pgs. , filed 9, with respect to the rejection(s) of claim(s) 1 under 35 U.S.C. 103 have been fully considered and are persuasive. Therefore, the rejection has been withdrawn. However, upon further consideration, a new ground(s) of rejection is made in view of Sawamoto (JP 2004080298 A).
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 JONATHAN D ARMSTRONG whose telephone number is (571)270-7339. The examiner can normally be reached M - F 9am-5pm.
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/JONATHAN D ARMSTRONG/Examiner, Art Unit 3645
