DETAILED ACTION
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 the rejections of claims 1-20 have been considered but are moot in view of new grounds of rejection.
As to any arguments not specifically addressed, they have been addressed in previous Office action or described in AIA 35 U.S.C. 103 Rejection Section below.
Response to Amendment
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 103
3. The text of those sections of Title 35, U.S. Code not included in this section can be found in a prior Office action.
4. Claims 1-2, 10, 12-14, and 20 are rejected under AIA 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Itoh et al. (US Publication 20200180645) in view of Teshima et al. (US Publication 20210208584) and further in view of Ahn et al. (US Publication 2021/0325972).
Regarding claim 1, Itoh discloses a wearable electronic device comprising:
a camera; a display; communication circuitry; at least one processor; and memory storing instructions (Itoh, fig’s 8-10, an imaging device 21, a communication unit 27, and a processor having hardware such as a memory and a CPU) that, when executed by the at least one processor individually or collectively, cause the wearable electronic device to:
establish, through the communication circuitry, a communication connection with a control device included in a vehicle, identify, through the camera, a state of a user in the vehicle, identify a driving state of the vehicle based on at least one of a driving speed of the vehicle or a rotation angle of a steering wheel of the vehicle (Itoh, fig’s 8-10, para’s 0092-0107, a projection unit 24 projects images, video, and character information toward a wearable device display unit or a driver's retina under the control of a control unit 28; the communication unit 2, the control unit 28, and the ECU 19 and the ECU 19 are configured to calculate the distance between the vehicle 100 and the wearable device 2 based on the location information detected by the GPS sensor 25 of the wearable device 2) acquired through the communication unit 15 and the location information detected by the GPS sensor 201 of the car navigation system 20; a wearable device 2 acquires light-of-sight “gazing” information about a driver's light-of-sight “state of the driver” from a light-of-sight “gazing” sensor 23 of a wearable device 2 through a communication unit 15, acquires behavior information about the vehicle 100 from a behavior sensor 14, operation information about a driving amount of the vehicle from an operation sensor 12, and steering information about a steering rotation amount “steering angle” of the vehicle from a steering wheel sensor 13; and outputs driving support information to the wearable device for display in a region overlapping with a part of the steering wheel in the driver’s visual field).
Itoh does not explicitly disclose:
the state of a user in the vehicle based on whether at least one hand of the user is proximate to a specified portion of the vehicle;
based on at least one of the state of the user or the driving state, determine at least one area, respectively corresponding to at least one position in the vehicle, for a gesture of the user, the at least one area being less than an entire area in the vehicle, based on identifying the gesture of the user in the at least one area, execute a function corresponding to the gesture among at least one function, and based on identifying the gesture of the user in an area in the vehicle other than the at least one area, refrain from executing the function corresponding to the gesture among the at least one function.
Teshima discloses based on at least one of the state of the user or the driving state, determine at least one area for a gesture of the user, and based on identifying the gesture of the user in the at least one area, execute a function corresponding to the gesture among at least one function (Teshima, fig's 4 and 5, para's 0054-0067, under control of the control unit 38, the imaging devices 31, as first sensors provided in the first wearable device, capture an image along the line of sight of the user U1, thereby generating image data, and then output the image data to the control unit 38; the behavior sensor 32 as a second sensor detects behavior information regarding a behavior of the user U1 wearing the first wearable device 30, and outputs a detection result to the control unit 38. Specifically, the behavior sensor 32 detects an angular velocity and an acceleration, which are generated in the first wearable device 30, as such behavior information, and outputs a detection result to the control unit 38. The behavior sensor 32 detects an absolute direction as the behavior information by detecting geomagnetism, and outputs a detection result to the control unit 38. The line-of-sight sensor detects an orientation of the line-of-sight of the user wearing the first wearable device, and outputs a detection result to control unit 38; the GPS sensor 35 calculates position information about a position of the first wearable device 30 based on signals received from the plurality of GPS satellites, and outputs the calculated position information to the control unit 38. The GPS sensor 35 is composed by using a GPS receiving sensor; the wearing sensor detects a wearing state of the user U1, and outputs a detection result to the control unit 38).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to incorporate Teshima’s features into Itoh’s invention for enhancing user’s driving experience.
Itoh-Teshima does not explicitly disclose but Ahn discloses the state of a user in the vehicle based on whether at least one hand of the user is proximate to a specified portion of the vehicle; determine the at least one area, respectively corresponding to at least one position in the vehicle, for a gesture of the user, the at least one area being less than an entire area in the vehicle, and based on identifying the gesture of the user in an area in the vehicle other than the at least one area, refrain from executing the function corresponding to the gesture among the at least one function (Ahn, para. 0080, since the wearable device 100 is worn on a specific body part (e.g., a finger) of the user, the motion information is related to a motion of the specific body part of the user. i.e., hand motion; para. 0066, when the gesture recognition apparatus 200 recognizes the gesture using the wearable device 100, the gesture recognition apparatus 200 provides a function corresponding to the recognized gesture differently according to the position of the wearable device 100, the position of the user, the gaze of the user, the user information (e.g., the age information), or the target device to be controlled; fig’s 16-19, para’s 0228-0250, the gesture recognition apparatus 200 executes various functions in the vehicle system according to the part (or the position of the finger of the user who wears the wearable device 100) in which the wearable device 100 is located; when it is determined that the wearable device 100 is located in a first region, the gesture recognition apparatus 200 performs the gesture recognition, and when it is determined that the wearable device 100 is located in a second region, the gesture recognition apparatus 200 does not perform the gesture recognition; when the gesture recognition apparatus 200 recognizes a gesture, the gesture recognition apparatus 200 executes a function corresponding to the recognized gesture; therefore, as a result, based on identifying the gesture of the user in an area in the vehicle other than the at least one area, refrain from executing the function corresponding to the gesture among the at least one function; see also Ahn Joon et al., as recited below, English Translation of Korean Publication KR20210000464 01-2021).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to incorporate Ahn’s features into Itoh-Teshima’s invention for enhancing user’s driving experience.
Regarding claim 2, Itoh-Teshima-Ahn discloses the wearable electronic device of claim 1, wherein the instructions that, when executed by the at least one processor individually or collectively, cause the wearable electronic device to: based on a position of the user in the vehicle, determine the state of the user (Itoh, fig. 10, para’s 0092-0107, the communication unit 27, the control unit 28, and the ECU 19 are configured to calculate the distance between the vehicle 100 and the wearable device 2 based on the location information detected by the GPS sensor 25 of the wearable device 2) acquired through the communication unit 15 and the location information detected by the GPS sensor 201 of the car navigation system 20; a wearable device 2 acquires light-of-sight “gaze” information about a driver's light-of-sight “gaze” from a light-of-sight “gaze” sensor 23 of a wearable device 2 through a communication unit 15, acquires behavior information about the vehicle 100 from a behavior sensor 14, operation information about a driving amount of a driving vehicle from a manipulation sensor 12, and steering information about a steering amount of the vehicle from a steering wheel sensor 13; and outputs driving support information to the wearable device for display in a region overlapping with a part of the steering wheel in the driver’s visual field).
Regarding claim 10, Itoh-Teshima-Ahn discloses the wearable electronic device of claim 1, wherein the instructions, when executed by the at least one processor individually or collectively, cause the wearable electronic device to: identify, using the camera, a gaze of the user, and based on the gaze of the user, determine the at least one area (Itoh, fig. 10, para’s 0092-0107, the communication unit 27, the control unit 28, and the ECU 19 are configured to calculate the distance between the vehicle 100 and the wearable device 2 based on the location information detected by the GPS sensor 25 of the wearable device 2) acquired through the communication unit 15 and the location information detected by the GPS sensor 201 of the car navigation system 20; a wearable device 2 acquires light-of-sight “gaze” information about a driver's light-of-sight “gaze” from a light-of-sight “gaze” sensor 23 of a wearable device 2 through a communication unit 15, acquires behavior information about the vehicle 100 from a behavior sensor 14, operation information about a driving amount of a driving vehicle from a manipulation sensor 12, and steering information about a steering amount of the vehicle from a steering wheel sensor 13; and outputs driving support information to the wearable device for display in a region overlapping with a part of the steering wheel in the driver’s visual field).
Regarding claim 12, Itoh-Teshima-Ahn discloses the wearable electronic device of claim 1, wherein the instructions, when executed by the at least one processor individually or collectively, cause the wearable electronic device to: display information related to an autonomous driving of the vehicle in a specified area in the vehicle, which is less than the entire area in the vehicle, when the control device is set to an autonomous driving mode of the vehicle (Teshima, para. 0036, the moving body 1 may be a vehicle, in particular an autonomously driving vehicle).
The motivation to combine the references is the same as in claim 1.
Claims 13-14 and 20 are rejected the same reasons set forth in claims 1-2. Itoh-Teshima-Ahn further discloses computer readable medium (see Itoh, para. 0162).
5. Claims 3-4, 6, 9, 15-16, and 18 are rejected under AIA 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Itoh-Teshima-Ahn, as applied to claims 1 and 13 above, in view of Jaegal (US Publication 2022/0118996).
Regarding claims 3 and 6, Itoh-Teshima-Ahn discloses the wearable electronic device of claim 1, wherein the instructions that, when executed by the at least one processor individually or collectively, cause the wearable electronic device to perform function as described in claim 1 above.
Itoh-Teshima-Ahn does not explicitly disclose but Jaegal discloses based on identifying that one hand of the user is proximate to a portion of the steering wheel of the vehicle, display at least one virtual object related to the at least one function, and based on identifying the first gesture of the one hand in an area proximate to the portion of the steering wheel among the at least one area, execute the function corresponding to the gesture; and wherein the instructions that, when executed by the least one processor individually or collectively, cause the wearable electronic device to: based on identifying that the vehicle is being driven, display at least one virtual object related to the at least one function when both hands of the user are proximate to the steering wheel of the vehicle, and based on identifying that the vehicle is stopped, display the at least one virtual object even if both hands of the user are not proximate to the steering wheel of the vehicle (Jaegal, para’s 0272-0276, the touch input unit may be disposed on one area of the steering wheel of the vehicle 10 to output a screen for manipulating at least one of the functions of the vehicle 10, and the specific touch input may be determined according to the form of the graphic object displayed on the screen among the user's touch inputs under the control of the main controller 370).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to incorporate Teshima’s features into Itoh’s invention for enhancing user’s driving experience.
Claims 15 and 18 are rejected the same reasons set forth in claims 3 and 6.
Regarding claims 4 and 9, Itoh-Teshima-Ahn discloses the wearable electronic device of claim 1, wherein the instructions that, when executed by the at least one processor individually or collectively, cause the wearable electronic device to perform function as described in claim 1 above.
Itoh-Teshima-Ahn does not explicitly disclose but Jaegal discloses based on identifying that the driving speed of the vehicle is a first speed, determine a first area corresponding to a first position distanced from the steering wheel of the vehicle by a first specified distance among the at least one area, and based on identifying that the driving speed of the vehicle is a second speed greater than the first speed, determine a second area corresponding to a second position distanced from the steering wheel of the vehicle by a second specified distance that is smaller than the first specified distance among the at least one area; and wherein a first movement distance of a specified finger of the user indicating the gesture, which is identified when the driving speed of the vehicle is a first speed, is greater than a second movement distance of the specified finger of the user indicating the first gesture, which is identified when the driving speed of the vehicle is a second speed (Jaegal, fig. 12, para’s 0186, 0272-0276, 0353-0356, 0362-0363, and 0383, sensing unit 270 can detect and generate a state of the vehicle; the vehicle state data can be vehicle speed data, vehicle acceleration data, and steering wheel rotation angle data, the control unit determines the intention of the user related to the selection of any one of the functions of the vehicle 10, determines the user's intention related to selection of any one of the functions of the vehicle, and a touch screen provided on the steering wheel of the vehicle can output a screen for operating a function that matches the determined user's intention; para’s 0272-0276, The specific touch input may be determined according to the form of the graphic object, and may be any one of a short touch, a long touch, a multi touch, a drag touch, a flick touch, a pinch-in touch, a pinch-out touch, a swipe touch, and a hovering touch on the touch screen, or a combination thereof. The short touch may be referred to as a tab as an operation of shortly pressing and releasing a screen. The flick touch is an operation of putting the finger on the screen and then quickly moving and releasing the finger to quickly scroll or rotate the screen. The pinch touch is an operation of moving two fingers in different directions in a state in which the two fingers touch on the screen. An input according to a distance of the two fingers is generated. When the two fingers are gathered, the pinch touch may be referred to as a pinch-in touch, and when the two fingers are separated, the pinch touch may be referred to as a pinch-out touch. The hovering touch refers to a touch that is recognized according to a distance between the finger and the screen, instead of actually being touched by the finger on the screen. The manipulation result may be provided differently to the type of the touch input).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to incorporate Jaegal’s features into Itoh-Teshima-Ahn’s invention for enhancing user’s driving experience.
Claim 16 is rejected the same reasons set forth in claim 4.
6. Claims 5, 11, and 17 are rejected under AIA 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Itoh-Teshima-Ahn, as applied to claims 1 and 13 above, in view of Ahn Joon et al. (English Translation of Korean Publication KR20210000464 01-2021, hereinafter AhnJoon).
Regarding claims 5 and 11, Itoh-Teshima-Ahn discloses the wearable electronic device of claim 1.
Itoh-Teshima-Ahn does not explicitly disclose but AhnJoon discloses the wearable electronic device of claim 1, wherein the instructions that, when executed by the at least one processor individually or collectively, cause the wearable electronic device to: based on identifying that one hand of the user is proximate to an armrest of the vehicle, display at least one virtual object related to the at least one function; and wherein the instructions, when executed by the least one processor individually or collectively, cause the wearable electronic device to: identify the gesture based on at least one of a movement direction or a shape of a finger of the user (AhnJoon, fig. 6, para’s 0089-0096, when a user inputs a gesture of swiping his right hand from left to right while his arm is in contact with the touchpad (300), the input unit receives information related to the user's gesture operation acquired by the camera and receives information related to the arm's holding state acquired by the touchpad).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to incorporate AhnJoon’s features into Itoh-Teshima-Ahn’s invention for enhancing user’s driving experience.
Claim 17 is rejected the same reasons set forth in claim 5.
7. Claims 7-8 and 19 are rejected under AIA 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Itoh-Teshima-Ahn, as applied to claims 1 and 13 above, in view of Kim et al. (English Translation of Korean Publication KR20220052625 04-2022).
Regarding claims 7-8, Itoh-Teshima-Ahn discloses the wearable electronic device of claim 1.
Itoh-Teshima-Ahn does not explicitly disclose but Kim discloses when identifying that the driving speed of the vehicle is a first speed less than or equal to a first specified speed, determine a size of the at least one area as a first size, and when identifying that the driving speed of the vehicle is a second speed greater than the first specified speed, determine the size of the at least one area as a second size smaller than the first size; and when identifying that the rotation angle of the steering wheel of the vehicle is a first angle less than or equal to a first specified angle, determine a size of the at least one area as a first size, and when identifying that the rotation angle of the steering wheel of the vehicle is a second angle greater than the first specified angle, determine the size of the at least one area as a second size smaller than the first size (Kim, para’s 0471-0489, adjusting the transparency of the mobile phone screen or the size of buttons depending on the driving speed of the vehicle).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to incorporate Kim’s features into Itoh-Teshima-Ahn’s invention for enhancing user’s driving experience.
Claim 19 is rejected the same reasons set forth in claim 7.
Conclusion
8. 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.
9. Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to LOI H TRAN whose telephone number is (571)270-5645. The examiner can normally be reached 8:00AM-5:00PM PST FIRST FRIDAY OF BIWEEK OFF.
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/LOI H TRAN/ Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2484
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