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 .
Information Disclosure Statement
The information disclosure statement (IDS) submitted on 11/04/2024 and 07/30/2024. The submission is in compliance with the provisions of 37 CFR 1.97. Accordingly, the information disclosure statement is being considered by the examiner.
Priority
Acknowledgment is made of applicant’s claim for foreign priority under 35 U.S.C. 119 (a)-(d). The certified copy has been filed in parent Application No. JP2019-186556, filed on 10/10/2019.
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 1 and 5 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Tang [CN 103050008 A1].
In regards to claim 1. Tang discloses a vehicle position detecting device (Abstract), wherein the vehicle position detecting device (Abstract)
generates a lateral dilated region (Fig. 3b (i) and Fig. 4(b)) by performing a first dilation process and a first erosion process (see paragraph [0061] “morphological closing”; it is well known that a morphological closing operation includes a dilation followed by an erosion) on an image that is based on an imaging device (all images in Fig. 1-5 are camera-based images & Paragraph [0033])
the lateral dilated region being a region in which a pair of luminous points included in the image and appearing side by side in the widthwise direction of the vehicle are connected to each other (Fig. 3(i) and Fig. 4(b) & Paragraph [0036]), the imaging device capturing an image of a region ahead of the vehicle, and detects a position of a front vehicle based on the lateral dilated region (Paragraph [0061] “matching the headlights” “” Fig. 3(i) and Fig. 4(b)).
Tang does not specify by use of a first structuring element of a predetermined shape elongated in a widthwise direction of a vehicle
Tang discloses by use of a first structuring element of a predetermined shape elongated in a widthwise direction of a vehicle (see paragraph [0061] “line structure elements”; also linear shape of the region that is derived at the end of matching/detecting process (and is shown in Fig. 3(i) and Fig. 4(b)) discloses that the structuring element used during the morphological closing be elongated in a widthwise direction of a vehicle))
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filling date of the invention was made to modify Tang with by use of a first structuring element of a predetermined shape elongated in a widthwise direction of a vehicle for purpose of uses the light propagation properties of a scattering in the atmosphere, using azimuth fuzzy technology reduces the street lamp, billboard illuminating and improves the precision of the whole system (Paragraph [0086]).
In regards to claim 5. Tang discloses a vehicle position detecting method (Abstract), comprising:
generating a lateral dilated region (Fig. 3b (i) and Fig. 4(b)) by performing a first dilation process and a first erosion process on (see paragraph [0061] “morphological closing”; it is well known that a morphological closing operation includes a dilation followed by an erosion) an image that is based on an imaging device (all images in Fig. 1-5 are camera-based images & Paragraph [0033]), the lateral dilated region being a region in which a pair of luminous points included in the image and appearing side by side in the widthwise direction of the vehicle are connected to each other (Fig. 3(i) and Fig. 4(b) & Paragraph [0036]), the imaging device capturing an image of a region ahead of the vehicle (Fig. 3(i) and Fig. 4(b) & Paragraph [0036]); and detecting a position of a front vehicle based on the lateral dilated region (Paragraph [0061] “matching the headlights” “” Fig. 3(i) and Fig. 4(b)). .
Tang does not specify by use of a first structuring element of a predetermined shape elongated in a widthwise direction of a vehicle
Tang discloses by use of a first structuring element of a predetermined shape elongated in a widthwise direction of a vehicle (see paragraph [0061] “line structure elements”; also linear shape of the region that is derived at the end of matching/detecting process (and is shown in Fig. 3(i) and Fig. 4(b)) discloses that the structuring element used during the morphological closing be elongated in a widthwise direction of a vehicle))
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filling date of the invention was made to modify Tang with by use of a first structuring element of a predetermined shape elongated in a widthwise direction of a vehicle for purpose of uses the light propagation properties of a scattering in the atmosphere, using azimuth fuzzy technology reduces the street lamp, billboard illuminating and improves the precision of the whole system (Paragraph [0086]).
Claim 3 is rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Tang [CN 103050008 A1] in view of Nakatani [US 2016/0332560 A1]
In regards to claim 3, Tang discloses the vehicle position detecting device according to claim 1
Tang does not specify a vehicle lamp system, comprising: an imaging device that captures an image of a region ahead of a vehicle; a light distribution variable lamp that can illuminate the region ahead of the vehicle with a visible light beam of a variable intensity distribution; and a light distribution controlling device that a pattern determiner that determines a light distribution pattern including a light blocking portion based on a detection result of the vehicle position detecting device; and a lamp controlling device that controls the light distribution variable lamp so as to form the light distribution pattern.
Nakatani discloses a vehicle lamp system, comprising: an imaging device (Fig. 1, 10) that captures an image of a region (Paragraph [0038]) ahead of a vehicle (Fig. 4, 40); a light distribution variable lamp (Fig. 1, 20L & 20R) that can illuminate the region ahead of the vehicle (Fig. 4, 40) with a visible light beam of a variable intensity distribution (Paragraph [0039]); the light distribution controlling device (Fig. 1, Headlight controller); and a lamp controlling device (Fig. 1, 12) that controls the light distribution variable lamp (Fig. 1, 20L & 20R) so as to form the light distribution pattern (Abstract & Paragraph [0027]).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filling date of the invention was made to modify Tang with a vehicle lamp system, comprising: an imaging device that captures an image of a region ahead of a vehicle; a light distribution variable lamp that can illuminate the region ahead of the vehicle with a visible light beam of a variable intensity distribution; and a light distribution controlling device that a pattern determiner that determines a light distribution pattern including a light blocking portion based on a detection result of the vehicle position detecting device; and a lamp controlling device that controls the light distribution variable lamp so as to form the light distribution pattern for purpose of safely drive at night in accordance with various traffic conditions, while preventing a right and left headlight from emitting a glare type light to oncoming vehicles and vehicles moving in a forward direction of a subject vehicle incorporating the headlight controller and the right and left headlight as Nakatani (Paragraph [0021]).
Allowable Subject Matter
Claims 2-4 are 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.
“wherein the vehicle position detecting device generates a first image that includes a pair of luminous points located at a predetermined first distance and a pair of luminous points located at a second distance farther than the first distance, with the number of times a second erosion process is performed on the image that is based on the imaging device by use of a second structuring element of a predetermined shape set to a relatively low number, generates a second image that includes the pair of luminous points located at the first distance and in which the pair of luminous points located at the second distance has been deleted, with the number of times the second erosion process is performed on the image that is based on the imaging device set to a relatively high number, and performs the first dilation process and the first erosion process on the first image by use of the first structuring element that is relatively shorter in the widthwise direction of the vehicle and performs the first dilation process and the first erosion process on the second image by use of the first structuring element that is relatively longer in the widthwise direction of the vehicle.” as shown in claim 2
“wherein the pattern determiner generates an inverted image by inverting a pixel value of each pixel in an image in which the lateral dilated region has been generated, and generates an upper eroded region that extends upward from the lateral dilated region by performing a third erosion process on the inverted image by use of a third structuring element of a predetermined shape elongated in an up-down direction, and incorporates the upper eroded region into the light blocking portion.” as show in claim 4
Conclusion
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to WEI (VICTOR) CHAN whose telephone number is (571)272-5177. The examiner can normally be reached M-F 9:00am to 6:00pm.
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WEI (VICTOR) CHAN
Primary Examiner
Art Unit 2844
/WEI (VICTOR) Y CHAN/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2844