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 .
DETAILED ACTION This action is in response to the application filed on 07/31/2024.Claims 1-5 have been examined.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 102
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.
Claims 1-2 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a) (2) as being anticipated by UMEMURA (WO 2024/057760).
As of claim 1, UMEMURA discloses an information processing device, comprising ([Fig. 6] step 260 of performing communication processing using communication unit 150 or signal strength measurement processing, step 262 of obtaining information indicating the state of the vehicle via CAN 152) a control unit configured to acquire a quality map regarding quality of wireless communication for each planned travel route and area of a first vehicle (Umemura, [0008] (1) the driving support system includes a first information storage unit for storing a map relating to a predetermined area and actual information relating to communication quality within the area; a route calculation unit for calculating, in response to a destination of the vehicle being specified, a plurality of driving routes (=each planned travel route) for the vehicle from the current position of the vehicle to the destination based on the communication quality required for services available using the communication device and the information stored in the first information storage unit), and when the planned travel route passes through a first area where the quality of the wireless communication is lower than predetermined quality (Umemura, (9) the multiple constraints include at least the constraint that communication quality is not restricted, that communication quality is at least a predetermined quality throughout the driving route, or that communication quality is at least a first quality sufficient to use a predetermined first service in a first portion of the driving route; A driving route is calculated based on performance information regarding communication quality, As a result, it is easy to determine a travel route that will ensure continuous and sufficient communication quality),
send data that the first vehicle uses in the first area to the first vehicle before the first vehicle reaches the first area ((19) the server accumulates performance information received from multiple in-vehicle devices and sends it to the in-vehicle devices. Based on this performance information, a driving route is calculated and displayed on the vehicle-mounted device. As a result, determine a travel route that will continue to provide sufficient communication quality).
As of claim 2, rejection of claim 1 cited above incorporated herein, in addition UMEMURA discloses wherein the first area is an area where a data transfer rate for downlink continues to be lower than required quality for a predetermined time or more (in step 356, the route calculation unit 164 deletes edges whose communication speed is less than half of the specified bit rate from the route graph, [FIG. 20] according to the balloon 824, the communication quality satisfaction level on the first route (first travel route) is 75% which is the total length of the portion of the first travel route where the bit rate specified by the service can be maintained corresponds to 75% of the total length of the first travel route. In the second travel route, this value is 25%. That is, on the first driving route, the service is available with the highest possible quality for 3/4 of its total length, but on the second driving route only 1/4 is available. Displaying such numerical values has the effect of making it easier for the user to understand the communication quality on each route).
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.
Claim 3 is rejected under AIA 35 U.S.C 103 as being unpatentable over UMEMURA (WO 2024/057760) in view of LENZ et al. (2022/0316914).
As of claim 3, rejection of claim 1 cited above incorporated herein, in addition UMEMURA does not explicitly discloses but LENZ teaches wherein the control unit is further configured to collect probe data regarding a data transfer rate for downlink from a plurality of second vehicles, and generate the quality map regarding the downlink, based on the collected probe data (LENZ, para [0006] discloses a system for the dynamic and robust updating of a digital map for automated driving vehicles, comprising: a server configured to determine a non-up-to- date geographical region of the digital map; and a vehicle fleet comprising a plurality of automated driving vehicles; para [0028-30] discloses capturing the data in the non-up-to-date geographical region comprises: carrying out a data rate measuring method in the uplink; and/or carrying out a data rate measuring method in the downlink; para [0035] discloses update the mobile radio network coverage map in the geographical region of the measurement by way of live updates of the measurements or data captures (=probe data) carried out by the vehicle).
Therefore it would have been obvious for a person of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to combine the teaching of the control unit as taught by UMEMURA with the teaching of LENZ in order to analyze the unknown complexity and to operate the vehicle with the aid of the live (measurement) data which is suitably processed in the vehicle prior to data transmission in order to reduce the amount of data to be transmitted as taught by LENZ in para [0003].
Claim 4 is rejected under AIA 35 U.S.C 103 as being unpatentable over UMEMURA (WO 2024/057760) in view of LENZ et al. (2022/0316914) and further in view of MATSUNAGA (US 2022/0014288).
As of claim 4, rejection of claim 3 cited above incorporated herein, in addition modified UMEMURA-LENZ teaches the information processing device. UMEMURA-LENZ does not explicitly disclose however MATSUNAGA teaches the probe data includes at least one of the following pieces of data that are periodically sent from wireless devices mounted on the second vehicles: Reference Signal Received Power, Reference Signal Received Quality, and Signal-to-Interference-plus-Noise Ratio (Matsunaga, para [0015] discloses the communication quality to be improved here be represented by indices such as SNR (signal-to-noise power ratio), SINR (signal-to-interference plus noise power ratio), RSRP (reference signal received power), RSRQ (reference signal received quality) and received signal strength. Para [0031] discloses the route information acquiring unit 303 acquires information on a scheduled moving route of the terminal device, acquire route information indicating a scheduled moving route of the vehicle from a terminal device mounted on an automated driving vehicle or a remote driving vehicle or a terminal device such as a smartphone that is executing a navigation application).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify the combined teaching of Umemura-Lenz with Matsunaga in order to improve communication quality in a wireless communication system in which a communicable area is developed planarly, such as cellular wireless communication as taught by Matsunaga, para [0015].
Allowable Subject Matter
Claim 5 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, since the combined teachings of the prior art references do not teach or reasonably suggest the limitation “acquire a time when the first vehicle enters the first area and a time when the first vehicle exits the first area, acquire information on pieces of music to be played in the first vehicle, estimate positions of the pieces of music corresponding to the time when the first vehicle enters the first area and the time when the first vehicle exits the first area, according to the information on the pieces of music to be played in the first vehicle, and send the music data corresponding to the estimated positions of the pieces of music to the first vehicle before the first vehicle reaches the first area” claimed invention as a whole.
Conclusion
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to FAHMIDA S CHOWDHURY whose telephone number is (571)272-2547. The examiner can normally be reached M-F 8am to 5pm.
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/FAHMIDA S CHOWDHURY/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2471
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