DETAILED ACTION
Status
This Office Action is responsive to claims filed on 08/05/2024. Please note Claims 1-20 are pending and have been examined.
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) submission is in compliance with the provisions of 37 CFR 1.97. Accordingly, the information disclosure statement is being considered by the examiner.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 112
The following is a quotation of 35 U.S.C. 112(b):
(b) CONCLUSION.—The specification shall conclude with one or more claims particularly pointing out and distinctly claiming the subject matter which the inventor or a joint inventor regards as the invention.
The following is a quotation of 35 U.S.C. 112 (pre-AIA ), second paragraph:
The specification shall conclude with one or more claims particularly pointing out and distinctly claiming the subject matter which the applicant regards as his invention.
Claims 5, 15 and 20 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 112(b) or 35 U.S.C. 112 (pre-AIA ), second paragraph, as being indefinite for failing to particularly point out and distinctly claim the subject matter which the inventor or a joint inventor, or for pre-AIA the applicant regards as the invention.
Claim 5 recites “the 3D surface topology mesh” which lacks antecedent basis. The Claim 5 and its parent claim 1 fail to define any surface topology mesh.
Claim 15 recites similar features of claim 5 and is therefore rejected.
Claim 20 recites “one or more roadway surfaces” and “one or more drivable roadway surfaces”. It’s not clear whether they are referring to a same limitation. Clarification is needed.
Allowable Subject Matter
Claims 1-4, 6-14, and 16-19 are allowed. Claims 5, 15 and 20 would be allowable if rewritten or amended to overcome the rejection(s) under 35 U.S.C. 112(b) or 35 U.S.C. 112 (pre-AIA ), 2nd paragraph, set forth in this Office action.
The following is a statement of reasons for the indication of allowable subject matter:
Regarding independent claim 1, Arnicar (US 20230077909 A1) discloses correlating map data to polygon mesh, determining demarcation lines corresponding to lanes of surfaces, computing surface lines, and rendering the surfaces in a simulation environment (see [0014], [0017] and [0056]). CAI (US 20250336139 A1) discloses generating texel image and adjusting individual texels based on a function of distance (see [0130]-[0131]). However, claim 1 recites “generate a texel image representing a surface texture appearance for the one or more lanes, wherein individual texels of the texel image are adjusted based at least on a function of distance to at least one surface line of the one or more surface lines”. The combination of these features with other limitations as cited in the claims are neither disclosed nor suggested by the prior art of record.
Independent claims 12 and 20 recite the similar features. Claim 12 recites “wherein individual texels of the set of texels are adjusted based at least on a function of distance to one or more surface lines derived from map data representing one or more drivable surfaces of the simulated environment”; Claim 20 recites “wherein the one or more individual texels are adjusted based at least on a function of distance to one or more surface lines derived from map data representing one or more drivable roadway surfaces”. The combination of these features with other limitations as cited in the claims are neither disclosed nor suggested by the prior art of record.
Conclusion
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to CHONG WU whose telephone number is (571)270-5207. The examiner can normally be reached MON-FRI: 9AM-5PM EST.
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/CHONG WU/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2613
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