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 .
Claims 1-15 are pending for examination in the instant application.
Claim Objections
Claim 6 is objected to because of the following informalities: Claim 6 recite “wherein a hazardous material sensor is integrated into each asset tracker of the plurality of asset trackers. server computing device configured.” There seems to be a typographical error after the “period”. Appropriate correction is required.
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, 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(s) 1-15 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Anderson et al. (Pub. No.: US 2007/0262861 A1), hereinafter “Anderson” in view of Breed et al. (Pub. No.: US 2009/0058593 A1), hereinafter “Breed”.
As to claim 1. Anderson discloses the invention substantially, a computer system for implementing asset tracker safety enhancements in an internet of things network (Anderson, Abstract) comprising:
a plurality of asset trackers, wherein each asset tracker tracks one or more IoT assets and obtains a set of IoT data (Anderson, [0004], a mobile asset tracking system receives telemetry information from any number of mobile assets (e.g., rail cars, truck trailers, intermodal cargo containers, etc.) transporting hazardous or non-hazardous materials. IoT networks were well known in art as evident by Khuti et al Pub. No.: US 2020/0067789 A1));
one or more communications hubs (Anderson, fig.1);
a base station (Anderson, fig.1, cellular);
one or more communication networks (Anderson, fig.1, internet, Wan, cellular etc.).
wherein each asset tracker is configured to be in communication with a base station and one or more of the communications hubs (Anderson, [0017], The internal electronic components include a GPS positioning module with antenna (such as an EM-406 SiRFIII GPS Engine Board from USGlobalsat, Inc.), a satellite or cellular communication module with antenna for data communications (such as a Model GM862-Quad cellular module);
wherein in the one or more communications hubs are configured to be in communication with one or more of the mobile units, and the one or more network (Anderson, fig.1, port listener, [0022], Once port listener 10 receives a mobile tracking device's information a separate process is initiated on central server 8 to process all location data transmitted by mobile tracking device 2, placing the data into the system's database.);
wherein the base station is configured to be in communication with the plurality of asset trackers (Anderson, fig.1, [0022], Each mobile tracking device 2 transmits data to a central monitoring system 4 through commonly used cellular or satellite data transmission technologies 6.);
a server computing device configured to be in communication with the one or more networks (Anderson, fig.1, [0022], Monitoring system 4 has a central server 8 which has a continuous running process (referenced as a TCP/IP port listener 10) that listens for data communications from tracking devices 2 in the environment. ).
Anderson however is silent to disclose explicitly, wherein the server computing device is further configured to implement the following logic:
enhance the plurality of asset trackers with a plurality of sensors and a plurality of algorithms to detect and transmit an alert when a hazardous condition is detected, wherein the plurality of asset trackers monitor one or more IoT assets sensor data (Breed, [0020], At least one receiver may be arranged proximate the infrastructure, the information about the detection of hazardous materials being transmitted to the receiver(s). Each sensor may be commanded to transmit the information about the detection of hazardous materials when the vehicle is within a predetermined range of the infrastructure.); and
initiate a risk prevention or risk detection warning protocol when a specified probability of a hazardous material is detected by at least one asset tracker of the plurality of asset trackers (Breed, [0020], regulating the transit of the vehicle relative to the infrastructure may entail preventing the vehicle from passing through or over the infrastructure, e.g., by interposing a barrier to the vehicle's passage through or over the infrastructure.).
Therefore, before the effective filing date of the instant application it would have been obvious to one of the skilled in the art to incorporate the teachings of “Breed” into those of “Anderson” to provide monitoring transport of hazardous materials includes arranging at least one sensor capable of detecting hazardous materials on a vehicle, transmitting information about the detection of hazardous materials by each sensor upon approach of the vehicle to infrastructure regulating the transport of the hazardous materials, and regulating the transit of the vehicle relative to the infrastructure based on whether any sensor provides information about the presence of hazardous materials on the vehicle. When the vehicles are trucks having trailers, each sensor can be arranged to detect hazardous materials in the trailer. When transit of hazardous materials through or over the infrastructure is prohibited, regulating the transit of the vehicle.
As to claim 2. The combined system of Anderson and Breed disclose the invention as in parent claim above including, wherein the one or more IoT assets sensor data comprises a temperature value of the one or more IoT assets (Anderson, [0048], asset temperature).
As to claim 3. The combined system of Anderson and Breed disclose the invention as in parent claim above including, wherein the one or more IoT assets sensor data comprises a pressure value of the one or more IoT assets (Breed, [0099], pressure sensors).
As to claim 4. The combined system of Anderson and Breed disclose the invention as in parent claim above including, wherein the one or more IoT assets sensor data comprises a vibration value of the one or more IoT assets (Breed, [0099], vibration sensor).
As to claim 5. The combined system of Anderson and Breed disclose the invention as in parent claim above including, wherein the one or more IoT assets sensor data comprises a moisture value of the one or more IoT assets (Breed, [0099], humidity sensor).
As to claim 6. The combined system of Anderson and Breed disclose the invention as in parent claim above including, wherein a hazardous material sensor is integrated into each asset tracker of the plurality of asset trackers (Anderson, [0017]).
As to claim 7. The combined system of Anderson and Breed disclose the invention as in parent claim above including, wherein a set of existing sensor modalities of each asset tracker of the plurality of asset trackers are co‐opted to provide additional hazards data with a pre‐trained ambient detection ML model (Breed, [0299], The control system 628 also processes the return signals to provide information about the vehicle or the component. The processing of the return signals can be any known processing including the use of pattern recognition techniques, neural networks, fuzzy systems and the like.).
As to claim 8. The combined system of Anderson and Breed disclose the invention as in parent claim above including, wherein the pre‐trained ambient change ML model trained is used to detect storage and transportation conditions that are associated with a leak of the hazardous material from a specified type of container (Breed, [0328], SAW or equivalent based systems can monitor a great many dangerous and hazardous materials that may be either legally or illegally occupying space within a container, for example. In particular, the existence of spills or leakages from the cargo can be detected in time to perhaps save damage to other cargo either within the container or in an adjacent container.).
As to claim 9. The combined system of Anderson and Breed disclose the invention as in parent claim above including, wherein the hazardous material sensor comprises an electrochemical sensor (Breed, [0374], chemical sensor).
As to claim 10. The combined system of Anderson and Breed disclose the invention as in parent claim above including, wherein the hazardous material sensor comprises a metal oxide sensors (MOS), infrared sensors, or an acoustic wave sensor (SAW) (Breed, [0375], infrared sensor, SAW and depending on requirements additional type of sensors can be included as design choice or intended use).
As to claims 11 and 12 are rejected for same rationale as applied to claim 10 above. Additionally adding specific sensor according to the materials chemical or physical properties are well understood and design choice.
As to claim 13. The combined system of Anderson and Breed disclose the invention as in parent claim above including, wherein the pre‐trained ambient detection ML model comprises one or more ML models that are trained to determine the probability of a sound originating from a leaking hazardous container as obtained by a microphone sensor (Breed, [0398], The device can be provided with a microphone and neural network algorithm that has been trained to recognize the noise signature of an airbag deployment or the information that a crash transpired can be obtained from an accelerometer. Since sensor already exist, therefore these sensors and algorithm can be applied to recognize the leakage sound to trigger an alert).
As to claim 14. The computerized system of claim 8, wherein each asset tracker comprises a local hazardous condition functionality (Breed, [0328], SAW or equivalent based systems can monitor a great many dangerous and hazardous materials that may be either legally or illegally occupying space within a container, for example. In particular, the existence of spills or leakages from the cargo can be detected in time to perhaps save damage to other cargo either within the container or in an adjacent container.).
As to claim 15. Is rejected for same rationale as applied to claim 13 above.
Conclusion
The prior art made of record and not relied upon is considered pertinent to applicant's disclosure. Please see the attached PTO-892.
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/Tauqir Hussain/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2446