DETAILED ACTION
Claims 1-15 are pending.
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 .
Priority
Acknowledgment is made of applicant’s claim for foreign priority under 35 U.S.C. 119(a)-(d).
Information Disclosure Statement
The information disclosure statements provided complies with the provisions of MPEP § 609. It has been placed in the application file, and the information referred to therein has been considered as to the merits. A signed copy of the form is attached.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 102
The following is a quotation of the appropriate paragraphs of AIA 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 –
Claims 1-11, 14 and 15 are rejected under AIA 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(1) or 102(a)(2) as being anticipated by Liu et al., (Impact of Socio-Technical Network on Process Performance, IEEE).
As per claim 1, Liu et al., teaches an information processing (see abs., and item I.) apparatus, which is one of nodes (see pages 244, section II., Figs. 1, 2, 3(a), and (3b), and Fig. 5) in a network system including a plurality of the nodes (see pages 244, section II., Figs. 1, 2, 3(a), and (3b), and Fig. 5), comprising: an analysis unit (see page 243, col. 2, third par.) that analyzes each of possibility of securing a resource shared by nodes (see pages 244, section II., Figs. 1, 2, 3(a), and (3b), and Fig. 5), availability of each of the nodes (see pages 244, section II., Figs. 1, 2, 3(a), and (3b), and Fig. 5), and an optimization problem related to task execution (see page 245, section B., and item IV. for execution); and a setting unit that sets a group of nodes (see pages 244, section II., Figs. 1, 2, 3(a), and (3b), and Fig. 5) participating in agreement formation in the network system based on at least one of analysis results (see Figs. 1, 2, 3(a), and (3b), and Fig. 5) from the analysis unit (see page 243, col. 2, third par.).
As per claim 2, Liu et al., teaches the information processing (see abs., and item I.) apparatus according to claim 1, being movable (see Fig. 5, wherein node to node has shown evidence of moving from point to point).
As per claim 3, Liu et al., teaches the information processing (see abs., and item I.) apparatus according to wherein the analysis unit (see page 243, col. 2, third par.) analyzes the possibility of securing a resource based on at least one of a movement path (see Fig. 5, wherein node to node has shown evidence of moving from point to point), a position, a distance, past performance, and a future schedule (see Fig. 5, on page 247, col. 1, first par.).
As per claim 4, Liu et al., teaches the information processing (see abs., and item I.) apparatus according to wherein the analysis unit (see page 243, col. 2, third par.) analyzes the availability of each of the nodes (see pages 244, section II., Figs. 1, 2, 3(a), and (3b), and Fig. 5) based on at least one of information on an attribute of each of the nodes, past performance, and a future schedule (see pages 244, section II., Figs. 1, 2, 3(a), and (3b), and Fig. 5).
As per claim 5, Liu et al., teaches the information processing (see abs., and item I.) apparatus according to wherein the information on an attribute of each of the nodes (see pages 244, section II., Figs. 1, 2, 3(a), and (3b), and Fig. 5) includes at least one of a moving distance of each of the nodes (see pages 244, section II., Figs. 1, 2, 3(a), and (3b), and Fig. 5), a moving speed, an activation time, a system belonging period, and information on communication disruption (see page 245, sections A and B).
As per claim 6, Liu et al., teaches the wherein the analysis unit (see page 243, col. 2, third par.) analyzes the optimization problem related to task execution (see page 245, section B., and item IV. for execution) by executing simulation regarding configurations of a plurality of groups or failure occurrence (see page 250, col. 1, pars. 3-4).
As per claim 7, Liu et al., teaches the analysis unit (see page 243, col. 2, third par.) selects a group from the configurations of a plurality of groups based on a result of the simulation such that an objective function related to the task execution is maximized or minimized (see page 245, section B. and item IV. for execution).
As per claim 8, Liu et al., teaches the wherein the analysis unit (see page 243, col. 2, third par.) selects the group such that task success probability is maximized (see page 245, section B.).
As per claim 9, Liu et al., teaches the wherein the analysis unit (see page 243, col. 2, third par.) selects the group such that task execution time is minimized (see page 245, section B., and item IV. for execution).
As per claim 10, Liu et al., teaches the wherein the analysis unit (see page 243, col. 2, third par.) analyzes the optimization problem related to task execution (see page 245, section B., and item IV. for execution) by adding a task that has not been scheduled yet to an already scheduled task (see page 245, section B.).
As per claim 11, Liu et al., teaches the wherein the analysis unit (see page 243, col. 2, third par.) predicts distribution of tasks that are to occur in future from past performance, and analyzes the optimization problem related to task execution (see page 245, section B., and item IV. for execution) such that the objective function in a case where a predicted task is added to the already scheduled task is maximized or minimized (see page 245, section B.).
As per claim 14, Liu et al., teaches the an information processing (see abs., and item I.) method executed by an information processing (see abs., and item I.) apparatus, which is one of nodes (see pages 244, section II., Figs. 1, 2, 3(a), and (3b), and Fig. 5) in a network system including a plurality of the nodes (see pages 244, section II., Figs. 1, 2, 3(a), and (3b), and Fig. 5), comprising: analyzing each of possibility of securing a resource shared by nodes (see pages 244, section II., Figs. 1, 2, 3(a), and (3b), and Fig. 5), availability of each of the nodes (see pages 244, section II., Figs. 1, 2, 3(a), and (3b), and Fig. 5), and an optimization problem related to task execution (see page 245, section B., and item IV. for execution); and setting a group of nodes (see pages 244, section II., Figs. 1, 2, 3(a), and (3b), and Fig. 5) participating in agreement formation in the network system based on at least one of analysis results (see Figs. 1, 2, 3(a), and (3b), and Fig. 5) in the analyzing (see page 243, col. 2, third par.).
As per claim 15, Liu et al., teaches the a program causing a computer, which is one of nodes (see pages 244, section II., Figs. 1, 2, 3(a), and (3b), and Fig. 5) in a network system including a plurality of the nodes (see pages 244, section II., Figs. 1, 2, 3(a), and (3b), and Fig. 5), to: analyze each of possibility of securing a resource shared by nodes (see pages 244, section II., Figs. 1, 2, 3(a), and (3b), and Fig. 5), availability of each of the nodes (see pages 244, section II., Figs. 1, 2, 3(a), and (3b), and Fig. 5), and an optimization problem related to task execution (see page 245, section B., and item IV. for execution); and set a group of nodes (see pages 244, section II., Figs. 1, 2, 3(a), and (3b), and Fig. 5) participating in agreement formation in the network system based on at least one of analysis results (see Figs. 1, 2, 3(a), and (3b), and Fig. 5) in the analyzing (see page 243, col. 2, third par.).
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.
Claims 12 and 13 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Liu et al., as applied to claim 1 above, and further in view of Bernat et al., (US 20260189371).
As per claims 12 and 13, Bernat et al., teaches essential features of the invention substantially as claimed, but fail to teach or fairly suggest, wherein the setting unit sets the group based on a quorum (see pars. [0302 and 0303], and claims 2, 5 and 11); and a robot (see par. [0184]).
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art at before the effective filing date of the invention to provide the robot and the quorum teachings of Bernat et al. with a node as taught by Liu et al., so that “robots, and others may require extremely rapid processing-so fast” (see Bernat’s et al. par. [0178]), thereby improving the efficiency and the reliability of the of the information processing as a whole.
Conclusion
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to MCDIEUNEL MARC whose telephone number is (571) 272-6964. The examiner can normally be reached on Work 9:00 AM to 7:30.
If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner’s supervisor, WADE MILES can be reached on (571) 270-7777. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is (571)-273-3976.
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/McDieunel Marc/
Primary Examiner, Art Unit 3665
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