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 .
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.
Claims 1-14 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Morioka, et al., US 2009/0322561 A1, in view of Umehara, et al., US 2017/0270785 A1.
As per Claim 1, Morioka teaches an information processing apparatus (¶¶ 63-65) comprising:
an acquisition circuit configured to acquire probe information of a probe vehicle passing through an inflow pass leading to an intersection (¶¶ 64-65); and
a control circuit configured to execute dynamic control of determining, for each of predetermined control periods, a signal control parameter to be applied to the intersection (¶¶ 45-46, 60-61), wherein the signal control parameter includes a split to be applied to the intersection (¶¶ 74, 79-86; between “green light time” and “red light time”), and the dynamic control includes split dynamic control of updating the split in accordance with a traffic indicator of the inflow pass, the traffic indicator being calculated from the probe information (¶¶ 87-88; based on “an analytical flow-based queuing model”).
Morioka does not expressly teach that the intersection is an intersection not subjected to remote control by a central apparatus. Umehara teaches that the intersection is an intersection not subjected to remote control by a central apparatus (¶ 120; an intersection under “independent control”). At the time of the invention, a person of skill in the art would have thought it obvious to run the control process of Zhang on an intersection not subjected to remote control by a central apparatus, as Umehara teaches, in order to enable localized control of traffic light cycle times based on instantaneous vehicle and pedestrian traffic flows.
As per Claim 2, Morioka teaches that the traffic indicator of the inflow pass includes a first traffic indicator from which saturation of the inflow pass is determinable, and that the control circuit is configured to increase a split of the inflow pass on a condition that saturation of the inflow pass has been detected in accordance with the first traffic indicator (¶¶ 112-113; after determining “saturated flow and under-saturated flow”).
As per Claim 3, Morioka teaches that the condition for increasing the split of the inflow pass further includes that any inflow pass other than the inflow pass is not saturated (¶¶ 122-123; “in under-saturated traffic flow conditions”).
As per Claim 4, Morioka teaches that the control circuit is configured to decrease the increased split of the inflow pass on a condition that a tendency of the detected saturation to be relieved has been detected (¶ 125).
As per Claim 5, Morioka teaches that the control circuit is configured to decrease the increased split of the inflow pass on a condition that any inflow pass other than the inflow pass has turned to saturation (¶¶ 135-136).
As per Claim 6, Morioka teach that the saturation of the inflow pass is over-saturation of the inflow pass (¶ 112; above the saturated flow curve in Figure 5), and the first traffic indicator is at least one of an average travel time in a wait-for-signal-to-change section of the inflow pass, a delay time per vehicle in the wait-for-signal-to-change section of the inflow pass (¶ 64; for “minimising waiting time and minimising delay”), or a queue length in the wait-for-signal-to-change section of the inflow pass (¶¶ 74-75).
As per Claim 7, Morioka teaches that the saturation of the inflow pass is near-saturation of the inflow pass (¶¶ 112-113), and that the first traffic indicator is a demand rate of the inflow pass (¶¶ 108-109; as “average traffic flow rate” would indicate).
As per Claim 8, Morioka does not expressly teach that the signal control parameter includes an offset to be applied to the intersection and an intersection on an upstream side of the intersection, and the dynamic control includes offset dynamic control of updating the offset in accordance with the traffic indicator of the inflow pass, the traffic indicator being calculated from the probe information. Umehara teaches that the signal control parameter includes an offset to be applied to the intersection and an intersection on an upstream side of the intersection (¶¶ 84-85), and the dynamic control includes offset dynamic control of updating the offset in accordance with the traffic indicator of the inflow pass, the traffic indicator being calculated from the probe information (¶ 161). See Claim 1 above for the rationale based on obviousness, motivations and reasons to combine.
As per Claim 9, Morioka teaches that the traffic indicator of the inflow pass includes a second traffic indicator from which whether the intersection on the upstream side has queue spillback is determinable (¶¶ 89-91; based on measuring “the queuing rate”), and the control circuit is configured to adopt an offset of delaying a cycle of the intersection on the upstream side in response to detecting the queue spillback in accordance with the second traffic indicator (¶ 112; as “a decision point for switching” adjusts).
As per Claim 10, Morioka teaches that the second traffic indicator is at least one of a queue length in a wait-for-signal-to-change section of the inflow pass (¶¶ 74-75, 89-91) or an end position of the wait-for-signal-to-change section of the inflow pass, the end position being specified based on image data captured by the probe vehicle (¶ 63; as taken from “video cameras”).
As per Claim 11, Morioka teaches that the control circuit is configured to, when the probe information acquired in a current control period has an insufficient number of pieces of data, execute the dynamic control by using complementary probe information set in advance (¶ 75; despite “the impoverished data available from loop detectors”).
As per Claim 12, Morioka teaches a control terminal connected to a traffic signal controller (¶¶ 63-65) of an intersection, the control terminal comprising:
a communication circuit configured to receive probe information of a probe vehicle passing through an inflow pass leading to the intersection (¶¶ 64-65); and
a control circuit configured to execute dynamic control of determining, for each of predetermined control periods, a signal control parameter to be applied to the intersection (¶¶ 45-46, 60-61), wherein the signal control parameter includes a split to be applied to the intersection (¶¶ 74, 79-86; between “green light time” and “red light time”), and the dynamic control includes split dynamic control of updating the split in accordance with a traffic indicator of the inflow pass, the traffic indicator being calculated from the probe information (¶¶ 87-88; based on “an analytical flow-based queuing model”).
Morioka does not expressly teach an intersection not subjected to remote control by a central apparatus. Umehara teaches an intersection not subjected to remote control by a central apparatus (¶ 120; an intersection under “independent control”). See Claim 1 above for the rationale based on obviousness, motivations and reasons to combine.
As per Claim 13, Morioka teaches an information processing method (¶¶ 64-66) comprising:
acquiring probe information of a probe vehicle passing through an inflow pass leading to an intersection (¶¶ 64-65); and
executing dynamic control of determining, for each of predetermined control periods, a signal control parameter to be applied to the intersection (¶¶ 45-46, 60-61), the signal control parameter includes a split to be applied to the intersection (¶¶ 74, 79-86; between “green light time” and “red light time”), and the dynamic control includes split dynamic control of updating the split in accordance with a traffic indicator of the inflow pass, the traffic indicator being calculated from the probe information (¶¶ 87-88; based on “an analytical flow-based queuing model”).
Morioka does not expressly teach that the intersection is an intersection not subjected to remote control by a central apparatus. Umehara teaches that the intersection is an intersection not subjected to remote control by a central apparatus (¶ 120; an intersection under “independent control”). See Claim 1 above for the rationale based on obviousness, motivations and reasons to combine.
As per Claim 14, Morioka teaches a non-transitory computer-readable storage medium storing a computer program for causing a computer to function as an information processing apparatus (¶¶ 3, 63-65) comprising:
an acquisition circuit configured to acquire probe information of a probe vehicle passing through an inflow pass leading to an intersection (¶¶ 63-65); and
a control circuit configured to execute dynamic control of determining, for each of predetermined control periods, a signal control parameter to be applied to the intersection (¶¶ 45-46, 60-61), the signal control parameter includes a split to be applied to the intersection (¶¶ 74, 79-86; between “green light time” and “red light time”), and the dynamic control includes split dynamic control of updating the split in accordance with a traffic indicator of the inflow pass, the traffic indicator being calculated from the probe information (¶¶ 87-88; based on “an analytical flow-based queuing model”).
Morioka does not expressly teach that the intersection is an intersection not subjected to remote control by a central apparatus. Umehara teaches that the intersection is an intersection not subjected to remote control by a central apparatus (¶ 120; an intersection under “independent control”). See Claim 1 above for the rationale based on obviousness, motivations and reasons to combine.
Conclusion
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ATUL TRIVEDI
Primary Examiner
Art Unit 3661
/ATUL TRIVEDI/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 3661
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