CTNF 18/860,014 CTNF 101921 DETAILED ACTION Notice of Pre-AIA or AIA Status 07-03-aia AIA 15-10-aia 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) filed on October 21 st 2024 has been received and considered by the examiner. Priority 02-27 AIA Acknowledgment is made of applicant’s claim for foreign priority under 35 U.S.C. 119 (a)-(d). The certified copy has been filed in parent Application No. JP2022-072873 , filed on April 27th, 2022 . Claim Objections 07-29-01 AIA Claim 1 objected to because of the following informalities: The phrase “Indicating that a vehicle stopped at a stop line” has a minor grammatical error, and should be amended to “indicating that a vehicle is stopped at a stop line”. The phrase “provided on roadway intersecting the pedestrian crossing” has a minor grammatical error, and should be amended to “provided on a roadway intersecting the pedestrian crossing.” Appropriate correction is required. Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 112 07-30-02 AIA 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. 07-34-01 Claims 3, 4, 14, 16, and 19-20 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 applications subject to pre-AIA 35 U.S.C. 112, the applicant), regards as the invention. Claim 3 recites the limitation “wherein the message includes a reliability of the predicted value of the passage time or the predicted value of the passage completion time.”. As written, this phrasing could have two meanings, rendering the claim indefinite. A first interpretation would be that the message includes either: A reliability of the predicted value of the passage time, or The predicted value of the passage completion time. Alternatively, this phrasing could be interpreted as the message including either a reliability of the predicted value of the passage time, or A reliability of the predicted value of the passage completion time. For the purpose of examination, the claim is being interpreted to mean the latter, where the message transmits one of two possible reliabilities. The claim has been interpreted in the following manner: “wherein the message includes a reliability of the predicted value of the passage time or a reliability of a predicted value of the passage completion time.”. Claims 4, 14, 16, and 19-20 are also rejected under 35 U.S.C. 112(b) as they are dependent upon claim 3. Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 102 07-07-aia AIA 07-07 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 – 07-08-aia AIA (a)(1) the claimed invention was patented, described in a printed publication, or in public use, on sale, or otherwise available to the public before the effective filing date of the claimed invention. 07-12-aia AIA (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. 07-15-03-aia AIA Claim(s) 1, 2, 12, and 18 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(2) as being anticipated by Pasch et al. (US 20240233526 A1), hereinafter Pasch . Regarding claim 1, Pasch teaches: An infrastructure radio wave sensor comprising: a transmission circuit configured to transmit radio waves to a detection area that includes a pedestrian crossing (Pasch [0017] “As shown in FIG. 1, system 100 may include an infrastructure item 102 located proximate a roadway 104 having a crossing 106.”) ; a reception circuit configured to receive reflected waves that are the radio waves reflected from an object (Pasch [0015] “For example, by using a multi-modal sensor setup such as cameras, LiDAR, radio proximity estimation, etc. data can be collected from VRUs and a behavior may be predicted and/or an intent inferred in order to optimize green phases of traffic lights at intersections.” Here the examiner notes that “radio proximity estimation” includes the transmission of radio waves and reception of reflections of said waves.) ; and an output circuit configured to output a message (Pasch [0056] “As disclosed herein, a message may be transmitted (408). For example, a message may be transmitted to at least one of a mobile device and a smart wearable of the crossing user. A message may be transmitted to one or more vehicles operating proximate the crossing. The messages transmitted may include information regarded the determined behavior and/or intent.”) created based on a reception result of the reflected waves received by the reception circuit (Pasch [0019] “The environmental data received captured by the sensors can be transmitted to and received by computing environment 116 to predict behavior of both crossing users 110 and vehicles operated upon roadway 104, such a vehicle 108.”, further [0062] “In FIG. 5B, infrastructure items may receive the environmental data and transmit it to a remote computer, such as an edge and/or cloud computer that may determine behaviors and/or intent.”) , wherein the message includes at least one of: a vehicle presence status indicating that a vehicle stopped at a stop line, provided on roadway intersecting the pedestrian crossing, is present (Pasch Fig. 2, further [0027] “As disclosed herein, for each of paths 208 a velocity distribution may be stored for pedestrians, bicycles, scooters, vehicles, etc. This information can be used to correlate a current path of crossing user 110A with heatmap 200 and determine whether he or she is likely to cross roadway 202.” The examiner notes that Fig. 2 of Pasch illustrates a vehicle at a stop line. Paragraph [0027] further describes storing velocities for vehicles where a velocity of zero would indicate a vehicle stopping.) . a number of vehicles indicating a number of vehicles traveling on the roadway, and an event occurrence status indicating that a sudden event has occurred to a road user on the pedestrian crossing. Regarding claim 2, Pasch discloses the sensor of claim 1. Pascher further discloses, wherein: the message includes a predicted value of a passage time until the road user on the pedestrian crossing or in a standby area adjacent to the pedestrian crossing finishes crossing the pedestrian crossing, or a predicted value of a passage completion time at which the road user finishes crossing the pedestrian crossing (Pasch [0084] “In crossing start confirmation messages, the VRU may indicate an estimated time to complete IIVC and continuously update the estimated time via one or more messages (622). If the IIVC complete ACK message is not received within the estimated completion time since the last updated estimated completion time has been received by the vehicles/RSU, the vehicles and RSUs may utilize on-board sensing to confirm completion status. “ Further, Pasch [0015], “As disclosed herein, an infrastructure-based monitoring system may be used to detect and predict the behavior and/or intent of VRUs in order to optimize the green phases of traffic lights at intersections. For example, by using a multi-modal sensor setup such as cameras, LiDAR, radio proximity estimation, etc. data can be collected from VRUs and a behavior may be predicted and/or an intent inferred in order to optimize green phases of traffic lights at intersections.”) . Regarding claim 12, Pasch discloses, the infrastructure radio wave sensor according to claim 1. Pasch further discloses a sensor, comprising: a communication circuit configured to communicate with an external device (Pasch [0017] “As disclosed herein, infrastructure item 102, vehicle 108, and/or mobile device 112 may include sensors and/or communication capabilities (e.g., cellular, Bluetooth, WIFI communications, etc.) that allow them to communicate with one another and/or with an edge or cloud computing environment 116.”) , wherein the output circuit sets a format of the message based on a request received by the communication circuit from the external device (Pasch [0069] “As disclosed herein VRUs may broadcast or geo-cast informed-interactive-VRU-crossing-requests (IIVC-Req) in a V2X message (e.g., VAM, PSM, etc.) indicating its intention to cross a road/street/intersection to infrastructure (604) and/or to vehicles (604A). IIVC-Req may include details of the VRU's crossing such as the VRU's current position, average speed, crossing zone (e.g., crossing location, direction, etc.), a VRU's profile, IIVC-collaboration-geo-area information (e.g., such as 500 m around the crossing zone/line), etc. If infrastructure is present, the VRU may receive assistance from infrastructure/RSU to decide content of IIVC-Req. The IIVC-Req may also request an acknowledgement (ACK) from vehicles, RSUs, infrastructure, etc. in IIVC-collaboration-geo-area by setting an ACK-requested field in IIVC-Req (606).” Here, an external device can request specific quantities from the infrastructure device.) . Regarding claim 18 , Pasch discloses the infrastructure radio wave sensor according to claim 2. Pasch further discloses a sensor, comprising: A communication circuit configured to communicate with an external device (Pasch [0017] “As disclosed herein, infrastructure item 102, vehicle 108, and/or mobile device 112 may include sensors and/or communication capabilities (e.g., cellular, Bluetooth, WIFI communications, etc.) that allow them to communicate with one another and/or with an edge or cloud computing environment 116.”) , wherein the output circuit sets a format of the message based on a request received by the communication circuit from the external device (Pasch [0069] “As disclose herein VRUs may broadcast or geo-cast informed-interactive-VRU-crossing-requests (IIVC-Req) in a V2X message (e.g., VAM, PSM, etc.) indicating its intention to cross a road/street/intersection to infrastructure (604) and/or to vehicles (604A). IIVC-Req may include details of the VRU's crossing such as the VRU's current position, average speed, crossing zone (e.g., crossing location, direction, etc.), a VRU's profile, IIVC-collaboration-geo-area information (e.g., such as 500 m around the crossing zone/line), etc. If infrastructure is present, the VRU may receive assistance from infrastructure/RSU to decide content of IIVC-Req. The IIVC-Req may also request an acknowledgement (ACK) from vehicles, RSUs, infrastructure, etc. in IIVC-collaboration-geo-area by setting an ACK-requested field in IIVC-Req (606).” Here, an external device can request specific quantities from the infrastructure device, thereby changing the message format.) . Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 103 07-20-aia AIA 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. 07-23-aia AIA The factual inquiries for establishing a background for determining obviousness under 35 U.S.C. 103 are summarized as follows: 1. Determining the scope and contents of the prior art. 2. Ascertaining the differences between the prior art and the claims at issue. 3. Resolving the level of ordinary skill in the pertinent art. 4. Considering objective evidence present in the application indicating obviousness or nonobviousness. 07-21-aia AIA Claim (s) 3-4, 7-11, 13-17, and 19 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Pasch et al. (US 20240233526 A1), hereinafter Pasch , in view of Sharma Banjade (US 20230095384 A1), hereinafter Sharma Banjade . Regarding Claim 3 , Pasch discloses the infrastructure radio wave sensor of claim 2 . Pasch fails to disclose the limitation below, which is disclosed by Sharama Banjade, wherein the message includes a reliability of the predicted value of the passage time or the predicted value of the passage completion time (Sharma Banjade [0348] The following profile classification parameters may be used to classify different VRUs 116: [0349] Maximum and average (e.g., typical) speed values (e.g., may be with its standard deviation). [0350] Minimum and average (e.g., typical) communication range, The communication range may be calculated based on the assumption that an awareness time of 5 seconds is needed to warn/act on the traffic participants. [0351] Environment or type of area (e.g., urban, sub-urban, rural, highway, etc.). [0352] Average Weight and standard deviation. [0353] directivity/trajectory ambiguity (give the level of confidence in the predictability of the behavior of the VRU in its movements).) . It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art prior to the effective filing date of the claimed invention to incorporate the features as disclosed by Sharma Banjade into the invention of Pasch . Both Pasch and Sharma Banjade are considered analogous arts to the claimed invention as they both disclose systems for tracking pedestrians and other road users in intersections. Pasch fails to disclose the features wherein: the message of claim 2 includes a reliability of the predicted pedestrian passage time. This feature is disclosed by Sharma Banjade , where Sharma Banjade discloses a classification of different vulnerable road users along with an uncertainty in their trajectories and velocities. It would be simple to incorporate this uncertainty into the predicted transit time and message of Pasch. The combination of Pasch and Sharma Banjade would be obvious with a reasonable expectation of success to include a reliability in the message of claim 2, effectively adding an uncertainty to the predicted road user transit time in an intersection. Regarding claim 4 , Pasch discloses the infrastructure radio sensor of claim 3. Pasch fails to disclose the limitation below, which is disclosed by Sharama Banjade , the reliability of at least one of the predicted value of the passage time and the predicted value of the passage completion time is determined based on at least one of a velocity or an acceleration of the road user, an overlap between objects, a movement direction of the road user, and a tracking time of the road user in the infrastructure radio wave sensor (Sharma Banjade [0353] “directivity/trajectory ambiguity (give the level of confidence in the predictability of the behavior of the VRU in its movements.) .”) It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art prior to the effective filing date of the claimed invention to incorporate the features as disclosed by Sharma Banjade into the invention of Pasch . Pasch in view of Janzen discloses fails to disclose the features wherein: a reliability of the predicted passage time is determined based on a velocity, an acceleration of the road user, an overlap between objects, a movement direction, or a tracking time . This feature is disclosed by Sharma Banjade , where Sharma Banjade discloses the tracking of a pedestrian path and velocity, which is used to determine an ambiguity in the passage time. The combination of Pasch and Sharma Banjade would be obvious with a reasonable expectation of success to generate a reliability of a road user passage time using the velocity and movement direction of said road user. Regarding claim 7 , Pasch discloses [Note: what is not clearly disclosed is strike-through]: An infrastructure radio wave sensor comprising: a transmission circuit configured to transmit radio waves to a detection area that includes a pedestrian crossing (Pasch [0017] “As shown in FIG. 1, system 100 may include an infrastructure item 102 located proximate a roadway 104 having a crossing 106.”) ; a reception circuit configured to receive reflected waves that are the radio waves reflected from an object; (Pasch [0015] “For example, by using a multi-modal sensor setup such as cameras, LiDAR, radio proximity estimation, etc. data can be collected from VRUs and a behavior may be predicted and/or an intent inferred in order to optimize green phases of traffic lights at intersections.” Here the examiner notes that “radio proximity estimation” includes the transmission of radio waves and reception of reflections of said waves.) ; and an output circuit configured to output a message (Pasch [0056] “As disclosed herein, a message may be transmitted (408). For example, a message may be transmitted to at least one of a mobile device and a smart wearable of the crossing user. A message may be transmitted to one or more vehicles operating proximate the crossing. The messages transmitted may include information regarded the determined behavior and/or intent.”) created based on a reception result of the reflected waves received by the reception circuit (Pasch [0019] “The environmental data received captured by the sensors can be transmitted to and received by computing environment 116 to predict behavior of both crossing users 110 and vehicles operated upon roadway 104, such a vehicle 108.”, further [0062] “In FIG. 5B, infrastructure items may receive the environmental data and transmit it to a remote computer, such as an edge and/or cloud computer that may determine behaviors and/or intent.”) , an output circuit configured to output a message created based on a reception result of the reflected waves received by the reception circuit (Pasch [0019] “The environmental data received captured by the sensors can be transmitted to and received by computing environment 116 to predict behavior of both crossing users 110 and vehicles operated upon roadway 104, such a vehicle 108.”, further [0062] “In FIG. 5B, infrastructure items may receive the environmental data and transmit it to a remote computer, such as an edge and/or cloud computer that may determine behaviors and/or intent.”) , wherein the message includes a detection result of a road user in each of a plurality of divided areas into which the detection area is divided . Sharma Banjade discloses: wherein the message includes a detection result of a road user in each of a plurality of divided areas into which the detection area is divided (Sharma Banjade Figs. 2, 5a, 5b, further [0081] “In other words, the occupancy value refers to a probability or likelihood that a given cell is free (unoccupied), occupied by an object, or unknown. In some implementations, the state of each grid cell can be one of free (unoccupied), occupied, or unknown, where calculated probabilities are converted or translated into one of the aforementioned categories. In other implementations, the calculated probabilities themselves may be inserted or added to respective cells.”) . It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art prior to the effective filing date of the claimed invention to incorporate the features as disclosed by Sharma Banjade into the invention of Pasch . Pasch discloses intersection monitoring systems that have a detection area on a roadway; however, fails to disclose the features wherein: the detection area is divided into a plurality of areas. This feature is disclosed by Sharma Banjade , where Sharma Banjade discloses a road monitoring system whereby an urban area including a roadway, sidewalk, and crosswalk, is divided into discrete cells. This provides an clear means to determine the occupancy of particular zones, and if zones are overcrowded to an unsafe degree, such that it becomes difficult to track overlapping objects. The combination of Pasch and Sharma Banjade would be obvious with a reasonable expectation of success to use an infrastructure radio sensor to monitor targets and transmit a message regarding the occupancies of various zones in a detection area. Regarding claim 8 , Pasch view of Sharma Banjade teaches the infrastructure radio wave sensor according to claim 7. Pasch teaches [Note: what is not clearly taught is strike-through]: the message includes, as a detection result of the road user, at least one of a presence status indicating whether the road user is present for each of the divided areas, a logical OR of the presence status of the road user, a predicted value of a passage time until the road user in each of the divided areas finishes crossing the pedestrian crossing or a predicted value of a passage completion time at which the road user finishes crossing the pedestrian crossing (Pasch [0020] “As disclosed herein a first phase may include with crossing users 110 approach crossing 106. While approaching crossing 106, a spatio- temporal path 118 may be tracked. When a pedestrian, such as crossing user 110A, is walking, a prediction of a future location may be possible by predicting spatio-temporal path ” ) , a standby time of the road user, for each of the divided areas, in a standby area adjacent to the pedestrian crossing (Pasch [0021] “For example, cameras 114 may provide images of crossing users 110's heads, faces, and/or eyes. By detecting head movement and/or gaze direction, crossing users 110's intent may be predicted. For instance, if crossing user 110A looks multiple times towards the other side of roadway 104, each time for a certain period of time, a crossing intent may be predicted. ” Here the road user is being tracked while waiting for a period of time, this could trivially be applied to the case of simply standing rather than looking at the other side of the road.) , a density of the road users for each of the divided areas a type of an object detected for each of the divided areas (Pasch [0070] “As disclosed herein, an IIVC-Req-Id may be included in an IIVC-Req so that multiple IIVCs going in the proximity may be distinguishable from one another. For example, IIVC-Req-Ids may to be unique in the local geo-area. Thus, IIVC-Req-Ids may be derived from one or more of VRU-ID, VRU-Type (i.e., pedestrian, bike, e-scooter, etc.), crossing location coordinates, crossing direction, etc.”) , a statistic of the road user detected for each of the divided areas, and an intention of the road user in each of the divided areas to cross the pedestrian crossing (Pasch [0015] “For example, by using a multi-modal sensor setup such as cameras, LiDAR, radio proximity estimation, etc. data can be collected from VRUs and a behavior may be predicted and/or an intent inferred in order to optimize green phases of traffic lights at intersections. “) . Pasch fails to disclose the below limitations. Sharma Banjade discloses, a presence status indicating whether the road user is present for each of the divided areas (Sharma Banjade Fig. 5b, further [0102] “In FIG. 5b, the bicyclist is represented as the ego VRU 116/117 along with other objects on the road (e.g., pole, buildings, etc.) and other VRUs 116/117 (e.g., people/pedestrians) if presented represented as “Occupied” while representing the empty spatial grids as “Free.””) , a logical OR of the presence status of the road user (Sharma Banjade [0109] “This provides a representation of the relative grid locations around a reference ego-VRU 116/117 grid in terms of logical representation as well as bitmap representation to be included in the VAM container.”) , a density of the road users for each of the divided areas (Shama Banjade Fig. 7a, further Sharma Banjade [0223] “Therefore, an occupancy grid-based bandwidth efficient lightweight VRU awareness message could be supported to assist with large number of detected VRUs 116/117 and/or VRU clusters or overlapping view of VRUs 116/117 or occlusion of VRUs 116/117 in the FOV. Value of each cell can indicate information such as presence/absence of a VRU, presence/absence of a VRU cluster, and even presence/absence of non-VRUs or other objects in the environment.”) , It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art prior to the effective filing date of the claimed invention to incorporate the features as disclosed by Sharma Banjade into the invention of Pasch . Pasch discloses an infrastructure radar system whereby pedestrian safety is monitored; however, fails to disclose the features wherein: a binary occupancy grid is utilized. This feature is disclosed by Sharma Banjade , where Sharma Banjade discloses the division of the radar detection area into discrete squares with a binary occupancy status, easily allowing for the calculation of a density by those of ordinary skill in the art. The combination of Pasch and Sharma Banjade would be obvious with a reasonable expectation of success to divide the detection zone of the pedestrian safety system into a discrete grid to keep track of occupancy or specific regions, for example, the crosswalk or parts of the roadway approaching the crosswalk. Regarding claim 9 , Pasch in view of Sharma Banjade teaches the infrastructure radio wave sensor according to claim 8. Pasch fails to teach the limitation below. Sharma Banjade teaches: the message includes a reliability of the presence status for each of the divided areas (Sharma Banjade [0081] “The occupancy value (or “cost value”) in each cell of the occupancy map represents a probability (or “cost”) of navigating through a that grid cell. In other words, the occupancy value refers to a probability or likelihood that a given cell is free (unoccupied), occupied by an object, or unknown. ”) . It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art prior to the effective filing date of the claimed invention to incorporate the features as disclosed by Sharma Banjade into the invention of Pasch . Pasch discloses an infrastructure radar system whereby pedestrian safety is monitored; however, fails to disclose the features wherein: a binary occupancy grid is utilized. This feature is disclosed by Sharma Banjade , where Sharma Banjade discloses the division of the radar detection area into discrete squares with a binary occupancy status with associated uncertainties. The combination of Pasch in view of Zhang and Sharma Banjade would be obvious with a reasonable expectation of success to divide the detection zone of the pedestrian safety system into a discrete grid with an associated reliability for the occupancy of each grid, which would be necessary to determine potential at-risk vulnerable road users while minimizing false positive detections. Regarding claim 10 , Pasch in view of Sharma Banjade teaches the infrastructure radio wave sensor according to claim 9. Pasch fails to teach the limitation below. Sharma Banjade teaches: the reliability of the presence status is determined based on at least one of a variance value of a position or a velocity of the road user detected in the divided area, an overlap between objects in the divided area, a tracking time of the road user in the infrastructure radio wave sensor, and a likelihood of presence of the road user detected by the infrastructure radio wave sensor (Sharma Bhanjade [0086] “The proxemics layer uses the location/position and velocity of detected VRUs 116/117 (e.g., extracted from the sensor data representative of individual VRUs 116/117) to write values into the proxemics layer's occupancy map, which are then added into the master occupancy map along with the other layer's occupancy map values… In some implementations, the generated values may be scaled according to the amplitude, the variance, and/or some other suitable parameter(s).”) . It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art prior to the effective filing date of the claimed invention to incorporate the features as disclosed by Sharma Banjade into the invention of Pasch . Pasch discloses an infrastructure radar system whereby pedestrian safety is monitored; however, fails to disclose the features wherein: a binary occupancy grid is utilized with occupancy uncertainties, where the uncertainties are determined using characteristics of a detected road user. This feature is disclosed by Sharma Banjade , where Sharma Banjade discloses the division of the radar detection area into discrete squares with a binary occupancy status with associated uncertainties, which are determined via a variance. The combination of Pasch and Sharma Banjade would be obvious with a reasonable expectation of success to assign uncertainties to an occupancy grid based on position variances of the road users. Regarding claim 11 , Pasch in view of Sharma Banjade teaches the infrastructure radio wave sensor according to claim 9 . Pasch does not teach the limitation below. Sharma Banjade discloses: the message includes a basis for calculating the reliability. (Sharma Banjade [0113] “[0113] FIG. 6a shows an example VAM container format 6a00 according to various embodiments. The VAMs contain data depending on the VRU profile and the actual environmental conditions. The VAM container format of FIG. 6a includes additional data fields (DFs) to support DRCOMP sharing between VRU ITS-Ss 117 and/or neighboring ITS-Ss such as V-ITS-S 110 and/or R-ITS-S 130. These additional data fields include a Grid Location Indicator (GLI) DF and an Occupancy Status Indicator (OSI) DF in addition to the existing VAM fields as discussed infra and/or as defined in [TS103300-2].” The format of the data file in the message provides support for the direct radar measurements, from which the standard deviation i.e. the basis for reliability can be extracted.) It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art prior to the effective filing date of the claimed invention to incorporate the features as disclosed by Sharma Banjade into the invention of Pasch . Pasch discloses the infrastructure radio wave sensor according to claim 9; however, fails to disclose the features wherein: the transmitted message includes the basis for calculating the reliability. This feature is disclosed by Sharma Banjade , where Sharma Banjade discloses a message format that includes support for additional data fields including radar measurements, from which one would be able to calculate the basis of reliability i.e. a standard deviation. The combination of Pasch and Sharma Banjade would be obvious with a reasonable expectation of success to include the basis for a reliability calculation in a transmitted message. Regarding claim 13 , Pasch in view of Sharma Banjade teaches the infrastructure radio wave sensor according to claim 2. Pasch fails to teach the limitation below. Sharma Banjade teaches: the message includes a reliability of the sudden event (Sharma Banjade [0353] “directivity/trajectory ambiguity (give the level of confidence in the predictability of the behavior of the VRU in its movements).”) . It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art prior to the effective filing date of the claimed invention to incorporate the features as disclosed by Sharma Banjade into the invention of Pasch . Pasch fails to disclose the features wherein: the transmitted message includes a sudden event reliability. This feature is disclosed by Sharma Banjade , where Sharma Banjade discloses the calculation of a pedestrian trajectory ambiguity, as well as a confidence indicator in road user movement predictability. The concept of trajectory ambiguity is directly applicable to the reporting of sudden events and assigning a confidence score. The combination of Pasch and Sharma Banjade would be obvious with a reasonable expectation of success to calculate a reliability of a sudden event, and include said confidence in a transmitted message. Regarding claim 14 , Pasch in view of Sharma Banjade teaches the infrastructure radio wave sensor according to claim 3. Pasch fails to disclose the limitation below. Sharma Banjade discloses: the message includes a reliability of the sudden event (Sharma Banjade [0353] “directivity/trajectory ambiguity (give the level of confidence in the predictability of the behavior of the VRU in its movements).”) . It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art prior to the effective filing date of the claimed invention to incorporate the features as disclosed by Sharma Banjade into the invention of Pasch . Pasch fails to disclose the features wherein: the transmitted message includes a sudden event reliability. This feature is disclosed by Sharma Banjade , where Sharma Banjade discloses the calculation of a pedestrian trajectory ambiguity, as well as a confidence indicator in road user movement predictability. The concept of trajectory ambiguity is directly applicable to the reporting of sudden events and assigning a confidence score. The combination of Pasch and Sharma Banjade would be obvious with a reasonable expectation of success to calculate a reliability of a sudden event, and include said confidence in a transmitted message. . Regarding claim 15, Pasch in view of Sharma Banjade discloses the infrastructure radio wave according to claim 13. Pasch fails to teach the limitation below. Sharma Banjade teaches: the reliability of the sudden event is determined based on at least one of a time during which the road user is stopped (Sharma Banjade [0302] “The event detection function 1018 assists the VBS 1021 during its operation when transitioning from one state to another. Examples of the events to be considered include: … change of the VRU motion dynamic (trajectory or velocity) which will impact the TTC and the reliability of the previous prediction”) , and an image of the road user captured by a camera (Sharma Banjade [0098] “The sensor data may include, for example, image data (e.g., from camera(s)), LIDAR data, radar data, and/or other like sensor data.”) . It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art prior to the effective filing date of the claimed invention to incorporate the features as disclosed by Sharma Banjade into the invention of Pasch . The invention of Sharma Banjade discloses the detection of events, and that their reliability depends upon changes in motion states of road users (for example, stopping and starting motion). The combination of Pasch and Sharma Banjade would be obvious with a reasonable expectation of success to monitor the stopping time of a road user to adjust the reliability of a sudden event detection. Regarding claim 16 , Pasch in view of Sharma Banjade teaches the infrastructure radio wave sensor according to claim 14. Pasch fails to teach the limitation below. Sharma Banjade discloses: the reliability of the sudden event is determined based on at least one of a time during which the road user is stopped (Sharma Banjade [0302] “The event detection function 1018 assists the VBS 1021 during its operation when transitioning from one state to another. Examples of the events to be considered include: … change of the VRU motion dynamic (trajectory or velocity) which will impact the TTC and the reliability of the previous prediction”) , and an image of the road user captured by a camera (Sharma Banjade [0098] “The sensor data may include, for example, image data (e.g., from camera(s)), LIDAR data, radar data, and/or other like sensor data.”) . It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art prior to the effective filing date of the claimed invention to incorporate the features as disclosed by Sharma Banjade into the invention of Pasch . The invention of Sharma Banjade discloses the detection of events, and that their reliability depends upon changes in motion states of road users (for example, stopping and starting motion). The combination of Pasch and Sharma Banjade would be obvious with a reasonable expectation of success to monitor the stopping time of a road user to adjust the reliability of a sudden event detection. Regarding claim 17 , Pasch teaches the infrastructure radio wave sensor according to claim 10. Pasch fails to teach the limitation below. Sharma Banjade teaches: the message includes a basis for calculating the reliability (Sharma Banjade Fig. 6b, further Sharma Banjade [0113] “[0113] FIG. 6a shows an example VAM container format 6a00 according to various embodiments. The VAMs contain data depending on the VRU profile and the actual environmental conditions. The VAM container format of FIG. 6a includes additional data fields (DFs) to support DRCOMP sharing between VRU ITS-Ss 117 and/or neighboring ITS-Ss such as V-ITS-S 110 and/or R-ITS-S 130. These additional data fields include a Grid Location Indicator (GLI) DF and an Occupancy Status Indicator (OSI) DF in addition to the existing VAM fields as discussed infra and/or as defined in [TS103300-2].”) . It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art prior to the effective filing date of the claimed invention to incorporate the features as disclosed by Sharma Banjade into the invention of Pasch . Pasch in view of Zhang discloses an infrastructure radar system whereby pedestrian safety is monitored; however, fails to disclose the features wherein: a binary occupancy grid is utilized with occupancy uncertainties, where the uncertainties are determined using characteristics of a detected road user, and the basis for that uncertainty is transmitted within a message. This feature is disclosed by Sharma Banjade , where Sharma Banjade discloses a particular message file format that includes the path histories of road users. As would be appreciated by one of ordinary skill in the art, the full history of positions of the vulnerable road user would provide a basis to calculate the standard deviation of those positions from a mean path, which is the basis for the reported reliability. The combination of Pasch and Sharma Banjade would be obvious with a reasonable expectation of success to provide a basis for the calculation of occupancy uncertainties. Regarding claim 18 , Pasch in view of Sharma Banjade teaches the infrastructure radio wave sensor according to claim 2. Pasch further discloses: a communication circuit configured to communicate with an external device (Pasch [0017] “As disclosed herein, infrastructure item 102, vehicle 108, and/or mobile device 112 may include sensors and/or communication capabilities (e.g., cellular, Bluetooth, WIFI communications, etc.) that allow them to communicate with one another and/or with an edge or cloud computing environment 116.”) , wherein the output circuit sets a format of the message based on a request received by the communication circuit from the external device (Pasch [0069] “As disclose herein VRUs may broadcast or geo-cast informed-interactive-VRU-crossing-requests (IIVC-Req) in a V2X message (e.g., VAM, PSM, etc.) indicating its intention to cross a road/street/intersection to infrastructure (604) and/or to vehicles (604A). IIVC-Req may include details of the VRU's crossing such as the VRU's current position, average speed, crossing zone (e.g., crossing location, direction, etc.), a VRU's profile, IIVC-collaboration-geo-area information (e.g., such as 500 m around the crossing zone/line), etc. If infrastructure is present, the VRU may receive assistance from infrastructure/RSU to decide content of IIVC-Req. The IIVC-Req may also request an acknowledgement (ACK) from vehicles, RSUs, infrastructure, etc. in IIVC-collaboration-geo-area by setting an ACK-requested field in IIVC-Req (606).” Here, an external device can request specific quantities from the infrastructure device. “ Here Pasch discloses requests of specific contents of the returned message.) . Regarding claim 19 , Pasch in view of Sharma Banjade teaches the infrastructure radio wave sensor according to claim 3. Pasch further teaches: a communication circuit configured to communicate with an external device (Pasch [0017] “As disclosed herein, infrastructure item 102, vehicle 108, and/or mobile device 112 may include sensors and/or communication capabilities (e.g., cellular, Bluetooth, WIFI communications, etc.) that allow them to communicate with one another and/or with an edge or cloud computing environment 116.”) , wherein the output circuit sets a format of the message based on a request received by the communication circuit from the external device (Pasch [0069] “As disclose herein VRUs may broadcast or geo-cast informed-interactive-VRU-crossing-requests (IIVC-Req) in a V2X message (e.g., VAM, PSM, etc.) indicating its intention to cross a road/street/intersection to infrastructure (604) and/or to vehicles (604A). IIVC-Req may include details of the VRU's crossing such as the VRU's current position, average speed, crossing zone (e.g., crossing location, direction, etc.), a VRU's profile, IIVC-collaboration-geo-area information (e.g., such as 500 m around the crossing zone/line), etc. If infrastructure is present, the VRU may receive assistance from infrastructure/RSU to decide content of IIVC-Req. The IIVC-Req may also request an acknowledgement (ACK) from vehicles, RSUs, infrastructure, etc. in IIVC-collaboration-geo-area by setting an ACK-requested field in IIVC-Req (606).” Here, an external device can request specific quantities from the infrastructure device. “ Here Pasch discloses requests of specific contents of the returned message.) . 07-21-aia AIA Claim (s) 5-6 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Pasch et al. (US 20240233526 A1) in view of Zhang et al. (US 20220105926 A1) . Regarding claim 5, Pasch discloses the infrastructure radio wave sensor according to claim 1 . Pasch fails to disclose the limitation below. Zhang discloses, the message includes a reliability of the sudden event (Zhang [0082] “Depending on the source and specific content of perception information, the perception message 202 may include indication information related to an environment 100 and/or one or more other aspects of transportation means 130 in the environment 100. In some embodiments, the perception message 202 may include following information related to one or more aspects: a description related to a target object present in the environment 100, for example, may include at least one of a classification, location information, speed information, direction information, physical appearance descriptive information, a specific type, a motion state, retention time of a motion state, perception confidence , historical motion trajectory information, predicted motion trajectory information, and state tracking information of the object;”) . It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art prior to the effective filing date of the claimed invention to incorporate the features as disclosed by Zhang into the invention of Pasch . Pasch discloses a pedestrian safety system monitoring hazards relevant to pedestrian crossings; however, fails to disclose the features wherein: a message is transmitted regarding the reliability of sudden event detection. This feature is disclosed by Zhang , where Zhang discloses the inclusion of a “perception confidence”. As Zhang already teaches the use of sudden event detection in pedestrian crossings and message transmission regarding said event, it would be obvious to include the perception confidence in this message. The combination of Pasch and Zhang would be obvious with a reasonable expectation of success to transmit a detection of a sudden event along with an associated confidence from an infrastructure radar system to an external system. Regarding claim 6 , Pasch in view of Zhang discloses the infrastructure radio wave sensor according to claim 5. Pasch further discloses [Note: what is not clearly disclosed is strike-through]: the reliability of the sudden event is determined based on at least one of a time during which the road user is stopped, and an image of the road user captured by a camera (Pasch [0018] “For example, cameras 114 may be used to detect and track crossing users 110. ”) . Pasch fails to disclose the limitation below. Zhang discloses, the reliability of the sudden event is determined based on at least one of a time during which the road user is stopped (Zhang [0137] “In some embodiments, when determining whether a target object in an environment 100 is in an abnormal motion state, it may be desirable to detect objects in an abnormal stationary state. Herein, “abnormal stationary state” means being continuously stationary for a period of time, the period of time may be greater than a threshold.”) . It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art prior to the effective filing date of the claimed invention to incorporate the features as disclosed by Zhang into the invention of Pasch . Pasch discloses an object tracking system for pedestrian safety, utilizing a camera; however, fails to disclose the features wherein: the event detection reliability is determined by a stopping time. This feature is disclosed by Zhang , where Zhang discloses the use of abnormal object motion state, which would include being stationary, to determine object event detection. A camera is a natural method by which one could confirm the nature of the stopped object, as cameras are known in the art to be superior to radars for sensing and identification of stationary objects. The combination of Pasch and Zhang would be obvious with a reasonable expectation of success to utilize a camera and a road user stoppage time to determine the reliability of a sudden event. Conclusion Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to THOMAS JAMES HALLORAN whose telephone number is (571)272-8643. The examiner can normally be reached Mon-Fri. 7:30am-5pm. Examiner interviews are available via telephone, in-person, and video conferencing using a USPTO supplied web-based collaboration tool. To schedule an interview, applicant is encouraged to use the USPTO Automated Interview Request (AIR) at http://www.uspto.gov/interviewpractice. If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner’s supervisor, Resha H. Desai can be reached at (571) 270-7792. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300. Information regarding the status of published or unpublished applications may be obtained from Patent Center. Unpublished application information in Patent Center is available to registered users. To file and manage patent submissions in Patent Center, visit: https://patentcenter.uspto.gov. Visit https://www.uspto.gov/patents/apply/patent-center for more information about Patent Center and https://www.uspto.gov/patents/docx for information about filing in DOCX format. For additional questions, contact the Electronic Business Center (EBC) at 866-217-9197 (toll-free). If you would like assistance from a USPTO Customer Service Representative, call 800-786-9199 (IN USA OR CANADA) or 571-272-1000. /T.J.H./Examiner, Art Unit 3648 /RESHA DESAI/Supervisory Patent Examiner, Art Unit 3648 Application/Control Number: 18/860,014 Page 2 Art Unit: 3648 Application/Control Number: 18/860,014 Page 3 Art Unit: 3648 Application/Control Number: 18/860,014 Page 4 Art Unit: 3648 Application/Control Number: 18/860,014 Page 5 Art Unit: 3648 Application/Control Number: 18/860,014 Page 6 Art Unit: 3648 Application/Control Number: 18/860,014 Page 7 Art Unit: 3648 Application/Control Number: 18/860,014 Page 8 Art Unit: 3648 Application/Control Number: 18/860,014 Page 9 Art Unit: 3648 Application/Control Number: 18/860,014 Page 10 Art Unit: 3648 Application/Control Number: 18/860,014 Page 11 Art Unit: 3648 Application/Control Number: 18/860,014 Page 12 Art Unit: 3648 Application/Control Number: 18/860,014 Page 13 Art Unit: 3648 Application/Control Number: 18/860,014 Page 14 Art Unit: 3648 Application/Control Number: 18/860,014 Page 15 Art Unit: 3648 Application/Control Number: 18/860,014 Page 16 Art Unit: 3648 Application/Control Number: 18/860,014 Page 17 Art Unit: 3648 Application/Control Number: 18/860,014 Page 18 Art Unit: 3648 Application/Control Number: 18/860,014 Page 19 Art Unit: 3648 Application/Control Number: 18/860,014 Page 20 Art Unit: 3648 Application/Control Number: 18/860,014 Page 21 Art Unit: 3648 Application/Control Number: 18/860,014 Page 22 Art Unit: 3648 Application/Control Number: 18/860,014 Page 23 Art Unit: 3648 Application/Control Number: 18/860,014 Page 24 Art Unit: 3648 Application/Control Number: 18/860,014 Page 25 Art Unit: 3648
Prosecution Insights