DETAILED ACTION
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 .
Claims 1-10 are cancelled. Claims 11-20 are pending.
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 11, 13, and 20 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Campbell (US 2021/0086689) in view of Jain, et al. (US 2022/0351180, herein Jain)1 and in further view of Dhull, et al. (US 2019/0139411, herein Dhull).2 Regarding claims 11 and 20, Campbell teaches a method and access control system comprising: generating, by a central computing device, a code (paragraph 0015); transmitting, by the central computing device to a vehicle, the generated code (paragraph 0015); projecting, by a lighting device of the vehicle, a light pattern (paragraph 0015); detecting, by an optical reader, the projected light pattern (paragraph 0015); recognizing, by a computing unit coupled to the optical reader, the generated code in the projected light pattern (paragraph 0015). Campbell does not explicitly teach projecting a light pattern into surroundings of the vehicle, wherein the computing unit is integrated into or coupled to an access control station; checking, by the computing unit, whether a code corresponding to the generated code in the projected light pattern is found in a memory of the computing unit; causing, by the computing unit when the code corresponding to the generated code in the projected light pattern is found in the memory of the computing unit, an obstacle blocking an entrance to an area controlled by the access control station to be removed so that the vehicle can drive into the area; and causing, by the computing unit when the code corresponding to the generated code in the projected light pattern is not found in the memory of the computing unit, the obstacle to remain in the entrance to the area. Jain teaches the computing unit is integrated into or coupled to an access control station (paragraph 0028: entry gate); checking, by the computing unit, whether a code corresponding to the generated code in the projected light pattern is found in a memory of the computing unit (paragraph 0059); causing, by the computing unit when the code corresponding to the generated code in the projected light pattern is found in the memory of the computing unit, an obstacle blocking an entrance to an area controlled by the access control station to be removed so that the vehicle can drive into the area (paragraph 0059); and causing, by the computing unit when the code corresponding to the generated code in the projected light pattern is not found in the memory of the computing unit, the obstacle to remain in the entrance to the area (paragraph 0059). It would have been obvious to one having ordinary skill in the art at the time of invention to combine the teachings of Campbell and Jain, because such a combination reduces the need for face-to-face interactions (paragraph 0014 of Jain). Campbell in view of Jain does not explicitly teach projecting a light pattern into surroundings of the vehicle. Dhull teaches projecting a light pattern into surroundings of the vehicle (paragraph 0120). It would have been obvious to one having ordinary skill in the art at the time of invention to combine the teachings of Campbell in view of Jain and Dhull, because such a combination increases the safety of the method (paragraph 0004 of Dhull). Regarding claim 13, Campbell further teaches the projected light pattern is an optoelectronic code (paragraph 0015).
Allowable Subject Matter
Claims 12 and 14-19 are objected to as being dependent upon a rejected base claim, but would be allowable if rewritten in independent form including all of the limitations of the base claim and any intervening claims.
Conclusion
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to MATTHEW MIKELS whose telephone number is (571)270-5470. The examiner can normally be reached Monday to Thursday 7:30 AM ET - 5:00 PM ET, Friday 7:30 AM ET - 9:30 AM ET, the Examiner is on central time.3
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If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner’s supervisor, Thomas K Pham can be reached at 571-272-3689. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300.
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/MATTHEW MIKELS/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2876
1 Please note that the filing date of this reference is 4/30/22, while the foreign priority date of the instant application is 6/28/22.
2 In addition to the cited portions of each reference, please see also the associated figures.
3 The Examiner can also be reached at matthew.mikels@uspto.gov.
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