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
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, 9-10, 12, 14, 18 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over US 12122364 B2-Droz, in view of Patent 11830219 B2-Xi.
Regarding claim 1, Droz discloses an object identification apparatus comprising: an interface unit that receives an image of a vehicle's surroundings (column 8, lines 45-55, user interface for receiving images), acquired by at least one camera provided in the vehicle (column 6, lines 30-35, wherein camera to capture images of the environment of the vehicle; column 9, lines 1-10, wherein camera could capture a plurality of images that could represent information about a state of an environment of the vehicle);
at least one anchor sensor that attempts to wireless communication with a target device (column10, lines 1-40, wherein some possible sensors include radio units and they wirelessly communicate between devices; column 13, lines 15-30, wherein vehicle may use sensors in combination with radio unit (anchor sensor) to identify pedestrians. In other words, the sensor with the radio unit is attempting to wirelessly communicate with a target device to determine if it’s a pedestrian)), corresponding to pre-stored identification information (column 13, lines 30-35, wherein stored map information is interpreted as pre stored identification information), in compliance with a preset communication scheme (column 7, lines 60-67, discloses various preset communication schemes), and, when a wireless communication connection to the target device is established, exchanges at least one message for computing the location of the target device (column 13, lines 15-45, wherein vehicle may combine information for the sensors and received signal from radio unit to confirm identified object; abstract); and
a processor that computes the location of the target device based on a state of the wireless communication connection of the at least one anchor sensor to the target device, receives an image, captured by the camera facing the direction of the target device (column 10, lines35-50, wherein camera could capture a plurality of images from a forward looking view), through the interface unit, computes the locations of objects included in the received image, and identifies any one object located within a preset error distance from the computed location of the target device, among the locations of the objects, which are computed through the image, as a target corresponding to the target device (column 7, lines 25-40, wherein analyzing images in effort to determine objects; column 10, lines35-50, wherein camera could capture a plurality of images from a forward looking view; column 12, lines 50-67, wherein calculate some parameters of objects that transmit a response signal back to the radio system. For example, in one embodiment, the processor is configured to calculate the distance and/or angle to various objects that transmit a response signal back to the radio system. The distance may correspond to a time delay and/or a power level of the received radio signal. Additionally, the radio system may be configured to determine whether each device transmitting a response signal is a pedestrian or not).
In addition, Xi discloses a processor that computes the location of the target device based on a state of the wireless communication connection of the at least one anchor sensor to the target device (Column 1, lines 35-40, wherein trilateration is a position estimation method that determines a position of an object using distances of the object to at least three known points (e.g., anchors). Position estimation methods are able to estimate the position of an object), receives an image, captured by the camera facing the direction of the target device (column 10, lines 65-67, wherein forward-facing camera).
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skilled in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify the method disclosed by Droz to disclose a processor that computes the location of the target device based on a state of the wireless communication connection of the at least one anchor sensor to the target device, receives an image, captured by the camera facing the direction of the target device as taught by Xi, to improve the speed and accuracy of mapping and localization of devices in an environment (column 2, lines 30-35, Xi)
Regarding claim 9, Xi discloses the object identification apparatus of claim 1, wherein the preset communication scheme is a communication scheme that uses a wireless signal in an ultrawide band (UWB) (column 4, lines 1-5).
Regarding claim 10, Xi discloses the object identification apparatus of claim 1, wherein the processor sets one point in the vehicle as a reference point, and calibrates the location of the target device, which is computed with the at least one anchor sensor with a reference, as a location with the reference point as a reference, through coordinate conversion from a coordinate system with the location of each anchor sensor as a reference to a coordinate system with the set reference point as a reference (column 6, lines 15-30).
Regarding clam 12, Xi discloses the object identification apparatus of claim 1, wherein the processor sets one point in the vehicle as a reference point, and calibrates the location of the target device, which is computed with the location of the camera as a reference, to a location with the reference point as a reference, through coordinate conversion from a coordinate system with the location of each anchor sensor as a reference to a coordinate system with the set reference point as a reference ((column 6, lines 15-30).
Regarding claim 14, Xi discloses the object identification apparatus of claim 1, wherein the processor detects any one camera that captures an image corresponding to a field of view (FOV) including the direction of the target device, the direction being computed based on the state of the wireless communication connection to the target device, from among the plurality of cameras provided in the vehicle, and computes the locations of the objects included in the image captured by the detected camera (column 8, lines 14-40).
Regarding claim 18, analyses are analogous to those presented for claim 1 and are applicable for claim 18.
Claim(s) 2, 5, and 19 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over US 12122364 B2-Droz, in view of Patent 11830219 B2-Xi, in further view of US 20230419624 A1-Bach.
Regarding claim 2, Droz discloses the object identification apparatus of claim 1,
Droz and Xi fail to disclose a communication unit that performs wireless communication with a cloud server which provides a metaverse platform and provides a service associated with a metaverse virtual space to the vehicle through the metaverse platform, wherein the processor transmits the location information of any one target identified as corresponding to the target device, among objects in the vicinity of the vehicle, to the cloud server, and, in response to the transmission of the location information of the identified target, receives information about the metaverse virtual space in which an avatar corresponding to the identified target is displayed in the vicinity of the vehicle, from the cloud server.
However, in the same field of endeavor, Bach discloses a communication unit that performs wireless communication with a cloud server which provides a metaverse platform and provides a service associated with a metaverse virtual space to the vehicle through the metaverse platform ([0041-0042]), wherein the processor transmits the location information of any one target identified as corresponding to the target device, among objects in the vicinity of the vehicle, to the cloud server ([0041-0042]), and, in response to the transmission of the location information of the identified target, receives information about the metaverse virtual space in which an avatar corresponding to the identified target is displayed in the vicinity of the vehicle, from the cloud server ([0041-0042]).
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skilled in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify the method disclosed by Droz and Xi to disclose a communication unit that performs wireless communication with a cloud server which provides a metaverse platform and provides a service associated with a metaverse virtual space to the vehicle through the metaverse platform, wherein the processor transmits the location information of any one target identified as corresponding to the target device, among objects in the vicinity of the vehicle, to the cloud server, and, in response to the transmission of the location information of the identified target, receives information about the metaverse virtual space in which an avatar corresponding to the identified target is displayed in the vicinity of the vehicle, from the cloud server as taught by Bach, to improve the user experience (abstract, Bach).
Regarding claim 5, Bach discloses the object identification apparatus of claim 2, wherein the processor controls the interface unit in such a manner that the received image of the metaverse virtual space is displayed on a display unit of the vehicle ([0024]), and wherein the image of the metaverse virtual space is an image in which the object identified as corresponding to the target device, among the objects in the vicinity of the vehicle, is displayed as the avatar in a manner that is distinguished from the other remaining objects that are not identified ([0030], motivation is same as claim 2).
Regarding claim 19, analyses are analogous to those presented for claim 2 and are applicable for claim 19.
Allowable Subject Matter
Claims 3-4, 6-8, 11, 13, 15-17 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
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LERON . BECK
Examiner
Art Unit 2487
/LERON BECK/ Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2487
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