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 .
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 102
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 –
(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.
Claim(s) 1-5 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(2) as being anticipated by Nakashima (Patent Pub. No. US 2013/0169155 A1).
Regarding claims 1, 4 and 5, Nakashima shows in Figs. 4-6 a vehicle headlight control apparatus, method and program that controls a headlight (21, 22) capable of adjusting an amount of light for each of a plurality of light distribution areas, the apparatus comprising: a high-luminance target detection unit (33) that detects a high-luminance target (S35, are surroundings light?) ahead of a vehicle based on an imaging result of an imaging device (28) that captures an image of an area ahead of the vehicle; a dimming control unit (35) that performs dimming control to reduce the amount of light in the light distribution area including the high-luminance target based on a detection result of the high-luminance target detection unit; and a dimming control determination unit (34) that determines whether a brightness of a surrounding environment is a threshold or higher based on the imaging result of the imaging device, wherein the dimming control unit does not perform the dimming control when the dimming control determination unit determines that the brightness of the surrounding environment is the threshold or higher ([0061] – [0080]).
Regarding claim 2, Nakashima shows in Figs. 4-6 the vehicle headlight control apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the dimming control determination unit (34) determines that the brightness of the surrounding environment is the threshold or higher when a brightness of a road surface around the vehicle is a threshold or higher, a brightness of the sky around the vehicle is a threshold or higher, or a plurality of streetlights is present around the vehicle and a distance between the plurality of streetlights is a certain distance or less ([0066]).
Regarding claim 3, Nakashima shows in Figs. 4-6 the vehicle headlight control apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the dimming control determination unit (34) determines that a start condition (S40, is dimming possible?) for the dimming control is satisfied when the high-luminance target is located in a predetermined range at a center of an image that is the imaging result of the imaging device and a size of the high-luminance target is a predetermined size or larger, and the dimming control unit (35) performs the dimming control when the dimming control determination unit determines that the start condition for the dimming control is satisfied ([0015], [0059] – [0062] and [0076] – [0077]).
Conclusion
The prior art made of record and not relied upon is considered pertinent to applicant's disclosure:
Kitagawa et al. (Patent No. US 7,888,876 B2) discloses a lighting control for a vehicle lighting device to control an ON operation of a semiconductor light source constituted by a semiconductor light emitting device.
Stam et al. (Patent Pub. No. US 2003/0123705 A1) discloses control systems for controlling the exterior lights of a vehicle and components that can be used with such a control system.
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/SEUNG C SOHN/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2878