DETAILED CORRESPONDENCE
This action is in response to the filing of the Application 10/17/2024.
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, 3, 10, 11, 13 and 20 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Choi (US 20210323550 A1).
Claim 1, Choi discloses a method performed by an apparatus of a vehicle, the method comprising: determining, based on sensing information transmitted from a plurality of sensors [see vehicle with sensors Fig 3, and p0075 – 77];
and controlling, based on the virtual road and a driving state of the vehicle, an operation of a lane following assist (LFA) function of the vehicle [see p0028, p0139 - the rear virtual lane is generated, the controller 140 performs lane keeping assist (LKA) and lane following assist (LFA) based on the generated rear virtual lane].
Choi does not specifically teach a virtual road on which the vehicle is traveling, wherein the virtual road is mapped to a road on which the vehicle is traveling.
However, Choi does teach the controller 140 may extract only a lane on the road through an image processing process for the photographed front image, and generate a front virtual lane based on the extracted lane with the vehicle. Specifically, the controller 140 may store data on the front virtual lane of the vehicle 1 being traveled in real time, and when the vehicle 1 moves, generate a rear virtual lane by reflecting moving information of the vehicle 1 on the stored front virtual lane. This considers that the front of the advancing vehicle 1 becomes the rear of the vehicle 1 after advancing a certain distance [see Fig 5, p0105 -0110].
It would have been obvious before the effective date of the claimed invention to one of ordinary skill in the art to modify the device in Choi, to include a virtual road on which the vehicle is traveling, wherein the virtual road is mapped to a road on which the vehicle is traveling, as suggested and taught with a reasonable expectation of success, for the purpose of providing a driver assistance system which includes all-round driving environment of the vehicle, and identifying a virtual image of the real time travel so that a virtual lane while driving to keep the vehicle in the middle of the lane and thus to avoid collisions and adhere to safety.
Claim 11 is similarly rejected as Claim 1, see above.
Claim 3, Choi discloses the method of claim 1, wherein the determining of the virtual road comprises determining, based on a driving trajectory of a second vehicle in front of the vehicle, a virtual lane on the virtual road [see Fig 4C and p0095 – 97 – teaching a second vehicle (virtual vehicle 3000) based on GPS of that vehicle and specific information received from that forward vehicle, the driving vehicle 1000 may generate a virtual lane based on information about width].
Claim 13 is similarly rejected as Claim 3, see above.
Claim 10, Choi discloses the method of claim 1, wherein the controlling of the operation of the LFA function comprises one of: deactivating, based on a determination that forward driving of the vehicle is not available, the LFA function; or maintaining, based on a determination that the forward driving of the vehicle is available, the LFA function activated [see Choi, p0028, the controller may acquire front coordinate information for the front virtual lane, acquire rear coordinate information for the rear of the vehicle through a predetermined transformation matrix in which the vehicle and an angular velocity of the vehicle are reflected in the front coordinate information, generate the rear virtual lane based on the rear coordinate information, and perform a lane keeping assist (LKA) and a lane following assist (LFA) based on the rear virtual lane].
Claim 20 is similarly rejected as Claim 10, see above.
Claim(s) 2, 9, 12 and 19 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Choi (US 20210323550 A1) in view of Park (US S 20230182722 A1).
Claim 2, Choi discloses the method of claim 1, but is silent to wherein the sensing information comprises at least one of: a stationary object on the road, a second vehicle located in front of the vehicle, a third vehicle located diagonally in front of the vehicle, a fourth vehicle located diagonally behind the vehicle, a fifth vehicle located behind the vehicle, or a lateral distance relative to the vehicle.
However, Park discloses a collision avoidance apparatus for implementing a virtual lane using a global positioning system (GPS), a navigation system, and vehicle information.
Further disclosing, as illustrated in FIG. 7A – 7C, when the autonomous driving vehicle 1000 generates a virtual lane by one forward vehicle, the virtual lane different from an actual lane may be generated; the autonomous driving vehicle 1000 may generate virtual lanes of the entire three-lane road by substituting the generated first to third virtual lanes into the road on which the autonomous driving vehicle 1000 is currently traveling. Meanwhile, FIG. 7C illustrates the case in which the autonomous driving vehicle 1000 generates virtual lanes based on data of a plurality of forward vehicles when some of the forward vehicles do not maintain straight lines of an actual road.
The autonomous driving vehicle 1000 may generate virtual lanes of the entire road based on forward vehicles of the autonomous driving vehicle 1000. In this case, when there is a difference in lane information by comparing the generated virtual lanes, the autonomous driving vehicle 1000 may select virtual lanes generated based on more vehicles among a plurality of vehicles as driving lanes and travel in the driving lanes [see Figs 7A – 7B, p0118 – 0126].
It would have been obvious before the effective date of the claimed invention to one of ordinary skill in the art to modify the device in Choi, to include wherein the sensing information comprises at least one of: a stationary object on the road, a second vehicle located in front of the vehicle, a third vehicle located diagonally in front of the vehicle, a fourth vehicle located diagonally behind the vehicle, a fifth vehicle located behind the vehicle, or a lateral distance relative to the vehicle, as suggested and taught by Park, with a reasonable expectation of success, for the purpose of preventing a driving vehicle from colliding with a nearby vehicle by implementing a virtual vehicle and a virtual lane.
Claim 12 is similarly rejected as Claim 2, see above.
Claim 9, Choi discloses the method of claim 1, but not specifically wherein the determining of the virtual road comprises determining, based on an absence of any vehicles or objects on the road within an operational range of the plurality of sensors, the virtual road to be a straight road.
However, Park discloses a collision avoidance apparatus for implementing a virtual lane using a global positioning system (GPS), a navigation system, and vehicle information. Further teaching, the processor 2400 may determine whether the generated virtual lanes are straight lanes. When the virtual lanes are straight lanes, the processor 2400 may generate virtual lanes of the entire road by fusing the virtual lanes. Meanwhile, when some of the virtual lanes are not straight lanes, the processor 2400 may disregard virtual lanes other than straight lanes and fuse virtual lanes except for the disregarded virtual lanes, thereby generating virtual lanes of the entire road [see p0084 – 0086].
Park further discloses, See Fig. 10B a vehicle driving with no lanes and no other vehicles, driving vehicle 1000 may generate a virtual lane based on the received information about the width of the entire road. To this end, the autonomous driving vehicle 1000 may generate a virtual lane 4300 corresponding to a central line by dividing the width of the entire road by 2.
The autonomous driving vehicle 1000 may generate a virtual lane based on the received information about the width of the entire road. To this end, the autonomous driving vehicle 1000 may generate a virtual lane 4300 (shown a straight lane) corresponding to a central line by dividing the width of the entire road by 2 [see Fig 10B, p0150 – 0154].
It would have been obvious before the effective date of the claimed invention to one of ordinary skill in the art to modify the device in Choi, to include wherein the determining of the virtual road comprises determining, based on an absence of any vehicles or objects on the road within an operational range of the plurality of sensors, the virtual road to be a straight road, as suggested and taught by Park, with a reasonable expectation of success, for the purpose of preventing a driving vehicle from colliding with a nearby vehicle by implementing a virtual vehicle and a virtual lane.
Claim 19 is similarly rejected as Claim 9, see above.
Allowable Subject Matter
Claims 4 – 8 and 14 – 18 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.
Prior Art
The following prior art has not been used in the rejection; however, this publication is nonetheless pertinent to the Applicant’s disclosure:
Nagae (US 20180105170)
Conclusion
The examiner has pointed out particular references contained in the prior art of record in the body of this action for the convenience of the applicant. Although the specified citations are representative of the teachings in the art and are applied to the specific limitations within the individual claim, other passages and figures may apply as well. Applicant should consider the entire prior art as applicable as to the limitations of the claims. It is respectfully requested from the applicant, in preparing the response, to consider fully the entire references as potentially teaching all or part of the claimed invention, as well as the context of the passage as taught by the prior art or disclosed by the examiner.
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to RENEE LAROSE whose telephone number is (313)446-4856. The examiner can normally be reached on Monday - Friday 8:30am - 5:00pm EST.
If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner’s supervisor, Abby Lin can be reached on (571) 270-3976. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300.
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/Renee LaRose/Examiner, Art Unit 3657