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 § 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) 1-5, 7-16 and 18-22 are is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over DeSantola et al (US PGPUB 2022/0292618 in view of Siefken et al (US PG PUB 2025/0182080).
Regarding claims 1 and 12 DeSantola et al disclose a drive-through service monitoring system and method comprising:
a camera provided at each of a plurality of locations in a drive-through service to obtain real-time footage of vehicles at each of the plurality of locations (cameras 808 shown in figure 8); and
an intelligent video analytics (IVA) system provided and configured to determine, from the real-time footage obtained by the cameras: vehicle license plate numbers to identify each vehicle at each of the plurality of locations (cameras work with computer processor to OCR license plates see paragraphs 260 and 302), and variables associated with vehicles using the drive-through service (see paragraph 249), wherein the variables include: a dwell time of each identified vehicle at a location in the plurality of locations (wait time in paragraph 249) ; and
for each identified vehicle, at least one duration between at least one distinct pair of locations in the plurality of locations (paragraph 304 discuss placement of order and average prep times in paragraph 30).
Although DeSantola fail to explicitly teach that the time is identified at each of the locations in the drive thru, Siefken et al does. See paragraph 81, where entry, order, service time and payment times are calculated. Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the time of filing to include dwell time data for each location of a particular drive thru system. By calculating dwell time at each location, as opposed to just overall time, will give one the opportunity to see where improvement can be made, thus reducing overall wait time for customers and improve customer experience.
Regarding claims 2 and 13, Siefken teaches a drive-through service monitoring system wherein each distinct pair of locations comprises a first location and a second location, and wherein the duration is at least one of: from arrival at the first location to arrival at the second location, from arrival at the first location to departure from the second location, from departure from the first location to arrival at the second location, and from departure from the first location to departure from the second location. (note time stamps are created for every entry in paragraph 81)
Regarding claims 3 and 14, DeSantola teaches a drive-through service monitoring system wherein the plurality of locations include an ordering point where customers place their orders and a collection point where ordered items are received; and wherein the predetermined locations include at least one of: the ordering point and the collection point. (see figure 8 which has a order point, collection point and payment point). Siefken also teaches the same well known locations in a drive thru.
Regarding claims 4 and 15, DeSantola teaches a drive-through service monitoring system, wherein the collection point is at least one of: a payment point where payment is made for an order placed at the ordering point, a pull forward area provided after the payment point, and a wait bay provided after the pull forward area. (see figure 8 waiting area 830)
Regarding claims 5 and 16, DeSantola teaches a drive-through service monitoring system of claim 4, wherein the variables further include at least one of: a specific time when an identified vehicle is moved to the wait bay, percentage of vehicles moved to the wait bay, a number of vehicles in the drive-through service between the entry and a final collection point, and a number of vehicles exiting the drive-through service before reaching the ordering point. (see figure 8 and note the claim requires “one of”, so DeSantola shows the waiting area).
Regarding claims 7 and 18, Siefken teaches in paragraph 82 that the drive-through service monitoring system, includes an average dwell time from the dwell times determined for multiple identified vehicles at each of the predetermined locations, and average durations from the durations determined between distinct pairs of locations for the multiple identified vehicles.
Regarding claims 8 and 19, Siefken teaches a drive-through service monitoring system, wherein for each distinct pair of locations, the second location is the collection point and the first location is one of: the ordering point and an entry of the drive-through service. (paragraph 81)
Regarding claims 9 and 20, both DeSantola and Siefken teach a drive-through service monitoring system, wherein the IVA system further comprises a data visualization module configured to present the determined variables and target variables on a dashboard displayed on an electronic visual display. See figure 4 display 150.
Regarding claims 10, 11, 21 and 22, Siefken teaches a a drive-through service monitoring system wherein an ultrasonic sensor is provided at each location in the drive-through service that requires establishment of remote communication between a customer at the location and a service crew member who is located elsewhere in the drive-through service to detect arrival of a vehicle at the location and consequently automatically activate a voice communication system provided at the location so that the customer and the service crew member located elsewhere can immediately talk to each other without having to manually activate the voice communication system. (see paragraphs 53 and 57)
Allowable Subject Matter
Claims 6 and 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
The prior art made of record and not relied upon is considered pertinent to applicant's disclosure. The following references all teach drive thru performance monitoring and details about image capture and monitoring steps in the system. US Patents 9488723, 9904903 and 11443260. Also see US PG PUBs 2023/0169612 (figure 5) and 2024/0121573 (figure 8).
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to CHRISTOPHER S KELLEY whose telephone number is (571)272-7331. The examiner can normally be reached Mon-Fri 6:30 to 4 pm alternate Fridays off.
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, Colleen Fauz can be reached at 571-272-1617. 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.
/CHRISTOPHER S KELLEY/Supervisory Patent Examiner, Art Unit 2482
Prosecution Insights