Prosecution Insights
Last updated: April 19, 2026
Application No. 18/951,657

ROAD SITUATION DETECTION DEVICE AND METHOD FOR DETERMINING ABNORMAL SITUATION

Non-Final OA §102
Filed
Nov 19, 2024
Examiner
LEE, Y YOUNG
Art Unit
2485
Tech Center
2400 — Computer Networks
Assignee
SK Planet Co. Ltd.
OA Round
1 (Non-Final)
48%
Grant Probability
Moderate
1-2
OA Rounds
3y 1m
To Grant
73%
With Interview

Examiner Intelligence

Grants 48% of resolved cases
48%
Career Allow Rate
200 granted / 418 resolved
-10.2% vs TC avg
Strong +26% interview lift
Without
With
+25.5%
Interview Lift
resolved cases with interview
Typical timeline
3y 1m
Avg Prosecution
13 currently pending
Career history
431
Total Applications
across all art units

Statute-Specific Performance

§101
7.7%
-32.3% vs TC avg
§103
35.0%
-5.0% vs TC avg
§102
37.5%
-2.5% vs TC avg
§112
9.4%
-30.6% vs TC avg
Black line = Tech Center average estimate • Based on career data from 418 resolved cases

Office Action

§102
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 . Election/Restrictions Applicant’s election without traverse of embodiment 1, claims 1-5, in the reply filed on 12/5/25 is acknowledged. Claims 6-20 are withdrawn from further consideration pursuant to 37 CFR 1.142(b) as being drawn to a nonelected embodiment, there being no allowable generic or linking claim. Election was made without traverse in the reply filed on 12/5/25. Applicant is reminded that upon the cancelation of claims to a non-elected invention, the inventorship must be corrected in compliance with 37 CFR 1.48(a) if one or more of the currently named inventors is no longer an inventor of at least one claim remaining in the application. A request to correct inventorship under 37 CFR 1.48(a) must be accompanied by an application data sheet in accordance with 37 CFR 1.76 that identifies each inventor by his or her legal name and by the processing fee required under 37 CFR 1.17(i). Priority Receipt is acknowledged of certified copies of papers required by 37 CFR 1.55. Drawings The drawings are objected to because all diagrams and features in Figure 3 are required to be distinctly labeled to indicate contents or function with legends (37 C.F.R. 1.83(a), 1.84(o)) since they are necessary for understanding of the drawing. Correction is required. Specification Applicant is reminded of the proper language and format for an abstract of the disclosure. The abstract should be in narrative form and generally limited to a single paragraph on a separate sheet within the range of 50 to 150 words in length. The abstract should describe the disclosure sufficiently to assist readers in deciding whether there is a need for consulting the full patent text for details. The language should be clear and concise and should not repeat information given in the title. It should avoid using phrases which can be implied, such as, “The disclosure concerns,” “The disclosure defined by this invention,” “The disclosure describes,” etc. In addition, the form and legal phraseology often used in patent claims, such as “means” and “said,” should be avoided. The abstract of the disclosure is objected to because of inclusion of implied and legal phraseologies such “disclosure” and “embodiments”. A corrected abstract of the disclosure is required and must be presented on a separate sheet, apart from any other text. See MPEP § 608.01(b). The lengthy specification has not been checked to the extent necessary to determine the presence of all possible minor errors. Applicant’s cooperation is requested in correcting any errors of which applicant may become aware in the specification. 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)(1) the claimed invention was patented, described in a printed publication, or in public use, on sale, or otherwise available to the public before the effective filing date of the claimed invention. Claim(s) 1-5 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(1) as being anticipated by Hyeon et al (KR 10-2270625). Hyeon et al (see attached English translation), in Figs. 1, 2, and 4, discloses the same road situation detection device as specified in claim 1 of the present invention, comprising a memory 130 comprising instructions [0040]; and a processor 150 configured to, by executing the instructions, determine a roadway 10 in a captured image [0068] through region 10 distinguishing in the captured image, and determine an abnormal situation (e.g. reverse driving) regarding driving of a vehicle object 20 in the roadway in the captured image [0032]. Claim 2, wherein the processor is configured to distinguish between a driving road region 10 and a non-driving road region (e.g. Fig. 1) in the captured image, based on a pretrained region distinguishing model (e.g. AI learning), and determine that the distinguished driving road region is the roadway [0001]. Claim 3, wherein the region distinguishing model is a deep learning model [0001] that is defined to distinguish between a driving road region 10, in which a vehicle 20 travels, and a non-driving road region, in which a non-vehicle moving object (e.g. bicycle) moves, by being trained on training data based on a movement speed and a movement trajectory of an unspecified moving object (e.g. not motor vehicle) identified in a captured image, based on multiple images 210 captured under shooting conditions identical to those of the captured image [0040], and wherein from the training data, relevant data of a specific moving object that is capable of moving on both a roadway and a sidewalk are excluded [0037]. Claim 4, wherein the specific moving object is configured as a moving object 20 for which an audio waveform of a specific tire friction sound, which specifies an electric scooter (e.g. electric kickboard) and a bicycle [0037] from among unspecified moving objects identified in each of the multiple captured images 210, is detected based on tire friction sound data 200 acquired at time points when the multiple captured images are taken at a location of a device 100 configured to take the captured image. Claim 5, wherein the abnormal situation is determined in case that a driving direction (e.g. reverse) of a vehicle object 20 recognized on the roadway in the captured image is recognized to be opposite or different from a driving direction (e.g. one-way) of the roadway, or in case that the vehicle object recognized on the roadway stops driving at situation other than a predefined normal situation [0051]-[0052]. Conclusion The prior art made of record and not relied upon is considered pertinent to applicant's disclosure. 20260011153 discloses METHOD FOR EVALUATING AND/OR IMPROVING A TOTAL DEPTH MAP OF A MONITORING AREA AND TOTAL DEPTH MAP ARRANGEMENT FOR IMPLEMENTING THE METHOD 20260011172 discloses ANIMAL IDENTIFICATION AND FORECASTING SYSTEM AND METHOD 20260011154 discloses INCIDENT SURVEILLANCE USING UNMANNED MOBILE MACHINES Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to YOUNG LEE whose telephone number is (571)272-7334. The examiner can normally be reached 571-272-7334. 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. /Y LEE/ Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2485
Read full office action

Prosecution Timeline

Nov 19, 2024
Application Filed
Oct 02, 2025
Examiner Interview (Telephonic)
Oct 03, 2025
Examiner Interview Summary
Jan 09, 2026
Non-Final Rejection — §102
Jan 14, 2026
Applicant Interview (Telephonic)
Jan 14, 2026
Examiner Interview Summary

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Study what changed to get past this examiner. Based on 5 most recent grants.

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Prosecution Projections

1-2
Expected OA Rounds
48%
Grant Probability
73%
With Interview (+25.5%)
3y 1m
Median Time to Grant
Low
PTA Risk
Based on 418 resolved cases by this examiner. Grant probability derived from career allow rate.

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