DETAILED ACTION
Status of Claims
Claims 1-7 are currently pending and have been examined in this application. This NON-FINAL communication is the first action on the merits.
The present application, filed on or after March 16, 2013, is being examined under the first inventor to file provisions of the AIA .
Priority
Applicant’s claim for the benefit of a prior-filed application filed in JP 2024038530 on 03/13/2024 under 35 U.S.C. 119(e) or under 35 U.S.C. 120, 121, 365(c), or 386(c) is acknowledged.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 112
The following is a quotation of 35 U.S.C. 112(b):
(b) CONCLUSION.—The specification shall conclude with one or more claims particularly pointing out and distinctly claiming the subject matter which the inventor or a joint inventor regards as the invention.
The following is a quotation of 35 U.S.C. 112 (pre-AIA ), second paragraph: The specification shall conclude with one or more claims particularly pointing out and distinctly claiming the subject matter which the applicant regards as his invention.
Claim 3 is rejected under 35 U.S.C. 112(b) or 35 U.S.C. 112 (pre-AIA ), second paragraph, as being indefinite for failing to particularly point out and distinctly claim the subject matter which the inventor or a joint inventor (or for applications subject to pre-AIA 35 U.S.C. 112, the applicant), regards as the invention.
Claim 3 recites “the first distance and the second distance is not an integer multiple”. Distance is dependent on units and for a distance to not be an integer multiple is indefinite. The instant specification [0034] defines this distance as integer multiples of half wavelengths causing a further lack in clarity. The examiner has interpreted the limitation as “the first distance and the second distance are multiples of half wavelengths”.
Claim 4 is rejected under 35 U.S.C. 112(b) due to its dependency on claim 3.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 102
In the event the determination of the status of the application as subject to AIA 35 U.S.C. 102 and 103 (or as subject to pre-AIA 35 U.S.C. 102 and 103) is incorrect, any correction of the statutory basis (i.e., changing from AIA to pre-AIA ) for the rejection will not be considered a new ground of rejection if the prior art relied upon, and the rationale supporting the rejection, would be the same under either status.
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.
Claims 1-7 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(1) as being anticipated by Oshima (US 20210199757).
Regarding Claim 1, Oshima discloses the following limitations:
A radar device comprising: a transmission antenna configured to transmit an electromagnetic wave as a transmitted wave; (Oshima - [0002] In a vehicle-mounted radar for the purpose of collision prevention, autonomous driving, or the like, radio waves radiated from a transmission antenna hitting a target such as a vehicle, person, or obstacle in front and reflected from them are mixed and reach a plurality of reception antennas.)
a plurality of array antennas each of which includes a plurality of antenna elements arranged linearly in a predetermined arrangement direction at equal intervals, (Oshima – [Fig. 4A-4C], [0009] An incoming wave count estimation apparatus according to the present invention includes: an array antenna including a plurality of element antennas and for receiving a signal radiated from a radio wave source to be targeted; a subarray spatial averaging unit for performing spatial averaging of correlation matrices by dividing a received signal of the array antenna to a plurality of subarrays having different shapes and calculating these correlation matrices for the respective subarrays having different shapes; an eigenvalue expanding unit for performing eigenvalue expansion of correlation matrices for the respective plurality of subarrays having different shapes after spatial averaging obtained by the subarray spatial averaging unit; [0033] FIG. 4 is an explanatory diagram of a subarray division procedure. In FIG. 4, it is assumed that the array antenna 101 is a two-dimensional array including 4×4=16 element antennas. [0074] where λ represents a wavelength of a transmission signal, dx^(n) represents an element interval of the n-th subarray,)
the plurality of array antennas being arranged in the predetermined arrangement direction and configured to receive, as a received signal, a reflected wave that is the electromagnetic wave reflected by a target; and (Oshima – [Fig. 4A-4C], [0009], [0033], [0074])
an angle estimating unit configured to estimate an angle indicating a direction of arrival of the reflected wave using the received signal received by each of the plurality of array antennas, (Oshima – [Fig. 11-12], [0009], [0072] As the operation of the first incoming direction estimating unit 306, first, it is considered to estimate an azimuth angle θ by using subarrays arranged in the x-axis direction. FIG. 11 illustrates the azimuth angle θ and an elevation angle Φ. Furthermore, FIG. 12 is a flowchart illustrating the operation of the first incoming direction estimating unit 306. [0075] Thus, as indicated in step ST321 of FIG. 12, it is considered to estimate the incoming direction with high accuracy without ambiguity by starting from an incoming direction estimated value θ^(1) obtained from an eigenvector of the (n=1)-th subarray having the shortest element interval, and gradually canceling the angular ambiguity. Here, it is assumed that d^(1) is less than or equal to λ/2. Next, it is assumed that an element interval d^(2) of the second subarray is greater than or equal to λ/2. In this case, a phase angle Φ^(n) obtained from the eigenvector has an uncertainty of an integral multiple of 2π. Thus, a plurality of incoming direction estimated values is prepared in consideration of the uncertainty of 2π as indicated in the following equation (13).)
wherein two of the plurality of array antennas are arranged with a first distance therebetween to form a first antenna set, two of the plurality of array antennas are arranged with a second distance therebetween to form a second antenna set, (Oshima – [Eq. 13], [0075])
the first antenna set has a first estimation accuracy characteristic for estimating the angle, (Oshima – [0075])
the second antenna set has a second estimation accuracy characteristic that is different from the first estimation accuracy characteristic, and (Oshima – [0075])
the angle estimating unit is configured to estimate the angle using a first estimation result based on the received signal received by the first antenna set and a second estimation result based on the received signal received by the second antenna set. (Oshima – [Eq. 16], [0072], [0081] This is because it is known that the incoming direction estimation accuracy is inversely proportional to the element interval d^(n) and inversely proportional to the square root of the number of times of spatial averaging M^(n) of the correlation matrix.)
Regarding Claim 2, Oshima further discloses:
wherein the angle estimating unit is configured to estimate the angle by referring to one of the first estimation result and the second estimation result that has an estimation accuracy for the angle equal to or greater than a predetermined threshold. (Oshima – [Eq. 13-16], [0072], [0075], [0081])
Regarding Claim 3, Oshima further discloses:
wherein one of the first distance and the second distance is not an integer multiple of the other of the first distance and the second distance. (Oshima – [0072], [0075])
Regarding Claim 4, Oshima further discloses:
wherein a ratio of the first distance to the second distance falls within a range between 1.3 + n and 1.5 + n, and n is an integer equal to or greater than zero. (Oshima – [0072], [0075])
Regarding Claim 5, Oshima further discloses:
wherein the angle estimating unit is configured to estimate the angle using ESPRIT. (Oshima – [0083] direction estimating unit 310 estimates the incoming direction by a subspace method (high-resolution incoming direction estimation method) such as MUSIC or ESPRIT)
Regarding Claim 6, Oshima further discloses:
wherein the angle estimating unit is configured to estimate the angle by referring to one of the first estimation result and the second estimation result based on the first estimation result falling within a range that requires high resolution. (Oshima – [Eq. 13-16], [0072], [0075], [0081])
Regarding Claim 7, Oshima further discloses:
wherein the angle estimating unit is configured to estimate the angle by averaging the first estimation result and the second estimation result based on both the first estimation result and the second estimation result having the estimation accuracy equal to or greater than the predetermined threshold. (Oshima – [Eq. 13-16], [0072], [0075], [0081], [0079] The accuracy can be further improved by averaging the obtained incoming direction estimation θ^(n) as indicated in the following equation (15) (step ST322 in FIG. 12).)
Conclusion
The prior art made of record and not relied upon is considered pertinent to applicant's
disclosure or directed to the state of art is listed on the enclosed PTO-892.
The following is a brief description for relevant prior art that was cited but not applied:
Straatveit (US 20100033377) teaches a sparsely populated array of antenna elements on a plane is provided such that the angle of arrival (AoA) measurement for a radiofrequency signal received by the array has high resolution and is non-ambiguous within a 360-degree azimuthal field of view.
Zhang (US 20230184888) teaches a radar angle calibration system that obtains a spatial response matrix of the receiving antenna array according to the spatial responses corresponding to the signal sources in different DoAs.
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to BRANDON JAMES HENSON whose telephone number is (703)756-1841. The examiner can normally be reached Monday-Friday 9:00 am - 5:00 pm.
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, Resha H. Desai can be reached at (571) 270-7792. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300.
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/BRANDON JAMES HENSON/Examiner, Art Unit 3648
/BERNARR E GREGORY/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 3648 /
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