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 .
This communication is in response to amendments filed on 05/22/2026.
In the application claims 1-14 are pending.
Applicant’s arguments with respect to the 35 USC 101 abstract idea rejections, in view of the amendments, are persuasive. The rejections are withdrawn.
Applicant’s arguments with respect the 35 USC 103 rejections were fully considered; however, the arguments are moot in view of the new grounds of rejections. With respect to independent claims 1 and 8 no arguments were presented for prior art Yamashiro and arguments with respect to claims 7 and 14 are moot in view of the new grounds of rejections.
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) 1-6 and 8-13 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Datta Gupta, Somak et al. (US 2024/0303999 A1); hereinafter, Datta, and further in view of Tsuda, Shinichiro (US 2022/0238019 A1), and further in view of Yamashiro (US 2025/0063428 A1).
Consider claim 1, Datta teaches, a method for providing a sensor data sharing message (SDSM) based on a sensor-sharing service, Datta teaches, “a federated object data mechanism (FODM) for multi-radio access technology (RAT) vehicle-to-everything (V2X) communication includes one or more hardware components. The one or more hardware components are configured to receive connected messages from vehicles, the connected messages specifying vehicle information including locations of the vehicles; receive perception objects from sensors of roadside infrastructure, the perception objects specifying object locations as perceived by the sensor” See ¶ 0003, the method comprising:
detecting objects based on information obtained from a sensor, Datta teaches, “vehicles 102A-102B … may be able to be sensed by infrastructure 104 such as cameras or other roadside sensors.” See ¶ 0031, Datta teaches, “the RSU 204 may also include a wireless transceiver 214, a V2X stack 216 and a C-V2X Uu client 218. The RSU 204 may also include sensors 222 such as cameras, where the sensors 222 of the RSU 204 are configured to detect aspects of the environment surrounding the RSU 204.” See ¶ 0051;
With respect to, generating an object group by grouping at least a portion of the detected objects, Datta teaches, “object detection and parameterization is performed by the camera client 616 (or other sensor data processing component). This may be done to identify vehicles 102, pedestrians, obstructions, or other elements in the received data. Various techniques may be used to perform the detection, including machine learning approaches such as image segmentation and object classification.” See ¶ 0106, Datta’s object classification is similar to the claimed object group; Datta does not explicitly state, “generating an object group” nonetheless, in an analogous art, Tsuda teaches, “advanced driver-assistance systems (ADAS)/ autonomous driving (AD) system that implements a driving assistance function is mounted on each of the first contract vehicle 4a and the second contract vehicle 4b… server 5 receives, for example, safety performance information of the ADAS/AD system from each contract vehicle through wireless communication via a base station 6 or a road side unit (RSU) 7,” See ¶ 0097, Tsuda teaches, “control unit 46 performs a control to generate the V2X message to be transmitted to a surrounding vehicle and the like, a control to perform autonomous driving, a control to avoid an emergency, and the like on the basis of the processing result of the information processing unit 45. The control unit 46 accesses the base station 6 or the like via the communication unit 33 and regularly or irregularly updates the dynamic map used by the information processing unit 45 to calculate the relative position information with respect to the target object. Furthermore, the control unit 46 generates the V2X message to be broadcast or unicast to the surroundings on the basis of the processing result of the information processing unit 45. The V2X message generated by the control unit 46 is transmitted to other vehicles, the base station 6, the RSU 7” See ¶ 0147, Tsuda teaches, “the integrated processing unit 55 may combine the plurality of object candidates into one group and handle the one group as one object candidate. In a case of treating the plurality of object candidates as a group, an identification parameter of the group, an identification parameter of each object candidate constituting the group, a numerical value of each object candidate proportional to a certainty of being the object, position information of each object candidate estimated as the object, and attribute information of the estimated object are generated as information related to the group in the integrated processing unit 55 and are transmitted to the information holding unit 56.” See ¶ 0164, Tsuda teaches, “the obstacle determination unit 57 may also perform processing of grouping obstacles or processing of classifying obstacles from a group.” See ¶ 0169;
wherein the SDSM representative dynamic information is generated based on dynamic information of each of the objects included in the object group, Datta teaches, “SDSM generator 226 may be configured to generate SDSM messages based on the information combined by the remote fusion component 224. SDSM messages allow the sharing of information about detected objects among traffic participants. SDSM messages may be broadcast using the wireless transceiver 214 of the RSU 204 and may be received by vehicles 102 or other traffic participants to aid in collective perception with respect to the environment.” See ¶ 0053.
Datta does not explicitly state, “message includes representative dynamic information” nonetheless, Tsuda teaches, “the set distance of the respective object candidates in the group for which closeness is determined can be dynamically set or updated for each area” See ¶ 0165, Tsuda teaches, “constituent elements of the object candidates included in the group estimated by the integrated processing unit 55 can be dynamically changed. For example, in a case where a bicycle and a pedestrian are waiting within a set distance in front of a crosswalk, the bicycle and the pedestrian can be estimated as the object candidates of one group. Meanwhile, in a case where the bicycle and the pedestrian thereafter start crossing the crosswalk at different speeds and the bicycle deviates from within the distance set for the group including the pedestrian, the bicycle is excluded from the constituent elements of the group, and processing of estimating the bicycle as one new object candidate is separately performed.” See ¶ 0166, Tsuda teaches, “first contract vehicle 4a performs cellular wireless communication with the base station 6, whereas the second contract vehicle 4b performs wireless communication with the RSU 7 installed on a traffic light 8, a road sign (not illustrated), or the like. Note that the first contract vehicle 4a may have a function of performing wireless communication with the RSU 7 installed on the traffic light 8,” See ¶ 0104.
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skilled in the art at the time of invention (effective filing date for AIA application) to modify the invention of Datta and forms groups of object and provide dynamic information regarding the objects of the group in the RSU messages as suggested by the cited sections of Tsuda in an effort to provide real-time alert to the drivers on the road of possible collision.
With respect to, determining whether a number of the detected objects exceeds a predetermined number of objects for which information is transmittable in one SDSM; based on determining that the number of the detected objects exceeds the predetermined number, generating an object group, Tsuda teaches, “the obstacle determination unit 57 may also perform processing of grouping obstacles or processing of classifying obstacles from a group. In a case where a plurality of objects determined as being obstacles by the obstacle determination unit 57 is close to each other within a set distance, the obstacle determination unit 57 may handle the plurality of objects (obstacles) as one group.” See Tsuda ¶ 0169, 0170.
generating an object group by grouping at least a portion of the detected objects based on dynamic information of the detected objects, wherein the grouping is performed based on dynamic information of the objects, See Tsuda ¶ 0166, 0169, 0170,
Tsuda teaches, “the obstacle determination unit 57 can dynamically change the constituent elements of the objects (obstacles) included in the group. For example, in a case where a bicycle and a pedestrian are waiting within a set distance in front of a crosswalk, the bicycle and the pedestrian can be handled as the objects (obstacles) of one group.” See ¶ 0171, and Yamashiro teaches, “sensor information container lists information about the individual sensors mounted on the vehicle or RSU to detect peripheral objects.” See ¶ 0090. Yamashiro teaches, “the transmitted message includes the aggregation information of the object group based on the grouping of the plurality of objects” See ¶ 0028. Yamashiro teaches, “similarity of behavior may be determined based on the object dynamic status, direction of movement, directional instability, speed, acceleration, and combinations thereof. The grouping unit 31 may group multiple objects that are recognized to have similar behaviors.” See ¶ 0143 and 0145;
generating a SDSM including representative dynamic information for the object group, Datta teaches, “[t]he identified objects may be parameterized into messages, such as into BSM messages or into SDSM messages, where the messages are sent from the infrastructure 104 to the edge API handler 904 at index (C).” See ¶ 0106, Datta teaches, “the SDSM generator 226 may generate SDSMs describing each of the elements of the consolidated object database 702, thereby informing a recipient of the locations of each of the vehicles 102 and detected objects.” See ¶ 0115, Yamashiro teaches, “a message generation unit configured to generate the message including aggregation information in which the plurality of objects are aggregated into an object group based on the grouping; and a message transmission unit configured to transmit the message including the aggregation information” See ¶ 0026.” Yamashiro teaches, “transmitting information about the object group that tends to change dynamically at short intervals, the receiving vehicle or RSU can more easily respond to the dynamic changes in the object group.” See ¶ 0238;
transmitting the SDSM to a vehicle, Yamashiro teaches, “a message generation unit configured to generate the message including aggregation information in which the plurality of objects are aggregated into an object group based on the grouping; and a message transmission unit configured to transmit the message including the aggregation information, See ¶ 0026. Yamashiro teaches, “[t]he V2X communication device may perform communication between vehicles, between vehicles and bicycles, between vehicles and mobile terminals, between vehicles and roadside units, and the like.” See ¶ 0032.
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skilled in the art at the time of invention (effective filing date for AIA application) to modify the combination of Datta- Tsuda and provide information regarding the object group in the RSU messages as suggested by the cited sections of Yamashiro in an effort to provide real-time alert to the drivers on the road of possible collision with the group of objects on the road.
Consider claim 2, the method of claim 1, wherein the representative dynamic information includes at least one of a representative position, a representative heading, a representative speed, or a representative acceleration, and wherein the representative dynamic information corresponds to a position, a heading, a speed, or an acceleration of the object group, Tsuda teaches, “the output unit 58 outputs information regarding the position and speed of the vehicle at a constant cycle or a dynamically variable cycle in order to generate a specific V2X message expected to be regularly transmitted.” See ¶ 0162. See ¶ 0166, Tsuda teaches, “as information regarding the group, a position, a size, an attribute, a speed, a detection time, and the like are generated for each object (obstacle) constituting the group. These pieces of information are output to the information holding unit 56 or the output unit 58. Note that the distance as a threshold value for determining the closeness can be dynamically set or updated for each area, time zone, group, or the like.” See ¶ 0170.
Consider claim 8, a sensor sharing apparatus comprising: at least one processor; and a memory for storing instructions, wherein the at least one processor is configured to: by executing the instructions, Datta teaches, “the computing device 1102 may include a processor 1104 that is operatively connected to a storage 1106, a network device 1108, an output device 1110, and an input device 1112.” See ¶ 0118, “during operation the processor 1104 executes stored program instructions that are retrieved from the storage 1106. The stored program instructions, accordingly, include software that controls the operation of the processors 1104 to perform the operations described herein. The storage 1106 may include both non-volatile memory and volatile memory devices.” See ¶ 0120;
detect objects based on information obtained from a sensor,
determine whether a number of the detected objects exceeds a predetermined number of objects for which information is transmittable in one sensor data sharing message (SDSM);
based on determining that the number of the detected objects exceeds the predetermined number, generate an object group by grouping at least a portion of the detected objects based on dynamic information of the detected objects,
generate a SDSM including representative dynamic information for the object group, and transmit the SDSM to a vehicle, wherein the representative dynamic information is generated based on dynamic information of each of the objects included in the object group, See rejection of claim 1.
Consider claim 9, the sensor sharing apparatus of claim 8, wherein the representative dynamic information includes at least one of a representative position, a representative heading, a representative speed, or a representative acceleration, and wherein the representative dynamic information corresponds to a position, a heading, a speed, or an acceleration of the object group, See rejection of claim 2.
Consider claim 3, the method of claim 1, wherein the SDSM includes a type and an ID of the object group, Datta teaches, “infrared cameras 614 may perform object detection algorithms to track perceived objects such as various types of vehicles 102, and other road users such as pedestrians, bicyclists and motorcyclists.” See ¶ 0096, In an analogous art, In an analogous art, Yamashiro teaches, “communication device or a communication method communicates a message including object information. The communication device or the communication method determines whether to perform grouping of a plurality of objects detected by a sensor, generates a message including information that aggregates the plurality of objects into an object group based on the grouping, and transmits the generated message including the information.” See ¶ 0004. Yamashiro teaches, “sensor information container lists information about the individual sensors mounted on the vehicle or RSU to detect peripheral objects.” See ¶ 0090. Yamashiro teaches, “the transmitted message includes the aggregation information of the object group based on the grouping of the plurality of objects” See ¶ 0028.
and wherein the type of the object group is identical to a type of the objects included in the object group, Tsuda teaches, “[i]n a case of treating the plurality of object candidates as a group, an identification parameter of the group, an identification parameter of each object candidate constituting the group, a numerical value of each object candidate proportional to a certainty of being the object, position information of each object candidate estimated as the object, and attribute information of the estimated object are generated as information related to the group in the integrated processing unit 55 and are transmitted to the information holding unit 56.” See ¶ 0164. Yamashiro teaches, “grouping conditions may include conditions related to the type of object. The type of object may be a class or subclass in the CPM classification. For example, the grouping unit 31 may group multiple objects of the same type. The grouping unit 31 may exclude multiple objects of different types from the grouped objects. ” See ¶ 0132.
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skilled in the art at the time of invention (effective filing date for AIA application) to modify the combination of Datta- Tsuda and provide information regarding the object group in the RSU messages as suggested by the cited sections of Yamashiro in an effort to provide real-time alert to the drivers on the road of possible collision with the group of objects on the road.
Consider claim 4, the method of claim 1,
wherein the object group includes a same type of objects, Yamashiro teaches, “grouping conditions may include conditions related to the type of object. The type of object may be a class or subclass in the CPM classification. For example, the grouping unit 31 may group multiple objects of the same type. The grouping unit 31 may exclude multiple objects of different types from the grouped objects. ” See ¶ 0132.
Consider claim 5, the method of claim 4, wherein the generating of the object group comprises: calculating a difference of the dynamic information of the detected objects, See Tsuda ¶ 0166;
and generating the object group by grouping objects with the difference being equal to or below a threshold, See Tsuda ¶ 0166, See Yamashiro ¶ 0132, 0143 and 0145, Yamashiro teaches, “grouping unit 31 may group multiple vehicles existing in the same lane on a road. The grouping unit 31 may exclude vehicles that are in different lanes on a road from the grouped target.” See ¶ 0150.
Consider claim 6, the method of claim 1, wherein the dynamic information includes a position, a speed, a movement heading, or an acceleration, Yamashiro ¶ 0132, 0143.
Consider claim 10, the sensor sharing apparatus of claim 8, wherein the SDSM includes a type and an ID of the object group, and wherein the type of the object group is identical to a type of the objects included in the object group, See rejection of claim 3.
Consider claim 11, the sensor sharing apparatus of claim 8, wherein the object group includes a same type of objects, See rejection of claim 4.
Consider claim 12, the sensor sharing apparatus of claim 11, wherein the processor is further configured to: calculate a difference of the dynamic information of the detected objects, and generate the object group by grouping objects with the difference being equal to or below a threshold, See rejection of claim 5.
Consider claim 13, the sensor sharing apparatus of claim 8, wherein the dynamic information includes a position, a speed, a movement heading, or an acceleration, See rejection of claim 6.
Claim(s) 7 and 14 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Datta (US 2024/0303999 A1) in view of Tsuda (US 2022/0238019 A1), in view of Yamashiro (US 2025/0063428 A1), and further in view of Das, Soumya et al. (US 2022/0377559 A1).
Consider claim 7, the method of claim 1, wherein the SDSM further includes additional information on the object group, See Yamashiro ¶ 0028, Yamashiro teaches, “grouping unit 31 determines whether to group multiple objects based on at least one of the object information provided by the message acquisition unit 30 and the object information provided by the object detection unit 41. This determination may include determining an assignment for a number of objects to one or more groups.” See ¶ 0132.
and wherein the additional information includes at least one of
a shape of the object group, See Yamashiro ¶ 0238, 0248, 0249,
a number of the objects included in the object group, See Yamashiro ¶ 0132;
a position of each of the objects included in the object group, See Yamashiro ¶ 0136, 0139, and
a size of each of the objects included in the object group, Yamashiro teaches, “attribute information may include attributes such as dimension,” i.e. size, See ¶ 0079.
and wherein the one SDSM is transmitted within one subframe, in an analogous art, Das teaches, “wireless communications, such as V2X communications, V2X entities may perform sensor sharing with other V2X entities for cooperative and automated driving. For example, with reference to diagram 500 of FIG. 5A, the host vehicle (HV) 502 may detect a number of items within its environment. For example, the HV 502 may detect the presence of the non-V2X entity (NV) 506. The HV 502 may inform other entities, such as a first remote vehicle (RV1) 504 or a road side unit (RSU) 508, about the presence of the NV 506, if the RV1 504 and/or the RSU 508, by themselves, are unable to detect the NV 506… upon detection of a nearby entity (e.g., NV, VRU, obstacle) may transmit a sensor data sharing message (SDSM) 532 to the RV and/or the RSU to share the detection of the entity.” See ¶ 0075, Das teaches, “FIG. 2 illustrates an example diagram 200 illustrating a sidelink subframe within a frame structure that may be used for sidelink communication, e.g., between UEs 104, between a UE and infrastructure, between a UE and an RSU, etc. See ¶ 0061, Das teaches, “the candidate resources may comprise a candidate single-subframe resource (CSR),” See ¶ 0092.
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skilled in the art at the time of invention (effective filing date for AIA application) to modify the combination of Datta-Tsuda-Yamashiro and send a SDSM in a single-subframe resource as suggested by Das in an effort to effectively utilize the wireless bandwidth between RSU and the vehicles.
Consider claim 14, the sensor sharing apparatus of claim 8, wherein the SDSM further includes additional information on the object group, and wherein the additional information includes at least one of a shape of the object group, a number of the objects included in the object group, a position of each of the objects included in the object group, and a size of each of the objects included in the object group, and wherein the one SDSM is transmitted within one subframe, See rejection of claim 7.
Conclusion
Ogawa, Akihiro et al (US 2021/0319690 A1) teaches, “infrastructure sensor 102 is a device that is installed on a road and its periphery, and has a function of acquiring information about the road and its periphery. The infrastructure sensor 102 has a function of communicating with the base station 106. The infrastructure sensor 102 is, for example, an image sensor (e.g., digital monitoring camera), a radar (e.g., millimeter-wave radar), a laser sensor (e.g., LiDAR), or the like.” See ¶ 0049, Ogawa teaches, “a selection unit configured to, according to a positional relationship between a first dynamic object and one or a plurality of second dynamic objects that receive information regarding the first dynamic object, select a hierarchical layer from an analysis result in which sensor information regarding the first dynamic object is hierarchized into a plurality of hierarchical layers; and an output unit configured to output information of the hierarchical layer selected by the selection unit. Therefore, in providing the driving support information to the second dynamic objects such as on-vehicle devices” See ¶ 0033
THIS ACTION IS MADE FINAL. Applicant is reminded of the extension of time policy as set forth in 37 CFR 1.136(a).
A shortened statutory period for reply to this final action is set to expire THREE MONTHS from the mailing date of this action. In the event a first reply is filed within TWO MONTHS of the mailing date of this final action and the advisory action is not mailed until after the end of the THREE-MONTH shortened statutory period, then the shortened statutory period will expire on the date the advisory action is mailed, and any nonprovisional extension fee (37 CFR 1.17(a)) pursuant to 37 CFR 1.136(a) will be calculated from the mailing date of the advisory action. In no event, however, will the statutory period for reply expire later than SIX MONTHS from the mailing date of this final action.
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/Omer S Khan/ Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2686
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