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 .
Information Disclosure Statement
The information disclosure statement (IDS) submitted on 01/15/2025 has/have been considered by the examiner.
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 it has phrase “means”. 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).
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) 1-2 and 6-7 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(1) as being anticipated by Morihiro (JP 2020160291 A), hereinafter Morihiro.
-Regarding claim 1, Morihiro discloses a road management system comprising (Abstract; FIGS. 1-4; Page 14, 2nd paragraph): at least one memory storing instructions; and at least one processor configured to execute the instructions to (one or more processor and memory has to be used in order to implement Morihiro’s method shown in FIG. 1): detect a space on an auxiliary road where a mobile body other than a vehicle moves based on sensing information obtained by sensing the auxiliary road (FIG. 1, sidewalk detection unit 21a, camera 44; FIGS. 2A-2E, 3A, 4, 5A; Page 6, 3rd paragraph, “detecting a sidewalk along the roadway …”, 4th paragraph; Page 1, last paragraph, “ …map … navigation services for pedestrians”; Page 4, last paragraph, “… Pedestrians are more likely to stick out to the side of the road …”; Page 12, Sec. (3)., 2nd - 3rd paragraphs), the auxiliary road being provided on a side of a roadway where the vehicle travels (FIGS. 2-4; Page 6, 3rd paragraph, “… a sidewalk along the roadway along the roadway on which the vehicle exists”); specify a section of the auxiliary road in which a whole or part of the auxiliary road is interrupted based on the space on the auxiliary road (FIG.1, sidewalk detection unit 21a, road information update program 21; FIGS. 2A-2E, 3A, 4; FIG. 5A, steps S105, S110; Page 4, 4th paragraph, “… updating the road information… target sidewalk … outside the width … a three-dimensional object … higher than a predetermined value … a curb, a guide fence … a tree …”, 5th paragraph; Page 5, 3th - 4th paragraphs; Pag2 11, 1st paragraph); and reflect the section of the auxiliary road in which the whole or part of the auxiliary road is interrupted in a database (FIG. 1, sidewalk information addition unit 61a, map information 70a, updated road information 70a1, recording medium 70; FIG. 5B; Page 2, Sec. (1)., 1st paragraph, “update the road information by adding the sidewalk information …”; Page 3, 5th paragraph; Page 11, 4th – 5th paragraphs; Page 1, last paragraph).
-Regarding claim 2, Morihiro discloses the road management system of claim 1. Morihiro further discloses wherein the sensing information includes at least one of a camera image obtained by capturing an image of a road and three-dimensional point cloud data of the road (FIGS. 1, 2A-2E, 4, 5A; Page 4, 4th – 5th paragraphs; Page 10, Sec. (2).; Page 11, 1st paragraph).
-Regarding claim 6, Morihiro discloses a road management method comprising (Abstract; FIGS. 1-4; Page 14, 2nd paragraph): detecting a space on an auxiliary road where a mobile body other than a vehicle moves based on sensing information obtained by sensing the auxiliary road (FIG. 1, sidewalk detection unit 21a, camera 44; FIGS. 2A-2E, 3A, 4, 5A; Page 6, 3rd paragraph, “detecting a sidewalk along the roadway …”, 4th paragraph; Page 1, last paragraph, “ …map … navigation services for pedestrians”; Page 4, last paragraph, “… Pedestrians are more likely to stick out to the side of the road …”; Page 12, Sec. (3)., 2nd - 3rd paragraphs), the auxiliary road being provided on a side of a roadway where the vehicle travels (FIGS. 2-4; Page 6, 3rd paragraph, “… a sidewalk along the roadway along the roadway on which the vehicle exists”); specifying a section of the auxiliary road in which a whole or part of the auxiliary road is interrupted based on the space on the auxiliary road (FIG.1, sidewalk detection unit 21a, road information update program 21; FIGS. 2A-2E, 3A, 4; FIG. 5A, steps S105, S110; Page 4, 4th paragraph, “… updating the road information… target sidewalk … outside the width … a three-dimensional object … higher than a predetermined value … a curb, a guide fence … a tree …”, 5th paragraph; Page 5, 3th - 4th paragraphs; Pag2 11, 1st paragraph); and reflecting the section of the auxiliary road in which the whole or part of the auxiliary road is interrupted in a database (FIG. 1, sidewalk information addition unit 61a, map information 70a, updated road information 70a1, recording medium 70; FIG. 5B; Page 2, Sec. (1)., 1st paragraph, “update the road information by adding the sidewalk information …”; Page 3, 5th paragraph; Page 11, 4th – 5th paragraphs; Page 1, last paragraph).
-Regarding claim 7, Morihiro discloses non-transitory computer readable medium storing a program for causing a computer to execute (Abstract; FIGS. 1-4; Page 14, 2nd paragraph; one or more processor and memory has to be used in order to implement Morihiro’s method shown in FIG. 1): detecting a space on an auxiliary road where a mobile body other than a vehicle moves based on sensing information obtained by sensing the auxiliary road (FIG. 1, sidewalk detection unit 21a, camera 44; FIGS. 2A-2E, 3A, 4, 5A; Page 6, 3rd paragraph, “detecting a sidewalk along the roadway …”, 4th paragraph; Page 1, last paragraph, “ …map … navigation services for pedestrians”; Page 4, last paragraph, “… Pedestrians are more likely to stick out to the side of the road …”; Page 12, Sec. (3)., 2nd - 3rd paragraphs), the auxiliary road being provided on a side of a roadway where the vehicle travels (FIGS. 2-4; Page 6, 3rd paragraph, “… a sidewalk along the roadway along the roadway on which the vehicle exists”); specifying a section of the auxiliary road in which a whole or part of the auxiliary road is interrupted based on the space on the auxiliary road (FIG.1, sidewalk detection unit 21a, road information update program 21; FIGS. 2A-2E, 3A, 4; FIG. 5A, steps S105, S110; Page 4, 4th paragraph, “… updating the road information… target sidewalk … outside the width … a three-dimensional object … higher than a predetermined value … a curb, a guide fence … a tree …”, 5th paragraph; Page 5, 3th - 4th paragraphs; Pag2 11, 1st paragraph); and reflecting the section of the auxiliary road in which the whole or part of the auxiliary road is interrupted in a database (FIG. 1, sidewalk information addition unit 61a, map information 70a, updated road information 70a1, recording medium 70; FIG. 5B; Page 2, Sec. (1)., 1st paragraph, “update the road information by adding the sidewalk information …”; Page 3, 5th paragraph; Page 11, 4th – 5th paragraphs; Page 1, last paragraph).
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) 3 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Morihiro (JP 2020160291 A), hereinafter Morihiro in view of Heinla et al (US 20200319654 A1).
-Regarding claim 3, Morihiro discloses the road management system of claim 1.
Morihiro does not disclose wherein the sensing information is acquired by the mobile body.
In the same field of endeavor, Heinla teaches a method to generate map data using a mobile robot (Heinla: Abstract; FIGS. 1-7). Heinla further teaches that the mobile robot is configured to navigate on a sidewalk, capture images, extract features from the images and build map data (Heinla: Abstract; FIGS. 1-6; [0102]).
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skills in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to combine the teaching of Morihiro with the teaching of Heinla by the sensing information acquired by a robot in order to provide fast updating road information in a safe environment (Heinla: [0002]; [0098]).
Claim(s) 4-5 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Morihiro (JP 2020160291 A), hereinafter Morihiro in view of Sakurada et al (US 20200221272 A1), hereinafter Sakurada, and further in view of Russell (US 10915762 B1), hereinafter Russell.
-Regarding claim 4, Morihiro discloses the road management system of claim 1.
Morihiro does not disclose detecting brightness in the space on the auxiliary road, and reflecting the brightness information of the auxiliary road in which the brightness and a date and time in a database.
In the same field of endeavor, Sakurada teaches a server and an on-board device communicating information on a captured image of surroundings of a vehicle (Sakurada: Abstract; FIGS. 1-9B). Sakurada further teaches detecting brightness in the space on the auxiliary road, and reflecting the brightness information of the auxiliary road in which the brightness and a date and time in a database (Sakurada: FIGS. 1, 4A-4B, 5-6, 7A-7B, 9A-9B; [0028], “… stores brightness information of the sidewalk on the image capture date and time which is detected based on the captured image and the image capture location”; [0031]; [0049]).
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skills in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to combine the teaching of Morihiro with the teaching of Sakurada by detecting brightness in the space on the auxiliary road in order to improve the safety and convenience ([0028]).
Morihiro in view of Sakurada does not teach specifying a section of the auxiliary road in which brightness of a whole or part of the auxiliary road is less than or equal to a predetermined value based on brightness information of the space on the auxiliary road.
However, Russell is an analogous art pertinent to the problem to be solved in this application and teaches a detecting sidewalks adjacent to roads (Russell: Abstract; FIGS. 1-9). Russell further teaches specifying a section of the auxiliary road in which brightness of a whole or part of the auxiliary road is less than or equal to a predetermined value based on brightness information of the space on the auxiliary road (Russell: FIGS. 1, 6-9; Col. 16, , lines 13-40, “… to determine that the remaining area of the potential sidewalk area 670 contains areas that have the color white and a brightness intensity level satisfying the threshold brightness intensity level, but also areas that do not have the color white and/or a brightness intensity level satisfying the threshold brightness intensity level …”).
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skills in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify the teaching of Morihiro in view of Sakurada with the teaching of Russell by specifying a section of the auxiliary road in which brightness of a whole or part of the auxiliary road is less than or equal to a predetermined value based on brightness information of the space on the auxiliary road in order to provide more accurate sidewalk information by filtering out areas from the potential sidewalk area unlikely to include a sidewalk (Russell: Col. 16, lines 41-67).
-Regarding claim 5, Morihiro in view of Sakurada, and further in view of Russell teaches the road management system of claim 1.
Morihiro does not disclose detecting the brightness by analyzing a brightness value of the image of the auxiliary road.
In the same field of endeavor, Sakurada teaches a server and an on-board device communicating information on a captured image of surroundings of a vehicle (Sakurada: Abstract; FIGS. 1-9B). Sakurada further teaches detecting detect the brightness by analyzing a brightness value of the image of the auxiliary road (Sakurada: FIGS. 1, 5A-5B; [0028]; [0044]; [0046]; [0058]; See Russell as well: FIGS. 6-0).
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skills in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to combine the teaching of Morihiro with the teaching of Sakurada by detecting brightness in the space on the auxiliary road in order to improve the safety and convenience ([0028]).
Conclusion
The prior art made of record and not relied upon is considered pertinent to applicant's disclosure.
Masuike et al (US 20190221115 A1), hereinafter Masuike teaches a roadside device for determining the state of a sidewalk around the roadside device and transmitting the determined state of the sidewalk to the other device.
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/XIAO LIU/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2664
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