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 .
Priority
Acknowledgment is made of applicant’s claim for foreign priority under 35 U.S.C. 119 (a)-(d).
Information Disclosure Statement
The information disclosure statements (IDS) submitted on 2025-02-04 and 2025-10-31 are in compliance with the provisions of 37 CFR 1.97. Accordingly, the information disclosure statement is being considered by the examiner.
Specification
The substitute specification filed 2025-01-27 has not been entered because it does not conform to 37 CFR 1.125(b) and (c) because: a marked-up copy of the substitute specification has not been supplied (in addition to the clean copy).
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 103
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 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.
The factual inquiries for establishing a background for determining obviousness under 35 U.S.C. 103 are summarized as follows:
1. Determining the scope and contents of the prior art.
2. Ascertaining the differences between the prior art and the claims at issue.
3. Resolving the level of ordinary skill in the pertinent art.
4. Considering objective evidence present in the application indicating obviousness or nonobviousness.
Claims 1-4, 7-10, 13 and 15-17 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Feldbeine et al. (US-11128981-B2, published: 2021-09-21) hereinafter Feldbeine in view of Lee et al. (US-20190180623-A1, published: 2019-06-13) hereinafter Lee.
For examination purposes, apparatus, non-transitory mediums and method claims sharing the same limitations or which disclose analogous art to the invention as claimed will be grouped together and rejected under the same grounds
Regarding claims 1, 7 and 13, X discloses a method, apparatus and non-transitory medium, for a network entity (Feldbeine figs. 3-4, col. 14 lns. 30-32; a safety platform 360 implemented in a cloud computing environment 362) see also col. 15 ln. 54 to col. 16 ln. 10, and figure 4 for the non-transitory memory components (430) for managing proximity information between user equipments (UEs), the apparatus comprising: a transceiver (Feldbeine, fig. 4; Communication Interface 470); and a controller coupled to the transceiver (Feldbeine, fig. 4; processor 420), wherein the controller is configured to: obtain information related to each of the UEs, wherein the information related to each of the UEs includes at least one of a location, a speed and a heading of each of the UEs (Feldbeine, fig. 5, col. 16, lns. 26-33; process 500 may include receiving travel information associated with a first cellular device, wherein the travel information associated with the first cellular device identifies at least one of a location of the first cellular device, a direction of travel of the first cellular device, or a navigation route associated with the first cellular device (block 510)) see also col. 19 lns. 61-65; obtain time to collision (TTC) information related to the UEs based on the obtained information related to each of the UEs; and provide the obtained TTC information related to the UEs to another network entity (Feldbeine, fig. 5, col. 20, lns. 8-20; process 500 may include transmitting, based on determining that the second cellular device is traveling on the path toward the first cellular device and at the speed that satisfies the speed threshold, an instruction to the first cellular device to display a safety alert (block 540). For example, the safety platform (e.g., using computing resource 364, processor 420, memory 430, storage component 440, input component 450, output component 460, communication interface 470, and/or the like) may transmit, based on determining that the second cellular device is traveling on the path toward the first cellular device and at the speed that satisfies the speed threshold, an instruction to the first cellular device to display a safety alert, as described above.).
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Feldbeine does not explicitly disclose the prediction of time prior to a collision event (TTC), however in analogous art, Lee discloses a method for estimating collision time between two UEs according to the position, speed, direction and dimensions of a second vehicle (Lee, par. 25; In Step S180, estimate how much time later the collisions will take place between the first vehicle 30 and the front end G1 and the rear end G2 of the collision area F, which face the first vehicle 30, to generate a front end collision time and a rear end collision time).
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Therefore, a person of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention would have been motivated to combine Feldbeine teachings for delivering travel safety alerts in a vehicle collision system with Lee’s teachings for predicting collision time to enhance the safety of vehicle anti-collision systems.
Regarding claims 2, 8 and 15, the combination of Feldbeine and Lee disclose the method, apparatus and non-transitory medium according to claims 1, 7 and 13, wherein the TTC information related to the UEs includes information indicating a TTC of the UEs (Lee, par. 20; The central processor 12 can further use the area of collision to predict the time of collision and then sends out an alert or undertake other treatments. The alert device 14 is electrically connected with the central processor 12 and controlled to send out an alert by the central processor 12) See also par. 25 and Feldbeine, fig. 5, col. 20, lns. 8-20.
Regarding claims 3, 9 and 16, the combination of Feldbeine and Lee disclose the method, apparatus and non-transitory medium according to claims 1, 7 and 13, wherein the TTC information related to the UEs includes information indicating a confidence level of a prediction of a TTC of the UEs and information indicating accuracy of the TTC (Lee, par. 25; In detail, the closer the vehicle to the collision area, the shorter the collision time (the time interval between now and collision). In this embodiment, the level-1 alert time (the collision time of the level-1 alert) is set to be longer than the level-2 alert time (the collision time of the level-2 alert), and the level-2 alert time is set to be longer than the level-3 alert time (the collision time of the level-3 alert). Then, the level-1, level-2, level-3 alert times are respectively corresponding to the risks from a low degree to a high degree) See also Feldbeine’s teachings for using thresholds to send travel alerts.
Regarding claims 4, 10 and 17, the combination of Feldbeine and Lee disclose the method, apparatus and non-transitory medium according to claims 1, 7 and 13, wherein the information related to each of the UEs further includes information indicating a trajectory of each of the UEs (Feldbeine, col. 3, lns. 54-60; In some implementations, a cellular device may determine a direction of travel of the cellular device and/or a speed of travel of the cellular device based on a plurality of determined locations of the cellular device, based on data generated by one or more sensors associated with the cellular device (e.g., an accelerometer, a gyroscope, a compass, and/or the like)) see also Lee, par. 9.
Claims 5-6, 11-12 and 18-19 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Feldbeine et al. (US-11128981-B2, published: 2021-09-21) hereinafter Feldbeine in view of Lee et al. (US-20190180623-A1, published: 2019-06-13) hereinafter Lee and further in view of Fiorese et al. (US-10785634-B1, published: 2020-09-22) hereinafter Fiorese.
For examination purposes, apparatus, non-transitory mediums and method claims sharing the same limitations or which disclose analogous art to the invention as claimed will be grouped together and rejected under the same grounds.
Regarding claims 5, 11 and 18, the combination of Feldbeine and Lee disclose the method, apparatus and non-transitory medium according to claims 1, 7 and 13, wherein the network entity includes a network data analytics function (NWDAF) (Feldbeine, col. 2, lns. 7-12; the safety platform may transmit safety alerts associated with the potentially dangerous scenarios to the cellular device via a cellular network (e.g., a fifth generation New Radio (5G/NR) network, a long term evolution (LTE) network, and/or the like) and/or other types of wireless networks) see also Feldbeine figs. 3 components 370, 360 and 362.
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The combination of Felbeine and Lee does not explicitly disclose the 5G network element includes a network data analytics function (NWDAF). However. In analogous art Fiorese discloses methods for utilizing a node in a 5G network such as a NWDAF to automate the trajectory estimation based on a predicted UE location (Fiorese col. 5 lns. 45-55; Network automation functions will be capable of receiving in advance E2E UE mobility trajectory information. In some embodiments, a conventional Network Data Analytics Function (NWDAF) is enhanced to save not only past UE location information but also future UE location information, which may be provided to it by Third Party Providers (3PPs) outside of the Core Network (CN) and/or applications hosted by the UE. In some embodiments, the NWDAF can predict future UE location information using Machine Learning (ML) algorithms executing on the NWDAF or other CN node).
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Therefore a person of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention would have been motivated to combine Feldbeine teachings for delivering travel safety alerts in a vehicle collision system with Lee’s teachings for predicting collision time and Fiorese teachings for trajectory prediction using a NWDAF to enhance the time to collision prediction on vehicle anti-collision systems.
Regarding claims 6, 12 and 19, the combination of Feldbeine, Lee and Fiorese disclose the method, apparatus and non-transitory medium according to claims 1, 7 and 13, wherein the information related to each of the UEs is obtained from an operation, administration and maintenance (OAM) (Fiorese, col. 3, lns. 50-55; NWDA-assisted determination of areas with oscillation of network conditions 5.1.10.1 Description Operators already use mechanisms for collection of information that enable CP and OAM to detect situations affecting the QoS of provided services) see also fig. 4B O&M function.
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Conclusion
The prior art made of record and not relied upon is considered pertinent to applicant's disclosure.
Roeland et al. (US 20220386209 A1), UE-ASSISTED DATA COLLECTION FOR MOBILITY PREDICTION, 2022. Systems and methods are disclosed herein for User Equipment (UE) assisted data collection for mobility prediction. In one embodiment, a method performed by a UE for UE-assisted data collection for mobility prediction comprises receiving, from a network node of a cellular communications system, a UE trajectory prediction model for predicting a UE trajectory. The method further comprises executing the UE trajectory prediction model to generate a predicted trajectory for the UE, comparing the actual UE trajectory to the predicted UE trajectory, and sending, to a network node of the cellular communications system, a result of the comparison of the actual UE trajectory to the predicted UE trajectory. In this manner, mobility prediction performance is improved.
Karampatsis et al. (US 20250056472 A1), SYSTEMS AND METHODS FOR IMPROVING ACCURACY OF UE LOCATION DETERMINATIONS IN A WIRELESS COMMUNICATIONS NETWORK, 2025. There is provided a method for a Location Management Function, LMF, in a wireless communication network, the method comprising: receiving a first request to provide a location of one or more user equipment. UEs, wherein the first request includes a first requirement for a minimum location accuracy; for the one or more UEs and/or for a target area in which the one or more UEs are located, acquiring statistics or a prediction that location measurements are based on line-of-sight, LOS, or non-line-of-sight, NLOS, communication with a Radio Access Network, RAN, node in the wireless communication network; responsive to acquiring the statistics or the prediction, determining that the one or more UEs are to use an Artificial Intelligence/Machine Learning, AI/ML, model to perform a location measurement; and sending a second request to the one or more UEs for the one or more UEs to perform a location measurement using the AI/ML model.
Chen et al. (US 20230180038 A1), USER PLANE FUNCTION DETERMINATION METHOD AND DEVICE, INFORMATION PROVIDING METHOD AND DEVICE, AND STORAGE MEDIA, 2023. The present disclosure provides UPF determination method and device, information providing method and device, and media. An NWDAF receives a data analytic request about an application from an SMF and/or an AF, analyzes application run data collected from the SMF and the AF to generate a user experience analytic result and/or a performance analytic result including a user experience analysis and/or a performance analysis for the application corresponding to a location area, the location area including at least one of a UE location, an area where the application locates, or an area where a user plane anchor locates, and provides a data analytic result to the SMF and/or the AF, so that the SMF optimizes a user plane path in accordance with the analytic result and the AF adjusts a position of a target position in accordance with the analytic result.
Balasubramanian et al. (US 11496858 B2), Cooperative Event Warning System, 2022. Methods, systems, and devices for wireless communications are described. A first wireless device may receive situational information for a second wireless device over a first communication link between the first wireless device and the second wireless device and situational information for a third wireless device over a second communication link between the first wireless device and the third wireless device. The first wireless device may transmit message with guidance information to the second wireless device on behalf of the third wireless device and based on the second wireless device and the third wireless device having an event likelihood above a threshold. The event likelihood may be based on the situational information for the second wireless device and the situational information for the third wireless device.
Kwak et al. (US 11978342 B2), Method For Transmitting Safety Message In Wireless Communication System Supporting Sidelink And Apparatus, 2024. According to various embodiments, a method for transmitting a safety message, by a UE, in a wireless communication system supporting sidelink, and an apparatus therefor are disclosed. The method for transmitting a safety message, by a UE, in a wireless communication system supporting sidelink comprises the steps of: receiving, from an adjacent UE, a sidelink signal including mobility information on the adjacent UE; calculating a collision risk range for the adjacent UE on the basis of the mobility information on the adjacent UE; and determining whether to transmit a safety message on the basis of the collision risk range to which an estimated threshold value has been applied, wherein the estimated threshold value is determined on the basis of a received decentralized environmental notification message (DENM).
Sibel et al. (US 20250168711 A1), RESOURCE RESERVATION METHOD IN PRIVATE WIRELESS COMMUNICATION NETWORK, 2025. A resource reservation method in a private wireless communication network comprises: Obtaining a trajectory, a velocity and a radio communication range for each terminal; Identifying, from obtained data, whether there is a space area and a corresponding time interval where at least two radio communication ranges are going to intersect; In the case of intersection, identifying whether there is a risk of collision in said time interval between packets to be sent or received by the terminals whose radio communication ranges intersect; In the case where a risk of collision is identified, generating assistance data in the form of preferred and/or non-preferred radio resources from metric values stored in a database and transmitting the generated assistance data to at least one terminal; and Using, by said at least one terminal, the generated assistance data transmitted by the application server for adapting radio resource reservation.
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to MARIO R CAMPERO MIRAMONTES whose telephone number is (571)272-5792. The examiner can normally be reached Monday -Thursday 0600 - 1600.
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If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner’s supervisor, Yuwen (Kevin) Pan can be reached at (571) 272-7855. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300.
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/MARIO R CAMPERO MIRAMONTES/Examiner, Art Unit 2649 /YUWEN PAN/Supervisory Patent Examiner, Art Unit 2649
