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
Receipt is acknowledged of certified copies of papers required by 37 CFR 1.55.
Information Disclosure Statement
The information disclosure statement (IDS) submitted on 2/05/2025 and 8/04/2026 are in compliance with the provisions of 37 CFR 1.97. Accordingly, the information disclosure statement is being considered by the examiner.
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.
Claim(s) 1-4 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Herman et al. (DE102018132509A1; hereinafter Herman) in view of Ranson et al. (US 2024/0119581; hereinafter Ranson).
Regarding claim 1:
Herman discloses a vehicle appearance information collection device (see Fig. 2; electronic component 200) comprising;
a processor (see Fig. 2; control module 110) configured to:
determine whether or not a position of a target vehicle indicated by vehicle location information is included in a detection range of a sensor of a host vehicle (see Fig. 1 and translation of Herman, page 6, 4th paragraph; vehicle 100 corresponds to the target vehicle and vehicle 112 corresponds to the host vehicle; the vehicle-wide communication module 106 determine whether a position of the target vehicle is within the detection range of the sensor of another vehicle),
detect the target vehicle from the sensor signal generated by the sensor when the position of the target vehicle is included in the detection range (see Fig. 1; the other vehicle 112 is capable of taking pictures of the targe vehicle 100), and
transmit the sensor signal to a server via a wireless communication terminal mounted on the target vehicle when the target vehicle is detected and damage of any one of the at least one component is detected (see page 7, 3rd paragraph; the damage detection unit 116 that is mounted on the target vehicle is capable of reporting to a remote location, i.e., a server, the damage information of the target vehicle).
Herman does not disclose calculate, for each of at least one component of the target vehicle, a confidence score that the component is represented in a region in which the target vehicle is represented on the sensor signal by inputting the region to a classifier trained in advance so as to detect the at least one component of the target vehicle, when the target vehicle is detected from the sensor signal.
In the same field of endeavor, Ranson discloses an appearance information collection device comprising: a processor configured to:
calculate, for each of at least one component of the target object, a confidence score that the component is represented in a region in which the target object is represented on the sensor signal by inputting the region to a classifier trained in advance so as to detect the at least one component of the target object, when the target object is detected from the sensor signal (see paragraphs [0067] and [0047]; the system is trained to classify the defect and to calculate the confidence value of the region where the defect is located); and
transmit the sensor signal to a server via a wireless communication terminal mounted on the host device when the target object is detected and the confidence score of any one of the at least one component is less than a predetermined detection threshold (see Fig. 3 and paragraph [0067]; when defect is detected and confidence score is less than a threshold level, the system transmits the sensor signal to external device (i.e, the server) for further review).
Before the effective filing date of the claimed invention, it would have been obvious to a person of ordinary skill in the art to combine the teaching of Herman and Ranson such that the processor is configured to calculate, for each of at least one component of the target vehicle, a confidence score that the component is represented in a region in which the target vehicle is represented on the sensor signal by inputting the region to a classifier trained in advance so as to detect the at least one component of the target vehicle, when the target vehicle is detected from the sensor signal, and transmit the sensor signal to a server via a wireless communication terminal mounted on the host vehicle when the target vehicle is detected and the confidence score of any one of the at least one component is less than a predetermined detection threshold.
The combination would have yielded a predictable result of reporting defective region when confidence score is less than a predetermined threshold level.
Regarding claim 2:
The combination of Herman and Ranson disclose all the features in claim 1. Herman further disclose the vehicle appearance information collection device, wherein the processor is further configured to determine a relative positional relationship between the target vehicle and the host vehicle when the position of the target vehicle is included in the detection range (see Fig. 1 and page 6, 4th paragraph).
Herman does not disclose wherein the processor calculates the confidence score of a component visible from the sensor in the relative positional relationship between the target vehicle and the host vehicle among the at least one component, and transmits the sensor signal to the server only when the confidence score of the component visible from the sensor among the at least one component is less than the detection threshold.
However, Ranson discloses the appearance information collection device (see Fig. 1), wherein the processor calculates the confidence score of a component visible from the sensor in relative positional relationship between the target object and the host device among the at least one component (see paragraph [0008]), and transmits the sensor signal to the server only when the confidence score of the component visible from the sensor among the at least one component is less than the detection threshold (see paragraph [0053]).
Before the effective filing date of the claimed invention, it would have been obvious to a person of ordinary skill in the art to combine the teaching of Herman and Ranson such that the processor calculates the confidence score of a component visible from the sensor in the relative positional relationship between the target vehicle and the host vehicle among the at least one component, and transmits the sensor signal to the server only when the confidence score of the component visible from the sensor among the at least one component is less than the detection threshold. The combination would have yielded a predictable result of only transmitting the detected signal to the appropriate personnel when the confidence score is less than the detection threshold.
Regarding claims 3 and 4:
Claims 3 and 4 recite similar limitations as in claim 1. Hence, claims 3 and 4 are rejected for the same reasons as discussed above in claim 1.
Conclusion
The prior art made of record and not relied upon is considered pertinent to applicant's disclosure.
Hever et al. (US 2025/0363819) discloses a system and method for automated inspection of vehicles for body damages.
Birgiolas et al. (US 2025/0029434) discloses a system that facilitates the inspection of vehicles for presence of defects.
Ismail et al. (EP3716137A1) discloses a system and methods for estimating the position of a target vehicle.
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to LIXI CHOW SIMPSON whose telephone number is (571)272-7571. The examiner can normally be reached Mon-Fri 7:00am-3:00pm.
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/LIXI C SIMPSON/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2625
