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 .
Claims 1-20 are pending.
Claim Objections
Claims 6 and 16 are objected to because of the following informalities:
The last limitation of claims is preceded by “and and”. Appropriate correction is required.
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.
Claims 1, 2, 6-7, 9-12, 16, 17, 19 and 20 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Obiagwu US 20220239472, in view of Yalavarty US 20150288636.
For claims 1 and 11, Obiagwu discloses:
A vehicle comprising:
a plurality of physical devices configured to receive a physical input or produce a physical output (par. 0025: Physical device sensors include accelerometers such as piezo-electric or microelectromechanical systems (MEMS); gyroscopes such as rate, ring laser, or fiber-optic gyroscopes; inertial measurements units (IMU); and magnetometers; par. 0024: Based on sensor inputs, control modules can operate systems including body control module, restraint control module);
a plurality of processing devices including a plurality of publisher devices and a plurality of subscriber devices (par. 0027: “…applications on devices on the wired vehicle communications network 110, e.g., computer 112 and/or control modules 114, act as the publisher nodes 106 or the subscriber nodes 108 for message topics.”), at least a portion of the plurality of publisher devices and the plurality of subscriber devices being connected to at least one physical device of the plurality of physical devices (par. 0024, 0025: control modules operate different vehicle system such as body control, powertrain, restraint control. The control modules also receive data from sensors (i.e., physical devices); and
a vehicle bus connected to the plurality of processing devices (par.0023: “The computer 112 may transmit and receive data through the wired vehicle communications network 110 such as a controller area network (CAN) bus, Ethernet, Local Interconnect Network (LIN)”);
wherein the plurality of processing devices execute a router, the router configured to:
receive a write request from a publisher executing on a publisher device of the plurality of publisher devices, the write request including a topic (par. 0028: “A publisher node 106 for a given message topic sends messages about the message topic to subscriber nodes 108 to that message topic”);
determine that (a) one or more subscribers executing on one or more subscriber devices of the plurality of subscriber devices are associated with the topic (par. 0029: “The publisher nodes 106 and subscriber nodes 108 for the message topics are stored in the permission list. For each message topic, the permission list contains the publisher nodes 106 and subscriber nodes 108.”); and
in response to (a), notify the one or more subscribers of the write request (par. 0028: Subscriber nodes receive published messages from publisher node).
Obiagwu fails to explicitly disclose “the write request including…and one or more sub- topics of the topic” and “determine that (a) one or more subscribers…are associated with…and the one or more sub-topics”.
However, in a related field, Yalavarty discloses a vehicle publish/subscribe model including a topic tree that defines topics and sub-topics used for sending messages (par. 0017).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill before effective filing date of claimed invention to have introduced Yalavarty’s publisher/subscriber sub-topics alongside Obiagwu’s teaching. The motivation to combine would have been to more granularly direct transmission and receipt of messages with associated with a given topic/sub-topic (Yalavarty, par. 0045)
For claims 2 and 12, Obiagwu-Yalavarty discloses:
The vehicle of claim 1, wherein the router is further configured to, in response to (a) refrain from notifying subscribers executing on the plurality of subscriber devices that are (i) associated with the topic, and (ii) not associated with the one or more sub-topics of the write request (Yalavarty, par. 0037, 0046 and Fig. 2.: Subscribers, rather than receiving all the messages 206 published, receive messages for the topics 204 to which they are subscribed).
For claims 6 and 16, Obiagwu-Yalavarty discloses:
The vehicle of claim 1, wherein the router is further configured to notify each subscriber of the one or more subscribers of the write request by:
notifying a subscriber device of the plurality of subscriber devices executing each subscriber (Obiagwu, par. 0028: Subscriber nodes receive published messages from publisher node); and notifying each subscriber (Obiagwu, par. 0028).
For claims 7 and 17, Obiagwu-Yalavarty discloses:
The vehicle of claim 1, wherein:
the plurality of physical devices include at least one of a button, a touch screen, a microphone, or a camera (Obiagwu, par. 0027: “a message topic could be image data from cameras or a particular camera”); and
the write request includes an output of a physical device of the plurality of physical devices (Obiagwu, par. 0024: “The control modules 114 can operate different systems in the vehicle 100, e.g., a body control module, a powertrain control module, a restraint control module, etc.”).
For claims 9 and 19, Obiagwu-Yalavarty discloses:
The vehicle of claim 1, wherein:
the plurality of physical devices include at least one of an motor, a switch, a valve, or a solenoid (Obiagwu, par. 0024: “The control modules 114 can operate different systems in the vehicle 100, e.g., a body control module, a powertrain control module, a restraint control module, etc.”. That is, the control module control physical components of the powertrain and body control (i.e., suspension)); and
the write request includes an input to a physical device of the plurality of physical devices (Obiagwu, par. 0024).
For claims 10 and 20, Obiagwu-Yalavarty discloses:
The vehicle of claim 1, wherein:
the plurality of physical devices include sensors configured to sense operation of the vehicle (Obiagwu, par. 0025: Vehicle sensors 116 disclosed); and
the write request includes an output of a physical device of the plurality of physical devices (Obiagwu, par. 0024: “The control modules 114 can operate different systems in the vehicle 100, e.g., a body control module, a powertrain control module, a restraint control module, etc.”. That is, the control module control physical components of the powertrain and body control (i.e., suspension)).
Claims 3, 13 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Obiagwu US 20220239472, in view of Yalavarty US 20150288636, in view of Ju US 20240256163.
For claims 3 and 13, Obiagwu-Yalavarty discloses:
The vehicle of claim 1, but fails to disclose: “wherein the router is further configured to:
write data from the write request to a page; and process read requests for the page from the one or more subscribers”.
However, in a related field, Ju teaches “In a vehicle control system…Information required in the communication is stored in a shared memory. A data publisher may write a message to the shared memory, and a data subscriber may read a message from the shared memory” (par. 0027).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill before effective filing date of claimed invention to have introduced Ju’s method of publishers and subscribers writing and reading, respectively, from a shared memory alongside Obiagwu-Yalavarty’s teachings. The motivation to combine would have been to utilize well-known methods of shared memory platform for publishers and subscribers to write and read messages asynchronously (Ju, par. 0004, 0096-0098).
Claims 4, 5, 14 and 15 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Obiagwu US 20220239472, in view of Yalavarty US 20150288636, in view of Ju US 20240256163, in view of Pardo USP 7424496.
For claims 4 and 14, Obiagwu-Yalavarty-Ju discloses:
The vehicle of claim 3, but fails to explicitly disclose “wherein the page includes a semaphore, the router being further configured to update the semaphore in response to each read request from the one or more subscribers.”
However, in a related field, Pardo discloses use of semaphore mechanisms in database to reflect current user read/write access of records (col 2, ll 8-21). It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill before effective filing date of claimed invention to have introduced Pardo’s database semaphore teachings alongside Obiagwu-Yalavarty-Ju’s teachings. The motivation to combine would have been to utilize well-known methods of controlling simultaneous read/write access via semaphores to regulate conflicts among users (Pardo, col 1, ll 55-64).
For claims 5 and 15, Obiagwu-Yalavarty-Pardo discloses:
The vehicle of claim 4.
While Pardo contemplates use of database semaphores to govern access and modification of records, its fails to explicitly disclose” wherein the router is further configured to release the page for reuse when the semaphore indicates that all of the one or more subscribers have read the page.”
However, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art, apprised of combination’s teachings and general state of the art, to have contemplated tracking whether all designated users/subscribers had accessed a given message prior to its deletion/release. The motivation would have been to utilize well-known techniques of deletion of data not required for retention in order to free system resources for storage of additional records.
Claims 8 and 18 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Obiagwu US 20220239472, in view of Yalavarty US 20150288636, in view of Thornburg US 20180232959.
For claims 8 and 18, Obiagwu-Yalavarty discloses:
The vehicle of claim 1, but fails to disclose “wherein: the plurality of physical devices include at least one of a speaker, a screen, or a light; and the write request includes an input to a physical device of the plurality of physical devices.”
However, in a related field, Thornburg discloses a publisher/subscriber model network in which infotainment 104-H and heads-up display 104-M connected to enhanced central gateway (ECG). The system additionally provide voice input of user commands for interaction with infotainment system (par. 0022, 0028, 0035, 0051). It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill before effective filing date of claimed invention to have introduced Thornburg’s publisher/subscriber messaging platform comprising display apparatus with Obiagwu-Yalavarty’s teachings. The motivation to combine would have been to utilize publisher/subscriber platform to provide information/HMI devices with relevant data to provide services and information to vehicle user (Thornburg, par. 0051, 0053).
Conclusion
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to CLAYTON R WILLIAMS whose telephone number is (571)270-3801. The examiner can normally be reached M-F 10:00am - 6:00pm.
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/CLAYTON R WILLIAMS/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2443
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