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 .
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) 1-3 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over YAMAMOTO US 11, 669, 230 “YAMAMOTO”, EGASHIRA US 2021/0188177 A1 “EGASHIRA”
Regarding claim 1, YAMAMOTO discloses an image display device (YAMAMOTO, column 9, line 10 - line 26; figures 3 and 8) comprising: a camera (as cited above, i.e. Fig. 8, imaging device 15) configured to image a periphery of a vehicle (As cited above, i.e. Fig. 8); a controller (YAMAMOTO, As cited above, i.e. controller 14, See Fig. 4, As illustrated in FIG. 4 , the ECU 14 includes an image acquisition unit 401, a bird's-eye view image generation unit 402, a stereoscopic image generation unit 403, a display control unit 404, a voice control unit 405, an operation receiving unit 407, and a storage unit 406. The CPU 14 a functions as the image acquisition unit 401, the bird's-eye view image generation unit 402, the stereoscopic image generation unit 403, the display control unit 404, the voice control unit 405, or the operation receiving unit 407 by executing a processing according to a program. Further, the RAM 14 c or the ROM 14 b functions as the storage unit 406. In addition, at least some of the functions of the respective units may be realized by hardware. For example, the display control unit 404 may be realized by the display control unit 14 d described above. Further, the voice control unit 405 may be realized by the voice control unit 14 e described above. Further, the operation receiving unit 407 may be realized by the above-described operation input unit 10.) configured to output an overhead image in which the vehicle is viewed from a viewpoint above the vehicle (See, Fig. 3, i.e. Further, the ECU 14 may execute an arithmetic processing or an image processing based on image data obtained by the plurality of imaging units 15 to generate an image with a wider viewing angle or to generate a virtual bird's-eye view image of the vehicle 1 as viewed from above. In addition, the bird's-eye view image may also be referred to as a planar image.), the overhead image being obtained by synthesizing images captured by the camera (See citation above, YAMAMOTO, column 9, line 10 - line 26; i.e. An example of performing enlargement cancellation (reduction) on the display enlarged as described above will be described with reference to FIG. 8 . FIG. 8 is a flow diagram illustrating an example of a procedure of cancellation of enlargement control by the display control unit 404 according to the first embodiment. As illustrated to (a) of FIG. 8 , the display of bird's-eye view image data on the left side is enlarged to a predetermined magnification. When the user touches an arbitrary position in the area of the display device 8 where the bird's-eye view image data is displayed, the operation receiving unit 407 receives designation by such user operation, and as illustrated in (b) of FIG. 8 , the display control unit 404 causes a reduction icon (enlargement cancellation icon) 52 to be displayed at a designated point which is a touch position on the display device 8); a display unit (as cited above, i.e. display 8) configured to display the overhead image output by the controller (as cited above, see, i.e. Further, in the vehicle cabin 2 a, a display device 8 and a voice output device 9 are provided. The voice output device 9 is, for example, a speaker. The display device 8 is, for example, a liquid crystal display (LCD) or an organic electroluminescent display (OELD). The display device 8 is covered with a transparent operation input unit 10 such as a touch panel and the like. A passenger may visually recognize an image displayed on a display screen of the display device 8 through the operation input unit 10. Further, the passenger may execute an operation input by touching, pushing, or moving a position of the operation input unit 10 corresponding to the image displayed on the display screen of the display device 8 with the finger. For example, the display device 8, the voice output device 9, and the operation input unit 10 are provided, for example, in a monitor device 11 located at the center of the dashboard 24 in the vehicle width direction, i.e., in the transverse direction. The monitor device 11 may have an operation input unit (not illustrated) such as a switch, a dial, a joystick, or a push button. Further, a voice output device (not illustrated) may be provided at another position in the vehicle cabin 2 a other than the monitor device 11. Furthermore, voice may be output from both the voice output device 9 of the monitor device 11 and the other voice output device. In addition, the monitor device 11 may also be used as, for example, a navigation system or an audio system.); and a sensor configured to detect an opened state of a door of the vehicle (As cited above, i.e, see Fig. 3, see door, with lock, therefore, an opening and closing sensing of the door opening, and closing), wherein the controller is configured to enlarge the overhead image and display the overhead image on the display unit (YAMAMOTO, Fig. 8a), and cancel the enlargement of the overhead image (EGASHIRA, Fig. 8b)
It is noted that YAMAMOTO is silent about the display operation as cited above in response to the detection of the opened state of the door of the vehicle by the sensor as claimed.
However, EGASHIRA discloses the display operation as cited above in response to the detection of the opened state of the door of the vehicle by the sensor (automatically provide a "door open display mode" wherein a wide angle display is provided on the display unit, when a door is opened, see EGASHIRA, ¶ [0071]; figure 3, i.e. In regard to “5: Door open mode”, the mode setting condition is that IG 2 is OFF and a door is opened; and when this condition is satisfied, the door open mode is switched from inactive to active, and the wide-angle display when a person is getting out of the vehicle. Moreover, the mode release condition is that the IG 2 is not turned OFF, and when this condition is satisfied, the door open mode is switched from active to inactive. Furthermore, in regard to “5: Door open mode”, the condition for having “ownership” is the same as the condition for being “active”, and the condition for having “no ownership” is the same as the condition for being “inactive”. For example, in the case of “5: Door open mode”, when IG″ is OFF and a door is opened, the mode always has priority over other modes and is set to have “ownership”. On the other hand, when IG 2 is not turned OFF, the user is unlikely to get out of the vehicle and there is little need to display a wide-angle display for getting out, so the setting of “5: Door open mode” is released and is set to have “no ownership”).
Both YAMAMOTO and EGASHIRA teach systems with camera for capturing images to display view surrounding a vehicle to drivers, and those systems are comparable to that of the instant application. Because the two cited references are analogous to the instant application, it 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, to include in the YAMAMOTO disclosure, configure the controller of YAMAMOTO so that when the door is opened, the enlargement of the overhead image is cancelled automatically instead of manually, as taught by EGASHIRA. Such inclusion would have increased the usefulness of the system by switches the video image range between displaying the video images as video images within a range equivalent to an optical mirror to better assist the view of the driver, and would have been consistent with the rationale of combining prior art elements according to known methods to yield predictable results to show a prima facie case of obviousness (MPEP 2143(I)(A)) under KSR International Co. v. Teleflex Inc., 127 S. Ct. 1727, 82 USPQ2d 1385, 1395-97 (2007).
Regarding claim 3, YAMAMOTO/EGASHIRA, for the same motivation of combination, further discloses an image display method comprising: synthesizing images captured by a camera configured to image a periphery of a vehicle to generate an overhead image in which the vehicle is viewed from a viewpoint above the vehicle (see rejection of claim 1); enlarging the generated overhead image and displaying the overhead image on a display unit(see rejection of claim 1); detecting an opened state of a door of the vehicle(see rejection of claim 1); and canceling the enlargement of the overhead image in response to the detection of the opened state of the door of the vehicle (see rejection of claim 1).
Allowable Subject Matter
Claim 2 is objected to as being dependent upon a rejected base claim, but would be allowable if rewritten in independent form including all of the limitations of the base claim and any intervening claims.
Conclusion
The prior art made of record and not relied upon is considered pertinent to applicant's disclosure:
US 20250153648 A1 VEHICLE CENTER CONSOLE HAVING POWERED STORAGE COMPARTMENT COVER AND METHOD
US 20230294668 A1 PARKING CONTROL APPARATUS
US 20230039908 A1 Systems and Methods for Determining Space Availability in an Aircraft
US 20220204314 A1 DIGITAL PROJECTION ON SILVER ELEVATOR DOORS
US 20220063834 A1 FOREIGN OBJECT DETECTION FOR VEHICLE OPERATION, PRODUCTION, AND MAINTENANCE
US 20210206508 A1 FOREIGN OBJECT DETECTION FOR PASSENGER-ACCESSIBLE STOWAGE COMPARTMENTS
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/FRANK F HUANG/ Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2485