DETAILED ACTION
This Office Action is in response to Applicant's Application filed on 3/14/2025.
Claims 1-15 are pending for examination.
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 3/14/2025 is 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 § 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) 1-6, 9-15 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(1) as being anticipated by Deng (US20200216027A1).
Regarding claim 1, Deng teaches A system for monitoring a driving behavior of a vehicle, the system comprising:
a digital bus having a single-master multiple-slaves structure and configured for bidirectional transfer of data and control signals (Deng: Fig. 1 Element 107; Para 16 “Each ECU 105 a-n is communicatively coupled, via a controller area network (CAN) bus 107, to a sensor 103 a-n and the vehicle control unit (VCU) 106. VCU 106 is in turn communicatively coupled to a clock 108, a GPS unit 110, a user interface 112, and a transceiver 114. Although described with respect to a CAN bus, any appropriate bus protocol may be used”);
an electronic controller configured to control functions of the vehicle, the electronic control unit comprising a main bus node connected to the bus(Deng: Fig. 1 Element 106; Para 16 “Each ECU 105 a-n is communicatively coupled, via a controller area network (CAN) bus 107, to a sensor 103 a-n and the vehicle control unit (VCU) 106. VCU 106 is in turn communicatively coupled to a clock 108, a GPS unit 110, a user interface 112, and a transceiver 114. Although described with respect to a CAN bus, any appropriate bus protocol may be used”; Para 17 “Vehicle control unit (VCU) 106 is a controller including a microprocessor, memory, storage, and a communication interface with which it can communicate with components 101 a-n, clock 108, global positioning system (GPS) 110, user interface 112, and transceiver 114. For one embodiment VCU 106 is the vehicle's main computer, but in other embodiments it can be a component separate from the vehicle's main or primary computer); and
a data evaluation processor comprising a sub-ordinate bus node connected to the bus(Deng: Fig. 1 Element 105; Para 16 “Each ECU 105 a-n is communicatively coupled, via a controller area network (CAN) bus 107, to a sensor 103 a-n and the vehicle control unit (VCU) 106. VCU 106 is in turn communicatively coupled to a clock 108, a GPS unit 110, a user interface 112, and a transceiver 114. Although described with respect to a CAN bus, any appropriate bus protocol may be used”), a movement sensor configured to provide data regarding the movement of the vehicle in one or more directions(Deng: Fig. 1 Element 103; Para 16 “Sensors 103 a-n may include for example, a LIDAR sensor, Radar sensor, one or more cameras, acceleration and velocity sensors, brake sensor, steering wheel position sensor, torque sensor, tire pressure monitor, inertial measurement unit (IMU) sensor, and a temperature sensor among many others”), and a sensor controller connected between the sub-ordinate bus node and the movement sensor(Deng: Fig. 1 Element 103, 106 and 107; Fig. 3 Element 103 and 106; Para 16 “Each ECU 105 a-n is communicatively coupled, via a controller area network (CAN) bus 107, to a sensor 103 a-n and the vehicle control unit (VCU) 106. VCU 106 is in turn communicatively coupled to a clock 108, a GPS unit 110, a user interface 112, and a transceiver 114. Although described with respect to a CAN bus, any appropriate bus protocol may be used”), the sensor controller being configured to evaluate the data regarding the movement of the vehicle(Deng: Para 29 “VCU 106 samples (via ECUs 105 a-n) outputs from sensors 103 a-n during a reporting period—a period during which the process collects outputs for reporting to the cloud computing center 104”), to recognize an untypical or unsafe behavior of the vehicle (Deng: Para 38 “VCU 106 may determine that the vehicle is moving side-to-side too much for highway driving (based for example, on input from the steering wheel angle sensor). VCU 106 may determine whether there is a corresponding command on the CAN bus 107 for such movement (i.e. did the CAN bus 107 receive a command from the steering wheel corresponding to such side to side movement). If there is not, then VCU 106 may determine that there is a malfunction in a component”) and to send to the electronic controller at least one of a message, an alert signal, or a risk factor (Deng: Para 38 “VCU 106 may issue a maintenance alert, and schedule a service to have the tire inspected/order a replacement tire, or may engage driver assistance protocols, pull the vehicle over to the side of the road and notify emergency services”) dependent on the data regarding the movement of the vehicle and an algorithm implemented in the sensor controller(Deng: Para 38 “VCU 106 may determine that the vehicle is moving side-to-side too much for highway driving (based for example, on input from the steering wheel angle sensor). VCU 106 may determine whether there is a corresponding command on the CAN bus 107 for such movement (i.e. did the CAN bus 107 receive a command from the steering wheel corresponding to such side to side movement). If there is not, then VCU 106 may determine that there is a malfunction in a component. VCU 106 may determine if there are any codes from the DTC list that have been triggered and may determine that the tire pressure DTC code has been activated, and that it is a malfunction type. Thus, based on the extent to which the tire is under/over pressurized, VCU 106 may issue a maintenance alert, and schedule a service to have the tire inspected/order a replacement tire, or may engage driver assistance protocols, pull the vehicle over to the side of the road and notify emergency services”).
Regarding claim 2, Deng teaches The system of claim 1, wherein the movement sensor comprises at least one of an acceleration sensor, a three-dimensional acceleration sensor and a gyroscope(Deng: Fig. 1 Element 103; Para 16 “Sensors 103 a-n may include for example, a LIDAR sensor, Radar sensor, one or more cameras, acceleration and velocity sensors, brake sensor, steering wheel position sensor, torque sensor, tire pressure monitor, inertial measurement unit (IMU) sensor, and a temperature sensor among many others”).
Regarding claim 3, Deng teaches The system of claim 1, wherein the sub-ordinate bus node, the movement sensor and the sensor controller are included in a mutual integrated semiconductor chip(Deng: Para 44 “The various illustrative logical blocks, modules, and circuits described in connection with the embodiments disclosed herein may be implemented or performed with a general purpose processor, a digital signal processor (DSP), an application specific integrated circuit (ASIC), a field programmable gate array (FPGA) or other programmable logic device, discrete gate or transistor logic, discrete hardware components, or any combination thereof designed to perform the functions described herein. A general purpose processor may be a microprocessor, but in the alternative, the processor may be any conventional processor, controller, microcontroller, or state machine. A processor may also be implemented as a combination of computing devices, e.g., a combination of a DSP and a microprocessor, a plurality of microprocessors, one or more microprocessors in conjunction with a DSP core, or any other such configuration”).
Regarding claim 4, Deng teaches The system of claim 1, further comprising at least one additional sensor connected to the bus and configured to provide to the data evaluation processor further data regarding the movement of the vehicle(Deng: Para 16 “Each ECU 105 a-n is communicatively coupled, via a controller area network (CAN) bus 107, to a sensor 103 a-n and the vehicle control unit (VCU) 106. VCU 106 is in turn communicatively coupled to a clock 108, a GPS unit 110, a user interface 112, and a transceiver 114. Although described with respect to a CAN bus, any appropriate bus protocol may be used”; Para 29 “VCU 106 samples (via ECUs 105 a-n) outputs from sensors 103 a-n during a reporting period—a period during which the process collects outputs for reporting to the cloud computing center 104”).
Regarding claim 5, Deng teaches The system of claim 1, wherein the electronic controller is further configured to provide to the data evaluation processor accompanying data in connection with the movement of the vehicle(Deng: Para 29 “VCU 106 may sample outputs from sensors 103 a-n including a LIDAR sensor, radar sensor, one or more cameras, acceleration and velocity sensors, brake sensor, steering wheel position sensor, torque sensor, tire pressure monitor, inertial measurement unit (IMU) sensor, and a temperature sensor among many others”).
Regarding claim 6, Deng teaches The system of claim 1, wherein the algorithm implemented in the sensor controller includes at least one of statistical evaluation, machine learning and artificial intelligence(Deng: Para 13 “The cloud computing center may apply statistical machine learning algorithms to the dataset and training data to develop a model of a user's expected driving behavior. The cloud computing center may transmit the model to the vehicle, wherein the VCU may utilize the model to monitor the vehicle's driving behavior”).
Regarding claim 9, Deng teaches The system of claim 1, wherein the data evaluation processor further comprises a memory to store data from at least one of the movement sensor, additional sensor and the electronic controller(Deng: Para 45 “the embodiments disclosed herein may be embodied directly in hardware, in a software module executed by a processor, or in a combination of the two. A software module may reside in RAM memory, flash memory, ROM memory, EPROM memory, EEPROM memory, registers, hard disk, a removable disk, a CD-ROM, or any other form of storage medium known in the art. An exemplary storage medium is coupled to the processor such the processor can read information from, and write information to, the storage medium. In the alternative, the storage medium may be integral to the processor. The processor and the storage medium may reside in an ASIC. The ASIC may reside in a user terminal. In the alternative, the processor and the storage medium may reside as discrete components in a user terminal”).
As per claim 10, it recites A method for monitoring a driving behavior of a vehicle having limitations similar to those of claim 1 and therefore is rejected on the same basis.
As per claim 11, it recites A method for monitoring a driving behavior of a vehicle having limitations similar to those of claim 2 and therefore is rejected on the same basis.
As per claim 12, it recites A method for monitoring a driving behavior of a vehicle having limitations similar to those of claim 4 and therefore is rejected on the same basis.
As per claim 13, it recites A method for monitoring a driving behavior of a vehicle having limitations similar to those of claim 5 and therefore is rejected on the same basis.
As per claim 14, it recites A method for monitoring a driving behavior of a vehicle having limitations similar to those of claim 6 and therefore is rejected on the same basis.
As per claim 15, it recites A method for monitoring a driving behavior of a vehicle having limitations similar to those of claim 9 and therefore is rejected on the same basis.
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 7-8 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Deng (US20200216027A1) in view of Schmitz (US20200274928A1).
In regards to claim 7, Deng teaches The system of claim 1.
Yet Deng do not explicitly teach wherein the data evaluation processor is supplied with power via the bus.
However, in the same field of endeavor, Schmitz teaches wherein the data evaluation processor is supplied with power via the bus(Schmitz: Para 7 “current loop interfaces are used to transmit data between vehicle-internal sensors and corresponding control devices, which then either use or redistribute these data. Two- or three-core lines are used which supply the sensors with power and at the same time allow transmission of their output signals”).
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention, to modify The system of Deng with the feature of wherein the data evaluation processor is supplied with power via the bus disclosed by Schmitz. One would be motivated to do so for the benefit of “increases the failsafe performance and thus the driving safety in a cost-effective manner” (Schmitz: Para 35).
In regards to claim 8, Deng teaches The system of claim 1 and Schmitz further teaches wherein the bus is a two wire bus(Schmitz: Para 7 “current loop interfaces are used to transmit data between vehicle-internal sensors and corresponding control devices, which then either use or redistribute these data. Two- or three-core lines are used which supply the sensors with power and at the same time allow transmission of their output signals”). The Examiner supplies the same rationale for the combination of references Deng and Schmitz as in Claim 7 above.
Conclusion
The prior art made of record and not relied upon is considered pertinent to applicant's disclosure.
Breed (US20070299587A1) disclosed an electrical system in a vehicle in accordance with the invention includes one or more crash sensor systems each arranged to sense a crash involving the vehicle, one or more occupant protection systems each including an occupant protection device arranged to protect an occupant in the event of a crash involving the vehicle and a single bus consisting of a pair of wires. The crash sensor system(s) and the occupant protection system(s) are connected to the bus and supplied with power by the bus and communication through the bus. Each occupant protection device is actuated in the event of a crash involving the vehicle as sensed by one or more of the crash sensor systems.
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/W.Y./Examiner, Art Unit 3667
/Hitesh Patel/Supervisory Patent Examiner, Art Unit 3667
6/17/26
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