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 . Claims 1-20 are pending and examined below. This action is in response to the claims filed 3/28/25.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 112
The following is a quotation of 35 U.S.C. 112(b):
(b) CONCLUSION.—The specification shall conclude with one or more claims particularly pointing out and distinctly claiming the subject matter which the inventor or a joint inventor regards as the invention.
The following is a quotation of 35 U.S.C. 112 (pre-AIA ), second paragraph:
The specification shall conclude with one or more claims particularly pointing out and distinctly claiming the subject matter which the applicant regards as his invention.
Claim 20 is rejected under 35 U.S.C. 112(b) or 35 U.S.C. 112 (pre-AIA ), second paragraph, as being indefinite for failing to particularly point out and distinctly claim the subject matter which the inventor or a joint inventor, or for pre-AIA the applicant regards as the invention.
Claim 20 recites the limitations "a processor” and “an autonomous guided vehicle” which were previously introduced in preceding claim 20 and it is unclear whether these are the same elements or if they are different what the difference is. The first recitation of a feature should use “a” or “an” and when referring back to the same element should use “the” or “said.” It is further unclear as to whether or not claim 20 is intended to be an independent claim or dependent on claim 10.
Appropriate correction is required.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 101
35 U.S.C. 101 reads as follows:
Whoever invents or discovers any new and useful process, machine, manufacture, or composition of matter, or any new and useful improvement thereof, may obtain a patent therefor, subject to the conditions and requirements of this title.
Claims 1-20 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 101 because the claimed invention is directed to non-statutory subject matter.
The claims discuss a device that falls under a machine in Step 1.
In Step 2A, Prong One, the device falls under an abstract idea as a mental process with nothing more than a generic computer.
Simply receiving sensor data, processing that data to generate an output can be performed within a human mind even with the use of a generic computer does not recite any additional elements to integrate the judicial exception into a practical application in Step 2A, Prong Two. See MPEP § 2106.04(a)(2).
In Step 2B the claim does not recite additional claim elements that can amount to significantly more to overcome the Judicial Exception. Receiving sensor data is insignificant presolutionary activity, processing the sensor data to generate an output is the mental process, and sending the generated output is insignificant postsolutionary activity.
Therefore, the claim is not eligible subject matter.
Including claim amendments to recite some form of physical control implementation such as physically controlling the movement of the AGV may overcome the rejection. Simply sending the output to the AGV even if it is configured to physically control the movement of the AGV does not actually implement the control, it is just sending a signal which may or may not be received and may or may not implement the control. Explicit recitation of physical AGV control of steering, acceleration, braking or the like may overcome the rejection.
Dependent claims do not recite any further limitations that cause the claims to be patent eligible. Rather, the limitations of dependent claims are directed toward additional aspects of the judicial exception and/or well-understood, routine and conventional additional elements that do not integrate the judicial exception into a practical application. Therefore, dependent claims are not patent eligible under the same rationale as provided for in the rejection of the independent claims.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 102
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 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.
(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.
(a)(2) the claimed invention was described in a patent issued under section 151, or in an application for patent published or deemed published under section 122(b), in which the patent or application, as the case may be, names another inventor and was effectively filed before the effective filing date of the claimed invention.
Claims 1-20 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(1) and (a)(2) as being clearly anticipated by McCauley et al. (US 2021/0152754).
Regarding claims 1, 10, and 20, McCauley discloses a thermal imaging system for self-driving cars including an obstacle detection system/method/non-transitory computer-readable medium storing instructions for an autonomous guided vehicle (AGV) having a vehicle control system (VCS), the obstacle detection system comprising (Abstract, ¶38, and ¶45):
a thermal imaging sensor (¶96); and
an automation processing system (APS) having a processor and a memory, the APS coupled with the thermal imaging sensor and being configured to (¶150-153 and Fig. 1):
receive sensor data based on an output of the thermal imaging sensor, process the sensor data to determine at least one of a presence or a motion of a heat-emitting obstacle in a vicinity of the AGV (¶96-97 – thermal imaging system is utilized to detect objects in its surrounding environment utilizing heat emitted from the objects),
generate, based on the processed sensor data, an output comprising an indication of a control action for the AGV, and send the generated output to the VCS (¶38-41 – navigation/pathing system determines and dynamically adjusts a driving path for the vehicle based on detected objects corresponding to the recited generating and sending an indication of a control action for the AGV to the control system corresponding to the recited VCS).
Regarding claims 2, 12, and 13, McCauley further discloses wherein the APS includes a machine learning control program stored in at least one of the memory of the APS or a remote memory (¶128-131 and Fig. 7 - a trained machine learning system may be stored in the vehicle, a server computing system, or remote computing system corresponding to the recited a machine learning control program stored in at least one of the memory of the APS or a remote memory).
Regarding claims 3 and 14, McCauley further discloses wherein the APS is configured to provide the sensor data to the machine learning control program, and to receive a detection output from the machine learning control program, the detection output indicating the presence of the heat-emitting obstacle in the vicinity of the AGV (¶96-100 – detection of objects utilizing thermal sensor data corresponding to the recited sensor data utilizing a thermal machine learning model corresponding to the recited machine learning control program to detect and classify heat-emitting obstacles in the vicinity of the AGV).
Regarding claims 4 and 15, McCauley further discloses wherein the APS is configured to provide the sensor data to the machine learning control program, and to receive a movement output from the machine learning control program, the movement output indicating the motion of the heat-emitting obstacle in the vicinity of the AGV (¶23 and 96-100 – detection of objects utilizing thermal sensor data corresponding to the recited sensor data utilizing a thermal machine learning model corresponding to the recited machine learning control program to detect, classify, and track movement of heat-emitting obstacles in the vicinity of the AGV).
Regarding claims 5 and 16, McCauley further discloses further comprising an auxiliary sensor, wherein the auxiliary sensor includes at least one of a grayscale image sensor, an RGB image sensor, an RGBD image sensor, a sonar sensor, a radar sensor, or a LiDAR sensor (¶57-63 – the sensor unit can include multiple different sensors corresponding to the recited auxiliary sensors including cameras with many different light detection configurations, acoustic sensors, radar, or LIDAR. The “at least one of” claim element only requires one of the following to be present to disclose the invention as claimed.).
Regarding claim 6, McCauley further discloses wherein the sensor data includes a comparison of the output of the thermal imaging sensor and an output of the auxiliary sensor (¶138-141 – the current thermal map determined by the thermal sensor data may include environmental sensors corresponding to the recited auxiliary sensor to detect spatial point cloud data from a LIDAR sensor, or current visible light images from the camera system to more accurately detect and identify objects in the environment corresponding to the recited comparison of the output of the thermal imaging system and an output of the auxiliary sensor).
Regarding claims 7 and 17, McCauley further discloses wherein the APS operates in an environment and the sensor data includes a comparison of the output of the thermal imaging sensor and a predetermined map of the environment (¶137 - determining the current thermal map associated with the environment involves calibrating a thermal contrast of the one or more infrared images based on the one or more prior thermal maps).
Regarding claims 8 and 18, McCauley further discloses wherein the thermal imaging sensor is one of a plurality of thermal imaging sensors, and wherein the plurality of thermal imaging sensors are disposed so as to provide thermal detection in a plurality of directions (¶57-58 and Fig. 2B – the sensors of sensor unit 202 could be distributed in different locations corresponding to the recited plurality of thermal imaging sensors disposed so as to provide thermal detection in a plurality of directions).
Regarding claims 9 and 19, McCauley further discloses wherein the plurality of thermal imaging sensors are disposed so as to provide thermal detection in a 360-degree field of view (¶125 and ¶135 - each of the one or more prior thermal maps generated via the thermal sensor is associated with an angle of the scanning laser system where the scanning laser system/LIDAR is operable to scan the environment surrounding vehicle 100 into a finite set of pointing directions covering the 360 range of the apparatus therefore disclosing the thermal imaging sensors are capable of providing thermal detection in 360-degree field of view).
Regarding claim 11, McCauley further discloses wherein the thermal imaging sensor is mounted on the AGV (¶53 and Fig. 1 – each of the components of the vehicle including the sensor system/thermal imaging system can be mounted on the vehicle).
Additional References Cited
The prior art made of record and not relied upon is considered pertinent to applicant's disclosure.
Rahimpour et al. (US 11,981,326) discloses a system for object identification with thermal imaging including utilizing thermal data in a plurality of images processed through a machine learning program trained to output an identification of an object based on the ambient air temperature and a risk of collision between the vehicle and the object (Abstract).
Tabor (US 2021/0397852) discloses an object detection and tracking system to identify an object of interest and to determine the location of the object within an area. The system includes a processing unit, a visual image system, a thermal image system, and a location mapping system. The visual image system is positioned relative to an area to capture a visual image of at least a portion of the area. The thermal image system is positioned relative to the area to capture a thermal image of at least a portion of the area concurrently with capture of the visual image to cooperatively identify an object in the area. The at least portion of the area captured in the thermal image conforms to the at least portion of the area captured in the visual image. The location mapping system is positioned relative to the area to determine a location of the object in the area. (Abstract)
Tokita (US 2019/0221004) discloses a thermal image processing device includes a thermal image acquiring unit configured to acquire a thermal image detected by an infrared detector provided in a vehicle, an object detecting unit configured to detect an object from the thermal image, a positional relationship calculating unit configured to calculate a positional relationship between the detected object and the vehicle and to calculate a change in the positional relationship, and a determining unit configured to determine whether to calibrate the infrared detector on the basis of the change in the calculated positional relationship. (Abstract)
Conclusion
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to Matthew J Reda whose telephone number is (408)918-7573. The examiner can normally be reached on Monday - Friday 7-4 ET.
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/MATTHEW J. REDA/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 3665
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