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 § 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 (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 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.
(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.
Claims 17-20 and 33-34 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102 (a)(1) as being anticipated by Wintermantel DE 102020210079 B3.
Claim 17
17. A method for detecting the environment of a motor vehicle with a radar system comprising:
(a) modulating a frequency of emitted transmission signals from a transmitter such that the frequency of the signals includes a sequence of frequency ramps;
(DE, Abstract; Description, “In the method according to the invention for a radar system for detecting the surroundings, this has transmission means for emitting transmission signals which contain a sequence of at least approximately identical individual signals. Over the sequence of the individual signals, their frequency position (which is characterized in particular by their center frequency) and their time interval … are changed at least approximately linearly. … The frequency of the individual signals is preferably linearly modulated and the slope of the frequency modulation is at least approximately the same for all individual signals, the individual transmission signals being frequency ramps.”)
(b) mixing, in a signal processor, a signal having one of the emitted transmission frequency and a constant offset thereto with transmission signals reflected by objects and received by a receiver to provide an output signal;
(DE, Description, “The signals received by the four receiving antennas are processed in parallel in the real-valued mixers 1.3 also with the signal of the oscillator 1.2 mixed down into the low frequency range.”)
© scanning, in the signal processor, the output signal of the mixture a number of times during each of the frequency ramps to provide scanning values;
(DE, Description, “During each frequency ramp k = 0, …, K-1, the received signals from each of the M = 4 A / D converters m = 0, …, M-1 are transmitted 1 = 256 times at a distance of 200ns (i.e. at 5MHz), whereby the sampling always begins at the same point in time relative to the start of the ramp … the resulting digital samples with index i = 0, …, I-1 are denoted by s (i, k, m).”)
(d) preprocessing the scanning values dependent on the vehicle movement to include a frequency shift of the signal formed from the scanning values of the respective frequency ramp such that the frequency of the signals formed by the scanning values respectively remains unchanged over the frequency ramps for objects with a defined radial relative movement;
(DE, Description, “The core inventive teaching is that by appropriately designing the ramp sequence (the specific linear relationship of center frequency and time interval), the received signals from objects with a defined radial movement will result in sharp power peaks in the 2D spectrum—even for objects moving toward or away from the radar. … The method includes, as an alternative, a step of phase correction across the scan values after the first FFT, which is mathematically equivalent to a frequency shift or phase shift preprocessing … ‘after a one-dimensional discrete Fourier transformation … the phases … are corrected by a phase component proportional to …’”)
(e) and determining at least partially, in the signal processor, a two-dimensional discrete time-frequency transformation over the scanning values, wherein fuzziness of power peaks generated by the objects, is counteracted in the two-dimensional time-frequency transformation.
(DE, Description, “A two-dimensional discrete Fourier transformation, possibly incomplete and preferably with the aid of one-dimensional fast Fourier transformations, can then be carried out using the respective I .Math. K received values … Furthermore, the linear changes in the frequency position and the time interval between the individual frequency ramps can result in the received signals from transmission signals reflected on objects, after the two-dimensional discrete Fourier transformation, also leading to sharp power peaks when the objects are moving towards or away from the radar system … the approach according to the invention is now derived, which prevents the power peak from becoming blurred even at high relative speeds.”)
Claim 34
34. A radar system for detecting the environment of a motor vehicle comprising:
(a) a transmitter for emitting transmission signals in a directed manner, wherein the frequency of the emitted transmission signals is modulated such that it includes a sequence of frequency ramps;
(DE, Abstract; Claims; Description, “Radar system for the detection of the surroundings with transmission means for the emission of transmission signals which contain a sequence of at least approximately the same individual signals, characterized in that over the sequence of the individual signals their frequency position, in particular characterized by their center frequency, and their time interval … at least approximately linearly … The frequency of the individual signals is preferably linearly modulated … the individual transmission signals being referred to below as frequency ramps.”)
(b) a receiver for receiving transmission signals reflected by objects in a directed manner;
(DE, Description, “The radar system has a transmission antenna TX0 for emitting transmission signals and M = 4 reception antennas RX0-RX3 for receiving transmission signals reflected from objects …”)
© and a signal processor for processing the received signals;
(DE, Description, “Then they are in the digital signal processing unit 1.8 further processed.”)
(d) wherein a signal with the current transmission frequency or a constant offset thereto is mixed with the transmission signals reflected by objects and received by the receiver in the signal processor;
(DE, Description, “The signals received by the four receiving antennas are processed in parallel in the real-valued mixers 1.3 also with the signal of the oscillator 1.2 mixed down into the low frequency range.”)
(e) wherein the output signal of the mixture is scanned in the signal processor a number of times during each of the frequency ramps;
(DE, Description, “During each frequency ramp k = 0, …, K-1, the received signals from each of the M = 4 A / D converters m = 0, …, M-1 are transmitted 1 = 256 times at a distance of 200ns … the resulting digital samples with index i = 0, …, I-1 are denoted by s (i, k, m).”)
(f) wherein in the signal processor the scanning values are preprocessed dependent on the vehicle movement to include a frequency shift of the signal formed from the scanning values of the respective frequency ramp such that the frequency of the signals formed by the scanning values respectively remains unchanged over the frequency ramps for objects with a defined radial relative movement;
(DE, Description, “…by appropriately designing the ramp sequence (the specific linear relationship of center frequency and time interval), the received signals from objects with a defined radial movement will result in sharp power peaks in the 2D spectrum—even for objects moving toward or away from the radar. … as an alternative, a step of phase correction across the scan values after the first FFT, which is mathematically equivalent to a frequency shift or phase shift preprocessing … ‘after a one-dimensional discrete Fourier transformation … the phases … are corrected by a phase component proportional to …’”)
(g) and wherein in the signal processor, a two-dimensional discrete time-frequency transformation over the scanning values is at least partially determined such that fuzziness of power peaks generated by the objects, is counteracted in the two-dimensional time-frequency transformation.
(DE, Description, “A two-dimensional discrete Fourier transformation, possibly incomplete and preferably with the aid of one-dimensional fast Fourier transformations, can then be carried out using the respective I .Math. K received values … Furthermore, the linear changes in the frequency position and the time interval between the individual frequency ramps can result in the received signals from transmission signals reflected on objects, after the two-dimensional discrete Fourier transformation, also leading to sharp power peaks when the objects are moving towards or away from the radar system … the approach according to the invention is now derived, which prevents the power peak from becoming blurred even at high relative speeds.”)
Claim 18
18. The method according to claim 17, wherein a detection range of the radar system includes the direction of travel and the defined radial relative movement is the negative of the vehicle’s ego movement, so that the frequency of the signals formed by the scanning values respectively remains constant over the frequency ramps for stationary objects in the direction of travel.
DE 102020210079 B3 teaches this limitation (see Description: “…for the sensor looking in the direction of travel considered here, the accurate recognition of stationary objects is essential… the relative movement to be considered is the inverse, that is to say, the negative of the generally non-constant ego movement…”); see also Embodiment and claims.
Claim 19
19. The method according to claim 17, wherein the frequency shift is realized by multiplication by a rotating complex unit vector.
DE 102020210079 B3 teaches this limitation (see Description: “…the correction can be implemented by multiplication with a complex pointer of length 1 and corresponding phase is realized.”).
Claim 20
20. The method according to claim 19, wherein the scanning values respectively of the frequency ramps are equidistant in time and the rotation speed of the complex unit vector is constant during each frequency ramp, but changes over the frequency ramps.
DE 102020210079 B3 teaches this limitation (see Description: “…the received signals from each of the M = 4 A / D converters…are transmitted 1 = 256 times at a distance of 200ns…”; “…the phase component proportional to the product 2π .Math. j .Math. k / K…”).
“…the frequency ramps are repeated periodically in the fixed grid…all have the same frequency curve, ie the same frequency gradient and the same frequency position…” ).
Claim 33
33. The method according to claim 17, wherein the frequency ramps are linear ramps with approximately the same gradient and duration.
DE 102020210079 B3 teaches this limitation (see Description: “…the frequency ramps are repeated periodically in the fixed grid…all have the same frequency curve, ie the same frequency gradient and the same frequency position…” ).
Allowable Subject Matter
Claims 21-32 are 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
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/HELAL A ALGAHAIM/SPE , Art Unit 3645
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