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 1-9 are pending.
Claims 1-9 have been examined.
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, 2, 7 and 9 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(1) as being anticipated by Nobutoki et al. (US 11209123) (“Nobutoki”). Nobutoki discloses a seat control device which controls a seat on which a passenger riding on a moving body sits, the seat control device comprising:
a first information obtaining section (fig. 27: inclination angle sensor 83a,b) which obtains inclination information indicative of an inclination angle of the moving body, on which the seat is mounted, with respect to a contact surface (Based on the specification of Nobtuki, it appears that sensors 83a,b measure an angle with respect to the vertical, gravitationally downward direction which may also be the angle with respect to the contact surface. The present specification, paragraphs 0022-0024 state that the vehicle inclination sensor 30 may be placed on the seat of the vehicle and also “the vehicle inclination sensor 30 may be configured to detect an inclination angle of the vehicle 100 with respect to a horizontal plane of a frame of a vehicle body of the vehicle 100. Further, the vehicle inclination sensor 30 may be a sensor which detects an inclination angle of the vehicle 100 on the basis of a change in direction of a gravitational acceleration with respect to the vehicle 100.” As such, the scope of “obtains inclination information indicative of an inclination angle of the moving body” would encompass the angle measurement sensor within the seat of Nobutoki.),
a rocking mechanism, provided to the seat, which rocks the seat (fig. 16, 17, 27: 71, 72); and
a controller which controls the rocking mechanism (fig. 27: 80),
the controller executing a rocking adjustment process of adjusting rocking of the seat by driving the rocking mechanism on a basis of the obtained information of the moving body (Col. 8, lines 4-19: “The controller 80 detects inclination angles α and β of the upper member 12 (see FIGS. 14 and 15) based on output signals of inclination angle sensors 83a and 83b. Specifically, the controller 80 detects the inclination angles α and β generated in the first direction and the second direction at the upper member 12 by the operations of the first pendulum mechanism 51 and the second pendulum mechanism 52. […] The controller 80 controls the oscillation of the upper member 12 based on the operations of the first drive portion 71 and the second drive portion 72, i.e., the operations of the first pendulum mechanism 51 and the second pendulum mechanism 52.”).
As concerns claim 2, Nobutoki discloses wherein the inclination information of the moving body is obtained from the moving body which is traveling (Nobutoki obtains the angle information while the vehicle is traveling).
As concerns claim 7, Nobutoki discloses a second information obtaining section (fig. 27 the other of 83 a or b) which obtains seat tilting information indicative of an inclination angle of the seat with respect to a mounting surface on which the seat is mounted (as discussed with respect to claim 1),
the controller executing a rocking range determination process of determining whether or not an angle obtained by adding, to the inclination angle of the seat which inclination angle is
indicated by the obtained seat tilting information, the inclination angle of the moving body which
inclination angle is indicated by the obtained inclination information is within a range of target values having been set as an angle of rocking the seat (Col. 8, lines 63-67: “The target inclination angle calculators 93a and 93b of the first and second controllers 91 and 92 calculate the target inclination angle α0 in the first direction and the target inclination angle β0 in the second direction using the aforementioned map M.”).
As concerns claim 9, Nobutoki discloses a seat control method which controls a seat on which a passenger riding on a moving body sits, the seat control method comprising: obtaining inclination information indicative of an inclination angle of the moving body, on which the seat is mounted, with respect to a contact surface (fig. 27: 83a,b, as discussed in claim 1); and adjusting, on a basis of the obtained inclination information of the moving body, rocking of the seat by driving a rocking mechanism which is configured to rock the seat (Col. 8, lines 4-19: “The controller 80 detects inclination angles α and β of the upper member 12 (see FIGS. 14 and 15) based on output signals of inclination angle sensors 83a and 83b. Specifically, the controller 80 detects the inclination angles α and β generated in the first direction and the second direction at the upper member 12 by the operations of the first pendulum mechanism 51 and the second pendulum mechanism 52. […] The controller 80 controls the oscillation of the upper member 12 based on the operations of the first drive portion 71 and the second drive portion 72, i.e., the operations of the first pendulum mechanism 51 and the second pendulum mechanism 52.”).
Allowable Subject Matter
Claims 3-6 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.
The following is a statement of reasons for the indication of allowable subject matter: The prior art of Nobutoki fails to teach:
the rocking adjustment process includes a process of adjusting a rocking speed of the seat by driving the rocking mechanism on a basis of the obtained inclination information of the moving body; or
in a case where it is determined, in the rocking range determination process, that the
angle obtained by adding, to the inclination angle of the seat which inclination angle is indicated
by the obtained seat tilting information, the inclination angle of the moving body which
inclination angle is indicated by the obtained inclination information is within the range of the
target values, the controller drives the rocking mechanism to execute rocking of the seat; and
in a case where it is determined, in the rocking range determination process, that the
angle obtained by adding, to the inclination angle of the seat which inclination angle is indicated
by the obtained seat tilting information, the inclination angle of the moving body which
inclination angle is indicated by the obtained inclination information is outside the range of the
target values, the controller executes an inclination angle adjusting process of adjusting the
inclination angle of the seat
Further, there is no teaching, suggestion or motivation to modify the prior art absent hindsight.
Conclusion
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to TIMOTHY J BRINDLEY whose telephone number is (571)270-7231. The examiner can normally be reached Mon-Fri, 9am-5pm.
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If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner’s supervisor, David Dunn can be reached at 5712726670. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300.
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/TIMOTHY J BRINDLEY/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 3636
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