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 .
Claim Status
Claims 1-5 are pending for examination.
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.
Claim 1 is rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(1) as being anticipated by Kakuchi (Pub. No.: US 2022/0270489 A1).
Regarding claim 1, Kakuchi teaches a vehicle following traveling system for non-mechanically linking a preceding vehicle and a succeeding vehicle with the preceding vehicle causing the succeeding vehicle to travel following the preceding vehicle, wherein while the preceding vehicle is causing the succeeding vehicle to travel following the preceding vehicle (para [0083], “FIG. 7 is a conceptual diagram illustrating how the auxiliary vehicles 14a and 14b control their own acceleration, deceleration, and steering. In this case, as indicated solid arrows in FIG. 7, each of the taxi vehicle 12 and the auxiliary vehicle 14a outputs a tracking signal 88 to the vehicle running directly behind; that is, the auxiliary vehicle 14a and the auxiliary vehicle 14b, respectively. The tracking signal 88 is a radio wave signal or an ultrasonic signal which is output periodically, and is, for example, a beacon signal using Bluetooth. The following auxiliary vehicles 14a, 14b each detect the tracking signal 88 by the follow-up sensor 50 and use the detection result to identify the distance and direction to the taxi vehicle 12 or the auxiliary vehicle 14a running directly ahead. Then, the auxiliary controllers 40 of the following auxiliary vehicles 14a, 14b each control the acceleration, deceleration, and steering so as to keep an approximately constant relative positional relation with the preceding vehicle 12, 14, or in other words, to follow the moving trajectory of the pending vehicle 12, 14.”. The lead vehicle 12 outputs a tracking signal to allow the auxiliary vehicles 14a, 14b to follow the lead vehicle), light is emitted from the preceding vehicle or the succeeding vehicle toward a road surface between the preceding vehicle and the succeeding vehicle, to draw a display with a predetermined shape on the road surface (para [0092], “Alternatively, the taxi vehicle 12 and the auxiliary vehicles 14 may each have a lamp installed on their exterior walls, and while the linkage is valid, the lamps may be lit in a unified manner. For example, the lamps may be lit with the same color of light, or the lamps may blink continuously and in sequence according to the order in which the vehicles are lined up. Alternatively, the taxi vehicle 12 and the auxiliary vehicles 14 may have projection devices that project image on the road surface, and keep projecting the image onto the road surface indicating the linkage while the linkage is valid. For example, the image projected by the taxi vehicle 12 and the image projected by the auxiliary vehicles 14 linked with the taxi vehicle 12 may constitute a continuous image (e.g., a continuous line or the like).”. The lead vehicle and/or the auxiliary vehicles 14a, 14b project image onto the surface of the road in a continuous image to indicate a linkage of the vehicles.).
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 103
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 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.
The factual inquiries for establishing a background for determining obviousness under 35 U.S.C. 103 are summarized as follows:
1. Determining the scope and contents of the prior art.
2. Ascertaining the differences between the prior art and the claims at issue.
3. Resolving the level of ordinary skill in the pertinent art.
4. Considering objective evidence present in the application indicating obviousness or nonobviousness.
Claims 2-3 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Kakuchi (Pub. No.: US 2022/0270489 A1) in view of Kunii (Pub. No.: US 2018/0118095 A1).
Regarding claim 2, Kakuchi teaches the vehicle following traveling system according to claim 1, wherein the lead vehicle and the auxiliary vehicles are configured to emit lights from the exterior vehicle lamps to display a linkage between the vehicles but fails to expressly teach wherein, when a headlight of the preceding vehicle or the succeeding vehicle is on, the display is drawn.
However, in the same field of vehicle, Kunii teaches the headlights of a vehicle is configured to project an image onto the surface of the road when the headlights are on. See Fig. 7 and para [0045], “Also, the image projection apparatus may be integrally incorporated in the headlight or the tail lamp.” and [0071], “When the vehicle decelerates or stops, based on the signal of the vehicle speed sensor 54, the headlight emits light dimmer than usual on the road surface within a range stipulated by laws and regulations, and the image projection apparatus 500 projects the arrow image 23 on the road surface with the same brightness as the above (FIG. 7(B)).”.
Therefore, it would have been obvious to a person having ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify Kakuchi’s image projector with the headlights of Kunii’s vehicle to project image onto the surface of the road when turned on to reduce the number of parts and space.
Regarding claim 3, Kakuchi teaches the vehicle following traveling system according to claim 1, but fails to expressly teach wherein, when the preceding vehicle or the succeeding vehicle is stopped or is traveling at a speed no faster than a predetermined vehicle speed, the display is drawn.
However, in the same field of vehicle, Kunii teaches the headlights of a vehicle is configured to project an image onto the surface of the road when the vehicle stops or decelerates. See Fig. 7 and para [0071], “When the vehicle decelerates or stops, based on the signal of the vehicle speed sensor 54, the headlight emits light dimmer than usual on the road surface within a range stipulated by laws and regulations, and the image projection apparatus 500 projects the arrow image 23 on the road surface with the same brightness as the above (FIG. 7(B)).”.
Therefore, it would have been obvious to a person having ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify Kakuchi’s image projector to project image onto the surface of the road when the lead vehicle or the auxiliary vehicles stops or decelerates as taught by Kunii to improve vehicle linkage indication.
Claim 5 is rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Kakuchi (Pub. No.: US 2022/0270489 A1) in view of Fukutaka (Pub. No: US 2021/0188159 A1).
Regarding claim 4, Kakuchi teaches the vehicle following traveling system according to claim 1, but fails to expressly teach wherein, when a pedestrian is detected within a predetermined range behind the preceding vehicle or within a predetermined range ahead of the succeeding vehicle, the display is drawn in red.
However, in the same field of vehicle, Fukutaka teaches a vehicle 100 configured to detect the presence of a pedestrian 200c within a predetermined range and to project a warning image 9b onto the surface of the road to alert the pedestrian. The color of the warning image is red. See Fig. 11 – Fig. 12, para [0119], “Similar to the light device 4a, information displayed outside the vehicle by the light device 4b includes information indicating operation which the vehicle is going to perform, information indicating a current state of the vehicle, and information for attracting attention to the operation which the vehicle is going to perform. The light device 4b displays the information outside the vehicle with a shape, a size, a color, brightness, an irradiation position, time, and irradiation timing of a light pattern, suitable for each of these pieces of information.” para [0306], “the color of the light pattern is a warning color such as red,” para [0351], “As a display start condition (b) of display information 9b for attracting attention of a moving object approaching the vehicle 100 from the right front thereof to a moving object moving from the rear of the vehicle 100 to the left front thereof, a situation in which a moving object has been detected in the sensing area D and a moving object has been detected in the sensing area a or the sensing area A is set.”.
Therefore, it would have been obvious to a person having ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify Kakuchi’s vehicle to detect the presence of a pedestrian and to project a red warning image onto the surface of the road to improve notification.
Claim 5 is rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Kakuchi (Pub. No.: US 2022/0270489 A1) in view of Kunii (Pub. No.: US 2018/0004020 A1).
Regarding claim 5, Kakuchi teaches the vehicle following traveling system according to claim 1, but fails to expressly teach wherein a drawing angle of the display is synchronized with a steering angle of the preceding vehicle or the succeeding vehicle.
However, in the same field of vehicle, Kunii teaches the projected image displays an angle that is synchronized with the steering angle of the vehicle. See Fig. 8, Fig. 9, and para [0071], “Furthermore, as also illustrated in FIG. 8, a curved state of an arrow may be changed depending on a steering wheel operation of a driver. That is, for example, if an arrow indicating a traveling direction of a vehicle is a linear arrow 210 (FIG. 8 (A)) before the driver actually performs the steering wheel operation, and if the arrow is a curved arrow 200 (FIG. 8 (B)) corresponding to a steering angle in actually performing the steering wheel operation, driving information about the vehicle can be more reliably presented to a surrounding driver or pedestrian.”.
Therefore, it would have been obvious to a person having ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify Kakuchi’s image projector to project an image that displays an angle that is synchronized with the steering angle of the vehicle to improve notification.
Conclusion
The prior art made of record and not relied upon is considered pertinent to applicant's disclosure.
Kim (Pub. No.: US 2023/0249614 A1) teaches a method and system for projecting external communication message to another vehicle.
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to ZHEN Y WU whose telephone number is (571)272-5711. The examiner can normally be reached Monday-Friday, 10AM-6PM, EST.
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/ZHEN Y WU/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2685
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