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 .
Priority
Receipt is acknowledged of certified copies of papers required by 37 CFR 1.55.
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 6 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 applications subject to pre-AIA 35 U.S.C. 112, the applicant), regards as the invention.
Claim 6 recites the limitation "the time window Tw" in line 8. There is insufficient antecedent basis for this limitation in the claim.
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(s) 1, 2, 5, and 9 – 12 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(1) as being anticipated by Zeng et al. CN 114715069 (“Zeng”). Zeng discloses a method (abstract) for controlling deployment of a flush door handle of a vehicle (hidden electric door handle) that is suitable for controlling deployment of the flush door handle used in the vehicle (pop up), wherein the flush door handle is equipped with a motor (page 6, first paragraph beginning with “It should be noted …”), wherein the method comprises:
a vehicle collision prediction step (preset algorithm to predict a vehicle collision accident with a target), wherein in response to the vehicle being started (page 6, first paragraph beginning with “It should be noted …”), external vehicle driving information is obtained in real time by way of sensors installed on the vehicle and it is determined if a predetermined vehicle collision risk (claim 3) is present by calculation or if a predetermined vehicle collision risk (page 2, paragraph 4 beginning with “in some embodiments…”), is present based on a signal (page 3, paragraph beginning with “1.2s ≤ TTC ≤ 4s …”) from the vehicle associated with the vehicle collision risk; and
a collision pre-trigger step (pop-up signal), wherein operation of the motor of the flush door handle is triggered to transition the flush door handle from the flush state to the deployed state under circumstances where a predetermined vehicle collision risk is determined to be present (the collision risk level is risk or high risk).
In reference to claims 2, 5, and 9 – 12, Zeng further discloses [[claim 2]] wherein the vehicle collision prediction step comprises: calculating the expected time to collision TTC based on the relative distance and relative velocity (V) between the vehicle and another vehicle or obstacle and comparing the expected time to collision TTC to a preset vehicle collision warning time threshold Ts and determining that a predetermined vehicle collision risk (high, risk, low) is present when the expected time to collision TTC is less than or equal to the vehicle collision warning time threshold Ts (page 7, paragraph beginning with “vehicle is a vehicle carrying the vehicle processing system …” );
[[claim 5]] wherein the method further comprises: a collision verification step (real collision accident occurs, judging unit 133), wherein within a predetermined time window (abstract), the state of the vehicle is continuously detected by a sensor (collision sensor) mounted on the vehicle, or signals from the vehicle are continuously acquired that are related to vehicle collision, and thus a judgment (judging unit 133) is made as to whether a collision of the vehicle (collision signal from the collision sensor 121) has actually occurred; a door handle deployed state maintaining step (page 7, paragraph 7 beginning with “As shown in Fig. 4 …”), wherein, when it is determined that a vehicle collision has occurred (page 7, paragraph beginning with “vehicle is vehicle carrying the vehicle collision processing system …”, the flush door handle is maintained in a deployed state (page 7, first paragraph beginning with “Therefore …”; and a door handle flush state recovery step (door handle retraction control unit 134), wherein, when it is determined that no vehicle collision has occurred, the operation of the motor of the flush door handle is controlled to recover the flush door handle from the deployed state to the flush state (page 8, paragraph beginning with “retraction control unit 134 …”), then returning to the vehicle collision prediction step; wherein the collision verification step is performed after the collision pre-trigger step or simultaneously with the collision pre-trigger step ((page 8, paragraph beginning with “retraction control unit 134 …”);
[[claim 9]] a control unit (fig. 1) adapted to implement the method for controlling the deployment of a flush door handle of a vehicle (hidden electric door handle 111) so as to control the deployment of a flush door handle used in a vehicle (page 8, paragraph 2 beginning with “As shown in Fig. 1 …”), wherein the flush door handle is equipped with a motor (page 6, paragraph 1 beginning with “It should be noted …”) and the control unit comprises: a vehicle collision prediction module (ADAS 130), which is configured in response to the vehicle being started to obtain external vehicle driving information in real time by way of sensors installed on the vehicle and determine if a predetermined vehicle collision risk is present by calculation or if a predetermined vehicle collision risk is present based on a signal from the vehicle associated with the vehicle collision risk (page 6, paragraph 7 beginning with “Referring to Fig. 2 …”); and a collision pre-trigger module (page 6, paragraph 1 beginning with “It should be noted …”), which is configured to trigger the operation of the motor of the flush door handle to transition the flush door handle from the flush state to the deployed state under circumstances where a predetermined vehicle collision risk (target collision risk level) is determined to be present;
[[claim 10]] wherein the control unit further comprises: a collision verification module (vehicle collision processing system), which is configured to continuously detect the state of the vehicle within a predetermined time window Tw by a sensor (121) mounted on the vehicle, or to continuously acquire signals related to vehicle collision from the vehicle and thereby determine whether a vehicle collision has actually occurred (signal from collision sensor 121); a door handle deployed state maintaining module (door handle controller 110), which is configured to maintain the flush door handle in the deployed state when it is determined that a vehicle collision (when the real collision accident occurs) has occurred and the flush door handle is confirmed to be in the deployed state (hidden door handle ejection); and a door handle flush state recovery module (retraction signal), which is configured to control the operation of the motor of the flush door handle to recover the flush door handle from the deployed state to the flush state when it is determined that no vehicle collision has occurred and the flush door handle is confirmed to be in the deployed state (page 7, paragraph beginning with “retraction control unit 134 …”);
[[claim 11]] a computer program product (fig. 5) comprising a computer program (computer device), wherein when the computer program is executed by a processor (fig. 5), the method for controlling the deployment of a flush door handle of a vehicle (page 10, paragraph beginning with “relative speed …”) is implemented; and
[[claim 12]] a computer-readable storage medium (fig. 5) having executable instructions stored thereon (page 10, paragraph 1 beginning with “fig. 5 …”), which, when executed by a processor, cause the processor to perform the method for controlling the deployment of a flush door handle (pop-up).
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(s) 3, 4, 7, and 8 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Zeng in view of R. Zhang, CN 116816195 (“Zhang”). Zen discloses the method according to claim 2 above, wherein the vehicle collision prediction step is implemented by way of a central control unit of the vehicle (page 5, paragraph 8 beginning with “vehicle body control module …”), the collision pre-trigger step is implemented by way of a door handle control unit of the flush door handle (110), communication from the central control unit to the door handle control unit has a communication transmission delay Td (page 6, paragraph 1 beginning with “It should be noted …”), the process by which the motor of the flush door handle responds to the received signal and drives the mechanical components in the flush door handle to work to deploy the flush door handle has a response delay Tm (page 6, paragraph 5 beginning with “In some embodiments ..”, but is silent to disclose the vehicle collision warning time threshold Ts, as based on claim 2, is determined based on experience or experiments and is set to satisfy the following relationship: Ts > Td + Tm. Zhang teaches a vehicle collision warning time threshold Ts (abstract, preset time), as based on claim 2, is determined based on experience or experiments and is set to satisfy the following relationship: Ts > Td + Tm (CPU telecommunication signal + supplying power for the motor of the vehicle door handle to finish the unfolding process of the vehicle door handle). One of ordinary skill in the art at the time the invention was filed would find modifying the warning time threshold Ts to satisfy the relationship Ts > Td + Tm in view of the teachings of Zeng obvious so as to provide a proper method that increases the convenience of rescue under the emergency condition, save rescue time, so as to ensure the personal safety of the members in the vehicle under the emergency situation (page 12, paragraph 1 beginning with “The control device provided …”).
In reference to claims 4, 7, and 8, Zeng in view of Zhang further discloses [[claim 4]] the method according to claim 3, wherein the process by which the door handle control unit converts the control signal into a corresponding electrical signal (Zhang page 13, paragraph 3 beginning with “The integrated unit… “) and sends it to the motor of the flush door handle has a signal processing delay Tp (page 11, paragraph 10 beginning with “a main power supply module …”) and the vehicle collision warning time threshold Ts is set to satisfy the following relationship: Ts ≥ Td + Tm + Tp;
[[claim 7]] the method according to claim 5, wherein after the collision verification step (Zeng’s collision sensor 121) and the door handle deployed state maintaining step or the door handle flush state recovery step (retract), the method further comprises: a door handle deployed state verification step (collision sensor 121), in which the current state of the flush door handle is verified in real time to confirm the actual state of the flush door handle and output the door handle state information through the vehicle network (page 8, paragraph 1 beginning with “it can be understood that …”, network interface fig. 5); and
[[claim 8]] the method according to claim 7, wherein: after the door handle deployed state verification step (fig. 5), the door handle deployed state maintaining step is performed in the following manner: in the door handle deployed state maintaining step, when it is determined that a vehicle collision (collision accident occurrence judging unit 133) has occurred and the flush door handle is confirmed to be in a deployed state through the door handle state information (fig. 5), the deployed state of the flush door handle is maintained; or when it is determined that a vehicle collision has occurred (collision signal from the collision sensor 121) and the flush door handle is determined to be in a flush state (page 10, paragraph 3 beginning with “For example …”) through the door handle state information, it is determined that a vehicle network communication (Zhang VCU) failure has occurred or a flush door handle failure (page 10, last paragraph beginning with “After the collision …”) has occurred and the method is terminated accordingly (start different loop); or after the door handle deployed state verification step (Zhang step 4), the door handle flush state recovery step is performed in the following manner: in the door handle flush state recovery step, when it is determined that no vehicle collision has occurred and the flush door handle is confirmed to be in a deployed state (step 6) through the door handle state information, the operation of the motor of the flush door handle is controlled to recover the flush door handle from a deployed state (page 11, paragraph 8 beginning with “It should be noted …”) line to a flush state (claim 4), then returning to the vehicle collision prediction step; or when it is determined that no vehicle collision has occurred and the flush door handle is determined to be in a flush state through the door handle state information , it is determined that the vehicle network communication has failed or the flush door handle has failed and the method is terminated accordingly. One of ordinary skill in the art prior to the effective filing date of the claimed invention would find modifying Zeng such that it comprised the method to be terminated accordingly, and to begin a different loop in view of the teachings of Zhang obvious so as to allow the driving motor to be closed, enabling the motor to open the door handle through the capacitor motor supply (page 10, last paragraph).
Claim(s) 6 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Zeng in view of Richards et al. U.S. 2018/0163436 (“Richards”). Zeng discloses the method according to claim 5, wherein the collision verification step is implemented by an airbag controller of the vehicle (Zeng, page 9, paragraph 1 beginning with “It should be noted …”), the airbag controller has a processing delay Tab (safety control signal from the safety airbag control module) in the process from sensing the signal change of the sensor to completing the collision judgment and sending the collision verification signal (collision accident occurrence judging unit), and in the collision pre-trigger step, the process from the deployment of the flush door handle to the sending of handle state information has a door handle state transmission delay Tdoor (door handle control module), and a time window Tw (pre-collision time) is set to satisfy the following relationship: Tw = Ts + Tx, wherein Tx is the larger of the processing delay Tab and the door handle state transmission delay Tdoor. Although Zeng discloses the collision verification step from a collision sensor, it does not disclose the collision sensor is based on signals from an acceleration sensor installed on the vehicle. Richards teaches the collision verification step based on signals from an acceleration sensor (paragraph [0059]). One of ordinary skill in the art prior to the effective filing date of the claimed invention would find modifying Zeng such that it comprised the acceleration sensors in view of the teachings of Richards obvious so as to provide a method of determining vehicle impact [0059].
Conclusion
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/KAREN BECK/ Primary Examiner, Art Unit 3614
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