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 .
Status of Claims
Claims 1-5 of U.S. Application No. 19/211,744 filed on 05/19/2025 have been examined.
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.
Claims 1-5 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Sadamura et al. (JP2024174445A) in view of Ninomiya et al. (CN115917619A), hereinafter referred to as Sadamura and Ninomiya respectively.
Regarding claims 1, 4 and 5, Sadamura discloses a deceleration assist device that performs deceleration assist control for decelerating a vehicle when a curved road is detected ahead of the vehicle while traveling (“a vehicle control method includes a computer that acquires first information about a curved road in the direction of travel of the vehicle, acquires second information including an acceleration operation amount by the driver of the vehicle, and, when the vehicle is traveling on the curved road or in a section from the entrance of the curved road to a predetermined distance before the entrance, performs assistance control including one or both of deceleration control for decelerating the vehicle so that the speed of the vehicle approaches a target speed based on the first information and notification control for notifying the driver that the speed of the vehicle is approaching the target speed" [ see at least Par.4 PG.3]),
acquire first road shape information including a road shape ahead of the vehicle based on a detection result from a position information detection device that detects position information on the vehicle and a map database(“a vehicle control method includes a computer that acquires first information about a curved road in the direction of travel of the vehicle” [ see at least Par.4 PG.3] and “The navigation device 50 holds first map information 54 in a storage device such as a HDD (Hard Disk Drive) or a flash memory…………….. The navigation device 50 may transmit the current position and the destination to a navigation server via the communication device 20 and obtain a route equivalent to the route on the map from the navigation server” [Par.5 PG.8),
Sadamura does not explicitly teach acquire second road shape information including a road shape ahead of the vehicle based on a recognition result from a front recognition sensor mounted on the vehicle to recognize a scene ahead of the vehicle,
and perform the deceleration assist control based on the second road shape information when the first road shape information and the second road shape information do not coincide with each other.
However, Ninomiya does teach acquire second road shape information including a road shape ahead of the vehicle based on a recognition result from a front recognition sensor mounted on the vehicle to recognize a scene ahead of the vehicle (“The judgment of such update processing is also the same for a new road not stored in the general map data. That is, the sensing detailed map updating unit 204 initially temporarily registers the information of the new road sensed by the sensor unit 100 to the sensing detailed map data, but does not register the information as the final map data. The sensing detailed map updating unit 204, after confirming that the road is reliable by passing the road a plurality of times through the vehicle, additionally registers sensing detailed map data including a new road as data of a final map to the general map data.” [ see at least Par.6 PG.10]);
and perform the deceleration assist control based on the second road shape information when the first road shape information and the second road shape information do not coincide with each other (“Here, the accuracy information is information indicating the degree of agreement between the sensor information and the road model (intersection model) when the sensor information and the road model (intersection model) are fitted, and is expressed as, for example, a confidence.”[ see at least Par.7 PG.8]; “The consistency determination unit (intersection consistency determination unit 500) compares the road model (intersection model) estimated by the road shape estimation unit (intersection shape estimation unit 400) with the road width and the connection relationship of the road structure of the road shown in the map information, thereby determining the consistency of the sensor information and the estimation result.”[ see at least Par. 2 PG.9]; “Further, there are cases where the map information managed by the map information unit 200 is old and the sensor information actually observed by the sensor unit 100 is new, so that the map information and the sensor information may not coincide with each other.”[ see at least Par.1 PG.9]).
Ninomiya explicitly teaches acquiring second road shape information from a front recognition sensor and comparing it with map information to verify whether the two sources coincide. Sadamura teaches performing deceleration assist control based on first road information acquired from map data when a curved road is detected ahead of the vehicle.
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art prior to the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify the deceleration assist method of Sadamura to also include acquire second road shape information including a road shape ahead of the vehicle based on a recognition result from a front recognition sensor mounted on the vehicle to recognize a scene ahead of the vehicle; the second road shape information do not coincide with each other, as taught by Ninomiya, with a reasonable expectation of success. Doing so improves the deceleration assist method (With regard to this reasoning, see at least [ see at least Ninomiya, PG. 8-10]).
Regarding claim 2, Sadamura discloses the deceleration assist device according to claim 1, wherein the deceleration assist control is performed based on both the first road shape information and the second road shape information when the first road shape information and the second road shape information coincide with each other (“a vehicle control method includes a computer that acquires first information about a curved road in the direction of travel of the vehicle, acquires second information including an acceleration operation amount by the driver of the vehicle, and, when the vehicle is traveling on the curved road or in a section from the entrance of the curved road to a predetermined distance before the entrance, performs assistance control including one or both of deceleration control for decelerating the vehicle so that the speed of the vehicle approaches a target speed based on the first information and notification control for notifying the driver that the speed of the vehicle is approaching the target speed, and while the assistance control is being performed, refers to the second information and stops the assistance control if the acceleration operation amount increases by a predetermined amount or more.” [ see at least Par.4 PG.3]).
Regarding claim 3, Sadamura discloses the deceleration assist device according to claim1,wherein the deceleration assist control is not performed (“Performs assistance control including one or both of deceleration control for decelerating the vehicle so that the speed of the vehicle approaches a target speed based on the first information and notification control for notifying the driver that the speed of the vehicle is approaching the target speed, and while the assistance control is being performed, refers to the second information, and stops the assistance control when the acceleration operation amount increases by a predetermined amount or more.” [ see at least Par.5 PG.3])
Sadamura does not explicitly teach when a curved road is not recognized ahead of the vehicle as the second road shape information, even when a curved road is recognized ahead of the vehicle as the first road shape information.
However, Ninomiya does teach when a curved road is not recognized ahead of the vehicle as the second road shape information, even when a curved road is recognized ahead of the vehicle as the first road shape information (“Further, in the sensor information, there is also a possibility that the sensor unit 100 observes erroneous information or that information different from the original lane is observed due to the white line being blocked by the parked vehicle. In this case, the intersection model generation unit 330 repeatedly confirms the fact that the same lane width is recognized when the own vehicle passes through the same road while confirming the fact that the recognized lane width exceeds a certain degree of confidence, thereby increasing the confidence of the sensor information (sensor information). The confidence is added to the sensor information stored in the map information unit 200, for example. Further, on a road on which the own vehicle has traveled only once, the sensor information is not stored in the map information unit 200, so the intersection model generation unit 330 often recognizes the sensor information as low confidence.”[ see at least Par.7 PG.18]; “The intersection model is generated by the high-resolution model generation unit 333 or the low-resolution model generation unit 334. When the sensor unit 100 observes the road width on the side of the intersection and the model selection unit 323 selects the 1 st model, the high-resolution model generation unit 333 generates the intersection model. On the other hand, when the sensor unit 100 cannot observe the road width on the side of the intersection and the model selection unit 323 selects the 2 nd model, the low resolution model generation unit 334 generates the intersection model.”[ see at least Par.9 PG.18]).
Both Sadamura and Ninomiya teach methods for a deceleration assist device when a curved road is detected. However, Ninomiya explicitly teaches when a curved road is not recognized ahead of the vehicle as the second road shape information, even when a curved road is recognized ahead of the vehicle as the first road shape information.
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art prior to the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify the deceleration assist method of Sadamura to also include when a curved road is not recognized ahead of the vehicle as the second road shape information, even when a curved road is recognized ahead of the vehicle as the first road shape information, as taught by Ninomiya, with a reasonable expectation of success. Doing so improves the deceleration assist method (With regard to this reasoning, see at least [ see at least Ninomiya, PG. 18]).
Conclusion
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/A.A./Examiner, Art Unit 3668
/Fadey S. Jabr/Supervisory Patent Examiner, Art Unit 3668
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