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 .
Double Patenting
Claims 1-22 are provisionally rejected on the ground of nonstatutory double patenting as being unpatentable over claim 1 of co-pending Application No. 19/219,616, filed on the same day and assigned to the same assignee. Although the claims at issue are not identical, they are not patentably distinct from each other because both applications are directed to driving assistance devices that detect notification object(s), estimate driver line-of-sight, determine visual confirmation and recognition based on gaze, and suppress notifications while recognition is indicated. The additional limitations recited in the present application, such as detection of a plurality of notification objects, object visual and recognition flags, proximity-triggered recognition, grouping of multiple objects, and suppression of notifications for the group, are predictable extensions of the recognition-based suppression logic recited in the reference application, 19/219,616, and do not render the claims patentable distinct.
This is a provisional nonstatutory double patenting rejection because the patentably indistinct claims of the co-pending application have not in fact been patented. Upon issuance, this rejection may be made non-provisional, and the Applicant may overcome it by amending the claims to be patentably distinct or by way of filing a terminal disclaimer, if appropriate.
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.
Claim 9 is rejected under 35 U.S.C. 112(b), second paragraph, as being indefinite for failing to particularly point out and distinctly claim the subject matter which the inventor or a joint inventor regards as the invention.
Claim 9 recites “… a notification object, which is present in a predetermined area in a traveling direction of the vehicle among the first notification object and the second notification object that are grouped, …”. It is unclear if “a notification object” corresponds to either the first notification object or the second notification object, or another notification object. It is further unclear whether the “a notification object” corresponds to the “one group” recited in claim 1 or another group. If Applicant meant to use either the first or second notification objects, the Applicant should change “a notification object” to either one of the first notification object or the second notification object for the claim to make sense. Furthermore, it is unclear what is meant by “by a relative speed between the vehicle and the notification object becomes equal to or less than a threshold value” as recited in claim 9. It is unclear what “the notification object” is referring to. Is “the notification object” referring to the “a notification object”, “the first notification object”, or “the second notification object”? Based on the foregoing, the metes and bounds of the claims is undefined, and it is unclear what the claim is directed to.
Appropriate amendments are required to correct the foregoing issues. Since the Examiner is unable to determine what claim 9 is directed to, an examination of the merits of claim 9 will need to be performed at a future date after appropriate amendments are made by the Applicant. Applicant is requested to provide support from the specification for any amendments made. No new matter should be added.
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 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 1-2, 6, 10-11, 13-14, and 17-22 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Hagiwara (US 2020/0391752) in view of Akihiko et al. (JP-2022134352-A) (English translation attached) and further in view of JP-2018525633-A (English translation attached).
Regarding claim 1, Hagiwara teaches a driving assistance device comprising: a detection unit configured to detect a plurality of notification objects as targets for a notification to a driver of a vehicle on the basis of surrounding information of the vehicle;
Regarding claim 1, Hagiwara teaches a driving assistance device comprising: a detection unit configured to detect a plurality of notification objects as targets for a notification to a driver of a vehicle on the basis of surrounding information of the vehicle; (see at least Hagiwara at [0002] which discloses that the present disclosure relates to a driving assistance device; see Hagiwara at [0028] which discloses that the driving assistance device 100 of the embodiment includes a vehicle surroundings imaging unit 101; see Hagiwara at [0029] which discloses that the vehicle surroundings imaging unit 101 captures a plurality of images corresponding to a plurality of directions around a vehicle to which the driving assistance device 100 is attached; see Hagiwara at [0132] element 214 in conjunction with Fig. 11 which discloses a moving object detection unit; see Hagiwara at [0135] which discloses that the moving object detection unit 214 detects a moving object from an image captured by the vehicle surroundings imaging unit 101 in all the oversight directions indicated in the oversight direction information given from the oversight direction judgment unit 111, and then gives, as attention calling information, moving object detection information indicating the detected moving object and the oversight direction information to the attention calling unit 212. Hagiwara at [0135] further discloses that the moving object detection information is information indicating oversight direction in which a moving object is detected, the number of moving objects in an image captured in each oversight direction, and a location and a size of each moving object, for example. Examiner notes that the attention calling information may be mapped to notification. Examiner maps vehicle surroundings imaging unit or moving object detection unit to the detection unit.)
an estimation unit configured to estimate a line-of-sight direction of the driver; (see at least Hagiwara at [0028] which discloses a sight line direction detection unit 103; see Hagiwara at [0048] which discloses that the sight line direction detection unit 103 detects the direction of the face of the driver and the direction of the eyeballs of the driver from the image captured by the driver imaging unit 102, to detect the sight line direction which is the direction of the driver's sight line. Examiner maps sight line direction detection unit to the estimation unit. Examiner maps sight line direction to line-of-sight direction of the driver.)
a first control unit configured to control a first visual confirmation flag to turn ON in a case where the driver has visually checked a notification object of the plurality of notification objects on the basis of the line-of-sight direction, the first visual confirmation flag indicating whether or not the driver has visually checked the notification object; (see Hagiwara at [0067] in conjunction with Fig. 4 which discloses a visual confirmation requiring confirmation table 109 in which “YES” is set in the visual confirmation requiring direction column 109c. Examiner maps YES to turning ON the visual confirmation flag. Also, see at least Hagiwara at [0075] which discloses that the attention calling unit 112 makes the output unit 113 display an oversight direction image which is an image corresponding to an oversight direction judged by the oversight direction judgment unit 111 out of a plurality of images captured by the vehicle surroundings imaging unit 101; see Hagiwara at [0076] which discloses that the output unit 113 outputs at least one of an image and a voice according to an instruction from the attention calling unit 112. Examiner maps a first image out of a plurality of images captured by the vehicle surroundings imaging unit corresponding to an oversight direction to the recited first visual confirmation flag. Examiner maps the attention calling unit to the first control unit. Examiner notes that a first image output corresponds to a first visual confirmation flag indicating whether or not the driver has visually checked the notification object. Examiner has shown a teaching based on a broadest reasonable interpretation of the claimed language.)
Hagiwara does not expressly disclose a second control unit configured to control a first recognition flag to turn ON in a case where the first visual confirmation flag is turned ON, the first recognition flag indicating whether or not the driver has recognized the notification object; which in a related art Akihiko teaches (see Akihiko at page 7 which discloses that the line-of-sight determination unit 13 performs various determinations regarding the line-of-sight 50 of the occupant based on the line-of-sight direction of the occupant detected by the line-of-sight direction detection unit 12 and that the line-of-sight determination unit 13 of the second and third embodiments includes an attention detection unit 22 instead of the switching detection unit 16 and the switching notification unit 17 of the first embodiment, and that the attention detection unit 22 is also part of the plurality of information processing units (11 to 22); see Akihiko at page 9 which discloses that when the occupant has visually recognized the first landmark (YES in step S29), the information notification device 10 sequentially checks whether the occupant has visually recognized the second and subsequent landmarks; see Akihiko at page 10 which further discloses that the required time acquired by the visual recognition determination unit 13 is defined as the reaction time from the display of the avatar image 82 until the passenger directs the line of sight 50 to the avatar image 82 may be stored in the running/visual recognition data storage unit 19. Examiner maps the recognition of the first landmark (YES in step S29) to the first recognition flag. Examiner notes that any one of the plurality of information processing units may correspond to the second control unit.)
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify Hagiwara to include a second control unit configured to control a first recognition flag to turn ON in a case where the first visual confirmation flag is turned ON, the first recognition flag indicating whether or not the driver has recognized the notification object, as taught by Akihiko.
One would have been motivated to make such a modification to restrain a user from being confused by using a display for guiding the user's visual line in a direction of a target object which has not been noticed by the user, as suggested by Akihiko at the Abstract.
The modified Hagiwara teaches a third control unit configured to control a second recognition flag to turn ON in response to the first recognition flag being turned ON in a case where a second notification object among the plurality of notification objects is within a predetermined range from the first notification object, the second recognition flag indicating whether or not the driver has recognized the second notification object (see Akihiko at page 7 which discloses that the attention detection unit 22 is also part of the plurality of information processing units (11 to 22); see Akihiko at page 9 which discloses that the information notification device 10 confirms whether or not the passenger has visually recognized all the landmarks guided in the implemented guidance (step S27) and that when the occupant has visually recognized the first landmark (YES in step S29), the information notification device 10 sequentially checks whether the occupant has visually recognized the second and subsequent landmarks. Examiner notes that the visual recognition by the occupant of a second landmark corresponds to a second recognition flag being turned on. Examiner maps second landmark to the second notification object. Examiner notes that another of the any one of the plurality of information processing units may correspond to the third control unit.)
The modified Hagiwara teaches for each of which the recognition flag is turned ON (see Akihiko at page 9, for example, which discloses that the information notification device 10 confirms whether or not the passenger has visually recognized all the landmarks guided in the implemented guidance (step S27.).)
The modified Hagiwara does not expressly disclose a grouping unit configured to group the first notification object and the second notification object, [for each of which the recognition flag is turned ON,] as one group, which in a related art, JP-2018525633-A teaches (see JP-2018525633-A at page 7, for example, which discloses that it is suitable when the vehicle uses advanced techniques to increase object description accuracy, such as statistical evaluation or object grouping. Also, see JP-2018525633-A at pages 15-16 which discloses a processor system 250 used to perform the tasks described herein. Examiner maps processor system to the recited grouping unit.)
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify Hagiwara to include a grouping unit configured to group the first notification object and the second notification object, as one group, as taught by JP-2018525633-A.
One would have been motivated to make such a modification to increase object description accuracy, as suggested by JP-2018525633-A at page 7.
As was previously shown, JP-2018525633-A teaches regarding the one group. The modified Hagiwara further teaches and a suppression unit configured to suppress the notification [regarding the one group] (see Akihiko at page 5 which discloses that the marker display unit 15 may move the marker 41 on the projection plane via a curved trajectory; see Akihiko at page 6 which discloses that when the occupant notices the attention target 60 and moves the line of sight 50 toward the attention target 60, the second control is switched to the first control, and the positions of the markers 41 and 43 move to the target positions, the positions indicated by the markers 41 and 43 can be suppressed from confusing the occupant. Examiner maps position of a marker to an example notification. Examiner maps the market display unit to the suppression unit. Examiner notes that suppression of the markers correspond to suppressing the notification.)
Regarding claim 2, the modified Hagiwara teaches the driving assistance device according to claim 1, wherein the third control unit controls the second recognition flag to turn ON, and controls a second visual confirmation flag to turn OFF, the second visual confirmation flag indicating whether or not the driver has visually checked the second notification object (see Akihiko at page 9 which discloses that if the occupant has visually recognized all the landmarks (YES in step S27), the series of procedures ends. Examiner notes that ending the series of procedures corresponds to ending or turning off any visual confirmation flags. Occupant recognition of all landmarks corresponds to the predetermined condition.).)
Regarding claim 6, the modified Hagiwara teaches the driving assistance device according to claim 1, wherein the second control unit controls the recognition flag to turn ON after a second predetermined time has elapsed since the first visual confirmation flag is turned ON (see Akihiko at page 9 which discloses that when step S29 is looped a fixed number of times from the first visual confirmation, or when a certain amount of time has passed since the first visual confirmation, it is assumed that the occupant has visually confirmed the first landmark.).
Regarding claim 10, the modified Hagiwara teaches the driving assistance device according to claim 1, wherein the suppression unit prohibits the notification while each recognition flag of the first notification object and the second notification object is turned ON (see Akihiko at page 5 which discloses that the marker display unit 15 may move the marker 41 on the projection plane via a curved trajectory; see Akihiko at page 6 which discloses that when the occupant notices the attention target 60 and moves the line of sight 50 toward the attention target 60, the second control is switched to the first control, and the positions of the markers 41 and 43 move to the target positions, the positions indicated by the markers 41 and 43 can be suppressed from confusing the occupant. Examiner maps the market display unit to the suppression unit.)
Regarding claim 11, the modified Hagiwara teaches the driving assistance device according to claim 1, wherein the suppression unit reduces frequency of the notification while each recognition flag of the first notification object and the second notification object that are grouped is turned ON, as compared to a case where each recognition flag of the first notification object and the second notification object that are grouped is turned OFF (Akihiko at page 5 which discloses that the marker display unit 15 may move the marker 41 on the projection plane via a curved trajectory; see Akihiko at page 6 which discloses that when the occupant notices the attention target 60 and moves the line of sight 50 toward the attention target 60, the second control is switched to the first control, and the positions of the markers 41 and 43 move to the target positions, the positions indicated by the markers 41 and 43 can be suppressed from confusing the occupant. Examiner notes that suppressing the positions indicated by the markers corresponds to reducing the frequency of the notifications as compared to a case where the recognition flag is turned off. Examiner notes that the use of the suppression unit is more likely to occur when the recognition flag is turned on as compared to a case where the recognition flag is turned off.)
Regarding claim 13, the modified Hagiwara teaches the driving assistance device according to claim1, further comprising a fifth control unit configured to control a third recognition flag to turn ON in response to the second recognition flag being turned ON in a case where a third notification object among the plurality of notification objects is within a predetermined range from the second notification object, the third recognition flag indicating whether or not the driver has recognized the third notification object, wherein the grouping unit groups the first notification object, the second notification object, and the third notification object, for each of which the recognition flag is turned ON, as one group (see Akihiko at page 7 which discloses that the line-of-sight determination unit 13 performs various determinations regarding the line-of-sight 50 of the occupant based on the line-of-sight direction of the occupant detected by the line-of-sight direction detection unit 12 and that the line-of-sight determination unit 13 of the second and third embodiments includes an attention detection unit 22 instead of the switching detection unit 16 and the switching notification unit 17 of the first embodiment, and that the attention detection unit 22 is also part of the plurality of information processing units (11 to 22); see Akihiko at page 9 which discloses that when the occupant has visually recognized the first landmark (YES in step S29), the information notification device 10 sequentially checks whether the occupant has visually recognized the second and subsequent landmarks; see Akihiko at page 9 which discloses that if the occupant has visually recognized all the landmarks (YES in step S27), the series of procedures ends. Examiner maps the successive recognition of each of the landmarks until the occupant has visually recognized all the landmarks as teaching the recited claim language of claim 13. Examiner notes that any one of the plurality of information processing units may correspond to the fifth control unit. Examiner notes that successive recognition flags, such as a third recognition flag is taught by Akihiko’s attention detection unit 22 and recognition determination unit, and/or plurality of information processing units, for example.)
Regarding claim 14, the modified Hagiwara teaches the driving assistance device according to claim 13, wherein the fifth control unit controls the third recognition flag to turn ON, and controls a third visual confirmation flag to turn OFF, the third visual confirmation flag indicating whether or not the driver has visually checked the third notification object (see Hagiwara at [0067] in conjunction with Fig. 4 which discloses a visual confirmation requiring confirmation table 109 in which “YES” is set in the visual confirmation requiring direction column 109c. Examiner maps YES to turning ON the visual confirmation flag. Also, see at least Hagiwara at [0075] which discloses that the attention calling unit 112 makes the output unit 113 display an oversight direction image which is an image corresponding to an oversight direction judged by the oversight direction judgment unit 111 out of a plurality of images captured by the vehicle surroundings imaging unit 101; see Hagiwara at [0076] which discloses that the output unit 113 outputs at least one of an image and a voice according to an instruction from the attention calling unit 112. Examiner maps image corresponding to oversight direction to the recited visual confirmation flag. Examiner notes that the image output corresponds to a visual confirmation flag indicating whether or not the driver has visually checked the notification object. Examiner has shown a teaching based on a broadest reasonable interpretation of the claimed language.)
Independent claim 17 recites a driving assistance device that performs the steps recited in the driving assistance device of claim 1. The cited portions of the prior art used in the rejection of claim 1 teach the corresponding limitations recited in the device of claim 17. Therefore, claim 17 is rejected for the same reasons as stated for claim 1 above.
Regarding claim 18, the modified Hagiwara teaches a vehicle comprising the driving assistance device according to claim 1 (see at least Hagiwara at [0002] which discloses that the present disclosure relates to a driving assistance device; see Hagiwara at [0028] which discloses that the driving assistance device 100 of the embodiment includes a vehicle surroundings imaging unit 101; see Hagiwara at [0029] which discloses that the vehicle surroundings imaging unit 101 captures a plurality of images corresponding to a plurality of directions around a vehicle to which the driving assistance device 100 is attached.)
Independent claim 19 recites a control method for a driving assistance device that performs the steps recited in the driving assistance device of claim 1. The cited portions of the prior art used in the rejection of claim 1 teach the corresponding limitations recited in the device of claim 19. Therefore, claim 19 is rejected for the same reasons as stated for claim 1 above.
Independent claim 20 recites a control method for a driving assistance device that performs the steps recited in the driving assistance device of claim 1. The cited portions of the prior art used in the rejection of claim 1 teach the corresponding limitations recited in the device of claim 20. Therefore, claim 20 is rejected for the same reasons as stated for claim 1 above.
Regarding claim 21, the modified Hagiwara teaches a non-transitory computer-readable storage medium storing a program for causing a computer to execute the control method for a driving assistance device according to claim 19 (see Hagiwara at {0100] which disclose that the above-described programs may be provided through a network, or may be provided with them being stored in a recording medium and that the recording medium is, for example, a non-transitory computer-readable storage medium.)
Regarding claim 22, the modified Hagiwara teaches a non-transitory computer-readable storage medium storing a program for causing a computer to execute the control method for a driving assistance device according to claim 20 (see Hagiwara at {0100] which disclose that the above-described programs may be provided through a network, or may be provided with them being stored in a recording medium and that the recording medium is, for example, a non-transitory computer-readable storage medium.)
Claims 5 and 7-8 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Hagiwara (US 2020/0391752) in view of Akihiko et al. (JP-2022134352-A) in view of JP-2018525633-A (English translation attached) and further in view of Hiratsuka et al. (US 2024/0270239 A1).
Regarding claim 5, the modified Hagiwara does not expressly teach the driving assistance device according to claim 1, wherein the case where the predetermined condition is satisfied includes a case where a position and a trajectory of at least one of a position and trajectory of at least one of the first notification object and the second notification object that are grouped is changed beyond an allowable range which in a related art Hiratsuka teaches (see at least Hiratsuka at [0014] and [0045] which discloses a notification unit configured to notify the occupant of a warning when the obstacle is outside the visible range. Examiner maps an obstacle being outside the visible range to a case where a position and a trajectory of the notification object are changed beyond an allowable range.)
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify Hagiwara to include wherein the case where the predetermined condition is satisfied includes a case where a position and a trajectory of the notification object are changed beyond an allowable range, as taught by Hiratsuka.
One would have been motivated to make such a modification to learn the visual field information of the occupant based on an execution state of a vehicle control for avoiding a collision between the vehicle and the obstacle when the obstacle is inside the visible range, as suggested by Hiratsuka at the Abstract.
Regarding claim 7, the modified Hagiwara does not expressly teach the driving assistance device according to claim 1, further comprising a notification unit that issues a notification to the driver, wherein the notification unit issues the notification in a case where a notification condition is satisfied which in a related art Hiratsuka teaches (see Hiratsuka at [0050] which discloses that the notification unit 19 notifies the driver of the vehicle 1 of the warning via the HMI 6, that for example, the notification unit 19 notifies an audible alert such as a buzzer or a sound via a speaker of the HMI 6, that in addition, the notification unit 19 may notify a visual alert by displaying information of an obstacle via a display of the HMI 6, and that in addition, the notification unit 19 may notify a tactile warning via a vibrating unit of the HMI 6 provided on a steering wheel or an accelerator pedal of the vehicle 1.)
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify Hagiwara to include further comprising a notification unit that issues a notification to the driver, wherein the notification unit issues the notification in a case where a notification condition is satisfied, as taught by Hiratsuka.
One would have been motivated to make such a modification to provide notification to a driver, as suggested by Hiratsuka at [0050].
Regarding claim 8, the modified Hagiwara teaches the driving assistance device according to claim 7, wherein the case where the notification condition is satisfied includes a case where at least one of the first notification object and the second the notification object that are grouped has entered a predetermined area in a traveling direction of the vehicle (see Hiratsuka at [0049] which discloses that the notification unit 19 of the processor 13 determines whether or not the obstacle detected by the obstacle detection unit 15 is present inside the visible range of the driver estimated in the step S103, that for example, the notification unit 19 makes this determination by checking the direction of the obstacle and the visible range expressed in the same coordinate system (for example, a vehicle coordinate system based on the vehicle 1. Also, see JP-2018525633-A at page 7, for example, which discloses that it is suitable when the vehicle uses advanced techniques to increase object description accuracy, such as statistical evaluation or object grouping. Examiner maps visible range to predetermined area.).
Claims 3-4 and 12 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Hagiwara (US 2020/0391752) in view of Akihiko et al. (JP-2022134352-A) in view of JP-2018525633-A (English translation attached) and further in view of Fujimoto et al. (JP 2024050275 A) (English translation attached).
Regarding claim 3, the modified Hagiwara teaches the driving assistance device according to claim 1, further comprising: a fourth control unit configured to control each recognition flag of the first notification object and the second notification object to turn OFF in a case where a predetermined condition is satisfied; (see Akihiko at page 7 which discloses that the line-of-sight determination unit 13 performs various determinations regarding the line-of-sight 50 of the occupant based on the line-of-sight direction of the occupant detected by the line-of-sight direction detection unit 12 and that the line-of-sight determination unit 13 of the second and third embodiments includes an attention detection unit 22 instead of the switching detection unit 16 and the switching notification unit 17 of the first embodiment, and that the attention detection unit 22 is also part of the plurality of information processing units (11 to 22); see Akihiko at page 9 which discloses that the information notification device 10 confirms whether or not the passenger has visually recognized all the landmarks guided in the implemented guidance (step S27) and that the attention detection unit 22 of the line-of-sight determination unit 13 can detect that the passenger visually recognizes the landmark, and that if the occupant has visually recognized all the landmarks (YES in step S27), the series of procedures ends; also see Akihiko at page 9 which discloses that when the occupant has visually recognized the first landmark (YES in step S29), the information notification device 10 sequentially checks whether the occupant has visually recognized the second and subsequent landmarks; see Akihiko at page 10 which further discloses that the required time acquired by the visual recognition determination unit 13 is defined as the reaction time from the display of the avatar image 82 until the passenger directs the line of sight 50 to the avatar image 82 may be stored in the running/visual recognition data storage unit 19. Examiner notes that one or more of the information notification device and/or the attention detection unit confirms recognition of the landmarks or objects. Examiner notes that ending the series of procedures corresponds to ending or turning off one or more of the visual confirmation flags and recognition flags. Occupant recognition of all landmarks corresponds to the predetermined condition. Examiner notes that any one of the plurality of information processing units may correspond to the fourth control unit.)
The modified Hagiwara does not expressly disclose and a cancellation unit configured to cancel the suppression of the notification along with cancellation of the grouping in a case where each recognition flag is turned OFF which in a related art Fujimoto teaches (see Fujimoto at pages 8-9 which discloses that the notification control unit 120 can notify the driver of appropriate information based on the driver's degree of awareness of the surroundings and the driver's actions, that for example, when the driver is performing a predetermined action, the notification control unit 120 does not perform an action suggestion notification, thereby reducing annoyance for the driver, that in particular, when the driver's operation amount on the accelerator pedal decreases or the driver stops operating the accelerator pedal, it is presumed that the driver is performing an action to avoid a risk object, and the notification control unit 120 suppresses notifications to the driver and that as a result, the notification control unit 120 can provide information that reflects the driver's intentions. Examiner notes that when the driver resumes operation of the accelerator pedal, the notification control unit cancels the suppression of notifications to the driver. Examiner maps the notification control unit to the recited cancellation unit. Examiner notes that the notification control unit may be configured to cancel the suppression of the notification along with cancellation of the grouping in a case where each recognition flag is turned OFF.)
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify Hagiwara to include a cancellation unit configured to cancel the suppression of the notification along with cancellation of the grouping in a case where each recognition flag is turned OFF, as taught by Fujimoto.
One would have been motivated to make such a modification to reduce annoyance for the driver, as suggested by Fujimoto at pages 8-9.
Regarding claim 4, the modified Hagiwara teaches the driving assistance device according to claim 3, wherein the first control unit controls the first visual confirmation flag to turn OFF in a case where the driver has averted his/her line of sight from the first notification object, and the case where the predetermined condition is satisfied includes a case where a first predetermined time has elapsed since the first visual confirmation flag is controlled to be turned OFF (see Akihiko, at pages 5-6, which teaches suppression, by way of using a marker display unit 15, of a notification by the notification unit even in a case where the notification condition is satisfied until a predetermined condition is satisfied after the driver has averted his/her line of sight from the notification object. Examiner maps confusion caused by the positions of the markers to the predetermined condition. Examiner notes that the use of the recited suppression unit is more likely to occur when the recognition flag is turned on as compared to a case where the recognition flag is turned off.)
Regarding claim 12, the modified Hagiwara does not expressly disclose the driving assistance device according to claim 7, wherein the suppression unit makes the notification condition stringent such that the notification condition is less likely to be satisfied while each recognition flag of the first notification object and the second notification object that are grouped is turned ON, as compared to a case where each recognition flag of the first notification object and the second notification object that are grouped is turned OFF which in a related art Fujimoto teaches (see Fujimoto at pages 8-9 which discloses that as described above, the notification control unit 120 can notify the driver of appropriate information based on the driver's degree of awareness of the surroundings and the driver's actions, that for example, when the driver is performing a predetermined action, the notification control unit 120 does not perform an action suggestion notification, thereby reducing annoyance for the driver and that in particular, when the driver's operation amount on the accelerator pedal decreases or the driver stops operating the accelerator pedal, it is presumed that the driver is performing an action to avoid a risk object, and the notification control unit 120 suppresses notifications to the driver. Examiner maps a driver’s decreased operation amount on an accelerator pedal to the stringent condition such that the notification condition is less likely to be satisfied. Examiner notes that the use of the suppression unit is more likely to occur when the recognition flag is turned on as compared to a case where the recognition flag is turned off.)
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify Hagiwara to include wherein the suppression unit makes the notification condition stringent such that the notification condition is less likely to be satisfied while each recognition flag of the first notification object and the second notification object that are grouped is turned ON, as compared to a case where each recognition flag of the first notification object and the second notification object that are grouped is turned OFF, as taught by Fujimoto.
One would have been motivated to make such a modification to suppress notifications to a driver to reflect the driver’s intentions, as suggested by Fujimoto at pages 8-9.
Claims 15-16 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Hagiwara (US 2020/0391752) in view of Akihiko et al. (JP-2022134352-A) (English translation attached) in view of JP-2018525633-A (English translation attached) and further in view of Xiang et al. (US 12,037,015).
Regarding claim 15, the modified Hagiwara does not expressly disclose the driving assistance device according to claim 1, wherein the predetermined range is a range set in advance according to a type of a notification object, which in a related art Xiang teaches (see Xiang at claim 8 which discloses a vehicle control device comprising an abnormality detection unit including at least one surrounding monitoring sensor and a recognition unit based at least on one of (a) an output signal of the at least one surrounding monitoring sensor detecting objects within a predetermined detection range and (b) a recognition result of the recognition unit recognizing objects near the vehicle based on the output signal of the at least one surrounding monitoring sensor; and a vehicle stop processing unit that performs a process for stopping the vehicle based on a detection of the abnormality of the field recognition system by the abnormality detection unit, wherein the at least one surrounding monitoring sensor comprises a plurality of the surrounding monitoring sensors, each of the plurality of the surrounding monitoring sensors outputs a signal indicating the recognition result regarding a position and type of the detected object as the output signal.)
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify Hagiwara to include wherein the predetermined range is a range set in advance according to a type of a notification object, as taught by Xiang.
One would have been motivated to provide a vehicle control device capable of improving safety during automatic driving, as suggested by Xiang at the Summary.
Regarding claim 16, the modified Hagiwara does not expressly disclose the driving assistance device according to claim 1, wherein the predetermined range is a circle with a predetermined radius, which in a related art Xiang teaches (see Xiang at col. 6 which discloses that the front camera 11A, the millimeter-wave radar 11B, the LiDAR 11C, and the sonar 11D are all configured to include a traveling direction of the vehicle (for example, a front/forward direction of the vehicle) in a detection range; see Xiang at claim 8 which discloses a vehicle control device comprising an abnormality detection unit including at least one surrounding monitoring sensor and a recognition unit based at least on one of (a) an output signal of the at least one surrounding monitoring sensor detecting objects within a predetermined detection range and (b) a recognition result of the recognition unit recognizing objects near the vehicle based on the output signal of the at least one surrounding monitoring sensor; and a vehicle stop processing unit that performs a process for stopping the vehicle based on a detection of the abnormality of the field recognition system by the abnormality detection unit, wherein the at least one surrounding monitoring sensor comprises a plurality of the surrounding monitoring sensors, each of the plurality of the surrounding monitoring sensors outputs a signal indicating the recognition result regarding a position and type of the detected object as the output signal. Examiner notes that one of the front camera, radar, LiDAR, and/or sonar detect objects with a predetermined circular range having a predetermined radius.)
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify Hagiwara to include wherein the predetermined range is a circle with a predetermined radius, as taught by Xiang.
One would have been motivated to provide a vehicle control device capable of improving safety during automatic driving, as suggested by Xiang at the Summary.
Conclusion
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/ROY RHEE/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 3664
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