Appeal No. 1997-2478
Application 08/361,554
unpatentable over Akatsu in view of Kawagoe and further in
view of Hiwatashi.
The last paragraph of each of independent claims 18, 23
and 26 requires that the processing means judge roughness of
the road based on an evaluation of an upward and downward
acceleration signal. The last paragraph of each of
independent claims 29, 34 and 37 requires that the processing
means judge roughness of the road based on an evaluation of an
upward and downward velocity obtained by integrating upward
and downward acceleration. The examiner concedes (answer,
page 4) that Akatsu does not disclose such processing means.
Nevertheless, the examiner has taken the position that “from
the teachings of Akatsu et al., Kawagoe et al., and Hiwatashi
et al., one of ordinary skill in the art at the time the
invention was made would have been recognized [sic, would have
recognized] the use of vertical acceleration for judging the
road condition where the vehicle is traveling, thereby
reducing the use of an extra device for determining the road
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