Appeal No. 2002-1867
Application No. 08/859,635
including a method and arrangement for space control between
vehicles, based on vehicle speed and a driving characteristic of
a particular driver, except for the explicit disclosure of a
“transfer function.” The examiner concludes that it would have
been “obvious...to incorporate some form of transfer function
into the calculation module [90 of Davidian] since this would
have efficiently calculated the safest possible distance of a
vehicle based on the alertness of the particular driver” [answer-
page 3].
For their part, appellants argue that Davidian’s
recalculation, carried out by calculation module 90 does not
involve any transfer function and, in fact there is no disclosure
of a transfer function that must be used in order to change the
normal safe distance to a newly calculated safe distance.
Moreover, argue appellants, since the only input to the module 90
for performing the recalculation of distance is the driver
alertness test result, and such test is performed before starting
the vehicle, the recalculation of safe distance cannot be based,
even in part, on the speed of the vehicle.
While we understand the differences between the instant
disclosed invention, including fuzzy control and the ability of
the controller to learn from previously received data, and that
-3-
Page: Previous 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 Next
Last modified: November 3, 2007