Appeal No. 2003-1531 Page 4
Application No. 09/772,274
[I]t would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art to implement
the technique of Saitoh et al. in the system of Kawakami et al. for lowering
a temperature in the interior space of a vehicle in order to alert the driver
who is determined to be unaware . . . . [Answer at page 3.]
Appellant argues:
Kawakami does not awaken the driver by altering conditions in the
vehicle passenger compartment, but rather only produces a terminable
warning that requires a reaction from the driver. If the cooling system of
Saitho [sic, Saitoh] was employed in Kawakami, the cool air would not
provide a terminable warning that requires a reaction by the driver, but
would rather only cool the passenger compartment to alter vehicle
conditions. The driver would not be alerted of his sleepiness and would
not perform any action to terminate the flow of cool air. [Brief at page 4.]
The goal of the Kawakami invention is to improve the awareness of vehicle
drivers (col. 1, lines 8 to 10). Kawakami discloses that tactile, visual and audible
warnings are generated when it is determined that the driver is drowsy (col. 5, lines 23
to 39) to alert the driver of drowsiness and thereby increase the awareness of the
driver. The drowsiness determination is made by comparing the detected heartbeat
rate of the driver with a reference value (col. 2, lines 30 to 35).
Saitoh discloses that once it is determined that a driver is drowsy, several
methods can be used to improve the awareness of the driver including raising the
volume on the CD player, generating an audible warning, supplying perfume to the
automobile compartment, and decreasing the temperature in the automobile
compartment. The reduction of the temperature is done using an air conditioner which
blows air in the direction of the driver (col. 9, lines 30 to 50).
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