Appeal 2007-1598
Application 10/071,731
fear. (See Mizokawa, col. 9, ll. 16-28.) According to Mizokawa (col. 15, ll.
13-24), the more the system is used, the more the device can understand the
user's feelings or preferences and the more the device can assist the user.
Behavioral responses can include whistling, traveling, and moving to a
brighter place. (See Mizokawa, col. 20, ll. 55-57.)
Breese teaches (col. 8, ll. 11-15) that behavior that can be sensed to
determine a person's emotions and personality includes gesture, expression,
and body language.
The Supreme Court has held that in analyzing the obviousness of
combining elements, a court need not find specific teachings, but rather may
consider "the background knowledge possessed by a person having ordinary
skill in the art" and "the inferences and creative steps that a person of
ordinary skill in the art would employ." See KSR Int’l v. Teleflex Inc., 127
S. Ct. 1727, 1740-41, 82 USPQ2d 1385, 1396 (2007). The skilled artisan,
taking all of the teachings of Mizokawa and Breese together, would have
recognized that if a device determines that a user's level of fear increases
with darkness and that a user's level of disgust increases with temperature,
then the device senses and analyzes the user's facial expressions, gestures,
body language, and speech to determine the level of fear and disgust.
Further, since the purpose of the device is to help the user, the device would
determine that the user would prefer a lower temperature and a brighter
environment and would change the temperature and either change the
brightness or move to a brighter location accordingly. Specifically, in the
cases of a touring assist system in a vehicle, driving when calm and content
is safer and, thus, preferred over driving frightened and disgusted.
Consequently, the system would determine that the user would prefer to stay
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