DETAILED ACTION
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 .
Response to Arguments
Applicant’s arguments with respect to claim(s) 1, 8, 9 have been considered but are moot because the new ground of rejection does not rely on any reference applied in the prior rejection of record for any teaching or matter specifically challenged in the argument.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 103
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.
Claim(s) 1, 8, 9 and claims bellow are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over LIM US 20180151958 A1 (D1) in view of D2 US 10295656 B1 .
Regarding claims 1,8 , 9 D1 teaches
9. A ranging method using a lidar, wherein the lidar comprises:
an emitting unit comprising a emitter array and an emitting controller coupled to the laser emitter array;(fig. 4 Tx1-3)
a detector array; and(RX)
a processor coupled to the detector array; and(fig. 4)
the method comprises:
controlling the emitter array to emit a first detection light beam in a first mode, wherein the first mode comprises: controlling n laser emitters in the laser emitter array to emit light, n being less than or equal to N, and N being a total quantity of laser emitters in the laser emitter array;(fig. 5a)
controlling the laser emitter array to emit a second detection light beam in a second mode before or after emitting the first detection light beam in the first mode, wherein the second mode comprises: controlling k laser emitters in the laser emitter array to emit light, the k laser emitters being selected from the n laser emitters, and k being less than n;(fig. 6a Tx1 is not participating )
receiving echoes of the first detection light beam and the second detection light beam reflected by a target object, converting the echoes into electrical signals, and calculating distances between the target object and the lidar according to the electrical signals;(implicit radar device)
determining that the electrical signals correspond to the first detection light beam or the second detection light beam to obtain a determination result; and(implicit radar device)
generating point cloud data according to the distances and the determination result.[0004]
the emitting controller is configured to perform the first mode and the second mode, wherein the first pulsed detection light beam of the first mode and the second pulsed detection light beam of the second mode have different pulse codes[0067](emitting controller performs mid/long range sensing mode and short-range sensing mode [0133] code divisionally transmitting signal means using different codes important to decrease interference and transmission identification) (fig. 5A shows mid/long range transmission Tx2+Tx3 are turned one for second period fig. 6a shows short range only Tx3 is turned on for second period)
but does not explicitly teach laser emitters
wherein the detection light beams are emitted as pulses,
laser emitters in the laser emitter array are located at different heights,
laser emitters in the laser emitter array are located at different heights of a focal plane of an emitting lens so that the laser emitters correspond to different vertical fields of view
Although not explicit lidars are laser radars and therefore using lasers instead of antennas is obvious design choice different types of electromagnetic waves .
Rotation of the laser emitters to be vertical is obvious placement especially as vertical and horizontal are just conventional naming of the orientation,
Using laser pulses is just matter of the design choice.
D2 teaches laser emitters in the laser emitter array are located at different heights of a focal plane of an emitting lens so that the laser emitters correspond to different vertical fields of view(col 1 lines 48-57)
during scanning of the lidar about a rotation axis, for each of a plurality of scan angles of the lidar emitting beams (col 4 lines 46-65)
It would be obvious to one of ordinary skills in the art at the time of filing to modify teachings by D1 with teaching by D2 in order to achieve higher vertical resolution and also emit beams during the rotational scanning in order to obtain short and long distance data at each scanning angle.
It is important to note that D2 teaches performing scanning and during the rotation emitting beams at different rotation angles D2 does not explicitly teach emitting beams twice but D1 is explicit that in order to obtain short range and long range data two transmissions need to be made. And long term transmission has to have two antennas while for short range one antenna is enough. One of ordinary skills in the art would recognize that it is done in order to provide enough power to transmission so detector is sensitive.
10. The method according to claim 9, wherein the first mode is a long-distance measurement mode[0132], and the second mode is a short-distance measurement mode[0171].[0067]
11. The method according to claim 9, wherein the first mode comprises: controlling the n laser emitters in the laser emitter array to emit light at each horizontal angle of the lidar; and the second mode comprises: controlling the k laser emitters in the laser emitter array to emit light at the same horizontal angle as that in the first mode.(fig. 12 obvious design choice to scan in front of vehicle)
12. The method according to claim 11, wherein the laser emitter array is divided into m groups(TX1, TX2, TX3) to sequentially emit light(fig. 6a Tx2 emitted first then Tx2 is emitting ), m being an integer and m> 1, each group of the laser emitter array is controlled to emit the first detection light beam in the first mode, (fig. 5A)and the each group of the laser emitter array is controlled to emit the second detection light beam in the second mode before or after emitting the first detection light beam in the first mode.(if the modes are switched then it will happen)
13. The method according to claim 9, wherein in the second mode, the k laser emitters emit the second detection light beam at s horizontal angles of the lidar, the k laser emitters are divided into s groups of laser emitters, s being an integer greater than or equal to 2, each group of the s groups of laser emitters emit the second detection light beam at one of the s horizontal angels, each group of laser emitters comprises laser emitters different than laser emitters included in a group of laser emitters emitting at an adjacent horizontal angle.(fig. 4 obvious design choice, as shown in fig. 4 Tx1 , tx2, tx3 comprise of multiple linear arrays of the transmitters and therefore using each linear array to illuminate specific line in the horizon is obvious design choice .)
14. The method according to claim 9, wherein the first detection light beam and the second detection light beam have different pulse codes.(obvious design choice to make signals distinguishable claim 5)
15. The method according to claim 9, wherein determining that the electrical signals comprises: determining that the electrical signals correspond to the first detection light beam or the second detection light beam according to a time window in which the echoes are received.(implicit from claim 5)
16. The method according to claim 9, wherein generating the point cloud data according to the distances and the determination result comprises: in response to determining that a first electrical signal of the electrical signals correspond to the first detection light beam, if a first distance between the target object and the lidar calculated based on the first electrical signal is less than a distance threshold, discarding the first electrical signal;
if the first distance between the target object and the lidar is equal or greater than the distance threshold, generating the point cloud data using the first electrical signal.(obvious design choice to disregard close objects when operating in long distance mode in order to avoid reflections from fumes of the vehicle for example or to operate equipment in the intended way meaning using different modes for different distance regions.)
17. The method according to claim 9, wherein generating the point cloud data according to the distances and the determination result comprises: in response to determining that a second electrical signal of the electrical signals corresponds to the second detection light beam, if a second distance between the target object and the lidar calculated based on the second electrical signal is greater than a distance threshold, discarding the second electrical signal; and
if the second distance between the target object and the lidar is equal or less than the distance threshold, generating the point cloud data using the second electrical signal. .(obvious design choice to disregard far objects when operating in short distance mode in order to avoid interfering signals from other sources or to include only signals which can have reliable signal to noise, and also to operate the equipment according to the intended modes by decreasing the processing of unnecessary events. )
Conclusion
Applicant's amendment necessitated the new ground(s) of rejection presented in this Office action. Accordingly, THIS ACTION IS MADE FINAL. See MPEP § 706.07(a). Applicant is reminded of the extension of time policy as set forth in 37 CFR 1.136(a).
A shortened statutory period for reply to this final action is set to expire THREE MONTHS from the mailing date of this action. In the event a first reply is filed within TWO MONTHS of the mailing date of this final action and the advisory action is not mailed until after the end of the THREE-MONTH shortened statutory period, then the shortened statutory period will expire on the date the advisory action is mailed, and any nonprovisional extension fee (37 CFR 1.17(a)) pursuant to 37 CFR 1.136(a) will be calculated from the mailing date of the advisory action. In no event, however, will the statutory period for reply expire later than SIX MONTHS from the mailing date of this final action.
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/HOVHANNES BAGHDASARYAN/Examiner, Art Unit 3645
