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 Amendment
This action is in response to amendments and remarks filed on 07/30/2025. Claims 1-20 are considered in this office action. Claims 1, 5, 8-14, 16, and 20 have been amended. Claims 1-20 are pending examination. The previous 35 U.S.C. § 102 rejection has been withdrawn in light of the instant amendments. Applicant's amendment necessitated new grounds of rejection therefore, claims 1-20 are rejected.
Response to Arguments
Applicant presents the following arguments regarding the previous office action:
Lau, Igal and Impola do not disclose, a plurality of reflective media arranged in a substantially circular pattern around the platform and configured to reflect electromagnetic radiation.
Lau, Igal and Impola also fail to disclose sequentially reflecting the electromagnetic wave off the plurality of reflective media top create a multi-hop path and calculating a distance based at least on the reflected electromagnetic wave along the multi-hop path.
Applicant’s arguments A and B with respect to the independent claims have been fully considered and are moot in light of new grounds for rejection below.
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.
Claims 1-8 are all rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Lau (US20200363501A1) in view of Aalerud et al. (Reshaping Field of View and Resolution with Segmented Reflectors: Bridging the Gap between Rotating and Solid-State LiDAR's).
Regarding claim 1, Lau discloses, a system for calibrating an autonomous vehicle comprising: a platform configured to rotate the autonomous vehicle (Lau, 0013, Lines 1-4, FIG. 6 illustrates a perspective view of a dynamic scene calibration environment in which a turntable that is at least partially surrounded by vehicle camera calibration targets rotates a vehicle so that the vehicle can perform calibration of its sensors), the autonomous vehicle comprising an emitter and a receiver (Lau, 0068, Lines 1-7, the sensors 180 of the vehicle 102 of FIG. 3 include one or more radar sensors 350, which include one or more radio transmitters and one or more radio receivers, and/or one or more radio transceivers. The radio transmitter(s) or transceiver(s) of the radar sensor(s) 350 of the vehicle 102 emit one or more radio waves 330, whose reflections/backscatter (not pictured) are received by the radio receiver(s) or transceiver(s) of the radar sensor(s) 350 of the vehicle 102). However Lau does not explicitly disclose a plurality of reflective media arranged in a substantially circular pattern around the platform, the plurality of reflective media configured to reflect electromagnetic radiation from the emitter as the autonomous vehicle rotates; and a target wherein the plurality of reflective media is disposed in a pathway between the target and autonomous vehicle.
Nevertheless, Aalerud who is in the same field of endeavor of Rotating Solid-State LiDAR’s discloses, a plurality of reflective media arranged in a substantially circular pattern around the platform (3. Design and Theory, the proposed reflector was designed using a plurality of trapezoid-shaped segments, where the mirrors were arranged on these segments inside a hollow truncated cone. Only flat mirrors were used to avoid divergence of the collimated beam This reflector design allows the centrally placed spinning LiDAR to obtain multiple point of view (POV)measurements of objects placed in zones that are overlapped by multiple mirrors); the plurality of reflective media configured to reflect electromagnetic radiation from the emitter as the autonomous vehicle rotates (Abstract, the reflector design enables long-range rotating LiDARs to achieve the robust super-resolution needed for autonomous driving at highway speeds) … (3. Design and Theory, this reflector design allows the centrally placed spinning LiDAR to obtain multiple point of view (POV) measurements of objects placed in zones that are overlapped by multiple mirrors); and a target wherein the plurality of reflective media is disposed in a pathway between the target and autonomous vehicle (1. Introduction, a reflector device that maintains the advantages of the spinning LiDAR while providing a reshaped LiDAR beam which may be directed towards a target. Such a LiDAR beam distribution will ensure that all or most of the LiDAR beam is directed towards the target and thus with knowledge also of the beam reflected from the target).
One of ordinary skill in the art prior to the effective filing date of the given invention would have been motivated to combine Lau and Aalerud. This would serve to allow for the centrally placed spinning LiDAR to obtain multiple point of view (POV) measurements of objects placed in zones that are overlapped by multiple mirrors.
Further justification for combining these disclosures can be found from Lau, (0043, the disclosed technologies address a need in the art for improvements to vehicle sensor calibration technologies. Radar calibration using a radar cross section (RCS) compensation function improves the functioning of sensor calibration by improving radar sensor accuracy and reliability).
Regarding claim 2, Lau and discloses, the system of claim 1, wherein emitter and receiver are configured to send and receive LiDAR signals (Lau, 0045, Lines 6-8, the first sensor system 104 may be a camera sensor system and the Nth sensor system 106 may be a Light Detection and Ranging (LIDAR) sensor system).
Regarding claim 3, Lau and Aalerud disclose, the system of claim 1 as discussed supra. Additionally Lau discloses, an emitter and receiver are configured to send and receive radar signals (Lau, 0068, Lines 1-7, the sensors 180 of the vehicle 102 of FIG. 3 include one or more radar sensors 350, which include one or more radio transmitters and one or more radio receivers, and/or one or more radio transceivers. The radio transmitter(s) or transceiver(s) of the radar sensor(s) 350 of the vehicle 102 emit one or more radio waves 330, whose reflections/backscatter (not pictured) are received by the radio receiver(s) or transceiver(s) of the radar sensor(s) 350 of the vehicle 102).
Regarding claim 4, Lau and Aalerud disclose, the system of claim 3 as discussed supra. Additionally Lau discloses, the target is a trihedral (Lau, 0064, Lines 1-7, FIG. 2 illustrates a radar sensor calibration target with a trihedral shape. the sensor calibration target 200 of FIG. 2 a target that is made to be easily detected by, and used for calibration of, a range sensor, such as a radar sensor (or in some cases a LIDAR, SONAR, and/or SODAR sensor) of the vehicle 102. In particular, the sensor calibration target 200 of FIG. 2 is trihedral in shape, and may be a concave or convex trihedral corner, essentially a triangular corner of a cube).
Regarding claim 5, Lau and Aalerud disclose, the system of claim 4 as discussed supra. Additionally Lau discloses, the reflective medium is a metal plane. (Lau, 0065, Lines 6-7, the substrate 205 may in some cases include a retroreflective surface, which may be metallic).
Regarding claim 6, Lau discloses, Lau and Aalerud disclose, the system of claim 1 as discussed supra. Additionally Lau discloses, an emitter and receiver are configured to send and receive LiDAR signal. (Lau, 0045, Lines 6-8, the first sensor system 104 may be a camera sensor system and the Nth sensor system 106 may be a Light Detection and Ranging (LIDAR) sensor system).
Regarding claim 7, Lau and Aalerud disclose, the system of claim 1 as discussed supra. Additionally Lau discloses, an emitter and receiver are configured to send and receive optical signals. (Lau, 0185, Lines 11-24, the communication interface may perform or facilitate receipt and/or transmission wired or wireless communications via wired and/or wireless transceivers, including those making use of a audio jack/plug, a microphone jack/plug, a universal serial bus (USB) port/plug, an Apple® Lightning® port/plug, an Ethernet port/plug, a fiber optic port/plug, a proprietary wired port/plug, a BLUETOOTH® wireless signal transfer, a BLUETOOTH® low energy (BLE) wireless signal transfer, an IBEACON® wireless signal transfer, a radio-frequency identification (RFID) wireless signal transfer, near-field communications (NFC) wireless signal transfer, dedicated short range communication (DSRC) wireless signal transfer, 802.11 Wi-Fi wireless signal transfer, wireless local area network (WLAN) signal transfer, Visible Light Communication (VLC), Worldwide Interoperability for Microwave Access (WiMAX), Infrared (IR) communication wireless signal transfer).
Regarding claim 8, Lau and Aalerud disclose, the system of claim 1 as discussed supra. Additionally Lau discloses, the target comprises and a symbol or code configured to be identifiable by the autonomous vehicle (Lau, 0085, Lines 1-4, the camera calibration targets 530 include patterns such as checkerboards, ArUco patterns, quick response (QR) code patterns, barcode patterns, or crosshair patterns, printed onto planar substrates, and may be used to calibrate cameras among the vehicle 102's sensors).
Claims 9-10 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Lau et al (US20200363501A1) in view of Aalerud (Reshaping Field of View and Resolution with Segmented Reflectors: Bridging the Gap between Rotating and Solid-State LiDAR's), further in view of Impola et al (US11567173B2).
Regarding claim 9, Lau and Aalerud disclose, the system of claim 1 as discussed supra. Additionally, Impola who is in the same field of endeavor of mirror lidar reflection discloses the plurality of reflective media comprises a first reflective medium and a second reflective medium.
One of ordinary skill in the art prior to the effective filing date of the given invention would have been motivated to combine the combination of Lau and Aalerud with Impola. This would serve to increase the scannable coverage of an area with a lidar sensor. Through the means of a mirror the system would reflects the light beams toward the surface, thereby increasing lidar sensor coverage associated with the respective lidar sensor. Further justification for combining these disclosures can be found from Impola, (Impola, Final Paragraph, Lines 2-5, it will be understood by those skilled in the art that various additional embodiments are contemplated by the modification of the disclosed machines, systems and methods without departing from the spirit and scope of what is disclosed).
Regarding claim 10, Lau, Aalerud, and Impola disclose, the system of claim 9 as discussed supra. Additionally, Impola discloses, at least one of the first reflective medium and the second reflective medium is a mirror (Impola, Paragraph 18, Lines 1-3, the first mirror 110(1) includes one or more mirrors 110 configured to reflect the second light beams 122 toward the second area 108 proximate the vehicle 102) … (Impola, Paragraph 19, Lines 6-9, the first lidar sensor 104(1) and the second lidar sensor 104(2) are configured on a same (first) horizontal plane and the first mirror 110(1) and the second mirror 110(2) are configured on a same (second) horizontal plane).
Claims 11-12, and 17-18 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Lau et al (US20200363501A1) in view of Aalerud (Reshaping Field of View and Resolution with Segmented Reflectors: Bridging the Gap between Rotating and Solid-State LiDAR's), further in view of Hudzikowski et al. (Compact, spherical mirror-based dense astigmatic-like pattern multipass cell design aided by a genetic algorithm)
Regarding claim 11, Lau discloses a method for calibrating an autonomous vehicle comprising: rotating the autonomous vehicle about a platform (0013, FIG. 6 illustrates a perspective view of a dynamic scene calibration environment in which a turntable that is at least partially surrounded by vehicle camera calibration targets rotates a vehicle so that the vehicle can perform calibration of its sensors) emitting an electromagnetic wave from the autonomous vehicle as the autonomous vehicle rotates (Lau, 0068, Lines 1-7, the sensors 180 of the vehicle 102 of FIG. 3 include one or more radar sensors 350, which include one or more radio transmitters and one or more radio receivers, and/or one or more radio transceivers. The radio transmitter(s) or transceiver(s) of the radar sensor(s) 350 of the vehicle 102 emit one or more radio waves 330, whose reflections/backscatter (not pictured) are received by the radio receiver(s) or transceiver(s) of the radar sensor(s) 350 of the vehicle 102), illuminating a target with the reflected electromagnetic wave; receiving the reflected electromagnetic wave at the autonomous vehicle (Lau, 0068, Lines 3-12, the radio transmitter(s) or transceiver(s) of the radar sensor(s) 350 of the vehicle 102 emit one or more radio waves 330, whose reflections/backscatter (not pictured) are received by the radio receiver(s) or transceiver(s) of the radar sensor(s) 350 of the vehicle 102. Based on receipt of the reflections by the radio receiver(s) or transceiver(s), the radar sensor(s) 350 and/or the internal computer 110 coupled thereto detect the presence of the targets 200 by detecting radar cross section (RCS), a measure of the ratio of backscatter density in the direction of the radar (from the target) to the power density that is intercepted by the target). However Lau does not explicitly disclose, Illuminating a plurality reflective media arranged in a substantially circular pattern around the platform with the electromagnetic wave sequentially reflecting the electromagnetic wave off the plurality of reflective media to create a multi-hop path; and calculating a distance based at least on the reflected electromagnetic wave along the multi-hop path.
Nevertheless, Aalerud discloses, Illuminating a plurality reflective media arranged in a substantially circular pattern around the platform with the electromagnetic wave (3. Design and Theory, the proposed reflector was designed using a plurality of trapezoid-shaped segments, where the mirrors were arranged on these segments inside a hollow truncated cone. Only flat mirrors were used to avoid divergence of the collimated beam This reflector design allows the centrally placed spinning LiDAR to obtain multiple point of view (POV)measurements of objects placed in zones that are overlapped by multiple mirrors). However even the combination of Aalerud and Lau fail to disclose sequentially reflecting the electromagnetic wave off the plurality of reflective media to create a multi-hop path; and calculating a distance based at least on the reflected electromagnetic wave along the multi-hop path./
Additionally, Hudzikowski who is in the same field of endeavor of spherical mirror-based dense astigmatic-like pattern multi-pass cell design discloses, sequentially reflecting the electromagnetic wave off the plurality of reflective media to create a multi-hop path; (Abstract, using at least three standard spherical mirrors appropriately tilted, which breaks the parallelism between them. A genetic algorithm (GA) supported the cell configuration optimization. A 16 m and 23.8 m optical path length (OPL) MPC was developed, practically realized, and proved by a time-of-flight (TOF) experiment to demonstrate the principle); and calculating a distance based at least on the reflected electromagnetic wave along the multi-hop path (4. Practical realization of the MPC, the measured TOF (Fig. 4(b)) were 54 ns and 80 ns, which corresponds to an OPL of 16.1 m and 23.9 m, respectively. The obtained results are in very good agreement with the performed simulations (16 m and 23.8 m), especially considering the maximum distance measurement error of 15 cm caused by the limited performance of the oscilloscope used in the experiment (350 MHz bandwidth with a 2 GHz sampling rate)).
One of ordinary skill in the art prior to the effective filing date of the given invention would have been motivated to combine the combination of Lau and Aalerud with Hudzikowski. This would serve to have spherical mirrors appropriately tilted, which breaks the parallelism between them.
Further justification for combining these disclosures can be found from Lau, (0043, the disclosed technologies address a need in the art for improvements to vehicle sensor calibration technologies. Radar calibration using a radar cross section (RCS) compensation function improves the functioning of sensor calibration by improving radar sensor accuracy and reliability).
Regarding claim 12, Lau, Aalerud and Hudzikowski disclose the method of claim 11 as discussed supra. Additionally, Lau discloses, the platform comprises a rotation table (Lau, 0013, Lines 1-4, FIG. 6 illustrates a perspective view of a dynamic scene calibration environment in which a turntable that is at least partially surrounded by vehicle camera calibration targets rotates a vehicle so that the vehicle can perform calibration of its sensors).
Regarding claim 17, Lau, Aalerud and Hudzikowski disclose the method of claim 11 as discussed supra. Additionally, Lau discloses, the target comprises a symbol (Lau, 0085, Lines 1-9, the camera calibration targets 530 include patterns such as checkerboards, ArUco patterns, quick response (QR) code patterns, barcode patterns, or crosshair patterns, printed onto planar substrates, and may be used to calibrate cameras among the vehicle 102's sensors 180, for example by identifying how a camera lens is warped based on identifying how a grid corresponding to a checkerboard, ArUco pattern, or QR code pattern is warped in the resulting image of such a camera calibration target 530).
Regarding claim 18, Lau, Aalerud and Hudzikowski disclose the method of claim 17 as discussed supra. Additionally, Lau discloses, imaging the symbol (Lau, 0085, Lines 1-9, the camera calibration targets 530 include patterns such as checkerboards, ArUco patterns, quick response (QR) code patterns, barcode patterns, or crosshair patterns, printed onto planar substrates, and may be used to calibrate cameras among the vehicle 102's sensors 180, for example by identifying how a camera lens is warped based on identifying how a grid corresponding to a checkerboard, ArUco pattern, or QR code pattern is warped in the resulting image of such a camera calibration target 530).
Claims 13-15 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Lau et al (US20200363501A1) in view of Aalerud (Reshaping Field of View and Resolution with Segmented Reflectors: Bridging the Gap between Rotating and Solid-State LiDAR's), further in view of Hudzikowski et al. (Compact, spherical mirror-based dense astigmatic-like pattern multipass cell design aided by a genetic algorithm), further in view of Droz et al. (US20180107221A1).
Regarding claim 13, Lau, Aalerud and Hudzikowski disclose the method of claim 11 as discussed supra. Additionally, Droz who is in the same field of endeavor of lidar light detection discloses, electromagnetic wave has a spectral bandwidth within at least one of radar, visible, IR, UV, and LiDAR regions (Droz, 0043, Lines 1-4, one or more light sources 106 can be configured to emit, respectively, a plurality of light beams and/or pulses having wavelengths within a wavelength range. The wavelength range could, for example, be in the ultraviolet, visible, and/or infrared portions of the electromagnetic spectrum).
One of ordinary skill in the art prior to the effective filing date of the given invention
would have been motivated to combine the combination of Lau, Aalerud, and Hudzikowski with Droz’s disclosures. This would serve to improve detection accuracy for many different conditions and enhance object differentiation. For having a plurality of light beams and/or pulses having wavelengths within a wavelength range can be configured to use a bandwidth that matches a given condition.
Further justification for combining these disclosures can be found from Droz (Droz, 0137, Lines 1-3, additionally, while various aspects and implementations have been disclosed herein, other aspects and implementations will be apparent to those skilled in the art).
Regarding claim 14, Lau, Aalerud, Hudzikowski, and Droz disclose the method of claim 13, as discussed supra. Additionally, Lau discloses, the plurality of reflective media is a radar trihedral (Lau, 0064, Lines 1-7, FIG. 2 illustrates a radar sensor calibration target with a trihedral shape. the sensor calibration target 200 of FIG. 2 a target that is made to be easily detected by, and used for calibration of, a range sensor, such as a radar sensor (or in some cases a LIDAR, SONAR, and/or SODAR sensor) of the vehicle 102. In particular, the sensor calibration target 200 of FIG. 2 is trihedral in shape, and may be a concave or convex trihedral corner, essentially a triangular corner of a cube).
Regarding claim 15, Lau, Aalerud, Hudzikowski, and Droz disclose the method of claim 13, as discussed supra. Additionally, Droz discloses, the electromagnetic wave comprises a plurality of colors (Droz, 0043, Lines 1-4, one or more light sources 106 can be configured to emit, respectively, a plurality of light beams and/or pulses having wavelengths within a wavelength range. The wavelength range could, for example, be in the ultraviolet, visible, and/or infrared portions of the electromagnetic spectrum).
Claim 16 is rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Lau et al (US20200363501A1) in view of Aalerud (Reshaping Field of View and Resolution with Segmented Reflectors: Bridging the Gap between Rotating and Solid-State LiDAR's), further in view of Impola et al (US11567173B2), further in view of Hudzikowski et al. (Compact, spherical mirror-based dense astigmatic-like pattern multipass cell design aided by a genetic algorithm), further in view of Droz et al. (US20180107221A1).
Regarding claim 16, Lau, Aalerud, Hudzikowski, and Droz disclose the method of claim 13, as discussed supra. Additionally, Impola discloses, the plurality of reflective media is a mirror (Impola, Paragraph 18, Lines 1-3, the first mirror 110(1) includes one or more mirrors 110 configured to reflect the second light beams 122 toward the second area 108 proximate the vehicle 102) … (Impola, Paragraph 19, Lines 6-9, the first lidar sensor 104(1) and the second lidar sensor 104(2) are configured on a same (first) horizontal plane and the first mirror 110(1) and the second mirror 110(2) are configured on a same (second) horizontal plane).
One of ordinary skill in the art prior to the effective filing date of the given invention would have been motivated to combine the combination of Lau, Aalerud, Hudzikowski, and Droz with Impola. This would serve to increase the scannable coverage of an area with a lidar sensor. Through the means of a mirror the system would reflects the light beams toward the surface, thereby increasing lidar sensor coverage associated with the respective lidar sensor. Further justification for combining these disclosures can be found from Impola, (Impola, Final Paragraph, Lines 2-5, it will be understood by those skilled in the art that various additional embodiments are contemplated by the modification of the disclosed machines, systems and methods without departing from the spirit and scope of what is disclosed).
Claims 19-20 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Lau et al (US20200363501A1) in view of Aalerud (Reshaping Field of View and Resolution with Segmented Reflectors: Bridging the Gap between Rotating and Solid-State LiDAR's), further in view of Hudzikowski et al. (Compact, spherical mirror-based dense astigmatic-like pattern multipass cell design aided by a genetic algorithm), further in view of Igal (US20220114756A1).
Regarding claim 19, Lau, Aalerud, and Hudzikowski disclose the method of claim 18, as discussed supra. Additionally, Igal who is in the same field of endeavor of image sensor based distance measurements discloses, the calculation of distance is based at least on a size of the symbol (Igal, Abstract, Lines 3-8, the anchor is associated with at least one physical dimension of a known value; and when finding the anchor, determining a distance between the camera and the anchor based on, (a) the at least one physical dimension of a known value, (b) an appearance of the at least one physical dimension of a known value in the image, and (c) a distance-to-appearance relationship that maps appearances to distances);
One of ordinary skill in the art prior to the effective filing date of the given invention would have been motivated to combine the combination of Lau, Aalerud, and Hudzikowski with Igal. This would serve to provide a means for calculation distance measurements from an image with pixel accuracy. Further justification for combining these disclosures can be found from Igal (Igal, 0102, Lines 2-5, many modifications, substitutions, changes, and equivalents will now occur to those of ordinary skill in the art. It is, therefore, to be understood that the appended claims are intended to cover all such modifications and changes as fall within the true spirit of the invention).
Regarding claim 20, Lau discloses, an apparatus for calibrating an autonomous vehicle comprising: an optical camera configured to image electromagnetic radiation from a predetermined range of directions (Lau, 0117, Lines 1-10, at step 810, the sensors 180 of the vehicle 102 capture a plurality of sensor calibration capture datasets via one or more sensors coupled to the vehicle 120 over the course of the calibration time period. If a dynamic scene calibration environment 600 or hallway calibration environment 500 is used, step 810 is performed by capturing at least one of the plurality of sensor calibration capture datasets corresponding to fields of view 410 of each of the one or more sensors, each sensor calibration capture dataset captured while the vehicle is at one of the plurality of vehicle positions (i.e., rotation positions in the dynamic scene calibration environment 600 or driving positions in the hallway calibration environment 500)); and a circuit in electrical communication with the optical camera configured to: receive an optical image from the optical camera (Lau, 0091, Lines 21-24, these variations assist in extrinsic calibration in that the different positions and rotations and so forth provide more interesting targets for range sensors, such as lidar, radar, sonar, or sodar, and allow range sensors to aid in interpretation of optical data collected by a camera of the vehicle 102); identify an optical target within the optical image; determine a relative size of the optical target (Lau, 0085, Lines 1-9, the camera calibration targets 530 include patterns such as checkerboards, ArUco patterns, quick response (QR) code patterns, barcode patterns, or crosshair patterns, printed onto planar substrates, and may be used to calibrate cameras among the vehicle 102's sensors 180, for example by identifying how a camera lens is warped based on identifying how a grid corresponding to a checkerboard, ArUco pattern, or QR code pattern is warped in the resulting image of such a camera calibration target 530); wherein the apparatus is configured to rotate an autonomous vehicle about a rotation table (Lau, 0013, Lines 1-4, FIG. 6 illustrates a perspective view of a dynamic scene calibration environment in which a turntable that is at least partially surrounded by vehicle camera calibration targets rotates a vehicle so that the vehicle can perform calibration of its sensors), emit the electromagnetic radiation from the autonomous vehicle as the autonomous vehicle rotates; (0096, the motorized turntable 605 may be rotated continuously without stopping, and the vehicle 102 can capture data with its sensors 180 continuously, or at various rotation or time intervals without the turntable ever stopping. In some cases, a combination of these turntable sensor data gathering operations may be used, so that some sensor data is gathered from the sensors); illuminate a target with the reflected electromagnetic radiation; (Lau, 0068, Lines 3-12, the radio transmitter(s) or transceiver(s) of the radar sensor(s) 350 of the vehicle 102 emit one or more radio waves 330, whose reflections/backscatter (not pictured) are received by the radio receiver(s) or transceiver(s) of the radar sensor(s) 350 of the vehicle 102. Based on receipt of the reflections by the radio receiver(s) or transceiver(s), the radar sensor(s) 350 and/or the internal computer 110 coupled thereto detect the presence of the targets 200 by detecting radar cross section (RCS), a measure of the ratio of backscatter density in the direction of the radar (from the target) to the power density that is intercepted by the target). receive the reflected electromagnetic radiation at the autonomous vehicle; (Lau, 0068, Lines 3-12, the radio transmitter(s) or transceiver(s) of the radar sensor(s) 350 of the vehicle 102 emit one or more radio waves 330, whose reflections/backscatter (not pictured) are received by the radio receiver(s) or transceiver(s) of the radar sensor(s) 350 of the vehicle 102. Based on receipt of the reflections by the radio receiver(s) or transceiver(s), the radar sensor(s) 350 and/or the internal computer 110 coupled thereto detect the presence of the targets 200 by detecting radar cross section (RCS), a measure of the ratio of backscatter density in the direction of the radar (from the target) to the power density that is intercepted by the target). However, Lau does not explicitly disclose, estimate a distance based at least on the relative size of the optical target a predetermined direction, illuminate a plurality of reflective media arranged in a substantially circular pattern around the rotation table with the electromagnetic radiation; sequentially reflect off the electromagnetic radiation off of the plurality of reflective media to create a multi-hop path; and calculate a distance based at least on the reflected electromagnetic radiation along the multi-hop path.
Nevertheless, Igal discloses estimate a distance based at least on the relative size of the optical target a predetermined direction (Igal, Abstract, Lines 3-8, the anchor is associated with at least one physical dimension of a known value; and when finding the anchor, determining a distance between the camera and the anchor based on, (a) the at least one physical dimension of a known value, (b) an appearance of the at least one physical dimension of a known value in the image, and (c) a distance-to-appearance relationship that maps appearances to distances) … (Igal, 0066, Lines 1-5, the appearance of a dimension of a known value in an image may be the size of the dimension within the image—for example the number of pixels in an image that represent the dimension. For example—a traffic light of a known width appears in an image as a box of H×W pixels, so the appearance is W pixels) … (Igal, 0082, Lines 1-4, FIG. 3 illustrates a first image 11 in which a give away sign 21 has a known width (for example 26 cm) that appears in the first image as a line of N1 pixels. In second image 12 the same give away sign 21 of the same known width appears as line of N2 pixels). However even the combination of Igal and Lau does not explicitly disclose, illuminate a plurality of reflective media arranged in a substantially circular pattern around the rotation table with the electromagnetic radiation; Sequentially reflect off the electromagnetic radiation off of the plurality of reflective media to create a multi-hop path; and calculate a distance based at least on the reflected electromagnetic radiation along the multi-hop path.
Furthermore, Aalerud discloses, illuminate a plurality of reflective media arranged in a substantially circular pattern around the rotation table with the electromagnetic radiation; (3. Design and Theory, the proposed reflector was designed using a plurality of trapezoid-shaped segments, where the mirrors were arranged on these segments inside a hollow truncated cone. Only flat mirrors were used to avoid divergence of the collimated beam This reflector design allows the centrally placed spinning LiDAR to obtain multiple point of view (POV) measurements of objects placed in zones that are overlapped by multiple mirrors). However, again the combination of Aalerud Igal and Lau does not explicitly disclose, sequentially reflect off the electromagnetic radiation off of the plurality of reflective media to create a multi-hop path; and calculate a distance based at least on the reflected electromagnetic radiation along the multi-hop path.
Finally, Hudzikowski discloses, sequentially reflect off the electromagnetic radiation off of the plurality of reflective media to create a multi-hop path; (Abstract, using at least three standard spherical mirrors appropriately tilted, which breaks the parallelism between them. A genetic algorithm (GA) supported the cell configuration optimization. A 16 m and 23.8 m optical path length (OPL) MPC was developed, practically realized, and proved by a time-of-flight (TOF) experiment to demonstrate the principle); and calculate a distance based at least on the reflected electromagnetic radiation along the multi-hop path (4. Practical realization of the MPC, the measured TOF (Fig. 4(b)) were 54 ns and 80 ns, which corresponds to an OPL of 16.1 m and 23.9 m, respectively. The obtained results are in very good agreement with the performed simulations (16 m and 23.8 m), especially considering the maximum distance measurement error of 15 cm caused by the limited performance of the oscilloscope used in the experiment (350 MHz bandwidth with a 2 GHz sampling rate)).
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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/S.E.D./Examiner, Art Unit 3665
/CHRISTIAN CHACE/Supervisory Patent Examiner, Art Unit 3665
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