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 .
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 112
The following is a quotation of 35 U.S.C. 112(b):
(b) CONCLUSION.—The specification shall conclude with one or more claims particularly pointing out and distinctly claiming the subject matter which the inventor or a joint inventor regards as the invention.
The following is a quotation of 35 U.S.C. 112 (pre-AIA ), second paragraph:
The specification shall conclude with one or more claims particularly pointing out and distinctly claiming the subject matter which the applicant regards as his invention.
Claim 2 is rejected under 35 U.S.C. 112(b) or 35 U.S.C. 112 (pre-AIA ), second paragraph, as being indefinite for failing to particularly point out and distinctly claim the subject matter which the inventor or a joint inventor (or for applications subject to pre-AIA 35 U.S.C. 112, the applicant), regards as the invention.
Regarding claim 2, the phrase "or the like" renders the claim(s) indefinite because the claim(s) include(s) elements not actually disclosed (those encompassed by "or the like"), thereby rendering the scope of the claim(s) unascertainable. See MPEP § 2173.05(d).
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 102
The following is a quotation of the appropriate paragraphs of 35 U.S.C. 102 that form the basis for the rejections under this section made in this Office action:
A person shall be entitled to a patent unless –
(a)(1) the claimed invention was patented, described in a printed publication, or in public use, on sale, or otherwise available to the public before the effective filing date of the claimed invention.
(a)(2) the claimed invention was described in a patent issued under section 151, or in an application for patent published or deemed published under section 122(b), in which the patent or application, as the case may be, names another inventor and was effectively filed before the effective filing date of the claimed invention.
Claim(s) below is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(1) as being anticipated by Pacala (20190011567).
Referring to claims 1 and 14, Pacala a time-of-flight distance measurement device (see paragraph 71), comprising: a light emitting module (see figure 1 Ref 106), a processing module (see figure 1 Ref 104) and a light receiving module (see figure 1 Ref 108),
the light emitting module having at least two emitting regions (see figure 2a Ref 214(1) and 2b Ref 214(2), the light receiving module having at least two receiving regions corresponding to the light emitting module (see figure 2a Ref 224(1) and 2b Ref 224(2), wherein
the processing module is configured to generate a first instruction to be electrically connected to all emitting units so that all the emitting units simultaneously output emitted light (see the connections of all the columns of light emitters as shown in figure 6 also see the simultaneous activation of the VCSELs as shown in paragraph 151), wherein receiving units of the light receiving module are in one-to-one correspondence with the emitting units (see paragraph 114 and 115 note the correspondence for each emitter in a bank to a detector in the detector bank, also see figure 1b-1d), and the processing module is configured to calculate distance data of a detected target according to data of the light receiving module (see paragraph 71), and
the processing module is further configured to generate an instruction different from the first instruction, so that the light emitting module outputs the emitted light once or more than once (see the stored pulse coded technique as shown in paragraph 72), wherein the light receiving module acquires reflected light information of a target region once or more than once (see paragraph 72 note the Barker code pulse train that is transmitted that is inherently detected by the receiver array), and a result in the reflected light information of the target region that is obtained by the light receiving module at least once does not contain multipath reflected light information (see figure 3 note the lack of multipath detector), and the processing module is configured to calculate target distance data that at least does not contain a part of the multipath reflected light information (see paragraph 71 note the range is detected based on time delay and does not include multipath detection).
Referring to claims 2 and 15, Pacala shows the first instruction is related to a distance to the detected target in a field of view, a reflectivity of the detected target in the field of view, historical detection distance information, or the like (see paragraph 71 and 98 note the instructions are inherent to determine distance information as well as reflectivity).
Referring to claims 3 and 16, Pacala shows a control module configured to control the receiving region corresponding to the emitting region to receive the reflected light (see paragraph 85-86 and figures 2b-2d).
Referring to claims 4 and 17, Pacala shows the at least two emitting regions are in one-to-one correspondence with the at least two receiving regions (see paragraph 85-86 and figure 2b-2d).
Referring to claim 5, Pacala shows the control module is configured to control one or more of the emitting regions to emit light to a designated region (see figure 3 Ref 312 and 316).
Referring to claims 6 and 18, Pacala shows the control module is configured to control a receiving region among the receiving regions corresponding to the one or more emitting regions emitting the light to the designated region to receive the reflected light (see figure 3).
Referring to claim 7, Pacala shows the emitting region has a conjugate relationship with the corresponding receiving region (see figures 2b-2d also see paragraph 85-86).
Referring to claims 8 and 19, Pacala shows the receiving regions comprise a region that receives the reflected light from a to-be-detected target and/or a region that receives the multipath reflected light (see figure 3 note the to-be-detected targets as shown by Ref 313 and 315).
Referring to claim 9, Pacala shows he control module is electrically connected to the emitting module and is configured to control the emitting region to emit light to a designated region (see figure 3 and paragraph 97).
Referring to claim 11, Pacala shows the control module is electrically connected to the receiving module and is configured to control the receiving region that does not have a corresponding relationship with the emitting region to not receive the reflected light (see figures 2B-2D note the activation of emitter column and corresponding sensor column and specifically does not activate other columns of the sensor array shown in paragraph 86-87).
Referring to claim 12, Pacala shows the processing module further comprises:
an information acquiring unit configured to: according to the reflected light information that does not contain at least a part of the multipath and that is outputted by the receiving module in at least a part of the time period (see figure 3 note the receiving module does not contain multipath light also see paragraph 98 that determines distance, velocity and reflectivity of the target object based on the direct TOF measurement not including multipath interference).
Referring to claim 13, Pacala shows wherein in the case of the instruction different from the first instruction, the light emitting module outputs the emitted light more than once (see figure 2b-2d note the scanning across the arrays), the light receiving module acquires the reflected light information of the target region more than once (see figures 2b-2d), and the processing module synthesizes all information of a detected field of view according to the reflected light information of the target region acquired by the light receiving module more than once (see paragraph 9 note the captured image that is generated by illumination a given point at a given time).
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) 10 and 20 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Pacala (20190011567) in view of Steever (20180143320).
Referring to claims 10 and 20, Pacala fails to show but Steever shows a control module is electrically connected to the receiving module and is configured to control the receiving region that does not have a corresponding relationship with the emitting region to receive multipath light (see figure 14 note the errant pixels that are activated that meet multipath conditions also see paragraph 133). It would have been obvious to include the control module that controls the receiving module as claimed because this allows for identifying multipath interference as shown by Steever in paragraph 139.
Conclusion
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to LUKE D RATCLIFFE whose telephone number is (571)272-3110. The examiner can normally be reached M-F 9:00AM-5:00PM EST.
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If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner’s supervisor, Isam Alsomiri can be reached at 571-272-6970. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300.
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/LUKE D RATCLIFFE/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 3645