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 § 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, 16 and claims bellow are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over D1 US 2011266441 A1 in view of D0 Andreou, Polarization Imaging: Principles and Integrated Polarimeters, IEEE SENSORS JOURNAL, VOL. 2, NO. 6, DECEMBER 2002.
Regarding claims 1, 16 D1 teaches
an imaging receiver (210) operating in the short wave infrared range, SWIR, (see para. 64 and fig. 2 together with para. 93, last sentence and para. 94 "In this embodiment, microlens structure 1902 includes an array of four microlenses 1904 that each focus a combination of visible, near IR, and short IR spectrum (VNS) radiation (i.e., substantially all radiation from visible to short IR, par 15 filter is selecting below 5 micron which includes SWIR range up to 2.5 microns) through a corresponding opening 310 in reflector metal 318 and other components of the DRC pixel structure onto a corresponding lnGaAs, Si, Ge or SiGe detector 1980 imbedded in SiO2 substrate 216 below embedded metal layers 1970 of ROIG 1602.")
and including a focal plane array, FPA, and a polarization filter array, PFA, (see para. 64 "the IR detector 210 includes a focal plane array (FPA) 212" and para. 68 "a monolithic polarizer filter 322" together with figures 3-5, wherein para. 69 "Further detail on one exemplary embodiment of components of microbolometer pixel membrane structure 312 may be found in FIGS. 19-22 herein." and para. 93 "It will also be understood that a plurality of infrared detector elements 1900 may be employed in a manner similar to infrared detector elements 300 to form a focal plane array focal plane array 212 such as illustrated and described in relation to FIG. 2." clarify that these features are all disclosed in combination)
the imaging receiver operative to acquire SWIR image data,[0024]
an analysis module for analyzing the SWIR image data and the polarization information for detection of hazardous media on a road, wherein the hazardous media includes ice.
(see para. 25, [0024] "ice on highways", wherein an analysis module is implicitly
disclosed for this purpose)
wherein the FPA includes germanium-on-silicon (Ge-Si) photodetectors (PDs).[0094] Ge layer grown or bonded to an Si layer to form a Ge-Si PD[0094](product by process)
wherein the PFA includes an arrangement of micro-polarizers.[0079]
but does not explicitly teach while D0 micro-polarizers each manufactured on top of the Si layer(fig. 5 page 571 col 1)
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 D0 in order to in order to build Film based polarization contrast imager.
4. The system of claim 3, wherein each Ge-Si PD is associated with a micro-polarizer.(fig. 3)
5. The system of claim 3, wherein the arrangement of micro-polarizers includes two micro-polarizers.(fig. 5)
6. The system of claim 4, wherein the arrangement of micro-polarizers includes four micro-polarizers.(fig. 5)
7. The system of claim 4, wherein the associated micro-polarizer is integrated with the PD.(fig. 3)
8, 19 The system of claim 1, further comprising a first illumination source for illuminating a target scene in a first SWIR range, and wherein the SWIR image data includes data carried by radiation reflected in the first SWIR range.[0094](implicit)
9. The system, of claim 8, wherein the FPA includes germanium-on-silicon (Ge-Si) photodetectors (PDs).[0094]
10. The system of claim 8, wherein the PFA includes an arrangement of micro-polarizers.[0079]
11. The system of claim 10, wherein each Ge-Si PD is associated with a micro-polarizer.(fig. 3)
12. The system of claim 11, wherein the arrangement of micro-polarizers includes two micro-polarizers of the array.(fig. 5)
13. The system of claim 11, wherein the arrangement of micro-polarizers includes four micro-polarizers.(fig. 5)
14. The system of claim 11, wherein the associated micro-polarizer is integrated with the PD.(fig. 3)
Claim(s) 15, 20 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over D1.
Although D1 does not teach
15, 20 The system of claim 8, further comprising a second illumination source for illuminating a target scene in a second SWIR range, and wherein the SWIR image data includes data carried by radiation reflected in the second SWIR range.
Using multiple sources and detectors to illuminate and analyze different regions is just obvious combination in order to increase FOV and simultaneously scan large area(common sense).
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