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 § 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 –
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 –
Claim(s) 1 and claims bellow are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(1) as being anticipated by D1 US 20150378023 A1.
Regarding claim 1 D1 teaches
1. A distance measuring device comprising:
a light projection unit(F) configured to emit light in a two- dimensional manner;(Me rotates in 2D fig. 1)
a light receiving unit(D in fig. 2) including a plurality of light receiving elements(Qd) arranged in a two-dimensional direction;(fig. 2) and
a control unit configured to control whether or not to perform light reception by the plurality of light receiving elements.(implicit simple turn on and off switch which turns the whole system on or off reads on it, also internal clock which allows opening and closing reception window for sensor, also [0017] claim is really broad and multiple interpretations can read on it.)
2. The distance measuring device according to claim 1, wherein the light projection unit emits a linear beam extending in a first direction and causes the linear beam to scan a second direction.(fig. 1)
3. The distance measuring device according to claim 2, wherein the plurality of light receiving elements is arranged in the first direction and the second direction, and(fig. 2)
the control unit sequentially switches the plurality of light receiving elements arranged in the first direction and the second direction to receive light.[0017]
4. The distance measuring device according to claim 1, wherein the light projection unit includes a light source unit(F) that emits a laser beam, an optical system that allows the laser beam to pass through(fig. 1 windows and lenses), and
a micro electro mechanical system (MEMS) mirror(Me [0064]) that controls a traveling direction of the laser beam having passed through the optical system.(fig. 1)
5. The distance measuring device according to claim 4, wherein the MEMS mirror(Me) controls the traveling direction of the laser beam having passed through the optical system(lens) in a one- dimensional direction.(fig. 1)
20. The distance measuring device according to claim 1, wherein the light receiving unit receives reflected light obtained by reflecting the light emitted from the light projection unit by an object, and
the distance measuring device further comprising: a distance measuring unit configured to measure a distance to the object by a time difference between time at which the light projection unit emits the light and time at which the light emitted from the light projection unit is reflected by the object and received by the light receiving unit.[0004](lidar device)
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) bellow are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over D1.
Regarding claims bellow D1 teaches
light direction change member(window from which Be is coming out)
does not explicitly teach
6. The distance measuring device according to claim 4, wherein the light projection unit includes a light direction change member that changes a direction of the laser beam reflected by the MEMS mirror.
7. The distance measuring device according to claim 6, wherein the direction of the laser beam reflected by the light direction change member is parallel to the laser beam emitted from the light source unit.
Although D1 does not explicitly teach subject matter of claims bellow it is just a matter of the designing the propagation path to the desired FOV and simple and predictable rearrangement of the parts in order to direct the light beam to desired region and therefore It would be obvious to one of ordinary skills in the art at the time of filing to modify teachings by D1 in order to illuminate desired FOV.
Regarding claims bellow D1 does not teach
8. The distance measuring device according to claim 1, wherein the light projection unit includes a plurality of light source units arranged in a two-dimensional direction, and
each of the plurality of light source units is capable of individually switching whether or not to emit a laser beam.
9. The distance measuring device according to claim 8, wherein the control unit individually controls turning on or off of the plurality of light source units every predetermined period.
10. The distance measuring device according to claim 1, wherein the light projection unit includes a first light projector and a second light projector arranged to be spaced apart along a predetermined direction, and
each of the first light projector and the second light projector emits a linear beam extending in a first direction and causes the linear beam to scan a second direction.
17. The distance measuring device according to claim 10, wherein each of the first light projector and the second light projector includes a plurality of light source units arranged in a two-dimensional direction, and
each of the plurality of light source units is capable of individually switching whether or not to emit a laser beam.
Although D1 does not explicitly teach subject matter of claims bellow it is just a matter of the duplication of parts and therefore It would be obvious to one of ordinary skills in the art at the time of filing to modify teachings by D1 in order to illuminate multiple points simultaneously.
Claim(s) bellow are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over D1 in view of D2 US 20190094345 A1.
Regarding claim 11 D1 does not teach bur D2 teaches
11. The distance measuring device according to claim 10, wherein the first light projector and the second light projector are arranged to be spaced apart in the predetermined direction such that the linear beam extending in the first direction from the first light projector and the linear beam extending in the first direction from the second light projector partially overlap each other.[0110]
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 high resolution scanning.
Regarding claim 12 D1 does not teach bur D2 teaches
12. The distance measuring device according to claim 10, wherein the light receiving unit is disposed at a position having a substantially equal distance from each of the first light projector and the second light projector.(this is just simple placement design choice which is for convenience of calculation, peak comparison and also taught in fig. 7)
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 avoid large discrepancy between propagation path of light and therefore simplify the calculation, estimate of energy loss and many other parameters which can vary due to different propagation length.
Regarding claim 18 D1 teaches
the MEMS mirror scanning the area
but does not teach bur D2 teaches
18. The distance measuring device according to claim 4, wherein the light source unit includes a plurality of laser beam sources arranged in one direction, and
the mirror causes the laser beam emitted from the plurality of laser beam sources to scan a direction different from an arrangement direction of the plurality of laser beams.[0118]
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 scan multiple points simultaneously.
Claim(s) bellow are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over D1 in view of D3 US 10551501 B1.
D1 teaches
13. The distance measuring device according to claim 10, wherein each of the first light projector includes a light source unit that emits a laser beam, an optical system that allows the laser beam to pass through, and
a MEMS mirror that controls a traveling direction of the laser beam having passed through the optical system.
15. The distance measuring device according to claim 13, wherein each of the first light projector and a light direction change member that changes a direction of the laser beam reflected by the MEMS mirror.(fig. 1)
But does not teach
and the second light projector(simple Duplication of parts )
D3 also teaches
Symmetric distribution of first and second light sources (fig. 2)
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 D3 in order to illuminate multiple FOV simultaneously.
Although neither D1 or D3 explicitly teach
14. The distance measuring device according to claim 13, wherein an angle formed by a direction toward the first light projector and a direction toward the second light projector at a position of 100 mm along a center line of a line segment connecting the two MEMS mirrors is 100 mrad or more.
It is just a matter of predictable design choice in order to achieve desired FOV coverage with specific scaling of the device size.(prior art by D3 is not concerned by the size of the equipment but scaling the equipment will bring to predictable modification in order to maintain desired FOV.)
Regarding claim 16 D1 does not teach but D3 teaches
16. The distance measuring device according to claim 6, wherein the light direction change member is a reflecting mirror having a reflecting surface with a fixed inclination angle.(col 16 line 65 -col 17 line 19. During 64 horizontal traces one of the mirrors is in fixed inclination angle and only after 64 traces changes to vertical )
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 D3 in order to perform specific pattern scanning.
Claim(s) 19 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over D1 in view of D2 US 20190094345 A1 further in view of D4 WO 2019/171726 A1.
D1 does not teach but D3 teaches
19. The distance measuring device according to claim 18, wherein a beam shape of the laser beam emitted from the laser beam source is an elliptical shape, and
the MEMS mirror is rotated about a rotation axis extending along a minor axis direction of the elliptical shape.[0015-0029]
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 desired optical control(such as suppression of the beam divergence angle ) of the beam .
Conclusion
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/HOVHANNES BAGHDASARYAN/Examiner, Art Unit 3645