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) 1-11 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Yokota (US 2018/0188373) in view of Kienzler (US 2018/0372849).
Regarding Claim 1, Yokota teaches an apparatus for range determination [Fig 3, 5B, 7, 15B], the apparatus comprising: a signal transmitter configured to emit an optical signal at a first time [0040-42]; a first light transmitting unit configured to direct the optical signal to a target [0040-43; 0047]; a second light transmitting unit configured to receive a reflected optical signal at a second time, the reflected optical signal being associated with the optical signal and the target [Fig 15; 0064]; a first photoelectric receiver configured to convert a first portion of the reflected optical signal to a first electrical signal [0044-48]; and a data processor configured to calculate a difference between the first time and the second time [0037-38; 0047-49]. Yokota does not explicitly teach – but Kienzler does teach a first pulse converter configured to generate a first pulse using the first electrical signal [0035; 0037]; a first time to digital converter (TDC) configured to generate a first TDC output using at least the first electrical signal [0027; 0037]; a first signal accumulator configured to generate a first accumulator output using the at least first electrical signal [0037-39]… using the first TDC output and/or the first accumulator output [0035; 0037-39]. It would have been obvious to modify the apparatus of Yokota to include an accumulator and a TDC so the individual times of flight and/or the values acquired therefrom are then evaluated together in a measured value block to ultimately acquire the distance from the object.
Regarding Claim 2, Yokota also teaches a sampler [0004]. Yokota does not explicitly teach – but Kienzler does teach wherein the first signal accumulator comprises a digital accumulator [0037-39]. It would have been obvious to modify the apparatus of Yokota to include an accumulator and a TDC so the individual times of flight and/or the values acquired therefrom are then evaluated together in a measured value block to ultimately acquire the distance from the object.
Regarding Claim 3, Yokota does not explicitly teach – but Kienzler does teach wherein the optical signal comprises a laser pulse [0035]. It would have been obvious to modify the apparatus of Yokota to include an optical pulse laser so the individual times of flight and/or the values acquired therefrom are then evaluated together in a measured value block to ultimately acquire the distance from the object.
Regarding Claim 4, Yokota does not explicitly teach – but Kienzler does teach wherein the first photoelectric receiver comprises a plurality of single photon avalanche diodes (SPADs) [0035-37]. It would have been obvious to modify the apparatus of Yokota to include SPADs so the individual times of flight and/or the values acquired therefrom are then evaluated together in a measured value block to ultimately acquire the distance from the object.
Regarding Claim 5, Yokota does not explicitly teach – but Kienzler does teach wherein the first TDC is configured to generate a histogram using outputs of the plurality of SPADs [0035-39]. It would have been obvious to modify the apparatus of Yokota to include an a histogram so the individual times of flight and/or the values acquired therefrom are then evaluated together in a measured value block to ultimately acquire the distance from the object.
Regarding Claim 6, Yokota does not explicitly teach – but Kienzler does teach wherein the plurality of SPADs are coupled one or more OR gates. [0036-39]. It would have been obvious to modify the apparatus of Yokota to include SPADs with OR gates so the individual times of flight and/or the values acquired therefrom are then evaluated together in a measured value block to ultimately acquire the distance from the object efficiently.
Regarding Claim 7, Yokota does not explicitly teach – but Kienzler does teach wherein the first signal accumulator is coupled to outputs of the plurality of SPADs [0036-39]. It would have been obvious to modify the apparatus of Yokota to include SPADs so the individual times of flight and/or the values acquired therefrom are then evaluated together in a measured value block to ultimately acquire the distance from the object.
Regarding Claim 8, Yokota does not explicitly teach – but Kienzler does teach wherein the outputs of the SPADs are coupled to a first accumulator subunit at a first level [0036-39]. It would have been obvious to modify the apparatus of Yokota to include SPADs so the individual times of flight and/or the values acquired therefrom are then evaluated together in a measured value block to ultimately acquire the distance from the object.
Regarding Claim 9, Yokota does not explicitly teach – but Kienzler does teach wherein the first accumulator subunit is coupled to a second accumulator subunit at a second level. It would have been obvious to modify the apparatus of Yokota to include SPADs so the individual times of flight and/or the values acquired therefrom are then evaluated together in a measured value block to ultimately acquire the distance from the object efficiently.
Regarding Claim 10, Yokota does not explicitly teach – but Kienzler does teach wherein the first photoelectric receiver comprises one or more silicon photomultipliers [0005; 0044]. It would have been obvious to include photon multipliers to distinguish intensity and also be possible to speak of a number of possible events
Regarding Claim 11, Yokota does not explicitly teach – but Kienzler does teach further comprising a plurality of photoelectric sensing acquisition modules, the plurality of photoelectric sensing acquisition modules comprising a first photoelectric sensing acquisition module, the first photoelectric sensing acquisition module comprises the first photoelectric receiver and the first pulse converter [0026; 0036-39]. It would have been obvious to modify the apparatus of Yokota to include plural modules to distinguish intensity and also be possible to speak of a number of possible events
Claim(s) 12-18 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Kienzler (US 2018/0372849) in view of Yokota (US 2018/0188373).
Regarding Claim 12, Kienzler teaches a photoelectric sensor acquisition module, comprising: a photoelectric receiving module comprising a plurality of photoelectric sensing units arranged in a matrix [0036; 0039], a signal accumulation module electrically connected to the photoelectric receiving module [#30 of Fig 1], the signal accumulation module being configured to accumulate the digital pulse signal to obtain an accumulation signal and …to obtain a digital accumulation signal [0037-39], the digital accumulation signal representing the first position range of the target object [#32 of Fig 1]; and a pulse conversion module coupled to the photoelectric receiving module through the pulse conversion module [0037-39], the pulse conversion module being configured to adjust a pulse width of the digital pulse signal received from the photoelectric receiving module [0035-36], wherein the signal accumulation module accumulates the pulse signal after adjusting the pulse width and obtains the accumulation signal [0037-39]. Kienzler does not explicitly teach – but Yokota does teach to sample the accumulation signal according to a sampling signal [0004]; the photoelectric sensing units being configured to convert a received optical signal into a digital pulse signal [0045], wherein the received optical signal comprises a light reflected from a target object to the photoelectric receiving module [0044-48]. It would have been obvious to modify the sensor module of Kienzler to include conversion into a digital pulse signal so scanning-type distance measuring apparatuses can measure the distance to the object located in almost any direction, and so a reflecting object can be detected over the entire detection distance by appropriately changing the delay time.
Regarding Claim 15, Kienzler teaches a photoelectric sensing ranging method , comprising: accumulating a received pulse signals to obtain an accumulation signal [#30 of Fig 1; 0037-39]; … obtain a digital accumulation signal, the digital accumulation signal being associated with a first position range of a target object [#32 of Fig 1; 0036-39]; detecting a time interval between an emitted light signal and the photoelectric receiving module receiving a light signal [0036-39; 0045]; obtaining a time digital signal according to the time interval to characterize the distance of the target object [0036-39; 0045]; and determining a first position of the target object within the first position range according to the distance of the target object [#32 of Fig 1; 0037-39]. Kienzler does not explicitly teach – but Yokota does teach sampling the accumulation signal according to the sampling signal … [0004] – and additionally teaches detecting a time interval between an emitted light signal and the photoelectric receiving module receiving a light signal [0037-38; 0047-49]. It would have been obvious to modify the sensor module of Kienzler to include sampling so a reflecting object can be detected over the entire detection distance by appropriately changing the delay time.
Regarding Claim 13, Kienzler also teaches a time digital conversion module electrically coupled to the signal output terminal, the time digital conversion module being configured to measure a time interval between a light signal emitted by the signal transmitting module and the light signal received by the photoelectric receiving module [0027; 0036-39; 0045], the time digital conversion module being further configured to obtain a time digital signal according to the time interval characterizing a distance of the target object, the time digital conversion module further configured to determine the first position of the target object within the first position range according to the distance of the target object [0027; 0036-39; 0045]; and an OR-gate module electrically coupled to the pulse conversion module and the time digital conversion module being configured to transmit a converted pulse signal to the time digital conversion module when any photoelectric sensing unit of the photoelectric receiving module receives the optical signal [0036-39].
Regarding Claim 14, Kienzler also teaches wherein: the OR-gate module comprises at least a first level OR-gate subunit [0036-40]; the first level OR-gate subunit comprises a plurality of OR-gate input terminals and an OR-gate output terminal [0036-40]; a total number of the first level OR-gate input terminals is the same as a number of the photoelectric sensing units; the first level OR-gate input terminal is electrically connected to at least one pulse conversion module [0036-40]; and the OR-gate output terminal is coupled to the time digital conversion module [0026; 0036-40].
Regarding Claim 16, Kienzler also teaches wherein the first position range for determining the target object according to the digital accumulation signal comprises: converting an optical signal to a received pulse signal; accumulating the received digital pulse signals to obtain accumulating signals varying with the intensity of the optical signals [0035-39; 0043-44].; to obtain a first histogram; and analyzing the first histogram to determine the first position range [0035-39; 0043-44]. Kienzler does not explicitly teach – but Yokota does teach sampling the accumulated signal [0004]. It would have been obvious to modify the sensor module of Kienzler to include sampling so a reflecting object can be detected over the entire detection distance by appropriately changing the delay time.
Regarding Claim 17, Kienzler also teaches receiving optical signals repeatedly; converting the optical signals into digital pulse signals; accumulating the received digital pulse signals to obtain the accumulating signal varying with the intensity of the optical signals [0035-39; 0044-45]…to obtain N signal intensity distribution diagrams [0035-39; 0043-44] accumulating the N signal intensity distribution diagrams and obtaining the target signal intensity distribution diagram [0035-39; 0043-44]; and analyzing the target signal intensity distribution diagram to determine the first position range [0035-39; 0043-44]. Kienzler does not explicitly teach – but Yokota does teach sampling the accumulated signal according to the sampling signal [0004]. It would have been obvious to modify the sensor module of Kienzler to include sampling so a reflecting object can be detected over the entire detection distance by appropriately changing the delay time.
Regarding Claim 17, Kienzler also teaches performing at least one level of signal accumulation for the preset number of pulse signals to obtain a target accumulation signal, and the digital accumulation signals with different signal intensity values are obtained [0035-39; 0043-44]. Kienzler does not explicitly teach – but Yokota does teach wherein at least one level of signal sampling is performed for the accumulated pulse signal [0004]. It would have been obvious to modify the sensor module of Kienzler to include sampling so a reflecting object can be detected over the entire detection distance by appropriately changing the delay time.
Conclusion
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to JAMES R HULKA whose telephone number is (571)270-7553. The examiner can normally be reached M-R: 9am-6pm, F: 10am-2pm.
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If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner’s supervisor, Robert Hodge can be reached at 5712722097. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300.
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JAMES R. HULKA
Primary Examiner
Art Unit 3645
/JAMES R HULKA/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 3645