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
In the event the determination of the status of the application as subject to AIA 35 U.S.C. 102 and 103 (or as subject to pre-AIA 35 U.S.C. 102 and 103) is incorrect, any correction of the statutory basis (i.e., changing from AIA to pre-AIA ) for the rejection will not be considered a new ground of rejection if the prior art relied upon, and the rationale supporting the rejection, would be the same under either status.
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.
This application currently names joint inventors. In considering patentability of the claims the examiner presumes that the subject matter of the various claims was commonly owned as of the effective filing date of the claimed invention(s) absent any evidence to the contrary. Applicant is advised of the obligation under 37 CFR 1.56 to point out the inventor and effective filing dates of each claim that was not commonly owned as of the effective filing date of the later invention in order for the examiner to consider the applicability of 35 U.S.C. 102(b)(2)(C) for any potential 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(2) prior art against the later invention.
Claim(s) 1, 7, 8, 10, 12 and 19 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Chien et al. (US 2002/0131034) in view of Lohmann (US 2011/0286009).
With regard to claim 1 Chien discloses: (see para. [0030]), a method of monitoring and adjusting power of a LIDAR transmitter, comprising:
emitting, by a transmitter (laser 11) of a lidar device (see Fig. 1), an optical signal toward a maintenance area that is inside the lidar device and outside a field of view for the lidar device; measuring, by a power monitoring circuit (automatic peak loop 30) of the lidar device, an intensity of an incident signal corresponding to the optical signal (received laser pulse signal converted to current signal 00033]); comparing the measured intensity with a target intensity value; and adjusting, based on the comparison, an electrical control signal provided to the transmitter (para. [0030], detected peak holding circuit output compared with a reference voltage, integrator (33) integrates the difference voltage to obtain an adjust signal provided to control the laser pulse transmitted).
Chien does not disclose emitting the optical signal toward a maintenance area that is inside the lidar device. However, in the same field of endeavor, Lohmann teaches operation of a LIDAR system (Fig. 1, paragraphs [0046, 0048]), comprising a transmitter (8), receiver (10), and a maintenance area (reference object 17) that is inside the LIDAR device (i. e. inside a window of the housing 3). As explained in paras. [0016] &[0062], the measuring head makes a compete rotation to obtain measurements within the field of view, and at least part of the transmitted light at a particular angle reflects off the reference object; thus the reference object is substantially out of the field of view (e. g. 360 horizontal degrees) of the LIDAR. It would have been obvious to on skilled in the art before the effective filing date of the application, to operate the LIDAR system including the maintenance area (i. e. reference object) taught by Lohmann, in the method of operating LIDAR of Chien, to check for errors in the operation of the transmitter and/or receiver (Lohmann, para. [0063]).
With regard to claim 12, Chien discloses a lidar device comprising (see Fig. 1):
a transmitter (laser 11) configured to emit optical signals;
a power monitoring circuit (automatic peak loop) configured to monitor intensities associated with the optical signals;
wherein the transmitter is configured to emit an optical signal towards a target, wherein the power monitoring circuit is configured to measure an intensity of an incident signal corresponding to the optical signal (received laser pulse signal converted to current signal, para. [0033]), and wherein the at least one processor is programmed to perform operations comprising:
comparing the measured intensity with a target intensity value (see also Fig. 5) , and adjusting, based on the comparison, an electrical control signal provided to the transmitter (para. [0030], detected peak holding circuit output compared with a reference voltage, integrator (33) integrates the difference voltage to obtain an adjust signal provided to control the laser pulse transmitted)
Chien does not specifically disclose a maintenance area located inside the lidar device and outside a field of view for the lidar device; and at least one processor. However, in the same field of endeavor, Lohmann teaches a LIDAR system (Fig. 1, paragraphs [0046, 0048]), comprising a transmitter (8), receiver (10), and a maintenance area (reference object 17) that is inside the LIDAR device (i. e. inside a window of the housing 3). As explained in paras. [0016] &[0062], the measuring head makes a compete rotation to obtain measurements within the field of view, and reference object reflects at least part of the light transmitted to the object; thus the reference object is substantially out of the field of view (e. g. 360 horizontal degrees) of the LIDAR. It would have been obvious to on skilled in the art before the effective filing date of the application, to include the maintenance area (i. e. reference object) taught by Lohmann, in the LIDAR of Chien, to check for errors in the operation of the transmitter and/or receiver (Lohmann, para. [0063]).
With regard to claims 7 and 8, the measured intensity comprises a portion of the optical signal off the maintenance area, and is indicating the intensity of the optical signal (Lohmann, [0062]).
With regard to claims 10 and 19, Chien discloses that the control is done is a loop and is therefore an iterative technique (para. [0030]).
Claim(s) 2-6, 9 and 13-18 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Chien and Lohmann as applied to claims 1 and 12 above, and further in view of Slobodyanyuk et al. (US 2017/009019).
With regard to claim 2, 9, 13 and 18, Chien discloses that the detector is an avalanche photodetector (para. [0027]), which is a type of photodiode biased with a voltage during normal operation. Chien does not specifically disclose an amplifier stage coupled to the photodiode, an integrator stage coupled to the amplifier, and a converter coupled to the integrator stage. However, in the same field of endeavor, Slobodyanyuk teaches as part of a LIDAR system, a detector (Fig. 3) including an avalanche photodiode (304), an amplifier (306), an integrator (310), and a converter (ADC 312) coupled to each other in that order. These circuit elements provide the function of estimating the total reflected energy of the light pulse (para. [0007-0008], which is a way to compare the intensity of the pulse with a target intensity as required in the LIDAR system and method of operation of Chien as modified by Lohmann. Therefore, the claimed circuit elements would have been obvious to one skilled in the art, e. g. an optical or electrical engineer, before the effective filing date of the application.
With regard to claims 3 and 14, Chien discloses that the photodiode is configured to measure the intensity of the incident signal based on a conversion of the incident signal to an electrical signal.
With regard to claims 4 and 15, the gain applied to the electrical signal from the photodiode (APD) is varied before being applied to change the power level (Chien, [0034]).
With regard to claims 5 and 16, a capacitor is provided to store the amplified electrical signal from the amplifier (Chien, para. [0041]).
With regard to claims 6 and 17, Slobodyanyuk teaches that the converter samples an (analog) voltage provided by the integrator, and generates a (digital) output based on the magnitude of the voltage.
Allowable Subject Matter
Claims 11 and 20 are objected to as being dependent upon a rejected base claim, but would be allowable if rewritten in independent form including all of the limitations of the base claim and any intervening claims.
Conclusion
The prior art made of record and not relied upon is considered pertinent to applicant's disclosure: Wachter and Marchi disclose LIDAR calibration systems and methods
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the Examiner should be directed to ERIC L BOLDA whose telephone number is 571-272-8104. The examiner can normally be reached on M-F from 8:30am to 5pm.
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/ERIC L BOLDA/ Primary Examiner, Art Unit 3645