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 –
(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.
Claim(s) s 1 and bellow are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(1) as being anticipated by D1 US 20160003940 A1.
Regarding claims 1, 16 D1 teaches
1. An apparatus suitable for facilitating synchronization of an active device(A fig. 9) and a passive device(E fig 9), the apparatus comprising:
a processor(implicit [0044-0055] synchronization is done on some type of processor[0024]) coupled to at least one of the active device and the passive device, the processor configurable to at least one of:[0024]
perform a first set of processing tasks in association with a first synchronization stage; and[0044-0055]
perform a second set of processing tasks in association with a second synchronization stage, [0044-0055]wherein the first synchronization stage is associable with coarse synchronization of the active device and passive device, coarse synchronization comprising coarse time synchronization of the active and passive devices, and[0044-0055]
wherein the second synchronization stage is associable with fine synchronization of the active device and passive device, fine synchronization comprising fine time synchronization of the active and passive devices. [0044-0055]
9. The apparatus according to claim 1, wherein fine time synchronization of the active device and passive device comprises matching as between the active device and the passive device in a manner so as to determine at least one fine- tuning factor.[0046-0048]
10. The apparatus according to claim 9, wherein the fine-tuning factor is determined by manner of point-cloud based matching in association with the active device and the passive device.(implicit fig. 9 time to the same target or the same point in 3D is used)
11. The apparatus according to claim 10, wherein the active device is capable(not positive limitation no patentable weight ) not positive limitation no patentable weight ) of determining a reference point cloud comprising at least one reference cloud point.(fig. 9 implicit point B is used for target)
12. The apparatus according to claim 11, wherein the passive device is capable(not positive limitation no patentable weight ) of determining an estimate point cloud comprising a plurality of estimate cloud points of which at least one is capable of being associated with the reference cloud point
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) 2, 3, 16 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over D1.
Regarding claim 16 D1 teaches
16. A processing method for facilitating synchronization between an active device and a passive device, the processing method comprising:
a coarse synchronization step comprising performing a first set of processing tasks to perform the tasks of: [0044-0055]
communicating signal from the active device(A fig. 9) toward a target(B), and
initiating capturing of light reflected from the target by the passive device(E); and
a fine synchronization step comprising performing a second set of processing tasks to perform the task of matching as between the active device and the passive device in a manner so as to determine at least one fine-tuning factor.[0044-0055]
6. The apparatus according to claim 1, wherein coarse time synchronization of the active device and passive device comprises communication of signal from an active device toward a target and initiating capturing of light reflected from the target by the passive device.(fig. 9)
but does not teach light
Using the light or sound or any other type of electromagnetic signal is just matter of the design choice depending of desire perform synchronization on radar lidar , sonar or any other type of communication device.
2, 18 The apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the active device corresponds to a first LIDAR (light detection and ranging) device capable of at least one of communicating light and detection, and
wherein the passive device corresponds to a second LIDAR device capable of detection.
3. The apparatus according to claim 2, wherein the first LIDAR device corresponds to a first LIDAR camera and the second LIDAR device corresponds to a second LIDAR camera.
It would be obvious to one of ordinary skills in the art at the time of filing to modify teachings by D1 to use light in order to perform ranging using LIDAR device.
15. The apparatus according to claim 1, wherein fine synchronization is subsequent to coarse synchronization._(D1 [0045-0055])
19. A computer program comprising instructions which, when the program is executed by a computer, cause the computer to carry out at least one of the coarse synchronization step, the fine synchronization step and the switching step according to the processing method of claim 16.(D1 [0045-0055])
20. A computer readable storage medium having data stored therein representing software executable by a computer, the software including instructions, when executed by the computer, to carry out at least one of the coarse synchronization step, the fine synchronization step and the switching step according to the processing method of claim 16. (D1 [0045-0055])
Claim(s) bellow is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over D1 in view of D2 US 20200064452 A1.
Regarding claims D1 does not explicitly teach but D2 teaches
4, 17 The apparatus according to claim 1 further comprising a switching part coupled to the processor, the switching part being further coupled to the active device and the passive device.[0062]
5, 17 The apparatus according to claim 4, wherein the switching part is configurable to facilitate switching between the active device and the passive device such that:[0062] with fig. 3C
the active device is switched to become a passive device, and:[0062] with fig. 3C
the passive device is switched to become an active device. :[0062] with fig. 3C
7. The apparatus according to claim 6, wherein capturing of light reflected from the target being associated with an overlap area between a coverage region associated with the active device and another coverage region associated with the passive device.(fig. 3C)
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 perform separate synchronization between vehicles on the road.
Claim(s) 8 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over D1.
Although D1 does not explicitly teach
8. The apparatus according to claim 7, wherein coarse time synchronization of the active device and the passive device is based on Precision time protocol.
Choice of the well known protocol is just matter of the design choice and simple experimentation within one of skills in the art.
Allowable Subject Matter
Claim 13, 14 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
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/HOVHANNES BAGHDASARYAN/Examiner, Art Unit 3645