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 § 112
The following is a quotation of 35 U.S.C. 112(b):
(b) CONCLUSION.—The specification shall conclude with one or more claims particularly pointing out and distinctly claiming the subject matter which the inventor or a joint inventor regards as the invention.
The following is a quotation of 35 U.S.C. 112 (pre-AIA ), second paragraph:
The specification shall conclude with one or more claims particularly pointing out and distinctly claiming the subject matter which the applicant regards as his invention.
Claims 1-20 rejected under 35 U.S.C. 112(b) or 35 U.S.C. 112 (pre-AIA ), second paragraph, as being indefinite for failing to particularly point out and distinctly claim the subject matter which the inventor or a joint inventor (or for applications subject to pre-AIA 35 U.S.C. 112, the applicant), regards as the invention.
Independent claims refer to “near-field” and “far-field” which are relative terms and therefore unclear.
The BRI is any data / measurements of LIDAR /proximity sensor. Measurements /data of proximity sensor can always be divided to several distance regions such as short mid and long range.
Also claim 10 recites limitation “processing circuitry comprising a counter circuit, wherein the processing circuitry is configured to weight the near-field and the far-field measurements based on an output of the counter circuit and to produce first and second histograms of the weighted near-field measurements and the weighted far-field measurements.” It is unclear what counter circuit is counting. It can be just reception of the data (if data received then 1 if not then 0) but in that case the normalization is just factor 1 which is just building histogram and filling with event.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 101
35 U.S.C. 101 reads as follows:
Whoever invents or discovers any new and useful process, machine, manufacture, or composition of matter, or any new and useful improvement thereof, may obtain a patent therefor, subject to the conditions and requirements of this title.
Claims 1-20 rejected under 35 U.S.C. 101 because
the claimed invention is directed to data manipulation without significantly more. The claim(s) recite(s)” herein the proximity sensor is configured to split the near-field measurements into a first group of near-field measurements and a second group of near-field measurements based on respective locations of the SPAD pixels that produced the first and second groups of near-field measurements; and processing circuitry that receives the near-field measurements and the far-field measurements from the proximity sensor, wherein the processing circuitry is configured to produce a first histogram based on the first group of near-field measurements and is configured to produce a second histogram based on the second group of near-field measurements” for claim 1, “processing circuitry comprising a counter circuit, wherein the processing circuitry is configured to weight the near-field and the far-field measurements based on an output of the counter circuit and to produce first and second histograms of the weighted near-field measurements and the weighted far-field measurements” for claim 10. This judicial exception is not integrated into a practical application because it is just simple data collection using the sensor, and generation of the histogram is just simple displaying of the data. The claim(s) does/do not include additional elements that are sufficient to amount to significantly more than the judicial exception because “processing circuit, counter circuits” are just general purpose computers and SPAD detector is just means to collect data. The invention is not integrated into practical application as it does not improve any technology.
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) 1 and claims bellow are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(1) as being anticipated by US 20210396846 A1.
Regarding claim 1 D1 teaches
1. An electronic device, comprising:
a proximity sensor that generates near-field measurements and far-field measurements, wherein the proximity sensor comprises a light detector having an array of SPAD pixels [0033] with [0003], and wherein the proximity sensor is configured to split the near-field measurements into a first group of near-field measurements and a second group of near-field measurements based on respective locations of the SPAD pixels that produced the first and second groups of near-field measurements;[0003](short range and mid range) [0043] [0054]and
processing circuitry that receives the near-field measurements and the far-field measurements from the proximity sensor, wherein the processing circuitry is configured to produce a first histogram based on the first group of near-field measurements and is configured to produce a second histogram based on the second group of near-field measurements.[0063, 0076-0077]
10, 18 An electronic device, comprising:
a proximity sensor comprising a plurality of micro-pixels configured to generate far-field and near-field measurements; and[0033]
processing circuitry comprising a counter circuit, wherein the processing circuitry is configured to weight the near-field and the far-field measurements based on an output of the counter circuit and to produce first and second histograms of the weighted near-field measurements and the weighted far-field measurements.[0063]
2. The electronic device defined in claim 1, wherein the proximity sensor is configured to generate the near-field measurements over a first integration time and wherein the proximity sensor is configured to generate the far-field measurements over a second integration time that is greater than the first integration time.(fig. 7)
3. The electronic device defined in claim 2, wherein the proximity sensor is configured to generate the near-field measurements without generating far-field measurements(fig. 7) in response to the processing circuitry determining the presence of a near-field external object.[0060](different ranges provided with different shots and according to 0060 bias voltages based on data received from the photodetectors 24 indicating detection of prior shots and [0061] )
4. The electronic device defined in claim 1, wherein the array of SPAD pixels comprises a first group of the SPAD pixels and a second group of the SPAD pixels, wherein the first group of the SPAD pixels are configured to produce the first group of near-field measurements and the second group of the SPAD pixels are configured to produce the second group of near-field measurements.[0060-0061]
7, 15 The electronic device defined in claim 1, wherein the proximity sensor comprises:
a plurality of micropixels, wherein each of the micropixels comprises a plurality of individually addressable SPADs. [0060]
8, 16 The electronic device defined in claim 7, wherein the processing circuitry is further configured to adjust a saturation of the plurality of micropixels.[0030]( photodetector 24 may be biased at relatively high bias voltage that approaches, but is less than the breakdown voltage)
17. The electronic device defined in claim 16, wherein the processing circuitry is configured to adjust the saturation of the plurality of micropixels by adjusting the SPADs in response to an output of the counter circuit. [0030]
9. The electronic device defined in claim 1, wherein the processing circuitry is configured to weight the near-filed and far-field measurements based on a location of an external object. [0061] with [0063]
11. The electronic device defined in claim 10, wherein the counter circuit is gated based on a time period (sampling periods)during which the far-field measurements are generated.[0028]
12. The electronic device defined in claim 11, wherein the time period is a window of time over which the far-field measurements are integrated, and wherein the processing circuitry is configured to not integrate signals outside of the window.[0028](implicit counts correspond to sampling period)
13. The electronic device defined in claim 11, wherein the time period is a threshold, wherein the far-field measurements are integrated within the threshold, and wherein the processing circuitry is configured to not integrate signals outside of the threshold.[0028](implicit)
14. The electronic device defined in claim 11, wherein the processing circuitry is configured to integrate over a time period that includes the far-field measurements and that does not include the near-field measurements.(fig. 7 each histogram correspond to its shows and sampling +[0028])
19. The electronic device defined in claim 18, wherein the first and second histograms comprise histograms of only the near-field measurements.(fig. 7 different regions obtained in different steps)
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) 5 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over D1.
Regarding claim 5 D1 teaches
5. The electronic device defined in claim 1, wherein processing circuitry is further configured to generate a third histogram of the far-field measurements[0063], wherein the first and second histograms have first bin sizes and the third histogram has second bin sizes, Although D1 does not explicitly say wherein the second bin sizes are smaller than the first bin sizes this is just a matter of presenting distance with higher resolution and therefore obvious modification for one of ordinary skills in the art.
Although D1 does not explicitly say
6. The electronic device defined in claim 5, wherein the processing circuitry is configured to adjust sizes of the first and second histograms in response to measurements by the proximity sensor.
20. The electronic device defined in claim 18, wherein the first and second histograms comprise histograms of only the far-field measurements.
This is just a manipulation of the data in order to achieve desired representation which is obvious to one of ordinary skills in the art.
Conclusion
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/HOVHANNES BAGHDASARYAN/Examiner, Art Unit 3645