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 and claims bellow are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over D1 US 20200094677 A1 in view of D2 US 20220260686 A1.
Regarding claims bellow D1 teaches
1,5, 6, 7, 9, 12 , 17 A calibration apparatus comprising:
a calibration reference model(32) with a vertical pillar(fig. 4 fig. 7); and
and ranging (LiDAR) sensor configured to obtain pieces of scan data including the vertical pillar of the calibration reference model[0017], and
calibrate positions of the vertical pillar in pieces of scan data on the basis of a position of the vertical pillar in a specific piece of scan data among the obtained pieces of scan data.[0003][0030-0031]
determining reference scan data among the pieces of scan data, and calculating
degrees to which the vertical pillar is shifted laterally in other pieces of scan data on the basis of a position of the vertical pillar in the reference scan data;(fig. 7)
but does not teach while D2 teaches
a polygonal mirror rotating light wave detection[0004]
a polygonal mirror rotating light wave detection and ranging (LiDAR) sensor fixedly installed at a predetermined position and replaceable([0004] implicit car lidar components are replaceable); and
polygonal mirror rotating LiDAR sensor comprises a controller configured to obtain n pieces of scan data using n polygonal mirrors(fig. 8 implicit)
calibrate positions of the lidar in pieces of scan data on the basis of position data of the vertical pillar in a specific piece of scan data among the n pieces of scan data, wherein n is an integer greater than or equal to 2.[0075] (FOV is calibrated in such way that FOV maintains the pixel registration/alignment and hence virtual vertical alignment of the pixels of the same column is calibrated)
17. A calibration method comprising:
a) obtaining n pieces of scan data by scanning a calibration reference model, which includes a vertical points, while rotating n polygonal mirrors, wherein n is an integer greater than or equal to 2;[0075]( FOV and maintain pixel registration/alignment;)
b) calculating degrees to which the vertical points are shifted laterally in n-1 pieces of scan data on the basis of location data or the vertical pillar in specific scan data among the n pieces of scan data; and(implicit when setting up the FOV the vertical points of the same column should be aligned )
c) controlling pulse timing of transmission light to compensate for the calculated degrees so as to control location data of the vertical pillar to be included at the same position in all the n pieces of scan data.[0075]
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 set up square FOV which is limited by the calibration window frame and then scan the FOV.
2. The calibration apparatus of claim 1, wherein the polygonal mirror rotating LiDAR sensor and the calibration reference model are fixedly installed at predetermined positions.(D1 fig. 2 and D2 obvious vehicle lidar system is fixed)
3. The calibration apparatus of claim 2, wherein the polygonal mirror rotating LiDAR sensor is replaceable. (D2 implicit vehicle lidar system is fixed and replaceable )
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 replace lidar system in case of damage.
4. The calibration apparatus of claim 1, wherein the polygonal mirror rotating LiDAR sensor comprises:
a transmitter(D2 310) configured to transmit laser light;(D2 fig. 3)
a receiver(D2 330) configured to receive reflected light of the laser light from the transmitter;
a polygonal mirror(D2 340) configured to be rotated to reflect the laser light from the transmitter to the calibration reference model and cause laser light reflected from the calibration reference model(D1 fig. 2) to the receiver; and
a controller configured to control laser light output timing of the transmitter and calculate a distance to the calibration reference model by calculating a difference between time when light is output from the transmitter and time when the light is received by the receiver.[0031]
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 calibration of the scanning lidar .
8. The calibration apparatus of claim 7, wherein the controller converts the degrees to which the vertical pillar is shifted laterally into rotation angles of the polygonal mirror, and controls the output pulse timing of the transmitter on the basis of the rotation angles.(D2 [0075] obvious to one of ordinary skills in the art in order to create square scan pattern with individual column corresponding to single 360 degree rotation of the polygon mirror )(it is important to note that there are limited possibilities how to calibrate the system to set up FOV in such a way that columns are aligned and therefore pattern consist of parallel lines and all possibilities are predictable and consist of calibrating emission timing, rotation speed of mirror, repetition rate of pulses)
10, 18 The calibration apparatus of claim 9, wherein the controller calculates degrees to which the vertical pillar is shifted laterally in n-1 pieces of scan data on the basis of a position of the vertical pillar in reference scan data among the n pieces of scan data, and control output pulse timing of a transmitter to calibrate the degrees to which the vertical pillar is shifted.(D1 fig. 7 in combination with the specifics of the D2 polygon mirror)
11. The calibration apparatus of claim 10, wherein the controller converts the degrees to which the vertical pillar is shifted laterally into rotation angles of the polygonal mirrors, and controls the output pulse timing of the transmitter on the basis of the rotation angles.(obvious as shift can be as from mechanical misalignment similarly it can be cased by the initial miscalibration of the FOV as described in D2 [0075])
13. The calibration method of claim 12, wherein a number of the pieces of scan data is equal to that of the plurality of mirrors.(obvious modification if number of points in one column corresponds to number of the mirrors )
14. The calibration method of claim 12, wherein information about the degrees to which the vertical pillars are shifted laterally in the other pieces of scan data comprise directionality information of the vertical pillar in the reference scan data.(D1 fig. 7)
15. The calibration method of claim 12, wherein the calibrating of the degrees to which the vertical pillar is shifted laterally comprises adjusting pulse timing of transmission light.(obvious over D2 [0075] the motivation for claim 1)
16, 19 The calibration method of claim 15, wherein the adjusting of the pulse timing of the transmission light comprises:
converting the degrees to which the vertical pillar is shifted laterally into rotation angles of a polygonal mirror; and
controlling output pulse timing of the transmission light on the basis of the rotation angles.(obvious over D2 [0075] the points of the scan need to be aligned in order to create square FOV See motivation above)
Conclusion
Some explanation to rejection above
D1 teaches Scanning FOV and then aligning it with 32 as show in fig bellow
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D2 teaches using the polygon mirror to scan points in FOV. Initially if the pulse timing is misaligned with movement of the mirror the pattern will be like
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Where black points correspond to mirror of 6 sides rotating 360 degree and therefore in order to align the FOV with square sides of 32 and then align all that with the box of FOV one has to inherently either adjust timing of the emission or rotation speed. Inherently time of emission is correlated to the rotation speed and only after that adjustment one can achieve adjustment as bellow.
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/HOVHANNES BAGHDASARYAN/Examiner, Art Unit 3645