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 .
Priority
Receipt is acknowledged of papers submitted under 35 U.S.C. 119(a)-(d), which papers have been placed of record in the file.
Claim Amendments
Acknowledgment of receiving amendments to the claims, which were received by the Office on 03/11/2026.
Response to Arguments
Applicant’s arguments with respect to claims 1-4 and 16 have been considered but are moot because the arguments do not apply to the same combination of references being used in the current rejection. Applicant’s arguments are directed solely to the claimed invention as amended 03/11/2026, which has been rejected under new ground of rejection necessitated by amendment. See rejection below for full detail.
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 9 and 12 are 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.
Claim 9 recites the limitation "the optical member" in line 3. There is insufficient antecedent basis for this limitation in the claim. Alternatively, it is unclear if “the optical member” is referring to “a first optical member” or “a second optical member”.
Claim 12 recites the limitation "the optical member" in line 4. There is insufficient antecedent basis for this limitation in the claim. Alternatively, it is unclear if “the optical member” is referring to “a first optical member” or “a second optical member”.
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.
Claim(s) 1-9, 11-14 and 16 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Kobayashi (JP 6635764 B2, Translation provided) in view of Mori (JP 2019090952 A, Translation provided) in view of Chino et al. (US 2021/0067704 A1).
Regarding claim 1, Kobayashi teaches a control apparatus for a lens apparatus that can tilt a focal plane with respect to an imaging plane by moving an optical member of an optical system relative to an optical axis of the optical system (Kobayashi, Fig. 1, Page 2, Lines 27-35, Page 3, Lines 15-20, Fig. 11, Step S9, Page 6, Lines 10-12), the control apparatus comprising:
one or more processors (Kobayashi, Fig. 10, subject detection unit 104, subject coordinate calculation unit 105, distance measuring unit 110 and tilt-focus imaging plane calculation unit 106) causing the control apparatus to function as:
an acquiring unit configured to acquire information about at least three objects (Kobayashi, Fig. 10, subject detection unit 104, Page 4, Lines 11-14, Fig. 11, Step S2 Page 4, Lines 43-45);
a control unit configured to acquire information about at least three spatial coordinate points corresponding to positions of the at least three objects for forming the focal plane based on the information about the at least three objects (Kobayashi, Fig. 10, subject coordinate calculation unit 105, distance measuring unit 110 and tilt-focus imaging plane calculation unit 106, Page 4, Lines 15-26, Fig. 11-13, Steps S3-S4, Page 4, lines 43-58, Page 5, Lines 1-8), and
wherein the control unit is further configured to construct the focal plane based on the information about the at least three spatial coordinate points (Kobayashi, Figs. 11 and 14, Step S5, Page 5, Lines 9-41).
However, Kobayashi does not teach moving a first optical member and a second optical member of an optical system in a direction perpendicular to an optical axis of the optical system, the at least three objects are instructed by a user; and wherein the control unit is further configured to control the first optical member and the second optical member such that the first optical member and the second optical member are movable in a same direction perpendicular to the optical axis of the optical system or in opposite directions perpendicular to the optical axis of the optical system to provide one of a tilt effect for tilting the focal plane or a shift effect for correcting a composition shift.
In reference to Mori, Mori teaches a lens apparatus that can tilt a focal plane with respect to an imaging plane by moving a first optical member (Mori, Figs. 1 or 4, portion L2b of the second lens unit L2, Page 2, Lines 38-41 and lines 57-60, Page 3, Lines 10-26) and a second optical member (Mori, Figs. 1 or 4, portion L4a or L3b, Page 2, Lines 38-41 and lines 57-60, Page 3, Lines 10-26) of an optical system in a direction perpendicular to an optical axis of the optical system (Mori, Figs. 1 or 4, Page 2, Lines 38-41 and lines 57-60, Page 3, Lines 10-26);
wherein the control unit is further configured to control the first optical member and the second optical member such that the first optical member and the second optical member are movable in a same direction perpendicular to the optical axis of the optical system or in opposite directions perpendicular to the optical axis of the optical system to provide one of a tilt effect for tilting the focal plane or a shift effect for correcting a composition shift (Mori, Figs. 1 or 4, Page 2, Lines 25-26, 38-41 and lines 57-60, Page 3, Lines 10-26, The first and second optical members are movable in the same or opposite directions perpendicular to the optical axis and provide both a tilt effect and a shift effect for correcting a composition shift.).
These arts are analogous since they are both related to tilt-shift imaging devices. Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention (AIA ) to modify the invention of Kobayashi with the optical system including the method of moving an optical member as seen in Mori to provide a zoom lens which is compact in the whole system and can easily perform tilt imaging with few composition shifts (Mori, Page 2, Lines 18-19).
However, the combination of Kobayashi and Mori does not teach the at least three objects are instructed by a user.
In reference to Chino et al. (hereafter referred as Chino), Chino teaches a control apparatus (Chino, Fig. 1) for a lens apparatus (Chino, Fig. 1, zoom lens 101, focus lens 102, Paragraph 0026) that can tilt a focal plane with respect to an imaging plane by moving an optical member of an optical system relative to an optical axis of the optical system (Chino, Fig. 1, Paragraph 0026, “the tilt driver may tilt the imaging optical system”), the control apparatus comprising:
an acquiring unit configured to acquire information about at least three objects instructed by a user (Chino, Fig. 1, in-focus evaluation value calculator (acquiring unit) 112 and object setter 113, Paragraph 0022-0023 and 0032, Three objects may be selected.); and
These arts are analogous since they are all related to tilt-shift imaging devices. Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention (AIA ) to modify the combination of Kobayashi and Mori with the method acquiring information about at least three objects instructed by a user as seen in Chino to allow the user to determine the objects to be in focus.
Claims 13-14 are rejected for the same reasons as claim 1.
Regarding claim 2, the combination of Kobayashi, Mori and Chino teaches the control apparatus according to claim 1 (see claim 1 analysis), wherein the control unit is further configured to control a third the optical member using information about the position of at least one object of the at least three objects in order to correct focus shift caused by a positional shift of the at least one object from the optical system (Mori, Figs. 1 and 4, Lens unit B, Page 3, Lines 24-26, Kobayashi, Page 4, Lines 22-26).
Regarding claim 3, the combination of Kobayashi, Mori and Chino teaches the control apparatus according to claim 1 (see claim 2 analysis), wherein the optical system includes a focus member configured to perform focusing by moving along the optical axis (Mori, Figs. 1 and 4, Lens group L2, Page 3, Lines 1-4), and
wherein the control unit is further configured to control the third optical member and the focus member so as to correct the focus shift using the information about the position of the at least one object (Mori, Figs. 1 and 4, Lens group L2 and Lens unit B, Page 3, Lines 1-4 and 24-26).
Regarding claim 4, the combination of Kobayashi, Mori and Chino teaches the control apparatus according to claim 1 (see claim 1 analysis), wherein the information about the positions of the at least three objects is position information in a space with the imaging plane being a reference (Kobayashi, Figs. 12-13, Page 4, lines 43-58, Page 5, Lines 1-8).
Regarding claim 5, the combination of Kobayashi, Mori and Chino teaches the control apparatus according to claim 1 (see claim 1 analysis), wherein the information about the positions of the at least three objects includes coordinate information on a spatial coordinate system with the imaging plane being a reference (Kobayashi, Figs. 12-13, Page 4, lines 43-58, Page 5, Lines 1-8), and
wherein the control unit is further configured to control the first optical member and the second optical member (Mori, Figs. 1 or 4, L2b and L4a or L3b) so that a first plane based on the information about the positions of the at least three objects before an orientation of the optical system changes and a second plane based on the information about the positions of the at least three objects after the orientation of the optical system changes correspond to each other (Kobayashi, Figs. 11 and 14, Step S5, Page 5, Lines 9-41, The first plane is considered to be the plane of the objects. The second plane is considered to be the plane of the focal plane after performing the tilt-shift.).
Regarding claim 6, the combination of Kobayashi, Mori and Chino teaches the control apparatus according to claim 5 (see claim 5 analysis), wherein the control unit is further configured to control first optical member and second optical member such that the second plane corresponds to the first plane using an intersecting line between the first plane and the second plane as a rotation axis (Kobayashi, Figs. 11 and 14, Step S5, Page 5, Lines 9-41, Chino, Fig. 2C, Paragraphs 0027-0029, The intersecting line (line going into the page) where the optical axis intersects the focal plane is the rotation axis of the focal plane (second plane). The intersecting line is between a first end of the focal plane/second plane (end toward the image sensor) and the first plane (object plane). Figure 2C is referenced to describe the corresponding planes of Kobayashi.).
Regarding claim 7, the combination of Kobayashi, Mori and Chino teaches the control apparatus according to claim 5 (see claim 5 analysis), wherein the optical system includes a focus member configured to perform focusing by moving along the optical axis (Mori, Figs. 1 and 4, Lens group L2, Page 3, Lines 1-4), and
wherein the control unit is further configured to control a third optical member Mori, Figs. 1 and 4, Lens unit B, Page 3, Lines 24-26 and the focus member such that the second plane corresponds to the first plane (Chino, Fig. 2C, Paragraph 0028).
Regarding claim 8, the combination of Kobayashi, Mori and Chino teaches the control apparatus according to claim 1 (see claim 1 analysis), further comprising a memory configured to store the information about the position of the at least three objects (Kobayashi, Page 4, Lines 15-26, Fig. 11-13, Steps S3-S4, Page 4, lines 43-58, Page 5, Lines 1-8, Storing the information of the position of the object is implicit since it is necessary so that it can be further used by the acquiring unit and control unit.).
Regarding claim 9, the combination of Kobayashi, Mori and Chino teaches a lens apparatus (Kobayashi, Fig. 10) comprising:
the control apparatus according to claim 1 (Chino, Fig. 1, Image sensor 106); and
the optical member (Mori, Figs. 1 or 4, portion L2b of the second lens unit L2)).
Regarding claim 11, the combination of Kobayashi, Mori and Chino teaches an image pickup apparatus (Kobayashi, Fig. 10) comprising:
the control apparatus according to claim 1 (see claim 1 analysis); and
an image sensor including the imaging plane (Kobayashi, Fig. 10, image sensor 102).
Regarding claim 12, the combination of Kobayashi, Mori and Chino teaches a camera system (Kobayashi, Fig. 10) comprising:
the control apparatus according to claim 1 (see claim 1 analysis);
an image sensor including the imaging plane (Kobayashi, Fig. 10, image sensor 102); and
the optical member (Mori, Figs. 1 or 4, portion L2b of the second lens unit L2, Page 2, Lines 38-41 and lines 57-60, Page 3, Lines 10-26).
Regarding claim 16, the combination of Kobayashi, Mori and Chino teaches the control apparatus according to claim 1 (see claim 1 analysis), wherein the control unit is further configured to control an angle of tilting the focal plane and a direction of a rotation axis for tilting the focal plane (Mori, Paragraph 0044, The angle of tilting and a direction of a rotation axis (tilt control with respect to both the horizontal and vertical directions) are controlled.).
Claim(s) 8 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Kobayashi (JP 6635764 B2, Translation provided) in view of Mori (JP 2019090952 A, Translation provided) in view of Chino et al. (US 2021/0067704 A1) in view of Makii (US 2010/0103311 A1).
Alternatively, regarding claim 8, the combination of Kobayashi, Mori and Chino teaches the control apparatus according to claim 1 (see claim 1 analysis). However, the combination of Kobayashi, Mori and Chino does not explicitly state further comprising a memory configured to store the information about the position of the object.
In reference to Makii, Makii teaches a memory configured to store the information about the position of the object (Makii, Fig. 3, Ram 32, Paragraph 0098 and 0101).
These arts are analogous since they are both related to imaging devices assigning objects for tilt-shift focus. Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention (AIA ) to modify the combination of Kobayashi, Mori and Chino with the explicit teaching of storing object position as seen in Makii to allow the position to be referenced for subsequent processing.
Claim(s) 6 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Kobayashi (JP 6635764 B2, Translation provided) in view of Mori (JP 2019090952 A, Translation provided) in view of Chino et al. (US 2021/0067704 A1) in view of Okuda (US 2017/0192247 A1).
Alternatively, regarding claim 6, the combination of Kobayashi, Mori and Chino teaches the control apparatus according to claim 5 (see claim 5 analysis), wherein the control unit controls the optical member such that the second plane corresponds to the first plane (Kobayashi, Figs. 11 and 14, Step S5, Page 5, Lines 9-41).
However, the combination of Kobayashi, Mori and Chino does not teach controlling the optical member such that the second plane corresponds to the first plane using an intersecting line between the first plane and the second plane as a rotation axis.
In reference to Okuda, Okuda teaches controlling the at least one optical member such that a focal plane corresponds to an object plane using an intersecting line between the object plane and the focal plane as a rotation axis (Okuda, Figs. 3B and 3C, Paragraphs 0044-0050, The intersection between the in-focus object surface 303a/303b (focal plane) and the object surface 305a/305b (object plane) creates an intersecting line into the page. The in-focus object surface 303a/303b rotates using the intersecting line as a rotation axis.
These arts are analogous since they are both related to imaging devices assigning objects for tilt-shift focus. Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention (AIA ) to modify the combination of Kobayashi, Mori and Chino with the explicit teaching of rotating the focal plane along the object plane as seen in Okuda in the situation where an object is located on the optical axis.
Conclusion
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to WESLEY JASON CHIU whose telephone number is (571)270-1312. The examiner can normally be reached Mon-Fri: 8am-4pm.
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/WESLEY J CHIU/Examiner, Art Unit 2639
/TWYLER L HASKINS/Supervisory Patent Examiner, Art Unit 2639
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