Prosecution Insights
Last updated: April 19, 2026
Application No. 18/206,909

OPTICAL SENSING SYSTEM, OPTICAL SENSING DEVICE, AND OPTICAL SENSING METHOD

Non-Final OA §102§103
Filed
Jun 07, 2023
Examiner
BAGHDASARYAN, HOVHANNES
Art Unit
3645
Tech Center
3600 — Transportation & Electronic Commerce
Assignee
NEC Corporation
OA Round
1 (Non-Final)
78%
Grant Probability
Favorable
1-2
OA Rounds
3y 1m
To Grant
94%
With Interview

Examiner Intelligence

Grants 78% — above average
78%
Career Allow Rate
759 granted / 971 resolved
+26.2% vs TC avg
Strong +16% interview lift
Without
With
+16.1%
Interview Lift
resolved cases with interview
Typical timeline
3y 1m
Avg Prosecution
85 currently pending
Career history
1056
Total Applications
across all art units

Statute-Specific Performance

§101
2.6%
-37.4% vs TC avg
§103
45.7%
+5.7% vs TC avg
§102
21.5%
-18.5% vs TC avg
§112
23.9%
-16.1% vs TC avg
Black line = Tech Center average estimate • Based on career data from 971 resolved cases

Office Action

§102 §103
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) 1 , 7, 13 and claims bellow are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(1) as being anticipated by D1 KR 20200135246 A . Regarding claims 1, 7, 13 D1 teaches 1. An optical sensing system comprising: a three-dimensional scanner (400) configured to scan a measurement target with a laser light and receive reflected light of the laser light to generate distance data indicating a distance to the measurement target and luminance data indicating luminance of the reflected light, and (fig. 1 page 2 3 lidar) an intensity determination circuit (implicit lidar calculates eye safety page 4 “ If the repeatability of the transmitted laser beam increases as the distance approaches, it may affect the laser eye safety. The power control unit 322 calculates the laser safety level by receiving the repeatability information ( eg , frequency) of the laser beam transmitted from the repeatability control unit 321, and calculates the laser safety level according to the calculated laser safety level. Adjust the output power of the laser beam emitted from ). ” according to distance page 5 “ In addition, the synchronization unit 323 provides distance information for each object to the repetition degree control unit 321 and the power control unit 322, and is transmitted from the transmission unit 100 according to the distance information to each object. Adjust the repeatability of the laser beam and the output power of the laser beam. ”) configured to dynamically determine intensity of the laser light based on the distance data so as to suppress a change in luminance of the reflected light caused by a length of the distance during the scanning of the three-dimensional scanner. (implicit the fact that it maintains eye safety means that at least in case of the person approaching to lidar it decreases the power each time person approaches closer to the vehicle in the way that eye safety criterion is satisfied.) 2 , 8, 14 The optical sensing system according to claim 1, wherein the intensity determination circuit is further configured to determine the intensity of the laser light so that the distance and the intensity have a positive correlation. (implicit as in case when the human is on borderline of the eye safety approaches to vehicle the system should decrease the laser power in order to further satisfy eye safety standard.) 6, 12, 18 The optical sensing system according to claim 1, further comprising a point cloud data generation circuit configured to generate point cloud data based on the distance data and the luminance data generated by the three-dimensional scanner. (implicit as distance is calculated and for each distance eye safety standards are checked and power of beam is adjusted the obtained point cloud data will be based on the distance and luminance) 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) 3, 9, 15 , 5, 11, 17 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over D1 in view of D2 US 20220113407 A1 . Regarding claims 3, 9, 15, although D1 does not explicitly teach 3 , 9, 15 The optical sensing system according to claim 2, wherein the intensity determination circuit is further configured to determine the intensity of the laser light based on a value obtained by squaring the distance. Due to the fact that attenuation changes with square of the distance it will be obvious modification to satisfy the standards, but at the same time D2 teaches wherein the intensity determination circuit is further configured to determine the intensity of the laser light based on a value obtained by squaring the distance. [0056] 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 take into account energy/intensity loss associated with attenuation of the beam. Although D1 does not explicitly teach 5, 11, 17 The optical sensing system according to claim 2, wherein the intensity determination circuit is further configured to determine the intensity by referring to an intensity determination table indicating a correspondence relationship between the distance and the intensity of the laser light. Using the table instead of the formula is just obvious modification in order to avoid same calculation multiple times and therefore safe computer time. Claim(s) 4, 10, 16 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over D1 in view of D3 CN 114518568 B . Although D1 does not explicitly say 4 , 10,16 The optical sensing system according to claim 2, wherein the intensity determination circuit is further configured to: determine the intensity of the laser light as a first intensity when the distance is longer than a predetermined value, and determine the intensity of the laser light as a second intensity lower than the first intensity when the distance is shorter than the predetermined value. D1 explicitly teaches determining the intensity of the beam at multiple length ( page 5 Meanwhile, FIG. 5 is a diagram illustrating an application example of a lidar scanning device according to a third embodiment of the present invention. In FIG. 5, a plurality of scanners 400: 410 and 420 may be provided. Two scanners are illustrated for convenience of description, but the present invention is not limited thereto. Each of the plurality of scanners rotates at different speeds, and rotation speeds may be assigned for each measurement distance. For example, the scanner A 410 may be allocated for measuring a short distance within 150 m, and the scanner B 420 may be allocated for measuring a long distance within a range of 150 m to 300 m. In this case, the scanner B 420 for long-distance measurement may be assigned to be smaller than the rotational speed of the scanner A 410 for short-range measurement. ) and due to the fact that eye safety standards are different the intensity will be changed accordingly according to (page 4) D3 teaches determine the intensity of the laser light as a first intensity when the distance is longer than a predetermined value, and determine the intensity of the laser light as a second intensity lower than the first intensity when the distance is shorter than the predetermined value. ( page 19 “ Thus, according to a second aspect of the present invention, the first detection laser beam in the telemetry mode and the second detection laser beam in the proximity mode can be independently separated. according to the feedback of the detection result, correspondingly adjusting the luminous intensity of the first detection laser beam (if there is an object in a short distance, reducing the light intensity of the first detection laser beam; if there is no object, keeping the light intensity of the first detecting laser beam unchanged), and not adjusting the light intensity of the second detecting laser beam. By this way, it can reduce the luminous power consumption of measuring distance on the basis of not weakening the ability of detecting in short distance. ”) 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 D3 in order to effectively detect the signal at different distances(without saturating the detector) and reduce luminous power consumption. Conclusion Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to FILLIN "Examiner name" \* MERGEFORMAT HOVHANNES BAGHDASARYAN whose telephone number is FILLIN "Phone number" \* MERGEFORMAT (571)272-7845 . The examiner can normally be reached FILLIN "Work Schedule?" \* MERGEFORMAT Mon-Fri 7am - 5 pm . Examiner interviews are available via telephone, in-person, and video conferencing using a USPTO supplied web-based collaboration tool. To schedule an interview, applicant is encouraged to use the USPTO Automated Interview Request (AIR) at http://www.uspto.gov/interviewpractice. If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner’s supervisor, FILLIN "SPE Name?" \* MERGEFORMAT Yuqing Xiao can be reached at FILLIN "SPE Phone?" \* MERGEFORMAT (571) 270-3603 . The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300. Information regarding the status of published or unpublished applications may be obtained from Patent Center. Unpublished application information in Patent Center is available to registered users. To file and manage patent submissions in Patent Center, visit: https://patentcenter.uspto.gov. Visit https://www.uspto.gov/patents/apply/patent-center for more information about Patent Center and https://www.uspto.gov/patents/docx for information about filing in DOCX format. For additional questions, contact the Electronic Business Center (EBC) at 866-217-9197 (toll-free). If you would like assistance from a USPTO Customer Service Representative, call 800-786-9199 (IN USA OR CANADA) or 571-272-1000. /HOVHANNES BAGHDASARYAN/ Examiner, Art Unit 3645
Read full office action

Prosecution Timeline

Jun 07, 2023
Application Filed
Mar 02, 2026
Non-Final Rejection — §102, §103 (current)

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Study what changed to get past this examiner. Based on 5 most recent grants.

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Prosecution Projections

1-2
Expected OA Rounds
78%
Grant Probability
94%
With Interview (+16.1%)
3y 1m
Median Time to Grant
Low
PTA Risk
Based on 971 resolved cases by this examiner. Grant probability derived from career allow rate.

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