DETAILED ACTION
Notice of Pre-AIA or AIA Status
1. The present application, filed on or after March 16, 2013, is being examined under the first inventor to file provisions of the AIA . The Amendment filed 7 October, 2025 (hereinafter “the
Amendment’) has been entered and considered. Claims 1, 5, 7-16 have been amended. Claims 2-4 and 20 have been cancelled. Claims 1, 5-6, 9, and 14-15 are rejected. All new grounds of rejection set forth in the present action were necessitated by Applicants’ claim amendments; accordingly, this action is made final.
Response to Amendment
2. Response to Arguments
§112(b) Rejections
The §112(b) rejections from the associated Non-Final Rejection dated 1 October, 2025 are withdrawn in light of the amendment..
§112(f) Rejections
The §112(f)interpretation from the associated Non-Final Rejection dated 1 October, 2025 is withdrawn.
Applicant’s arguments are largely rendered moot in view of new grounds of rejection set forth below that were necessitated by the Applicant’s claim amendments.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 103
3. 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.
4. Claims 1, 5-6, and 15 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over US 20170039688 A1: Shingo Hirayama, (herein after “Hirayama”) in view of “TOF Range-Imaging Cameras” by Fabio Remondino et al., (herein after “Remondino”) and in further view of US 20210360179 A1: Shusil Dangi et al., (herein after “Dangi”).
Regarding claim 1, A distance image sensor device comprising (Hirayama, P[0025]: “The subject distance detecting unit 105 measures subject distances to respective subjects in an optical image”):
(Hirayama, P[0063]: “Embodiment(s) of the present invention can also be realized by a computer of a system or apparatus that reads out and executes computer executable instructions (e.g., one or more programs) recorded on a storage medium (which may also be referred to more fully as a ‘non-transitory computer-readable storage medium’) to perform the functions of one or more of the above-described embodiment(s) and/or that includes one or more circuits (e.g., application specific integrated circuit (ASIC)) for performing the functions of one or more of the above-described embodiment(s), and by a method performed by the computer of the system or apparatus by, for example, reading out and executing the computer executable instructions from the storage medium to perform the functions of one or more of the above-described embodiment(s) and/or controlling the one or more circuits to perform the functions of one or more of the above-described embodiment(s). The computer may comprise one or more processors (e.g., central processing unit (CPU), micro processing unit (MPU)) and may include a network of separate computers or separate processors to read out and execute the computer executable instructions. The computer executable instructions may be provided to the computer, for example, from a network or the storage medium. The storage medium may include, for example, one or more of a hard disk, a random-access memory (RAM), a read only memory (ROM), a storage of distributed computing systems, an optical disk (such as a compact disc (CD), digital versatile disc (DVD), or Blu-ray Disc (BD)™), a flash memory device, a memory card, and the like.”):
setting operation conditions including a frequency and a gamma curve profile adapted to a predetermined distance measurement range is disclosed by Hirayama in the §Abstract: “A luminance histogram is detected from an image including a subject, and a subject distance to the subject is measured. A frequency percentage, which defines a luminance range in the luminance histogram for use in calculating a control point for a tone curve used to correct contrast of the image, is decided according to the subject distance. The frequency percentage is higher when the subject distance is long than when the subject distance is short.”, where the Tone Curve Generating Unit provides operating conditions for gamma correction which is based on the detected distance to the subject and luminance histogram.;
receiving, by a plurality of light receiving pixels observation light in the target area (Hirayama, P[0024]: “an optical image is formed on the image pickup device 109 through the lens group 107 and the IRCF 108. The image pickup device 109 performs photoelectric conversion of the formed optical image and transmits analog image signal.” Where light-receiving pixels are the fundamental unit of a digital image sensor.) in response to the pulse light and each outputting an electric signal according to an electric charge accumulated by photoelectric conversion (Hirayama, P[0024]: “an optical image is formed on the image pickup device 109 through the lens group 107 and the IRCF 108. The image pickup device 109 performs photoelectric conversion of the formed optical image and transmits analog image signal.”);
calculating a distance to an object in the target area (Hirayama, P[0025]: “The subject distance detecting unit 105 measures subject distances to respective subjects in an optical image” and Hirayama, Fig. 1: Subject Distance Detecting Unit (105)) on a basis of the electric signal output from each of the plurality of light receiving pixels (Hirayama, P[0024]: “an optical image is formed on the image pickup device 109 through the lens group 107 and the IRCF 108. The image pickup device 109 performs photoelectric conversion of the formed optical image and transmits analog image signal.” Where light-receiving pixels are the fundamental unit of a digital image sensor.) and outputting distance data based on the distance (Hirayama, Fig. 1: Subject Distance Detecting Unit (105), §Abstract: “a subject distance to the subject is measured”);
performing gamma correction on the output distance data (Hirayama, Fig. 1: Gamma Correcting Unit (113), where the output distance data is interdependent on the luminance) by applying the gamma curve profile in the set operation conditions to produce gamma- corrected distance data (Hirayama, P[0025]: “sends the measured subject distances to the tone curve generating unit 104. The gamma correction unit 113 carries out a gamma correction process on image data using a tone curve received from the tone curve generating unit 104.”); and
transmitting the gamma-corrected distance data to a host device is disclosed by Hirayama in P[0063]: “The computer may comprise one or more processors (e.g., central processing unit (CPU), micro processing unit (MPU)) and may include a network of separate computers or separate processors to read out and execute the computer executable instructions. The computer executable instructions may be provided to the computer, for example, from a network or the storage medium.”; and
setting one of the candidate operation conditions (Hirayama, P[0063]: “a computer of a system or apparatus that reads out and executes computer executable instructions (e.g., one or more programs) recorded on a storage medium … The computer may comprise one or more processors (e.g., central processing unit (CPU), micro processing unit (MPU)) and may include a network of separate computers or separate processors to read out and execute the computer executable instructions.”) , where the host device is supplied by Hirayama as in P[0063].
Hirayama does not explicitly disclose emitting, by a light emitter pulse light to a target area at the frequency under the set operation conditions.
However, Remondino discloses emitting, by a light emitter pulse light to a target area at the frequency under the set operation conditions in Fig. 1: TOF detection system, and further in §5, Single-Photon Synchronous Detection, Equation (3), and P[001]: “f0 is the modulation frequency”, where the frequency value is picked and provided by Hirayama based on the distance measurement.
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify Hirayama to incorporate pulse light emitting hardware for distance measurement, as taught by Remondino, to arrive at the claimed invention discussed above. Such a modification is the result of combining prior art elements according to known methods to yield predictable results. It is predictable that the proposed modification would have provided the benefit of greater robustness against ambient light than continuous-wave illumination.
The combination of Hirayama and Remondino does not explicitly disclose registers that respectively store candidate operating conditions and by designating one of the registers according to information for designating operation conditions.
However, Dangi discloses registers that respectively store candidate operating conditions and by designating one of the registers according to information for designating operation conditions in P[0090-0092]: “The focus control mechanism 125B of the control mechanisms 120 can obtain a focus setting. In some examples, focus control mechanism 125B store the focus setting in a memory register … The exposure control mechanism 125A of the control mechanisms 120 can obtain an exposure setting. In some cases, the exposure control mechanism 125A stores the exposure setting in a memory register … The zoom control mechanism 125C of the control mechanisms 120 can obtain a zoom setting. In some examples, the zoom control mechanism 125C stores the zoom setting in a memory register.” Where each of the control mechanisms 125A-125C have respectively stored operating conditions where the operating conditions are designated based on the control mechanism.
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify the combination of Hirayama and Remondino to utilize registers for storing specific tasks, as taught by Dangi, to arrive at the claimed invention discussed above. Such a modification is the result of combining prior art elements according to known methods to yield predictable results. It is predictable that the proposed modification would have provided the benefit of reducing computational load by reducing the number of processing steps by storing the instructions in a registry associated with a specific task.
Regarding claim 5, wherein the information for designating operation conditions is a selection condition received from the host device is disclosed by Dangi in P[0090-0092]: “The focus control mechanism 125B of the control mechanisms 120 can obtain a focus setting. In some examples, focus control mechanism 125B store the focus setting in a memory register … The exposure control mechanism 125A of the control mechanisms 120 can obtain an exposure setting. In some cases, the exposure control mechanism 125A stores the exposure setting in a memory register … The zoom control mechanism 125C of the control mechanisms 120 can obtain a zoom setting. In some examples, the zoom control mechanism 125C stores the zoom setting in a memory register.” Where each of the control mechanisms 125A-125C have respectively stored operating conditions where the operating conditions are designated based on the control mechanism. Furthermore, Dangi discloses host processing in P[0095] and networking in P[0100]: “In some examples, the image capture and processing system 100 can include one or more wireless transceivers for wireless communications, such as cellular network communications, 802.11 wi-fi communications, wireless local area network (WLAN) communications, or some combination thereof.”
Regarding claim 6, wherein the selection condition includes a condition for designating a specific region and an autofocus position of an image frame is disclosed by Hirayama in P[0025]: “measures subject distances to respective subjects in an optical image based on, for example, a zoom position and a focus positions of each lens and sends the measured subject distances”
Regarding claim 15, wherein the operations further comprise:
generating a light emission control signal for emitting the pulse light at a predetermined frequency (Fig. 1: TOF detection system, sensor control and interface, and further in §5, Single-Photon Synchronous Detection, Equation (3), and P[001]: “f0 is the modulation frequency”, where the frequency value is picked and provided by Hirayama based on the distance measurement.); and
generating the light emission control signal according to at least one of the candidate operation conditions (chosen frequency from §5, Single-Photon Synchronous Detection, Equation (3)) stored in the registers.
5. Claims 9 and 14 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over the combination of Hirayama, Remondino, and Dangi in view of US 20060092441 A1: Shuxue Quan et al., (herein after “Quan”).
Regarding claim 9, Hirayama discloses a gamma correction unit that performs gamma correction in Fig. 1, Gamma Correcting Unit, but the combination of Hirayama, Remondino, and Dangi does not explicitly disclose wherein the operations further comprise: optimizing the gamma curve profile in the set operation condition; and performing the gamma correction on the output distance data by applying the optimized gamma curve profile.
However, Quan discloses an apparatus, system, and method for optimizing gamma curves for digital image devices in P[0013]: “To determine appropriate gamma curve parameters 116 for the gamma curve function, a gamma curve optimization procedure is performed.”
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify the combination of Hirayama, Remondino, and Dangi to perform gamma curve optimization, as taught by Quan, to arrive at the claimed invention discussed above. Such a modification is the result of combining prior art elements according to known methods to yield predictable results. It is predictable that the proposed modification would have provided the benefit of reducing error caused from gamma correction on an image.
Regarding claim 14, wherein the operations further comprise: transmitting the optimized gamma curve profile to the host device is disclosed by Hirayama in Fig. 1, Gamma Correcting Unit, and P[0063]: “The computer may comprise one or more processors (e.g., central processing unit (CPU), micro processing unit (MPU)) and may include a network of separate computers or separate processors to read out and execute the computer executable instructions. The computer executable instructions may be provided to the computer, for example, from a network or the storage medium.”
Allowable Subject Matter
6. Claims 8, 10-11, and 16-19 are allowed.
Claims 7 and 12-13 are 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
7. Applicant's amendment necessitated the new ground(s) of rejection presented in this Office
action. Accordingly, THIS ACTION IS MADE FINAL. See MPEP § 706.07(a). Applicant is reminded of the extension of time policy as set forth in 37 CFR 1.136(a).
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/TY MITCHELL BEATTY/Examiner, Art Unit 2663
/GREGORY A MORSE/Supervisory Patent Examiner, Art Unit 2698