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 certified copies of papers required by 37 CFR 1.55.
Allowable Subject Matter
Claims 3, 9 and 13-14 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.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 103
The text of those sections of Title 35, U.S. Code not included in this action can be found in a prior Office action.
Claim(s) 1-2, 4-8, 10-12 and 15-16 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Shinohara et al. (PGPUB 20170276913) in view of Ito (PGPUB 20070115558).
Regarding claim 1, Shinohara discloses an optical imaging system, comprising:
a first lens group (L1), a reflective member (Prism), and a second lens group arranged sequentially along an optical axis (combination of lenses L2-L5),
wherein the first lens group is composed of one lens (L1), and the second lens group is composed of four to five lenses (combination of lenses L2 to L5),
wherein the first lens group has positive refractive power ([0047]), and the second lens group has positive refractive power as a whole (L2-L5 has a group focal length of approximately 23.3), and
wherein 0 < D1/f <0.05 is satisfied (Table 1 and [0046] where L1 and the prism are disclosed as cemented, which requires a material to mate the image-side surface of L1 and the object-side surface of the prism and means while the gap is essentially 0, it is still greater than zero due to this material – please also see the cited paragraph where the image-side surface may be some other shape and/or be air-gapped from the prism),
where D1 is a distance on the optical axis between an image-side surface of the lens included in the first lens group and the reflective member, and f is a total focal length of the optical imaging system.
Shinohara does not explicitly disclose wherein an effective diameter of the lens included in the first lens group is greater than an effective diameter of the lenses included in the second lens group.
However, Ito teaches another zoom lens wherein the first lens has the largest effective diameter of the system ([0072]).
It would have been obvious to one having ordinary skill in the art as of the effective filing date of the invention to combine Shinohara and Ito such that the first lens had the largest effective diameter motivated by providing a larger quantity of peripheral light and therefore improving the peripheral optical efficiency of the second lens group.
Regarding claim 2, modified Shinohara discloses wherein TTL/f > 1 is satisfied (Table 1 where TTL = 10.487 and f = 6.6 giving 1.6),
where TTL is a distance on the optical axis from an object-side surface of the lens included in the first lens group to an imaging surface.
Regarding claim 4, modified Shinohara discloses wherein the first lens group comprises a first lens, and the second lens group comprises a second lens, a third lens, a fourth lens, and a fifth lens (L1-L5), and v1 > 50 is satisfied, where v1 is an Abbe number of the first lens (See Table 1).
Regarding claims 5-6, modified Shinohara discloses wherein an Abbe number of the second lens is less than an Abbe number of the first lens and wherein 10 < v1-v2 < 60 is satisfied, where v2 is an Abbe number of the second lens (Table 1 56.6>20.4).
Regarding claim 7, modified Shinohara discloses wherein 0.2 < f/f1 <1 is satisfied (Table 1 where f = 6.6 and f1 = 8.21), where f1 is a focal length of the first lens.
Regarding claim 8, modified Shinohara discloses wherein 1.5 <|f2/f3|< 100 is satisfied (Table 1 where f2 = -7.02 and f3 = 3.5 giving 2.04),
where f2 is a focal length of the second lens, and f3 is a focal length of the third lens.
Regarding claim 10, modified Shinohara discloses wherein 0 < fG1/fG2 < 3 is satisfied (Table 1 where fG1 = 8.21 and fG2 may be calculated to be 23.32),
where fG1 is a focal length of the first lens group, and fG2 is a focal length of the second lens group.
Regarding claim 11, modified Shinohara discloses wherein among the lenses included in the second lens group, one or more lenses has negative refractive power and has a concave object side and a concave image side (Table 1 where 102 has a concave peripheral region on the object-side and a concave image-side).
Regarding claim 12, modified Shinohara discloses wherein among the lenses included in the second lens group, when two or more lenses have negative refractive power and are concave on both sides, a lens with a smallest absolute value of a focal length among the lenses on which both sides are concave has a refractive index of 1.62 or more, and an Abbe number of less than 26 (Table 1 where L2 has the smallest absolute power, an Abbe number of 20.4 and a refractive index of 1.661).
Regarding claim 15, modified Shinohara discloses a portable electronic device ([0003]), comprising: a camera module comprising: the optical imaging system of claim 1, wherein the optical imaging system further comprises an image sensor configured to convert an image of an incident subject into an electrical signal ([0005]).
Regarding claim 16, Shinohara discloses an optical imaging system, comprising:
a first lens group (L1), a reflective member (Prism), and a second lens group arranged sequentially along an optical axis (combination of lenses L2-5),
wherein the first lens group is composed of a first lens (L1);
wherein the second lens group is composed of four to five lenses (L2-L5),
wherein the first lens group has positive refractive power (Table 1),
wherein a second lens of the second lens group has negative refractive power (L2).
Shinohara a does not explicitly disclose wherein a first lens of the first lens group has a concave image-side surface in the first embodiment, and wherein an effective diameter of the lens included in the first lens group is greater than an effective diameter of the lenses included in the second lens group.
However, Shinohara teaches that the first lens image-side surface may be concave ([0046]). Additionally, Ito teaches another zoom lens wherein the first lens has a concave image-side surface and has the largest effective diameter of the system ([0072]).
It would have been obvious to one having ordinary skill in the art as of the effective filing date of the invention to combine Shinohara and Ito such that the first lens had the largest effective diameter motivated by providing a larger quantity of peripheral light and therefore improving the peripheral optical efficiency of the second lens group.
Response to Arguments
Applicant’s arguments with respect to claim(s) 1-16 have been considered but are moot because the new ground of rejection does not rely on any reference applied in the prior rejection of record for any teaching or matter specifically challenged in the argument.
Conclusion
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).
A shortened statutory period for reply to this final action is set to expire THREE MONTHS from the mailing date of this action. In the event a first reply is filed within TWO MONTHS of the mailing date of this final action and the advisory action is not mailed until after the end of the THREE-MONTH shortened statutory period, then the shortened statutory period will expire on the date the advisory action is mailed, and any nonprovisional extension fee (37 CFR 1.17(a)) pursuant to 37 CFR 1.136(a) will be calculated from the mailing date of the advisory action. In no event, however, will the statutory period for reply expire later than SIX MONTHS from the mailing date of this final action.
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to TRAVIS S FISSEL whose telephone number is (313)446-6573. The examiner can normally be reached 9AM-5PM.
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/TRAVIS S FISSEL/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2872
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