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 .
Claims 1-14 filed on May 19, 2023 are pending.
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.
Claims 1, 2, 5, 8, 10-14 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(1) as anticipated by or, in the alternative, under 35 U.S.C. 103 as obvious over Oishi (EP 0654682 A2, Published May 24, 1995).
As to claim 1, Oishi discloses a distance image generation device comprising:
an acquisition unit configured to acquire a micro-frame constituted by a one-bit signal based on incident light to a photoelectric conversion element (Oishi at Figs. 1, 2, 6, in particular, avalanche photodiode APD 5 to polarity detecting circuit 500. The output of polarity detection circuit is necessarily one-bit corresponding to the on or off state of the APD 5); and
a synthesis unit configured to generate a sub-frame constituted by a multi-bit signal by synthesizing a plurality of the micro-frames acquired in different periods from each other (Oishi at Figs. 1, 2, 6, 12-13, in particular; col. 5 discloses “a switching circuit 620 which delivers the output signal of the polarity detecting circuit 500 to each of the counters 610(1)-610(n) at a certain interval. Each counter counts input signals sequentially at least in the time periods when light pulses are generated.” Col. 6 discloses “ Col. 6 ll. 14-35),
wherein in one ranging frame period, the synthesis unit generates a first sub-frame and a second sub-frame, used for generating one distance image (Oishi at Figs 3-4, 12-13, SIPO 640; Col. 16 discloses “The cumulation means 600 consists of a n-bit serial-in-parallel-out (SIPO) shift register 630, a n-bit latch 635, a 1/n frequency demultiplier 631, an address counter 632, adders 633(1)-633(n) of n in number, and registers 634(1)-634(n) of n in number.”), and
wherein the number of the plurality of micro-frames synthesized when generating the first sub-frame and the number of the plurality of micro-frames synthesized when generating the second sub-frame are different from each other (Oishi at Figs. 13; col. 17 discloses “A distance measuring operation completes by multiple light pulse emission. The computation means 1000 reads out the cumulated values from the second memory 649, thereby obtaining the same data as j and k shown in Fig. 2 , and calculates the distance to the target 10…. Although in this variant embodiment the first and second frequency demultipliers 641 and 645 have an operational factor of 1/8, the first SIPO and PISO shift registers 640 and The second PISO shift register 646 and the latch 650 have a 8-bit length and the first memory 643 has a 8-bit word length, the value 8 may be varied depending on the time lengths expended for the data holding operation by the first memory 643 and the cumulative memory operation by the adder 648 and second memory 649.”).
As to claim 2, Oishi discloses distance image generation device according to claim 1, wherein each of the first sub-frame and the second sub-frame is associated with a distance between the photoelectric conversion element and an object (Oishi at Fig. 1, 6; col. 5 discloses “The computation means 1000 includes a CPU and associated devices, and it controls the overall electrical circuit including the timing circuit 100 and cumulation means 600. It also has a function as a distance measuring device for measuring the distance to the target 10”), and
wherein the synthesis unit generates either the first sub-frame or the second sub-frame according to the distance (Oishi at Figs 1, 6, 13; col. 6 discloses “On completion of a distance measurement based on the multiple light pulse emission, the computation means 1000 reads out the count values of the counters 610(1)-610(n), and calculates the distance to the target 10 as will be explained later”).
As to claim 5, Oishi discloses the distance image generation device according to claim 1 further comprising a distance image generation unit configured to generate a distance image indicating a distance to an object based on the multi-bit signal of each of the first sub-frame and the second sub-frame (Oishi at Figs 2-5, 13).
As to claim 8, Oishi disclose the distance image generation device according to claim 7 further comprising a light source device, wherein an acquisition of the plurality of one-bit signals is started in synchronization with a light emission timing of the light source device (Oishi at Figs. 1, 6, laser diode 1).
As to claim 10, Oishi discloses the distance image generation device according to claim 1, wherein the photoelectric conversion element includes an avalanche photodiode, and wherein the one-bit signal indicates whether or not a photon is incident on the avalanche photodiode during a period in which the micro-frame is acquired (Oishi at Figs. 1, 6, APD 5).
As to claim 11, Oishi discloses the distance image generation device according to claim 1, wherein the synthesis unit generates the multi-bit signal by adding a value of the one-bit signal every time the micro-frame is acquired (Oishi at Fig. 2, 12).
As to claim 12, Oishi discloses a photodetection system (Oishi at Figs. 1, 6) comprising: the distance image generation device according to claim 1 (see rejection of claim 1 above); and a memory configured to store a distance image generated by the distance image generation device (Oishi at Figs. 1, 6).
As to claim 13, Oishi discloses a movable body comprising: the distance image generation device according to claim 1 (See rejection of claim 1 above); and a movable body control unit configured to control the movable body based on distance information acquired by the distance image generation device (Examiner takes an official notice that LIDAR based cruise control systems, such as those included in Mercedes and Lexus automobiles, are well-known in the art).
As to claim 14, Oishi discloses a distance image generation method comprising:
acquiring a micro-frame constituted by a one-bit signal based on incident light to a photoelectric conversion element (Oishi at Figs. 1, 2, 6, in particular, avalanche photodiode APD 5 to polarity detecting circuit 500. The output of polarity detection circuit is necessarily one-bit corresponding to the on or off state of the APD 5); and
generating a sub-frame constituted by a multi-bit signal by synthesizing a plurality of the micro-frames acquired in different periods from each other (Oishi at Figs. 1, 2, 6, 12-13, in particular; col. 5 discloses “a switching circuit 620 which delivers the output signal of the polarity detecting circuit 500 to each of the counters 610(1)-610(n) at a certain interval. Each counter counts input signals sequentially at least in the time periods when light pulses are generated.” Col. 6 discloses “ Col. 6 ll. 14-35),
wherein in one ranging frame period, a first sub-frame and a second sub-frame, used for generating one distance image, are generated (Oishi at Figs 3-4, 12-13, SIPO 640; Col. 16 discloses “The cumulation means 600 consists of a n-bit serial-in-parallel-out (SIPO) shift register 630, a n-bit latch 635, a 1/n frequency demultiplier 631, an address counter 632, adders 633(1)-633(n) of n in number, and registers 634(1)-634(n) of n in number.”), and
wherein the number of the plurality of micro-frames synthesized when generating the first sub-frame and the number of the plurality of micro-frames synthesized when generating the second sub-frame are different from each other (Oishi at Figs. 13; col. 17 discloses “A distance measuring operation completes by multiple light pulse emission. The computation means 1000 reads out the cumulated values from the second memory 649, thereby obtaining the same data as j and k shown in Fig. 2 , and calculates the distance to the target 10…. Although in this variant embodiment the first and second frequency demultipliers 641 and 645 have an operational factor of 1/8, the first SIPO and PISO shift registers 640 and The second PISO shift register 646 and the latch 650 have a 8-bit length and the first memory 643 has a 8-bit word length, the value 8 may be varied depending on the time lengths expended for the data holding operation by the first memory 643 and the cumulative memory operation by the adder 648 and second memory 649.”).
Claim 9 is rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as obvious over Oishi (EP 0654682 A2, Published May 24, 1995) in view of Namba (US 2019/0383946 A1, Published December 19, 2019).
As to claim 9, Oishi discloses the distance image generation device according to claim 1.
Oishi does not disclose that one sub-frame is constituted by a plurality of multi-bit signals respectively corresponding to a plurality of photoelectric conversion elements arranged to form a plurality of rows and a plurality of columns, and wherein the plurality of multi-bit signals has the same number of bits.
However, Namba does disclose that one sub-frame is constituted by a plurality of multi-bit signals respectively corresponding to a plurality of photoelectric conversion elements arranged to form a plurality of rows and a plurality of columns, and wherein the plurality of multi-bit signals has the same number of bits (Namba at Figs. 4-5 light reception section 12).
Oishi discloses a base distance measurement device upon which the claimed invention is an improvement. Namba discloses a comparable distance measurement device which has been improved in the same way as the claimed invention. Hence, it would have been obvious to a person having ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date to modify or add to Oishi the teachings of Namba for the predictable result of speed up operation by speeding up the operation of an ADC (Namba at ¶ [0012]).
Allowable Subject Matter
Claims 3, 4, 6, 7 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 objected to claim and all of the limitations of the base claim and any intervening claims.
The following is a statement of reasons for the indication of allowable subject matter
As to claim 3, none of the prior art found by the Examiner discloses the claimed aspects of: wherein the number of the plurality of micro-frames synthesized when generating the second sub-frame is less than the number of the plurality of micro-frames synthesized when generating the first sub-frame, and wherein the synthesis unit generates the first sub-frame when the distance is equal to or less than a predetermined threshold value, and generates the second sub-frame when the distance is greater than the predetermined threshold value.
As to claim 4, none of the prior art found by the Examiner discloses the claimed aspects of: wherein the number of the plurality of micro-frames synthesized when generating the second sub-frame is less than the number of the plurality of micro-frames synthesized when generating the first sub-frame, and wherein the synthesis unit generates the first sub-frame when the distance is greater than a predetermined threshold value, and generates the second sub-frame when the distance is equal to or less than the predetermined threshold value.
As to claim 6, none of the prior art found by the Examiner discloses the claimed aspects of: wherein the distance image generation unit generates the distance image after correcting a gradation of at least one of the first sub-frame and the second sub-frame.
As to claim 6, Karoda (US 2019/0305146 A1, Published October 3, 2019) discloses wherein one micro-frame is constituted by a plurality of one-bit signals respectively corresponding to a plurality of photoelectric conversion elements arranged to form a plurality of rows and a plurality of columns (Karoda at Figs. 1, 3).
However, none of the prior art found by the Examiner discloses the claimed aspect of: wherein the plurality of one-bit signals is simultaneously acquired for each of the plurality of photoelectric conversion elements.
Conclusion
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to Sanjiv D Patel whose telephone number is (571)270-5731. The examiner can normally be reached Monday - Friday, 9:00 am - 5:00 pm.
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/Sanjiv D. Patel/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2625
02/04/2026