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.
(a)(2) the claimed invention was described in a patent issued under section 151, or in an application for patent published or deemed published under section 122(b), in which the patent or application, as the case may be, names another inventor and was effectively filed before the effective filing date of the claimed invention.
Claim(s) 17 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(1) as being anticipated by Murota (2018007755).
Referring to claim 17 Murota shows a light emitting device (see figure 20) comprising:
a light emitting element array (see figure 20 Ref 2) including a plurality of light emitting elements (see figure 20 Ref 3a and 3b);
a driver that drives the light emitting elements (see the light source driving apparatus figure 20 Ref 1); and
a controller that controls a supply timing of a drive current to the light emitting elements so that as a number of the light emitting elements to be caused to emit light increases, the supply timing is advanced (see paragraph 174 note “change unit 35 sets a length of the set time Td longer as the number of driven LEDs is larger”).
Allowable Subject Matter
Claims 1-16 are allowed.
Conclusion
The prior art made of record and not relied upon is considered pertinent to applicant's disclosure.
Kannan (20230176944) and Henderson (20200249318 both show pertinent prior art however all references alone or in combination fail to show or render obvious a detector that detects the object to be detected while controlling at least one of a supply timing of a drive current to the light emitting elements to be caused to emit light and a light receiving timing of the light receiving elements so that a time from a start of light emission of the light emitting elements to be caused to emit light to the light receiving timing of the light receiving elements falls within a predetermined range even when a change occurs in an arrangement of the light emitting elements to be caused to emit light (pertaining to claim 1).
OR
detect an object to be detected while controlling at least one of a supply timing of a drive current to the light emitting elements to be caused to emit light and a light receiving timing of the light receiving elements included in the light emitting element array so that a time from a start of light emission of the light emitting elements to be caused to emit light to the light receiving timing of the light receiving elements falls within a predetermined range even when a change occurs in an arrangement of the light emitting elements to be caused to emit light (pertaining to claim 16).
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to LUKE D RATCLIFFE whose telephone number is (571)272-3110. The examiner can normally be reached M-F 9:00AM-5:00PM EST.
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/LUKE D RATCLIFFE/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 3645