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 Acknowledgment is made of applicant’s claim for foreign priority under 35 U.S.C. 119 (a)-(d). The certified copy has been filed in parent Application No. JP2022-128616, filed on 8/12/2022. Information Disclosure Statement The information disclosure statement (IDS) submitted on 8/03/2023 is in compliance with the provisions of 37 CFR 1.97. Accordingly, the information disclosure statement is being considered by the examiner. Drawings The drawings submitted on 8/03/2023 are in compliance with the provisions of 37 CFR 1.81. Accordingly, the drawings are being considered by the examiner. Specification The specification submitted on 8/03/2023 are in compliance with the provisions of 37 CFR 1.71. Accordingly, the specification is being considered by the examiner. Claim Objections Claims 2, 9, 14 and 15 are objected to because of the following informalities: Claim 2, line 1, "according to claim 1 further comprising” appears to be --according to claim 1, further comprising--; Claim 9, line 1, "according to claim 1 further comprising” appears to be --according to claim 1, further comprising--; Claim 14, line 1, "according to claim 1 further comprising” appears to be --according to claim 1, further comprising--; Claim 15, line 1, "according to claim 1 further comprising” appears to be --according to claim 1, further comprising-- . Appropriate correction is required. Claim Interpretation The following is a quotation of 35 U.S.C. 112(f): (f) Element in Claim for a Combination. – An element in a claim for a combination may be expressed as a means or step for performing a specified function without the recital of structure, material, or acts in support thereof, and such claim shall be construed to cover the corresponding structure, material, or acts described in the specification and equivalents thereof. The following is a quotation of pre-AIA 35 U.S.C. 112, sixth paragraph: An element in a claim for a combination may be expressed as a means or step for performing a specified function without the recital of structure, material, or acts in support thereof, and such claim shall be construed to cover the corresponding structure, material, or acts described in the specification and equivalents thereof. This application includes one or more claim limitations that do not use the word “means,” but are nonetheless being interpreted under 35 U.S.C. 112(f) or pre-AIA 35 U.S.C. 112, sixth paragraph, because the claim limitations use a generic placeholder that is coupled with functional language without reciting sufficient structure to perform the recited function and the generic placeholder is not preceded by a structural modifier. Such claim limitations is/are: Claim 1, line 10: “ a region setting unit configured to set a first region …” Prong A is met because: the claim element recites a “ region setting unit ”, which is a generic placeholder for “means”. The specification recites “region setting unit 315 sets each region so as to divide the pixel array in which the plurality of photoelectric conversion elements are arranged into a plurality of regions” (Para [0097]). No specific definition for the term “region setting unit” is provided or recognized in the art. Prong B is met because: the generic placeholder (the “ region setting unit ”) is modified by functional language (“ configured to set a first region …”). Prong C is met because: this claim element is not further modified by sufficient structure or material for performing the claimed function. See MPEP 2181.I A-C. Claim 1 line 13: “a storage condition setting unit configured to set a storage condition of frequency distributions …” Prong A is met because: the claim element recites a “ storage condition setting unit ”, which is a generic placeholder for “means”. The specification recites “the distance resolution setting unit 313 and the range setting unit 314 have a function of setting a storage condition of frequency distributions, and they are collectively referred to as a storage condition setting unit” (Para [0082]). No specific definition for the term “ storage condition setting unit ” is provided or recognized in the art. Prong B is met because: the generic placeholder (the “ storage condition setting unit ”) is modified by functional language (“ configured to set a storage condition of frequency distributions …”). Prong C is met because: this claim element is not further modified by sufficient structure or material for performing the claimed function. See MPEP 2181.I A-C. Claim 2 , line 3: “ a control unit configured to synchronously control a timing …“ . Prong A is met because: the claim element recites a “ control unit ”, which is a generic placeholder for “means”. The specification recites “the control unit 311 synchronously controls the light emission timing in the light emitting unit 301 and the start of the time counting in the time counting unit 312” (Para [0080]). No specific definition for the term “ control unit ” is provided or recognized in the art. Prong B is met because: the generic placeholder (the “ control unit ”) is modified by functional language (“ configured to synchronously control a timing …”). Prong C is met because: this claim element is not further modified by sufficient structure or material for performing the claimed function. See MPEP 2181.I A-C. Because these claim limitations are being interpreted under 35 U.S.C. 112(f) or pre-AIA 35 U.S.C. 112, sixth paragraph, they are being interpreted to cover the corresponding structure described in the specification as performing the claimed function, and equivalents thereof. If applicant does not intend to have this/these limitation(s) interpreted under 35 U.S.C. 112(f) or pre-AIA 35 U.S.C. 112, sixth paragraph, applicant may: (1) amend the claim limitations to avoid them being interpreted under 35 U.S.C. 112(f) or pre-AIA 35 U.S.C. 112, sixth paragraph (e.g., by reciting sufficient structure to perform the claimed function); or (2) present a sufficient showing that the claim limitations recite sufficient structure to perform the claimed function so as to avoid them being interpreted under 35 U.S.C. 112(f) or pre-AIA 35 U.S.C. 112, sixth paragraph. 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 1-15 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Kubota et al. (US11693100 "Kubota") in view of Ozaki et al. (US20200041621, "Ozaki") and Mandai et al. US20180209846, " Mandai ". Regarding claim 1, Kubota teaches a ranging device comprising: a light receiving unit configured to generate a light reception count value corresponding to each of a plurality of photoelectric conversion elements by counting pulses based on incident light to each of the plurality of photoelectric conversion elements (Kubota, Para [0050], Fig 1, where light detector 33 receives light which is communicated to time acquisition part 36 which allows for the counting of received pulse signals in an amount of time as disclosed in Para [0100] using an adder.) ; a time counting unit configured to count elapsed time (Kubota, Para [0050], Fig 1, where time acquisition part 36 which allows for the counting of received pulse signals in an amount of time as disclosed in Para [0100] using an adder) ; a region setting unit configured to set a first region in which a part of the plurality of photoelectric conversion elements is arranged and a second region in which another part of the plurality of photoelectric conversion elements is arranged (Kubota, Para [0124]-[0125], Fig 14 where long distance light is detected in the AR region and short distance light is detected in the TR1 and TR2 region, which are determined by controller 11 of emission section 10 as disclosed in Para [0082], Fig 1 and Fig 5 . ; . However, Kubota does not teach a frequency distribution storage unit configured to store a frequency distribution of the number of pulses detected in each predetermined bin period in time counting for each of the plurality of photoelectric conversion elements; and a storage condition setting unit configured to set a storage condition of frequency distributions so that a class width of a first bin in a first frequency distribution corresponding to a photoelectric conversion element of the first region and a class width of a second bin in a second frequency distribution corresponding to a photoelectric conversion element of the second region are different and so that a storage capacity in which the first frequency distribution and the second frequency distribution are stored in the frequency distribution storage unit does not exceed a predetermined value. On the other hand, Ozaki teaches the use of multiple histogram storage units that hold histograms with predetermined time widths (Ozaki, Para [0078], Fig 8, where there are two histogram storage units 6, which in order to generate histograms associated with photon counting, must have preexisting time bins) for multiple different pixel regions (Ozaki, Para [0079]-[0080], Fig 8, where connection control unit 10 changes the setting of control unit 9 based on situational information disclosed in Para [0105], which is responsible for setting both the boundary and generation of histograms based on a plurality of pixels in an upper and lower boundary respectively), so as not to exceed a storage capacity (Ozaki, Para [0083], Fig 8, where, as disclosed in Para [0063], the processing loads of measuring unit 4 is reduced and therefore will not exceed a predetermined value). Accordingly, it would have been obvious of one of ordinary skill in the art, before the effective filing date of the invention to have modified the ranging device of Kubota in view of Ozaki, by applying the use of multiple storage units to hold frequency distribution data and reduce the processing load of the system to preserve storage capacity . See MPEP 2141.III KSR Rationale D . However, Kubota in view of Ozaki still does not teach a storage condition setting unit configured to set a storage condition of frequency distributions so that a class width of a first bin corresponding to a photoelectric conversion element of the first region and a class width of a second bin corresponding to a photoelectric conversion element of the second region are different. On the other hand, Mandai teaches the use of multiple widths of time for histogram binning for different pixel resolutions and sensitivities ( Mandai , [0091], Fig 8, where depending on there are different time bin widths depending on a desired sensitivity of the pixel array. In this case a smaller bin width would be associated with Kubota's Fig 14 short distance TR1 and TR2 regions and a larger bin width with Kubota's Fig 14 long distance AR region). Accordingly, it would have been obvious of one of ordinary skill in the art, before the effective filing date of the invention to have modified the ranging device of Kubota in view of , by Ozaki and Mandai to apply the use of multiple processing and storage units to hold frequency distribution data in the form of histograms, varying the time width of the histograms to have different resolution ranging for multiple pixel regions while having a limited storage capacity . See MPEP 2141.III KSR Rationale D . Regarding claim 2, Kubota in view of Ozaki and Mandai teaches the ranging device according to claim 1 further comprising: a light emitting unit configured to emit light to an object (Kubota, Para [0037], Fig 1, where light source 15 can be a laser diode to emit light on a target TG) ; and a control unit configured to synchronously control a timing at which the light emitting unit emits light and a timing at which the time counting unit starts time counting (Kubota, Para [0050], Fig 1, where emission section 10 emits light at a first time also acquired by time acquisition part 36) . Regarding claim 3, Kubota in view of Ozaki and Mandai teaches the ranging device according to claim 1, wherein the number of the first bins in one first frequency distribution is greater than the number of the second bins in one second frequency distribution ( Mandai , [0091], Fig 8, where depending on there are different time bin widths depending on a desired sensitivity of the pixel array. In this case a smaller bin width would be associated with Kubota's Fig 14 short distance TR1 and TR2 region (first distribution) and a larger bin width with Kubota's Fig 14 long distance AR region (second distribution) . Regarding claim 4, Kubota in view of Ozaki and Mandai teaches the ranging device according to claim 3, wherein the number of the plurality of photoelectric conversion elements in the first region is less than the number of the plurality of photoelectric conversion elements in the second region (Kubota, Para [0124]-[0125], Fig 14 where long distance light is detected in the AR region (second region with 9 pixels) and short distance light is detected in the TR1 and TR2 region (first region with 6 pixels), which are determined by controller 11 of emission section 10 as disclosed in Para [0082], Fig 1 and Fig 5) . Regarding claim 5, Kubota in view of Ozaki and Mandai teaches the ranging device according to claim 1, wherein the storage condition setting unit sets the storage condition so that a sum of a product of the number of photoelectric conversion elements in the first region and the number of first bins and a product of the number of photoelectric conversion elements in the second region and the number of second bins does not exceed a predetermined value (Ozaki, Para [0078], Fig 8, whereas the third embodiment includes multiple of histogram storage unit 6, which as disclosed in Para [0044] has an appropriately set bin width and therefore limits the amount of data present. This is because the sum of a product of the number of pixels and number of bins in multiple regions is representative of the total amount of data and resultingly has limited data when placed with multiple pixel regions). Regarding claim 6, Kubota in view of Ozaki and Mandai teaches the ranging device according to claim 1, wherein the first region is a region corresponding to ranging of a shorter distance than the second region (Kubota, Para [0124]-[0125], Fig 14 where long distance light is detected in the AR region and short distance light is detected in the TR1 and TR2 region, which are determined by controller 11 of emission section 10 as disclosed in Para [0082], Fig 1 and Fig 5) . Regarding claim 7, Kubota in view of Ozaki and Mandai teaches the ranging device according to claim 1, wherein the plurality of photoelectric conversion elements are arranged to form a plurality of rows and a plurality of columns (Kubota, Para [0124]-[0125], Fig 14 where pixels PX are arranged in box like fashion and therefore in rows and columns) , and wherein the second region is arranged to surround at least a part of the first region (Kubota, Para [0124]-[0125], Fig 14 where the AR region is surrounding the inside edge of the TR1 and TR2 region) . Regarding claim 8, Kubota in view of Ozaki and Mandai teaches the ranging device according to claim 1, wherein the plurality of photoelectric conversion elements are arranged to form a plurality of rows and a plurality of columns (Kubota, Para [0124]-[0125], Fig 14 where pixels PX are arranged in box like fashion and therefore in rows and columns) , and wherein the first regions and the second regions are alternately arranged in one row or one column (Kubota, Para [0124]-[0125], Fig 14 where the AR region is surrounding the inside edge of the TR1 and TR2 region and therefore alternating with it in a row) . Regarding claim 9, Kubota in view of Ozaki and Mandai teaches the ranging device according to claim 1 further comprising a setting changing unit configured to change a setting in the region setting unit or the storage condition setting unit based on external information indicating an external situation of the ranging device (Kubota, Para [0086], Fig.5, where the position of the receiving region DR is based on the distance measuring operation of the distance measuring device 1. The external information, other than distance, would also include situation information as disclosed in Ozaki, Para [0105]). . Regarding claim 10, Kubota in view of Ozaki and Mandai teaches the ranging device according to claim 9, wherein the external information is at least one of a steering direction of a movable body on which the ranging device is mounted, a moving speed of the movable body, a brightness around the ranging device, and a moving speed of an object of ranging (Ozaki, Fig 8, Para [0080], where connection control unit 10 in acquires situation information as disclosed in Para [0105], such as posture of vehicle, acceleration of the vehicle, and information correlated with disturbance light) Regarding claim 11, Kubota in view of Ozaki and Mandai teaches the ranging device according to claim 9, wherein the setting changing unit controls the region setting unit to change ranges of the first region and the second region based on a steering direction of a movable body on which the ranging device is mounted (Kubota, Para [0086], Fig.5, where the shape of the receiving region DR is based on the distance measuring operation of the distance measuring device 1. The external information , other than distance, would also include vehicle posture as disclosed in Ozaki, Para [0105]). Regarding claim 12, Kubota in view of Ozaki and Mandai teaches the ranging device according to claim 9, wherein the region setting unit controls the region setting unit to change ranges of the first region and the second region and controls the storage condition setting unit to change a setting of the storage condition based on a moving speed of a movable body on which the ranging device is mounted (Kubota, Para [0086], Fig.5, where the shape of the receiving region DR is based on the distance measuring operation of the distance measuring device 1. The external information , other than distance, would also include acceleration of the vehicle as disclosed in Ozaki, Para [0105]) . Regarding claim 13, Kubota in view of Ozaki and Mandai teaches the ranging device according to claim 1, wherein data constituting the second frequency distribution is stored in a storage area of consecutive addresses in the frequency distribution storage unit (Ozaki, Para [0078], Fig 8, where the second histogram is stored in another histogram storage unit 6 that is not holding data from the first histogram). Regarding claim 14, Kubota in view of Ozaki and Mandai teaches the ranging device according to claim 1 further comprising an address calculation unit configured to calculate an address at which data is read and written in the frequency distribution storage unit based on ranges of the first region and the second region, the storage condition, and a position of the photoelectric conversion element that has detected the pulse (Ozaki, Para [0044], Fig 8, whereas the third embodiment includes temporary storage unit 44 which is associated with the address of the histogram storage unit 6. Connection control unit is also associated with connection unit 10 which is responsible for generating histograms and therefore based on storage condition. In addition, histogram storage unit 6 includes information associated with multiple pixel regions as disclosed in Kubota, Fig 14, that information is therefore also based the position of the pixel detecting the pulse). Regarding claim 15, Kubota in view of Ozaki and Mandai teaches the ranging device according to claim 1 further comprising a region determination unit configured to determine whether or not a position of the photoelectric conversion element that has detected the pulse belongs to the first region or the second region (Kubota, Para [0124]-[0125], Fig 14, where long distance light is detected in the AR region and short distance light is detected in the TR1 and TR2 region, and each pixel PX as disclosed in Para [0085] has its own output signal, therefore being identifiable by region). Regarding claim 16, Kubota in view of Ozaki and Mandai teaches a movable body comprising: the ranging device according to claim 1; and a movable body control unit configured to control the movable body based on distance information acquired by the ranging device (Kubota, Para [0052] Fig 1, where a vehicle is equipped with distance measuring device 1 that conducts a distance measuring operation) . Conclusio n Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to FILLIN "Examiner name" \* MERGEFORMAT ZAKI HAWKINS whose telephone number is FILLIN "Phone number" \* MERGEFORMAT (571)272-6595 . The examiner can normally be reached FILLIN "Work Schedule?" \* MERGEFORMAT Monday-Friday 7:30am-5pm . 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. 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