DETAILED ACTION
for
SOFT PRESSURE SENSOR ARRAY
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 .
Information Disclosure Statement
The information disclosure statement (IDS) submitted on 03/07/2024 is in compliance with the provisions of 37 CFR 1.97. Accordingly, the information disclosure statement is being considered by the examiner.
Oath/Declaration
The Oath/Declaration submitted on 07/28/2026 is noted by the Examiner.
Specification
The title of the invention is not descriptive. A new title is required that is clearly indicative of the invention to which the claims are directed.
The following title is suggested: Soft Pressure Sensor Apparatus Has Elongated Conductive Electrodes.
The disclosure is objected to because of the following informalities: The “resistive member” does not have a corresponding reference number in the specification.
In paragraph [¶0033] tape strips 113 and 115; In paragraph [¶0068] double-sided acrylic tape 115 and in paragraph [¶0069] copper tape electrodes 115 and 117.
Applicant is advised to use consistent numbering and using the same name for each element throughout the specification and drawing.
Appropriate correction is required.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 102
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 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)(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.
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Claims 1-10, 12-19, 21-23 and 26 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(2) as being anticipated by Chong et al. (US 2022/0326099).
Regarding claim 1, Chong discloses a sensor apparatus comprising: a first set of elongated conductive electrodes (110); a second set of elongated conductive electrodes (120) arranged at an offset angle from and crossing the first set of electrodes (110); resistive members (130), including a polymeric material with conductive particles therein (Fig. 3A), each being located between the first and second sets of electrodes where they cross; and a controller (10) being configured to calculate at least one regularized least-squares algorithm to reconstruct resistance values of the resistive members (Fig. 1B) based on measured resistance values between row and column electrodes (110 & 120), to reduce cross-talk between the resistive members (¶0045, lines 1-7).
Regarding claim 2, Chong further discloses each of the first and second sets of electrodes (110 & 120) have an elongated length greater than a greatest linear dimension of each of the resistive members (130); the first set of electrodes (110 & 120) includes at least four parallel and spaced apart metal electrode traces (Fig. 3A); the second set of electrodes (120) includes at least four parallel and spaced apart metal electrode traces (Fig. 1C); the resistive members (130) are spaced apart from each other (Fig. 4); and there are at least sixteen of the resistive members (130) with one at each crossing location of the electrode traces (Fig. 3A).
Regarding claims 3 and 14, Chong further discloses the resistive members (130) include piezoresistive film “the middle layer is the piezoresistive material layer (130 in FIG. 3A)”; the resistive members (130) and the electrodes (110 & 120) are waterproof encapsulated within polymeric outer layers (¶0053, lines 8-11); and the electrodes (110 & 120) and the outer layers are flexible (¶0040, lines 1-5).
Regarding claims 4 and 16, Chong further discloses the resistive members (130) and the sets of electrodes (110 & 120) create a resistor network (18) in an electrical circuit (21) which introduces cross-talk between adjacent of the resistive members (130) with a measured two-point resistance being influenced by other of the resistive members (130) in the network (Fig. 1B); and the algorithm includes a machine learning algorithm based on mapping contour images as input (¶0060, lines 1-5), which are plotting from a relative change in measured resistance (¶0040, lines 1-10).
Regarding claim 5, Chong further discloses the algorithm includes a machine learning algorithm based on mapping contour images as input (see background), which are plotting from a relative change in measured resistance (Figs. 7-8); and the algorithm is configured to predict a class, confidence and bounding box of a contact characteristic for each frame of the images and then use a confidence filter to output predicted information (¶0045, lines 1-10).
Regarding claim 5, Chong further discloses the algorithm includes a machine learning algorithm based on mapping contour images as input (Fig. 7-8), which are plotting from a relative change in measured resistance (¶0045, lines 1-7); and the algorithm is configured to recurrent neural networks to analyze time sequence data of an output class, confidence and bounding box of a contact characteristic.
Regarding claims 7 and 17, Chong further discloses software instructions, stored in non-transient memory of the controller (¶0053, lines 8-11), which are configured to operate in a real-time and feedback looped manner to: convert measured resistance matrix to the mapping contour images; detect a position and different contact patterns; and correct a detection result with a confidence filter.
Regarding claim 8, Chong further discloses the resistive members (130) and the sets of electrodes (110 & 120) create a resistor (18) network in an electrical circuit which introduces cross-talk between adjacent of the resistive members (130) with a measured two-point resistance being influenced by other of the resistive members (130) in the network (Fig. 1B); and the algorithm is configured to use data matrices of a relative change in measured resistance as an input and to send an output from a multilayer perceptron network (¶0053, lines 13-17).
Regarding claims 9 and 18, Chong further discloses the controller senses (10) suction pressure from the electrodes (110 & 120) due to an electrical signal created by increased resistance (¶0064, lines 1-2).
Regarding claim 10, Chong further discloses the controller senses (10) a magnitude of positive pressure from the electrodes (110 & 120) due to an electrical signal created by decreased resistance (¶0058, lines 1-3 & ¶0065, lines 1-2).
Regarding claims 12 and 21, Chong further discloses a human-wearable cover (¶0003, lines 3-6), and the electrodes (110 & 120) and resistive members (130) are mounted on the cover.
Regarding claim 13, Chong further discloses a first set of at least four elongated and conductive electrodes (110), which are parallel and spaced apart from each other (Fig. 3A); a second set of at least four elongated and conductive electrodes (120), which are parallel and spaced apart from each other (Fig. 3A); the second set of electrodes (120) crossing the first set of electrodes (110); polymeric resistors (18) including conductive particles therein, each of the resistors being located between the first and second sets of electrodes (110 & 120) where they cross (¶0049, lines 1-5), and the resistors (18) being spaced apart from each other; and each of the electrodes (110 & 120) have an elongated length greater than a greatest linear dimension of each of the resistors (18; Fig. 4); wherein there are at least sixteen of the resistors (18) with one at each crossing location of the electrodes (Fig. 3A).
Regarding claim 15, Chong further discloses a controller (25) being configured to calculate at least one regularized least-squares algorithm to reconstruct resistance values of the resistors based on measured resistance values between row and column electrodes (¶0045, lines 7-10), to reduce cross-talk between the resistors “measurement system 20 includes a reading module (or scanning circuit 21) with first op-amps 23 connected to each row and second op-amps 24 connected to each column”.
Regarding claim 19, Chong further discloses a programmable controller (25) sensing a magnitude of positive pressure from the electrodes (110 & 120) due to an electrical signal created by decreased resistance “FIG. 6 shows the evaluation result of the crosstalk effect at control sensor S22 when varying force applied to its neighboring sensors on a sensor array with a unitary piezoresistive material layer”.
Regarding claim 22, Chong discloses a first set of electrodes (110); a second set of electrodes (120); the second set of electrodes crossing the first set of electrodes (Fig. 4); compressible resistors (18) sandwiched between the first and second sets of electrodes (110 & 120) where they cross, and the resistors (18) being spaced apart from each other (Fig. 3B); polymeric outer layers (130) encapsulating the electrodes (110 & 120) and the resistors (18) therein in a waterproof manner; the sensor apparatus (10) being flexible (¶0040, lines 1-5); and the sensor apparatus (10) being configured to sense suction pressure thereon “FIG. 6 shows the evaluation result of the crosstalk effect at control sensor S22 when varying force applied”.
Regarding claim 23, Chong discloses each of the first and second sets of electrodes (110 & 120) have an elongated length greater than a greatest linear dimension of each of the resistors (18); the first set of electrodes (110 & 120) includes at least four parallel and spaced apart metal electrode traces; the second set of electrodes (120) includes at least four parallel and spaced apart metal electrode traces; and there are at least sixteen of the resistive members (130) with one at each crossing location of the electrode traces.
Regarding claim 26, Chong discloses A sensor apparatus comprising: a first set of at least four parallel (Fig. 3B) and spaced apart conductive electrodes (110); a second set of at least four parallel and spaced apart conductive electrodes (120), crossing the first set of electrodes; polymeric resistors (130), each being located between the first and second sets of electrodes (110 & 120) where they cross, with the resistors (18) being spaced apart from each other (Fig, 3A); each of the first and second sets of electrodes (110 & 120) have an elongated length greater than a greatest linear dimension of each of the resistors (18) ; polymeric outer layers (130) waterproof encapsulating the resistors (18) and the electrodes therein (Fig. 1B); the electrodes (110 & 120) and the outer layers being flexible (¶0040, lines 1-5); and a programmable controller (¶0053, lines 8-11), being configured to: calculate at least one regularized least-squares algorithm to reconstruct resistance values of the resistors (18) based on measured resistance values between the electrodes (110 & 120); reduce cross-talk between the resistive members (18); and sense a magnitude of pressure from the electrodes due to an electrical signal created by a change of resistance “FIG. 6 shows the evaluation result of the crosstalk effect at control sensor S22 when varying force applied to its neighboring sensors on a sensor array with a unitary piezoresistive material layer”.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 103
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.
Claims 11, 20 and 24 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Chong et al. (US 2022/0326099) in view of Amazeen (US 4,745,812).
Regarding claims 11, 20 and 24, Chong further discloses the electrodes (110 & 120) and resistive members (130) and the resistive members (130) including at least one of: piezoresistive film or carbon nanoparticles in a polymer “the middle layer is the piezoresistive material layer (130 in FIG. 3A)”.
Chong fails to explicitly disclose a gripper movably coupled to a computer-controlled robot and a gripper being configured to grip crushable fruit, vegetables or eggs.
Amazeen disclose a gripper movably coupled to a computer-controlled robot and a gripper being configured to grip crushable fruit (Fig. 1).
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one having ordinary skill in the art at the time Applicants invention was filed in the field of testing device for carrying load test on flexible objects, to modify Chong, to include a gripper, as taught by Amazeen, for the benefit of providing a robot end-effector having tactile sensors mounted on its grippers which can measurement both normal load magnitude and lateral load component magnitudes.
Conclusion
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to BRANDI N HOPKINS whose telephone number is (571)270-7042. The examiner can normally be reached M & F 9-5 and T-TH, 6-4.
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If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner’s supervisor, Kristina Deherrera can be reached at (303) 297-4237. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300.
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/BRANDI N HOPKINS/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2855
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