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.
Information Disclosure Statement
The information disclosure statement filed 2/13/2026 has been considered by the examiner.
Drawings
The drawings filed 3/22/2024 are approved by the examiner.
Claim Objections
Claim 2 is objected to because of the following informalities:
Claim 2 should end with a period rather than a semicolon.
Appropriate correction is required.
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)(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.
Claims 1, 2, 12, 13, 16, 17 ,21 and 23 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(2) as being anticipated by Dutton et al (United States Patent Application Publication No. 2021/0302550).
With respect to claim 1, Dutton et al disclose: A signal processing method for a light receiving device [ taught by the method of operation of figure 1 ], the signal processing method comprising: cumulatively recording, in a search memory, a number of echo laser reception times for N time slots (N is a natural number of 2 or more) [ figure 5 shows a coarse histogram with 2 or more bins; paragraph [0049] states, “…In some embodiments, histogram generation circuit 308 comprises memory, such as an SRAM memory located inside each pixel 254, configured to store the count of bins of the coarse and fine histograms…” ]; selecting at least one time slot in which the number of echo laser receptions reaches a candidate threshold as a candidate time slot [ paragraph [0048] states, “…Histogram generation circuit 308 initially generates a coarse histogram of coarse bins (e.g., 16 bins) based on the output of TDC 306. Control circuit 260 receives from histogram generation circuit 308 the coarse histogram and determines (e.g., based on a peak search), the bin(s) in which the target is located…” ]; dividing the candidate time slot into M detailed time slots (M is a natural number of 2 or more) and cumulatively recording, in a candidate memory, the number of echo laser receptions for each detailed time slot [ figure 5 show a fine histogram; paragraph [0048] states, “…Control circuit 260 then configures histogram generation circuit 308 to zoom into the bins of interest (e.g., around the peak found using, e.g., a peak search algorithm), thereby generating a fine (zoom) histogram with fine bins (e.g., 16 bins) around the peak found based on new outputs from TDC 306…” ]; and determining a reception time of an echo laser based on the number of echo laser receptions for each detailed time slot accumulated in the candidate memory [ determined by the peak of the fine histogram ].
With respect to clam 16, Dutton et al disclose: A signal processing device for a light receiving device [ taught by the method of operation of figure 1 ], the signal processing device comprising: a search memory whereon a number of echo laser receptions is cumulatively recorded for N (N is a natural number of 2 or more) time slots [ figure 5 shows a coarse histogram with 2 or more bins; paragraph [0049] states, “…In some embodiments, histogram generation circuit 308 comprises memory, such as an SRAM memory located inside each pixel 254, configured to store the count of bins of the coarse and fine histograms…” ]; and a candidate memory whereon a number of receptions of the echo laser for at least
one time slot in which the number of receptions corresponds to a predefined candidate
threshold is cumulatively recorded, wherein the search memory and the candidate memory each include a histogram memory including a plurality of bins including a plurality of bits [ figure 5 show a fine histogram covering a subset of bins of the coarse histogram ; paragraph [0048] states, “…Control circuit 260 then configures histogram generation circuit 308 to zoom into the bins of interest (e.g., around the peak found using, e.g., a peak search algorithm), thereby generating a fine (zoom) histogram with fine bins (e.g., 16 bins) around the peak found based on new outputs from TDC 306…” ] .
With respect to claim 2, Dutton et al disclose: wherein the candidate memory includes a plurality of histogram memories on which the number of echo laser receptions for the candidate time slot is recorded [ figure 5 shows the fine histogram corresponding to a plurality of bins ], the cumulative recording of the number of echo laser receptions in the candidate
memory includes: allocating histogram memories to the candidate time slots in an order in which the number of echo laser receptions reaches the candidate threshold [ met by the peak search (406) in figure 4 ]; and cumulatively recording, in an allocated histogram memory, the number of echo laser receptions for a plurality of detailed time slots within the candidate time slot [ generating the amounts shown in the fine histogram ].
Paragraph [0048] states, “…Control circuit 260 then configures histogram generation circuit 308 to zoom into the bins of interest (e.g., around the peak found using, e.g., a peak search algorithm), thereby generating a fine (zoom) histogram with fine bins (e.g., 16 bins) around the peak found based on new outputs from TDC 306…” ]; thus, teaching claim 17.
Claims 12, 13 and 21 are taught by figure 2A, 2B and 2C.
Figure 9 shows changing from an 8 bin to a 16 bin histogram, thus teaching claim 23.
Allowable Subject Matter
Claims 3-11, 14, 15, 18-20 and 22 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.
Any inquiry concerning this communication should be directed to MARK HELLNER at telephone number (571)272-6981.
Examiner interviews are available via a variety of formats. See MPEP § 713.01. To schedule an interview, applicant is encouraged to use the USPTO Automated Interview Request (AIR) at http://www.uspto.gov/interviewpractice.
/MARK HELLNER/ Primary Examiner, Art Unit 3645
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