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 .
Election/Restrictions
Applicant’s election of Invention I (Claims 1-11) in the reply filed on 02/11/2026 is acknowledged. Because applicant did not distinctly and specifically point out the supposed errors in the restriction requirement, the election has been treated as an election without traverse (MPEP § 818.03(a)).
Claims 12-19 are withdrawn from further consideration pursuant to 37 CFR 1.142(b) as being drawn to a nonelected Invention II.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 112
The following is a quotation of 35 U.S.C. 112(b):
(b) CONCLUSION.—The specification shall conclude with one or more claims particularly pointing out and distinctly claiming the subject matter which the inventor or a joint inventor regards as the invention.
The following is a quotation of 35 U.S.C. 112 (pre-AIA ), second paragraph:
The specification shall conclude with one or more claims particularly pointing out and distinctly claiming the subject matter which the applicant regards as his invention.
Claim 5 is rejected under 35 U.S.C. 112(b) or 35 U.S.C. 112 (pre-AIA ), second paragraph, as being indefinite for failing to particularly point out and distinctly claim the subject matter which the inventor or a joint inventor, or for pre-AIA the applicant regards as the invention.
Claim 5, lines 4-8 recites the limitation “a time difference between a falling edge of a first duty cycle driving signal and a rising edge of a second duty cycle driving signal, and a time difference between a falling edge of the second duty cycle driving signal and a rising edge of the first duty cycle driving signal are greater than a first period of time tD+tF” is indefinite insofar as unclear what is and how to define “a first period of time tD+tF”. For examination purposes, this limitation has been interpreted as “a time difference between a falling edge of a first duty cycle driving signal and a rising edge of a second duty cycle driving signal, and a time difference between a falling edge of the second duty cycle driving signal and a rising edge of the first duty cycle driving signal are greater than a non-zero period of time”.
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 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.
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 of this title, 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 1-6 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Oshima (JP2005352020A) in view of Osmanis (US 11323691).
Regarding claim 1, Oshima teaches a system of reducing laser speckle contrast (Fig. 1-4, Pages 1-5 of English translation of JP2005352020A), the system comprising:
a laser light source (Page 3, Paragraph 7, Page 5, Paragraph 6, Page 2, Paragraph 3) arranged to emit laser light (the light corresponding to L in Fig. 3, Page 3, Paragraph 7, Page 5, Paragraph 6, Page 2, Paragraph 3);
an illumination target (Page 2, Paragraph 2, Page 5, Paragraph 6, the inherent viewing element that views or receives the image light emitted from the light diffusing element used as a front or back projection screen) arranged to receive the emitted laser light (Page 2, Paragraph 2, Page 5, Paragraph 6);
a speckle reducer (the light diffusing element corresponding to Fig. 1-4) on an optical path between (Fig. 1 and 3) the laser light source and the illumination target (Page 5, Paragraph 6, Page 2, Paragraph 2-3, Page 3, Paragraph 7), the speckle reducer (the light diffusing element corresponding to Fig. 1-4) comprising
one or more optical diffuser elements (the elements corresponding to 5/5A/5B/5C and 3 in Fig. 1-4) comprising a cholesteric liquid crystal medium (Page 3, Paragraph 5);
a voltage source (the source corresponding to the power supply circuit 7 or driving voltage in Fig. 1-4) connected to the one or more optical diffuser elements (the elements corresponding to 5/5A/5B/5C and 3 in Fig. 1-4); and
a controller (the inherent controller connected to the power supply circuit 7 to change the driving voltage as shown in Fig. 2 and 4) operatively connected the voltage source (7 in Fig. 1 and 3), wherein the controller is configured to apply and remove a driving voltage (Vd) to the one or more optical diffuser elements (Fig. 2 and 4) to toggle the one or more optical diffuser elements between a diffusing state and a non-diffusing state (Page 3, Paragraph 1, Page 4, Paragraph 5-6).
Oshima does not explicitly point out that the cholesteric liquid crystal medium is a polymer free cholesteric liquid crystal medium; and the controller operatively connected to the laser light source and the voltage source.
Osmanis teaches that (Fig. 1, Col. 7, Col. 14, Col. 15-16, Col. 19) one or more optical diffuser elements comprising a cholesteric liquid crystal medium being a polymer free cholesteric liquid crystal medium (Col. 16, lines 12-20); and a controller (the controller corresponding to 114 in Fig. 1, Col. 14, Lines 53-65) operatively connected to (Col. 14, Lines 53-65, Col. 15-16) a laser light source (the light source corresponding to 102 in Fig. 1, Col. 7, Lines 25-51) and a voltage source (Col. 14, Lines 53-65, Col. 16, Lines 7-11).
Before the effective filling date of the claimed invention, it would have been obvious to the artisan of ordinary skill to employ the above elements as taught by Osmanis for the system of Oshima such that in the system of Oshima, the cholesteric liquid crystal medium is a polymer free cholesteric liquid crystal medium; and the controller operatively connected to the laser light source and the voltage source. The motivation is to ensure fast transition from the first optical state to the second optical state, synchronize operation of the light source, the spatial light modulator and the screen element, and improve the image quality (Osmanis, Col. 16, Lines 12-20, Col. 14, Lines 53-65, Col. 18, Lines 5-8).
Regarding claims 2-6, Oshima also teaches the following elements:
(Claim 2) the one or more optical diffuser elements (the elements corresponding to 5/5A/5B/5C and 3 in Fig. 1-4) comprises: a first optical diffuser element (the elements corresponding to 5A and 3 in Fig. 1-4) and a second optical diffuser element (the elements corresponding to 5B and 3 in Fig. 1-4) on the optical path between the laser light source and the illumination target (Fig. 1 and 3); and wherein the controller element (the inherent controller connected to the power supply circuit 7 to change the driving voltage as shown in Fig. 2 and 4) is configured to toggle the first optical diffuser element and the second optical diffuser element between the diffusing state and the non-diffusing state in a sequential manner independently from each other (Fig. 2-4).
(Claim 3) the controller is configured to toggle: the first optical diffuser element (the elements corresponding to 5A and 3 in Fig. 1-4) between the diffusing state and the non-diffusing state in a first duty cycle (Fig. 2-4); and the second optical diffuser element (the elements corresponding to 5B and 3 in Fig. 1-4) between the diffusing state and the non-diffusing state in a second duty cycle (Fig. 2-7).
(Claim 4) the controller is configured to toggle the first duty cycle and the second duty cycle symmetrically (Fig. 2 and 4).
(Claim 5) the controller is configured to apply and remove the driving voltage to synchronize the toggling of the first duty cycle and the second duty cycle (Fig. 2 and 4) such that a time difference (the difference corresponding to D1 in Picture 1, Fig. 2 and 4) between a falling edge of a first duty cycle driving signal and a rising edge of a second duty cycle driving signal (Picture 1, Fig. 2 and 4), and a time difference (the difference corresponding to D2 in Picture 1, Fig. 2 and 4) between a falling edge of the second duty cycle driving signal and a rising edge of the first duty cycle driving signal (Picture 1, Fig. 2 and 4) are greater than a non-zero period of time (Picture 1, Fig. 2 and 4).
(Claim 6) the controller is further configured to toggle the first duty cycle and the second duty cycle in an antiphase (Fig. 2)
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Picture 1, from Fig. 4 of Oshima (JP2005352020A)
Claim 7-8 and 10 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Oshima in view of Osmanis as applied to claim 1 above, and further in view of Xue (US 2025/0244629).
Regarding claims 7-8 and 10, Oshima in view of Osmanis already teaches that the cholesteric liquid crystal medium is the polymer free cholesteric liquid crystal medium, therefore Oshima in view of Osmanis teaches that the polymer free cholesteric liquid crystal medium is free of polymer stabilizing networks. Oshima does not teach the following elements.
Xue teaches the following elements (Fig. 1-2, Abs, [0043-0046, 0077-0084, 0097]):
(Claim 7) a thickness of a cholesteric liquid crystal medium is from 1 micrometers up to 60 micrometers ([0043-0044, 0077]). It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art to recognize that the claimed range of from 2 micrometers up to 7 micrometers overlaps with the range disclosed by the prior art (MPEP 2144. 05 I.)
(Claim 8) a cholesteric liquid crystal medium comprises a homeotropic alignment (Fig. 2C, [0083-0084]).
(Claim 10) a cholesteric liquid crystal medium (Fig. 1-2) comprises homeotropic alignment texture in the non-diffusive state (Fig. 2C, [0083-0084]), and focal-conic alignment texture in the diffusive state (Fig. 2b, [0046, 0083-0084]).
Before the effective filling date of the claimed invention, it would have been obvious to the artisan of ordinary skill to employ the above elements as taught by Xue for the system of Oshima in view of Osmanis such that in the system of Oshima in view of Osmanis,
(Claim 7) a thickness of the polymer free cholesteric liquid crystal medium is from 2 micrometers up to 7 micrometers.
(Claim 8) the polymer free cholesteric liquid crystal medium comprises a homeotropic alignment.
(Claim 10) the polymer free cholesteric liquid crystal medium comprises homeotropic alignment texture in the non-diffusive state, and focal-conic alignment texture in the diffusive state.
The motivation is to obtain the excellent light regulation, and quickly switch between transparent and scatted/privacy-protecting states (Xue, Abs).
Claim 9 is rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Oshima in view of Osmanis as applied to claim 1 above, and further in view of Kuo (US 2023/0267893).
Regarding claim 9, Oshima in view of Osmanis already teaches that the cholesteric liquid crystal medium is the polymer free cholesteric liquid crystal medium, therefore Oshima in view of Osmanis teaches that the polymer free cholesteric liquid crystal medium is free of polymer stabilizing networks. Oshima also teaches that the controller (the inherent controller connected to the power supply circuit 7 to change the driving voltage as shown in Fig. 2 and 4) is further configured to apply and remove an voltage (Fig. 2 and Fig. 4) to the one or more optical diffuser elements (the elements corresponding to 5/5A/5B/5C and 3 in Fig. 1-4) to toggle the one or more optical diffuser elements (the elements corresponding to 5/5A/5B/5C and 3 in Fig. 1-4) between a diffusing state and a non-diffusing state (Fig. 1-4). Oshima does not teach the following elements.
Kuo teaches the following elements (Fig. 1-3, [0006-0022]):
(Claim 9) a controller is further configured to apply and remove an overdrive voltage Vod (the voltage corresponding to C1 in Fig. 1, [0007-0009, 0018]) to a cholesteric liquid crystal panel ([0016]) to toggle the cholesteric liquid crystal panel ([0016]) to change from a first target gray scale to a second target gray scale (Fig. 1, [0007-0009, 0018])
Before the effective filling date of the claimed invention, it would have been obvious to the artisan of ordinary skill to employ the above elements as taught by Kuo for the system of Oshima in view of Osmanis such that in the system of Oshima in view of Osmanis,
(Claim 9) the controller is further configured to apply and remove an overdrive voltage Vod to the one or more optical diffuser elements to toggle the one or more optical diffuser elements between a diffusing state and a non-diffusing state.
The motivation is that the effect of clear image is achieved (Kuo, [0006]).
Claim 11 is rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Oshima in view of Osmanis as applied to claim 1 above, and further in view of Furukawa (US 2014/0240642)
Regarding claim 11, Oshima already teaches the diffusing state and non-diffusing state of the one or more optical diffuser elements (Fig. 2-4). Oshima does not teach the following elements.
Furukawa teaches the following elements (Fig. 1-3, [0048, 0057, 0064]):
(Claim 11) a controller (30 in Fig. 3 and Fig. 11, [0057, 0064]) is further configured to control the laser light source to adjust an illumination level of the emitted laser light (Fig. 3 and 11, [0064]) in synchronisation (Fig. 3 and 11, [0064]) of the diffusing state (22D in Fig. 11, [0064]) and non-diffusing state (22T in Fig. 11, [0064]) of the one or more optical diffuser elements (22 in Fig. 1-3 and Fig. 11, [0048, 0064]).
Before the effective filling date of the claimed invention, it would have been obvious to the artisan of ordinary skill to employ the above elements as taught by Furukawa for the system of Oshima in view of Osmanis such that in the system of Oshima in view of Osmanis,
(Claim 11) the controller is further configured to control the laser light source to adjust an illumination level of the emitted laser light in synchronisation of the diffusing state and non-diffusing state of the one or more optical diffuser elements.
The motivation is to provide a new display method such as fade-in display, without degrading display quality (Furukawa, [0064]).
Conclusion
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to SHAN LIU whose telephone number is (571)270-0383. The examiner can normally be reached on 9am-5pm EST M-F.
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/Shan Liu/
Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2871