DETAILED ACTION
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
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)(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.
Claim(s) 1 and 3-20 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(1) as being anticipated by US 2006/0192938 to Kawahito (hereinafter Kawahito).
Regarding independent claim 1, Kawahito teaches a distance image capturing device comprising:
a light source unit configured to emit an optical pulse to a space which is a capturing target (light source 1, see Fig. 1 and par. [0041]);
a light receiving unit configured to include a pixel having a photoelectric conversion element which generates a charge according to a light incident from the space and a plurality of charge accumulation units that accumulate the charge (The image by the reflected light thereof is formed on the distance image sensor via the lens, see par. [0041-0042]), and a pixel driving circuit which performs driving for accumulating the charge in each of the charge accumulation units to accumulate the charge (see driving steps via control section not illustrated disclosed on par. [0042]); and
a distance image processing unit configured to control the pixel driving circuit, accumulate the charge in each of the charge accumulation units at an accumulation timing synchronized with an emission timing of emitting the optical pulse in a normal mode(charge accumulation is transferred at high speed synchronized with the frequency of the modulated light, see par. [0041-0042]), and calculate a distance to a subject present in the space based on an amount of charge accumulated in each of the charge accumulation units (the distance to a subject is calculated via the time of flight, see pars. [0043-0045]),
wherein the distance image processing unit executes either the normal mode or a power saving mode having lower power consumption than the normal mode (the normal mode is executed as indicated above in pars. [0041-0045], claim provides alternative modes to execute (hence OR clause), the reference teaches the normal mode and therefore the power saving mode alternative does not need to be taught by the reference, again since it is presented as an alternative), in the power saving mode, accumulates the charge in the charge accumulation unit at a frequency which is the same as that in the normal mode or smaller than that in the normal mode,
determines whether or not a moving object is present in the space according to the amount of charge accumulated in the charge accumulation unit, and releases the power saving mode as satisfying a return condition in a case where the moving object is present in the space, and
determines whether a moving object is present in the space according to the amount of charge accumulated in each of the charge accumulation units in the normal mode, and shifts to the power saving mode in a case where the distance image processing unit is determined that the moving object is not present in the space.
Regarding claims 3-17 and 20, claims limit solely the power saving mode and since the reference teaches the normal mode option the reference need not teach the additional limitations of the power saving mode presented in the dependent claims due to the power saving mode and the normal mode being presented in the alternatives. Note that claims 8-12 and 20 further depend on claim 7 which limits the power saving mode and are rejected with the same rationale as stated above.
Regarding independent claim(s) 18, claim(s) is/are drawn to the method used by the corresponding apparatus in claim(s) 1 and is/are rejected for the same reasons used above.
Regarding independent claim(s) 19, claim(s) is/are drawn to the non-transitory computer-readable storage medium used by the corresponding apparatus in claim(s) 1 and is/are rejected for the same reasons used above.
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.
Claim(s) 2 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Kawahito in view of US 2015/0241987 to LIU et al. (hereinafter LIU).
Regarding claim 2, Kawahito discloses the claimed invention except for “wherein the distance image processing unit executes the power saving mode when the distance image capturing device is activated”.
However, LIU teaches a motion detecting system “wherein the distance image processing unit executes the power saving mode when the distance image capturing device is activated (comprising plural sensing devices which are initialized in a power saving mode, in the power saving mode, at least one of a light emitting frequency of the light emitting element 2120 and a sampling frequency of the image sensor 2110 may be decreased so as to reduce the power consumption, see par. [0050] and Fig. 16B)”.
References are analogous art because they are from the same field of endeavor and/or are reasonably pertinent to the particular problem with which the applicant was concerned because they relate to movement or motion detection system.
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify the above camera as taught by Kawahito, by incorporating the teachings by LIU.
One of ordinary skill in the art would have been motivated to do this modification in order to reduce power consumption in a power saving mode as suggested by LIU (see par. [0050]).
Conclusion
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to ANGEL L GARCES-RIVERA whose telephone number is (571)270-7268. The examiner can normally be reached Mon-Fri 9AM-5PM ET.
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/ANGEL L GARCES-RIVERA/ Examiner, Art Unit 2637
/SINH TRAN/ Supervisory Patent Examiner, Art Unit 2637
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