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 .
Double Patenting
The nonstatutory double patenting rejection is based on a judicially created doctrine grounded in public policy (a policy reflected in the statute) so as to prevent the unjustified or improper timewise extension of the “right to exclude” granted by a patent and to prevent possible harassment by multiple assignees. A nonstatutory double patenting rejection is appropriate where the conflicting claims are not identical, but at least one examined application claim is not patentably distinct from the reference claim(s) because the examined application claim is either anticipated by, or would have been obvious over, the reference claim(s). See, e.g., In re Berg, 140 F.3d 1428, 46 USPQ2d 1226 (Fed. Cir. 1998); In re Goodman, 11 F.3d 1046, 29 USPQ2d 2010 (Fed. Cir. 1993); In re Longi, 759 F.2d 887, 225 USPQ 645 (Fed. Cir. 1985); In re Van Ornum, 686 F.2d 937, 214 USPQ 761 (CCPA 1982); In re Vogel, 422 F.2d 438, 164 USPQ 619 (CCPA 1970); In re Thorington, 418 F.2d 528, 163 USPQ 644 (CCPA 1969).
A timely filed terminal disclaimer in compliance with 37 CFR 1.321(c) or 1.321(d) may be used to overcome an actual or provisional rejection based on nonstatutory double patenting provided the reference application or patent either is shown to be commonly owned with the examined application, or claims an invention made as a result of activities undertaken within the scope of a joint research agreement. See MPEP § 717.02 for applications subject to examination under the first inventor to file provisions of the AIA as explained in MPEP § 2159. See MPEP § 2146 et seq. for applications not subject to examination under the first inventor to file provisions of the AIA . A terminal disclaimer must be signed in compliance with 37 CFR 1.321(b).
The filing of a terminal disclaimer by itself is not a complete reply to a nonstatutory double patenting (NSDP) rejection. A complete reply requires that the terminal disclaimer be accompanied by a reply requesting reconsideration of the prior Office action. Even where the NSDP rejection is provisional the reply must be complete. See MPEP § 804, subsection I.B.1. For a reply to a non-final Office action, see 37 CFR 1.111(a). For a reply to final Office action, see 37 CFR 1.113(c). A request for reconsideration while not provided for in 37 CFR 1.113(c) may be filed after final for consideration. See MPEP §§ 706.07(e) and 714.13.
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Claims 1, 2, 6, 10, 16, 17, 19 provisionally rejected on the ground of nonstatutory double patenting as being unpatentable over claims 1, 2, 8, 10, 21, 26 of copending Application No. 18/433198 (reference application). Although the claims at issue are not identical, they are not patentably distinct from each other because as seen below in the comparison table, the claims disclose very similar features.
Instant Application 18/433,192
Co-pending Application 18/433,198
1. A user equipment (UE), comprising: one or more memories; and one or more processors, coupled to the one or more memories, configured to cause the UE to: receive, from a network node, sensing configuration information for a sensing session, the sensing configuration information indicating one or more transmission reception points (TRPs); and transmit, to the network node, sensing result information associated with one or more images that are representative of channel energy responses (CERs) for respective TRPs of the one or more TRPs.
1. A user equipment (UE), comprising: one or more memories; and one or more processors, coupled to the one or more memories, configured to cause the UE to: receive, from a network node, sensing configuration information for a sensing session, the sensing configuration information indicating one or more transmission reception points (TRPs); obtain, via one or more radio frequency (RF) sensing measurements of the one or more TRPs, sensing measurement information, the sensing measurement information including channel energy responses (CERs) for respective TRPs of the one or more TRPs; and transmit, to the network node, sensing result information that is associated with the sensing measurement information, the sensing result information being associated with one or more images that are representative of the CERs.
2. The UE of claim 1, wherein the sensing result information includes the CERs.
2. The UE of claim 1, wherein the sensing result information includes the sensing measurement information.
6. The UE of claim 1, wherein the sensing result information includes one or more summary vectors for respective images of the one or more images.
8. The UE of claim 1, wherein the one or more processors are further configured to cause the UE to: obtain, via a vision transformer, one or more summary vectors for respective images included in the one or more images.
10. A network node, comprising: one or more memories; and one or more processors, coupled to the one or more memories, configured to cause the network node to: transmit, for one or more user equipments (UEs), sensing configuration information for a sensing session, the sensing configuration information indicating one or more transmission reception points (TRPs); and receive sensing result information for respective UEs of the one or more UEs, the sensing result information being associated with one or more images that are representative of channel energy responses (CERs) for respective TRPs of the one or more TRPs.
16. The network node of claim 10, wherein the one or more processors are further configured to cause the network node to: obtain localization information, using the sensing result information, for one or more objects in a zone of interest associated with the sensing session.
10. A network node, comprising: one or more memories; and one or more processors, coupled to the one or more memories, configured to cause the network node to: perform, for a sensing session, radio frequency (RF) sensing of an area, wherein the RF sensing indicates a zone of interest for the area; transmit, to one or more user equipments (UEs), sensing configuration information for the sensing session, the sensing configuration information including an indication of one or more transmission reception points (TRPs) associated with the zone of interest; receive, for each UE included in the one or more UEs, sensing result information associated with one or more images that are representative of channel energy responses (CERs) for respective TRPs of the one or more TRPs; and obtain, via a detection transformer (DETR) model and using the sensing result information, localization information for one or more objects included in the zone of interest.
17. A method performed by a user equipment (UE), comprising: receiving, from a network node, sensing configuration information for a sensing session, the sensing configuration information indicating one or more transmission reception points (TRPs); and transmitting, to the network node, sensing result information associated with one or more images that are representative of channel energy responses (CERs) for respective TRPs of the one or more TRPs.
21. A method performed by a user equipment (UE), comprising: receiving, from a network node, sensing configuration information for a sensing session, the sensing configuration information indicating one or more transmission reception points (TRPs); obtaining, via one or more radio frequency (RF) sensing measurements of the one or more TRPs, sensing measurement information, the sensing measurement information including channel energy responses (CERs) for respective TRPs of the one or more TRPs; and transmitting, to the network node, sensing result information that is associated with the sensing measurement information, the sensing result information being associated with one or more images that are representative of the CERs.
19. The method of claim 17, wherein the sensing result information includes one or more summary vectors for respective images of the one or more images.
26. The method of claim 25, wherein transmitting the sensing result information comprises: transmitting, to the network node, the one or more summary vectors.
This is a provisional nonstatutory double patenting rejection because the patentably indistinct claims have not in fact been patented.
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.
Claim(s) 1, 4, 10, 12, 17 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Wanuga et al. (US 2022/0225121, hereinafter “Wanuga”) in view of Ma et al. (US 2023/0284139, hereinafter “Ma”).
For claims 1 and 17, Wanuga discloses A user equipment (UE) (FIG. 1B is a system diagram illustrating an example WTRU 102; see Wanuga par. 0033 and Fig. 1B), comprising:
one or more memories (non-removable memory 130, removable memory 132; see Wanuga par. 0033 and Fig. 1B); and
one or more processors, coupled to the one or more memories, configured to cause the UE to (The processor 118 may perform signal coding, data processing, power control, input/output processing, and/or any other functionality that enables the WTRU 102 to operate in a wireless environment. The processor 118 may be coupled to the transceiver 120, which may be coupled to the transmit/receive element 122; see Wanuga par. 0034 and Fig. 1B):
receive, from a network node, sensing configuration information for a sensing session (FIG. 7 is an example of a procedure for enabling resource configuration adjustment at the WTRU without explicit signaling in the context of joint communication and sensing (JCS). As depicted in FIG. 7 at 701, a WTRU 700b may receive a JCS-RS configuration from a gNB 700a. The JCS-RS configuration may specify one or more resource sets each with N resources. At 702, the WTRU 700b also receives a JCS measurement reporting configuration, which may include one or more resource sets for transmitting the measurement reports and/or one or more thresholds for adjusting the JCS-RS measurement and reporting configuration; see Wanuga par. 0138), the sensing configuration information indicating one or more transmission reception points (TRPs) (Beam determination may involve one or more TRPs or WTRUs selecting from their own Tx/Rx beam(s). Beam measurement may involve one or more TRPs or WTRUs measuring characteristics of received beam formed signals; see Wanuga par. 0097-0098); and
transmit, to the network node, sensing result information (Based on the measured backscatter power, the WTRU 700b may compute the beam blockage rate (shown at 705) and, at 706, transmit a JCS measurement report that may include the beam blockage rate. Similar to the measurement periodicity, the reporting periodicity may depend on the selected JCS reporting resource set; see Wanuga par. 0138).
Wanuga does not explicitly disclose information associated with one or more images that are representative of channel energy responses (CERs) for respective TRPs of the one or more TRPs. Ma discloses information associated with one or more images that are representative of channel energy responses (CERs) for respective TRPs of the one or more TRPs (feedback content may different for sensing versus non-sensing. For TRP with sensing capability, sensing may assist communication. For example, sensing may provide useful information to the TRP, such as UE locations, Doppler, beam directions, and images. When the TRP can sense such information, it may be that less feedback information from the UE is required…. CSI is one type of UCI, which may include (or be represented by) one or some of several types: PMI (Precoding Matrix Indication), RI (Rank Indication), LI (Layer Indicator), CQI (Channel Quality Information), CRI (CSI-RS resource indicator), SSBRI (SS/PBCH (Physical broadcast channel) Resource Block Indicator), RSRP (Reference Signal Received Power). When sensing is not enabled, the UE measures and reports some CSI types to the TRP. When sensing is enabled, the UE measures and reports less CSI types to the TRP, e.g. a subset the CSI types sent when sensing is not enabled. In a specific example, a UE measures and reports PMI, RI, CQI when sensing is not enabled. When sensing is enabled, a UE measures and reports PMI and RI, but CQI is obtained by sensing capability; see Ma par. 0349). Examiner’s note: as Applicant’s specification states that sensing data include a signal strength, a received raw signal sample, a channel delay profile, one or more Doppler measurements, a channel impulse response (CIR), a channel energy response (CER), CSI, CQI, time delay measurements, and/or an angle of arrival (AoA), among others, CER in the claim limitation can be substituted by any of the measurement data mentioned above. It would have been obvious to the ordinary skilled in the art before the effective filing date to use Ma's arrangement in Wanuga's invention to improve performance and/or efficiency of the wireless communication system, e.g. to enhance overall system capacity and meet service requirements with reduced power consumption (see Ma par. 0006).
For claims 4 and 12, Wanuga discloses The UE of claim 1, wherein the sensing configuration information indicates that the UE is to measure signals associated with the one or more TRPs to obtain the CERs (Procedure "P2", also known as "beam refinement for the gNB Tx beam" procedure, may be used to enable a WTRU to perform measurements on different Tx beams to possibly change between TRP Tx beams at the same or different TRPs; see Wanuga par. 0099).
For claim 10, Wanuga discloses A network node (The gNBs 180a, 180b, 180c may each include one or more transceivers for communicating with the WTRUs 102a, 102b, 102c over the air interface 116; see Wanuga par. 0061), comprising:
one or more memories; and
one or more processors, coupled to the one or more memories, configured to cause the network node to (the methods described herein may be implemented in a computer program, software, or firmware incorporated in a computer-readable medium for execution by a computer or processor. Examples of computer-readable media include electronic signals (transmitted over wired or wireless connections) and computer- readable storage media. Examples of computer-readable storage media include, but are not limited to, a read only memory (ROM), a random access memory (RAM), a register, cache memory, semiconductor memory devices, magnetic media such as internal hard disks and removable disks, magneto-optical media, and optical media such as CD-ROM disks, and digital versatile disks (DVDs). A processor in association with software may be used to implement a radio frequency transceiver for use in a WTRU, UE, terminal, base station, RNC, STA, or any host computer; see Wanuga par. 0175):
transmit, for one or more user equipments (UEs), sensing configuration information for a sensing session (FIG. 7 is an example of a procedure for enabling resource configuration adjustment at the WTRU without explicit signaling in the context of joint communication and sensing (JCS). As depicted in FIG. 7 at 701, a WTRU 700b may receive a JCS-RS configuration from a gNB 700a. The JCS-RS configuration may specify one or more resource sets each with N resources. At 702, the WTRU 700b also receives a JCS measurement reporting configuration, which may include one or more resource sets for transmitting the measurement reports and/or one or more thresholds for adjusting the JCS-RS measurement and reporting configuration; see Wanuga par. 0138), the sensing configuration information indicating one or more transmission reception points (TRPs) (Beam determination may involve one or more TRPs or WTRUs selecting from their own Tx/Rx beam(s). Beam measurement may involve one or more TRPs or WTRUs measuring characteristics of received beam formed signals; see Wanuga par. 0097-0098); and
receive sensing result information for respective UEs of the one or more UEs, the sensing result information (Based on the measured backscatter power, the WTRU 700b may compute the beam blockage rate (shown at 705) and, at 706, transmit a JCS measurement report that may include the beam blockage rate. Similar to the measurement periodicity, the reporting periodicity may depend on the selected JCS reporting resource set; see Wanuga par. 0138).
Wanuga does not explicitly disclose information being associated with one or more images that are representative of channel energy responses (CERs) for respective TRPs of the one or more TRPs. Ma discloses information being associated with one or more images that are representative of channel energy responses (CERs) for respective TRPs of the one or more TRPs (feedback content may different for sensing versus non-sensing. For TRP with sensing capability, sensing may assist communication. For example, sensing may provide useful information to the TRP, such as UE locations, Doppler, beam directions, and images. When the TRP can sense such information, it may be that less feedback information from the UE is required…. CSI is one type of UCI, which may include (or be represented by) one or some of several types: PMI (Precoding Matrix Indication), RI (Rank Indication), LI (Layer Indicator), CQI (Channel Quality Information), CRI (CSI-RS resource indicator), SSBRI (SS/PBCH (Physical broadcast channel) Resource Block Indicator), RSRP (Reference Signal Received Power). When sensing is not enabled, the UE measures and reports some CSI types to the TRP. When sensing is enabled, the UE measures and reports less CSI types to the TRP, e.g. a subset the CSI types sent when sensing is not enabled. In a specific example, a UE measures and reports PMI, RI, CQI when sensing is not enabled. When sensing is enabled, a UE measures and reports PMI and RI, but CQI is obtained by sensing capability; see Ma par. 0349). Examiner’s note: as Applicant’s specification states that sensing data include a signal strength, a received raw signal sample, a channel delay profile, one or more Doppler measurements, a channel impulse response (CIR), a channel energy response (CER), CSI, CQI, time delay measurements, and/or an angle of arrival (AoA), among others, CER in the claim limitation can be substituted by any of the measurement data mentioned above. It would have been obvious to the ordinary skilled in the art before the effective filing date to use Ma's arrangement in Wanuga's invention to improve performance and/or efficiency of the wireless communication system, e.g. to enhance overall system capacity and meet service requirements with reduced power consumption (see Ma par. 0006).
Claim(s) 2, 3, 5, 11, 18 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Wanuga and Ma, and further in view of Damji et al. (US 2014/0241232, hereinafter “Damji”).
For claims 2 and 18, The combination of Wanuga and Ma does not explicitly disclose The UE of claim 1, wherein the sensing result information includes the CERs. Damji discloses The UE of claim 1, wherein the sensing result information includes the CERs (the channel estimation and adaptation process can use a channel energy response (CER) based approach to detect MBSFN subframes. In some embodiments, a CER can be determined for each OFDM symbol that includes reference signals ( or is assumed to include reference signals) in a respective subframe… In some embodiments, a channel energy can be estimated by picking a "strongest" path for determining the CER; see Damji par. 0061). It would have been obvious to the ordinary skilled in the art before the effective filing date to use Damji's arrangement in Wanuga's invention to benefit from an adaptive channel estimation process that determines potential MBSFN frames and/or subframes and adjusts channel estimation accordingly (see Damji par. 0004).
For claim 3, the combination of Wanuga and Ma does not explicitly disclose The UE of claim 1, wherein the sensing result information includes an average CER for each TRP of the one or more TRPs. Damji discloses The UE of claim 1, wherein the sensing result information includes an average CER for each TRP of the one or more TRPs (the wireless communication device determines whether a subframe includes MBMS data by determining a reference average CER based on at least a first symbol of a reference subframe, where the reference subframe is known to not contain MBMS data. The wireless communication device can determine an average CER for other subframes based on one or more symbols of the other subframes and can exclude symbols of the other subframes that are from a control (non-MBSFN) region of the other subframes. The wireless communication device can exclude the symbols that are known to include cell specific reference signals when calculating an average CER for the subframe, and the wireless communication device can compare the calculated average CER to the reference average CER to determine whether the subframe includes MBMS data; see Damji par. 0081, 0069, 0063). It would have been obvious to the ordinary skilled in the art before the effective filing date to use Damji's arrangement in Wanuga's invention to benefit from an adaptive channel estimation process that determines potential MBSFN frames and/or subframes and adjusts channel estimation accordingly (see Damji par. 0004).
For claim 5, the combination of Wanuga and Ma does not explicitly disclose The UE of claim 1, wherein a CER for a TRP, included in the one or more TRPs, includes channel impulse response (CIR) taps for the TRP as measured by the UE in accordance with the sensing configuration information. Damji discloses The UE of claim 1, wherein a CER for a TRP, included in the one or more TRPs, includes channel impulse response (CIR) taps for the TRP as measured by the UE in accordance with the sensing configuration information (Channel energies for multiple OFDM symbols of a subframe ( or for a portion of the subframe, e.g., a time slot) can be estimated and compared with one another. In some embodiments, multiple CIR paths can be calculated for each OFDM symbol, and a CER can be calculated for one or more of the multiple CIR paths; see Damji par. 0061, 0080, 0085). It would have been obvious to the ordinary skilled in the art before the effective filing date to use Damji's arrangement in Wanuga's invention to benefit from an adaptive channel estimation process that determines potential MBSFN frames and/or subframes and adjusts channel estimation accordingly (see Damji par. 0004).
For claim 11, the combination of Wanuga and Ma does not explicitly disclose The network node of claim 10, wherein the one or more processors, to cause the network node to receive the sensing result information, are configured to cause the network node to: receive, from each UE of the one or more UEs, one or more CERs for the respective TRPs. Damji discloses The network node of claim 10, wherein the one or more processors, to cause the network node to receive the sensing result information, are configured to cause the network node to: receive, from each UE of the one or more UEs, one or more CERs for the respective TRPs (the wireless communication device determines whether a subframe includes MBMS data by determining a reference average CER based on at least a first symbol of a reference subframe, where the reference subframe is known to not contain MBMS data. The wireless communication device can determine an average CER for other subframes based on one or more symbols of the other subframes and can exclude symbols of the other subframes that are from a control (non-MBSFN) region of the other subframes. The wireless communication device can exclude the symbols that are known to include cell specific reference signals when calculating an average CER for the subframe, and the wireless communication device can compare the calculated average CER to the reference average CER to determine whether the subframe includes MBMS data; see Damji par. 0081, 0069, 0063). It would have been obvious to the ordinary skilled in the art before the effective filing date to use Damji's arrangement in Wanuga's invention to benefit from an adaptive channel estimation process that determines potential MBSFN frames and/or subframes and adjusts channel estimation accordingly (see Damji par. 0004).
Claim(s) 6, 13, 19 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Wanuga and Ma, and further in view of Sogabe et al. (US 2022/0007049, hereinafter “Sogabe”).
For claims 6 and 19, the combination of Wanuga and Ma does not explicitly disclose The UE of claim 1, wherein the sensing result information includes one or more summary vectors for respective images of the one or more images. Sogabe discloses The UE of claim 1, wherein the sensing result information includes one or more summary vectors for respective images of the one or more images (The predictive image combination unit 209 combines the three predictive images including the predictive image a, the predictive image b, and the predictive image c using two interpolation factor vectors including an interpolation factor vector wo and an interpolation factor vector w, to generate the combined predictive image p as in Formulas (19) and (20). In this case, when wo and w, are obtained through the L1 regularization, transformation can be per formed on a tensor in which wo and w, have been coupled. In this case, it is possible to perform a more three-dimensional transformation considering a correlation between wo and w, that is impossible when a combination of two predictive images is repeated in order to realize a combination of three predictive images; see Sogabe par. 0110, 0081). It would have been obvious to the ordinary skilled in the art before the effective filing date to use Sogabe's arrangement in Wanuga's invention to restore the original signal from the observation signal on the basis of the sparsity of the prediction residual signal, therefore, since the sparsity of the prediction residual signal is improved when prediction accuracy of the image signal is higher, the decoding device can generate the prediction residual signal with high accuracy (see Sogabe par. 0011).
For claim 13, the combination of Wanuga and Ma does not explicitly disclose The network node of claim 10, wherein the one or more processors, to cause the network node to receive the sensing result information, are configured to cause the network node to: receive, for each UE of the one or more UEs, one or more summary vectors for respective images of the one or more images. Sogabe discloses The network node of claim 10, wherein the one or more processors, to cause the network node to receive the sensing result information, are configured to cause the network node to: receive, for each UE of the one or more UEs, one or more summary vectors for respective images of the one or more images (The predictive image combination unit 209 combines the three predictive images including the predictive image a, the predictive image b, and the predictive image c using two interpolation factor vectors including an interpolation factor vector wo and an interpolation factor vector w, to generate the combined predictive image p as in Formulas (19) and (20). In this case, when wo and w, are obtained through the L1 regularization, transformation can be per formed on a tensor in which wo and w, have been coupled. In this case, it is possible to perform a more three-dimensional transformation considering a correlation between wo and w, that is impossible when a combination of two predictive images is repeated in order to realize a combination of three predictive images; see Sogabe par. 0110, 0081). It would have been obvious to the ordinary skilled in the art before the effective filing date to use Sogabe's arrangement in Wanuga's invention to restore the original signal from the observation signal on the basis of the sparsity of the prediction residual signal, therefore, since the sparsity of the prediction residual signal is improved when prediction accuracy of the image signal is higher, the decoding device can generate the prediction residual signal with high accuracy (see Sogabe par. 0011).
Claim(s) 9 and 15 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Wanuga and Ma, and further in view of Tobiason et al. (US 2021/0072387, hereinafter “Tobiason”).
For claim 9, the combination of Wanuga and Ma does not explicitly disclose The UE of claim 1, wherein the one or more processors, to cause the UE to receive the sensing configuration information, are configured to cause the UE to: receive an indication of a height of interest that is associated with the one or more images. Tobiason discloses The UE of claim 1, wherein the one or more processors, to cause the UE to receive the sensing configuration information, are configured to cause the UE to: receive an indication of a height of interest that is associated with the one or more images (The triangulation light extended focus range TLEFR 12 corresponds to the FPSR. The TLEFR is greater than M times a nominal unmodulated focus range (NUFR) of the projection axis configuration 16 along the Z axis, where Mis an integer that is at least 2 (e.g. in various implementations M may be at least 10, 25, 50 or 100, or more.) In step 64, the method exposes a triangulation image of a workpiece surface WS (of the workpiece 39) using a triangulation image exposure sequence, wherein during the exposure sequence the periodic modulation of the triangulation light focus position causes the triangulation light focus position FP to temporarily coincide with a Z height of at least one workpiece surface region of interest WSROI to be measured in the triangulation image ( e.g. using one the exposure sequence of type 1, type 2 or type 3 as disclosed herein.) In step 66, optionally, the method processes the triangulation image, to determine or output at least one respective Z height corresponding to at least one respective location on the workpiece surface WS that is included in the triangulation image; see Tobiason par. 0114). It would have been obvious to the ordinary skilled in the art before the effective filing date to use Tobiason's arrangement in Wanuga's invention to minimize multiple reflections that might otherwise arise from light reflected from outside workpiece surface region of interest WSROI (WSROii), which should be regarded as false signals that could influence the triangulation image contrast adversely (see Tobiason par. 0110).
For claim 15, the combination of Wanuga and Ma does not explicitly disclose The network node of claim 10, wherein the one or more processors, to cause the network node to transmit the sensing configuration information, are configured to cause the network node to: transmit an indication of a height of interest that is associated with the one or more images. Tobiason discloses The network node of claim 10, wherein the one or more processors, to cause the network node to transmit the sensing configuration information, are configured to cause the network node to: transmit an indication of a height of interest that is associated with the one or more images (The triangulation light extended focus range TLEFR 12 corresponds to the FPSR. The TLEFR is greater than M times a nominal unmodulated focus range (NUFR) of the projection axis configuration 16 along the Z axis, where Mis an integer that is at least 2 (e.g. in various implementations M may be at least 10, 25, 50 or 100, or more.) In step 64, the method exposes a triangulation image of a workpiece surface WS (of the workpiece 39) using a triangulation image exposure sequence, wherein during the exposure sequence the periodic modulation of the triangulation light focus position causes the triangulation light focus position FP to temporarily coincide with a Z height of at least one workpiece surface region of interest WSROI to be measured in the triangulation image (e.g. using one the exposure sequence of type 1, type 2 or type 3 as disclosed herein.) In step 66, optionally, the method processes the triangulation image, to determine or output at least one respective Z height corresponding to at least one respective location on the workpiece surface WS that is included in the triangulation image; see Tobiason par. 0114). It would have been obvious to the ordinary skilled in the art before the effective filing date to use Tobiason's arrangement in Wanuga's invention to minimize multiple reflections that might otherwise arise from light reflected from outside workpiece surface region of interest WSROI (WSROii), which should be regarded as false signals that could influence the triangulation image contrast adversely (see Tobiason par. 0110).
Allowable Subject Matter
Claims 7, 8, 14, 16, 20 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 and in addition if they overcome the double patenting rejection above.
The following is an examiner’s statement of reasons for allowance: claims x would be allowable because the closest prior arts listed above either alone or in combination, fail to anticipate or render obvious, the claimed invention of “wherein the one or more summary vectors are representative of summed images of images, of the one or more images, associated with two or more TRPs of the one or more TRPs; wherein the one or more summary vectors are indicative of localization information for one or more objects in a zone of interest associated with the sensing session”, in combination with all other limitations in the claim(s) above as defined by applicant.
Conclusion
The prior art made of record and not relied upon is considered pertinent to applicant's disclosure.
- Vameghestahbanati et al. (US 2025/0380116): see par. 0197-0215 and Fig. 9.
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/CHAE S LEE/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2415
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