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 .
Response to Arguments
Applicant's arguments filed 4/8/26 have been fully considered but they are not persuasive.
The applicant states that Chin fails to disclose a serpentine electrode. The examiner respectfully disagrees. The term “serpentine” may refer to a curving shape. The applicant states that the first electrode as disclosed by Chin does not disclose a twisting shape. The examiner respectfully disagrees. The term twisting refers to a curve and change in direction. Chin’s first electrode having a circular shape constantly twists and changes direction to form that curved circular shape. It is the opinion of the examiner, that one skilled in the art would reasonably view Chin’s first electrode as a first serpentine electrode.
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)(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.
Claims 1-9, 13, 15 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(1) as being anticipated by Chin et al (US Publication No.: US 2015/0015839 A1 of record, “Chin”).
Regarding Claim 1, Chin discloses a liquid crystal gradient index refractive device (Figure 1; Paragraph 0017; Paragraph 0024) comprising:
Opposed substrates containing liquid crystal with a first serpentine electrode arrangement on a first one of the substrates and an opposed electrode on a second one of the substrates (Figure 1A, first substrate 260 comprises first serpentine electrode arrangement 222 and second substrate 360 comprises opposed electrode 322 with liquid crystal 110 disposed in between), wherein
Said first serpentine electrode arrangement comprises a plurality of contact points (Figures 1A-1B, contact points 252a, 252b) within an aperture defined by said first serpentine electrode arrangement (Figure 1B discloses an aperture defining the diameter of the electrode 222, corresponding to C); wherein
An electric field provided by the first serpentine electrode arrangement allows for the formation of a variation in the electric field in a direction at a desired position within said aperture selected by which ones of said plurality of contact points are driven (Figure 1B discloses contact points 252 at various locations allowing for voltage to be applied at different positions, which would result in a variation in the electric field; Paragraph 0021).
Regarding Claim 2, Chin discloses the device as defined in claim 1, wherein said opposed electrode is a second similar serpentine electrode arrangement, rotated in the plane of the cell substrate at 90° with respect to the first serpentine electrode arrangement, thereby resulting in segments of said first serpentine electrode arrangement being perpendicular to segments of said second serpentine electrode arrangement directly opposite to said segments of said first serpentine electrode arrangement (Paragraph 0025 discloses that the opposed electrode may be a serpentine electrode arrangement, where a rotation of 90° would result in a similar arrangement since the electrodes are ring-shaped/serpentine phased by 90 degrees).
Regarding Claim 3, Chin discloses the device as defined in claim 1, wherein said serpentine electrode arrangement comprises a transparent electrode material (Paragraph 0029 discloses a transparent conductive material).
Regarding Claim 4, Chin discloses the device as defined in claim 1, wherein said substrate comprises an alignment layer providing the liquid crystal with a planar ground state alignment in a direction diagonal to said serpentine electrode arrangement (Figure 1A, alignment layers 210/310; Paragraph 0022).
Regarding Claim 5, Chin discloses the device as defined in claim 1, comprising a plurality of liquid crystal layers arranged for polarization-independent operation (Figure 1C discloses a plurality of liquid crystal layers; Paragraph 0027).
Regarding Claim 6, Chin discloses the device as defined in claim 1, wherein said plurality of contact points allow for at least 5 of said desired positions (Paragraphs 0032-0034 discloses that any number of contact points may be selected as long as the number is greater than 2, which would include 5).
Regarding Claim 7, Chin discloses the device as defined in claim 6, wherein said contact points define a minimal step equal or above 0.1 mm between each one of said at least 5 of said desired positions (Paragraph 0033 discloses a diameter of 0.1mm).
Regarding Claim 8, Chin discloses the device as defined in claim 1, further comprising switch circuitry connected to contact points of at least one of said first serpentine electrode and a second serpentine electrode arrangement (Figure 1B, switch circuitry 252; Paragraphs 0021-0024).
Regarding Claim 9, Chin discloses the device as defined in claim 8, further comprising a drive circuit connected to said switch circuitry for selectively driving said contact points (Figure 1B, drive circuit 400; Paragraphs 0021-0024).
Regarding Claim 13, Chin discloses the device as defined in claim 1, wherein said serpentine electrode arrangement comprises driven electrode segments in combination with a transparent relatively high dielectric constant and optical index matching layer placed near the serpentine electrode arrangement and filling a gap between said segments (Figure 1A, transparent relatively high dielectric constant and optical index matching layer 210).
Regarding Claim 15, Chin discloses the device as claimed in claim 14, wherein said substrates are flexible (Paragraph 0018 discloses a transparent substrate, where every substrate has some degree of flexibility), and further comprising a drive circuit and/or switch circuitry provided on one or more integrated circuit dies mounted within an extracellular region of said flexible substrates (Figure 1A, drive circuit 400 is mounted within an extracellular region).
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 12 is rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Chin in view of Khodadad et al (US Publication No.: US 2013/0250197 A1 of record, “Khodadad”).
Regarding Claim 12, Chin discloses the device as claimed in claim 1.
Chin fails to disclose that said serpentine electrode arrangement comprises driven electrode segments in combination with a highly resistive layer connected to and filling a gap between said segments.
However, Khodadad discloses a similar device where said serpentine electrode arrangement comprises driven electrode segments in combination with a highly resistive layer connected to and filling a gap between said segments (Khodadad, Figure 2 and 4A, highly resistive layer 16; Paragraph 0045; Paragraph 0050).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the invention to modify the device as disclosed by Chin to include a high resistive layer as disclosed by Khodadad. One would have been motivated to do so for the purpose of reducing intra-lens reproducibility problems (Khodadad, Paragraph 0045).
Claim 16 is rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Chin in view of Ouderkirk et al (US Publication No.: US 2022/0350147 A1 of record, “Ouderkirk”).
Regarding Claim 16, Chin discloses a liquid crystal gradient index refractive device (Figure 1; Paragraph 0017; Paragraph 0024) comprising:
Opposed substrates containing liquid crystal with a first serpentine electrode arrangement on a first one of the substrates and an opposed electrode on a second one of the substrates (Figure 1A, first substrate 260 comprises first serpentine electrode arrangement 222 and second substrate 360 comprises opposed electrode 322 with liquid crystal 110 disposed in between), wherein
Said first serpentine electrode arrangement comprises a plurality of contact points (Figures 1A-1B, contact points 252a, 252b) within an aperture defined by said first serpentine electrode arrangement (Figure 1B discloses an aperture defining the diameter of the electrode 222, corresponding to C); wherein
The electric field provided by the first serpentine electrode arrangement allows for the formation of a variation in the electric field in a direction at a desired position within said aperture selected by which ones of said plurality of contact points are driven (Figure 1B discloses contact points 252 at various locations allowing for voltage to be applied at different positions, which would result in a variation in the electric field; Paragraph 0021).
Chin fails to disclose an eyeglass lens having a concave surface and a liquid crystal gradient index refractive device.
However, Ouderkirk discloses a similar device that is an eyeglass lens having a concave surface and a liquid crystal gradient index refractive device (Ouderkirk, Figure 18).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the invention to modify the device as disclosed by Chin to be an eyeglass lens as disclosed by Ouderkirk. One would have been motivated to do so for the purpose of incorporating the liquid crystal gradient index refractive device into an artificial-reality system (Ouderkirk, Paragraph 0183).
Allowable Subject Matter
Claims 10-11, 21 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.
Claims 17-20 are allowed.
Regarding Claim 17, the prior art of record does not teach or suggest a vision-improvement apparatus comprising: an eye-tracking device; a rechargeable power source; a polarization insensitive lens device composed of lenses comprising: opposed substrates containing liquid crystal with a first serpentine electrode arrangement on a first one of the substrates and an opposed electrode on a second one of the substrates, wherein said first serpentine electrode arrangement comprises a plurality of contact points within an aperture defined by said first serpentine electrode arrangement; wherein the electric field provided by the first serpentine electrode arrangement allows for the formation of a variation in the electric field in a direction at a desired position within said aperture selected by which ones of said plurality of contact points are driven; and a driver receiving an eye-position signal from the eye-tracking device and providing a drive signal to each contact points of said serpentine electrode arrangements to cause a lens of a suitable optical power to appear on the desired position of said lens device for focusing an image onto a foveal region of the eye.
The prior art of Chin (US 2015/0015839 A1) discloses a liquid crystal gradient index refractive device comprising opposed substrates containing liquid crystal with a first serpentine electrode arrangement on a first one of the substrates and an opposed electrode on a second one of the substrates (Figure 1A, first substrate 260 comprises first serpentine electrode arrangement 222 and second substrate 360 comprises opposed electrode 322 with liquid crystal 110 disposed in between), wherein said first serpentine electrode arrangement comprises a plurality of contact points (Figures 1A-1B, contact points 252a, 252b) within an aperture defined by said first serpentine electrode arrangement (Figure 1B discloses an aperture defining the diameter of the electrode 222, corresponding to C); wherein the electric field provided by the first serpentine electrode arrangement allows for the formation of a variation in the electric field in a direction at a desired position within said aperture selected by which ones of said plurality of contact points are driven (Figure 1B discloses contact points 252 at various locations allowing for voltage to be applied at different positions, which would result in a variation in the electric field; Paragraph 0021). However, Chin fails to disclose a vision-improvement apparatus comprising an eye-tracking device; a rechargeable power source; and a clear indication of a polarization insensitive lens. Chin also does not disclose a driver receiving an eye-position signal from the eye-tracking device and providing a drive signal to each contact points of said serpentine electrode arrangements to cause a lens of a suitable optical power to appear on the desired position of said lens device for focusing an image onto a foveal region of the eye. The prior art of Ouderkirk (US 2022/0350147 A1) discloses a vision-improvement apparatus comprising an eye-tracking device (Ouderkirk, Paragraph 0227). However, Ouderkirk also fails to disclose a driver receiving an eye-position signal from the eye-tracking device and providing a drive signal to each contact points of said serpentine electrode arrangements to cause a lens of a suitable optical power to appear on the desired position of said lens device for focusing an image onto a foveal region of the eye and a rechargeable power source. While Jiang (US 2002/0113921 A1) discloses a rechargeable power source (Jiang, Paragraph 0409), Jiang fails to disclose the use of eye tracking to provide a drive signal to contact points of the serpentine electrode.
Therefore, Claim 17 is allowed. Claims 18-20 are allowed by virtue of their dependence on claim 17.
Conclusion
THIS ACTION IS MADE FINAL. Applicant is reminded of the extension of time policy as set forth in 37 CFR 1.136(a).
A shortened statutory period for reply to this final action is set to expire THREE MONTHS from the mailing date of this action. In the event a first reply is filed within TWO MONTHS of the mailing date of this final action and the advisory action is not mailed until after the end of the THREE-MONTH shortened statutory period, then the shortened statutory period will expire on the date the advisory action is mailed, and any nonprovisional extension fee (37 CFR 1.17(a)) pursuant to 37 CFR 1.136(a) will be calculated from the mailing date of the advisory action. In no event, however, will the statutory period for reply expire later than SIX MONTHS from the mailing date of this final action.
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to MARIAM QURESHI whose telephone number is (571)272-4434. The examiner can normally be reached 9AM-5PM EST M-F.
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/MARIAM QURESHI/Examiner, Art Unit 2871
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