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 § 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.
Claims 1, 15 and 16 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Bae et al (US Pub. No. 2011/0010090 A1) in view of Ayotte (US Patent No. 10,693,557 B1).
Regarding claim 1, Bae et at al teaches a control device for an access point comprising an input/output interface connected to a communication link, a transmitting stage adapted to convert a first signal from said input/output interface into a transmitted light signal, and a receiving stage adapted to convert a received light signal into a second signal passed on to said input/output interface (para [0022]; “Referring to FIG. 1, a common VLC system includes at least one lighting device 103 and at least one terminal 105 for performing data transmission/reception with the lighting device 103. The lighting device 103, which is comprised of LEDs or LDs, serves as lighting and performs data transmission/reception using visible light… the lighting device 103 may be part of a network 102 by being combined with an external content server 101, thereby more efficiently implementing the VLC system.”),
wherein the control device is arranged either to disable said receiving stage when said input/output interface receives a first signal from said communication bus, and to enable said receiving stage when said input/output interface no longer receives a first signal from said communication bus, or to disable said transmitting stage when said receiving stage receives a light signal, and to enable said transmitting stage when said receiving stage no longer receives a light signal (the term “either … or” suggest a choice between two distinct alternatives, implying that one option must be selected, and both cannot be chosen simultaneously, creating an exclusive decision or division. In this instance the second limitation “…disable said transmitting stage when said receiving stage receives a light signal, and to enable said transmitting stage when said receiving stage no longer receives a light signal” is selected. Bae et al para [0033] teaches “In FIG. 3A, the lighting device 301 has both the VLC transmission module and the VLC reception module, but the terminal 203 has only the reception function. In this case, the terminal 203 cannot send a data request to the lighting device 301. However, the lighting device 301 with a reception function does not start transmitting data before receiving the request.”; para [0036]; “…if a lighting device has both a transmission module and a reception module, the lighting device selects a mode based on a request received from a terminal. Accordingly, the lighting device having both the transmission and reception modules operates in the transmit mode only when it receives a request from the terminal in the receive mode, in order to send a response to the request.”).
Bae et al teaches transmitting module and receiving module connected and in communication with server (para [0022]; “… the lighting device 103 may be part of a network 102 by being combined with an external content server 101, thereby more efficiently implementing the VLC system.”) and differs from the claimed invention in that Bae et al does not specifically teach an input/output interface connected to a communication bus. Ayotte teaches optical communication system comprising
an input/output interface connected to a communication bus using a communication protocol. Ayotte teaches optical communication system comprising
an input/output interface connected to a communication bus using a communication protocol (col. 1, lines 54-59; “The dual fidelity access points includes (1) one or more transceivers configured to communicate with the plurality of devices via a radio frequency (RF) communication protocol; and (2) one or more light emitting diodes (LEDs) configured to emit light in accordance with a light fidelity (LiFi) communication protocol.”; col. 8, lines 42-47; “The bus interface 164 is configured to exchange data with the network controller 120 via a communication bus therebetween. For example, the communication bus may be an Ethernet connection, a power line communication (PLC) connection, or any other known arrangement for connecting vehicle access points to a centralized network controller.”). Therefore, it would have been obvious to an artisan of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filling date of the claimed invention to modify the optical communication system of Bae et al, by providing an input/output interface connected to a communication bus using a communication protocol, as taught by Ayotte, in order to reduce wiring and cost, simplified installation, enhanced reliability through error detection, and efficient, prioritized data sharing among multiple devices.
Regarding claim 15, the combination of Bae et al as modified by Ayotte teaches an access point comprising an input/output interface suitable for connection to a communication bus using a communication protocol, a transmitting stage adapted to convert a first signal from said input/output interface into a transmitted light signal, and a receiving stage adapted to convert a received light signal into a second signal passed on to said input/output interface, and a control device according to claim 1 (para [0022]; “Referring to FIG. 1, a common VLC system includes at least one lighting device 103 and at least one terminal 105 for performing data transmission/reception with the lighting device 103. The lighting device 103, which is comprised of LEDs or LDs, serves as lighting and performs data transmission/reception using visible light… the lighting device 103 may be part of a network 102 by being combined with an external content server 101, thereby more efficiently implementing the VLC system.”).
Regarding claim 16, the combination of Bae et al as modified by Ayotte teaches the access point adapted to form part of a Light Fidelity optical wireless network (Ayotte: col. 3, lines 24-29; “Light fidelity (LiFi) communication involves encoding data by using a modulation technique, such as on-off keying (OOK) or color shift keying (CSK), and controlling lights, such as light emitting diodes (LEDs), to emit light indicative of the encoded data in accordance with the modulation technique.”).
Claim 2 is rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Bae et al (US Pub. No. 2011/0010090 A1) in view of Ayotte (US Patent No. 10,693,557 B1) and further in view of Huang et al (US Pub. No. 2016/0134370 A1).
Regarding claim 2, the combination of Bae et al as modified by Ayotte teaches wherein in the presence of an access point comprising a transmitting stage including a transmitting optoelectronic module and a receiving stage including a receiving optoelectronic module (para [0022]; “Referring to FIG. 1, a common VLC system includes at least one lighting device 103 and at least one terminal 105 for performing data transmission/reception with the lighting device 103. The lighting device 103, which is comprised of LEDs or LDs, serves as lighting and performs data transmission/reception using visible light… the lighting device 103 may be part of a network 102 by being combined with an external content server 101, thereby more efficiently implementing the VLC system.”), the control device is arranged either to disable said receiving optoelectronic module when said input/output interface receives a first signal from said communication bus, and to enable said receiving optoelectronic module when said input/output interface no longer receives a first signal from said communication bus, or to disable said transmitting optoelectronic module when said receiving stage receives a light signal, and to enable said transmitting optoelectronic module when said receiving stage no longer receives a light signal (the term “either … or” suggest a choice between two distinct alternatives, implying that one option must be selected, and both cannot be chosen simultaneously, creating an exclusive decision or division. In this instance the second limitation “…disable said transmitting stage when said receiving stage receives a light signal, and to enable said transmitting stage when said receiving stage no longer receives a light signal” is selected. Bae et al para [0033] teaches “In FIG. 3A, the lighting device 301 has both the VLC transmission module and the VLC reception module, but the terminal 203 has only the reception function. In this case, the terminal 203 cannot send a data request to the lighting device 301. However, the lighting device 301 with a reception function does not start transmitting data before receiving the request.”; para [0036]; “…if a lighting device has both a transmission module and a reception module, the lighting device selects a mode based on a request received from a terminal. Accordingly, the lighting device having both the transmission and reception modules operates in the transmit mode only when it receives a request from the terminal in the receive mode, in order to send a response to the request.”)..
The combination differs from the claimed invention in that the combination does not specifically teach a transmitting stage including a transmitting optoelectronic module adapted to convert a digital signal derived from a first signal into a light signal, and a receiving stage including a receiving optoelectronic module adapted to convert a received light signal into a digital signal representative of a second signal. However, conversion of signal into analog and digital domain is well known. Huang et al teaches optical communication system comprising a transmitting stage including a transmitting optoelectronic module adapted to convert a digital signal derived from a first signal into a light signal, and a receiving stage including a receiving optoelectronic module adapted to convert a received light signal into a digital signal representative of a second signal (para [0060]; “Reference may be made to FIG. 1, the visible light power-carrying communication system of the lighting facility end at least includes a transmitted information sequence generating module 11, a modulating module 12, a digital-to-analog converting module (DAC) 13, a visible light transmitter 14, a photoelectric detector (Photo Diode, PD) 15, an analog-to-digital converting module (ADC) 16, a demodulating module 17, a received information sequence deciding module 18, a power supplying module 19, etc.”). Therefore, it would have been obvious to an artisan of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filling date of the claimed invention to modify the optical communication system of the combination, by providing convertor to convert signal into digital domain and convertor to convert signal into analog signal domain, as taught by Huang et al, in order to bridge analog domain and digital domain and provide enhanced signal quality, noise reduction, easy storage/transmission, precise processing, and versatility for digital systems such as microprocessors to interact with analog sensors such as optical transmitters and optical receivers.
Allowable Subject Matter
Claims 3-14 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.
Conclusion
The prior art made of record and not relied upon is considered pertinent to applicant's disclosure. Talstra et al (US Patent No. 8,917,023 B2) is cited to show illumination system for communication.
Schmid et al (US Pub. No. 2014/0341589 A1) is cited to show visible light communication system.
Beach (US Patent No. 8,705,967 B2) is cited to show serially-distributed access points in a communication network.
Shin et al (US Pub. No. 2008/0131140 A1) is cited to show communication link connection using visible light communication.
Linnartz et al (US Pub. No. 2023/0198628 A1) is cited to show multi-transceiver system with selective transmit branch combination for optical wireless communication.
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DALZID E. SINGH
Primary Examiner
Art Unit 2635
/DALZID E SINGH/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2635