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 .
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.
In addressing the rejection ground, each claim may not have been separately discussed to the extent the claimed features are the same as or similar to the previously-discussed features; the previous discussion is construed to apply for the other claims in the same or similar way.
In the office action, “/” should be read as and/or as generally understood. For example, “A/B” means A and B, or A or B.
Claim Objections
Claims 1-2, 5 and 7-10 are objected to because of the following informalities:
Claim 1 recites “ipRGC” in line 6. It should be recited as --intrinsically photosensitive retinal ganglion cells (ipRGC)--.
In addition, claim 1 recites “LMS chromaticity” in line 4. It should be recited as – long-wavelength, medium-wavelength and short-wavelength (LMS) chromaticity--.
Claims 2 and 9 are objected to based on the dependency from claim 1.
Similarly, claims 5 and 7-8 have the same issues as discussed in claim 1.
Claim 10 is objected to based on the dependency from claim 5.
Appropriate correction is required.
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.
(a)(2) the claimed invention was described in a patent issued under section 151, or in an application for patent published or deemed published under section 122(b), in which the patent or application, as the case may be, names another inventor and was effectively filed before the effective filing date of the claimed invention.
Claim(s) 5, 8 and 10 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(1) as being anticipated by University of Kagoshima (hereinafter U. of Kagoshima; JP 2019-080620, see IDS).
Regarding claim 5, U. of Kagoshima discloses a pupil diameter change induction device [e.g. fig. 2] comprising a pupil diameter change induction signal output processing circuitry t[e.g. 201, 202/203] hat outputs an output signal, the output signal including first information [see at least paras. 0023-0028; or see at least formula 3] for adjusting an output intensity of each basic light source of a plurality of basic light sources [e.g. 204] having different spectral distributions [see at least paras. 0023-0028, 0031, 0035] and presenting a first synthetic source light with the plurality of basic light sources in a first time section [e.g. the first simulation step; or see paras. 0031, 0035], and second information [see at least paras. 0023-0028; or see at least formula 4] for adjusting an output intensity of each basic light source of the plurality of basic light sources and presenting a second synthetic source light with the plurality of basic light sources in a second time section [e.g. the second simulation step; or see paras. 0031, 0035] different from the first time section, wherein a rate of change between an ipRGC activation amount of the first synthetic source light and an ipRGC activation amount of the second synthetic source light is higher than a rate of change between a value of an LMS chromaticity space of the first synthetic source light and a value of an LMS chromaticity space of the second synthetic source light [ see at least paras. 0019, 0029], and the output signal is information for repeating presentation of the first synthetic source light and presentation of the second synthetic source light to induce a change in pupil diameter of a presentation target [e.g. 208; para. 0012].
Regarding claim 8, this claim is merely methods to operate the circuit having structure recited in claim 5. Since U. Kagoshima teaches the structure, the methods to operate such a circuit are similarly disclosed.
Regarding claim 10, U. of Kagoshima discloses a non-transitory computer-readable recording medium storing a program [e.g. the stimulus presentation program in PC 201] for causing a computer to function as the pupil diameter change induction device according to claim 5.
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 1-2, 7 and 9 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over University of Kagoshima ( hereinafter U. of Kagoshima; JP 2019-080620, see IDS) in view of University of Kagoshima ( hereinafter U. of Kagoshima2; JP 2010-162214, see IDS) and Yu et al. (US 2020/0244355).
Regarding claim 1, U. of Kagoshima discloses synthetic light source generation device comprising: a PC/microprocessor that generates spectral distributions of a plurality of basic source lights, using a unit LMS chromaticity space value that is a value of an LMS chromaticity space of each basic source light of the plurality of basic source lights having different spectral distributions and a basic ipRGC activation amount that is an ipRGC activation amount for each basic source light of the plurality of basic source lights; a pupil diameter change induction device comprising a pupil diameter change induction signal output processing circuitry that outputs an output signal, the output signal including first information for adjusting an output intensity of each basic light source of a plurality of basic light sources having different spectral distributions and presenting a first synthetic source light with the plurality of basic light sources in a first time section, and second information for adjusting an output intensity of each basic light source of the plurality of basic light sources and presenting a second synthetic source light with the plurality of basic light sources in a second time section different from the first time section, wherein a rate of change between an ipRGC activation amount of the first synthetic source light and an ipRGC activation amount of the second synthetic source light is higher than a rate of change between a value of an LMS chromaticity space of the first synthetic source light and a value of an LMS chromaticity space of the second synthetic source light, and the output signal is information for repeating presentation of the first synthetic source light and presentation of the second synthetic source light to induce a change in pupil diameter of a presentation target. See rejection of claim 5.
U. of Kagoshima disclose does not disclose a weight coefficient. However, U. of Kagoshima2 discloses to utilize a weight coefficient [see paras. 0039-0050; each L, M, S and ganglion cells receive the degree of the excitement from the first-fourth light sources 171-174].
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one having ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify the device disclosed by U. of Kagoshima in accordance with the teaching of U. of Kagoshima2 regarding the degree of the excitement in order to efficiently adjust the condition of a living body [para. 0009]. The combination disclose to use a PC/microprocessor to generate the weight coefficient. The combination does not disclose to use a weight coefficient generation processing circuitry. However, it’s well-known to use an ASIC, an FPGA or another programmable logical device, a discrete gate or transistor logic device, or a discrete hardware component to replace a processor. For example, Yu discloses to utilize an ASIC, an FPGA or another programmable logical device, a discrete gate or transistor logic device, or a discrete hardware component to replace a processor [para. 0180].
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one having ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify the device disclosed by U. of Kagoshima and U. of Kagoshima2 in accordance with the teaching of Yu in order to utilize a well-known programmable logical device to perform the tasks done by a processor.
Regarding claim 2, the combination discussed above discloses the synthetic light source generation device according to claim 1, wherein the weight coefficient generation processing circuitry generates at least the first weight coefficient combination and the second weight coefficient combination, using a target LMS chromaticity space value that is a value of an LMS chromaticity space of a target source light, a target ipRGC activation amount that is an ipRGC activation amount set as appropriate for the target source light, the unit LMS chromaticity space value, and the basic ipRGC activation amount, N and I are integers of 2 or greater, n=1, . . . , N, and i=1, . . . , I, L, M, and S represent the target LMS chromaticity space values, and L.sub.LEDn, M.sub.LEDn, and S.sub.LEDn represent the unit LMS chromaticity space values of the nth basic source light of the plurality of basic source lights, ipRGC.sub.LEDn represents an ipRGC activation amount of the nth basic source light, ipRGC(i) represents the ith target ipRGC activation amount, w(i) represents the ith weight coefficient combination w.sub.1(i), . . . , and w.sub.N(i), at least some elements of w(i.sub.1) or a weight coefficient combination close to w(i.sub.1) represent the first weight coefficient combination w.sub.φ(1, 1)(i.sub.1), . . . , and w.sub.φ(1, N1)(i.sub.1), at least some elements of w(i.sub.2) or a weight coefficient combination close to w(i.sub.2) represent the second weight coefficient combination w.sub.φ(2, 1)(i.sub.2), . . . , and w.sub.φ(2, N2)(i.sub.2), i.sub.1, i.sub.2∈{1, . . . , I}, i.sub.1≠i.sub.2, N1 and N2 are positive integers equal to or smaller than N, {φ(1,1), . . . , φ(1, N1)}.Math.{1, . . . , N}, {φ(2, 1), . . . , φ(2, N2)}.Math.{1, . . . , N}, Yw(i)=x(i), the following expressions are satisfied: Y=(LLED1.Math.LLEDNMLED1.Math.MLEDNSLED1.Math.SLEDNipRGCLED1.Math.ipRGCLEDN) w(i)=(w1(i).Math.wN(i)) x(i)=(LMSipRGC(i)) λ represents wavelength, I.sub.s(i1)(λ)=w.sub.φ(1, 1)(i.sub.1)*LED.sub.φ(1, 1)(λ)+ . . . +w.sub.φ(1, N1)(i.sub.1)*LED.sub.φ(1, N1)(λ) represents a synthetic spectral distribution obtained by weighting and adding spectral distributions LED.sub.φ(1, 1)(λ), . . . , and LED.sub.φ(1, N1)(λ) of the plurality of basic source lights with the first weigh coefficient combination w.sub.φ(1, 1)(i.sub.1), . . . , and w.sub.φ(1, N1)(i.sub.1), and I.sub.s(i2)(λ)=w.sub.φ(2, 1)(i.sub.2)*LED.sub.φ(2, 1)(λ)+ . . . +w.sub.φ(2, N2)(i.sub.2)*LED.sub.φ(2, N2)(λ) represents a synthetic spectral distribution obtained by weighting and adding spectral distributions LED.sub.φ(2, 1)(λ), . . . , and LED.sub.φ(2, N2)(λ) of the plurality of basic source lights with the second weight coefficient combination w.sub.φ(2, 1)(i.sub.2), . . . , and w.sub.φ(2, N2)(i.sub.2) [see at least paras. 0039-0050 U. of Kagoshima2, and paras. 0023-0028 of U. of Kagoshima].
Regarding claim 7, this claim is merely methods to operate the circuit having structure recited in claim 1. Since U. Kagoshima and U. Kagoshima2 (and Yu; Yu is not required for claim 7 because claim 7 does not recite a weight coefficient generation processing circuitry, and an output signal generation processing circuitry) teaches the structure, the methods to operate such a circuit are similarly disclosed.
Regarding claim 9, the combination discussed above discloses a non-transitory computer-readable recording medium storing a program for causing a computer [see PC 201 fig. 2 of U. Kagoshima, 140 fig. 1/110 fig. 2 of U. Kagoshima2] to function as the synthetic light source generation device according to claim 1.
Conclusion
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/PATRICK C CHEN/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2842