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
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) 1, 10 and claims bellow are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(2) as being anticipated by D1 US 20230281957 A1.
Regarding claims 1 and 10 D1 teaches
1. A range imaging device, comprising
a light source(21) configured to emit light pulses to a measurement space;(fig. 1)
a light-receiving unit(32) comprising at least one pixel circuit and a pixel drive circuit(fig. 2); and
a distance calculation unit(4) [0010]comprising circuitry configured to calculate a distance between an object and the light-receiving unit,[0010]
wherein the at least one pixel circuit in the light receiving unit includes a photoelectric conversion element (fig. 3 pd)configured to generate charge according to light incident from the measurement space(fig. 3), and multiple a plurality of charge integration units(C1, C2, C3) in which the charge is integrated in a frame cycle[0130-0132],
the pixel drive circuit in the light receiving unit is configured to distribute the charge generated in the photoelectric conversion element to the charge integration units[0131] for(intended use no patentable weight) integration via respective transfer transistors at an integration timing synchronized with emission of the light pulses[0144],
the circuitry of the distance calculation unit is configured to calculate the distance between the object and the light-receiving unit based on a charge ratio of the charge generated in the photoelectric conversion element due to reflected light from the measurement space and distributed to the charge integration units for integration by the transfer transistors[0010], respectively, and the light pulses have a width set to be larger than a period between a rise of one of the transfer transistors and a rise of a subsequently rising transfer transistor in the plurality of transfer transistors.(fig. 10)
2. The range imaging device according to claim 1, wherein the width of the light pulses is set according to variation in rate of change of the charge ratio in response to changes in delay time from when the light pulses are emitted until when the reflected light is incident.[0126]
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) 4, 6 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over D1 in view of D2 US 20130162973 A1.
Regarding claim 4, 6 D1 does not teach but D2 teaches
4. The range imaging device according to claim 1, wherein the distance calculation unit calculates the distance, based on table information that indicates a relationship between distance corresponding to a distance between the object and a pixel, and charge ratio calculated from charge integrated in the charge integration units.[0010]
It will be obvious to one of ordinary skills in the art to modify teachings taught by D1 with teachings by D2 in order to have direct correspondence between distance and charge ratio.
Claim(s) 5, 7 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over D1 in view of D3 WO 2020218283 A1.
Regarding claims 5, 7 D1 does not explicitly teach while D3 teaches
5, 7 The range imaging device according to claim 1, wherein the distance calculation unit obtains a polynomial in advance that approximates a distance error between the distance calculated using the charge ratio and a known distance and calculates the distance with the distance error corrected using the polynomial.[0044-0046]
It will be obvious to one of ordinary skills in the art to modify teachings taught by D1 with teachings by D3 in order to parametrize the distance to charge ratio calculation for fast processing.
Allowable Subject Matter
Claim 3, 8, 9 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.
Prior art does not teach or render obvious changing the width in accordance with claim limitation.
Conclusion
Examiner also partially agrees with rejection presented by EU Office regarding claims 1, and 10.
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/HOVHANNES BAGHDASARYAN/Examiner, Art Unit 3645
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