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 .
Priority
Receipt is acknowledged of certified copies of papers required by 37 CFR 1.55.
Information Disclosure Statement
The information disclosure statements (IDS) submitted on 03/27/2024, 04/15/2024 and 01/28/2026 are in compliance with the provisions of 37 CFR 1.97. Accordingly, the information disclosure statements are being considered by the examiner.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 102
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 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 1-2, 4-5, 7-8, 17-18 and 22-23 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(1) as being anticipated by WATANABE et al. (US PGPUB 2020/0370927).
Regarding claims 1 and 22, WATANABE et al. teaches a multi-degree-of-freedom displacement measuring device and method comprising: a rotary scale (S) that has a scale pattern including a plurality of patterns (ABS and INC) that are arranged around a first rotation axis (AX) and arrayed along a circumference direction of the rotary scale (as shown in fig. 3A); a detection head group including a plurality of detection heads (6, 7 and 8), each of which is provided around the first rotation axis (AX) (as shown in fig. 3A), is arranged on an installation face (2) facing the rotary scale (as shown in fig. 1), and is configured to detect each of the plurality of patterns (ABS and INC) from the scale pattern (S) (as disclosed in para. 0039); and a calculator (1 and 3) configured to, based on detection values (S1a, S2a and S3a) acquired by the plurality of detection heads (6, 7 and 8), calculate a relative rotation angle around the first rotation axis (AX) (as shown in fig. 4 and disclosed in para. 0047-0048), and calculate at least one of a relative movement amount in a direction along the first rotation axis (AX) (used for calibration, as disclosed in para. 0055-0058) and a relative movement amount in a direction along a second rotation axis orthogonal to the first rotation axis.
Regarding claims 2 and 23, WATANABE et al. teaches a multi-degree-of-freedom displacement measuring device and method comprising: a rotary scale (S) that has a scale pattern including a plurality of patterns (ABS and INC) that are arranged around a first rotation axis (AX) and arrayed along a circumference direction of the rotary scale (as shown in fig. 3A); a detection head group including a plurality of detection heads (6, 7 and 8), each of which is provided around the first rotation axis (AX) (as shown in fig. 3A), is arranged on an installation face (2) facing the rotary scale (as shown in fig. 1), and is configured to detect each of the plurality of patterns (ABS and INC) from the scale pattern (S) (as disclosed in para. 0039); and a calculator (1 and 3) configured to, based on detection values (S1a, S2a and S3a) acquired by the plurality of detection heads (6, 7 and 8), calculate a relative rotation angle around the first rotation axis (AX) (as shown in fig. 4 and disclosed in para. 0047-0048), and calculate at least one of a relative movement amount in a direction along the first rotation axis (AX) (used for calibration, as disclosed in para. 0055-0058) and a relative rotation angle in a direction along a second rotation axis orthogonal to the first rotation axis.
Regarding claim 4, WATANABE et al. teaches the limitations of claim 1, in addition, WATANABE et al. teaches wherein a number of the plurality of detection heads is three or more (6, 7 and 8, as shown in fig. 1), and wherein the calculator (1 and 3) is configured to, based on the detection values (S1a, S2a and S3a) acquired by the plurality of detection heads (6, 7 and 8), calculate the relative rotation angle around the first rotation axis (AX) (as shown in fig. 4 and disclosed in para. 0047-0048), and calculate at least one of a relative movement amount in a direction along the first rotation axis (AX) (used for calibration, as disclosed in para. 0055-0058), a relative movement amount in a direction along the second rotation axis, and a relative movement amount in a direction along a third rotation axis orthogonal to the first rotation axis and the second rotation axis.
Regarding claim 5, WATANABE et al. teaches the limitations of claim 2, in addition, WATANABE et al. teaches wherein a number of the plurality of detection heads is three or more (6, 7 and 8, as shown in fig. 1), and wherein the calculator (1 and 3) is configured to, based on the detection values (S1a, S2a and S3a) acquired by the plurality of detection heads (6, 7 and 8), calculate the relative rotation angle around the first rotation axis (AX) (as shown in fig. 4 and disclosed in para. 0047-0048), and calculate at least one of a relative movement amount in a direction along the first rotation axis (AX) (used for calibration, as disclosed in para. 0055-0058), a relative movement amount in a direction along the second rotation axis, and a relative movement amount in a direction along a third rotation axis orthogonal to the first rotation axis and the second rotation axis.
Regarding claim 7, WATANABE et al. teaches the limitations of claim 1, in addition, WATANABE et al. teaches wherein the installation face (2) is in parallel with the rotary scale (S) (as shown in fig. 3B), and wherein the calculator (1 and 3) calculates a distance (difference between initial and ending angle) between the rotary scale (S) and each of the plurality of detection heads (6, 7 and 8) on a basis of each strength of each detection signal (S1a, S2a and S3a) detected by each of the plurality of detection heads (6, 7 and 8), and determines that the rotary scale (S) and the detection head group (6, 7 and 8) are in a state that the rotary scale (S) and the detection head group (6, 7 and 8) relatively move along the first rotation axis (AX) when each of the distance is equal to each other (as shown in fig. 4-5), and determines that the distance (difference between initial and ending angle) is a distance in which the rotary scale and the detection head group relatively move (as shown in fig. 4-5).
Regarding claim 8, WATANABE et al. teaches the limitations of claim 1, in addition, WATANABE et al. teaches wherein the plurality of detection heads (6, 7 and 8) are arranged at an equal interval along a circumference direction of the scale pattern (S) (as shown in fig. 1).
Regarding claim 17, WATANABE et al. teaches the limitations of claim 5, in addition, WATANABE et al. teaches wherein the installation face (2) is in parallel with the rotary scale (S) (as shown in fig. 3B), and wherein the calculator (1 and 3) calculates a distance (difference between initial and ending angle) between the rotary scale (S) and each of the plurality of detection heads (6, 7 and 8) on a basis of each strength of each detection signal (S1a, S2a and S3a) detected by each of the plurality of detection heads (6, 7 and 8), and determines that the rotary scale (S) and the detection head group (6, 7 and 8) are in a state that the rotary scale (S) and the detection head group (6, 7 and 8) relatively move along the first rotation axis (AX) when each of the distance is equal to each other (as shown in fig. 4-5), and determines that the distance (difference between initial and ending angle) is a distance in which the rotary scale and the detection head group relatively move (as shown in fig. 4-5).
Regarding claim 18, WATANABE et al. teaches the limitations of claim 5, in addition, WATANABE et al. teaches wherein the plurality of detection heads (6, 7 and 8) are arranged at an equal interval along a circumference direction of the scale pattern (S) (as shown in fig. 1).
Allowable Subject Matter
Claims 3, 6, 12-16 and 24 are allowed.
Claims 9-11 and 19-21 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.
The following is a statement of reasons for the indication of allowable subject matter:
Regarding claims 3 and 24, the prior art fails to specifically teach a multi-degree-of-freedom displacement measuring device and method comprising: a calculator configured to, based on detection values acquired by the plurality of detection heads, calculate a relative rotation angle around the first rotation axis, and calculate at least one of a relative movement amount in a direction along the second rotation axis orthogonal to the first rotation axis and a relative rotation angle around the second rotation axis, in combination with all the limitations of the claims.
Claims 6, 12 and 13-16 depending from claim 3 and/or another depending claim dependent from claim 3, are allowed for the same reasons including their additional limitations.
Claims 9-11 depending from claim 1 and/or another depending claim dependent from claim 1, are allowed for the same reasons including their additional limitations.
Claims 19-21 depending from claim 5 and/or another depending claim dependent from claim 5, are allowed for the same reasons including their additional limitations.
Conclusion
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to ROBERTO VELEZ whose telephone number is (571)272-8597. The examiner can normally be reached Mon-Fri 5:30am-3:30pm.
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/ROBERTO VELEZ/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2858
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