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.
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 1-3, 5-6 and 18-19 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(1) as being anticipated by Little et al (US Patent 10,612,663 B2).
With regard to claim 1: Little discloses an image capturing equipment (multi-headed camera 10) which comprises a main body (base 12) and at least one image capturing module which comprises a moving assembly (camera head mount 28) and an image capturing unit (the optical system 57 see column 4 lines 22-26 and associated image generation sensor which is indicated as being present in the camera head due to column 5 lines 17-32 mentioning the generation of image data originating from the camera heads). The moving assembly of Little is disclosed as being disposed on the main body movably along a moving path which encircles a central axis of the main body (see column 4 lines 35-41 describing motion of the camera head mount around circular tracks which are drawn and described as encircling a “central portion” of the platform 24 upon which unit 22 is positioned, see column 4 lines 32-37). The image capturing unit of Little is disclosed as being rotatably disposed on the moving assembly, see column 6 lines 13-27.
With regard to claims 2 and 3: The image capturing equipment of Little is disclosed as having an annular track (defined by 26a and 26b) which is disposed on the main body and extends along the moving path, with the moving assembly being movably disposed on the track (see column 4 line 35 though column 5 line 16 describing the interface between the moving assembly and the annular track configuration).
With regard to claim 5: The image capturing equipment of Little is disclosed as further comprising a damping member 30 which is disposed between the track and the moving assembly (see Figure 5 and column 4 lines 43-49 describing the damping function of the material, which acts as a damping member by absorbing smaller forces encountered during installation of the camera assembly without causing movement of the moving assembly, while allowing movement of the moving assembly in response to larger applied forces by a user wishing to adjust the position of the moving assemblies).
With regard to claim 6: The image capturing equipment of Little is disclosed as having a moving assembly which comprises a slider and a rotating assembly. The slider takes the form of the bottom structure of the moving assembly, which interfaces with the tracks of the main body defined by 26a and 26b, as shown in Figures 3 and 6, to allow the movement of the moving assembly along the moving path. The rotating assembly takes the form of the housing in which the image capturing unit is provided (including camera lens cover 21) and the structure which supports the pivoting connection between that housing and the upright sections of 28 of the slider, drawn in Figures 5 and 9 as some form of axel or protrusion attached to the housing 21 with a screw to define the rotation axis.
With regard to claim 18: The slider of Little is drawn and disclosed as having a stopper (track 58) and the rotating assembly has at least another stopper (the screw member which is shown as being within the track 58, see Figure 9). The stoppers are adapted to stop each other to limit a range of a rotation angle of the rotating assembly with respect to the slider, with Little disclosing a 103° rotation range in column 6 lines 19-27.
With regard to claim 19: The at least one image capturing module of Little comprises a plurality of image capturing modules, each of which being adapted to move along the moving path with respect to the other image capturing modules among the image capturing modules. See column 4 lines 26-41, Little discloses the use of four camera heads which can each move along the track.
Claims 1-3 and 6-12 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(1) as being anticipated by Hoyer et al (US Patent 10,692,341 B2).
With regard to claim 1: Hoyer discloses an image capturing equipment (multi-headed camera 100) which comprises a main body (base 102) and at least one image capturing module which comprises a moving assembly (camera head mount 110) and an image capturing unit (the optical system contained within portion 104 of the moving assembly, see column 4 line 42 in light of column 1 lines 29-31). The moving assembly of Hoyer is disclosed as being disposed on the main body movably along a moving path which encircles a central axis of the main body (see column 5 lines 22-52 describing motion of the camera head mount around circular guide portions 118 and 120 which are drawn and described as encircling a central portion of the platform where 108 is located, see Figure 1 and 3). The image capturing unit of Little is disclosed as being rotatably disposed on the moving assembly, by way of pan/tilt joints as noted in column 8 lines 28-45.
With regard to claims 2 and 3: The image capturing equipment of Hoyer is disclosed as having an annular track (defined by 118 and 180) which is disposed on the main body and extends along the moving path, with the moving assembly being movably disposed on the track.
With regard to claims 6-7: The moving assembly of Hoyer is disclosed as comprising a slider (comprising followers 112 and 114 and connecting portion 116) and a rotating assembly (consisting of parts 130, 132, and the housing of 104). The slider is disposed on the main body movably along the moving path and the rotating assembly is configured to be rotatably connected to the slider along a first rotation axis with the image capturing unit being disposed on the rotating assembly (see column 8 lines 46-52 describing snap-fit rotation joint). In this configuration the first rotation axis is perpendicular to the moving direction and is parallel to the central axis (see column 8 lines 53-64 describing movement of the pan rotation joint to affect rotation of the camera heads such that the pan rotation performs movement of the camera field of view in the same way as movement of the camera slider along the moving path, allowing two cameras to have substantially the same field of view despite not being able to occupy the same position along the moving path).
With regard to claim 8: Hoyer discloses that the slider and rotating assembly have a damping member between them, in the form of a member which adds frictional force to the panning rotational joint to prevent inadvertent movement of the pan joint, see column 9 lines 5-14.
With regard to claims 9-10: In Hoyer the rotating assembly comprises a first rotating member rotatably connected to the slider along a first rotation axis (member 130 is attached to the slider at a pan joint, see column 8 line 65 through column 9 line 13)) and a second rotating member which is rotatably connected to the first rotating member along a second rotation axis perpendicular to the first rotation axis and supports the image capturing unit (the camera housing member is attached to the first rotating member 130 at a tilt joint 132, described in column 9 lines 14-24 and in more detail in column 10 lines 5-40).
With regard to claim 11: The second rotation axis of Hoyer, being perpendicular to the first rotation axis (the second rotation axis is a tilt axis, and the first rotation axis is a pan axis, these terms indicate orthogonal axes as they are typically used in the art), and since the first axis is parallel to the central axis (see the rejection of claim 7, above) the second rotation axis of Hoyer is also perpendicular to the central axis.
With regard to claim 12: Hoyer discloses the inclusion of a damping member between he first rotating member and the second rotating member (friction ring 603, formed of rubber material, see column 10 lines 14-17).
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.
The factual inquiries for establishing a background for determining obviousness under 35 U.S.C. 103 are summarized as follows:
1. Determining the scope and contents of the prior art.
2. Ascertaining the differences between the prior art and the claims at issue.
3. Resolving the level of ordinary skill in the pertinent art.
4. Considering objective evidence present in the application indicating obviousness or nonobviousness.
This application currently names joint inventors. In considering patentability of the claims the examiner presumes that the subject matter of the various claims was commonly owned as of the effective filing date of the claimed invention(s) absent any evidence to the contrary. Applicant is advised of the obligation under 37 CFR 1.56 to point out the inventor and effective filing dates of each claim that was not commonly owned as of the effective filing date of the later invention in order for the examiner to consider the applicability of 35 U.S.C. 102(b)(2)(C) for any potential 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(2) prior art against the later invention.
Claims 4 and 20 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Hoyer in view of Bolotine et al (US PGPUb 2007/0126872 A1).
With regard to claims 4 and 20: Hoyer does not disclose that the annular track comprises a plurality of arc-shaped tracks that are spliced to each other.
It is however known in the art to be obvious to modify equipment such that integral parts are instead made of a plurality of modular sub-components, as this allows for parts of a camera support system to be more easily repaired or upgraded in the field (see Bolotine, ¶0065 and ¶0099).
While such modules are more commonly electronics modules, a person having ordinary skill in the art before the time of filing would have also found it obvious to have configured the annular track of Hoyer to take a module form as well in order to allow sections of the track to be replaced in case of damage (due to wear or impact) without requiring all of the track to be removed (which would necessitate completely removing and reinstalling all mounted cameras).
With regard to claim 20: Hoyer does not disclose that the equipment includes a separate mounting bracket which is connected to the main body with the central axis passing through the mounting bracket.
Bolotine further discloses using a mounting bracket assembly 14 to which an entire image capturing equipment support system attaches, the mounting bracket providing a passage for wiring to pass to the camera (see ¶0041-0044). This arrangement allows for the main body of the camera to be attached to the mounting point by a simply inserting the camera body and rotating it to engage connectors and locking features (see ¶0056-0059).
It would have been obvious to a person having ordinary skill in the art before the time of filing to have configured the camera of Hoyer to incorporate a mounting bracket system as in Bolotin in order to allow the camera to be easily attached to the mounting surface by the installer.
Claims 13-16 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Hoyer in view of Kondou et al (US Patent 10,388,133 B1).
With regard to claims 13-15: Hoyer does not disclose the inclusion of a third rotation axis around which the image capturing unit is rotatably disposed, that third rotation axis being arranged to coincide with an optical axis of the image capturing unit and perpendicular to the second rotation axis.
It is known in the art of camera supports that some use cases for a mounted surveillance type camera benefit from being able to rotate an image capturing unit around an axis which is aligned with its optical axis. As most cameras have a rectangular field of view, this form of adjustment allows for the operator to ensure that the “up/down” and “left/right” directions which the image sensor of the camera captures corresponds with the same directions in the image scene, see Kondou column 9 lines 30-60.
It would have been obvious to a person having ordinary skill in the art before the time of filing to have configured the image capturing equipment of Hoyer to have an image capturing unit which is configured to allow for rotation of the image capturing unit along a third axis, perpendicular to the first and second axis and corresponding with the optical axis of the image capturing unit, in order to allow for adjustment of the field of view of the image capturing unit to match the scene being imaged by the image capturing unit.
With regard to claim 16: While the combination as applied to claims 13-15 above does not disclose the inclusion of a damping member, a person having ordinary skill in the art before the time of filing would have found it obvious to have included a damping member similar to those used in other rotational interfaces of Hoyer in the mechanism allowing rotation around the third rotational axis, for the same reason which the structures are incorporated in the other rotational interfaces, namely to allow the camera to be kept from being bumped out of place during installation while still allowing adjustment by a user (see column 7 lines 54-65 and column 10 lines 18-20).
Claim 17 is rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Hoyer in view of Kong et al (US Patent 10,341,570 B1).
With regard to claim 17: Hoyer does not disclose the inclusion of stopper on the first rotating member and another stopper on the second rotation member, with the first stopper and another stopper being adapted to stop each other to limit a range of a rotation angle of the second rotating member with respect to the first rotating member.
It is however known in the art to provide complementary stopper members on relatively rotating parts in a camera support system in order to prevent damage to cabling and wiring that could otherwise become severely twisted due to over-rotation, see Kong column 1 lines 32-45 and column 4 line 62 through column 5 line 20.
It would have been obvious to a person having ordinary skill in the art before the time of filing to have configured the system of Hoyer to include complementary stopper structures on the first and second rotating members to prevent over-rotation of the second member relative to the first member in such a way that could cause damage to wiring running to the image capturing unit.
Conclusion
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to Leon W Rhodes Jr whose telephone number is (571)270-5774. The examiner can normally be reached M-F 9:00AM - 6:00PM.
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/LEON W RHODES, JR/Examiner, Art Unit 2852