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 Objections
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 112
The following is a quotation of 35 U.S.C. 112(b):
(b) CONCLUSION.—The specification shall conclude with one or more claims particularly pointing out and distinctly claiming the subject matter which the inventor or a joint inventor regards as the invention.
The following is a quotation of 35 U.S.C. 112 (pre-AIA ), second paragraph:
The specification shall conclude with one or more claims particularly pointing out and distinctly claiming the subject matter which the applicant regards as his invention.
Claim 8-10 rejected under 35 U.S.C. 112(b) or 35 U.S.C. 112 (pre-AIA ), second paragraph, as being indefinite for failing to particularly point out and distinctly claim the subject matter which the inventor or a joint inventor (or for applications subject to pre-AIA 35 U.S.C. 112, the applicant), regards as the invention.
Claim 8 recites the limitation "the first light" in line 5. There is insufficient antecedent basis for this limitation in the claim.
Claim 8 recites the limitation "the second light" in line 5. There is insufficient antecedent basis for this limitation in the claim.
Referring to claim 8, the term “classical light” is indefinite. Note claim 8 never indicates that the first light and second light are in quantum entangled state as claimed in claim 1. The term “classical light” fails to establish a meaning with relation to any other type of light and is not a term in the LIDAR art with an established definition.
The following is a quotation of the first paragraph of 35 U.S.C. 112(a):
(a) IN GENERAL.—The specification shall contain a written description of the invention, and of the manner and process of making and using it, in such full, clear, concise, and exact terms as to enable any person skilled in the art to which it pertains, or with which it is most nearly connected, to make and use the same, and shall set forth the best mode contemplated by the inventor or joint inventor of carrying out the invention.
The following is a quotation of the first paragraph of pre-AIA 35 U.S.C. 112:
The specification shall contain a written description of the invention, and of the manner and process of making and using it, in such full, clear, concise, and exact terms as to enable any person skilled in the art to which it pertains, or with which it is most nearly connected, to make and use the same, and shall set forth the best mode contemplated by the inventor of carrying out his invention.
Claim 8 rejected under 35 U.S.C. 112(a) or 35 U.S.C. 112 (pre-AIA ), first paragraph, as failing to comply with the written description requirement. The claim(s) contains subject matter which was not described in the specification in such a way as to reasonably convey to one skilled in the relevant art that the inventor or a joint inventor, or for applications subject to pre-AIA 35 U.S.C. 112, the inventor(s), at the time the application was filed, had possession of the claimed invention.
Claim 8 describes a distance measurement system that includes “first information including flight time information of first reflection light generated by at least one of the first light or the second light reflected from an object”. When looking to the disclosure the “first light or the second light reflected from an object” are required to be in a quantum entangled state. The disclosure does not reasonably convey to one skilled in the art that the inventor had possession of the claimed invention without the first and second light being in a quantum entangled state.
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.
Claim(s) is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(1) as being anticipated by Zhao, Jiuxuan, et al. "Light detection and ranging with entangled photons." Optics Express 30.3 (2022): 3675-3683.
Referring to claim 1, Zhao shows a light projecting-and-receiving apparatus comprising (see figure 1):
a first light emitter (see figure 1 note the laser 355 nm to emit:
first light (see section 2 first paragraph also see figure 1 explanation of the spatially entangled photon pairs); and
second light in a quantum entangled state with the first light (see section 2 note the first paragraph also see figure 1 explanation of the spatially entangled photon pairs);
a second light emitter to emitter third light of classical light (see figure 1 note the 780mm laser and the diffused classical light); and
a light receiver to receive a first reflection light and a second reflection light,
wherein the first reflection light is a reflection of at least one of the first light or the second light from an object (see figure 1 note the SPAD camera), and
the second reflection light is a reflection of the third light from the object (see figure 1b note the return from both the quantum light and the classical light).
Referring to claim 4 Zhao shows wherein the first light emitter emits:
the first light to the object; and
the second light to the light receiver via an optical path guiding the second light from the first light emitter to the light receiver, and
the light receiver receives the first reflection light that is the reflection of the first light from the object (see figure 1).
Referring to claim 8, Zhao shows a distance measurement system comprising:
circuitry (circuitry is inherent to perform detection as shown by figures 1-4) configured to:
receive (see the detector that detects images and this is inherently passed to processing circuitry to generate the images as shown in figure 1-4):
first information including flight time information of first reflection light generated by at least one of the first light or the second light reflected from an object (see figure 1b note the top image); and
second information including flight time information of second reflection light generated by third light of classical light reflected from the object (see figure 1c); and
output at least one of:
first distance information based on the first information (see figure 1b and 1c note the gating window can be selected to output either the entangled light or the classical light); and
second distance information based on the second information (see figure 1b and 1c note the gating window can be selected to output either the entangled light or the classical light).
Referring to claim 9, Zhao shows wherein the circuitry outputs at least one of the first distance information or the second distance information selected based on the second information (see figure 1a and 1b note the correlation determines the outputted distance image).
Allowable Subject Matter
Claims 2, 3, and 5-7 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
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to LUKE D RATCLIFFE whose telephone number is (571)272-3110. The examiner can normally be reached M-F 9:00AM-5:00PM EST.
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/LUKE D RATCLIFFE/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 3645
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