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 .
Drawings
The drawings are objected to under 37 CFR 1.83(a). The drawings must show every feature of the invention specified in the claims. Therefore, the subject matter of claim 6 must be shown or the feature(s) canceled from the claim(s). No new matter should be entered.
Corrected drawing sheets in compliance with 37 CFR 1.121(d) are required in reply to the Office action to avoid abandonment of the application. Any amended replacement drawing sheet should include all of the figures appearing on the immediate prior version of the sheet, even if only one figure is being amended. The figure or figure number of an amended drawing should not be labeled as “amended.” If a drawing figure is to be canceled, the appropriate figure must be removed from the replacement sheet, and where necessary, the remaining figures must be renumbered and appropriate changes made to the brief description of the several views of the drawings for consistency. Additional replacement sheets may be necessary to show the renumbering of the remaining figures. Each drawing sheet submitted after the filing date of an application must be labeled in the top margin as either “Replacement Sheet” or “New Sheet” pursuant to 37 CFR 1.121(d). If the changes are not accepted by the examiner, the applicant will be notified and informed of any required corrective action in the next Office action. The objection to the drawings will not be held in abeyance.
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) 1, 14 and claims bellow are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(1) as being anticipated by D1 US 20190208113 A1.
Regarding claims 1, 14 D1 teaches
1. A distance measurement device comprising:
a light source(234);
a photoelectric converter;(240+208)
an optical system(241+202) configured to form, on the photoelectric converter, an image of a target object receiving light emitted by the light source; and[0034+0049]
a calculator configured to obtain information of a distance to the target object based on an electrical signal photoelectrically converted by the photoelectric converter, the distance measurement device [0051]further comprising:
a focus driver(210+245+270 +243+272) configured to control focus driving of the optical system,[0062]+[0067]
wherein the focus driver performs focus driving to make a depth of field of the optical system fall within a search range of the target object in a period in which a distance measurement operation of measuring a distance to the target object is performed.[0067-0068]
2. The device according to claim 1, wherein the focus driver performs focus driving for change a virtual subject distance.[0067-0068](claim 9 as object is not identified it is virtual object )
3. The device according to claim 1, wherein in the distance measurement operation, the distance measurement device performs a plurality of capturing operations[0087-0097](fig. 5 522,524,526 loop) different in a standby time([0097] without capturing image, capturing image happens after loop fig. 5) until the photoelectric converter performs an exposure operation after light emission of the light source, and
the focus driver performs focus driving to change a virtual subject distance in accordance with a measurement distance determined by the standby time of each of the plurality of image capturing operations. [0087-0097]
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 and claims depending on it are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over D1 in view of D2 US 20210405267 A1 .
Regarding claim 4 D1 teaches autofocusing but does not explicitly teach while D2 teaches
4. The device according to claim 3, wherein the focus driver performs focus driving to intermittently change the virtual subject distance in accordance with each of the plurality of image capturing operations.[0156] +[0129]
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 estimate current focal distance of the lens assembly of the imaging device.
Claim(s) 5 and claims depending on it are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over D1 in view of D3 US 20230247288 A1.
Regarding claim 5 D1 does not teach
5. The device according to claim 3,
a measurement distance determined by the standby time(fig. 37 lens movement time) in a first image capturing operation among the plurality of image capturing operations falls within a front depth of field of an in-focus position of the optical system in the first image capturing operation, and[0231]
a measurement distance determined by the standby time in a final image capturing operation among the plurality of image capturing operations falls within a rear depth of field of the in-focus position of the optical system in the final image capturing operation.[0231]+[0251-0253](claim 12)
Although fig. 37 shows that lens movement period is much larger than main exposure time
Application does not explicitly say
wherein the standby time is controlled to be longer than a standby time in an immediately preceding image capturing operation in each of the plurality of image capturing operations,
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 correctly perform autofocusing by giving enough time to move the lens to appropriate position corresponding to focused distance.
Claim(s) 9 and claims depending on it are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over D1 in view of D3 US 20220321820 A1.
Regarding claim 9 D1 does not teach but D3 teaches
9. The device according to claim 3, wherein a plurality of pixels are arranged in the photoelectric converter, and
in each of the plurality of image capturing operations, the electrical signal is output from each of the plurality of pixels.(fig. 1)[0026,0038]
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 have multiple distance measurements associated with different FOV corresponding to different rows
Although D1 does not explicitly teach
10. The device according to claim 9, wherein each of the plurality of pixels includes an avalanche photodiode.
It is just a matter of design choice using well known photodetector type which allows measurement of small amount of photons,
Although D1 does not explicitly teach D3 teaches
11. The device according to claim 1, wherein a plurality of pixels are arranged in the photoelectric converter,
in the distance measurement operation, the electrical signal is output once from each of the plurality of pixels, and
the focus driver performs focus driving to change a virtual subject distance in accordance with positions at which the plurality of pixels are arranged in the photoelectric converter. .(fig. 1)[0026,0038]
12. The device according to claim 11, wherein the plurality of pixels are arranged to constitute a plurality of rows in the photoelectric converter,
in the distance measurement operation, the distance measurement device performs, for each of the rows of the plurality of pixels, an image capturing operation of measuring a time until reflected light is detected after light emission of the light source,
the focus driver sets the virtual subject distance to be a first distance during a time up to a first row from a row on which the image capturing operation is performed first, and
. .(fig. 1)[0026,0038]
the focus driver sets the virtual subject distance to be a second distance during a time up to a second row from a row on which the image capturing operation is performed next to the first row[0026,0038]
13. The device according to claim 12, wherein the second row is a row on which the image capturing operation is finally performed in the distance measurement operation.[0026, 0038]
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 have distance calculations along the FOV of the detector and associate different FOV with different distances for autofocus purposes.
Allowable Subject Matter
Claims 6-8 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
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/HOVHANNES BAGHDASARYAN/Examiner, Art Unit 3645
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