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 statement (IDS) submitted on 5/21/2024 and 4/1/2025 was filed on and after the mailing date of the claims on 5/21/2024. The submission is in compliance with the provisions of 37 CFR 1.97. Accordingly, the information disclosure statement is being considered by the examiner.
Election/Restrictions
Applicant’s election without traverse of Claims 1-5 in the reply filed on 5/29/2026 is acknowledged.
Claim Objections
Claim 1 objected to because of the following informalities: the term: “mirrors” in line 4 should be deleted. Appropriate correction is required.
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.
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.
1. Claim(s) 1-2 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(1) as being anticipated by U.S. Patent Application 2019/0056575 Yonetani.
2. Regarding Claim 1, Yonetani discloses An image radiation device configured to project a display image on an image display part ([0024], “head-up display system 10” [0025], “head-up display system 10 is disposed inside dashboard 210 below windshield 220 of vehicle 200”), the image radiation device comprising:
an image generating unit ([0026], “display device 101”) configured to generate the display image ([0026], “display image 110”);
a first reflection mirror configured to reflect light emitted from the image generating unit ([0029], “Projection optical system 120 includes first mirror 121 (an example of mirror M.sub.L−1) and second mirror 122 (an example of mirror M.sub.L) in a stated order in a direction from display device 101 to windshield 220”); and
a second reflection mirror configured to reflect light reflected by the first reflection mirror
toward the image display part ([0029], “Display image 110 displayed by display device 101 is reflected via first mirror 121, reflected via second mirror 122, reflected via windshield 220, and reaches viewpoint area 300 of observer D.” The second mirror 122 (mirror ML) receiving light that was reflected by the first mirror 121 (mirror ML-1) and reflecting it onward toward windshield 220),
wherein a reflection surface of the first reflection mirror is a saddle surface ([0040], “the shape may be a surface shape of a so-called saddle type in which signs of curvatures are different in X direction and Y direction as shown in FIG. 3.”).
3. Regarding Claim 2, Yonetani discloses The image radiation device according to claim 1, wherein a reflection surface of the second reflection mirror is a concave curved surface ([0037], “second mirror 122 is a mirror having a free-form surface shape having a concave surface shape.”).
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.
4. Claim(s) 3 and 4 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over U.S. Patent Application 2019/0056575 Yonetani.
5. Regarding Claim 3, Yonetani discloses The image radiation device according to claim 1,
However, Yonetani does not explicitly disclose wherein the saddle surface is formed such that a curvature of a convex curve constituting one cross section of the saddle surface changes in accordance with a distance from the image generating unit to each point of the saddle surface.
A person having ordinary skill in the art, seeking to correlate that variation to a controlled optical parameter such as distance from the image source, would have found it obvious to shape the mirror such that curvature changes with distance from the image generating unit- this is simply a predictable consequence of orienting and shaping an already-known saddle mirror to compensate for the varying path lengths inherent to an off-axis reflective optical system, in order to achieve a desired image correction or magnification result. This variation is a design characteristic inherent to and predictably arising from a saddle-type surface. Selecting this correlation would have amounted to nothing more than the application of a known technique (curvature tailored to path length/distance) to a known device (a saddle-shaped HUD mirror) to yield a predictable result (compensated image quality across the display).
6. Regarding Claim 4, Yonetani discloses The image radiation device according to claim 1,
However, Yonetani does not explicitly disclose wherein the image generating unit is configured to generate the display image as an image having a rectangular shape, and
wherein on the reflection surface of the first reflection mirror, a sectional shape along a
first direction parallel to a long side of the rectangular shape is constituted by a convex curve, and
a sectional shape along a second direction parallel to a short side of the rectangular shape is
constituted by a concave curve.
It would have been obvious to a POSTIA to arrive at the claimed axis-specific curvature assignment as a matter of routine optical design choice. A saddle-type mirror surface having opposing curvature signs along its two principal axes, is already known in the art (see, e.g., Yonetani [0040]). Given a rectangular display image with inherently different extents along its long and short sides, a POSITA would have recognized that assigning convex curvature to the axis requiring greater optical power or correction (typically the long axis, given the greater field angle or beam spread to be managed along that dimension) and concave curvature to the shorter axis is nothing more than the predictable application of a known curvature type (saddle/free-form) to a known rectangular image format, to achieve the predictable result of correcting image distortion or brightness non-uniformity consistently across the display’s aspect ratio. Such axis to curvature matching would have been routine optimization well with the level of ordinary skill, motivated by the predictable need to tailor optical correction to the differing dimensions of a non-square rectangular image.
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.
7. Claim(s) 3 and 4 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over U.S. Patent Application 2019/0056575 Yonetani in view of U.S. Patent Application 2020/0331350 Kambayashi.
8. Regarding Claim 5, Yonetani discloses The image radiation device according to claim 1, further comprising:
However, Yonetani does not explicitly disclose a housing configured to house the first reflection mirror and the second reflection mirror, wherein a pair of flanges are formed on both side ends of the reflection surface of the first reflection mirror, respectively, and
wherein the first reflection mirror is fixed to the housing via the pair of flanges.
Kambayashi teaches a housing configured to house the first reflection mirror and the second reflection mirror ([0059], “The casing 53 houses the concave mirror 51 and the driving unit 52.” The casing 53 is a housing that directly houses the first reflection mirror (concave mirror 51), wherein a pair of flanges are formed on both side ends of the reflection surface of the first reflection mirror ([0059], “The casing 53 includes a wall portion 531 that serves as a bottom wall, the wall portion 532 that serves as a side wall, an opening 533, the pair of flange portions 534, the long holes (second positioning portions) 535, the convex portion 536, and the hole portion 537. The wall portion 531, the wall portion 532, the pair of flange portions 534, and the convex portion 536 are formed in an integrated manner.” [0063], “The pair of flange portions 534 are extended outward in a radial direction from the wall portion 532. The pair of flange portions 534 are placed on the pair of support portions 117 in a state in which the concave mirror unit 5 is assembled on the housing 10.” The pair of flange portions 534 are formed on both sides of wall portion 532, which is integrally formed with the casing 53 that directly carries mirror 51 as part of a single mirror unit 5., respectively, and
wherein the first reflection mirror is fixed to the housing via the pair of flanges ([0064], “The long holes 535 are formed on the flange portions 534…The long holes 535 and the female screw portions 118 are fastened together with fastening members in a state in which the pair of support portions 117 and the pair of flange portions 534 overlap with each other such that the long holes 535 and the female screw portions 118 overlap with each other.” The flange portions 534 are fastened to support portions 117 of housing 10 via fastening members through the long holes 535, fixing the mirror unit 5(and thus the first reflection mirror) to the housing via the pair of flanges.).
It would have been obvious to a POSTIA to apply Kambayashi’s known flange-and-fastener mounting structure to Yonetani’s first reflection mirror, since both references address mounting a curved reflective optical element within a HUD housing, and doing so would yield the predictable result of securely and adjustably fixing the mirror in place without altering its optical function.
Conclusion
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/OMER KHALID/Examiner, Art Unit 2422
/BRIAN P YENKE/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2422
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