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
Acknowledgment is made of applicant’s claim for foreign priority under 35 U.S.C. 119 (a)-(d). The certified copy has been filed in parent Application No. PCT/JP2022/043362, filed on November 24, 2022, which claims priority of Japanese Patent Application No. 2021-211069 filed on December 24, 2021.
Receipt is acknowledged of certified copies of papers required by 37 CFR 1.55.
Information Disclosure Statement
The information disclosure statement (IDS) submitted on 3/12/2025 and 6/21/2024 are in compliance with the provisions of 37 CFR 1.97. Accordingly, the information disclosure statement is being considered by the examiner.
Specification
The specification has not been checked to the extent necessary to determine the presence of all possible minor errors. Applicant’s cooperation is requested in correcting any errors of which applicant may become aware in the specification.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 103
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 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.
Claim(s) 1, 2, 4-7 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over (PCT/JP/2019-150575) Kato et al.
Regarding claim 1, JP-2019-150575 Kato et al. teaches a measurement device (e.g., Figures 2, 4, 36), and comprising: a light emitting unit [0006 “… light emitter that emits a plurality of light beams towards a scene”] configured to emit pulsed light [0131 “light beam may be emitted as a pulse”]; an imaging sensor configured to output a signal value corresponding to an exposure amount for each pixel [0118 “… image sensor 120 a type of light receiver… the light-receiving element may be referred to as “pixels”… the image sensor 120 outputs data for all pixels as the data of a single frame… for an entire scene detectable by the image sensor 120”]; a timing control unit (e.g., 130 140, 164) configured to expose the pixel of the imaging sensor to reflected light in an exposure period that is set according to a measurement target region (e.g., Figure 5) and has an exposure width shorter than a pulse width of the pulsed light (e.g., Figures 17A, 17B, 18A, 18B “Indirect ToF”) ; and a calculation unit configured to calculate an arrival time of the reflected light based on signal values corresponding to three (e.g., “Exposure 1, 2, and/or 3,” of Figures 17A and 18A) or more [0188 “… A method of providing a plurality of exposure periods and calculating the time of flight from the energy distribution of the reflect light each exposure period”] consecutive exposure periods (e.g., Figures 18A, see annotations below) that include the pulse width.
It would have been obvious to one having ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to utilizing indirect ToF configuration of Kato et al. to further incorporate additional or more exposure period, i.e., more than three, to further increase the accuracy of the measurement device, since it has been held that mere duplication of the essential working parts of the device involves only routine skill in the art. See MPEP 2144.
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Regarding claim 2, JP-2019-150575 Kato et al. discloses the measurement device according to claim 1, wherein the calculation unit calculates the arrival time of the reflected light based on a ratio of a signal value corresponding to the exposure amount before a boundary timing of any two exposure periods among the three or more exposure periods that include the pulse width [0189 “… the arrival timing of reflected light, and two exposure timings in indirect ToF… a case in which a single light beam is emitted” 0200 “… illustrates the timing at which the two light beams are emitted from the beam scanner 110”].
Regarding claim 4, JP-2019-150575 Kato et al. teaches the measurement device according to claim 2, wherein the boundary timing is a timing of a boundary between two exposure periods that are the second and subsequent exposure periods among the three or more exposure periods that include the pulse width (e.g., Figures 18A).
Regarding claim 5, JP-2019-150575 Kato et al. teaches the measurement device according to claim 1, wherein when the pulse width of the pulsed light is Lw and a width of the exposure period is Gw, the calculation unit calculates the arrival time by setting the number of consecutive exposure periods that include the pulse width to a number larger by one than an integer part of Lw/Gw (e.g., Figures 18A; [0119-0203]).
Regarding claim 6, JP-2019-150575 Kato et al. teaches the measurement device according to claim 1, wherein the timing control unit sets the width of the exposure period to an integer fraction of the pulse width of the pulsed light (e.g., Figure 18A, see annotation(s) above).
Regarding claim 7, JP-2019-150575 Kato et al. teaches the measurement device according to claim 1,wherein the imaging sensor includes a light receiving element that generates charges corresponding to the exposure amount for each pixel, a plurality of storage units that accumulate the charges [0185-0186 “… one or more charge storage units… charge stored int eh charge storage unit(s) is outputted after the exposure period ends”], and a drive circuit (e.g., Figures 2, 4, 36) that distributes and accumulates the charges to the respective storage units according to the exposure periods, and distributes and accumulates charges generated by one pulsed light to the respective storage units according to the exposure periods [0139 “… output unit 169 outputs depth map data including data indicating the reference time of each frame and the time difference for each pixel and/or point cloud data including data indicating the reference time of each frame and the time difference for each point”].
Allowable Subject Matter
Claim 3 is 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
The prior art made of record and not relied upon is considered pertinent to applicant's disclosure.
Kato et al. US 2022/0120908 – Distance measurement apparatus information processing method, and information processing apparatus. Also, this document was used as a translation of (PCT/JP/2019-150575) filed on July 21, 2020 which has foreign application priority date of August 20, 219 of (JP2019-150575)
Ito et al. US 2023/0044712– Distance measurement system, distance measurement device, and distance measurement method
Shand US 2019/0041503 – Use of extended detection periods for range allasing detection and mitigation in a light detection and ranging (LIDAR) system
Saitou et al. US 2021/0166410 – Distance measurement device
Kamon et al. US 2021/0046317 – Three-dimensional measurement device and three-dimensional measurement method
Kamon et al. US 2006/0126054 – Three-dimensional measurement device and three-dimensional measurement method
Kato et al. US 2022/0075077 – Distance measurement apparatus, information processing method, and information processing apparatus
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/JACOB Y CHOI/Supervisory Patent Examiner, Art Unit 2897
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