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 .
Specification
The title of the invention is not descriptive. A new title is required that is clearly indicative of the invention to which the claims are directed. Please provide additional specificity to better describe the rotary encoder.
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.
4. Considering objective evidence present in the application indicating obviousness or nonobviousness.
Claim(s) 1 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Gehringer et al. (US PUB 2015/0130450), hereinafter Gehringer, and further in view of Liao et al. (US PUB 2007/0065128), hereinafter Liao.
With respect to claim 1, Gehringer discloses a rotation detector (See the device in figure 1 of Gehringer) to detect a rotation direction (See paragraph [0078] of Gehringer) and a number of rotations (See the abstract of Gehringer) of a rotation shaft (See the abstract of Gehringer), the rotation detector comprising: a rotation detection mechanism (See [16] in figure 1 of Gehringer) attached to the rotation shaft to detect rotations of the rotation shaft (See [18] in figure 1 in view of paragraph [0078] of Gehringer); and a signal processing circuit electrically connected to the rotation detection mechanism (See [72] in figure 3 of Gehringer), wherein the rotation detection mechanism includes a magnet (See [16] in figure 1 of Gehringer) configured to rotate in synchronization with the rotation shaft (See that the magnet [16] is directly connected to shaft [18] in figure 1 of Gehringer) and having an N number of magnetic poles arranged in a rotation direction (See the two poles [S and N] in figure 1 of Gehringer), N being a natural number of two or more (See the north and south poles “N” and “S” respectively in figure 1 of Gehringer), and an L number of detection coils (See [38] in figure 1 of Gehringer) the signal processing circuit includes a constant voltage circuit to generate (See paragraph [0121] of Gehringer), every time a voltage pulse is generated (See paragraph [0141] of Gehringer), a source voltage from electric power of the voltage pulse (See paragraph [0007] of Gehringer), and a controller (See [15] in figure 3 of Gehringer) and a non-volatile memory to operate upon receipt of the source voltage (See paragraph [0023] of Gehringer), the non-volatile memory is configured to store states of the L number of detection coils (See paragraph [0197] of Gehringer in view of claim 28 of Gehringer) and the number of rotations of the rotation shaft in generation of a voltage pulse (See paragraph [0197] of Gehringer in view of claim 28 of Gehringer), and a history of information on a detection coil that has generated the voltage pulse (See paragraph [0197] of Gehringer in view of claim 28 of Gehringer), the controller is configured to, every time a voltage pulse is generated (See paragraph [0158] of Gehringer), obtain the states of the L number of detection coils (See paragraph [0158] of Gehringer), the number of rotations of the rotation shaft (See paragraph [0197] of Gehringer in view of claim 28 of Gehringer), and the information on a detection coil that has generated the voltage pulse (See paragraphs [0157]-[0159] of Gehringer), and perform a process of updating the non-volatile memory (See paragraph [0117] of Gehringer), and in the process of updating, by referring to information on a current voltage pulse (See paragraph [0149] of Gehringer in view of paragraph [0214] of Gehringer), and states of the L number of detection coils in generation of the last voltage pulse (See paragraph [0111] of Gehringer in view of paragraph [0096] of Gehringer), states of the L number of detection coils in generation of the last but one voltage pulse (See paragraph [0111] of Gehringer in view of paragraph [0096] of Gehringer), and a history of information on a detection coil that has generated the last but one voltage pulse (See paragraph [0111] of Gehringer in view of paragraph [0096] of Gehringer), which are held in the non-volatile memory (See paragraph [0113] of Gehringer), the controller detects a pulse dropout in which a voltage pulse drops out (See the “off” condition disclosed in paragraph [0097] of Gehringer), and corrects the states of the L number of detection coils (See paragraphs [0022], [0023] of Gehringer in view of paragraph [0120] and claim 13 of Gehringer) and the number of rotations of the rotation shaft that are to be held in the non-volatile memory (See paragraphs [0022], [0023] of Gehringer in view of paragraph [0120] and claim 13 of Gehringer) but fails to disclose wherein the L number of detection coils are arranged at positions displaced from each other by a predetermined phase in the rotation direction of the magnet, L being a natural number of three or more, each of the L number of detection coils is configured to receive a magnetic field applied from the magnet and generate a voltage pulse of a positive or negative polarity. However, Liao does disclose wherein the L number of detection coils (See the L=4 coils disclosed in paragraph [0039] of Liao) are arranged at positions displaced from each other by a predetermined phase in the rotation direction (See the placement of coils [45a, 45b, 45c and 45d] in figure 4 of Liao) of the magnet (See paragraph [0039] of Liao), L being a natural number of three or more (See the L=4 coils disclosed in paragraph [0039] of Liao), each of the L number of detection coils is configured to receive a magnetic field applied from the magnet and generate a voltage pulse of a positive or negative polarity (See paragraph [0039] of Liao). Furthermore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the invention to modify the device disclosed by Gehringer to include the feature disclosed by Liao because doing so enables high detection accuracy with compensation for environmental fluctuations.
Claim(s) 6 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over the combination of Gehringer and Liao, and further in view of Shimosakoda (US PUB 2003/0177272).
With respect to claim 6, the combination of Gehringer and Liao discloses the rotation detector according to claim 1, but fails to disclose wherein the signal processing circuit includes a counter to count a number of times the correction has been made, and the controller outputs an error when a count value of the counter exceeds a threshold. However, Shimosakoda does disclose wherein the signal processing circuit includes a counter to count a number of times the correction has been made, and the controller outputs an error when a count value of the counter exceeds a threshold (See paragraph [0014] of Shimosakoda). Furthermore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the invention to modify the device disclosed by the combination of Gehringer and Liao to include the features disclosed by Shimosakoda because doing so enhances detection accuracy.
Allowable Subject Matter
Claims 2-5 and 7-20 are 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.
With respect to claim 2, the prior art of record neither shows nor suggests the combination of structural elements wherein the controller is configured to change a state of each of the L number of detection coils to a first logic level upon generation of the voltage pulse of the positive polarity and to a second logic level upon generation of the voltage pulse of the negative polarity and estimate a rotational position of the magnet from the states of the L number of detection coils, and in the process of updating, the controller detects the pulse dropout and estimates a transition of the rotational position of the magnet by referring to the rotational position of the magnet estimated from each of the states of the L number of detection coils in generation of the last voltage pulse and the states of the L number of detection coils in generation of the last but one voltage pulse, and the history of the information on the detection coil that has generated the last but one voltage pulse, which are held in the non-volatile memory, and based on the estimated transition of the rotational position of the magnet, corrects the states of the L number of detection coils and the number of rotations of the rotation shaft that are to be held in the non-volatile memory.
Claims 10-12, 15 and 18 depend from objected to claim 2 and are therefore also objected to.
With respect to claim 3, the prior art of record neither shows nor suggests the combination of structural elements wherein, by referring to the states of the L number of detection coils in generation of the last voltage pulse, the states of the L number of detection coils in generation of the last but one voltage pulse, and the history of the information on the detection coil that has generated the last but one voltage pulse, which are held in the non-volatile memory, the controller detects the pulse dropout that has occurred during rotation of the rotation shaft in a first rotation direction and corrects the states of the L number of detection coils and the number of rotations of the rotation shaft that are to be held in the non-volatile memory.
Claim 19 depends from objected to claim 3 and is therefore also objected to.
Claims 13 and 16 depend from objected to claim 3 and are therefore also objected to.
With respect to claim 4, the prior art of record neither shows nor suggests the combination of structural elements wherein by referring to the states of the L number of detection coils in generation of the last voltage pulse, the states of the L number of detection coils in generation of the last but one voltage pulse, and the history of the information on the detection coil that has generated the last but one voltage pulse, which are held in the non-volatile memory, the controller detects the pulse dropout that has occurred at least twice consecutively after the reverse of the rotation shaft from a first rotation direction to a second direction, and corrects the states of the L number of detection coils and the number of rotations of the rotation shaft that are to be held in the non-volatile memory.
Claims 14, 17 and 20 depend from objected to claim 4 and are therefore also objected to.
With respect to claim 5, the prior art of record neither shows not suggests the combination of structural elements wherein the non-volatile memory is further configured to hold information indicating whether the correction has been made in the process of updating last time, and when the correction is made in the process of updating this time, the controller outputs an error when the correction has been made in the process of updating last time.
With respect to claim 7, the prior art of record neither shows nor suggests the combination of structural elements wherein the signal processing circuit includes a first counter to count a number of times a voltage pulse has been generated, and a second counter to count a number of times the correction has been made, and the controller outputs an error when a ratio of a count value of the second counter to a count value of the first counter exceeds a threshold.
With respect to claim 8, the prior art of record neither shows nor suggests the combination of structural elements wherein the non-volatile memory is configured to hold the states of the L number of detection coils at the correction and information on the pulse dropout, and the controller updates the correction history when the correction is made.
With respect to claim 9, the prior art of record neither shows nor suggests the combination of structural elements wherein the controller does not update the non-volatile memory when a detection coil that has generated the last voltage pulse is identical to the detection coil that has generated the last but one voltage pulse.
Conclusion
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to TEMILADE S RHODES-VIVOUR whose telephone number is (571)270-5814. The examiner can normally be reached M-F (flex schedule).
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/TEMILADE S RHODES-VIVOUR/ Examiner, Art Unit 2858
/HUY Q PHAN/Supervisory Patent Examiner, Art Unit 2858