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.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 102
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 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.
Claims 1-2, 5-10, and 12 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(1) as being anticipated by Kim (US PGPub 2022/0086312 A1).
With regard to claim 1: Kim discloses an image capturing device which comprises a housing (see ¶0054 disclosing bracket 100, which is configured to be coupled to the inner surface of the windshield either directly or via a coupler and cover, with the combination of the bracket and the coupler/cover corresponding to the claimed housing); and an image capturing module (camera module 200) being rotationally disposed on the housing along a first rotating axis (see ¶0058-0060 and Figure 3, the camera module is supported such that it can rotate along an axis connecting the extension portions 230 of the camera module and extension portions 104 of the bracket). The examiner notes that Kim makes reference to the camera module being disposed in “front” of the bracket and the bracket being “behind” the camera module (see ¶0058 and ¶0069-0070) which defines a front-back axis and makes reference to the side of 200 at which element 220 as being at an “upper” part and the opposite side being the “lower” side (see ¶0071) which defines an up-down axis. The first axis of rotation is perpendicular to both the up-down and front-back axes, and for ease of reference this axis is being referred to as a “left-right” axis. Kim further discloses a driven part 500 which is connected to the image capturing module at coupling portion 220, and an angle-adjusting unit 300 which is rotationally disposed on the housing along a second rotating axis and engaged with the driven part such that the angle-adjusting unit is adapted to rotate along the second rotating axis to drive the image capturing module to rotate along the first rotating axis by the driven part (see Figs. 11-12 and ¶0085-0086, rotation of element 300 causes rotation of the camera module via engagement of the threads 312 of 300 with inner threads of driven part 500).
With regard to claim 2: In Kim the second rotating axis and the first rotating axis are perpendicular to each other (the second rotating axis is substantially parallel to the front-rear axis, with minor variation is angle depending upon the distance between 220- and 110 which changes as discussed in ¶0071).
With regard to claim 5: In Kim the image capturing module faces the front of the image capturing device (as can be seen in Figure 2) and the angle adjusting unit has a force receiving part facing the rear of the image capturing device (see in Figure 5 and labeled in Figure 8, the angle adjusting unit has force receiving part 322 facing rearwardly), with the force receiving part being adapted to receive force to rotate the angle-adjusting unit along the second rotating axis (see ¶0066).
With regard to claim 6: As drawn in Kim the force receiving part comprises a non-circular hole (a hole having an internal hexalobular shape is clearly drawn in the Figures, particularly visible in Figs.8 and 10).
With regard to claim 7: The angle-adjusting unit of Kim is disclosed and drawn as having a flight portion and an extension part. As can be best seen in Figures 8 and 12 the flight portion (threaded region 312) is engaged with the driven part and the extension part (the unthreaded region of the body 310 of 300, noted in ¶0063) which is connected between the flight portion and the force-receiving part.
With regard to claim 8: The angle-adjusting unit of Kim further includes a structural reinforcing rib 330 connected to the extension part. Element 330 can be reasonably considered to be a structural reinforcing rib because it protrudes outwardly from the surface of the extension part to form a raised ridge (“rib” can be reasonably interpreted to encompass a raised ridge) which serves a force-transmitting purpose (indicating strength sufficient to be considered both “structural” and “reinforcing”) in coupling the angle adjusting unit to the bracket, see ¶0076-0077.
With regard to claim 9: The image capturing module of the device of Kim is disclosed as having a lens (lenses are visible but unlabeled in Figure 2) and a base (the flat section 210 to which the lenses are attached), the base having a driven part mounting part 220 to which the driven part is connected (as can be seen in Figure 12).
With regard to claim 10: The housing of Kim includes a first housing part and a second housing part, with the base being rotatably disposed between the first housing part and the second housing part (The first housing part and second housing parts are the left and right extension portions 104).
With regard to claim 12: In the Image capturing device of Kim the rotation range of the driven part along the first rotating axis is less than one turn for each turn of the angle adjusting part, due to the threads of the angle adjusting part and the driven member forming a worm-gear like arrangement.
Claims 1, 3-4, and 13 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(1) as being anticipated by Jeon (KR 2022-0145537 A, English machine translation attached).
With regard to claim 1: Jeon disclose an image capturing device which comprises a housing 110 and an image capturing module 120 (see ¶0029 disclosing inclusion of a camera system within 120), rotatably disposed on the housing along a first rotating axis (120 is configured to rotate relative to 110 around hinge shaft 121 which is retained within hook 111, see ¶0031); a driven part (the rear portion of 120, including 132 integrated thereon as well as element 122) as noted in ¶is attached to the image capturing module; and an angle-adjusting unit 134 which is rotatably disposed along a second rotating axis (defined by the bore of 131 which 134 screws into, see ¶0049), with the angle-adjusting unit being adapted to rotate along the second rotating axis to drive the image capturing module to rotate along the first rotating axis by the driven part (see ¶0042, 0049, and 0050).
With regard to claim 3: The first rotating axis is disclosed as being perpendicular to the optical axis of the image capturing module. This is disclosed because Jeon discloses that the adjustment causes 120 to be “tilted up and down using the hinge shafts as a rotation center axis” (see English abstract on the bibliographic information page obtained from Espacenet) and “tilt”, in the context of camera alignment, indicating rotation around a horizontal axis which is perpendicular to the optical axis of the camera (in contrast, “yaw” would indicate adjustment around a vertical axis and “roll” adjustment would indicate rotation around the optical axis).
With regard to claim 4: The housing of Jeon includes a mounting surface which is adapted to be installed on the windshield, see ¶0028 and Figure 7, and the second rotating axis is tilted relative to the mounting surface (see Figures 7-8, the axis of 134 is not-parallel to the glass surface 10).
With regard to claim 13: The housing of Jeon is disclosed as including a stopper (the lower surface of opening 112a) and the driven part another stopper (the lower surface of projection 122, which is formed on the rear end of 120 per ¶0032), with the housing stopper and driven part stopper adapted to stop each other to limit the rotation angle range of the image capture module relative to the housing. This is accomplished by the insertion of protrusions 122 into the openings 112a, at which point the rotation range of 120 in the downward direction is limited by the interference between 122 and 112a, see ¶0032-0033.
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.
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.
This application currently names joint inventors. In considering patentability of the claims the examiner presumes that the subject matter of the various claims was commonly owned as of the effective filing date of the claimed invention(s) absent any evidence to the contrary. Applicant is advised of the obligation under 37 CFR 1.56 to point out the inventor and effective filing dates of each claim that was not commonly owned as of the effective filing date of the later invention in order for the examiner to consider the applicability of 35 U.S.C. 102(b)(2)(C) for any potential 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(2) prior art against the later invention.
Claim 11 is rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Jeon in view of Yin (CN 217508851 U, English machine translation attached).
With regard to claim 11 The image capturing apparatus of Jeon includes some form of decoration cover extending over the outer surface of the image capturing module (the outer surface of 120 is shown as having a cover member which encloses and hides any circuitry or components which are inside of it, this cover member is best seen in Figure 3 where the upper portion is visible and Figure 4 where the lower portion is visible), which is connected to the image capturing module to rotate with the image capturing module (as the cover forms the outer surface of the module).
Jeon does not disclose that the cover has a direction indicating mark which is configured to indicate a direction of the optical axis of the image capturing module.
Yin teaches that it is desirable to equip an outer portion of a camera assembly used for computer vision purposes and which includes a tilt adjustment with an indicator (pointer 31) carried by the tiltable image capturing module at the rotational interface between the image capturing module and the supporting bracket. This indicator, combined with a scale 22 incorporated on the supporting bracket, allows for intuitive adjustment of the angle of the camera, see ¶0027.
A person having ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention would have found it obvious to have equipped the image capturing device of Jeon with an indicator on the cover of the image capturing module (with corresponding scale on the housing) as taught by Yin in order to make adjustment of the angle of the camera to a particular setting (which Jeon indicates varies by the model of the car in which the system is installed, see ¶0004 and 0022) more intuitive to the person installing and adjusting the image capturing device.
Conclusion
The prior art made of record and not relied upon is considered pertinent to applicant's disclosure.
Other pitch/tilt angle-adjustable camera systems of note include: Wang et al (CN 115071594 A) and Jia (CN 114789699 A). Additionally, the examiner notes that due to the lack of any claim limitations (other than in claim 4) regarding integration of the image capturing device with a vehicle, non-vehicular systems such as Lee (US Patent 8,379,089 B2) and Zhou (US Patent 11,692,667 B2) should also be considered as being relevant to the claimed invention.
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to Leon W Rhodes Jr whose telephone number is (571)270-5774. The examiner can normally be reached M-F 9:00AM - 6:00PM.
Examiner interviews are available via telephone, in-person, and video conferencing using a USPTO supplied web-based collaboration tool. To schedule an interview, applicant is encouraged to use the USPTO Automated Interview Request (AIR) at http://www.uspto.gov/interviewpractice.
If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner’s supervisor, Walter Lindsay can be reached at (571) 272-1674. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300.
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/LEON W RHODES, JR/Examiner, Art Unit 2852
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