DETAILED ACTION
Status
1. This Office Action is responsive to claims filed for app no. 18744770 on June 17, 2024. Please note claims 1-20 are pending and have been examined.
America Invents Act
2. The present application, filed on or after March 16, 2013, is being examined under the first inventor to file provisions of the AIA .
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 102
3. 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.
4. Claims 1, 2 and 18-20 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(1) as being anticipated by Roberts (US 20030206162 A1).
Regarding claim 1, Roberts discloses: A touch positioning method (see Fig. 1, Figs. 6 discloses methods of determining touch location), the method comprising:
acquiring touch signals collected by sensors disposed on a touch apparatus and generated after the touch apparatus is touched (see Fig. 1, Fig. 6A, [0079]. step 605 discloses acquiring a touch signal corresponding to a touch on the touch screen 605);
determining a positioning region according to the touch signals collected by the sensors, and determining a touch position according to calibration signals of the sensors corresponding to a preset position point in the positioning region (see Fig. 1, Figs. 6A, [0079], discloses step 610 and Step 615 discloses first occurrence of a touch signal shape in the touch signal is detected 610. Touch location is determined using touch signal information obtained in response to detecting the touch signal shape 615); and
controlling the touch apparatus to execute a corresponding function based on the touch position (Fig. 1, Fig. 16, [0013] discloses display system including a touch screen system, a display for displaying information, and a processor coupled to the touch screen and the display for processing data displayed on the display and information received from the touch screen control system. Also see [0099]).
Regarding claim 2, Roberts teaches the limitations of parent claim 1. Robert further teaches: the determining the positioning region based on the touch signals collected by the sensors, and determining the touch position based on the calibration signals of the sensors corresponding to the preset position point in the positioning region comprises: screening out the touch signals, and determining a signal distribution region of a sensor corresponding to a screened out touch signal; determining an initial positioning region of the touch position based on the touch signals collected by the sensors and calibration signals of sensors corresponding to preset first-category position points in the signal distribution region; and continuing to determine the touch position based on the touch signals collected by the sensors and calibration signals of sensor corresponding to preset second-category position points in the initial positioning region (Fig. 1, Fig. 7, Fig. 10, [0084]-[0089], discloses touch signal is sampled 1010 and the relative slope is calculated 1020. In response to the relative slope of the touch signal falling below a predetermined value 1025, the touch signal value is stored 1030. The touch signal is sampled 1035 and the touch signal values are stored 1030 according to the loop defined by steps 1030-1050 so long as the relative slope calculated at step 1045 is below a predetermined value 1050. When the relative slope is greater than or equal to the predetermined value 1050, the preferred time for making the touch location measurement is determined as the point halfway through the stream of stored touch signal values 1055. This approach locates the center of a broad peak by first finding its edges, and may be more suitable for a filter impulse response with a relatively broad and flat top. The approach requires retaining data in memory long enough to retrieve the mid-peak values when both edges of the broad peak are determined).
Regarding claim 18, Roberts discloses: A non-transient computer-readable storage medium (see Fig. 5, [0059], discloses memory circuitry 586), storing program instructions capable of implementing the touch positioning method according to claim 1 when the program instructions are executed (see rejection of claim 1 above).
Regarding claim 19, Roberts discloses: A touch positioning device (see Fig. 1, Fig. 5) comprising a processor (see Fig. 5, [0059], processor 580) and a memory (see Fig. 5, [0059], discloses memory circuitry 586) storing a computer program runnable on the processor, wherein the processor implements the touch positioning method according to claim 1 when executing the program (see rejection of claim 1 above).
Regarding claim 20, Roberts discloses: A touch apparatus (see Fig. 1, Fig. 5), comprising: sensors (Fig. 5, [0058], discloses sensors 501-504); and the touch positioning device according to claim 19 configured to receive touch signals collected by the sensors (see rejection of claim 19 above).
Allowable Subject Matter
5. Claims 3-17 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.
The following is a statement of reasons for the indication of allowable subject matter:
Du et. al. (US 20150317027 A1) discloses a method for measuring touching position, touching energy and display device thereof. While touching position is measured, at least two sensors are installed in dispersing form under the sensing panel of touch control equipment. The sensing panel is divided into a plurality of grids. The unit energy distribution vector of the touching signal is compared with the unit energy distribution vector of the benchmark signal of each grid, therefore touching position is obtained. While touching energy is measured, at least one sensor is installed under the sensing panel. The sensing panel is divided into a plurality of grids. Touching position would be obtained by the above method for measuring touching position or other methods. The touching energy could be calculated by comparing the detected touching signal energy with energy of benchmark signal at touching position in corresponding grid (Abstract, Figs. 1-3 and corresponding descriptions).
Lee et al. (US 20110037727 A1) discloses general teachings of a touch sensor device and a pointing coordinate determination method thereof. The touch sensor device includes a touch panel, a touch sensing unit that receives a touch signal, senses touch information according to a simple touch or touch strength of a touch object, and outputs an electrical signal, a touch data storage that stores touch data in response to the electrical signal, a template storage that pre-stores templates for various outlines of the touch object in response to the electrical signal, and a touch data processor that senses an outline of the touch object according to a distance difference related to the touch object by receiving the touch data, and determines pointer coordinates of a pointing device by receiving and mapping a stored template of the touch object (Abstract, 2-Fig. 8).
Feng (US 11163403 B2) discloses general teachings of a touch positioning method applied to an electronic device having a touch unit, the method comprises: acquiring a plurality of touch regions when touch action occurs on the touch unit, wherein each of the touch regions comprises a plurality of candidate points, and each of the candidate points has a sensing value; compensating the sensing values of the candidate points in an intersection region when the touch regions form the intersection region with other touch regions; calculating touch coordinates of the touch regions according to a position and a compensated sensing value of each of the candidate points in the touch regions (Abstract, Figs. 1-4)
As per claim 3, none of the prior art, whether considered alone or in combination, fail to disclose the technical features of comparing distance values between the touch signals collected by the sensors and calibration signals of sensors corresponding to all or part of the first-category position points; taking a first-category position point with a distance value meeting a preset requirement as an initial position point; and determining the initial positioning region based on the initial position point, in the context of determining a touch position according to calibration signals of sensors corresponding to a present position point in the positioning region for improving the touch accuracy, as a whole in the manner claimed is not sufficiently teach/suggested in the prior art.
As per claim 6, none of the prior art, whether considered alone or in combination, fail to disclose the technical features of comparing the touch signals collected by the sensors with calibration signals of sensors corresponding all or part of the second-category position points respectively, to obtain first distance values; comparing a first signal with all or part of second signals respectively, to obtain second distance values, wherein the first signal is configured to characterize a magnitude relationship between the touch signals collected by the plurality of sensors; a second signal is configured to characterize a magnitude relationship between the calibration signals of the sensors corresponding to the second-category position points; for all or part of the second-category position points, determining a composite index value based on a first distance value and a second distance value corresponding to each of the second-category position points; and determining the touch position based on composite index values corresponding to all or part of the second-category position points, in the context of determining a touch position according to calibration signals of sensors corresponding to a present position point in the positioning region for improving the touch accuracy, as a whole, in the manner claimed is not sufficiently teach/suggested in the prior art.
As per claim 11, none of the prior art, whether considered alone or in combination, fail to disclose the technical features of acquiring a multi-channel original touch signal, and different channels of original touch signals come from different sensors; when it is judged that large signals and small signals exist in the multi-channel original touch signal, and a quantity of the small signals is greater than a preset signal quantity, performing processing on the multi-channel original touch signal which comprises: at least performing signal enhancement on the small signals; a large signal refers to a signal with a signal-to-noise ratio greater than a preset signal-to-noise ratio threshold, and a small signal refers to a signal with a signal-to-noise ratio less than the preset signal-to-noise ratio threshold; taking a processed multi-channel original touch signal as the multi-channel touch signal, in the context of determining a touch position according to calibration signals of sensors corresponding to a present position point in the positioning region for improving the touch accuracy, as a whole, in the manner claimed is not sufficiently teach/suggested in the prior art.
Dependent claims 4, 5, 7-10 and 12-17 are objected based on their claim dependency.
Conclusion
6. Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to KRISHNA P. NEUPANE whose telephone number is (571)270-7291. The examiner can normally be reached on Monday - Friday, 8:30am-5:30pm.
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/KRISHNA P NEUPANE/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2629