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 .
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 112
The following is a quotation of the first paragraph of 35 U.S.C. 112(a):
(a) IN GENERAL.—The specification shall contain a written description of the invention, and of the manner and process of making and using it, in such full, clear, concise, and exact terms as to enable any person skilled in the art to which it pertains, or with which it is most nearly connected, to make and use the same, and shall set forth the best mode contemplated by the inventor or joint inventor of carrying out the invention.
The following is a quotation of the first paragraph of pre-AIA 35 U.S.C. 112:
The specification shall contain a written description of the invention, and of the manner and process of making and using it, in such full, clear, concise, and exact terms as to enable any person skilled in the art to which it pertains, or with which it is most nearly connected, to make and use the same, and shall set forth the best mode contemplated by the inventor of carrying out his invention.
Claims 1-20 rejected under 35 U.S.C. 112(a) or 35 U.S.C. 112 (pre-AIA ), first paragraph, as failing to comply with the written description requirement. The claim(s) contains subject matter which was not described in the specification in such a way as to reasonably convey to one skilled in the relevant art that the inventor or a joint inventor, or for applications subject to pre-AIA 35 U.S.C. 112, the inventor(s), at the time the application was filed, had possession of the claimed invention. Specification does not support limitations ” circuitry configured to receive the lidar sensor data and the second sensor data and recombine the data into a correlated data stream in which the lidar sensor data and the second sensor data are spatially correlated without being temporally correlated”, “second circuitry configured to receive the stream of temporally paired lidar and color data and reconfigure the data into a stream of spatially paired lidar and color data in which pairs of lidar data and color data were acquired from a same angular positions without being temporally correlated;” .
Claims 5, 11, 17 rejected under 35 U.S.C. 112(a) or 35 U.S.C. 112 (pre-AIA ), first paragraph, as failing to comply with the written description requirement. The claim(s) contains subject matter which was not described in the specification in such a way as to reasonably convey to one skilled in the relevant art that the inventor or a joint inventor, or for applications subject to pre-AIA 35 U.S.C. 112, the inventor(s), at the time the application was filed, had possession of the claimed invention. Limitaion “wherein the lidar sensor and the color sensor detect data along a shared axis” is not supported by specification.
The following is a quotation of 35 U.S.C. 112(b):
(b) CONCLUSION.—The specification shall conclude with one or more claims particularly pointing out and distinctly claiming the subject matter which the inventor or a joint inventor regards as the invention.
The following is a quotation of 35 U.S.C. 112 (pre-AIA ), second paragraph:
The specification shall conclude with one or more claims particularly pointing out and distinctly claiming the subject matter which the applicant regards as his invention.
Claims 1-20 rejected under 35 U.S.C. 112(b) or 35 U.S.C. 112 (pre-AIA ), second paragraph, as being indefinite for failing to particularly point out and distinctly claim the subject matter which the inventor or a joint inventor (or for applications subject to pre-AIA 35 U.S.C. 112, the applicant), regards as the invention.
Term “temporally correlated” is unclear when we are talking about scanning lidar. Let as imagine camera which takes 24 frames per second and scanning lidar which transmits beam with 200kHz frequency. One frame of the camera picture may correspond (temporarily correlate) to only one point of the beam the rest of the beams will not temporarily correlate with the image taken by the camera.
Using explanation above it becomes unclear what Applicant means by “circuitry configured to receive the lidar sensor data and the second sensor data and recombine the data into a correlated data stream in which the lidar sensor data and the second sensor data are spatially correlated without being temporally correlated;”. It is clear that if scanned Lidar image is taken during one frame most of the points of that lidar frame will not be temporally correlated with the camera image , now if we fuse the LIDAR data per that frame with camera frame can I call that “lidar sensor data and the second sensor data are spatially correlated without being temporally correlated”.
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.
Claim(s) 1, 10, 16 and claims bellow are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over D1 US 20160249039 A1.
Regarding claim 1 D1 teaches
a plurality of sensors(120+110 fig. 1) integrated within a single component, the plurality of sensors including a lidar sensor and a second sensor;(fig. 1)
a scanning mechanism configured to scan the lidar sensor and the second sensor across a field of view, [0026]
also teaches camera covering 360 degree FOV and lidar covering 360 degree[0054, 0069]
wherein as the plurality of sensors are scanned the lidar sensor collects lidar sensor data while the second sensor concurrently collects second sensor data that is temporally correlated with the lidar sensor data but taken from different angular positions than the lidar sensor data ;[0069](implicit sensors are at different places and hence the data are taken from different angular positions)
circuitry configured to receive the lidar sensor data and the second sensor data and recombine the data into a correlated data stream in which the lidar sensor data and the second sensor data are spatially correlated without being temporally correlated; and[0077]
a processor operatively coupled to receive the correlated data stream and generate a point cloud comprising the lidar sensor data and the second sensor data.[0096]
color sensor that detects ambient light from within the environment and generates color data, wherein there is a 1:1 pairing between the lidar data and the color data;[0078-0079]
Although D1 does not explicitly say
Scanning a 360 degree field of view
D1 explicitly teaches obtaining 360 degree lidar data
Hence It will be obvious to one of ordinary skills in the art to modify teachings taught by D1 to use scanner to scan 360 degree in order to obtain 360 degree data as required by D1.
2. (New) The sensor module of claim 1 wherein the second sensor comprises a sensor that detects radiation in a visible light spectrum. [0067]
3. (New) The sensor module of claim 1 wherein the second sensor comprises an RGB sensor.[0067]
Although D1 does not explicitly teach
4. (New) The sensor module of claim 1 wherein the second sensor comprises a thermal sensor.
Using thermal sensor and fusing it with LIDAr data is well known in the art and can be done in order to correlate images taken at night.
5, 11, 17(New) The sensor module of claim 1 wherein the lidar sensor and the second sensor detect data along a shared axis. (implicit /obvious as images taken of the same are for obtaining RGBD image [0075] )
Although D1 does not explicitly teach
6, 12, 13, 18 (New) The sensor module of claim 1 wherein the lidar sensor and the second sensor are intergated onto an application specific integrated circuit.
This is just obvious modification well known in the art in order to produce compact lidar sensing system . (see for example US 20170184704 A1)
Although D1 does not explicitly teach
7, 14, 19 (New) The sensor module of claim 1 wherein the scanning mechanism comprises a moving mirror.
It is obvious design choice to use mirror DMD polygon mirror as scanner well known in the art.
8. (New) The sensor module of claim 1 wherein the lidar sensor data and second sensor data are correlated using a 1:1 correspondence between measurement data points from the lidar sensor and the second sensor. [0078,0079]
9. (New) The sensor module of claim 1 wherein the lidar sensor is operable to transmit a plurality of optical signals into an environment in which the sensor module operates, detect a corresponding plurality of return optical signals reflected off objects within the environment, and process the return optical signals to generate the lidar sensor data.(implicit scanning )
20. (New) The sensor module of claim 16 wherein the processor is configured to generate a point cloud comprising the lidar data and the color data. [0096]
Conclusion
Subject matter of claim 15 is not taught in the art.
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/HOVHANNES BAGHDASARYAN/ Examiner, Art Unit 3645
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