Detailed Action
The present application, filed on or after March 16, 2013, is being examined under the first inventor to file provisions of the AIA .
Claims 1-5 of U.S. Application 18/832,854 filed on July 24, 2024 are presented for examination.
Information Disclosure Statement
The information disclosure statement (IDS) submitted on 07/24/2024 has been considered by the examiner.
Priority
Receipt is acknowledged of certified copies of papers submitted under 35 U.S.C. 119(a)-(d), which papers have been placed of record in the file.
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 of this title, 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.
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 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.
Claims 1 and 5 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Momose et al (JP2021076487) in view of Kaneko et al (JP2012253887).
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Prior Art: Momose
Regarding claim 1, Momose discloses a magnetic sensor system (shown in figs 1-6) comprising: a magnetic sensor (10); a magnetic scale (2a) disposed alongside of the magnetic sensor in a first direction (x-direction) and configured to move relative to the magnetic sensor in a second direction (y-direction) intersecting with the first direction (par 15-17, and 26 discloses intersecting the movement of the sensor and the scale);; and a controller (8) configured to receive the moving distance information and give a movement instruction to either the magnetic sensor or the magnetic scale (par 34 discloses moving values based on 2a), the circuitry including a hysteresis corrector (845-847), the controller being configured to provide the hysteresis corrector with moving direction information about either the magnetic sensor or the magnetic scale (par 42 discloses compensating displacement when the movement in reverse), and the hysteresis corrector being configured to transform the output signal into the moving distance information by making hysteresis correction to the output signal based on the moving direction information (pars 37, 38, and 42 discloses compensation based on movement which is then processed and outputted). Momose does not fully disclose a transformer configured to receive an output signal of the magnetic sensor and transform the output signal into moving distance information.
However, Kaneko discloses a transformer (using 30) configured to receive an output signal of the magnetic sensor and transform the output signal into moving distance information (par 30-34 discloses converter 30 converting signals from 10 to digital. Par 11 discloses measuring direction of movement of the detected position).It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to combine Momose in view of Kaneko in order to determine distance based on the corrected value.
Regarding claim 5, Momose discloses a distance measuring method (abstract discloses being an encoder) for use in a magnetic sensor system (figs 1-6), the magnetic sensor system including: a magnetic sensor (10); and a magnetic scale (2a) disposed alongside of the magnetic sensor in a first direction (x-direction) and configured to move relative to the magnetic sensor in a second direction (y-direction) intersecting with the first direction (par 15-17, and 26 discloses intersecting the movement of the sensor and the scale), the distance measuring method comprising, the transformation step including a correction step (using845-847) including transforming the output signal into the moving distance information by making hysteresis correction to the output signal based on the moving direction information about either the magnetic sensor or the magnetic scale (par 42 discloses compensating displacement when the movement in reverse).Momose does not fully disclose a transformation step including transforming an output signal of the magnetic sensor into moving distance information about either the magnetic sensor or the magnetic scale.
However, Kaneko discloses a transformation step (using 30) including transforming an output signal of the magnetic sensor into moving distance information about either the magnetic sensor or the magnetic scale (par 30-34 discloses converter 30 converting signals from 10 to digital. Par 11 discloses measuring direction of movement of the detected position). It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to combine Momose in view of Kaneko in order to determine distance based on the corrected value.
Allowable Subject Matter
Claims 2-4 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.
Regarding claim 2, the prior art of record taken alone or in combination fail to teach or suggest a magnetic sensor system comprising: wherein the output signal includes: a first output signal as an output signal for a steady-state region; and a second output signal as an output signal for a transitional region immediately following a point where either the magnetic sensor or the magnetic scale changes its moving direction, and the hysteresis corrector is configured to make the hysteresis correction differently to the steady-state region and the transitional region in accordance with the moving direction information in combination with the other limitations of the claim.
Claims 3 and 4 are also objected to as they depend on claim 2.
Prior Art
The prior art made of record and not relied upon is considered pertinent to applicant's disclosure.
Kaufmann et al (USPUb 20130134967): discloses hysteresis of the sensor.
Hosek et al (USPGPub 20090224750): discloses multi-dimension position sensor.
Conclusion
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/DOMINIC E HAWKINS/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2858
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