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 § 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, 11, 12 and claims bellow are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over D1 US 10972638 B1.
Regarding claims 1, 11, 12 D1 teaches
(Original) A sensor system, comprising:
a sensor(abstract) configured to measure a distance to an object by emitting electromagnetic waves and observing reflected electromagnetic waves from the object;(col 22 lines 27-40 Lidar radar)
a processing device(106) configured to generate a range image indicating a distance to an object in a surrounding of the sensor based on measurement data obtained by the sensor measuring areas in a plurality of directions; and(col 5 line 50- col 6 line 3 )
a display(col 15 line 55-col 16 line 7 ) configured to display the range image(216) generated by the processing device,(fig. 2)
wherein the processing device includes a highly reflective object detector configured to determine whether a highly reflective object is located within a measurement area of the sensor based on the measurement data, (col 10 lines 38- col 11 line 25)
the highly reflective object being an object with a reflection intensity higher than a predetermined reference,(implicit retroreflector col 10 lines 38- col 11 line 25)
an attention area definer configured to define, when(conditional limitation no patentable weight for method claim) the highly reflective object detector detects the highly reflective object (retroreflector ), (col 10 lines 38- col 11 line 25 generation of mask) an attention(any object on the image closer than the retroreflector or glare source in any case fig. 2 always detects source of glare and other objects in the image no matter is they are between or not) area between the highly reflective object and the sensor,
the attention area being an area with a likelihood of being affected by the highly reflective object to cause the sensor to have lower measurement accuracy, and(col 10 lines 38- col 11 line 25 generation of mask)
an information displaying unit configured to cause the attention area defined by the attention area definer to be applied on the range image displayed on the display. (col 10 lines 38- col 11 line 25 generation of mask and applying glare mask on image)
Although D1 does not explicitly say “superimposed” D1 teaches affecting the image pixel by pixel with the mask which is basically analogues of superimposing which just drawing mask over the image.
It will be obvious to one of ordinary skills in the art to modify teachings taught by D1 with to superimpose in order to mask region of image which is corresponding to the glare as required in D1.
Regarding claim 2 D1 teaches
(Original) The sensor system according to claim 1, wherein the sensor includes a light source,(lidar)
a light receiver configured to receive reflected light from an object.(Lidar )
Although D1 does not explicitly teach
a scanner configured to emit light output from the light source in the plurality of directions,
It is well known concept to use scanners in the lidar in order to scan large FOV
And hence It will be obvious to one of ordinary skills in the art to modify teachings taught by D1 to use scanner in order to obtain image of large FOV at long distances.
(Currently Amended) The sensor system according to claim 1 or claim 2, wherein the processing device includes a monitoring area definer(intensity image) configured to define a monitoring area within the measurement area of the sensor(depth sensor fig. 2), and the sensor monitors the monitoring area, (col 13 lines 46-67 RGBD camera )and the information displaying unit causes the monitoring area to be fused the range image.(fig. 2 with fusing depth image col 3 lines 55 -65)
But does not explicitly say “superimposing”
It will be obvious to one of ordinary skills in the art to modify teachings taught by D1 with to superimpose in order to fuse depth image with intensity image as required in D1 D1.
Although D1 does not explicitly teach
(Currently Amended) The sensor system according to claim 3 , wherein the information displaying unit causes a warning to be displayed on the range image when the monitoring area at least partially overlaps the attention area.
It will be obvious to one of ordinary skills in the art to modify teachings taught by D1 to provide notification to the user that the image was corrected for the glare as shown in fig. 2 for example.
Regarding claim 6 D1 teaches
(Currently Amended) The sensor system according to any one of claims 3 to 5claim 3,wherein when the monitoring area at least partially overlaps the attention area(fig. 2),
But does not teach the information displaying unit recommends a corrected version of the monitoring area corrected not to overlap the attention area.
Although D1 does not teach limitation above It will be obvious to one of ordinary skills in the art to modify teachings taught by D1 to ask user before correcting the image in order to give control over operation to the operator and notify that some actions may be performed on image.
7. (Currently Amended) The sensor system according to any one of claims 1 to 6claim 1,wherein the attention area definer defines, as the attention area, an area with a predetermined width extending from the highly reflective object toward the sensor.(fig. 2 defines the box which need to be corrected for glare)
8. (Original) The sensor system according to claim 7, wherein the attention area definer determines the predetermined width based on a reflection intensity of the highly reflective object.(implicit glare region is selected based on intensity col 2 lines 42-54)
9. (Original) The sensor system according to claim 8, further comprising:a report output unit configured to output information indicating a calculation process performed by the attention area definer to determine the predetermined width.(fig. 2 glare region)
Although D1 does not explicitly teach
10. (Original) The sensor system according to claim 8, wherein the attention area definer allows a user to set the predetermined width.
D1 teaches that the glare determined based on “ known glare spread function of the sensor” (col 10 liens 54-col 11 line 2)
Which is analogous to setting parameters of the glare size and therefore
It will be obvious to one of ordinary skills in the art to modify teachings taught by D1 to also allow user to control the width of the glare in order to manually define the region of the mask.
Allowable Subject Matter
Claim 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.
Conclusion
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/HOVHANNES BAGHDASARYAN/Examiner, Art Unit 3645
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