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 .
Status of the Claims
Currently, claims 1-10 are pending in the application. Claims 1-10 are amended.
Response to Arguments / Amendments
Applicant’s arguments have been fully considered but are rendered moot in view of the new ground of rejection necessitated by amendments initiated by the applicant.
Claim Objections:
Claims 8-10 objections are withdrawn per applicant amendments.
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.
Claims 1-10 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Repetto et al. (US 20050046953, hereinafter Repetto) in view of USUI et al. (US 20170345391, hereinafter USUI) and YUASA et al. (US 20210020141, hereinafter YUASA).
Regarding Claim 1, Repetto discloses a transmittance control apparatus (FIGS. 1 & 2) comprising:
processing circuitry configured to:
identify, based on display information indicative of a target for display, a degree of lightness of the target for display; to identify lightness of an environment in which a see-through display is disposed ([0024], FIGS. 1 & 2, an optical virtual display system comprising a glasses-type interface device having a transparent screen for displaying a visual image and ambient illumination sensor 112 operable to detect the brightness of the environment surrounding the driver, the luminosity of a virtual image being adjusted by changing the transmittance of the transparent screen depending on the surrounding luminance, thus optimizing contrast);
Repetto does not explicitly disclose in a state in which the degree of lightness of the target for display does not fluctuate and the lightness of the environment fluctuates in a range less than or equal to a first lightness, reduce transmittance of the target for display that is displayed on the see-through display in accordance with an increase in the lightness of the environment; and control, at a first timing, the transmittance of the target for display that is displayed on the see-through display, based on: a maximum lightness of the environment in a first period previous to the first timing, wherein the maximum lightness of the environment in the first period previous to the first timing is indicated by an environment-lightness information set among environment-lightness information sets.
USUI teaches a processing circuitry configured to: in a state in which the degree of lightness of the target for display does not fluctuate and the lightness of the environment fluctuates in a range less than or equal to a first lightness, reduce transmittance of the target for display that is displayed on the see-through display in accordance with an increase in the lightness of the environment [0061], FIG. 7, sensor 60 monitors the light intensity A of the external light and inputs the monitored result into the controller 70 . The controller 70 then automatically adjusts the transmittance of the dimmer filter 40 (which adjusts the light intensity B of the transmitted light) and the image luminance of the image display part 10 (the light intensity C of the images) based on the monitored result of the sensor 60 and the adjustment table recorded in advance in the RAM of the controller 70 at the same time) ; and
control, at a first timing, the transmittance of the target for display that is displayed on the see-through display, based on: a maximum lightness of the environment in a first period previous to the first timing and the degree of lightness of the target for display ([0064], controller 70 may preferably be provided with a transmittance detector configured to detect the transmittance of the dimmer filter 40, allowing the controller 70A to automatically correct the transmittance of the dimmer filter 40 to a desired value based on a detected result of the transmittance detector. As a result, the display apparatus 1 having the same peripheral luminance for a long period may be able to display the images without degrading the visibility. The transmittance detector may detect the transmittance at predetermined time intervals, and the controller 70 may automatically correct the transmittance at predetermined time intervals. An example of the transmittance detector may be a photodiode).
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify the teachings of processing circuitry as taught by USUI ([0064]) into the imaging system of Repetto in order to reduce energy consumption without degrading visibility and viewability of the wearer of the head-mounted display apparatus and to improves the contrast of the images supplied and prevents visibility and viewability of visual information other than the supplied images from degrading (USUI, [0006], [0007]).
Repetto & USUI do not explicitly disclose wherein the maximum lightness of the environment in the first period previous to the first timing is indicated by an environment -lightness information set among environment-lightness information sets.
YUASA teaches the maximum lightness of the environment in the first period previous to the first timing is indicated by an environment-lightness information set among environment-lightness information sets ([0099], FIG. 7, in a case, for example, in which blackout occurs at a time t1 and the surrounding illuminance falls to be equal to or lower than the threshold, the transmittance is adjusted to the maximum transmittance as depicted in B of FIG. 7. In addition, at a timing of the time t1, the information representing the contours of the surrounding objects starts to be displayed ; [0106], dark adaptation is a change in visual sensation by which eyesight is gradually recovered with the passage of time in a case of a change in a surrounding environment from a bright environment to a dark environment).
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Therefore, it would have been obvious to one ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify the teachings of maximum lightness of the environment in the first period previous to the first timing as taught by YUASA ([0064]) into the imaging system of Repetto & USUI in order to provide a system display control based on the environmental information with respect to form information representing a form of the object over a display section that displays predetermined information in a visually recognizable state while superimposing the predetermined information on the real space in a case of occurrence of a change in brightness of the real space higher than a threshold (YUASA, [0009]).
Regarding Claim 2, Repetto in view of USUI and YUASA discloses the transmittance control apparatus according to Claim 1, USUI discloses wherein the processing circuitry is configured to determine the first timing based on an amount of change in the lightness of the environment ([0062] the transmittance of the dimmer filter 40 is adjusted based on a time period in which the controller 70 applies a constant voltage to the dimmer filter 40 based on the darkness of the color in the display layer 43. The darkness of the color in the display layer 43 is changed by controlling the amount of electric charges (electric current accumulated time) of the display layer 43 of the dimmer filter 40 in accordance with the time period in which the constant voltage is applied). The same reason or rational of obviousness motivation applied as used above in claim 1.
Regarding Claim 3, Repetto in view of USUI and YUASA discloses the transmittance control apparatus according to Claim 1, USUI discloses wherein the processing circuitry is configured to determine the first timing based on a timing at which an amount of change in the lightness of the environment exceeds a threshold ([0064], controller 70 may preferably be provided with a transmittance detector configured to detect the transmittance of the dimmer filter 40, allowing the controller 70A to automatically correct the transmittance of the dimmer filter 40 to a desired value based on a detected result of the transmittance detector. As a result, the display apparatus 1 having the same peripheral luminance for a long period may be able to display the images without degrading the visibility. The transmittance detector may detect the transmittance at predetermined time intervals, and the controller 70 may automatically correct the transmittance at predetermined time intervals. An example of the transmittance detector may be a photodiode). The same reason or rational of obviousness motivation applied as used above in claim 1.
Regarding Claim 4, Repetto in view of USUI and YUASA discloses the transmittance control apparatus according to Claim 1, USUI discloses wherein the processing circuitry is configured to: when an amount of change in the lightness of the environment exceeds a threshold, determine, as the first timing, a timing at which the amount of change in the lightness of the environment exceeds the first threshold; and when the amount of change in the lightness of the environment does not exceed the first threshold, maintain the transmittance of the target for display that is displayed on the see-through display ([0064], controller 70 may preferably be provided with a transmittance detector configured to detect the transmittance of the dimmer filter 40, allowing the controller 70A to automatically correct the transmittance of the dimmer filter 40 to a desired value based on a detected result of the transmittance detector. As a result, the display apparatus 1 having the same peripheral luminance for a long period may be able to display the images without degrading the visibility. The transmittance detector may detect the transmittance at predetermined time intervals, and the controller 70 may automatically correct the transmittance at predetermined time intervals. An example of the transmittance detector may be a photodiode). The same reason or rational of obviousness motivation applied as used above in claim 1.
Regarding Claim 5, Repetto in view of USUI and YUASA discloses the transmittance control apparatus according to Claim 1, USUI discloses wherein the processing circuitry is configured to determine the first timing based on a timing at which a maintenance period exceeds a first determination period ([0062] the transmittance of the dimmer filter 40 is adjusted based on a time period in which the controller 70 applies a constant voltage to the dimmer filter 40. That is, the transmittance of the dimmer filter 40 may be adjusted based on the darkness of the color in the display layer 43. The darkness of the color in the display layer 43 is changed by controlling the amount of electric charges (electric current accumulated time) of the display layer 43 of the dimmer filter 40 in accordance with the time period in which the constant voltage is applied); and
wherein the maintenance period is a period during which an amount of change in the lightness of the environment maintains a state from a point in time at which the amount of change in the lightness of the environment becomes less than or equal to a threshold after the amount of change in the lightness of the environment exceeds the threshold, the state being a state in which the amount of change in the lightness of the environment is less than or equal to the threshold ([0063] FIG. 8 is a graph illustrating an example of a change in the transmittance of the dimmer filter 40 in which the display layer 43 of the dimmer filter 40 is caused to develop color by application of the constant voltage of 2 V and the constant voltage of 2 V is applied for a time period of 2 s to reduce the transmittance of the dimmer filter 40 to 30%. Similarly, the constant voltage of 2 V may be applied to the dimmer filter 40 for a time period of 5 s to reduce the transmittance of the dimmer filter 40 to 10%). The same reason or rational of obviousness motivation applied as used above in claim 1.
Regarding Claim 6, Analogous rejection as the rejection of Claim 5 applies.
The same reason or rational of obviousness motivation applied as used above in claim 1.
Regarding Claim 7, Repetto in view of USUI and YUASA discloses the transmittance control apparatus according to Claim 1, USUI discloses further comprising a third identifier configured to identify a location of the see-through display, wherein the processing circuitry is configured to determine the first timing based on an amount of change in the location of the see-through display ([0173], [0175], FIG. 24, S505, specifies a visual field to which the associated information is supplied as images, at a position at which the visual field has an appropriate positional relationship with the visual field in which the target information exists and specifies an area in which the luminance or brightness of the visual information is controlled ). The same reason or rational of obviousness motivation applied as used above in claim 1.
Regarding Claim 8, Analogous rejection as the rejection of Claim 5 applies. The same reason or rational of obviousness motivation applied as used above in claim 1.
Regarding Claim 9, Analogous rejection as the rejection of Claim 6 applies. The same reason or rational of obviousness motivation applied as used above in claim 1.
Regarding Claim 10, Repetto in view of USUI and YUASA discloses the transmittance control apparatus according to Claim 1, USUI discloses
wherein the processing circuitry is configured to determine the first timing based on a timing at which a period during which the transmittance of the target for display that is displayed on the see-through display is maintained exceeds a determination period ([0062] the transmittance of the dimmer filter 40 is adjusted based on a time period in which the controller 70 applies a constant voltage to the dimmer filter 40 based on the darkness of the color in the display layer 43. The darkness of the color in the display layer 43 is changed by controlling the amount of electric charges (electric current accumulated time) of the display layer 43 of the dimmer filter 40 in accordance with the time period in which the constant voltage is applied). The same reason or rational of obviousness motivation applied as used above in claim 1.
Conclusion
Applicant's amendment necessitated the new ground(s) of rejection presented in this Office action.
THIS ACTION IS MADE FINAL. Applicant is reminded of the extension of time policy as set forth in 37 CFR 1.136(a).
A shortened statutory period for reply to this final action is set to expire THREE MONTHS from the mailing date of this action. In the event a first reply is filed within TWO MONTHS of the mailing date of this final action and the advisory action is not mailed until after the end of the THREE-MONTH shortened statutory period, then the shortened statutory period will expire on the date the advisory action is mailed, and any nonprovisional extension fee (37 CFR 1.17(a)) pursuant to 37 CFR 1.136(a) will be calculated from the mailing date of the advisory action. In no event, however, will the statutory period for reply expire later than SIX MONTHS from the mailing date of this final action.
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to Samuel D Fereja whose telephone number is (469)295-9243. The examiner can normally be reached 8AM-5PM.
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/SAMUEL D FEREJA/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2487