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 .
Notice of Pre-AIA or AIA Status
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.
Information Disclosure Statement
The information disclosure statements (IDS) submitted on 8/19/2025 is in compliance with the provisions of 37 CFR 1.97. Accordingly, the information disclosure statements have been considered by the examiner.
Specification
Drawings
The drawings are objected to under 37 CFR 1.83(a). The drawings must show every feature of the invention specified in the claims. Any structural detail that is essential for a proper understanding of the disclosed invention should be shown in the drawing. MPEP § 608.02(d). Therefore, the following must be shown or the feature(s) canceled from the claim(s). No new matter should be entered.
Claim 1 - an infrared (IR) illuminator configured to emit light to illuminate the first eye of the user. Infrared (IR) illuminator, 111, is not shown in figures.
Corrected drawing sheets in compliance with 37 CFR 1.121(d) are required in reply to the Office action to avoid abandonment of the application. Any amended replacement drawing sheet should include all of the figures appearing on the immediate prior version of the sheet, even if only one figure is being amended. The figure or figure number of an amended drawing should not be labeled as “amended.” If a drawing figure is to be canceled, the appropriate figure must be removed from the replacement sheet, and where necessary, the remaining figures must be renumbered and appropriate changes made to the brief description of the several views of the drawings for consistency. Additional replacement sheets may be necessary to show the renumbering of the remaining figures. Each drawing sheet submitted after the filing date of an application must be labeled in the top margin as either “Replacement Sheet” or “New Sheet” pursuant to 37 CFR 1.121(d). If the changes are not accepted by the examiner, the applicant will be notified and informed of any required corrective action in the next Office action. The objection to the drawings will not be held in abeyance.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 112
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 1-18 are 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 pre-AIA the applicant regards as the invention.
Regarding claim 1, cited term of “…having an eye tracking axis substantially co-linear with the central optical axis..” (line 19-11) is vague and renders the claims indefinite. The term “substantially” does not define a range/scope of “co-linear”, that is, within what range/scope the two axes are arranged. It is not defined in instant specification disclosure and does not provide a standard for ascertaining the requisite degree, further one of ordinary skill in the art would not be reasonably apprised of the scope of the invention.
Further, cited term of “the aberrometer channel configured to direct laser light from the light source subchannel along the aberrometer optical axis to the first beamsplitter and to relay to the array camera laser light reflected by the first eye….” (line 4) is indefinite and lacks antecedent. Since nowhere in the claim specifying a laser light being directed to the first eye, so “laser light reflected by the first eye” becomes unclear, it lacks proper antecedent basis.
Claims 2-18 are rejected as containing the deficiencies of claim 1 through their dependency from claim 1.
Regarding claims 7-8, 15 and 17 have same undefined issues as those of claim 1 as their limitations comprising terms of “substantially/substantial”.
Therefore proper amendments are required in order to clarify the scopes of the claims and overcome the rejections.
Allowable Subject Matter
Claim 1 is rejected as having 112 issues, but would be allowable if the 112 rejections are overcome by proper amendments.
The following is an examiner’s statement of reasons for allowance: The prior art taken singularly or in combination fails to anticipate or fairly suggest the limitations of the independent claims, in such a manner that a rejection under 35 U.S.C. 102 or 103 would be proper.
In regard to independent claim 1, the closest prior art are US 20240402497 of Dave et al, US 10656707 of Sharma et al, US 20200352432 of Obara et al and US 20180263488 of Pamplona et al.
Regarding Claim 1, Dave teaches an aberrometer system (abstract; figs. 1-8) comprising:
a headset frame configured to be worn on the face of a user (figs. 17-19), the headset frame having a front, a back, and first and second eye regions, wherein when the headset frame is worn by a user the back of the frame is adjacent a face of the user and the first and second eye regions are adjacent and in general alignment with a first eye and second eye, respectively of the user (figs. 18-19);
a first optical assembly having a central optical axis and coupled to the headset frame so the central optical axis is in alignment with the first eye region and extends outwards from the front of the headset frame (fig. 8, 1754 to 2096);
the first optical assembly comprising:
a first beam splitter defining an eye tracking channel having an eye tracking axis (fig. 8, 1754, 2074, 2078) and an aberrometer channel having an aberrometer optical axis that is off axis from the central optical axis (fig. 8, 2074, 2094);
an infrared (IR) illuminator configured to emit light to illuminate the first eye of the user when the user is wearing the headset frame (fig. 8, 2070; ¶[0118], line 1-6, the eye illumination light and light received from the eye may be visible or infrared);
the eye tracking channel comprising an IR imager with an imaging plane, an eyepiece, and a camera lens, the eyepiece and camera lens configured to focus IR light reflected from the first eye of the user onto an imaging plane of the imager (fig. 8, 2072, 2092, 2090, 2088; ¶[0076], line 1-10, information from the native eye tracking or pupil camera 3328 may be used to perform gaze tracking of the user and assess where the user is looking; fig. 20, 3328);
the aberrometer channel comprising an array camera, a plurality of lenses in alignment with the aberrometer optical axis and a third beam splitter defining a light source subchannel comprising a laser, the aberrometer channel configured to direct laser light from the light source subchannel along the aberrometer optical axis to the first beamsplitter and to relay to the array camera laser light reflected by the first eye of the user when the user is wearing the headset frame and directed by the first beamsplitter into the aberrometer channel (fig. 8, 2086, 2084, 2094, 2080, 2078).
Sharma teaches an aberrometer system (abstract; figs. 1-4) comprising:
a headset frame configured to be worn on the face of a user, the headset frame having a front, a back, and first and second eye regions, wherein when the headset frame is worn by a user the back of the frame is adjacent a face of the user and the first and second eye regions are adjacent and in general alignment with a first eye and second eye, respectively of the user (figs. 2-4);
a first optical assembly having a central optical axis and coupled to the headset frame so the central optical axis is in alignment with the first eye region and extends outwards from the front of the headset frame (fig. 3A-B);
the first optical assembly comprising:
a first beam splitter defining an eye tracking channel having an eye tracking axis substantially co-linear with the central optical axis and an aberrometer channel having an aberrometer optical axis that is off axis from the central optical axis (fig. 4, 406, 402; col. 13, line 13-51);
an infrared (IR) illuminator configured to emit light to illuminate the first eye of the user when the user is wearing the headset frame (fig. 4, 416);
the eye tracking channel comprising an IR imager with an imaging plane (fig. 4, 402);
the aberrometer channel comprising an array camera, a plurality of lenses in alignment with the aberrometer optical axis (fig. 4, 402, col. 13, line 28-51); and a laser (col. 6, line 30-31).
Obara teaches an aberrometer system (abstract; figs. 1-5) comprising:
a headset frame configured to be worn on the face of a user, the headset frame having a front, a back, and first and second eye regions, wherein when the headset frame is worn by a user the back of the frame is adjacent a face of the user and the first and second eye regions are adjacent and in general alignment with a first eye and second eye, respectively of the user (figs. 1-2);
a first optical assembly having a central optical axis and coupled to the headset frame so the central optical axis is in alignment with the first eye region and extends outwards from the front of the headset frame (fig. 2);
the first optical assembly comprising:
a first beam splitter defining an eye tracking channel having an eye tracking axis substantially co-linear with the central optical axis (fig. 5 129);
an infrared (IR) illuminator configured to emit light to illuminate the first eye of the user when the user is wearing the headset frame (¶[0047], line 10-15);
the eye tracking channel comprising an IR imager with an imaging plane (fig. 5, 131);
a second beam splitter defining an off-axis display subchannel having a display optical axis (fig. 5, 129) and a laser (¶[0113], line 1-5).
Pamplona teaches an aberrometer system (abstract; figs. 1-10) comprising:
a headset frame configured to be worn on the face of a user, the headset frame having a front, a back, and first and second eye regions, wherein when the headset frame is worn by a user the back of the frame is adjacent a face of the user and the first and second eye regions are adjacent and in general alignment with a first eye and second eye, respectively of the user (fig. 10A-B);
a first optical assembly having a central optical axis and coupled to the headset frame so the central optical axis is in alignment with the first eye region and extends outwards from the front of the headset frame (fig. 10B; fig. 15A);
the first optical assembly comprising:
a first beam splitter defining an eye tracking channel having an eye tracking axis substantially co-linear with the central optical axis (fig. 15A, 1512);
an infrared (IR) illuminator configured to emit light to illuminate the first eye of the user when the user is wearing the headset frame (fig. 15A, 1510);
the eye tracking channel comprising an IR imager with an imaging plane (fig. 15A, 1501), an eyepiece (fig. 16, 326), and a camera lens (fig. 15A, 1518),
the eye tracking channel further comprising a second beam splitter defining an off-axis display subchannel having a display optical axis (fig. 15A, 1513), the aberrometer channel having aberrometer optical axis (fig. 16A).
But none of them teaches that wherein the eye tracking channel further comprising a second beam splitter defining an off-axis display subchannel having a display optical axis, the display subchannel comprising adjustable display optics and an electronic display, the adjustable display optics configured to relay an image output on the display to the eyepiece via the second beamsplitter for viewing by the first eye of the user when the user is wearing the headset frame.
Examiner’s Note
Regarding the references, the Examiner cites particular figures, paragraphs, columns and line numbers in the reference(s), as applied to the claims above. Although the particular citations are representative teachings and are applied to specific limitations within the claims, other passages, internally cited references, and figures may also apply. In preparing a response, it is respectfully requested that the Applicant fully consider the references, in their entirety, as potentially disclosing or teaching all or part of the claimed invention, as well as fully consider the context of the passage as taught by the reference(s) or as disclosed by the Examiner.
Conclusion
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communication from the examiner should be directed to Jie Lei whose telephone number is (571) 272 7231. The examiner can normally be reached on Mon.-Thurs. 8:00 am to 5:30 pm.
If attempts to reach the examiner by the telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner's supervisor, Thomas Pham can be reached on (571) 272 3689.The Fax number for the organization where this application is assigned is (571) 273 8300.
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/JIE LEI/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2872
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