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, 3-7, 9-16 and 18-20 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Takata (WO 2022201938A) in view of Ootaki et al. (JP 2965363 B).
Regarding claims 1 and 11, Takata discloses a projection lens assembly (projection optical system 17 of fig. 1) for a projector system, comprising:
an aperture (aperture 173 of fig. 1) integrated within the projection lens assembly (17) and configured to block a portion of incident light, the aperture including an aperture hole (pg. 5 4th para.; a portion for shielding the zero-order light contained in the modulated light 103 may be provided inside the opening of the aperture 173; and
a Fourier lens assembly (Fourier transform lens 171 of fig. 1) configured to form a Fourier transform of an object at an exit pupil of the Fourier lens assembly (illustrated in fig. 1), wherein the aperture is disposed at approximately a plane of the Fourier transform (pg. 5 3rd para.; The Fourier transform lens 171 is an optical lens that forms an image at a focal position near the aperture 173).
Takata fails to teach an aperture hole composed of at least three edges and a plurality of vertices and wherein the at least three edges are curved relative to a center of the aperture hole.
Ootaki discloses an aperture hole (comprising 11 and 10a/b) composed of at least three edges and a plurality of vertices and wherein the at least three edges are curved relative to a center of the aperture hole (illustrated in figs. 2 and 5).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art prior to the filing date of the application to modify the projection lens of Takata with the curved edge aperture of Ootaki in order to prevent a reduction in contrast of the displayed image (Ootaki; para. 0003).
Regarding claims 3 and 12, Takata discloses a projection lens assembly comprising an aperture (173) and Fourier lens (171).
Takata fails to teach wherein the aperture hole is composed of four edges and four vertices.
Ootaki discloses wherein the aperture hole (11 and 10b of fig. 5) is composed of four edges (shown below in the examiners illustration of fig. 5) and four vertices (shown below in the examiners illustration of fig. 5).
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It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art prior to the filing date of the application to modify the projection lens of Takata with the curved edge aperture of Ootaki in order to prevent a reduction in contrast of the displayed image (Ootaki; para. 0003).
Regarding claims 4 and 13, Takada discloses a projection lens assembly comprising an aperture (173) and Fourier lens (171).
Takata fails to teach wherein the plurality of edges are each curved inward towards the center of the aperture hole
Ootaki discloses wherein the plurality of edges are each curved inward towards the center of the aperture hole (illustrated in fig. 2).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art prior to the filing date of the application to modify the projection lens of Takata with the curved edge aperture of Ootaki in order to prevent a reduction in contrast of the displayed image (Ootaki; para. 0003).
Regarding claims 5 and 14, Takada discloses a projection lens assembly comprising an aperture (173) and Fourier lens (171).
Takata fails to teach wherein the plurality of edges are each curved outward away from the center of the aperture hole.
Ootaki discloses wherein the plurality of edges are each curved outward away from the center of the aperture hole (shown below in the examiners illustration of fig. 2).
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It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art prior to the filing date of the application to modify the projection lens of Takata with the curved edge aperture of Ootaki in order to prevent a reduction in contrast of the displayed image (Ootaki; para. 0003).
Regarding claims 6 and 15, Takata discloses a projection lens assembly comprising an aperture (173) and Fourier lens (171).
Takata fails to teach wherein at least one of the plurality of edges is curved inward towards the center of the aperture hole, and wherein at least one of the plurality of edges is curved outward away from the center of the aperture hole.
Ootaki discloses wherein at least one of the plurality of edges is curved inward towards the center (shown in fig. 2, the corners curve inward toward the center) of the aperture hole (10), and wherein at least one of the plurality of edges is curved outward (shown above in the examiners illustration of fig. 2) away from the center of the aperture hole (10).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art prior to the filing date of the application to modify the projection lens of Takata with the curved edge aperture of Ootaki in order to prevent a reduction in contrast of the displayed image (Ootaki; para. 0003).
Regarding claims 7 and 16, Takata discloses a projection lens assembly comprising an aperture (173) and Fourier lens (171).
Takata fails to teach wherein each of the plurality of vertices are curved relative to a center of the aperture hole (illustrated in fig. 5).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art prior to the filing date of the application to modify the projection lens of Takata with the curved edge aperture of Ootaki in order to prevent a reduction in contrast of the displayed image (Ootaki; para. 0003).
Regarding claims 9 and 18, Takata discloses a projection lens assembly comprising an aperture (173) and Fourier lens (171).
Takata fails to teach wherein each of the plurality of vertices are acute angles.
Ootaki discloses wherein each of the plurality of vertices are acute angles (the angle shown below in the examiners illustration of fig. 2, the vertex of each corner is acute).
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It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art prior to the filing date of the application to modify the projection lens of Takata with the curved edge aperture of Ootaki in order to prevent a reduction in contrast of the displayed image (Ootaki; para. 0003).
Regarding claims 10 and 19, Takata discloses an aperture wherein each of the plurality of vertices are right angles (illustrated in fig. 5).
Takata fails to teach wherein each of the plurality of vertices are obtuse angles; however, It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art prior to the filing date of the application to modify the aperture of Takata making the plurality of vertices obtuse in order to increase the amount of light passing through the projection lens thereby making the projected image slightly brighter.
Regarding claim 20, Takata discloses a projector (projection device 10 of fig. 1) comprising: a light source (light source 11 of fig. 1) configured to emit a light in response to an image signal (pg. 3 4th para.; The emitter 111 emits laser light 101 in a predetermined wavelength band under the control of the controller 15), wherein the image signal includes image data; a modulator (spatial light modulator 13 of fig. 1) configured to receive the light from the light source and to apply a spatially-varying modulation on the light (illustrated in fig. 1), thereby to steer the light and to generate a first steered light; and a projection lens (projection lens 175 of fig. 1) assembly configured to receive the first steered light from the modulator (shown in fig. 1), the projection lens assembly including comprising: an aperture (aperture 173) configured to block a portion of incident light, the aperture including an aperture hole (pg. 5 4th para.; The aperture 173 is a frame that blocks high-order light contained in the light converged by the Fourier transform lens 171 and limits the outer edge of the display area);
and Fourier lens assembly (Fourier transform lens 171 of fig. 1) configured to form a Fourier transform of an object at an exit pupil of the Fourier lens assembly (shown in fig. 1), wherein the aperture is disposed at approximately a plane of the Fourier transform (illustrated in fig. 1).
Takata fails to teach an aperture hole composed of a plurality of concave edges and a plurality of convex edges.
Ootaki discloses an aperture hole (10) composed of a plurality of concave edges and a plurality of convex edges. (illustrated in figs. 2 and 5).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art prior to the filing date of the application to modify the projection lens of Takata with the curved edge aperture of Ootaki in order to prevent a reduction in contrast of the displayed image (Ootaki; para. 0003).
Claim(s) 8 and 17 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Takata (WO 2022201938A) in view of Ootaki et al. (JP 2965363 B) as applied to claim 1 and 11 above, and further in view of Dewald et al. (US PG Pub. 20230008842).
Regarding claims 8 and 17, Takata as modified by Ootaki discloses an aperture wherein each of the plurality of vertices are right angles (illustrated in fig. 5).
Takata as modified by Ootaki fails to teach wherein the incident light has a f number between f/9 and f/15.
Dewald discloses an adjustable aperture (para. 0039; adjustments to the Fourier aperture).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art prior to the filing date of the application to modify the projection lens of Takata and Ootaki with the adjustable aperture of Dewald in order to increase the contrast of the projected image.
Takata as modified by Ootaki and Dewald fails to explicitly teach the wherein the incident light having an f/number between f/9 and f/15; however, It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art prior to the filing date of the application to modify the incident light of Dewald comprising the adjustable aperture in order to increase the contrast of the projected image with such a narrow aperture.
Conclusion
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to DANELL L OWENS whose telephone number is (571)270-5365. The examiner can normally be reached 9:00am-5:00pm M-F.
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/DANELL L OWENS/ Examiner, Art Unit 2882 11 September 2026
/BAO-LUAN Q LE/ Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2882
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