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 .
DETAILED OFFICE ACTION
Status of Claims
Claims 1,3,4,6 and 7 are pending examination.
Claims 2, 5, 8 are cancelled
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.
The factual inquiries set forth in Graham v. John Deere Co., 383 U.S. 1, 148 USPQ 459 (1966), that are applied for establishing a background for determining obviousness under 35 U.S.C. 103 are summarized as follows:
1. Determining the scope and contents of the prior art.
2. Ascertaining the differences between the prior art and the claims at issue.
3. Resolving the level of ordinary skill in the pertinent art.
4. Considering objective evidence present in the application indicating obviousness or nonobviousness.
This application currently names joint inventors. In considering patentability of the claims the examiner presumes that the subject matter of the various claims was commonly owned as of the effective filing date of the claimed invention(s) absent any evidence to the contrary. Applicant is advised of the obligation under 37 CFR 1.56 to point out the inventor and effective filing dates of each claim that was not commonly owned as of the effective filing date of the later invention in order for the examiner to consider the applicability of 35 U.S.C. 102(b) (2) (C) for any potential 35 U.S.C. 102(a) (2) prior art against the later invention.
1. Claims 1,6 and 7 are rejected under 35 U.S.C 103(a) as being unpatentable over CHEN et al. (USPUB 20200153509) in view of Muhammad Asim Atta ( NPL Doc: "A Polarization-Based Interference-Tolerant VLC Link for Low Data Rate Applications," 26th March ,2018, IEEE Photonics Journal, Vol. 10, No. 2, April 2018,Pages 1-10. ) in further view of Cvijetic et al. (USPUB 20130216229).
As per claim 1, CHEN et al. teaches An optical wireless communication system comprising a plurality of first optical wireless communication devices ( FIG. 2 showing multiple wireless communication system with optical module AND FIG. 7 and Paragraphs [0037-0038]- “…Referring to FIG. 7, a schematic diagram of another free space optical wireless control method is shown. An embodiment of a free space optical wireless control method of the present disclosure includes the following steps. Firstly, an optical signal is generated by the laser diode 49 at the head end 40. Then, the optical signal is modulated (the optical signal includes data of free space optical wireless signal). …”) , and a plurality of second optical wireless communication devices, the optical wireless communication system forming a communication link for each of combinations of the first optical wireless communication devices and the second optical wireless communication devices ( FIG. 7 teaches the linking of the optical wireless communication devices and Paragraphs [0037-0039]) , wherein the first optical wireless communication devices include a transmission unit that transmits an optical signal to the second optical wireless communication devices via a first polarizing filter ( Paragraph [0024] and Paragraph [0027]- “…wireless signal, the head end uses the laser diode as a light source. However, the present disclosure is not limited thereto. The laser diode is connected to a polarization controller and a 10 GHz Mach-Zehnder modulator. After having been transmitted through 25 km of single mode fiber, the free space optical wireless signal is then connected to a fiber-optic collimating mirror of the optical wireless unit. …”) ,
CHEN et al. does not explicitly teach the second optical wireless communication devices include: a reception unit that receives the optical signal via a second polarizing filter; a processor: and a storage medium having computer program instructions stored thereon, when executed by the processor, perform to: measure a signal intensity of the optical signal; and change a direction of the second polarizing filter or the first polarizing filter to cause the signal intensity to be higher.
However, within analogous art, Mohammad Asim Atta teaches the second optical wireless communication devices include: a reception unit that receives the optical signal via a second polarizing filter ( Page 4- Fig. 1 , Page 5-“…when the data to be transmitted is a ‘0’, T×2 is ON and T×1 is OFF. Polarization of the emitted light is then performed using linear polarization filters. The system architecture is shown in Fig. 1. 0° linear polarization is used for T×1/R×1 pair and 90° linear polarization is used for T×2/R×2 pair. This configuration exploits the polarization property of light such that light emitted by T×1 will only be received by R×1 and will be blocked by the linear polarizer of R×2 and vice versa. Differential amplification is carried out at the receiver end to reconstruct original data. Any unpolarized light in the vicinity will be considered as optical interference reaching R×1 and R×2 by approximately equal intensity that will be canceled out due to differential amplification employing common-mode noise rejection…”) ; perform to: measure a signal intensity of the optical signal (Page 6- “…Let X represent the binary data to be transmitted over the channel. X i and X j represent in-phase and out-of-phase signals intensities of X respectively as received at the receiver end. By using Malus’ law, the received signal at both the receiver front ends,…” AND Page 4- “…This change will have negligible effect on the performance of the system since the proposed architecture does not utilize state of polarization to transmit data, rather it is used to allow or block the light from particular transmitter to reach the receiver, which ultimately performs intensity based decoding. Therefore, a small change in DOP will have insignificant effect on the SNR of transmitted signal….”) ; and change a direction of the second polarizing filter or the first polarizing filter to cause the signal intensity to be higher ( Page 4- “…This change will have negligible effect on the performance of the system since the proposed architecture does not utilize state of polarization to transmit data, rather it is used to allow or block the light from particular transmitter to reach the receiver, which ultimately performs intensity based decoding. Therefore, a small change in DOP will have insignificant effect on the SNR of transmitted signal….” AND Page 5- Fig. 2 AND Page 8- “…The effect of polarization filtering on transmission distance and illuminance is illustrated in BER plot of Fig. 7. Without any external interference except the ambient optical noise, the transmission is error free up to a distance of 120 cm between the T×/R× pair. Increasing the distance beyond 120 cm intensifies the bit error rate (BER) due to the reduction in signal power caused by polarization filtering….”) .
One of ordinary skill in the art would have been motivated to combine the teaching of Mohammad Asim Atta within the modified teaching of the Optical wireless unit, free space optical wireless control unit and free space wireless control method mentioned by CHEN et al. because the A Polarization-Based Interference-Tolerant VLC Link for Low Data Rate Applications mentioned by Mohammad Asim Atta provides a method and system for implementation of optical transceiver architecture for optical wireless communication within VLC communication system.
Therefore, it would have been obvious for one in the ordinary skills in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to implement the A Polarization-Based Interference-Tolerant VLC Link for Low Data Rate Applications mentioned by Mohammad Asim Atta within the modified teaching of the Optical wireless unit, free space optical wireless control unit and free space wireless control method mentioned by CHEN et al. for implementing a system and method for optical transceiver architecture for optical wireless communication within VLC communication system.
Combination of CHEN et al. and Mohammad Asim Atta does not explicitly teach a processor: and a storage medium having computer program instructions stored thereon, when executed by the processor,
However, within analogous art, Cvijetic et al. teaches a processor: and a storage medium having computer program instructions stored thereon, when executed by the processor ( Paragraph [0024]- “… at least one processor coupled directly or indirectly to memory elements through a system bus. The memory elements can include local memory employed during actual execution of the program code, bulk storage, and cache memories which provide temporary storage of at least some program code to reduce the number of times code is retrieved from bulk storage during execution….”) ,
One of ordinary skill in the art would have been motivated to combine the teaching of Cvijetic et al. within the modified teaching of the Optical wireless unit, free space optical wireless control unit and free space wireless control method mentioned by CHEN et al. and the A Polarization-Based Interference-Tolerant VLC Link for Low Data Rate Applications mentioned by Mohammad Asim Atta because the Orthogonal frequency division multiple access time division multiple access-passive optical networks OFDMA TDMA PON architecture for 4G and beyond mobile backhaul mentioned by Cvijetic et al. provides a method and system for implementation of optical wireless communication with executing program code may include at least one processor coupled directly or indirectly to memory elements through a system bus.
Therefore, it would have been obvious for one in the ordinary skills in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to implement the Orthogonal frequency division multiple access time division multiple access-passive optical networks OFDMA TDMA PON architecture for 4G and beyond mobile backhaul mentioned by Cvijetic et al. within the modified teaching of the Optical wireless unit, free space optical wireless control unit and free space wireless control method mentioned by CHEN et al. and the A Polarization-Based Interference-Tolerant VLC Link for Low Data Rate Applications mentioned by Mohammad Asim Atta for implementing a system and method for optical wireless communication with executing program code may include at least one processor coupled directly or indirectly to memory elements through a system bus.
As per claim 6, CHEN et al. teaches An optical wireless communication device( FIG. 2 showing multiple wireless communication system with optical module AND FIG. 7 and Paragraphs [0037-0038]- “…Referring to FIG. 7, a schematic diagram of another free space optical wireless control method is shown. An embodiment of a free space optical wireless control method of the present disclosure includes the following steps. Firstly, an optical signal is generated by the laser diode 49 at the head end 40. Then, the optical signal is modulated (the optical signal includes data of free space optical wireless signal). …”) comprising: a reception unit that receives, via a second polarizing filter ( Paragraph [0024]- “…The photodiodes 44 are configured to receive and demodulate the optical signal of the second free space optical wireless signal λ.sub.1 to λ.sub.N. The Polarization Controller (PC) 45 is configured to control the polarization state of the optical path to maximize the power output of the laser diode 49….”) , an optical signal transmitted from another wireless communication device via a first polarizing filter( Paragraph [0024] and Paragraph [0027]- “…wireless signal, the head end uses the laser diode as a light source. However, the present disclosure is not limited thereto. The laser diode is connected to a polarization controller and a 10 GHz Mach-Zehnder modulator. After having been transmitted through 25 km of single mode fiber, the free space optical wireless signal is then connected to a fiber-optic collimating mirror of the optical wireless unit. …”) ,
CHEN et al. does not explicitly teach the optical signal including instruction information designating a direction of the second polarizing filter; a processor; and a storage medium having computer program instructions stored thereon, when executed by the processor, perform to: acquire the instruction information from the optical signal; and
However, within analogous art, Mohammad Asim Atta teaches the optical signal including instruction information designating a direction of the second polarizing filter( Page 4- Fig. 1 , Page 5-“…when the data to be transmitted is a ‘0’, T×2 is ON and T×1 is OFF. Polarization of the emitted light is then performed using linear polarization filters. The system architecture is shown in Fig. 1. 0° linear polarization is used for T×1/R×1 pair and 90° linear polarization is used for T×2/R×2 pair. This configuration exploits the polarization property of light such that light emitted by T×1 will only be received by R×1 and will be blocked by the linear polarizer of R×2 and vice versa. Differential amplification is carried out at the receiver end to reconstruct original data. Any unpolarized light in the vicinity will be considered as optical interference reaching R×1 and R×2 by approximately equal intensity that will be canceled out due to differential amplification employing common-mode noise rejection…”); perform to: acquire the instruction information from the optical signal; and change the direction of the second polarizing filter to cause the direction of the second polarizing filter to be the direction designated by the instruction information ( Page 4- “…This change will have negligible effect on the performance of the system since the proposed architecture does not utilize state of polarization to transmit data, rather it is used to allow or block the light from particular transmitter to reach the receiver, which ultimately performs intensity based decoding. Therefore, a small change in DOP will have insignificant effect on the SNR of transmitted signal….” AND Page 5- Fig. 2 AND Page 8- “…The effect of polarization filtering on transmission distance and illuminance is illustrated in BER plot of Fig. 7. Without any external interference except the ambient optical noise, the transmission is error free up to a distance of 120 cm between the T×/R× pair. Increasing the distance beyond 120 cm intensifies the bit error rate (BER) due to the reduction in signal power caused by polarization filtering….”).
One of ordinary skill in the art would have been motivated to combine the teaching of Mohammad Asim Atta within the modified teaching of the Optical wireless unit, free space optical wireless control unit and free space wireless control method mentioned by CHEN et al. because the A Polarization-Based Interference-Tolerant VLC Link for Low Data Rate Applications mentioned by Mohammad Asim Atta provides a method and system for implementation of optical transceiver architecture for optical wireless communication within VLC communication system.
Therefore, it would have been obvious for one in the ordinary skills in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to implement the A Polarization-Based Interference-Tolerant VLC Link for Low Data Rate Applications mentioned by Mohammad Asim Atta within the modified teaching of the Optical wireless unit, free space optical wireless control unit and free space wireless control method mentioned by CHEN et al. for implementing a system and method for optical transceiver architecture for optical wireless communication within VLC communication system.
Combination of CHEN et al. and Mohammad Asim Atta does not explicitly teach a processor; and a storage medium having computer program instructions stored thereon, when executed by the processor,
However, within analogous art, Cvijetic et al. teaches a processor: and a storage medium having computer program instructions stored thereon, when executed by the processor ( Paragraph [0024]- “… at least one processor coupled directly or indirectly to memory elements through a system bus. The memory elements can include local memory employed during actual execution of the program code, bulk storage, and cache memories which provide temporary storage of at least some program code to reduce the number of times code is retrieved from bulk storage during execution….”) ,
One of ordinary skill in the art would have been motivated to combine the teaching of Cvijetic et al. within the modified teaching of the Optical wireless unit, free space optical wireless control unit and free space wireless control method mentioned by CHEN et al. and the A Polarization-Based Interference-Tolerant VLC Link for Low Data Rate Applications mentioned by Mohammad Asim Atta because the Orthogonal frequency division multiple access time division multiple access-passive optical networks OFDMA TDMA PON architecture for 4G and beyond mobile backhaul mentioned by Cvijetic et al. provides a method and system for implementation of optical wireless communication with executing program code may include at least one processor coupled directly or indirectly to memory elements through a system bus.
Therefore, it would have been obvious for one in the ordinary skills in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to implement the Orthogonal frequency division multiple access time division multiple access-passive optical networks OFDMA TDMA PON architecture for 4G and beyond mobile backhaul mentioned by Cvijetic et al. within the modified teaching of the Optical wireless unit, free space optical wireless control unit and free space wireless control method mentioned by CHEN et al. and the A Polarization-Based Interference-Tolerant VLC Link for Low Data Rate Applications mentioned by Mohammad Asim Atta for implementing a system and method for optical wireless communication with executing program code may include at least one processor coupled directly or indirectly to memory elements through a system bus.
As per claim 7, CHEN et al. teaches An optical wireless communication method by an optical wireless communication system including a plurality of first optical wireless communication devices ( FIG. 2 showing multiple wireless communication system with optical module AND FIG. 7 and Paragraphs [0037-0038]- “…Referring to FIG. 7, a schematic diagram of another free space optical wireless control method is shown. An embodiment of a free space optical wireless control method of the present disclosure includes the following steps. Firstly, an optical signal is generated by the laser diode 49 at the head end 40. Then, the optical signal is modulated (the optical signal includes data of free space optical wireless signal). …”) , and a plurality of second optical wireless communication devices, the optical wireless communication system forming a communication link for each of combinations of the first optical wireless communication devices and the second optical wireless communication devices ( FIG. 7 teaches the linking of the optical wireless communication devices and Paragraphs [0037-0039]) , the optical wireless communication method comprising: a transmission step in which the first optical wireless communication devices transmit an optical signal to the second optical wireless communication devices via a first polarizing filter ( Paragraph [0024] and Paragraph [0027]- “…wireless signal, the head end uses the laser diode as a light source. However, the present disclosure is not limited thereto. The laser diode is connected to a polarization controller and a 10 GHz Mach-Zehnder modulator. After having been transmitted through 25 km of single mode fiber, the free space optical wireless signal is then connected to a fiber-optic collimating mirror of the optical wireless unit. …”) ,
CHEN et al. does not explicitly teach a reception step in which the second optical wireless communication devices receive the optical signal via a second polarizing filter; a measurement step in which the second optical wireless communication devices measure a signal intensity of the optical signal; and a control step in which the second optical wireless communication devices change a direction of the second polarizing filter or the first polarizing filter to cause the signal intensity to be higher.
However, within analogous art, Mohammad Asim Atta teaches a reception step in which the second optical wireless communication devices receive the optical signal via a second polarizing filter ( Page 4- Fig. 1 , Page 5-“…when the data to be transmitted is a ‘0’, T×2 is ON and T×1 is OFF. Polarization of the emitted light is then performed using linear polarization filters. The system architecture is shown in Fig. 1. 0° linear polarization is used for T×1/R×1 pair and 90° linear polarization is used for T×2/R×2 pair. This configuration exploits the polarization property of light such that light emitted by T×1 will only be received by R×1 and will be blocked by the linear polarizer of R×2 and vice versa. Differential amplification is carried out at the receiver end to reconstruct original data. Any unpolarized light in the vicinity will be considered as optical interference reaching R×1 and R×2 by approximately equal intensity that will be canceled out due to differential amplification employing common-mode noise rejection…”) ; a measurement step in which the second optical wireless communication devices measure a signal intensity of the optical signal (Page 6- “…Let X represent the binary data to be transmitted over the channel. X i and X j represent in-phase and out-of-phase signals intensities of X respectively as received at the receiver end. By using Malus’ law, the received signal at both the receiver front ends,…” AND Page 4- “…This change will have negligible effect on the performance of the system since the proposed architecture does not utilize state of polarization to transmit data, rather it is used to allow or block the light from particular transmitter to reach the receiver, which ultimately performs intensity based decoding. Therefore, a small change in DOP will have insignificant effect on the SNR of transmitted signal….”) ; and a control step in which the second optical wireless communication devices change a direction of the second polarizing filter or the first polarizing filter to cause the signal intensity to be higher ( Page 4- “…This change will have negligible effect on the performance of the system since the proposed architecture does not utilize state of polarization to transmit data, rather it is used to allow or block the light from particular transmitter to reach the receiver, which ultimately performs intensity based decoding. Therefore, a small change in DOP will have insignificant effect on the SNR of transmitted signal….” AND Page 5- Fig. 2 AND Page 8- “…The effect of polarization filtering on transmission distance and illuminance is illustrated in BER plot of Fig. 7. Without any external interference except the ambient optical noise, the transmission is error free up to a distance of 120 cm between the T×/R× pair. Increasing the distance beyond 120 cm intensifies the bit error rate (BER) due to the reduction in signal power caused by polarization filtering….”) .
One of ordinary skill in the art would have been motivated to combine the teaching of Mohammad Asim Atta within the modified teaching of the Optical wireless unit, free space optical wireless control unit and free space wireless control method mentioned by CHEN et al. because the A Polarization-Based Interference-Tolerant VLC Link for Low Data Rate Applications mentioned by Mohammad Asim Atta provides a method and system for implementation of optical transceiver architecture for optical wireless communication within VLC communication system.
Therefore, it would have been obvious for one in the ordinary skills in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to implement the A Polarization-Based Interference-Tolerant VLC Link for Low Data Rate Applications mentioned by Mohammad Asim Atta within the modified teaching of the Optical wireless unit, free space optical wireless control unit and free space wireless control method mentioned by CHEN et al. for implementing a system and method for optical transceiver architecture for optical wireless communication within VLC communication system.
It is noted that any citations to specific, pages, columns, lines, or figures in the prior art references and any interpretation of the reference should not be considered to be limiting in any way. A reference is relevant for all it contains and may be relied upon for all that it would have reasonably suggested to one having ordinary skill in the art. See MPEP 2123.
Allowable Subject Matter
3. Claims 3 and 4 are 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.
4. The following is an examiner’s statement of reasons for objecting the claims as allowable subject matter:
As to claim 3, prior art of record does not teach or suggest the limitation mentioned within claim 3 : “…the second optical wireless communication devices further include a rotation mechanism that makes the second polarizing filter rotatable, and the computer program instructions further perform to change the direction of the second polarizing filter by using the rotation mechanism .”
As to claim 4, prior art of record does not teach or suggest the limitation mentioned within claim 4 : “…a direction of the first polarizing filter included in one of the first optical wireless communication devices and a direction of the first polarizing filter included in another of the first optical wireless communication devices are directions orthogonal to each other.”
Any comments considered necessary by applicant must be submitted no later than the payment of the issue fee and, to avoid processing delays, should preferably accompany the issue fee. Such submissions should be clearly labeled “Comments on Statement of Reasons for Allowance.”
Examiner’s Notes
5. The Examiner acknowledges the following prior arts below as pertinent to the current applications claim limitations and inventive concept, although the following prior arts shown below were not relied upon to address the limitations within the claim , they are analogous art mentioning the inventive concept key points on (Optical signal, optical wireless communication, polarization, transmitters, receivers etc. ).
1) Jorik De Bruycker et al.,"Polarization Differential Visible Light Communication:Theory and Experimental Evaluation,3rd October 2020, Sensors 2020, 20, 5661,Pages 1-12.
2) Zhice Yang et al.,"Polarization-Based Visible Light Positioning,"4th February 2019,IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON MOBILE COMPUTING, VOL. 18, NO. 3, MARCH 2019,Pages 715-724.
3) Artur N. Sousa et al.,"Real-time dual-polarization transmission based on hybrid optical wireless communications," 23rd November 2017, Optical Fiber Technology 40 (2018) ,Pages 114-115.
4) Shaoen Wu et al.,"Visible light communications for 5G wireless networking systems: from fixed to mobile communications," 24th November 2014, IEEE Network ( Volume: 28, Issue: 6, Nov.-Dec. 2014),Pages 41-44.
5) Parth H. Pathak et al.,"Visible Light Communication, Networking, and Sensing: A Survey, Potential and Challenges," 18th November 2015, IEEE COMMUNICATIONS SURVEYS & TUTORIALS, VOL. 17, NO. 4, FOURTH QUARTER 2015,Pages 2047-2072.
6) Navin Kumar et al., " Led-based visible light communication system: a brief survey and investigation," Journal of Engineering and Applied Sciences 5(4) , 2010, Pages 296-305.
7) Lee et al. (USPAT 12074636 )
8) NISHIMURA et al. (USPUB 20230100329 )
9) OSHINOMI AKIHIKO (JP 2002353900)
10) Lee et al. (USPUB 20220376787 )
11) KIRRBACH et al. (USPUB 20220094436)
12) Ritchie et al. (USPUB 20190386745)
13) XIANG, Rui-jie (CN 110580882 )
14) CHAFFEE TOM et al. (AU 2013208069)
15) FURUKI TSUNEO (JP 2003046449)
16) Nevolin (USPUB 20170185629 )
17) Stretton ( USPUB 20080138077)
18) Nakaso et al. ( USPAT 7885547 )
Conclusion
6. The prior art made of record and not relied upon is considered pertinent to applicant's disclosure. Refer to PTO-892, Notice of Reference Cited for a listing of analogous art.
7. Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to OMAR S ISMAIL whose telephone number is (571)272-9799 and Fax # is (571)273-9799. The examiner can normally be reached on M-F 9:00am-6:00pm.
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If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner’s supervisor, David C. Payne can be reached on (571) 272-3024. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is (571)273-8300.
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/OMAR S ISMAIL/
Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2635
Prosecution Insights