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 Objections
Claims 1, 4, 7 and 14 are objected to because of the following informalities:
For claim 1, the two instances of capitalized letter "A" should be in lower case since a claim is to be in a sentence format and generally articles are not capitalized in a sentence. See MPEP 608.01(m).
For claim 4, the claim should clearly state that the LWS further comprises the optical dispersive element and setting forth clear antecedent basis for the optical path length spacing. The claim currently can be construed as an intended use or method step of adjusting the optical spacing or adding a dispersive element. The same applies to claim 7 for the aperture stop.
Claim 14, should use a present participle to clearly indicate that an additional act is being performed, e.g. "adjusting the spread by using an aperture stop…" rather than what appears to be a recitation of what is possible.
Appropriate correction is required.
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) 1-15 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Burgess et al. (US 2020/0064185) in view of Mahler et al. (US 2001/0015409).
Burgess shows a method and apparatus for detecting a laser as follows:
1. A Laser Warning System (Title: "apparatus for detecting a laser") comprising:
A (Para. [0056]: "camera 2"), and
A lens (Para. [0056]: "lens arrangement 4"; Para. [0043]: "The lens diameter is generally greater than 0.1 mm and typically greater than 1 mm"),
wherein the lens is coupled to the neuromorphic camera along an optical path in slight defocus (Para. [0044]: "The amount of defocusing of objects at optical infinity should be selected"; Paras. [0062]-[0064]).
Burgess does not show that the camera is a neuromorphic camera.
Mahler shows a presence detector and teaches neuromorphic sensors are much more sensitives, relative to signal strength or temporal response than standard image sensors such as CMOS and CCD sensors (paras. [0006], [0141]).
Before the effective filing date of the claimed invention, it would have been obvious to use a neuromorphic sensor in the LWS of Burgess in order to improve the sensitivity or temporal response.
2. The Laser Warning System (LWS) of claim 1 wherein the camera has a pixelated sensor (Abstract: "pixel array (3)"; Para. [0070]: "a pixel array is arranged behind a lens arrangement") and the defocus is calibrated to spread an incoming beam across multiple pixels (Para. [0063]: "due to the light being more spread out").
3. The Laser Warning System (LWS) of claim 2 wherein the number of multiple pixels is at least 10 (Para. [0028]: Generally will span at least four pixels, and typically should span at least eight pixels" and thus more than 10 is anticipated).
4. The Laser Warning System (LWS) of claim 1 wherein the defocus is induced by at least one of optical path spacing and a optical dispersive element (see entire para. [0067]).
5. The Laser Warning System (LWS) of claim 2 wherein the lens set to image a plane at a distance z<infinity, thereby producing a laser spot across said multiple pixels when illuminated with a laser beam (Para. [0044]: "The amount of defocusing of objects at optical infinity should be selected…the amount of defocusing can be selected to give rise to circular laser spots ").
6. The Laser Warning System (LWS) of claim 1 wherein said lens is a fisheye lens (Para. [0030]: "With fisheye lenses the image shape may have some degree of fisheye distortion…then an anti-fisheye distortion filter may be applied ")
7. The Laser Warning System (LWS) of claim 2 wherein said spread is adjustable using an aperture stop (The claim does not require the LWS to comprise an aperture stop and does not require the act of adjusting or using an aperture stop. There is no reason why an aperture stop would adjust the spread. See also paras. [0031]-[0032]) .
Regarding method claims 8-15, please see the citations for their corresponding claims 1-7, where the method flows from operating the claimed LWS.
Conclusion
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to Hwa Andrew S Lee whose telephone number is (571)272-2419. The examiner can normally be reached Mon-Fri 9am-5:30pm.
Examiner interviews are available via telephone, in-person, and video conferencing using a USPTO supplied web-based collaboration tool. To schedule an interview, applicant is encouraged to use the USPTO Automated Interview Request (AIR) at http://www.uspto.gov/interviewpractice.
If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner’s supervisor, Michelle Iacoletti can be reached at (571) 270-5789. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300.
Information regarding the status of published or unpublished applications may be obtained from Patent Center. Unpublished application information in Patent Center is available to registered users. To file and manage patent submissions in Patent Center, visit: https://patentcenter.uspto.gov. Visit https://www.uspto.gov/patents/apply/patent-center for more information about Patent Center and https://www.uspto.gov/patents/docx for information about filing in DOCX format. For additional questions, contact the Electronic Business Center (EBC) at 866-217-9197 (toll-free). If you would like assistance from a USPTO Customer Service Representative, call 800-786-9199 (IN USA OR CANADA) or 571-272-1000.
/Hwa Andrew Lee/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2877
Prosecution Insights