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 .
Priority
Receipt is acknowledged of certified copies of papers required by 37 CFR 1.55.
Information Disclosure Statement
Acknowledgement is made of receipt of Information Disclosure Statement(s) (PTO-1449) filed 9/25/2024, 2/27/2025, and 12/10/2025. An initialed copy is attached to this Office Action.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 103
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 (i.e., changing from AIA to pre-AIA ) 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.
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 text of those sections of Title 35, U.S. Code not included in this action can be found in a prior Office action.
Claim(s) 1-3, 7-9, 11-14, and 16-19 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Yaroshchuk (11,428,938) in view of Yang et al. (2023/0205312), hereinafter Yang.
Regarding claims 1, 14, and 16, Yaroshchuk discloses, in figure 2B, an electronic device (200, waveguide display assembly) (col. 5, lines 57-59) comprising: an infra-red (IR) light source (205, light source assembly) configured to output infrared light (col. 5, lines 66-67 and col. 6, lines 1-14) (Examiner notes that the light source is a laser diode which using infrared light); a waveguide (210, waveguide) (col. 5, line 61); a first optical element (235, in-coupling element) on a first area of the waveguide (210, waveguide) (col. 6, lines 23-25 and figure 2b), wherein the first optical element (235, in-coupling element) is configured to allow external light to enter the waveguide (210, waveguide) (col. 6, lines 23-25); a second optical element (240, directing element) on a second area of the waveguide (col. 7, lines 34-36), wherein the second optical element (240, directing element) is configured to output the external light incident to an outside of the waveguide (210, waveguide) (figure 2A) (col. 7, lines 46-48); a third optical element (245, out-coupling element) on a third area of the waveguide (col. 6, lines 57-59), wherein the third area is different from the first area and the second area (figure 2B), and wherein the third optical element (245, out-coupling element) is configured to diffract the infrared light (col. 6, lines 28-32).
Yaroshchuk does not specifically disclose an image sensor configured to receive the diffracted infrared light.
Yang discloses an image sensor (104, image sensor) configured to receive the diffracted infrared light (paragraphs 0033 and 0034).
Therefore it would have been obvious to one having ordinary skill in the art, before the effective filing date of the claimed invention, to modify the device of Yaroshchuk with the image sensor of Yang for the purpose of capturing images of reflections off of a user’s eye.
Regarding claims 2 and 17, Yang discloses wherein the third optical element (226, out-coupling diffraction grating) and the image sensor (104, image sensor) are sequentially arranged based on a direction of the infrared light (figure 2 and paragraph 0035).
Regarding claim 3, Yang discloses wherein the third optical element (226, out-coupling diffraction grating) is configured to diffract the infrared light such that an image is formed on an imaging surface of the image sensor (104, image sensor) (paragraph 0035).
Regarding claim 7, Yaroshchuk discloses wherein the waveguide (210, waveguide) comprises a first surface (210-2, second surface) and a second surface (210-1, first surface) opposite to the first surface (col. 6, lines 34-36), wherein the infrared light is incident on the first surface (210-2, second surface) (figure 2B), wherein the third optical element is on the first surface (210-2, second surface) (figure 2B).
Yaroshchuk does not specifically disclose wherein the image sensor is on the second surface.
Yang discloses wherein the image sensor (104, image sensor) is on the second surface (paragraphs 0033 and 0034).
Regarding claim 8, Yang discloses wherein the third optical element is disposed at a first height on the waveguide, and wherein the image sensor is disposed at a second height different from the first height on the waveguide (figure 2 shows the image sensor is at a different height than the optical element).
Regarding claim 9, Yang discloses further comprising a frame (106, frame) around a lower surface of the waveguide and a portion of the first surface (paragraph 0026), wherein the image sensor (104, image sensor) is on a portion of the second surface of the waveguide (figure 2), and wherein the portion of the second surface corresponds to the portion of the first surface of the waveguide (figure 2).
Regarding claim 11, Yaroshchuk discloses wherein the third optical element comprises: a substrate; and a plurality of nanostructures on the substrate, wherein the plurality of nanostructures extend perpendicular to an upper surface of the substrate (col. 8, lines 39-65).
Regarding claim 12, Yaroshchuk discloses wherein each optical element from among the first optical element, the second optical element, the third optical element, and the fourth optical element comprises a plurality of nanostructures on the waveguide (col. 8, lines 45-48 and 54-58).
Regarding claims 13 and 18, Yaroshchuk discloses further comprising an optical filter configured to filter light according to a wavelength range (col. 5, lines 44-46), wherein the third optical element, the optical filter are sequentially arranged based on a direction of the infrared light (figure 2B).
Yaroshchuk does not disclose and the image sensor.
Yang discloses an image sensor (104, image sensor) (paragraphs 0033 and 0034).
Regarding claim 19, Yang discloses further comprising: augmented reality glasses comprising a left-eye element corresponding to a left eye of the user, and a right-eye element corresponding to a right eye of the user (paragraph 0027), wherein the display engine and the waveguide image combiner are included in at least one of the left-eye element and the right-eye element (paragraph 0027).
Allowable Subject Matter
Claims 4-6, 10, and 15 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.
Regarding claim 4, Yaroshchuk or Yang does not disclose wherein the third optical element is configured to modulate a phase of the infrared light such that a first waveform reaches an imaging surface of the image sensor, wherein the electronic device further comprises at least one processor configured to: obtain a coded image based on the first waveform received by the image sensor, and obtain user gaze information based on the coded image.
Regarding claims 10 and 15, Yaroshchuk or Yang does not disclose further comprising a fourth optical element located on a fourth area of the waveguide, wherein the fourth optical element is configured to expand the external light propagating within the waveguide, and wherein the fourth area is different from the third area.
Claims 5-6 depends from claim 4 and is allowable for the reason given above.
Conclusion
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/BRANDI N THOMAS/ Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2872
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