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 § 102
The following is a quotation of the appropriate paragraphs of 35 U.S.C. 102 that form the basis for the rejections under this section made in this Office action:
A person shall be entitled to a patent unless –
(a)(1) the claimed invention was patented, described in a printed publication, or in public use, on sale, or otherwise available to the public before the effective filing date of the claimed invention.
Claims 1-10 and 20-21 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102a1 as being anticipated by Schaefer et al. (US 2022/0137418), of record by Applicant.
Regarding independent claim 1, Schafer et al. (‘418) teaches in figures 10, 11A, and the corresponding text (in particular paragraphs 0126-0141) an extended reality (XR) display system (1100B), comprising: a near-eye optical see-through XR display (1000), comprising: an image presentation component having an eye-facing side (where eyes (210) are located) and a world-facing side (510) and configured to present virtual visual content to a user's eye (210) from a plurality of locations across an image presentation surface of the eye-facing side; a dynamic push lens (1004) positioned on the world-facing side of the image presentation component, comprising a liquid crystal cell (figure 12, part 1200, and paragraphs 0138-0141) dynamically switchable by an electrical stimulus between an inactive state and an active state, the dynamic push lens being configured to, in the active state, converge environmental light approaching the image presentation component from the world-facing side, such that the dynamic push lens in the active state applies a positive optical power to the environmental light (see figure 11 and paragraph 0132); and a dynamic pull lens (1008) positioned on the eye-facing side of the image presentation component, comprising a liquid crystal cell dynamically switchable by an electrical stimulus between an inactive state and an active state, the dynamic pull lens being configured to, in the active state, diverge light passing out of the eye-facing side of the image presentation component toward the user's eye, such that the dynamic pull lens in the active state applies a negative optical power to the light (see figure 11 and paragraph 0132).
Regarding dependent claim 2, Schafer et al. (‘418) teaches in the active state, the negative optical power applied by the dynamic pull lens is of equal magnitude to the positive optical power applied by the dynamic push lens (paragraph 0136).
Regarding dependent claim 3, Schafer et al. (‘418) teaches a static push lens positioned on the world-facing side of the image presentation component, configured to converge environmental light approaching the image presentation surface from the world-facing side, such that the static push lens applies a positive optical power to the environmental light; and a static pull lens positioned on the eye-facing side of the image presentation component, configured to diverge light passing out of the eye-facing side of the image presentation surface toward the user's eye, such that the static pull lens applies negative optical power, equal in magnitude to the positive optical power of the static push lens, to the light (paragraph 0137, both lens can either converge or diverge).
Regarding dependent claim 4, Schafer et al. (‘418) teaches the negative optical power applied by the static pull lens is -1 diopter, effective to cause the virtual visual content to be perceived at a focal distance of 1 meter by the user's eye (paragraph 0175).
Regarding dependent claim 5, Schafer et al. (‘418) teaches the negative optical power applied by the dynamic pull lens in the active state is -1 diopter, effective with the -1 diopter negative optical power applied by the static pull lens to cause the virtual visual content to be perceived at a focal distance of 0.5 meter by the user's eye (paragraph 0175).
Regarding dependent claim 6, Schafer et al. (‘418) teaches in figure 13 a second dynamic pull lens (1304) positioned on the world-facing side of the image presentation component, comprising a liquid crystal cell (1312A) dynamically switchable by an electrical stimulus between an inactive state and an active state, the second dynamic pull lens being configured to, in the active state, diverge environmental light approaching the image presentation surface from the world-facing side, such that the second dynamic pull lens in the active state applies a negative optical power to the environmental light; and a second dynamic push lens (1304) positioned on the eye-facing side of the image presentation component, comprising a liquid crystal cell (1312A) dynamically switchable by an electrical stimulus between an inactive state and an active state, the second dynamic push lens being configured to, in the active state, converge light passing out of the eye-facing side of the image presentation surface toward the user's eye, such that the second dynamic push lens in the active state applies a positive optical power to the light.
Regarding dependent claim 7, Schafer et al. (‘418) teaches (see figures 12C and 12D, along with paragraphs 0147-0148) the near-eye optical see-through XR display is a left-eye display; the user's eye is a left eye; and the display system further comprises: a right-eye display comprising a second near-eye optical see-through XR display for displaying the virtual visual content to a right eye of the user.
Regarding dependent claim 8, Schafer et al. (‘418) teaches in figure 9D a processor (140); and a memory (140) storing instructions that, when executed by the processor, configure the XR display system to perform operations comprising: displaying the virtual visual content at respective positions on the image presentation surfaces of the left-eye display and right-eye display such that a gaze direction of the user's left eye and a gaze direction of the user's right eye intersect at a vergence distance from the user when viewing the virtual visual content on the near-eye optical see-through XR displays; and switching the dynamic pull lens and dynamic push lens of each near-eye optical see-through XR display between the active state and the inactive state based on the vergence distance.
Regarding dependent claim 9, Schafer et al. (‘418) teaches an eye tracking system configured to generate eye tracking data; wherein the operations further comprise: processing the eye tracking data to determine the vergence distance (see figures 4A-4D and paragraph 0134).
Regarding dependent claim 10, Schafer et al. (‘418) teaches switching the dynamic pull lens and dynamic push lens of each near-eye optical see-through XR display between the active state and the inactive state based on the vergence distance comprises: switching the dynamic pull lens and dynamic push lens of each near-eye optical see-through XR display to the active state when the vergence distance falls below an activation vergence threshold; and switching the dynamic pull lens and dynamic push lens of each near-eye optical see-through XR display to the inactive state when the vergence distance rises above an inactivation vergence threshold (paragraph 0134).
Regarding independent claim 20, Schafer et al. (‘418) teaches similar to claim 1 above a method of dynamically adapting focal distance to vergence distance in an extended reality (XR) display system, comprising: displaying virtual visual content at respective positions on image presentation surfaces of image presentation components of a left near-eye optical see-through XR display and right near-eye optical see-through XR display of the XR display system such that a gaze direction of a user's left eye and a gaze direction of the user's right eye intersect at a vergence distance from the user when viewing the virtual visual content on the near-eye optical see-through XR displays; and switching a dynamic pull lens and a dynamic push lens of each near-eye optical see-through XR display between an active state and an inactive state based on the vergence distance, wherein: the dynamic push lens is positioned on a world-facing side of the image presentation component of the respective near-eye optical see-through XR display, the dynamic push lens comprising a liquid crystal cell dynamically switchable by an electrical stimulus between an inactive state and an active state, the dynamic push lens being configured to, in the active state, converge environmental light approaching the image presentation component from a world-facing side of the image presentation component, such that the dynamic pull lens in the active state applies a positive optical power to the environmental light; and the dynamic pull lens is positioned on an eye-facing side of the image presentation component of the respective near-eye optical see-through XR display, the dynamic pull lens comprising a liquid crystal cell dynamically switchable by an electrical stimulus between an inactive state and an active state, the dynamic pull lens being configured to, in the active state, diverge light passing out of an eye-facing side of the image presentation component toward the user's respective eye, such that the dynamic pull lens in the active state applies a negative optical power to the light.
Regarding independent claim 21, Schafer et al. (‘418) teaches similar to claim 1 above a non-transitory computer-readable storage medium, the computer-readable storage medium including instructions that when executed by a processor of a system (see paragraph 0122), cause the system to perform operations comprising: displaying virtual visual content at respective positions on image presentation surfaces of image presentation components of a left near-eye optical see-through XR display and right near-eye optical see-through XR display of the system such that a gaze direction of a user's left eye and a gaze direction of the user's right eye intersect at a vergence distance from the user when viewing the virtual visual content on the near-eye optical see-through XR displays; and switching a dynamic pull lens and a dynamic push lens of each near-eye optical see-through XR display between an active state and an inactive state based on the vergence distance, wherein: the dynamic push lens is positioned on a world-facing side of the image presentation component of the respective near-eye optical see-through XR display, the dynamic push lens comprising a liquid crystal cell dynamically switchable by an electrical stimulus between an inactive state and an active state, the dynamic push lens being configured to, in the active state, converge environmental light approaching the image presentation component from a world-facing side of the image presentation component, such that the dynamic pull lens in the active state applies a positive optical power to the environmental light; and the dynamic pull lens is positioned on an eye-facing side of the image presentation component of the respective near-eye optical see-through XR display, the dynamic pull lens comprising a liquid crystal cell dynamically switchable by an electrical stimulus between an inactive state and an active state, the dynamic pull lens being configured to, in the active state, diverge light passing out of an eye-facing side of the image presentation component toward the user's respective eye, such that the dynamic pull lens in the active state applies a negative optical power to the light.
Allowable Subject Matter
Claims 11-19 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.
The following is a statement of reasons for the indication of allowable subject matter: Regarding dependent claim 11, the prior art of record neither shows nor suggest the dynamic push lens further comprises a plurality of concentric ring electrodes in contact with a first surface of the liquid crystal cell, each adjacent pair of ring electrodes being configured to apply the electrical stimulus therebetween, thereby giving rise to an electrical field within the liquid crystal cell, the electrical field being oriented radially outward from a common center of the ring electrodes; and the liquid crystal cell comprises a plurality of layers of liquid crystals stacked between the first surface and a second surface of the liquid crystal cell.
Due to their dependency, claims 12-19 would be necessarily allowable.
Contact Information
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to JOSEPH L WILLIAMS whose telephone number is (571)272-2465. The examiner can normally be reached M-Th 6:30 AM- 5:00 PM.
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JOSEPH L. WILLIAMS
Primary Examiner
Art Unit 2875
/JOSEPH L WILLIAMS/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2875
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