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 .
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 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.
Information Disclosure Statement
The information disclosure statement (lDS) submitted on November 18, 2025 is in compliance with the provisions of 37 CFR 1.97 and has been considered by the Examiner.
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 and 12 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(1) as being anticipated by Garcia Capel et al. (US Pub. 2023/0230212).
In regard to claim 1, note Garcia Capel discloses an image sensor, comprising an event driven sensing array including one or more event vision sensor (EVS) pixels, wherein each EVS pixel of the one or more EVS pixels is configured to capture event data corresponding to contrast information of light incident on the EVS pixel (paragraphs 0026-0029, and figure 1: 114), a pixel array including a plurality of CMOS image sensor (CIS) pixels arranged in one or more CIS pixel rows, wherein each CIS pixel of the plurality of CIS pixels is configured to capture CIS data corresponding to intensity of light incident on the CIS pixel(paragraphs 0025, 0030, and figure 1: 112), a rolling shutter distortion correction circuit configured to generate rolling-shutter-distortion-corrected image data by correcting the CIS data captured by the plurality of CIS pixels for rolling shutter distortion using the event data captured by the one or more EVS pixels (paragraphs 0036-0037, 0044-0047, and figure 1: 122; the image data is corrected for rolling shutter distortion using the event data), and a physical interface usable to output the rolling-shutter-distortion-corrected image data from the image sensor (paragraph 0070, figure 1: 140, and figure 6: 640).
In regard to claim 12, note Garcia Capel discloses the rolling shutter distortion correction circuit is a deblur and rolling shutter distortion correction circuit, and wherein the deblur and rolling shutter distortion correction circuit is further configured to generate deblurred image data by deblurring the CIS data captured by the plurality of CIS pixels using the event data captured by the one or more EVS pixels (paragraphs 0036-0037, 0044-0047, and figure 1: 122; the image data is deblurred using the event data).
Allowable Subject Matter
Claims 2-11 and 13-15 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.
Claims 16-33 are allowed.
The following is a statement of reasons for the indication of allowable subject matter:
As for claim 16, the prior art does not teach or fairly suggest the use of an image sensor, comprising an event driven sensing array including one or more event vision sensor (EVS) pixels, wherein each EVS pixel of the one or more EVS pixels is configured to capture event data corresponding to contrast information of light incident on the EVS pixel, a pixel array including a plurality of CMOS image sensor (CIS) pixels, wherein each CIS pixel of the plurality of CIS pixels is configured to capture CIS data corresponding to intensity of light incident on the CIS pixel, and a rolling shutter distortion correction circuit including— a counter usable, for each EVS pixel of the one or more EVS pixels, to compute a running sum of events detected by the EVS pixel during a period of time extending from a start of an image frame to a start of an exposure period for one or more CIS pixels of the plurality of CIS pixels that correspond to the EVS pixel, and an integration buffer configured, for each EVS pixel of the one or more EVS pixels, to store the running sum corresponding to the EVS pixel, in conjunction with the other limitations of the claims.
As for claim 20, the prior art does not teach or fairly suggest the use of a method of operating an image sensor, the method comprising capturing, during an exposure period corresponding to an image frame, CMOS image sensor (CIS) data using CIS pixels of one or more CIS pixel rows of a pixel array of the image sensor, wherein the CIS data corresponds to intensity of light incident on the CIS pixels over the exposure period, capturing, during a period of time extending between a start of the image frame and a start of the exposure period, event vision sensor (EVS) data using one or more EVS pixels of an event driven sensing array of the image sensor, wherein the EVS data includes events detected by the one or more EVS pixels during the period of time, and wherein each event represents temporal contrast of light incident on the one or more EVS pixels that exceeds a threshold, and correcting, using a rolling shutter distortion correction (RSDC) circuit of the image sensor, the CIS data for rolling shutter distortion (i) based on the EVS data and (ii) internally within the image sensor, in conjunction with the other limitations of the claims.
As for claims 17-19 and 21-33, the reasons for the indication of allowable subject matter of these claims is due at least to their dependency upon allowable claims 16 and 20.
Conclusion
The prior art made of record and not relied upon is considered pertinent to applicant's disclosure.
US 2017/0187961: note the use of an imaging device that performs rolling shutter distortion correction using motion sensor data.
US 2023/0254579: note the use of an imaging device that performs image deblurring using event sensor data.
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/CHRISS S YODER III/Examiner, Art Unit 2638