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.
Claim(s) 1, 2, 7, 8 and 11 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(1) as being anticipated by Guo et al. (WO 2019095661).
Regarding claim 1, Guo discloses an illumination device comprising:
a first light source unit (fifth laser group 105 of fig. 10) configured to emit first light in a first wavelength band (blue laser);
a second light source unit (fourth laser group 104 of fig. 10) configured to emit second light in a second wavelength band different from the first wavelength band (green laser);
a light combining element (light combining device 70 of fig. 10) configured to combine the first light and the second light to emit composite light (illustrated in fig. 10);
a diffusion member (diffusing sheet 801 of fig. 10) configured to diffuse the composite light emitted from the light combining element (illustrated in fig. 10); and
a concave mirror (concave mirror 401 of fig. 10) configured to collect the composite light (light from the combining device 70) emitted from the light combining element (70) to cause the composite light collected to enter the diffusion member (801) (illustrated in fig. 10).
Regarding claim 2, Guo discloses wherein the concave mirror is an off-axis parabolic mirror (pg. 11 2nd para.; concave mirror 401 and the first convex mirror 402 may adopt an off-axis design)
Regarding claims 7 and 8, Guo discloses further comprising: a third light source unit (third laser group 103 of fig. 10) configured to emit third light in a third wavelength band (red laser) different from the first wavelength band (red) and the second wavelength band (green laser), wherein the light combining element (70) is configured to combine the first light, the second light, and the third light (illustrated in fig. 10), and the first wavelength band is a blue wavelength band (105), the second wavelength band is a green (104) wavelength band, and the third wavelength band is a red wavelength band (103).
Regarding claim 11, Guo discloses a light modulation device (pg. 21 3rd para.; optomechanical 62 modulate the source beam) configured to modulate light containing the composite light output from the illumination device in accordance with image information; and a projection optical device (pg. 21 3rd para.; lens 63 for imaging and projection onto a projection medium) configured to project the light modulated by the light modulation device.
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) 3 and 4 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Guo et al. (WO 2019095661) as applied to claim 1 above, and further in view of Pedersen et al. (EP2843301 A).
Regarding claim 3, Guo discloses composite light (light emitted from the light combining device 70) incident onto an off-axis parabolic mirror (concave mirror 401 of fig. 10).
Guo fails to teach wherein the composite light incident on the off-axis parabolic mirror is parallel light, and a central axis of the composite light incident on the off-axis parabolic mirror and an optical axis of the off-axis parabolic mirror are parallel to each other.
Pedersen discloses wherein the light incident (plurality of light sources 101 of fig. 5) on the mirror is parallel light (from collimators 102 of fig. 5), and a central axis of the composite light incident on the mirror (concave reflector 104 of fig. 5) and an optical axis of the mirror are parallel to each other (shown in the examiners illustration of fig. 5 the optical axis of the mirror 104 is parallel to the collimated light of the plurality of light sources 101 also, pg. 7 2nd para.; the collimators may direct respective parallel, collimated light beams towards a parabolic reflector such that the light beams are parallel with the optical axis of the parabolic reflector and the reflector may focus the incoming parallel --> beams into a beam spot on the optical axis).
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It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art prior to the filing date of the application to modify illumination system of Guo with the plurality of collimators of Pedersen in order to vary the characteristics of the light output by the illumination device (Pedersen; pg. 8 2nd para.).
Regarding claim 4, Guo discloses a composite light (light emitted from the light combining device 70) incident onto an off-axis parabolic mirror (concave mirror 401 of fig. 10).
Guo fails to teach wherein the optical axis of the off-axis parabolic mirror is located outside an incident range of the composite light on the off-axis parabolic mirror.
Pedersen discloses wherein the optical axis of the off-axis parabolic mirror (concave reflector 104 is a parabolic reflector of fig. 5) is located outside an incident range of the composite light (the light from light sources 101 are incident onto a portion of the parabolic mirror that is off the optical axis of the parabolic mirror) on the off-axis parabolic mirror.
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art prior to the filing date of the application to modify the illumination system of Guo with the parabolic mirror of Pedersen in order to increase the light efficiency (Pedersen; pg. 7 1st para.).
Regarding claim 5, Guo discloses composite light (light emitted from the light combining device 70) incident onto an off-axis parabolic mirror (concave mirror 401 of fig. 10).
Guo fails to explicitly teach wherein a focal point of the off-axis parabolic mirror is located on a diffusing surface of the diffusion member.
Pedersen discloses wherein a focal point of the off-axis parabolic mirror (pg. 6 9th para.; concave reflector 104 is a parabolic reflector configured to receive the respective collimated beams 103 from the collimators 102 and to converge all received light beams into a converging beam 105 which converges onto a beam spot 107) is located on a diffusing surface of the diffusion member (pg. 6 last para.; concave reflector 104 is a parabolic reflector configured to receive the respective collimated beams 103 from the collimators 102 and to converge all received light beams into a converging beam 105 which converges onto a beam spot 107 on the diffuser plate 106).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art prior to the filing date of the application to modify composite light source of Guo with the illumination elements of Pedersen in order to increase the light efficiency (Pedersen; pg. 7 1st para.).
Claim(s) 6 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Guo et al. (WO 2019095661) and Pedersen et al. (EP2843301 A) as applied to claim 4 above, and further in view of Akiyama (JP 2019061110A).
Regarding claim 6, Guo as modified by Pedersen discloses an illumination system for a laser projection apparatus (illustrated in fig. 10) further comprising a diffuser (801).
Guo as modified by Pedersen fails to teach wherein the diffusion member is a reflective diffusion member configured to diffusely reflect the composite light.
Akiyama discloses wherein the diffusion member (diffusion plate 741 of fig. 1) is a reflective diffusion member configured to diffusely reflect the composite light (illustrated in fig. 1).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art prior to the filing date of the application to modify the illumination system of Guo and Pedersen with the reflective diffuser of Akiyama in order to reduce laser speckle.
Guo as modified by Pedersen and Akiyama fails to teach a central axis of the composite light emitted from the diffusion member is parallel to the optical axis of the off-axis parabolic mirror; however, lacking any criticality It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art prior to the filing date of the application to modify the illumination path in order to make the projection device smaller.
Claim(s) 9 and 10 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Guo et al. (WO 2019095661) as applied to claim 8 above, and further in view of Akiyama (JP 2019061110A).
Regarding claim 9, Guo discloses an illumination system for a laser projection apparatus (illustrated in fig. 10) further comprising a diffuser (801).
Guo fails to teach a drive device configured to rotate the diffusion member around a rotational axis crossing the diffusing surface.
Akiyama discloses a laser projection apparatus further comprising a drive device (motor 475 of fig. 1) configured to rotate the diffusion member (diffusion plate 741 of fig. 1) around a rotational axis crossing the diffusing surface (illustrated in fig. 1).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art prior to the filing date of the application to modify the diffuser of Guo with the motor Akiyama rotating the diffuser in order to reduce laser speckle.
Regarding claim 10, Guo discloses an illumination system for a laser projection apparatus (illustrated in fig. 10).
Guo fails to teach further comprising: a collimator optical system configured to collimate the composite light emitted from the diffusion member; a multi-lens optical system configured to divide the composite light emitted from the collimator optical system into a plurality of partial light beams; and a superimposing lens configured to superimpose the plurality of partial light beams emitted from the multi-lens optical system on an illumination target surface.
Akiyama discloses further comprising: a collimator optical system (collimator lens 731 of fig. 1) configured to collimate the composite light emitted from the diffusion member (741); a multi-lens optical system (integrator optical system 780 of fig. 1) configured to divide the composite light emitted from the collimator optical system into a plurality of partial light beams (illustrated in fig. 1); and a superimposing lens (superposing lens 783) configured to superimpose the plurality of partial light beams emitted from the multi-lens optical system on an illumination target surface (illustrated in fig. 1).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art prior to the filing date of the application to modify the illumination system of Guo with the optical elements of Akiyama in order to increase optical efficiencies after the diffusion element.
Conclusion
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to DANELL L OWENS whose telephone number is (571)270-5365. The examiner can normally be reached 9:00am-5:00pm M-F.
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/DANELL L OWENS/ Examiner, Art Unit 2882 18 June 2026
/TOAN TON/ Supervisory Patent Examiner, Art Unit 2882
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