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 .
Information Disclosure Statement
The information disclosure statements (IDS’s) submitted are in compliance with the provisions of 37 CFR 1.97. Accordingly, the information disclosure statement is being considered by the examiner.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 112
The following is a quotation of the first paragraph of 35 U.S.C. 112(a):
(a) IN GENERAL.—The specification shall contain a written description of the invention, and of the manner and process of making and using it, in such full, clear, concise, and exact terms as to enable any person skilled in the art to which it pertains, or with which it is most nearly connected, to make and use the same, and shall set forth the best mode contemplated by the inventor or joint inventor of carrying out the invention.
Claims 17 – 20 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 112(a) or 35 U.S.C. 112 (pre-AIA ), first paragraph, as failing to comply with the written description requirement. The claim(s) contains subject matter which was not described in the specification in such a way as to reasonably convey to one skilled in the relevant art that the inventor or a joint inventor, or for applications subject to pre-AIA 35 U.S.C. 112, the inventor(s), at the time the application was filed, had possession of the claimed invention.
Neither as a term of art nor as shown in Applicant’s Fig. 1 does a processor generate, transmit and receive radio signals. All the components upstream the processor, upstream transmit antenna and downstream the receive antenna would be considered the RF frontend. The RF frontend generates, transmits and receives radio signals that are then converted to a digital signal, via an analog-to-digital converter (not shown), that is then sent to a processor for processing.
Dependent claims 18 – 20 are rejected due to dependency on a rejected base claim.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 102
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 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 – 3, 8 – 10 and 15 - 19 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(1) as being anticipated by Berkman (US 20040264297 A1).
As to claims 1, 8 and 17, Berkman discloses a signal receiving method, comprising:
receiving a second frequency modulated continuous wave sequence, wherein the second frequency modulated continuous wave sequence is a signal formed after a first frequency modulated continuous wave sequence is transmitted by a first apparatus, propagated through space, and reflected by a target (Fig. 2); and
determining information about the target based on the second frequency modulated continuous wave sequence and the first frequency modulated continuous wave sequence, wherein the information comprises one of a distance and a speed (Figs. 1A-B steps 114 and 112),
wherein the first frequency modulated continuous wave sequence comprises N frequency modulated continuous waves, N is an integer greater than or equal to 1 (Fig. 3A), and
a product of a time domain position and a corresponding frequency domain position in a first frequency modulated continuous wave in the N frequency modulated continuous waves meets a first condition (Para. 133 Equation 19: the product
∂
f
m
i
n
T
=
4
M
r
Q
wherein the left-hand side is product and right-hand side is condition.).
As to claims 2, 9 and 18, Berkman discloses the method according to claim 1, 8 and 17 wherein the first condition is related to a position of the first frequency modulated continuous wave in the N frequency modulated continuous waves (Fig. 3A, Para. 133 and Eq. 19).
As to claims 3, 10 and 19, Berkman discloses the method according to claims 1, 8 and 17, wherein the frequency domain position comprises one of a start frequency rand a center frequency, and the time domain position comprises one of a start time and a center time (Para. 133 Eq. 19 wherein
∂
f
m
i
n
would include a start and end frequency.).
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 15 and 16 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being obvious over Berkman in view of Millar (US 11536801 B1) and official notice.
As to claims 15 and 16, Berkman does not teach but Li teaches the method according to claim 8, wherein the determining a speed of the target based on the second frequency modulated continuous wave sequence and the first frequency modulated continuous wave sequence comprises: determining an intermediate frequency signal sequence based on the second frequency modulated continuous wave sequence and the first frequency modulated continuous wave sequence; and processing the intermediate frequency signal sequence through fast Fourier transform FFT (claim 15) and the method according to claim 15, wherein before the processing the intermediate frequency signal sequence through FFT, the method further comprises: performing phase compensation on the second frequency modulated continuous wave sequence or the intermediate frequency signal sequence based on the interval between the frequency domain positions of the N frequency modulated continuous waves (claim 16).
In the same field of endeavor, Millar teaches “an FMCW radar concatenates ADC returns from several chirps within a burst. A 2D FFT applied to the ADC sampled data provides a separation of energy in both range and Doppler. The ability to resolve energy in range depends upon the FFT bin size which is a function of chirp slope (chirp time and bandwidth) as well as the sample rate of the ADC. In Doppler, resolution depends upon the pulse repetition interval, the wavelength, as well as the number of chirps within the burst. The radar performs this processing across 2 (or more) channels and measures the complex phase difference between corresponding FFT bins from channel to channel referred to as the monopulse phase angle (MpA). The phase difference is an input to a calibration lookup table in order to assign true angle of arrival (AoA) in vehicle coordinates to the energy within each FFT bin. The accuracy of assigning true AoA relies on the quality and resolution of the signal in the corresponding 2D FFT bin and the quality of the phase calibration curve, in one example embodiment, one degree accuracy is expected after calibration and with strong signals, (Para. 19).”
In view of the teachings Millar, it would have been obvious to the ordinarily skilled before filing to apply Fourier transforms in order to differentiate being signals (signals superpose in the time-domain) as well as to perform phase compensation to improve angle accuracy wherein resolution is dependent on the pulse repetition interval, thus the pulse repletion interval (corresponds to pulse repetition frequency) would need to be considered to provide more accurate phase compensation.
The Examiner takes official notice of mixers being used to upconvert and downconvert signals in order to transmit smaller wavelength allowing for smaller antenna thus saving on cost and size. Mixers were used in communication before the invention of radar – not esoteric with respect to radars. And, mixers are considered basic components of a basic RF frontend architecture. In fact, a basic RF frontend on the receive side would at least comprise of a low-noise amplifier (meet SNR requirements), mixer (to have smaller antenna) and low-pass filter (to remove higher unwanted harmonics).
Allowable Subject Matter
Claims 4 – 7, 11 – 14 and 20 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.
Conclusion
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to MICHAEL W JUSTICE whose telephone number is (571)270-7029. The examiner can normally be reached 7:30 - 5:30 M-F.
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, William Kelleher can be reached at 571-272-7753. 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.
/MICHAEL W JUSTICE/ Examiner, Art Unit 3648
Prosecution Insights