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 § 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.
Claim(s) 1-3, 5-7, 9-13, and 15-20 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Kulkarni et al. (U.S. Pub. No. 20160300460) in view of Neuville et al. (U.S. Doc. No. 9047762), Lee et al. (U.S. Pub. No. 20120299941), Hassan et al. (U.S. Doc. No. 7552349), and Zenda (U.S. Doc. No. 5493685). `
Regarding claim 1, Kulkarni discloses a controller, comprising: a memory; and a processor configured to execute executable instructions stored in the memory to (paragraph 29, “a fire alarm panel 1 is shown having a panel interface 2 which has three areas, a display screen 3, a condition LED area 4 and a fixed icon area 5”’; also, paragraph 39, “The panel interface 2 includes the display screen 3, the condition LEDs area 4, the fixed icon area 5, the touchscreen panel 7, a user interface processor 18, and a user interface storage 19.”; also, paragraph 43, “The UI processor 18 is connected to the UI storage 19 so that UI storage data may be passed between the two of them.”): scaled object includes information associated with operation of the fire control panel (para 42, “It will be understood from the foregoing that the UI processor 18 sends the display signal to the display screen 3 so as to display information and the like relating to the fire detection system.”; also, para 46, “the appropriate information relating to that condition LED is placed on the display screen 3.”), and fire control panel transitioning from a normal operational mode to a battery backup mode, a scaled object to be displayed on a display panel of the fire control panel and wherein the scaled object corresponds to a default object displayed during the normal operational mode such that the scaled object is smaller than the default object when displayed in the display panel in the battery backup mode; determine, in response to the fire control panel being in the battery backup mode, a modified light emitting diode (LED) backlight setting for the scaled object; and cause the scaled object to be displayed on a sub-portion of the display panel using the modified LED backlight setting, wherein the modified LED backlight setting is dimmer than an LED backlight setting used to display the default object during the normal operational mode.
However, in a similar field of endeavor, Neuville discloses, a scaled object to be displayed on a display panel of the fire control panel (col 8, “the critical image, defining the Emergency mode format, is positioned preferably in a central portion of the display”; also, col 7, “An image merge element 118 receives the critical image output 108 and non-critical image outputs 112 and combines them into a liquid crystal display (LCD) drive signal 120. An LCD 122 receives and displays the LCD drive signal 120.”); a modified light emitting diode (LED) backlight setting for the scaled object (col 7, “the backlight 124 includes strings of light emitting diodes (LEDs), to illuminate the LCD. Selected LEDs are located behind the critical data in an area of the LCD defining an Emergency Zone.”; also, col 8, “A backlight controller 134 is connected to the current source(s) 128 and to the current sinks 130 for setting the current and pulse width to the LED strings to control the display brightness.”); and cause the scaled object to be displayed on a sub-portion of the display panel using the modified LED backlight setting (col 8, “During operation, when the backlight controller 134 receives the Emergency Mode input signal 136 from the host platform, only the backlight behind the Emergency Zone is illuminated, and power is turned off to the non-critical graphics channel in order to conserve power during the Emergency Mode”; also, col 8, “The backlight controller 134 is configured to receive an Emergency Mode input signal 136 from the host platform.”).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to have modified Kulkarni's invention of a fire alarm panel whose user interface processor and user interface storage hold and drive the images shown on the panel's liquid crystal display screen, which displays information relating to the fire detection system, with the features of Neuville's invention of confining the displayed image to a critical image positioned in a central portion of a liquid crystal display, illuminating that region with only the strings of light emitting diodes located behind it, and leaving the rest of the panel dark in order to conserve power. The combination would have been obvious because Kulkarni drives a full graphical screen out of stored images and gives no way to reduce what that screen costs to drive when the panel is running on stored energy, while Neuville identifies that exact shortfall on that exact component, describing a large backlight that draws excessive battery power under emergency conditions to the point that the battery may not last long enough for safe operation, and answers it by lighting only the region that carries the information the operator needs. A fire alarm panel has to keep annunciating from a standby battery once primary alternating current power is lost, so a person of ordinary skill working on Kulkarni's panel faces Neuville's problem on Neuville's component and would have taken Neuville's answer to it, with the graphics channel, the image merge element, the backlight strings and the backlight controller each operating in the combined panel as Neuville describes them operating.
Lee discloses determine, in response to a fire control panel transitioning from a normal operational mode to a battery backup mode (para 47, “The controller 300 controls the auxiliary power of the battery unit 400 to be supplied to the display unit 200 and the signal processor 100 in order to keep the operation of the display apparatus 1 when the main power is cut off. If it is determined that the supply of the external power is cut off based on a flag signal from the input power sensor, the controller 300 determines that the main power is shut off.”; also, para 56, “the controller 300 supplies the main power to the signal processor 100 and the display unit 200 at operation 600, and supplies the power of the battery unit 400 as the auxiliary power at operation 800 when the supply of the main power is shut off at operation 700.”; also, para 46, “The input power sensor senses an input state of the external power and generates and outputs a flag signal to the controller 300.”), determine, in response to the fire control panel being in the battery backup mode (para 49, “When supplying the auxiliary power of the battery unit 400, the controller 300 may adjust the brightness of an image displayed on the display unit 200 in accordance with a residual quantity of the battery unit 400.”; also, para 46, “The input power sensor senses an input state of the external power and generates and outputs a flag signal to the controller 300.”).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to have further modified Kulkarni in view of Neuville, in which a fire alarm panel displays fire system information on a liquid crystal screen and confines that display to an illuminated central region with the surrounding backlight dark in order to conserve power, with the features of Lee's invention of a display apparatus that senses the loss of external power through an input power sensor, automatically switches the display over to its battery, and then adjusts the brightness of the light provided to the panel. The combination would have been obvious because Neuville enters its reduced display on a mode signal asserted from outside the display, and a fire alarm panel has no operator standing by to assert such a signal; what a fire alarm panel has instead is the loss of primary alternating current power and a standby battery that then carries it. Lee supplies the sensing and the automatic switchover that Neuville leaves to an external actor, and it ties the change in display behavior to the very event a fire alarm panel is built to survive, so that the reduced display of the combination is entered when the panel begins drawing on its standby battery and not otherwise. A fire alarm panel already carries the power sensing that Lee describes, because it has to know when it is running on its standby battery in order to annunciate that condition at all, so the signal Lee uses to change the display is a signal the panel is already generating for another purpose.
Hassan discloses wherein the scaled object corresponds to a default object displayed during the normal operational mode (col 7, “Preferably, the resolution of the projected display 308 is also reduced accordingly, so that the projected display 308 appears to the user as a scaled-down version of the original projected display 302.”; also, col 2, “Reduction of display size is achieved by reducing power to individual pixels or portions of the display. Although the resulting display can be of a smaller actual size, it need not be of a smaller resolution.”) such that the scaled object is smaller than the default object when displayed in the display panel in the battery backup mode (col 7, “The display is partitioned into a first portion 304 and a surrounding portion 306. Power is reduced or eliminated to pixels of the surrounding portion 306, resulting in the appearance of the display unit 300 projecting a display at a smaller size.”; also, col 7, “Preferably, the resolution of the projected display 308 is also reduced accordingly, so that the projected display 308 appears to the user as a scaled-down version of the original projected display 302.”; also, col 7, “The smaller portion 310 is preferably smaller than the previously displayed portion 304.”; also, col 8, “At step 410, the resolution of the projected display is accordingly reduced so that the projected portion of the display appears to the user as a smaller version of the previously projected display.”).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to have further modified Kulkarni in view of Neuville and Lee, in which a fire alarm panel switches automatically to its standby battery when external power is lost and then confines the information it displays to an illuminated sub-portion of its liquid crystal panel, with the features of Hassan's invention of partitioning a liquid crystal display into a first portion and a surrounding portion, reducing or eliminating power to the pixels of the surrounding portion, and reducing the projected display so that what remains is a scaled down version of the display the same panel had been projecting before. The combination would have been obvious because the combined panel already darkens everything outside a central region once it is running on its battery, and darkening that area settles where the surviving content sits without settling what that content is. Hassan answers that open question for a liquid crystal panel conserving stored energy, and its answer is that the content retained in the smaller area is a smaller version of what the panel had been showing, which leaves the operator reading the same information he was reading a moment earlier instead of something he has to reinterpret during an alarm condition. Fitting displayed content to the area that is still being driven is the predictable consequence of driving a smaller area, and Hassan shows that a person of ordinary skill obtained that result on the same kind of panel for the same purpose.
Zenda discloses wherein the modified LED backlight setting is dimmer than an LED backlight setting used to display the default object during the normal operational mode (col 6, “A voltage corresponding to the maximum luminance with the heat not exceeding a certain value. (2 V for example) The power consumption of the battery 51 need not be considered, since the AC adapter 53 is connected and the battery 51 is not used.”; also, col 6, “The battery 51 is being used. The luminance should be controlled lower to constrain the power consumption. A voltage corresponding to the luminance. (1 V for example)”; also, col 3, “During the use of the battery, the luminance is controlled to lower value to decrease the power consumption. When the AC adapter is connected, the power consumption of the battery need not be considered. For this reason, the luminance can be held to a maximum value as far as the heat does not exceed a certain level.”; also, col 7, “Note that in the above embodiment only the luminance control for a DC type PDP has been described, but the similar control is possible for the back-lit LCD.”).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to have further modified Kulkarni in view of Neuville, Lee, and Hassan, in which a fire alarm panel running on its standby battery shows a smaller version of its normal screen inside an illuminated sub-portion of its liquid crystal panel, with the features of Zenda's invention of driving a display at a maximum luminance value while an alternating current adapter is connected and at a lower luminance value while the battery is being used, the same control being applicable to a back lit liquid crystal display. The combination would have been obvious because the combined panel has already settled what to show and where to show it when external power is lost, and the one quantity it has not yet settled is how hard to drive the light behind the region that stays lit. Zenda settles that quantity directly for a device drawing on a battery, giving both the value to use in each condition and the rule for choosing between them from which source is supplying power. A person of ordinary skill setting the backlight of a fire alarm panel that must annunciate for an extended standby interval out of a fixed reserve would have adopted Zenda's lower battery value rather than holding the light at the level used while the panel was on mains power, because every unit of light the panel produces across that interval is drawn from the reserve that has to keep the panel annunciating, and because Zenda obtains the reduction by supplying a different control value to the same display without altering how the display itself works.
Regarding claim 2, Kulkarni as modified by Neuville, Lee, Hassan, and Zenda discloses the controller of claim 1, wherein Kulkarni further discloses the processor is configured to determine the scaled object via an object lookup table (paragraph 44, “A library of images for display by the display screen 3 is stored in the UI storage 19 in a folder file structure, and the default screen is made up of one or more of the images from within the library.”; also, paragraph 46, “the UI processor 18 retrieves image data from the UI storage 19 and sends the image data to the display screen 3”) using the default object displayed on the display panel when the fire control panel is in the normal operational mode (para 44, “The display processor unit 11 would normally transmit a display signal to the display screen 3 of the panel interface 2 which is a default or ‘home’ screen which is then displayed, such as the screen displayed in FIG. 3.”; also, para 48, “the UI processor 18 which retrieves the map image from the UI storage 19 and transmits it to the display screen 3”).
Regarding claim 3, Kulkarni as modified by Neuville, Lee, Hassan, and Zenda discloses the controller of claim 2, wherein Kulkarni further discloses the scaled object is associated with the default object in the object lookup table (Kulkarni: paragraph 44, “A library of images for display by the display screen 3 is stored in the UI storage 19 in a folder file structure, and the default screen is made up of one or more of the images from within the library.”; also, para 43, “The UI storage 19 is used to store at least some of the following: configuration and user preferences relating to the panel interface 2; images for displaying on the display screen; map images for displaying on the display screen; logs relating to the operation of the panel interface 2, such as a time stamped event log; firmware for operating the panel interface 2; product manuals and help information; and help and instructional videos.”).
Regarding claim 5, Kulkarni as modified by Neuville, Lee, Hassan, and Zenda discloses the controller of claim 2, wherein Lee further discloses the scaled object includes predetermined image settings different from that of the default object (para 5, “The storage unit 500 stores a lookup table that contains information about the brightness of an image corresponding to the residual quantity of the battery unit 400. The controller 300 adjusts the brightness of light from the backlight unit 210 with reference to the lookup table stored in the storage unit 500.”; also, para 52, “The lookup table stored in the storage unit 500 includes information about pulse width modulation (PWM) duty of the maximum usable auxiliary power (hereinafter, referred to as ‘maximum brightness information of an image’) within a predetermined residual quantity of the battery unit 400.”; also, para 53, “The controller 300 may limit the brightness of light provided by the backlight unit 210 by referring to the lookup table stored in the storage unit 500.”).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to have further modified Kulkarni in view of Neuville, Lee, Hassan, and Zenda, in which a fire alarm panel that has gone onto its standby battery shows a smaller version of its normal screen inside an illuminated sub-portion of its liquid crystal panel at a reduced backlight value, with the features of Lee's further invention of holding the image brightness values for battery operation in a stored lookup table, expressed as pulse width modulation duty, and restricting the image shown while the apparatus runs on its battery to a value lower than the one used while it runs on external power. The combination would have been obvious because a value that is fixed in a table before the power failure occurs, and that differs from the value the same panel uses on mains power, is a setting determined in advance and applied only to what the panel shows once it is on battery. A person of ordinary skill building a fire alarm panel would have fixed those values in advance rather than deriving them at the moment external power is lost, because a panel that has to enter reduced power operation immediately on losing mains power cannot spend that moment computing display parameters, and because settling them in a table lets the panel's battery behavior be adjusted and checked without touching the controller's program.
Regarding claim 6, Kulkarni as modified by Neuville, Lee, Hassan, and Zenda discloses the controller of claim 1, wherein Lee further discloses the processor is configured to determine the modified LED backlight setting via a backlight settings lookup table (para 51, “The storage unit 500 stores a lookup table that contains information about the brightness of an image corresponding to the residual quantity of the battery unit 400. The controller 300 adjusts the brightness of light from the backlight unit 210 with reference to the lookup table stored in the storage unit 500.”; also, para 53, “The controller 300 may limit the brightness of light provided by the backlight unit 210 by referring to the lookup table stored in the storage unit 500.”) using a reference backlight setting associated with a default object displayed on the display panel when the fire control panel is in the normal operational mode (para 52, “The lookup table stored in the storage unit 500 includes information about pulse width modulation (PWM) duty of the maximum usable auxiliary power (hereinafter, referred to as ‘maximum brightness information of an image’) within a predetermined residual quantity of the battery unit 400”; also, para 62, “the brightness signal based on the video signal received from the signal processor 100 is compared with the maximum brightness signal corresponding to the residual quantity of the battery unit 400, i.e., the maximum brightness information of an image referred to in the lookup table of the storage unit 500 at operation 921.”).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to have further modified Kulkarni in view of Neuville, Lee, Hassan, and Zenda, in which a fire alarm panel that has gone onto its standby battery drives its backlight at a reduced value, with the features of Lee's further invention of a storage unit holding a lookup table whose entries relate an operating condition to the backlight brightness to be used, and a controller that sets the brightness of the light from the backlight unit by consulting that table rather than by computing it. The combination would have been obvious because the combined panel already changes its backlight when it goes onto its standby battery, and it needs a determinate source for the value it changes to. Lee's table is that source, and consulting a table keyed to the condition the panel is in is the least expensive and most predictable way to obtain the value at the instant of transition. Lee obtains the value by presenting the table with the state the apparatus is in and taking back what is stored against that state, and the state a fire alarm panel is in at the instant primary alternating current power fails is described by the setting it was already running at, so presenting that setting to the table performs the lookup Lee performs, expressed in the one term the panel has in hand at the moment it has to perform it.
Regarding claim 7, Kulkarni as modified by Neuville, Lee, Hassan, and Zenda discloses the controller of claim 6, wherein Lee further discloses the modified LED backlight setting is associated with the reference backlight setting in the backlight settings lookup table (para 51, “The storage unit 500 stores a lookup table that contains information about the brightness of an image corresponding to the residual quantity of the battery unit 400. The controller 300 adjusts the brightness of light from the backlight unit 210 with reference to the lookup table stored in the storage unit 500.”; also, para 62, “the brightness signal based on the video signal received from the signal processor 100 is compared with the maximum brightness signal corresponding to the residual quantity of the battery unit 400, i.e., the maximum brightness information of an image referred to in the lookup table of the storage unit 500 at operation 921”).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to have further modified Kulkarni in view of Neuville, Lee, Hassan, and Zenda, in which the backlight value the panel uses once it is on its standby battery is obtained by consulting a stored table rather than by computing it, with the features of Lee's further invention of a lookup table whose entries pair each operating condition with the brightness value that belongs to it, so that presenting the table with one of those conditions returns the paired value. The combination would have been obvious because a table is consulted by presenting it with a key and receiving the value stored against that key, so pairing the normal mode reference backlight setting with the reduced setting that is to replace it is simply how the stored backlight table of the combination is built and read. Lee stores each state together with the value that belongs to it, which is what makes the table readable by state at all, and in a panel whose two states are distinguished by which backlight setting is in use, the paired entries are the normal mode setting and the reduced setting that replaces it, so a single access at the instant of transition returns the value the panel switches to.
Regarding claim 9, Kulkarni as modified by Neuville, Lee, Hassan, and Zenda discloses the controller of claim 1, wherein Neuville further discloses the processor is configured to cause the scaled object to be displayed by causing a backlight controller to illuminate a sub-portion of a plurality of backlights included in a backlight LED matrix of the display panel (col 8, “During operation, when the backlight controller 134 receives the Emergency Mode input signal 136 from the host platform, only the backlight behind the Emergency Zone is illuminated, and power is turned off to the non-critical graphics channel in order to conserve power during the Emergency Mode “; also, col 7, “the backlight 124 includes strings of light emitting diodes (LEDs), to illuminate the LCD. Selected LEDs are located behind the critical data in an area of the LCD defining an Emergency Zone.”) according to the modified LED backlight setting (col 8, “A backlight controller 134 is connected to the current source(s) 128 and to the current sinks 130 for setting the current and pulse width to the LED strings to control the display brightness.”; also, col 8, “The backlight controller 134 is configured to receive an Emergency Mode input signal 136 from the host platform.”).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to have further modified Kulkarni in view of Neuville, Lee, Hassan, and Zenda, in which a fire alarm panel on its standby battery confines the displayed object to a sub-portion of its liquid crystal panel and drives the backlight at a reduced value, with the features of Neuville's further invention of a backlight controller that illuminates only the light emitting diode strings located behind the displayed region while setting the current and pulse width delivered to those strings. The combination would have been obvious because the combined panel reduces the lit area and lowers the backlight level when it goes onto its standby battery, and both of those acts have to be carried out on the hardware by something. Neuville names the component that does it and describes it doing both, selecting which strings of the matrix are driven and setting how hard they are driven, and it does so through a single set of current sources and current sinks, which is why one controller rather than two is where a person of ordinary skill would put the work.
Regarding claim 10, Kulkarni as modified by Neuville, Lee, Hassan, and Zenda discloses the controller of claim 1, wherein Neuville further discloses the processor is configured to cause the scaled object to be displayed by causing a video controller to enable a subset of a plurality of pixels of the display panel (col 7, “The image merge element 118 includes circuitry that combines each pixel of the image inputs in a prioritized manner such that critical images are legible for any state of the non-critical images. The image merge element 118 outputs a composite critical and noncritical image when both inputs are active. When the noncritical image is turned off, the image merge only passes the critical image.”; also, col 7, “An image merge element 118 receives the critical image output 108 and non-critical image outputs 112 and combines them into a liquid crystal display (LCD) drive signal 120. An LCD 122 receives and displays the LCD drive signal 120.”).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to have further modified Kulkarni in view of Neuville, Lee, Hassan, and Zenda, in which a fire alarm panel on its standby battery confines the displayed object to a sub-portion of its liquid crystal panel, with the features of Neuville's further invention of an image merge element that operates on the image inputs pixel by pixel and, when the non-critical image is turned off, passes only the critical image into the panel drive signal. The combination would have been obvious because reducing the displayed content to a sub-portion of the panel is done by controlling which pixels receive image data, and Neuville describes the component that does exactly that on a liquid crystal panel. A person of ordinary skill would have driven the reduced display of the combined panel through such a component because a liquid crystal panel is addressed pixel by pixel and there is no other way to confine content to part of it.
Regarding claim 11, Kulkarni discloses a method (para 46, “the UI processor 18 retrieves image data from the UI storage 19 and sends the image data to the display screen 3.”; also, para 35, “This change might be some change of setting or configuration of the fire alarm system that the fire alarm panel controls, or a change to the display screen 3 to display different information.”), comprising: object lookup table (para 44, “A library of images for display by the display screen 3 is stored in the UI storage 19 in a folder file structure, and the default screen is made up of one or more of the images from within the library.”; also, para 46, “the UI processor 18 retrieves image data from the UI storage 19 and sends the image data to the display screen 3”), wherein the fire control panel displays a default object on the LCD panel in the normal operational mode (para 44, “The display processor unit 11 would normally transmit a display signal to the display screen 3 of the panel interface 2 which is a default or ‘home’ screen which is then displayed, such as the screen displayed in FIG. 3.”; also, para 30, “the display screen 3 is an LCD 640×480 digits 18 bit RGB screen which is a dynamic display that can be altered to show a variety of different things.”), and wherein the scaled object includes information associated with operation of the fire control panel (para 42, “It will be understood from the foregoing that the UI processor 18 sends the display signal to the display screen 3 so as to display information and the like relating to the fire detection system.”; also para 46, “the appropriate information relating to that condition LED is placed on the display screen 3.”), controller in response to a fire control panel transitioning from a normal operational mode to a battery backup mode, a scaled object to be displayed on a liquid crystal display LCD panel of the fire control panel and wherein the scaled object corresponds to the default object displayed on the LCD panel during the normal operational mode such that the scaled object is smaller than the default object when displayed on the LCD panel; determining, by the controller in response to the fire control panel being in the battery backup mode, a modified LED backlight setting for a backlight LED matrix for the scaled object using a backlight settings lookup table; and causing, by the controller, the scaled object to be displayed on a sub-portion of the LCD panel using the modified LED backlight setting, wherein the modified LED backlight setting is dimmer than an LED backlight setting used to display the default object during the normal operational mode.
However, in a similar field of endeavor, Neuville discloses a scaled object to be displayed on a liquid crystal display LCD panel of the fire control panel (col 8, “the critical image, defining the Emergency mode format, is positioned preferably in a central portion of the display”; also, col 7, “An image merge element 118 receives the critical image output 108 and non-critical image outputs 112 and combines them into a liquid crystal display (LCD) drive signal 120. An LCD 122 receives and displays the LCD drive signal 120.”), a modified LED backlight setting for a backlight LED matrix for the scaled object (col 7, “the backlight 124 includes strings of light emitting diodes (LEDs), to illuminate the LCD. Selected LEDs are located behind the critical data in an area of the LCD defining an Emergency Zone.”; also, col 8, “A backlight controller 134 is connected to the current source(s) 128 and to the current sinks 130 for setting the current and pulse width to the LED strings to control the display brightness.”) and
Lee discloses determining, by a controller in response to a fire control panel transitioning from a normal operational mode to a battery backup mode (paragraph 6, “is automatically switched to use the battery power when the external power is cut off, thereby keeping its operation.”; also, paragraph 6, “may restrict the brightness of an image in order to minimize power consumption. For example, the brightness of an image in the case of using the battery power may be set up to be lower than that in the case of the external power”), determining, by the controller in response to the fire control panel being in the battery backup mode (paragraph 6, “is automatically switched to use the battery power when the external power is cut off, thereby keeping its operation.”; also, paragraph 51, “adjusts the brightness of light from the backlight unit 210 with reference to the lookup table stored in the storage unit 500.”), modified LED backlight setting for a backlight LED matrix for the scaled object using a backlight settings lookup table (paragraph 51, “stores a lookup table that contains information about the brightness of an image corresponding to the residual quantity of the battery unit 400. “; also, paragraph 51, “adjusts the brightness of light from the backlight unit 210 with reference to the lookup table stored in the storage unit 500. “; also, paragraph 52, “includes information about pulse width modulation (PWM) duty of the maximum usable auxiliary power (hereinafter, referred to as ‘maximum brightness information of an image’) within a predetermined residual quantity of the battery unit 400.“).
Neuville discloses a scaled object to be displayed on an LCD panel of the fire control panel (col 1, “the large backlight can draw excessive battery power under emergency situations. The battery may not last long enough for the pilot to land safely.”; also, col 8, “the critical image, defining the Emergency mode format, is positioned preferably in a central portion of the display”; also, col 8, “the backlight controller 134 is configured to receive an Emergency Mode input signal 136 from the host platform”; also, col 7, “This input is a bi-level input with two states, normal mode and emergency mode.”) and causing, by the controller, the scaled object to be displayed on a sub-portion of the LCD panel using the modified LED backlight setting (col 8, “During operation, when the backlight controller 134 receives the Emergency Mode input signal 136 from the host platform, only the backlight behind the Emergency Zone is illuminated, and power is turned off to the non-critical graphics channel in order to conserve power during the Emergency Mode.”; also, col 8, “The backlight controller 134 is configured to receive an Emergency Mode input signal 136 from the host platform.”),
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to have modified Kulkarni's invention of a fire alarm panel whose user interface processor and user interface storage hold and drive the images shown on the panel's liquid crystal display screen, which displays information relating to the fire detection system, with the features of Neuville's invention of confining the displayed image to a critical image positioned in a central portion of a liquid crystal display, illuminating that region with only the strings of light emitting diodes located behind it, and leaving the rest of the panel dark in order to conserve power. The combination would have been obvious because Kulkarni drives a full graphical screen out of stored images and gives no way to reduce what that screen costs to drive when the panel is running on stored energy, while Neuville identifies that exact shortfall on that exact component, describing a large backlight that draws excessive battery power under emergency conditions to the point that the battery may not last long enough for safe operation, and answers it by lighting only the region that carries the information the operator needs. A fire alarm panel has to keep annunciating from a standby battery once primary alternating current power is lost, so a person of ordinary skill working on Kulkarni's panel faces Neuville's problem on Neuville's component and would have taken Neuville's answer to it, with the graphics channel, the image merge element, the backlight strings and the backlight controller each operating in the combined panel as Neuville describes them operating.
Lee discloses determining, by a controller in response to a fire control panel transitioning from a normal operational mode to a battery backup mode (para 47, “The controller 300 controls the auxiliary power of the battery unit 400 to be supplied to the display unit 200 and the signal processor 100 in order to keep the operation of the display apparatus 1 when the main power is cut off. If it is determined that the supply of the external power is cut off based on a flag signal from the input power sensor, the controller 300 determines that the main power is shut off.”; also, para 56, “the controller 300 supplies the main power to the signal processor 100 and the display unit 200 at operation 600, and supplies the power of the battery unit 400 as the auxiliary power at operation 800 when the supply of the main power is shut off at operation 700.”; also, para 46, “The input power sensor senses an input state of the external power and generates and outputs a flag signal to the controller 300.”); determining, by the controller in response to the fire control panel being in the battery backup mode (para 49, “When supplying the auxiliary power of the battery unit 400, the controller 300 may adjust the brightness of an image displayed on the display unit 200 in accordance with a residual quantity of the battery unit 400.”; also, para 46, “The input power sensor senses an input state of the external power and generates and outputs a flag signal to the controller 300.”); using a backlight settings lookup table (para 51, “The storage unit 500 stores a lookup table that contains information about the brightness of an image corresponding to the residual quantity of the battery unit 400. The controller 300 adjusts the brightness of light from the backlight unit 210 with reference to the lookup table stored in the storage unit 500.”; also, para 52, “The lookup table stored in the storage unit 500 includes information about pulse width modulation (PWM) duty of the maximum usable auxiliary power (hereinafter, referred to as `maximum brightness information of an image`) within a predetermined residual quantity of the battery unit 400”; also, para 62, “the brightness signal based on the video signal received from the signal processor 100 is compared with the maximum brightness signal corresponding to the residual quantity of the battery unit 400, i.e., the maximum brightness information of an image referred to in the lookup table of the storage unit 500 at operation 921.”).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to have further modified Kulkarni in view of Neuville, in which a fire alarm panel displays fire system information on a liquid crystal screen and confines that display to an illuminated central region with the surrounding backlight dark in order to conserve power, with the features of Lee's invention of a display apparatus that senses the loss of external power, automatically switches the display over to its battery, and then sets the brightness of the backlight by consulting a lookup table held in storage that pairs an operating condition with the pulse width modulation duty to be applied. The combination would have been obvious because Neuville enters its reduced display on a mode signal asserted from outside the display, and a fire alarm panel has no operator standing by to assert one, while Lee derives the same change from the loss of external power that a fire alarm panel is built to survive. Lee's stored table then supplies the second thing the combined method needs, which is a determinate source for the backlight value the panel is to use once it is on battery, so that the panel does not have to compute that value in the moment external power fails. Retrieving a control value from a stored table rather than recomputing it is the ordinary choice for equipment that has to enter a reduced power state predictably, and it makes the panel's battery behavior reviewable by editing a table entry rather than by reprogramming the controller.
Hassan discloses wherein the scaled object corresponds to the default object displayed on the LCD panel during the normal operational mode (para 7, “Preferably, the resolution of the projected display 308 is also reduced accordingly, so that the projected display 308 appears to the user as a scaled-down version of the original projected display 302.”; also, col 2, “Reduction of display size is achieved by reducing power to individual pixels or portions of the display. Although the resulting display can be of a smaller actual size, it need not be of a smaller resolution.”) such that the scaled object is smaller than the default object when displayed on the LCD panel (col 7, “The display is partitioned into a first portion 304 and a surrounding portion 306. Power is reduced or eliminated to pixels of the surrounding portion 306, resulting in the appearance of the display unit 300 projecting a display at a smaller size.”; also, col 7, “Preferably, the resolution of the projected display 308 is also reduced accordingly, so that the projected display 308 appears to the user as a scaled-down version of the original projected display 302.”; also, col 7, “The smaller portion 310 is preferably smaller than the previously displayed portion 304.”; also, col 8, “At step 410, the resolution of the projected display is accordingly reduced so that the projected portion of the display appears to the user as a smaller version of the previously projected display.”).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to have further modified Kulkarni in view of Neuville and Lee, in which a fire alarm panel switches automatically to its standby battery when external power is lost and then confines the information it displays to an illuminated sub-portion of its liquid crystal panel, with the features of Hassan's invention of partitioning a liquid crystal display into a first portion and a surrounding portion, reducing or eliminating power to the pixels of the surrounding portion, and reducing the projected display so that what remains is a scaled down version of the display the same panel had been projecting before. The combination would have been obvious because the combined panel already darkens everything outside a central region once it is running on its battery, and darkening that area settles where the surviving content sits without settling what that content is. Hassan answers that open question for a liquid crystal panel conserving stored energy, and its answer is that the content retained in the smaller area is a smaller version of what the panel had been showing, which leaves the operator reading the same information he was reading a moment earlier instead of something he has to reinterpret during an alarm condition. Fitting displayed content to the area that is still being driven is the predictable consequence of driving a smaller area, and Hassan shows that a person of ordinary skill obtained that result on the same kind of panel for the same purpose.
Zenda discloses wherein the modified LED backlight setting is dimmer than an LED backlight setting used to display the default object during the normal operational mode (col 6, “A voltage corresponding to the maximum luminance with the heat not exceeding a certain value. (2 V for example) The power consumption of the battery 51 need not be considered, since the AC adapter 53 is connected and the battery 51 is not used.”; also, col 6, “The battery 51 is being used. The luminance should be controlled lower to constrain the power consumption. A voltage corresponding to the luminance. (1 V for example)”; also, col 3, “During the use of the battery, the luminance is controlled to lower value to decrease the power consumption. When the AC adapter is connected, the power consumption of the battery need not be considered. For this reason, the luminance can be held to a maximum value as far as the heat does not exceed a certain level.”; also, col 7, “Note that in the above embodiment only the luminance control for a DC type PDP has been described, but the similar control is possible for the back-lit LCD.”).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to have further modified Kulkarni in view of Neuville, Lee, and Hassan, in which a fire alarm panel running on its standby battery shows a smaller version of its normal screen inside an illuminated sub-portion of its liquid crystal panel, with the features of Zenda's invention of driving a display at a maximum luminance value while an alternating current adapter is connected and at a lower luminance value while the battery is being used, the same control being applicable to a back lit liquid crystal display. The combination would have been obvious because the combined panel has already settled what to show and where to show it when external power is lost, and the one quantity it has not yet settled is how hard to drive the light behind the region that stays lit. Zenda settles that quantity directly for a device drawing on a battery, giving both the value to use in each condition and the rule for choosing between them from which source is supplying power. A person of ordinary skill setting the backlight of a fire alarm panel that must annunciate for an extended standby interval out of a fixed reserve would have adopted Zenda's lower battery value rather than holding the light at the level used while the panel was on mains power, because every unit of light the panel produces across that interval is drawn from the reserve that has to keep the panel annunciating, and because Zenda obtains the reduction by supplying a different control value to the same display without altering how the display itself works.
Regarding claim 12, Kulkarni as modified by Neuville, Lee, Hassan, and Zenda discloses the method of claim 11, wherein Neuville further discloses the method includes converting, by a frame buffer of the LCD panel, the scaled object to a video signal (col 7, “A critical graphics channel (CGC) 102 receives critical data 104 from a host platform and creates a critical image output 106. The critical graphics channel (CGC) 102 includes signal interface electronics, processing, memory, and image rendering electronics.”; also, col 7, “An image merge element 118 receives the critical image output 108 and non-critical image outputs 112 and combines them into a liquid crystal display (LCD) drive signal 120. An LCD 122 receives and displays the LCD drive signal 120.”).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to have further modified Kulkarni in view of Neuville, Lee, Hassan, and Zenda, in which a fire alarm panel on its standby battery determines a smaller object and shows it on a sub-portion of its liquid crystal panel, with the features of Neuville's further invention of a critical graphics channel that holds memory and image rendering electronics and produces an image output that is combined into the liquid crystal display drive signal. The combination would have been obvious because a liquid crystal panel is driven by a video signal rather than by the stored image itself, so the reduced object the combined method selects has to be converted before it can be shown, and Neuville describes the memory and rendering stage that performs that conversion on the way to the panel. Interposing such a stage is the ordinary means of putting stored image content onto a liquid crystal panel and yields the display Neuville reports.
Regarding claim 13, Kulkarni as modified by Neuville, Lee, Hassan, and Zenda discloses the method of claim 12, wherein Neuville further discloses the method includes causing, by a video controller, a subset of pixels of a plurality of pixels to be enabled according to the video signal from the frame buffer to cause the scaled object to be displayed (col 7, “The image merge element 118 includes circuitry that combines each pixel of the image inputs in a prioritized manner such that critical images are legible for any state of the non-critical images. The image merge element 118 outputs a composite critical and noncritical image when both inputs are active. When the noncritical image is turned off, the image merge only passes the critical image.”; also, col 8, “The NCGC 108 shown in phantom lines is un-powered by the power control signal.”).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to have further modified Kulkarni in view of Neuville, Lee, Hassan, and Zenda, in which the smaller object the panel shows on its standby battery is converted to a video signal by a memory and rendering stage on its way to the liquid crystal panel, with the features of Neuville's further invention of combining the image inputs pixel by pixel into the panel drive signal and, with the non-critical image turned off and the non-critical graphics channel un-powered, passing only the critical image through to the panel. The combination would have been obvious because the converted video signal has to reach the panel through the stage that decides which pixels it reaches, and Neuville describes that stage acting on the signal to confine the delivered content to the region that remains active. Driving the reduced display from the converted signal in this way is the direct consequence of having converted it, and it produces the partial display Neuville reports.
Regarding claim 15, Kulkarni as modified by Neuville, Lee, Hassan, and Zenda discloses the method of claim 11, wherein Neuville further discloses the method includes illuminating, by a backlight controller, a sub-portion of a plurality of backlights of the backlight LED matrix of the display panel according to the modified LED backlight setting (col 8, “During operation, when the backlight controller 134 receives the Emergency Mode input signal 136 from the host platform, only the backlight behind the Emergency Zone is illuminated, and power is turned off to the non-critical graphics channel in order to conserve power during the Emergency Mode”; also, col 8, “A backlight controller 134 is connected to the current source(s) 128 and to the current sinks 130 for setting the current and pulse width to the LED strings to control the display brightness.”).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to have further modified Kulkarni in view of Neuville, Lee, Hassan, and Zenda, in which a fire alarm panel on its standby battery shows a smaller object on a sub-portion of its liquid crystal panel at a reduced backlight value, with the features of Neuville's further invention of a backlight controller that, on receiving the reduced mode signal, illuminates only the backlight behind the displayed region while setting the current and pulse width supplied to those strings. The combination would have been obvious because the combined method arrives at a backlight value and a smaller display region and then has to apply both to the hardware, and Neuville names the component that applies them and describes it applying both at once. Neuville assigns both acts to the one component because the strings that are lit and the level they are driven at are set through the same current sources and current sinks, so a panel that has settled on a region and a level has one place to apply them.
Regarding claim 16, Kulkarni discloses a fire control panel (para 29, “a fire alarm panel 1 is shown having a panel interface 2 which has three areas, a display screen 3, a condition LED area 4 and a fixed icon area 5”), comprising: a liquid crystal display (LCD) panel comprising (para 30, “the display screen 3 is an LCD 640×480 digits 18 bit RGB screen which is a dynamic display that can be altered to show a variety of different things.”; also, para 30, “It is a graphical display screen.”): a plurality of pixels (para 29, “a fire alarm panel 1 is shown having a panel interface 2 which has three areas, a display screen 3, a condition LED area 4 and a fixed icon area 5”; also, para 30, “the display screen 3 is an LCD 640×480 digits 18 bit RGB screen which is a dynamic display that can be altered to show a variety of different things.”); a video controller to control the plurality of pixels (paragraph 39, “The panel interface 2 includes the display screen 3, the condition LEDs area 4, the fixed icon area 5, the touchscreen panel 7, a user interface processor 18, and a user interface storage 19.”; also, paragraph 46, “the UI processor 18 retrieves image data from the UI storage 19 and sends the image data to the display screen 3”); controller configured to (paragraph 39, “The panel interface 2 includes the display screen 3, the condition LEDs area 4, the fixed icon area 5, the touchscreen panel 7, a user interface processor 18, and a user interface storage 19.”; also, paragraph 43, “The UI processor 18 is connected to the UI storage 19 so that UI storage data may be passed between the two of them.”): object lookup table (para 44, “A library of images for display by the display screen 3 is stored in the UI storage 19 in a folder file structure, and the default screen is made up of one or more of the images from within the library.”; also, para 46, “the UI processor 18 retrieves image data from the UI storage 19 and sends the image data to the display screen 3”), wherein the fire control panel displays a default object on the LCD panel in the normal operational mode (para 44, “The display processor unit 11 would normally transmit a display signal to the display screen 3 of the panel interface 2 which is a default or ‘home’ screen which is then displayed, such as the screen displayed in FIG. 3.”; also, para 30, “the display screen 3 is an LCD 640×480 digits 18 bit RGB screen which is a dynamic display that can be altered to show a variety of different things.”), and wherein the scaled object includes information associated with operational of the fire control panel (para 42, “It will be understood from the foregoing that the UI processor 18 sends the display signal to the display screen 3 so as to display information and the like relating to the fire detection system.”; also, para 46, “the appropriate information relating to that condition LED is placed on the display screen 3.”) , a backlight light emitting diode (LED) matrix comprising a plurality of backlights; and a backlight controller to control the plurality of backlights; determine, in response to the fire control panel transitioning from a normal operational mode to a battery backup mode, a scaled object to be displayed on the LCD panel, and wherein the scaled object corresponds to the default object displayed on the LCD panel during the normal operational mode such that the scaled object is smaller than the default object when displayed on the LCD panel; determine, in response to the fire control panel being in the battery backup mode, modified LED backlight setting for the backlight LED matrix for the scaled object using a backlight settings lookup table, wherein the modified LED backlight setting is dimmer than an LED backlight setting used to display the default object during the normal operational mode; and cause the scaled object to be displayed on a sub-portion of the LCD panel by: causing a subset of the plurality of pixels to be enabled according to a video signal from a frame buffer; and illuminating a sub-portion of the plurality of backlights of the backlight LED matrix according to the modified LED backlight setting.
However, in a similar field of endeavor, Neuville discloses a backlight light emitting diode (LED) matrix comprising a plurality of backlights (col 7, “the backlight 124 includes strings of light emitting diodes (LEDs), to illuminate the LCD. Selected LEDs are located behind the critical data in an area of the LCD defining an Emergency Zone.”); and a backlight controller to control the plurality of backlights (col 8, “A backlight controller 134 is connected to the current source(s) 128 and to the current sinks 130 for setting the current and pulse width to the LED strings to control the display brightness.”; also, col 8, “Each current source 128 includes circuitry that sources a current controlled to set display brightness”), a scaled object to be displayed on the LCD panel (col 8, “the critical image, defining the Emergency mode format, is positioned preferably in a central portion of the display”; also, col 7, “An image merge element 118 receives the critical image output 108 and non-critical image outputs 112 and combines them into a liquid crystal display (LCD) drive signal 120. An LCD 122 receives and displays the LCD drive signal 120.”), modified LED backlight setting for the backlight LED matrix for the scaled object (col 7, “the backlight 124 includes strings of light emitting diodes (LEDs), to illuminate the LCD. Selected LEDs are located behind the critical data in an area of the LCD defining an Emergency Zone.”; also, col 8, “A backlight controller 134 is connected to the current source(s) 128 and to the current sinks 130 for setting the current and pulse width to the LED strings to control the display brightness.”), and cause the scaled object to be displayed on a sub-portion of the LCD panel by (col 8, “During operation, when the backlight controller 134 receives the Emergency Mode input signal 136 from the host platform, only the backlight behind the Emergency Zone is illuminated, and power is turned off to the non-critical graphics channel in order to conserve power during the Emergency Mode”; also, col 8, “the critical image, defining the Emergency mode format, is positioned preferably in a central portion of the display”): causing a subset of the plurality of pixels to be enabled according to a video signal from a frame buffer (col 7, “A critical graphics channel (CGC) 102 receives critical data 104 from a host platform and creates a critical image output 106. The critical graphics channel (CGC) 102 includes signal interface electronics, processing, memory, and image rendering electronics.”; also, col 7, “The image merge element 118 includes circuitry that combines each pixel of the image inputs in a prioritized manner such that critical images are legible for any state of the non-critical images. The image merge element 118 outputs a composite critical and noncritical image when both inputs are active. When the noncritical image is turned off, the image merge only passes the critical image.”); and illuminating a sub-portion of the plurality of backlights of the backlight LED matrix according to the modified LED backlight setting (col 8, “During operation, when the backlight controller 134 receives the Emergency Mode input signal 136 from the host platform, only the backlight behind the Emergency Zone is illuminated, and power is turned off to the non-critical graphics channel in order to conserve power during the Emergency Mode”; also, col 8, “Current sinks which are not behind the Emergency Zone strings are de-activated by the Emergency Mode signal.”).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to have modified Kulkarni's invention of a fire alarm panel having a liquid crystal display screen driven from a user interface processor and a user interface storage that hold the images the panel displays, with the features of Neuville's invention of a liquid crystal display driven through an image merge element that combines the image inputs pixel by pixel into the panel drive signal, backlit by strings of light emitting diodes of which only those behind a central critical area are illuminated, and controlled by a backlight controller that sets the current and pulse width supplied to those strings. The combination would have been obvious because Kulkarni describes the fire alarm panel's screen and the information it carries but not the pixel drive path or the backlight behind it, and Neuville supplies exactly that hardware for the same kind of panel, together with a reason to build it that way, which is that a large backlight draws excessive battery power under emergency conditions and that lighting only the region carrying the needed information conserves that power. A fire alarm panel that must continue annunciating from a standby battery after primary alternating current power is lost has the same reason to be built that way, and each of Neuville's parts performs in the combined panel the same function it performs in Neuville.
Lee discloses determine, in response to the fire control panel transitioning from a normal operational mode to a battery backup mode (para 47, “The controller 300 controls the auxiliary power of the battery unit 400 to be supplied to the display unit 200 and the signal processor 100 in order to keep the operation of the display apparatus 1 when the main power is cut off. If it is determined that the supply of the external power is cut off based on a flag signal from the input power sensor, the controller 300 determines that the main power is shut off.”; also, para 56, “the controller 300 supplies the main power to the signal processor 100 and the display unit 200 at operation 600, and supplies the power of the battery unit 400 as the auxiliary power at operation 800 when the supply of the main power is shut off at operation 700.”; also, para 46, “The input power sensor senses an input state of the external power and generates and outputs a flag signal to the controller 300.”), determine, in response to the fire control panel being in the battery backup mode (para 49, “When supplying the auxiliary power of the battery unit 400, the controller 300 may adjust the brightness of an image displayed on the display unit 200 in accordance with a residual quantity of the battery unit 400.”; also, para 46, “The input power sensor senses an input state of the external power and generates and outputs a flag signal to the controller 300.”) using a backlight settings lookup table (para 51, “The storage unit 500 stores a lookup table that contains information about the brightness of an image corresponding to the residual quantity of the battery unit 400. The controller 300 adjusts the brightness of light from the backlight unit 210 with reference to the lookup table stored in the storage unit 500.”; also, para 52, “The lookup table stored in the storage unit 500 includes information about pulse width modulation (PWM) duty of the maximum usable auxiliary power (hereinafter, referred to as ‘maximum brightness information of an image’) within a predetermined residual quantity of the battery unit 400.”; also, para 62, “the brightness signal based on the video signal received from the signal processor 100 is compared with the maximum brightness signal corresponding to the residual quantity of the battery unit 400, i.e., the maximum brightness information of an image referred to in the lookup table of the storage unit 500 at operation 921.”).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to have further modified Kulkarni in view of Neuville, in which a fire alarm panel displays fire system information on a liquid crystal screen and confines that display to an illuminated central region with the surrounding backlight dark in order to conserve power, with the features of Lee's invention of a display apparatus that senses the loss of external power, automatically switches the display over to its battery, and then sets the brightness of the backlight by consulting a lookup table held in storage that pairs an operating condition with the pulse width modulation duty to be applied. The combination would have been obvious because Neuville enters its reduced display on a mode signal asserted from outside the display, and a fire alarm panel has no operator standing by to assert one, while Lee derives the same change from the loss of external power that a fire alarm panel is built to survive. Lee's stored table then supplies the second thing the combined method needs, which is a determinate source for the backlight value the panel is to use once it is on battery, so that the panel does not have to compute that value in the moment external power fails. Retrieving a control value from a stored table rather than recomputing it is the ordinary choice for equipment that has to enter a reduced power state predictably, and it makes the panel's battery behavior reviewable by editing a table entry rather than by reprogramming the controller.
Hassan discloses wherein the scaled object corresponds to the default object displayed on the LCD panel during the normal operational mode (col 7, “Preferably, the resolution of the projected display 308 is also reduced accordingly, so that the projected display 308 appears to the user as a scaled-down version of the original projected display 302.”; also, col 2, “Reduction of display size is achieved by reducing power to individual pixels or portions of the display. Although the resulting display can be of a smaller actual size, it need not be of a smaller resolution.”) such that the scaled object is smaller than the default object when displayed on the LCD panel (col 7, “The display is partitioned into a first portion 304 and a surrounding portion 306. Power is reduced or eliminated to pixels of the surrounding portion 306, resulting in the appearance of the display unit 300 projecting a display at a smaller size.”; also, col 7, “Preferably, the resolution of the projected display 308 is also reduced accordingly, so that the projected display 308 appears to the user as a scaled-down version of the original projected display 302.”; also, col 7, “The smaller portion 310 is preferably smaller than the previously displayed portion 304.”; also, col 8, “At step 410, the resolution of the projected display is accordingly reduced so that the projected portion of the display appears to the user as a smaller version of the previously projected display.”).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to have further modified Kulkarni in view of Neuville and Lee, in which a fire alarm panel switches automatically to its standby battery when external power is lost and then confines the information it displays to an illuminated sub-portion of its liquid crystal panel, with the features of Hassan's invention of partitioning a liquid crystal display into a first portion and a surrounding portion, reducing or eliminating power to the pixels of the surrounding portion, and reducing the projected display so that what remains is a scaled down version of the display the same panel had been projecting before. The combination would have been obvious because the combined panel already darkens everything outside a central region once it is running on its battery, and darkening that area settles where the surviving content sits without settling what that content is. Hassan answers that open question for a liquid crystal panel conserving stored energy, and its answer is that the content retained in the smaller area is a smaller version of what the panel had been showing, which leaves the operator reading the same information he was reading a moment earlier instead of something he has to reinterpret during an alarm condition. Fitting displayed content to the area that is still being driven is the predictable consequence of driving a smaller area, and Hassan shows that a person of ordinary skill obtained that result on the same kind of panel for the same purpose.
Zenda discloses wherein the modified LED backlight setting is dimmer than an LED backlight setting used to display the default object during the normal operational mode (col 6, “A voltage corresponding to the maximum luminance with the heat not exceeding a certain value. (2 V for example) The power consumption of the battery 51 need not be considered, since the AC adapter 53 is connected and the battery 51 is not used.”; also, col 6, “The battery 51 is being used. The luminance should be controlled lower to constrain the power consumption. A voltage corresponding to the luminance. (1 V for example)”; also, col 3, “During the use of the battery, the luminance is controlled to lower value to decrease the power consumption. When the AC adapter is connected, the power consumption of the battery need not be considered. For this reason, the luminance can be held to a maximum value as far as the heat does not exceed a certain level.”; also, col 7, “Note that in the above embodiment only the luminance control for a DC type PDP has been described, but the similar control is possible for the back-lit LCD.”).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to have further modified Kulkarni in view of Neuville, Lee, and Hassan, in which a fire alarm panel running on its standby battery shows a smaller version of its normal screen inside an illuminated sub-portion of its liquid crystal panel, with the features of Zenda's invention of driving a display at a maximum luminance value while an alternating current adapter is connected and at a lower luminance value while the battery is being used, the same control being applicable to a back lit liquid crystal display. The combination would have been obvious because the combined panel has already settled what to show and where to show it when external power is lost, and the one quantity it has not yet settled is how hard to drive the light behind the region that stays lit. Zenda settles that quantity directly for a device drawing on a battery, giving both the value to use in each condition and the rule for choosing between them from which source is supplying power. A person of ordinary skill setting the backlight of a fire alarm panel that must annunciate for an extended standby interval out of a fixed reserve would have adopted Zenda's lower battery value rather than holding the light at the level used while the panel was on mains power, because every unit of light the panel produces across that interval is drawn from the reserve that has to keep the panel annunciating, and because Zenda obtains the reduction by supplying a different control value to the same display without altering how the display itself works.
Regarding claim 17, Kulkarni as modified by Neuville, Lee, Hassan, and Zenda discloses the fire control panel of claim 16, wherein Neuville discloses the subset of the plurality of pixels has a same corresponding location on the LCD panel as the sub-portion of the plurality of backlights of the backlight LED matrix (col 7, “the backlight 124 includes strings of light emitting diodes (LEDs), to illuminate the LCD. Selected LEDs are located behind the critical data in an area of the LCD defining an Emergency Zone.”; also, col 8, “During operation, when the backlight controller 134 receives the Emergency Mode input signal 136 from the host platform, only the backlight behind the Emergency Zone is illuminated, and power is turned off to the non-critical graphics channel in order to conserve power during the Emergency Mode”).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to have further modified Kulkarni in view of Neuville, Lee, Hassan, and Zenda, in which the object the panel shows on its standby battery occupies a sub-portion of the liquid crystal panel with only the backlight strings behind it illuminated, with the features of Neuville's further invention of locating the selected light emitting diodes behind the displayed data, so that the illuminated strings and the region carrying the content occupy the same area of the liquid crystal panel. The combination would have been obvious because a liquid crystal pixel is only visible when the backlight behind it is lit, so the lit sub-portion of the matrix and the enabled subset of pixels have to coincide for the reduced display to be readable at all. Neuville states that placement expressly, and a person of ordinary skill would have adopted it because illuminating a region that carries no content, or writing content into a region that is dark, would waste the very reserve the reduced display exists to preserve.
Regarding claim 18, Kulkarni as modified by Neuville, Lee, Hassan, and Zenda discloses the fire control panel of claim 16, wherein Neuville further discloses: a remaining portion of the plurality of pixels separate from the subset of the plurality of pixels are not enabled by the video controller (col 8, “The NCGC 108 shown in phantom lines is un-powered by the power control signal.”; also, col 7, “The image merge element 118 includes circuitry that combines each pixel of the image inputs in a prioritized manner such that critical images are legible for any state of the non-critical images. The image merge element 118 outputs a composite critical and noncritical image when both inputs are active. When the noncritical image is turned off, the image merge only passes the critical image.”); and a remaining portion of the plurality of backlights separate from the sub-portion of the plurality of backlights are not illuminated by the backlight controller (col 8, “Current sinks which are not behind the Emergency Zone strings are de-activated by the Emergency Mode signal.”; also, col 8, “During operation, when the backlight controller 134 receives the Emergency Mode input signal 136 from the host platform, only the backlight behind the Emergency Zone is illuminated, and power is turned off to the non-critical graphics channel in order to conserve power during the Emergency Mode”).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to have further modified Kulkarni in view of Neuville, Lee, Hassan, and Zenda, in which the object the panel shows on its standby battery occupies a sub-portion of the liquid crystal panel with only the backlight strings behind it illuminated, with the features of Neuville's further invention of leaving the non-critical graphics channel un-powered so that no image is written outside the retained region, and de-activating the current sinks of the strings that are not behind that region so that the surrounding backlight is not illuminated. The combination would have been obvious because the saving the combined panel is after comes from the areas it stops driving, not from the area it keeps driving, so leaving the surrounding pixels unwritten and the surrounding strings dark is what converts the reduced display into a reduced draw on the standby battery. Neuville describes both halves of that shutdown on the same panel and reports the conserved power that results, and a person of ordinary skill would have carried both across for that reason.
Regarding claim 19, Kulkarni as modified by Neuville, Lee, Hassan, and Zenda discloses the fire control panel of claim 16, wherein Kulkarni further discloses the scaled object is comprised of text associated with a fire control system (para 45, “The display screen 3 will often display areas which, by their shape or labeling indicate that they can be selected by the operator. Looking at FIG. 4, there are a number of selectable areas on the display screen including General, Fire Warnings, Faults, Isolates, Test, Isolate On, and Print.”; also, para 47, “the display screen shown in FIG. 5 is displayed giving information on the sounders.”).
Regarding claim 20, Kulkarni as modified by Neuville, Lee, Hassan, and Zenda discloses the fire control panel of claim 16, wherein Kulkarni further discloses the default object is comprised of at least one of text and graphical representations associated with a fire control system (para 30, “It is a graphical display screen.”, also, para 44, “A library of images for display by the display screen 3 is stored in the UI storage 19 in a folder file structure, and the default screen is made up of one or more of the images from within the library.”; also, para 45, “The display screen 3 will often display areas which, by their shape or labeling indicate that they can be selected by the operator. Looking at FIG. 4, there are a number of selectable areas on the display screen including General, Fire Warnings, Faults, Isolates, Test, Isolate On, and Print.”).
Response to Arguments
Applicant's arguments with respect to the prior art rejections have been fully considered. They are moot in part and not persuasive in part. The Examiner agrees that the previously cited art does not teach that the scaled object corresponds to a default object displayed during the normal operational mode such that the scaled object is smaller than that default object, or that the modified light emitting diode backlight setting is dimmer than a light emitting diode backlight setting used to display the default object during the normal operational mode. Hassan and Zenda have been applied to those two limitations, and the arguments directed to them are moot. The arguments directed to limitations that the present rejection continues to rely on the previously applied references for are not persuasive.
On page 7 through 9, the applicant proposed that Kulkarni, Neuville, and Lee do not teach, suggest, or render obvious for the newly amended claims 1, 11, and 16. The argument is moot as to two of the limitations now recited in the amended independent claims and is not persuasive as to a third. It is moot as to the correspondence and size relationship between the scaled object and the default object, and as to the comparison between the two light emitting diode backlight settings, because the present rejection is not made over Kulkarni, Neuville, and Lee alone. Hassan and Zenda have been added, and the rejection set out above is over Kulkarni in view of Neuville, Lee, Hassan, and Zenda. The argument is not persuasive as to the third such limitation, which is that the scaled object includes information associated with operation of the fire control panel, because the present rejection continues to rely on Kulkarni for that limitation.
On page 9, the applicant indicates that Kulkarni does teach a fire alarm panel having a panel interface but does not teach a scaled object to be displayed during a battery backup mode of the fire alarm panel. The argument is not persuasive. The rejection does not rely on Kulkarni for that limitation, and nonobviousness cannot be established by attacking the references individually where the rejection is based upon a combination of references. Kulkarni is relied upon for the fire alarm panel, its graphical liquid crystal display screen, the user interface processor and user interface storage that drive that screen from a stored library of images, the default screen those images compose, and the fire system information the screen carries, and as shown in the citations Kulkarni discloses that "A library of images for display by the display screen 3 is stored in the UI storage 19 in a folder file structure, and the default screen is made up of one or more of the images from within the library." (Kulkarni, paragraph [0044]), and that "It will be understood from the foregoing that the UI processor 18 sends the display signal to the display screen 3 so as to display information and the like relating to the fire detection system." (Kulkarni, paragraph [0042]). The transition into the battery backup mode is relied upon from Lee, which discloses that "The controller 300 controls the auxiliary power of the battery unit 400 to be supplied to the display unit 200 and the signal processor 100 in order to keep the operation of the display apparatus 1 when the main power is cut off. If it is determined that the supply of the external power is cut off based on a flag signal from the input power sensor, the controller 300 determines that the main power is shut off." (Lee, paragraph [0047]). The display of the scaled object on a sub-portion of the panel is relied upon from Neuville, which discloses that "the critical image, defining the Emergency mode format, is positioned preferably in a central portion of the display" (Neuville, col. 8, lines 40-42). The size relationship between that object and the default object is relied upon from Hassan, which discloses that "The display is partitioned into a first portion 304 and a surrounding portion 306. Power is reduced or eliminated to pixels of the surrounding portion 306, resulting in the appearance of the display unit 300 projecting a display at a smaller size." (Hassan, col. 7, lines 44-48).
On page 9 through 10, the applicant indicates that Neuville teaches a series of claimed limitations but does not teach that the critical image is a scaled image of a default image displayed during normal operation of the host platform, or that the critical image is dimmer when displayed in the emergency mode format. The argument is moot because the new ground of rejection does not rely on Neuville for either relationship. The Examiner agrees that Neuville does not teach them. The correspondence between the scaled object and the default object, and the size relationship between them, are relied upon from Hassan. The comparison between the two backlight settings is relied upon from Zenda. Neuville is relied upon for the panel architecture that carries these teachings.
On page 10, the applicant indicates that Lee does teach the restriction of the brightness of an image on a display apparatus while operating under a battery power but does not teach that the image displayed is a scaled object corresponding to a default object displayed during normal operation of the display apparatus such that the scaled object is smaller than the default object when displayed on the display panel when operating under battery power. The argument is not persuasive. The rejection does not rely on Lee for the scaled object or for the size relationship, and nonobviousness cannot be established by attacking the references individually where the rejection is based upon a combination of references. Lee is relied upon for the automatic transition into battery operation and for the stored table from which the backlight value used in that state is retrieved, and as shown in the citations Lee discloses that "the controller 300 supplies the main power to the signal processor 100 and the display unit 200 at operation 600, and supplies the power of the battery unit 400 as the auxiliary power at operation 800 when the supply of the main power is shut off at operation 700." (Lee, paragraph [0056]), and that "The storage unit 500 stores a lookup table that contains information about the brightness of an image corresponding to the residual quantity of the battery unit 400. The controller 300 adjusts the brightness of light from the backlight unit 210 with reference to the lookup table stored in the storage unit 500." (Lee, paragraph [0051]). The scaled object and the size relationship are relied upon from Hassan, which discloses that "At step 410, the resolution of the projected display is accordingly reduced so that the projected portion of the display appears to the user as a smaller version of the previously projected display." (Hassan, col. 8), and that "The smaller portion 310 is preferably smaller than the previously displayed portion 304." (Hassan, col. 7).
On page 10, the applicant indicates that Kulkarni, Neuville, and Lee, either alone or in combination, do not teach determining, in response to a fire control panel transitioning from a normal operational mode to a battery backup mode, a scaled object to be displayed on a display panel of the fire control panel, wherein the scaled object includes information associated with operation of the fire control panel, and wherein the scaled object corresponds to a default object displayed during the normal operational mode such that the scaled object is smaller than the default object when displayed on the display panel in the battery backup mode, or causing the scaled object to be displayed on a sub-portion of the display panel using a modified LED backlight setting, wherein the modified LED backlight setting is dimmer than an LED backlight setting used to display the default object during the normal operational mode. The argument is moot in part and not persuasive in part. It is moot as to the correspondence and size relationship and as to the backlight comparison, because the argument is addressed by its own terms to a combination of Kulkarni, Neuville, and Lee, while the rejection set out above is over Kulkarni in view of Neuville, Lee, Hassan, and Zenda, and those two relationships are supplied by the two references the argument does not address. As shown in the citations, Hassan discloses that "Preferably, the resolution of the projected display 308 is also reduced accordingly, so that the projected display 308 appears to the user as a scaled-down version of the original projected display 302." (Hassan, col. 7), and that "The smaller portion 310 is preferably smaller than the previously displayed portion 304." (Hassan, col. 7), and Zenda discloses that "The battery 51 is being used. The luminance should be controlled lower to constrain the power consumption. A voltage corresponding to the luminance. (1 V for example)" (Zenda, col. 6), and that "A voltage corresponding to the maximum luminance with the heat not exceeding a certain value. (2 V for example) The power consumption of the battery 51 need not be considered, since the AC adapter 53 is connected and the battery 51 is not used." (Zenda, col. 6). It is not persuasive as to the remaining limitations recited in the argued passage, which the present rejection continues to rely on the previously applied references for. The transition into the battery backup mode is relied upon from Lee, which discloses that "The controller 300 controls the auxiliary power of the battery unit 400 to be supplied to the display unit 200 and the signal processor 100 in order to keep the operation of the display apparatus 1 when the main power is cut off. If it is determined that the supply of the external power is cut off based on a flag signal from the input power sensor, the controller 300 determines that the main power is shut off." (Lee, paragraph [0047]). The scaled object displayed on a sub-portion of the panel using a modified light emitting diode backlight setting is relied upon from Neuville, which discloses that "the backlight 124 includes strings of light emitting diodes (LEDs), to illuminate the LCD. Selected LEDs are located behind the critical data in an area of the LCD defining an Emergency Zone." (Neuville, col. 7), and that "During operation, when the backlight controller 134 receives the Emergency Mode input signal 136 from the host platform, only the backlight behind the Emergency Zone is illuminated, and power is turned off to the non-critical graphics channel in order to conserve power during the Emergency Mode" (Neuville, col. 8). The information associated with operation of the fire control panel is relied upon from Kulkarni, which discloses that "It will be understood from the foregoing that the UI processor 18 sends the display signal to the display screen 3 so as to display information and the like relating to the fire detection system." (Kulkarni, paragraph [0042]).
Conclusion
Applicant's amendment necessitated the new ground(s) of rejection presented in this Office action. Accordingly, THIS ACTION IS MADE FINAL. See MPEP § 706.07(a). Applicant is reminded of the extension of time policy as set forth in 37 CFR 1.136(a).
A shortened statutory period for reply to this final action is set to expire THREE MONTHS from the mailing date of this action. In the event a first reply is filed within TWO MONTHS of the mailing date of this final action and the advisory action is not mailed until after the end of the THREE-MONTH shortened statutory period, then the shortened statutory period will expire on the date the advisory action is mailed, and any nonprovisional extension fee (37 CFR 1.17(a)) pursuant to 37 CFR 1.136(a) will be calculated from the mailing date of the advisory action. In no event, however, will the statutory period for reply expire later than SIX MONTHS from the mailing date of this final action.
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to Jai Li whose telephone number is (571)272-1170. The examiner can normally be reached Mon-Thu between 06:00-16:00 EST.
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If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner’s supervisor, Xiao Wu can be reached at (571)272-7761. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300.
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/JAI W LI/Junior Patent Examiner, Art Unit 2613
/XIAO M WU/Supervisory Patent Examiner, Art Unit 2613
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