DETAILED ACTION
Notice of Pre-AIA or AIA Status
The present application, filed on or after March 16, 2013, is being examined under the first inventor to file provisions of the AIA .
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 102
The following is a quotation of the appropriate paragraphs of 35 U.S.C. 102 that form the basis for the rejections under this section made in this Office action:
A person shall be entitled to a patent unless –
(a)(1) the claimed invention was patented, described in a printed publication, or in public use, on sale, or otherwise available to the public before the effective filing date of the claimed invention.
Claim(s) 1-2 and 13-14 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(1) as being anticipated by Kuo et al. (Luxapose: Indoor Positioning with Mobile Phones and Visible Light, 2014).
Regarding claim 1, Kuo et al. discloses A method (Fig. 1) for calibrating the demodulation of data modulated by amplitude modulation (Fig. 1; Fig. 4) of a light signal emitted by a light source of an encoder (Fig. 1; a plurality of light sources is shown) the modulated data being encapsulated in formatted transmission packets (Fig. 1; Fig. 4 (e); Hybrid Encoding. An LED transmission of a 3kHz Manchester encoded data stream and a 6 kHz pure tone. Data is 4 symbols and the preamble is 2 symbols), the method being implemented by a demodulation calibration device including a digital image capture device (Fig. 1; Page 3, left column, first paragraph; A phone receives these transmissions using its camera and recruits a combination of local and cloud resources to determine its precise location and orientation relative to the beacons’ coordinate system) having associated sensitivity (Fig. 5; Page 5, left column, section 5.1.2 Camera Control, Film Speed; Film speed (ISO setting) determines the sensitivity or gain of the image sensor. We minimize the exposure time and film speed to maximize the contrast ratio, improving SNR. ) and time of exposure parameters (Fig. 5; Page 5, left column, section 5.1.2 Camera Control; Exposure Control; For a 1 kHz signal (0.5 ms on, 0.5 ms off), an exposure time of longer than 0.5 ms (1/2000 s) guarantees that each pixel will be at least partially exposed to an on period, which would reduce possible contrast and result in poorer discrimination between light and dark bands), and an electronic computing device configured to receive digital images acquired by said image capture device (Fig. 1; Various computing modules are shown. A phone receives these transmissions using its camera and recruits a combination of local and cloud resources to determine its precise location and orientation relative to the beacons’ coordinate system using an angle-of-arrival localization algorithm, thereby enabling location-based services), the method comprising the steps of:
A) automatic adjustment (Fig. 5; Page 7, left column, Section 6.2 Smartphone Receiver, third paragraph; Exposure and ISO settings are controlled by OS-managed feedback loops) of the sensitivity (Fig. 5; Page 5, left column, section 5.1.2 Camera Control, Film Speed; Film speed (ISO setting) determines the sensitivity or gain of the image sensor. We minimize the exposure time and film speed to maximize the contrast ratio, improving SNR) and time of exposure parameters (Fig. 5; Page 5, left column, section 5.1.2 Camera Control; Exposure Control; For a 1 kHz signal (0.5 ms on, 0.5 ms off), an exposure time of longer than 0.5 ms (1/2000 s) guarantees that each pixel will be at least partially exposed to an on period, which would reduce possible contrast and result in poorer discrimination between light and dark bands) for placing the image capture device in an image acquisition mode (Fig. 1; Page 3, left column, Section 3 System Overview; The front-facing camera in a hand-held smartphone takes pictures periodically) suitable for decoding data transmitted by visible light communication (Fig. 1; Page 3, left column, Section 3 System Overview; If beacons are likely present, the images are decoded to both determine the beacon locations in the image itself and to also extract data encoded in the beacons’ modulated transmissions),
B) acquisition of a digital image by that digital image capture device (Fig. 1; Page 3, left column, Section 3 System Overview; The front-facing camera in a hand-held smartphone takes pictures periodically), a digital image acquired comprising a zone comprising a zone with light and dark fringes (Fig. 4; the image acquired comprises alternating bright and dark bands as shown), corresponding respectively to high and low states of the received light signal (Fig. 4 (a); the bright band corresponds to LED on and dark band corresponds to LED off as shown),
C) extraction of a series of samples from the acquired digital image, each extracted sample taking one of two predetermined values (Fig. 4; Page 5, right column, section 5.3 Decoding Data in Image; Once the centroid and extent of any landmarks are found in an image, the next step is to extract the data encoded in beacon transmissions in these regions using one of four methods. As shown in the figure, the bright band and dark band represents logic 0 and logic 1 (In Manchester coding, logic 0 is represented by a high-to-low (falling) transition in the middle of the bit period while logic 1 is represented by a low-to-high (rising) transition in the middle of the bit period)),
D) calculation of a plurality of sampling factors from said series of samples, each sampling factor being associated with a predetermined pattern (Fig. 5; Page 5, left column, section 5.1.2 Camera Control, Film Speed; Film speed (ISO setting) determines the sensitivity or gain of the image sensor. We minimize the exposure time and film speed to maximize the contrast ratio, improving SNR) and indicative of a number of samples of the same value representative of said pattern (Fig. 4; the LED is modulated at 1 kHz for Pure Tone and Manchester Encoding while 3 kHz Manchester encoded data stream and a 6 kHz pure tone are modulated for Hybrid Encoding), and storage, for each predetermined pattern, of the calculated sampling factor associated to said pattern (Fig. 5; the exposure time and different ISO are stored and recorded as shown).
Regarding claim 2, the present system discloses The method according to claim 1, as described and applied above, further including a step of application of the calculated sampling factors to recover at least one transmitted data packet (Fig. 5; Page 5, left column, section 5.1.2 Camera Control, Film Speed; Page 5, right column, section 5.3 Decoding Data in Images; We minimize the exposure time and film speed to maximize the contrast ratio, improving SNR. Once the centroid and extent of any landmarks are found in an image, the next step is to extract the data encoded in beacon
transmissions in these regions using one of four methods).
Regarding claim 13, Kuo et al. discloses A device (Fig. 1) for calibration of demodulation of data modulated by amplitude modulation (Fig. 1; Fig. 4; Manchester modulation scheme) of a light signal emitted by a light source of an encoder device (Fig. 1; Fig. 4; a plurality of light sources is shown. A Manchester encoding is performed), the modulated data being encapsulated in formatted transmission packets (Fig. 1; Fig. 4 (e); Hybrid Encoding. An LED transmission of a 3kHz Manchester encoded data stream and a 6 kHz pure tone. Data is 4 symbols and the preamble is 2 symbols), including a digital image capture device (Fig. 1; Page 3, left column, first paragraph; A phone receives these transmissions using its camera and recruits a combination of local and cloud resources to determine its precise location and orientation relative to the beacons’ coordinate system) having associated sensitivity (Fig. 5; Page 5, left column, section 5.1.2 Camera Control, Film Speed; Film speed (ISO setting) determines the sensitivity or gain of the image sensor. We minimize the exposure time and film speed to maximize the contrast ratio, improving SNR.) and time of exposure parameters (Fig. 5; Page 5, left column, section 5.1.2 Camera Control; Exposure Control; For a 1 kHz signal (0.5 ms on, 0.5 ms off), an exposure time of longer than 0.5 ms (1/2000 s) guarantees that each pixel will be at least partially exposed to an on period, which would reduce possible contrast and result in poorer discrimination between light and dark bands), and an electronic computing device configured to receive digital images acquired by said image capture device (Fig. 1; Various computing modules are shown. A phone receives these transmissions using its camera and recruits a combination of local and cloud resources to determine its precise location and orientation relative to the beacons’ coordinate system using an angle-of-arrival localization algorithm, thereby enabling location-based services), configured to implement a method according to claim 1, as described and applied above.
Regarding claim 14, the present system discloses The demodulation calibration device according to claim 13, as described and applied above, said device being a mobile phone or an electronic tablet (Fig. 1; Page 3, left column, first paragraph; A phone receives these transmissions using its camera and recruits a combination of local and cloud resources to determine its precise location and orientation relative to the beacons’ coordinate system).
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.
The factual inquiries for establishing a background for determining obviousness under 35 U.S.C. 103 are summarized as follows:
1. Determining the scope and contents of the prior art.
2. Ascertaining the differences between the prior art and the claims at issue.
3. Resolving the level of ordinary skill in the pertinent art.
4. Considering objective evidence present in the application indicating obviousness or nonobviousness.
Claim(s) 3 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Kuo et al. (Luxapose: Indoor Positioning with Mobile Phones and Visible Light, 2014) in view of Matthews et al. (US9198204B2).
Regarding claim 3, the present system discloses The method according to claim 2, as described and applied above.
However, the present system does not expressly disclose after recovery of at least one packet of transmitted data, validation of said data by application of an error detection code.
Matthews et al. discloses after recovery of at least one packet of transmitted data (Fig. 7; the demodulator 702 and clock recovery 704 are shown), validation of said data by application of an error detection code (Fig. 7; Column 10, lines 44-49; The clock recovery 704 then discards any extra samples and removes the line coding. The output of clock recovery 704 is then sent to an FEC decoder 705 which corrects any errors found in the transmission and recovers one or more commissioning messages).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to implement FEC scheme, as taught by Matthews et al., in the present system in order to correct errors in the received signal.
Claim(s) 12 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Kuo et al. (Luxapose: Indoor Positioning with Mobile Phones and Visible Light, 2014).
Regarding claim 12, the present system discloses The method according to claim 1, as described and applied above.
Regarding the limitation, the sensitivity is adjusted to 55% of a maximum sensitivity of the image capture device, the claimed differences for this claim exist not as a result of an attempt by Applicant to solve an unknown problem but merely amount to the selection of expedients known as design choices to one of ordinary skill in the art. There is no evidence that the limitation has any mechanical function in relation to the underlying article or does it provide any unexpected advantage.
Allowable Subject Matter
Claims 4-11 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
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JAI M. LEE
Examiner
Art Unit 2634
/JAI M LEE/Examiner, Art Unit 2634
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