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, 7 and 10 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(1) as being anticipated by Miyazaki (US PG Pub. 20230088006).
Regarding claim 1, Miyazaki discloses an illuminator (optical system 100 of fig. 2) including:
a first light source (shown in the examiners illustration of fig. 2) configured to output light; a
collimator element (collimator lens 13 of fig. 2) configured to parallelize the light output from the first light source;
a light collector (focusing lens 15 of fig. 2) configured to collect light output from the collimator element and direct the collected light toward an illumination receiving region; and
a deflector (focusing mirror 14 of fig. 2) disposed between the collimator element (13) and the light collector (15),
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wherein the first light source (shown in the examiners illustration of fig. 2 above) includes a first substrate (substrate 110 of fig. 2) having a first surface, a first light emitter (shown in the examiners illustration of fig. 2 above) disposed at the first surface and configured to output first light along a first direction, and a second light emitter (shown in the examiners illustration of fig. 2 above) disposed at the first surface and configured to output second light along the first direction (shown in the examiners illustration of fig. 2 above),
the first and second light emitters are arranged along a second direction that intersects with the first direction (shown in the examiners illustration of fig. 2 above),
the collimator element (13) includes a first lens having a first region that the first light enters and a second region that differs from the first region and the second light enters (shown in the examiners illustration of fig. 2 above),
the first and second regions are arranged along the second direction in a state in which a first optical axis of the first lens is interposed therebetween (shown in the examiners illustration of fig. 2 above), and
the deflector (14) is configured to change a traveling direction of the first light output from the first region (shown in the examiners illustration of fig. 2 above) and a traveling direction of the second light output from the second region in such a way that a chief ray of the first light and a chief ray of the second light each travel along the first optical axis (shown in the examiners illustration of fig. 2 above).
Regarding claim 7, Miyazaki discloses wherein the first and second light emitters are each a laser diode (para. 0022; blue beam is emitted from a plurality of laser diodes 11 (hereinafter referred to as “LDs 11”)).
Regarding claim 10, Miyazaki discloses a light modulator (display element 28 of fig. 1) configured to modulate light output from the illuminator (light source device 10 of fig. 1) in accordance with image information (para. 0029; display element 28 is a spatial optical modulator (SOM), for example, a digital micromirror device (DMD). The DMD switches tilt angles of a plurality of micro mirrors arranged in an array individually and at high speed according to pixel values of image data, determines whether or not light is reflected to the projection lens 29 on a pixel-by-pixel and image frame-by-frame basis, and forms a light image (image) by the reflected light); and a projection optical apparatus (projection lens 29 of fig. 1) configured to project the light modulated by the light modulator (para. 0030; projection lens 29 guides and emits the light image emitted from the display element 28).
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 103
The following is a quotation of 35 U.S.C. 103 which forms the basis for all obviousness rejections set forth in this Office action:
A patent for a claimed invention may not be obtained, notwithstanding that the claimed invention is not identically disclosed as set forth in section 102, if the differences between the claimed invention and the prior art are such that the claimed invention as a whole would have been obvious before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to a person having ordinary skill in the art to which the claimed invention pertains. Patentability shall not be negated by the manner in which the invention was made.
Claim(s) 8 and 9 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Miyazaki (US PG Pub. 20230088006) as applied to claim 8 above, and further in view of Akiyama (US PG Pub. 20190243225).
Regarding claim 8, Miyazaki discloses Miyazaki discloses an illuminator (optical system 100 of fig. 2) including: a first light source (shown in the examiners illustration of fig. 2) configured to output light; a collimator element (collimator lens 13 of fig. 2) configured to parallelize the light output from the first light source; a light collector (focusing lens 15 of fig. 2) configured to collect light output from the collimator element and direct the collected light toward an illumination receiving region; and a deflector (focusing mirror 14 of fig. 2) disposed between the collimator element (13) and the light collector (15).
Miyazaki fails to teach wherein the first and second light emitters are each a red laser diode.
Akiyama discloses wherein the first and second light emitters are each a red laser diode (shown in the examiners illustration of fig. 2 below).
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It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art prior to the filing date of the application to modify the illumination system of Miyazaki with the red lasers of Akiyama in order to increase the color gamut.
Regarding claim 9, Miyazaki discloses wherein the laser diode (LD 11 of fig. 3) has a light emitting surface (surface 113a of fig. 3), and is so disposed that a longitudinal direction of the light emitting surface is oriented in the second direction (illustrated in fig. 3), and a widthwise direction of the light emitting surface is oriented in a third direction that intersects with the first and second directions (illustrated in fig. 3), and a length of the first lens in the second direction is shorter than a length of the first lens in the third direction (illustrated in fig. 3).
Miyazaki fails to teach wherein the first and second light emitters are each a red laser diode.
Akiyama discloses wherein the first and second light emitters are each a red laser diode (shown in the examiners illustration of fig. 2 above).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art prior to the filing date of the application to modify the illumination system of Miyazaki with the red lasers of Akiyama in order to increase the color gamut.
Allowable Subject Matter
Claims 2-6 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.
The subject matter of claim 2 that was found to be allowable is wherein the collimator element further includes a second lens having a third region that the third light enters, and a fourth region that differs from the third region and the fourth light enters, the third and fourth regions are arranged along the second direction in a state in which a second optical axis of the second lens is interposed therebetween, the deflector is configured to change a traveling direction of the third light output from the third region and a traveling direction of the fourth light output from the fourth region in such a way that a chief ray of the third light and a chief ray of the fourth light each travel along the second optical axis, and the deflector is disposed between the collimator element and the light collector at a position where a first distance along the second direction between the first light and the second light, a second distance along the second direction between the second light and the third light, and a third distance along the second direction between the third light and the fourth light are equal to each other when the first light, the second light, the third light, and the fourth light are projected onto an imaginary plane perpendicular to the first and second optical axes.
Claims 3-6 are allowable as being dependent on claim 2.
The closest available prior art Miyazaki discloses the collimator element (13) includes a first lens having a first region that the first light enters and a second region that differs from the first region and the second light enters (shown in the examiners illustration of fig. 2 above), the first and second regions are arranged along the second direction in a state in which a first optical axis of the first lens is interposed therebetween (shown in the examiners illustration of fig. 2 above), and the deflector (14) is configured to change a traveling direction of the first light output from the first region (shown in the examiners illustration of fig. 2 above) and a traveling direction of the second light output from the second region in such a way that a chief ray of the first light and a chief ray of the second light each travel along the first optical axis (shown in the examiners illustration of fig. 2 above); however, Miyazaki fails to teach wherein the collimator element further includes a second lens having a third region that the third light enters, and a fourth region that differs from the third region and the fourth light enters, the third and fourth regions are arranged along the second direction in a state in which a second optical axis of the second lens is interposed therebetween.
Conclusion
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to DANELL L OWENS whose telephone number is (571)270-5365. The examiner can normally be reached 9:00am-5:00pm M-F.
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/DANELL L OWENS/Examiner, Art Unit 2882 11 July 2026
/TOAN TON/Supervisory Patent Examiner, Art Unit 2882
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