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
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, 5-8, 12-15, 19-20 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over US 20190310079 A1-Hoegele et al (Hereinafter referred to as “Hoeg”).
Regarding claim 1, Hoeg discloses a three-dimensional shape measurement apparatus (Fig. 1) comprising:
a projector that includes a projector lens and projects a stripe pattern ([0107], projection device; [0087], the projector and camera lenses used for pattern projection and pattern capturing; [0097], projection device, which is configured to project the partial light patterns separately from one another onto the object surface; [0117], wherein partial light pattern is a stripe pattern);
a camera that includes a camera lens and captures an image of the stripe pattern projected by the projector to acquire the captured image of the stripe pattern ([0107], camera; [0055], What is known as a modulation transfer function (MTF) of the capturing device can be considered herefor. In a known manner, said function juxtaposes the contrast which is capturable by a capturing device with a spatial frequency in a captured stripe pattern); and
a hardware processor ([0108], computer or processor), wherein
the hardware processor
measures a three-dimensional shape of a measurement target based on the captured image ([0022], [0106]), and
determines a cycle of the stripe pattern to be projected by the projector ([0048], wherein the higher frequency of the partial light pattern (or generally the frequency of an image or light pattern) can be understood to mean a frequency of individual pattern, coding or image elements along a given axis. In general terms, it can thus be a spatial frequency) from a plurality of cycle candidates ([0049], wherein The ascertainment of corresponding frequencies and classification of light patterns (in particular of stripe patterns) in accordance with the frequencies is known in the available technical field), and
the plurality of cycle candidates are set based on a synthetic MTF (Modulation Transfer Function) characteristic generated by combining a first MTF characteristic of the projector lens and a second MTF characteristic of the camera lens ([0055]; 0079], wherein total of four partial light patterns, wherein two combinations of in each case two of the partial light patterns exist, from which the basic light pattern can be composed. Provision can likewise be made for the production of six partial light patterns, wherein three combinations of two partial light patterns for making up the basic light pattern exist. By providing a plurality of possible combinations of partial light patterns (that is to say a redundancy of possible combinations), the number of possible balances and/or equations, on the basis of which the relevant intensity components are determinable, can be increased; [0087]).
Regarding claim 5, Hoeg discloses the three-dimensional shape measurement apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the first MTF characteristic corresponds to a first position farthest from a first optical axis of the projector lens, in a measurement region of the three-dimensional shape measurement apparatus (fig. 1), and the second MTF characteristic corresponds to a second position farthest from a second optical axis of the camera lens, in the measurement region (Fig. 1).
Regarding claim 6, Hoeg discloses The three-dimensional shape measurement apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the first MTF characteristic corresponds to a measurement top surface of a measurement region of the three-dimensional shape measurement apparatus in a first state in which the projector lens is focused on a measurement bottom surface of the measurement region (Fig. 1), and the second MTF characteristic corresponds to the measurement top surface in a second state in which the camera lens is focused on the measurement bottom surface (Fig. 1).
Regarding claim 7, Hoeg discloses he three-dimensional shape measurement apparatus according to claim 1, further comprising a distance measurement device that measures a measurement distance between the projector and the measurement target ([0087]), wherein determining the cycle of the stripe pattern includes determining the cycle of the stripe pattern from the plurality of cycle candidates, based on the measurement distance measured by the distance measurement device ([0048]).
Regarding claim 8, analyses are analogous to those presented for claim 1 and are applicable for claim 8.
Regarding claim 12, analyses are analogous to those presented for claim 5 and are applicable for claim 12.
Regarding claim 13, analyses are analogous to those presented for claim 6 and are applicable for claim 13.
Regarding claim 14, analyses are analogous to those presented for claim 7 and are applicable for claim 14.
Regarding claim 15, analyses are analogous to those presented for claim 1 and are applicable for claim 15.
Regarding claim 19, analyses are analogous to those presented for claim 5 and are applicable for claim 19.
Regarding claim 20, analyses are analogous to those presented for claim 6 and are applicable for claim 20.
Allowable Subject Matter
Claims 2-4, 9-11, 16-18 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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LERON . BECK
Examiner
Art Unit 2487
/LERON BECK/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2487
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