DETAILED ACTION
The present application, filed on or after March 16, 2013, is being examined under the first inventor to file provisions of the AIA .
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 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.
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 of this title, 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.
Claims 1, 5, and 9 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Cohen et al., “Room Temperature InGaAs camera for NIR imaging,” SPIE Vo. 1946 Infrared Detectors and Instrumentation, (1993) (herein “Cohen”), Ettenberg (US 2016/0218139 A1), Ortiz Egea (US 2019/0349536 A1), and Ishigami (US 2021/0250556 A1).
Examiner notes spectral subtraction is a known technique for addressing spectral crosstalk.
Regarding claim 1, the combination of Cohen, Ettenberg, Ortiz Egea, and Ishigami teaches or suggests an imaging apparatus, comprising: an imaging optical system that has a light transmission characteristic of transmitting near-infrared light in a near-infrared light wavelength range including 1550 nm and transmitting visible light in a visible light wavelength range; a switchable filter that selectively transmits the near-infrared light and the visible light (Examiner notes “transmit” in this art can mean “transmittance” or allowing to pass through, or emit like emitting light into the environment to illuminate; The former is used in the interpretation of the claims in view of Applicant’s original claim 2, which suggests the former interpretation; Examiner notes the art defines NIR to span from 780nm to 2500nm; Examiner notes the visible spectrum is 400nm to 700nm; Examiner notes this first limitation is talking about the optics system being able to pass (transmit) a very wide band spanning at least from 400nm to 1700nm, but does not specifically say a single sensor array can cover all of that band; Ortiz Egea, ¶ 0018: teaches a switchable filter that controls whether visible light or infrared light is transmitted to a sensor array; Ortiz Egea, ¶ 0010: explains the publication uses the term, infrared (IR) light to mean both infrared and near infrared bands); an imaging sensor that has sensitivity to heat radiation from a subject and the visible light, and outputs an imaging signal by selectively transmitting the near-infrared light and the visible light (Examiner notes Applicant’s original claim 9 explains the sensor is an InGaAs sensor; Examiner further notes commercial NIR cameras incorporating InGaAs FPA sensors are typically designed for use in night vision and thermal inspection applications; Cohen, Sections 3.1 and 3.2: teaches InGaAs sensors are good for night vision and also good for thermal imaging applications; While Cohen suggests certain visible wavelengths near the visible red could be sensed by InGaAs, Cohen’s Fig. 4 does not specifically say InGaAs is capable of sensing the visible light wavelengths as that graph illustrates little to no sensitivity below 800nm; However, Ettenberg, ¶¶ 0003 and 0009: teaches an InGaAs detector capable of detecting visible and SWIR (NIR) light); and an image processor that generates near-infrared image data based on the imaging signal output by imaging the near-infrared light with the imaging sensor, generates visible image data based on the imaging signal output by imaging the visible light with the imaging sensor (See combination of Ortiz Egea and Ettenberg, supra, teaching an InGaAs sensor and switchable filters capable of NIR and visible light imaging), and generates image data representing a heat radiation image by subtracting the visible image data from the near-infrared image data (Ishigami, ¶ 0088: teaches subtracting visible light from NIR light to remove visible light contamination, which the skilled artisan immediately recognizes as utilizing spectral subtraction to address spectral crosstalk; Examiner notes that subtracting the visible image to get a purely NIR heat image is exactly the kind of data processing to achieve wavelength isolation that prior art spectral subtraction allows; Spectral subtraction has been used to remove NIR light from visible light to improve photographs by removing hazy NIR light pollution, but when the goal is thermal imaging, NIR light is the desirable light and the visible light is the contaminant; The skilled artisan knows the subtraction is for subtracting the undesirable wavelengths from the purpose of the endeavor; In other words, Examiner found during searching that it was much more prevalent to discuss subtracting NIR from visible, than the claimed subtracting visible from NIR, but also found that the purpose of the application dictated whether NIR was subtracted from VIS or VIS was subtracted from NIR; Either approach is known to the skilled artisan).
One of ordinary skill in the art, before the effective filing date of the claimed invention, would have been motivated to combine the elements taught by Cohen, with those of Ettenberg, because both references are drawn to the same field of endeavor such that one wishing to practice imaging using InGaAs sensors would have been led to their relevant teachings and because one wishing to improve upon the InGaAs sensor described in Cohen could look to teachings like Ettenberg’s to develop a sensor less susceptible to dark current and cross talk (e.g. Ettenberg, ¶ 0005). Therefore, the combination is a mere combination of prior art elements, according to known methods, to yield a predictable result. This rationale applies to all combinations of Cohen and Ettenberg used in this Office Action unless otherwise noted.
One of ordinary skill in the art, before the effective filing date of the claimed invention, would have been motivated to combine the elements taught by Cohen and Ettenberg, with those of Ortiz Egea, because all three references are drawn to the same field of endeavor such that one wishing to practice NIR imaging using InGaAs sensors would have been led to their relevant teachings and because one wishing to improve upon the InGaAs sensor described in Cohen and Ettenberg could look to teachings like Ortiz Egea’s to develop a system capable of separating the visible and NIR wavelengths using system optics like prior art switching filters such as those described in Ortiz Egea. Therefore, the combination is a mere combination of prior art elements, according to known methods, to yield a predictable result. This rationale applies to all combinations of Cohen, Ettenberg, and Ortiz Egea used in this Office Action unless otherwise noted.
One of ordinary skill in the art, before the effective filing date of the claimed invention, would have been motivated to combine the elements taught by Cohen, Ettenberg, and Ortiz Egea, with those of Ishigami, because all four references are drawn to the same field of endeavor such that one wishing to practice NIR imaging using InGaAs sensors and eliminating spectral cross talk would have been led to their relevant teachings and because one wishing to improve upon the InGaAs sensor described in Cohen and Ettenberg could look to teachings like Ishigami’s to develop a system capable of spectral subtraction to eliminate spectral cross talk in the manner described in Ishigami. Therefore, the combination is a mere combination of prior art elements, according to known methods, to yield a predictable result. This rationale applies to all combinations of Cohen, Ettenberg, Ortiz Egea, and Ishigami used in this Office Action unless otherwise noted.
Regarding claim 5, the combination of Cohen, Ettenberg, Ortiz Egea, and Ishigami teaches or suggests the imaging apparatus according to claim 4, wherein the light transmission characteristic is such that light transmittance in the near-infrared light peak wavelength range is equal to or greater than 60% (Cohen, Section 3.1: teaches light transmittance of 60% is an inherent property of InGaAs FPAs).
Regarding claim 9, the combination of Cohen, Ettenberg, Ortiz Egea, and Ishigami teaches or suggests the imaging apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the imaging sensor is an InGaAs imaging element (Cohen’s teachings are directed toward InGaAs sensors and explains such sensors are capable of both night vision surveillance and thermal imaging).
Claims 2–4, 6–8, and 10 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Cohen, Ettenberg, Ortiz Egea, Ishigami, and Hogasten (US 2014/0139643 A1).
Regarding claim 2, the combination of Cohen, Ettenberg, Ortiz Egea, Ishigami, and Hogasten teaches or suggests the imaging apparatus according to claim 1, wherein: the imaging optical system has a plurality of lenses (Ortiz Egea, ¶ 0017: teaches a plurality of lenses in a microlens array over the sensor; see also Hogasten, cited infra), a coating layer having the light transmission characteristic is formed on at least one lens, and the light transmission characteristic has a low light transmittance range where light transmittance is lower than light transmittance with respect to the near-infrared light and the visible light, between the near-infrared light wavelength range and the visible light wavelength range (While Ortiz Egea teaches a switchable filter and lenses, it does not appear to teach tailored lens coatings for desired attributes of the detection system; Hogasten, e.g. Abstract and ¶¶ 0110 and 0116: teach multiple lenses and coatings for permitting desirable wavebands to be detected).
One of ordinary skill in the art, before the effective filing date of the claimed invention, would have been motivated to combine the elements taught by Cohen, Ettenberg, Ortiz Egea, and Ishigami, with those of Hogasten, because all five references are drawn to the same field of endeavor such that one wishing to practice infrared thermography using InGaAs sensors would have been led to their relevant teachings and because Hogasten demonstrates that the use of FLIR thermal IR cameras is the industry standard for such research such that the combination is nothing more than a mere combination of prior art elements, according to known methods, to yield a predictable result. This rationale applies to all combinations of Cohen, Ettenberg, Ortiz Egea, Ishigami, and Hogasten used in this Office Action unless otherwise noted.
Regarding claim 3, the combination of Cohen, Ettenberg, Ortiz Egea, Ishigami, and Hogasten teaches or suggests the imaging apparatus according to claim 1, wherein: the imaging optical system has a plurality of lenses (Ortiz Egea, ¶ 0017: teaches a plurality of lenses in a microlens array over the sensor; see also Hogasten, cited infra), a coating layer having the light transmission characteristic is formed on at least one lens, and the light transmission characteristic has a transmittance peak within the near-infrared light wavelength range (While Ortiz Egea teaches a switchable filter and lenses, it does not appear to teach tailored lens coatings for desired attributes of the detection system; Hogasten, e.g. Abstract and ¶¶ 0110 and 0116: teach multiple lenses and coatings for permitting desirable wavebands to be detected).
Regarding claim 4, the combination of Cohen, Ettenberg, Ortiz Egea, Ishigami, and Hogasten teaches or suggests the imaging apparatus according to claim 3, wherein the light transmission characteristic is such that, in the near-infrared light wavelength range, light transmittance on a short wavelength side with respect to a near-infrared light peak wavelength range including 1550 nm decreases from light transmittance at a short wavelength end of the near-infrared light peak wavelength range as a wavelength decreases, and light transmittance on a long wavelength side with respect to the near-infrared light peak wavelength range decreases from light transmittance at a long wavelength end of the near-infrared light peak wavelength range as the wavelength increases (Cohen, Section 3.2: teaches 1550 nm is the peak sensitivity of an InGaAs sensor and is a perfect wavelength for NIR illumination of a scene for surveillance applications because it is not visible light; Examiner notes this claim is simply describing a bandpass or waveband in the IR range of NIR range; Hogasten, e.g. Abstract and ¶¶ 0110 and 0116: teach multiple lenses and coatings for permitting desirable wavebands to be detected).
Regarding claim 6, the combination of Cohen, Ettenberg, Ortiz Egea, Ishigami, and Hogasten teaches or suggests the imaging apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the light transmission characteristic is such that a light transmission bandwidth centering on 1550 nm is equal to or less than 200 nm (Cohen, Section 3.2: teaches 1550 nm is the peak sensitivity of an InGaAs sensor and is a perfect wavelength for NIR illumination of a scene for surveillance applications because it is not visible light; Hogasten, e.g. Abstract and ¶¶ 0110 and 0116: teach multiple lenses and coatings for permitting desirable wavebands to be detected).
Regarding claim 7, the combination of Cohen, Ettenberg, Ortiz Egea, Ishigami, and Hogasten teaches or suggests the imaging apparatus according to claim 6, further comprising: a band-pass filter having the light transmission bandwidth, wherein the imaging sensor images the near-infrared light transmitted through the imaging optical system and the band-pass filter (Hogasten, ¶ 0106: teaches both coatings on lenses and bandpass filters can be combined to achieve the desired waveband being detected).
Regarding claim 8, the combination of Cohen, Ettenberg, Ortiz Egea, Ishigami, and Hogasten teaches or suggests the imaging apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the imaging optical system has a zoom function (Hogasten, ¶ 0241: teaches the well-known capability of optical systems and lenses to achieve zoom functionality).
Regarding claim 10, the combination of Cohen, Ettenberg, Ortiz Egea, Ishigami, and Hogasten teaches or suggests the imaging apparatus according to claim 1, further comprising: a stop that adjusts an amount of incident light on the imaging sensor (Examiner notes “a stop” is a unit that describes the amount of light allowed to reach the sensor and can be achieved using shutters, apertures, ISO or a combination thereof; Hogasten, e.g. ¶ 0169: teaches a shutter for controlling amount of light reaching the sensor).
Conclusion
The prior art made of record and not relied upon is considered pertinent to applicant's disclosure.
Sharp (US 2019/0235300 A1) teaches a switchable filter that, in addition to being able to perform color switching, may also be applicable to “multi-spectral capture that may include visible and near-infrared bands.” (¶ 0029).
Liu (US 2017/0202633 A1) teaches a filter wheel that effectuates a switchable filter that can be selectively rotated into operative alignment with the detector and can control the wavelengths received at the sensor and can also be effectuated by a polarizer (e.g. ¶¶ 0068 and 0070).
Sowa (US 2021/0075978 A1) teaches subtracting visible light from NIR light to remove visible light contamination (¶ 0077).
Dai (US 2021/0239955 A1) teaches an InGaAs camera can be sensitive to wavelengths ranging from 800 nm to 2400 nm (¶ 0025).
Hogasten (US 2014/0139643 A1) teaches near infrared (NIR) and short wavelength infrared (SWIR) sensor arrays are sensitive to NIR wavelengths in the claimed range (¶ 0111), teaches InGaAs sensors can be utilized to image wavelengths ranging from visible wavelengths to NIR and all the way to long wavelength IR (LWIR), which the skilled artisan knows also encompasses SWIR and MWIR (¶ 0223) and teaches multispectral imaging devices can detect (be sensitive to) thermal radiation (¶ 0110).
Steinberg et al., “A Reconstruction Method for the Estimation of Temperatures of Multiple Sources Applied for Nanoparticle-Mediated Hperthermia,” Molecules, 23, 670, March 16, 2018. This publication teaches in Fig. 7 and the accompanying description separating DC and AC thermal components of an IR image to improve thermal resolution.
Demartin Maeder (US 2021/0138823 A1) teaches a combination sensor capable of detecting visible and NIR light (e.g. ¶ 0159 and Fig. 3).
Butte (US 2021/0015350 A1) teaches complete isolation of VIS and NIR imaging paths, visible light subtraction, filtering, polarizers, sensitivity spanning both the visible and infrared channels (e.g. ¶ 0101).
Akashi (US 2019/0320126 A1) teaches subtracting visible light data from image data in which visible light and near-infrared light are captured (¶ 0187).
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to Michael J Hess whose telephone number is (571)270-7933. The examiner can normally be reached Mon - Fri 9:00am-5:30pm.
If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner’s supervisor, William Vaughn can be reached on (571)272-3922. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8933.
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/MICHAEL J HESS/Examiner, Art Unit 2481
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