DETAILED ACTION
Notice of Pre-AIA or AIA Status
1. The present application, filed on or after March 16, 2013, is being examined under the first inventor to file provisions of the AIA .
Election/Restrictions
2. Applicant’s election without traverse of 1-7 and 14-18 in the reply filed on June, 06, 2016 is acknowledged.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 103
3. 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.
4. Claim(s) 1-4 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Lukanc et al. (US 2016/0246390 A1, hereinafter referred as “Lukanc”) in view of Sundara-Rajan et al. (US 2015/0363012 A1, hereinafter referred as “Sundara-Rajan”).
Regarding claim 1, Lukanc discloses a stylus (140, 145) configured to be able to transmit, to an electronic apparatus (100), data (Fig. 1 and ¶0034 discloses data is wirelessly transmitted by an active pen (140, 145) to the processing system (110). This transmitted data may specify one or more attributes of the active pen (140, 145)), the stylus (140, 145) comprising:
…a signal processing circuit (222, 228) which, in operation, detects an uplink signal (Fig. 2 and ¶0051 discloses the active pen (240) includes the transceiver (228). The transceiver (228) is configured to receive the broadcast beacon signal)…, extracts a command from the detected uplink signal (¶0044 discloses the beacon signal (304) includes an upstream packet (308)… upstream packet (308) may specify one or more timeslots and one or more frequencies for the pen downstream operation), determines, based on the command, in which mode to operate between a first mode in which the data is transmitted using first periods and a second mode in which the data is transmitted using second periods different from the first periods (¶0044-¶0045 discloses active pen reconfigures itself according to the timeslots, frequencies, pack sizes, pack counts and packet rates specified in the upstream packet; ¶0071-¶0073 discloses the pen first operates using an initially assigned schedule, receives another upstream packet specifying a new timeslot or frequency, and thereafter operates according to the new configuration), and repeatedly transmits the data in accordance with the determined mode (Fig. 3, ¶0043 and ¶0071 discloses a specified active pen transmits its downstream packets (306) in the assigned timeslots following each beacon period (302), which may be repeated multiple times, until a new timeslot has been assigned according to another upstream packet due to detection of noise).
Lukanc doesn’t disclose a stylus electrode which, in operation, forms a coupling capacitance with a sensor electrode of the electronic apparatus; and detects an uplink signal using the stylus electrode.
However, in the same field of endeavor, Sundara-Rajan discloses a stylus electrode which, in operation, forms a coupling capacitance with a sensor electrode (¶0029 discloses electrodes of the touchscreen 106) of the electronic apparatus (104) (Fig. 1 and ¶0030 discloses the active tip 108 may also have a capacitance associated with it, and a capacitive link may be established between the stylus device 102 and the computing device 104, illustrated as 112); and detects an uplink signal using the stylus electrode (Fig. 1 and ¶0030-¶0031 discloses the information transmitted along the capacitive link may be used to configure operations between the stylus device 102 and computing device 104… For example, the computing device 104 may transmit a configuration ID, illustrated as 114, to the stylus device 102 via the carrier frequency).
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify Lukanc for the purpose of enabling bi-directional data transfer between the stylus and the computing device without requiring a separate radio communication link to enable device-to-stylus communications (¶0024).
Regarding claim 2, Lukanc discloses the stylus of claim 1, wherein the second period is a time period shorter than the first period (¶0071-¶0073 disclose upstream packet specifying an initial timeslot and a new timeslot for the downstream packet to be sent; and ¶0041 discloses each timeslot may be of the same duration (e.g., 0.25 ms, 0.5 ms, 1 ms, etc.). Additionally or alternatively, different timeslots may be of different durations).
Regarding claim 3, Lukanc discloses the stylus of claim 1, wherein the signal processing circuit (222), in operation, continuously operates in the determined mode (¶0044 discloses upstream packet (308) may specify one or more timeslots and one or more frequencies for the pen downstream operation) until a failure to detect the uplink signal continues for a given time period (¶0054 discloses the active pen (240) includes the determination module (222). The determination module (222) detects a missing (i.e., not received) signal beacon. If one or more missing signal beacons are detected, the determination module (222) may un-pair the active pen (240) by setting the ID register to zero).
Regarding claim 4, Lukanc doesn’t disclose the stylus of claim 1, comprising: a pen pressure detecting circuit configured to detect a pen pressure, wherein the data is pen pressure data detected by the pen pressure detecting circuit.
However, in the same field of endeavor, Sundara-Rajan discloses a pen pressure detecting circuit configured to detect a pen pressure (¶0036 discloses The tip 108 may be a two component mechanical part including a conductive polymer molded over a metallic shaft 406 coupled to a force/pressure sensor 408 (for example, an optical pressure sensor, a capacitive pressure sensor, a piezoelectric sensor, a piezoelectric resistive sensor, or other sensor capable of measuring force/pressure)), wherein the data is pen pressure data detected by the pen pressure detecting circuit (¶0094 discloses the stylus device may create an output sequence to be transmitted to the computing device based on the encoding scheme (i.e., FSK, BPSK or ASK), output pressure levels of the pressure sensor, buttons, and other components of the stylus device, illustrated as block 1906).
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify Lukanc for the purpose of enabling bi-directional data transfer between the stylus and the computing device without requiring a separate radio communication link to enable device-to-stylus communications (¶0024).
5. Claim(s) 5 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Lukanc in view of Sundara-Rajan, and in further view of Agarwal et al. (US 2016/0092010 A1, hereinafter referred as “Agarwal”).
Regarding claim 5, Lukanc as modified doesn’t disclose the stylus of claim 4, wherein the second period is a time period during which the electronic apparatus does not perform a pixel driving operation.
However, in the same field of endeavor, Agarwal discloses wherein the second period is a time period during which the electronic apparatus does not perform a pixel driving operation (¶0020 and ¶0057 discloses stylus sensing can occur during vertical blanking periods between frames).
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify Lukanc so that additional scans, especially the scans using the electrodes proximate to the display, can occur during the intra-frame blanking or vertical blanking periods to ensure sufficient SNR (¶0037).
Allowable Subject Matter
6. Claims 6-7 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.
7. Claims 14-18 are allowed.
The closest prior art of Sundara-Rajan in ¶0024 discloses active capacitive stylus that enables the computing device to communicate to the active stylus, for example, via a touch controller, using an electromagnetic communication channel, such as a capacitive link or capacitive communication channel. ¶0031 discloses the computing device 104 may transmit a configuration ID, illustrated as 114, to the stylus device 102 via the carrier frequency. The configuration ID may correspond to a type of touch controller of the computing device 104 and/or may include other information. In this example, the configuration ID may correspond to an encoding scheme the stylus device should operate in when communicating with the computing device 104. ¶0037 discloses this signal allows the stylus device 102 to communicate with the computing device 104, and allows the computing device 104 to determine a location (X-Y coordinates) of the stylus device 104 in relation to the touch screen of the computing device 10.
Further, prior art of Agarwal in ¶0004 discloses touch, stylus and/or force sensing functions can be synchronized with display sub-frames, and a display refresh rate can be adjusted by extended blanking of the display for one or more display sub-frames. Specifically, ¶0047 discloses preserving the synchronization between touch, stylus and/or force scans and the display frames can permit uninterrupted touch, stylus and/or force scans along with the benefits of synchronizing various scans to occur during intra-frame blanking, vertical blanking and display line refresh.
However, the prior art alone, or in combination, fails to disclose
“the stylus transmits a data signal in response to reception, from the controller, of a second command that identifies data to be transmitted using the second period, the data signal including the data identified by the second command.” See ¶0016 and ¶0109 of the specification as filed.
Conclusion
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to PRIYANK J SHAH whose telephone number is (571)270-3732. The examiner can normally be reached on 10:00 - 6:00 M-F.
If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner’s supervisor, Ghebretinsae, Temesghen can be reached on (571) 272-3017. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300.
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/PRIYANK J SHAH/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2626
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