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 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.
Claim(s) 1-4 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over ISHIKAWA (US 20080238814, of record).
PNG
media_image1.png
282
452
media_image1.png
Greyscale
Regarding claim 1, ISHIKAWA teaches (Figs. 1-2) A head-up display device comprising:
a display unit that is provided in a vehicle and displays a virtual image (4) by reflecting display light emitted toward a light transmissive reflecting member (9) toward an eye (3) point by the reflecting member; and
a housing (2) that has an opening (2a) facing the reflecting member and in which the display unit is assembled, wherein
the display unit includes
a display (5) that is accommodated in the housing and emits the display light,
a reflection mirror (6) that is accommodated in the housing and reflects enlarged display light obtained by enlarging ([58], “6...magnifying”) the display light emitted from the display toward the reflecting member through the opening, and
a transparent cover (7) that closes the opening and transmits light, the transparent cover having a free-form face ([121,125], “free-form”) that performs aberration correction on the enlarged display light reflected by the reflection mirror, and
the transparent cover enlarges the enlarged display light at an enlargement ratio smaller than the enlargement ratio of the reflection mirror (Fig. 9 shows 6 as a 2D lens, 7 being a cylinder lens as shown in Figs. 3,5, at least in one dimension the enlargement ratio of 7 is smaller than 6, since the free-form is expected to have minimum enlargement effects, e.g., along the non-action dimension in Fig. 3, either positive or negative if any for aberration correction purposes).
ISHIKAWA does not explicitly teach the transparent cover has a function of further enlarging the enlarged display light by the free-form face.
Absent any showing of criticality and/or unpredictability, having the transparent cover has a function of further enlarging the enlarged display light by the free-form face would have been known to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention for the purposes of design choices (being a free-form face over a non-action dimension as shown in Fig. 3, it’s more likely than not to have a magnification effects either positive or negative, and considering the various scenarios of the application, at least some applications will have positive magnification effects for along the non-action dimension).
Accordingly, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify the teaching of ISHIKAWA by having the transparent cover has a function of further enlarging the enlarged display light by the free-form face for the purposes of design choices.
Regarding claim 2, ISHIKAWA further teaches The head-up display device according to claim 1, wherein
the display (5) directly emits the display light to the reflection mirror (6), and
the reflection mirror reflects the enlarged display light obtained by enlarging the display light directly emitted from the display to the reflecting member through the transparent cover (Figs. 1,9, concave mirror).
Regarding claim 3 or 4, the modified ISHIKAWA teaches all the limitations as stated in claim 1 or 2 respectively, but does not explicitly teach the free-form face is formed at the reflection mirror side of the transparent cover.
Absent any showing of criticality and/or unpredictability, having the free-form face is formed at the reflection mirror side of the transparent cover would have been known to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention for the purposes of design choices.
Accordingly, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to further modify the teaching of ISHIKAWA by having the free-form face is formed at the reflection mirror side of the transparent cover for the purposes of design choices.
Conclusion
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to WEN HUANG whose telephone number is (571)270-0234. The examiner can normally be reached on M-F: 9:00AM-4:00PM.
Examiner interviews are available via telephone, in-person, and video conferencing using a USPTO supplied web-based collaboration tool. To schedule an interview, applicant is encouraged to use the USPTO Automated Interview Request (AIR) at http://www.uspto.gov/interviewpractice.
If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner’s supervisor, Pinping Sun can be reached on (571) 270-1284. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300.
Information regarding the status of an application may be obtained from the Patent Application Information Retrieval (PAIR) system. Status information for published applications may be obtained from either Private PAIR or Public PAIR. Status information for unpublished applications is available through Private PAIR only. For more information about the PAIR system, see http://pair-direct.uspto.gov. Should you have questions on access to the Private PAIR system, contact the Electronic Business Center (EBC) at 866-217-9197 (toll-free). If you would like assistance from a USPTO Customer Service Representative or access to the automated information system, call 800-786-9199 (IN USA OR CANADA) or 571-272-1000.
/WEN HUANG/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2872
wen.huang2@uspto.gov
(571)270-0234
Prosecution Insights