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.
Claims 1-4 and 12-15 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(1) as being anticipated by Takuwa (US PG Pub 2017/0183179).
For claim 1: Takuwa teaches a conveyance state determination system (see Figs. 1, 5 and 6) comprising: a controller 410, wherein the controller 410: acquires actual state information 414 corresponding to a speed change of a sheet on a conveyance path of the sheet based on detection results of a plurality of sheet detection sensors (see paragraph 58, sensor at location P1 and sensor at location P2) disposed on the conveyance path; acquires reference state (see paragraph 60, preset reference speed acquisition) information to be compared with the actual state information (see paragraph 60, determining the delay by comparing the transport speed calculated and the reference speed); and compares the actual state information and the reference state information (see paragraph 60) to output evaluation information for evaluating a state of a conveyance device that conveys the sheet through the conveyance path (see paragraph 60-63).
Regarding claim 15, Takuwa also teaches a non-transitory computer readable storage medium for storing a program for causing a computer 400 to function as a first acquirer 414¸a second acquirer 416 and an output section 420 (see rejection of claim 1 above).
For claim 2: Takuwa teaches the conveyance state determination system of claim 1, wherein the evaluation information is information corresponding to normality or abnormality of the conveyance device (see Fig. 6, level 1 is normality and levels 2-5 are abnormality).
For claim 3: Takuwa teaches the conveyance station determination system of claim 1 wherein the evaluation information is a match rate between the actual state information and the reference state information in a normal state of the conveyance device or a match rate between the actual state information and the reference state information in a predetermined abnormal state of the conveyance device (see Fig. 6, the evaluation is the delay information which is the match rate between the actuate state information and the reference state information expressed in a percentage in Fig. 6).
For claim 4: Takuwa teaches the conveyance station determination system of claim 1 wherein the evaluation information is information indicating a change in a match rate between the actual state information and the reference state information in a normal state of the conveyance device, or information indicating a change in a match rate between the actual state information and the reference state information in a predetermined abnormal state of the conveyance device (see Fig. 6, the evaluation is the delay information which is the match rate between the actuate state information and the reference state information expressed in a percentage in Fig. 6).
For claim 12: : Takuwa teaches the conveyance station determination system of claim 1 wherein the controller notifies a user of the evaluation information (see paragraph 75, Fig. 7, ACT 108)
For claim 13: Takuwa teaches the conveyance station determination system of claim 1 wherein the evaluation information is a match rate between the actual state information in an abnormality state of the conveyance device and the reference state information in the abnormality state of the conveyance device (see Fig. 6, the delay information being a match percentage between the actual state information and the reference state information) and the abnormality state include a plurality of types of abnormality states (see Fig. 6, levels 2-5).
For claim 14: Takuwa teaches the conveyance state determination system according to claim 1, wherein the controller acquires, in real time, the detection results of the plurality of sheet detection sensors corresponding to a speed change of the sheet in the conveyance path (see paragraph 58, calculation as the sheet is transported).
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.
Claims 5-9 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Takuwa (US PG Pub 2017/0183179) in view of Furuyama (US PG Pub 2016/0018776).
For claim 5: Takuwa teaches all of the limitations of claim 5 except that the reference state information includes a data set corresponding to a speed change of the sheet on the conveyance path in a normal state of the conveyance device. However, Furuyama teaches a reference speed for the printer wherein the speed changes in a normal state of the conveyance device (see paragraph 45, speed difference between two rollers of the device, the speed difference known and set appropriately). It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art at the time of the effective filing date of the invention to provide a printer have different reference speeds throughout the conveyance path as taught by Furuyama for the purpose of conveying the sheet faster where possible while reducing strain to the sheet.
For claim 6: Takuwa teaches all of the limitations of claim 6 except that the reference state information includes a data set corresponding to a speed change of the sheet on the conveyance path in a normal state of the conveyance device, and a data set corresponding to a speed change of the sheet on the conveyance path in a predetermined abnormal state of the conveyance device. However, Furuyama teaches that the transport system has a speed change throughout the conveyance path of the conveyance device (see paragraph 45, speed difference between two rollers of the device, the speed difference known and set appropriately, see paragraph 51, setting the speed based on a curvature of the guide). It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art at the time of the effective filing date of the invention to modify the invention of Takuwa to have a change in speed in the conveyance path as taught by Furuyama for the purpose of conveying the sheet faster where possible while reducing strain to the sheet.
For claim 7: Takuwa teaches all of the limitations of claim 7 except that the actual state information and the reference state information include a data set corresponding to a speed change of the sheet according to passing timings of the sheet in a plurality of sections in the conveyance path. However, Furuyama teaches that the conveyance path include a speed change of the sheet in a plurality of sections of the conveyance path (see paragraph 45, speed difference between two rollers of the device, the speed difference known and set appropriately). It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art at the time of the effective filing date of the invention to modify the invention of Takuwa to have a change in speed in the conveyance path as taught by Furuyama for the purpose of conveying the sheet faster where possible while reducing strain to the sheet.
For claim 8: Takuwa teaches all of the limitations of claim 8 except that the actual state information and the reference state information include a data set corresponding to a speed change or speed changes of a plurality of sheets according to passing timings of the plurality of sheets in the conveyance path. However, Furuyama teaches that the conveyance path include a speed change of the sheet in a plurality of sections of the conveyance path (see paragraph 45, speed difference between two rollers of the device, the speed difference known and set appropriately). It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art at the time of the effective filing date of the invention to modify the invention of Takuwa to have a change in speed in the conveyance path as taught by Furuyama for the purpose of conveying the sheet faster where possible while reducing strain to the sheet.
For claim 9: Takuwa teaches all of the limitations of claim 9 except that the reference state information includes an estimated value by a state space model. However, Furuyama teaches determining the appropriate speed on the conveyance path through a state space model (See paragraph 51). It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art at the time of the effective filing date of the invention to modify the invention of Takuwa to determine the speed of the conveyance device through experimentation as taught by Furuyama for the purpose of not over exerting forces on the substrate.
Claim 10 is rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Takuwa (US PG Pub 2017/0183179) in view of Kimura et al. (US PG Pub 2020/0201233).
For claim 10: Takuwa teaches all of the limitations of claim 10 except that the at least one of the actual state information and the reference state information includes a data set corrected based on a sheet characteristic information including a characteristic of the sheet. However, Kimura et al. teaches reference state information to include a data set corrected based on a sheet characteristic information including a characteristic of the sheet (See Fig. 12A, 12B, paragraph 72). It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art at the time of the effective filing date of the invention to provide reference data accounting for the sheet type so as to accurately assess different sheet types moving through the system.
Claim 11 is rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Takuwa (US PG Pub 2017/0183179) and Kimura et al. (US PG Pub 2020/0201233) as applied to claim 10 above, and further in view of Kuwata et al. (US PG Pub 2015/0360893).
For claim 11: The combination of Takuwa and Kimura et al. teaches the all of the limitations of claim 11 except that the sheet characteristic information is information corresponding to the characteristic of the sheet and detected by a media sensor. However, Kuwata et al. teaches providing a sheet type detecting sensor that detects the characteristic of the sheet (See paragraph 90, detecting thickness of the sheet). It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art at the time of the effective filing date of the invention to utilize a sheet type detecting sensor to detect the characteristic of the sheet as taught by Kuwata et al. for the purpose of automatically determining the characteristic of the sheet to control the printer accordingly.
Conclusion
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/DAVID H BANH/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2853
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