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 Objections
Claim 1 objected to because of the following informalities: the limitation “the orientation capacitor piece” is introduced following the claim introducing an “orientation reference piece” and “”primary orientation capacitors.” Consequently, it is unclear whether this term refers to the reference piece, the capacitors, or a separate unstated structure. Additionally, Claims 2-8 are rejected herewith by virtue of claim dependency. Appropriate correction is required.
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, 2, and 7-8 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Barel (US 2017/0068345) in view of Budgifvars (US 5,709,225), and further in view of Katsurahira (US 2018/0232070).
With respect to Claim 1, Barel teaches an input device comprising:
a shell (Barel: Fig. 9A-C, housing 380);
an orientation reference piece within the shell (Barel: Para [0041] – [0042], Fig. 9A-C, structure 355 or tip holder that tilts/displaces in response to force);
wherein the orientation reference piece includes one or more primary orientation capacitors (Barel: Para [0034], Fig. 5A-C, the conductive writing tip 350 operates as one electrode of the internal capacitor);
a conductive tip coupled to the orientation reference piece (Barel: Para [0034], Fig. 5A-C, conductive writing tip 350);
two or more orientation capacitors coupled to the interior of the shell (Barel: Para [0036], Fig. 5A-C, discrete electrodes 385A-D spread in a circumferential direction and fixed to the housing);
wherein the orientation reference piece and the two or more orientation capacitors form orientation capacitances operable to change when the piece shifts (Barel: Para [0035] – [0036], as the tip approaches an electrode due to tilting, the capacitance increases); and
a raw data circuit coupled to the two or more orientation capacitors (Barel: Para [[0034] – [0035], Fig. 2, controller 220).
Barel fails to expressly disclose that the orientation reference piece is operable to shift when the input device tilts (gravity-based sensing) and that the raw data circuit generates tilt orientation data with respect to a touch screen.
However, Budgifvars teaches:
an orientation reference piece (Budgifvars: Col. 6, lines 35-52, Fig. 7, mass 20 mounted below a capacitor plate) that is operable to shift when the device tilts (Budgifvars: Col. 3, lines 19--34, a plate which moves dependent on activity/acceleration/gravity producing a capacitance change).
Furthermore, Katsurahira teaches:
a raw data circuit operable to generate tilt orientation data of the input device with respect to a touch screen (Katsurahira: Para [0017], tilt angle calculator based on distribution of signal levels/intensities from electrodes on a tablet surface).
It would have been obvious to a person of ordinary skill in the art to modify the internal displacement sensor of Barel to include a shifting mass element as taught by Budgifvars. The motivation for this combination is to allow the stylus to detect orientation with respect to the gravity vector even in the absence of mechanical contact pressure, thereby enabling the generation of tilt orientation data as taught by Katsurahira for more precise digital ink rendering (Katsurahira: Para. [0004], [0163]).
With respect to Claim 2, the combination of Barel as modified by Budgifvars, and Katsurahira teaches the input device of claim 1, further comprising:
an extension piece coupling the orientation reference piece to the conductive tip (Barel: Para [0042], structure 355 acting as a tip holder that communicates forces/tilts from the tip to the internal capacitive sensor).
With respect to Claim 7, the combination of Barel as modified by Budgifvars, and Katsurahira teaches the device of claim 1, wherein:
a third orientation capacitor is substantially parallel to a fourth... and perpendicular to the first and second (Barel: Para [0036], Fig 5A-C, describing four electrodes 385A-D spread in a circumferential direction where opposing pairs are parallel and adjacent pairs are perpendicular).
With respect to Claim 8, the combination of Barel as modified by Budgifvars, and Katsurahira teaches the device of claim 7, wherein:
the tilt orientation data from the first and second capacitors is with respect to an x-plane and the third and fourth is with respect to a y-plane (Katsurahira: Para [0155] – [0162], calculating tilt components theta x and theta y by using orthogonal coordinate axes derived from the signal intensities of multiple electrode pairs).
Claims 3-6 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Barel, Budgifvars, and Katsurahira, as applied above to claims 1, 2, 7, and 8, and further in view of Hara (US 2015/0338930).
With respect to Claim 3, the combination of Barel as modified by Budgifvars, and Katsurahira teaches the input device of claim 1, and produce a first/second error signal corresponding to an electrical characteristic (Budgifvars: Col. 2, lines 1-11, capacitance-controlled amplifier emitting a measurement/error signal based on gain or electrical characteristics) and further teaches determining a tilt angle based on a difference between intensity levels (Katsurahira: Abstract, Claim 1, determining tilt angle based on a difference between the first signal intensity level V1 and the second signal intensity level V2).
The combination of Barel, Budgifvars, and Katsurahira fails to expressly disclose:
two or more drive-sense circuits coupled to the two or more orientation capacitors.
However, Hara discloses:
two or more drive-sense circuits (Hara: Fig. 3, control circuit and oscillation circuit to selectively supply AC signals to electrodes).
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art to modify the apparatus of Barel, Budgifvars, and Katsurahira to incorporate selective drive-sense circuitry, as taught by Hara, in order to allow the system to individually sample the orientation capacitors for improved resolution. Furthermore, the use of a subtraction module to produce a difference error signal is a predictable engineering application of the "difference" calculation logic taught by Katsurahira to suppress common-mode noise in capacitive systems.
With respect to Claim 4, the combination of Barel as modified by Budgifvars, Katsurahira and Hara teaches the input device of claim 3,
a tip with a primary conductor, a secondary conductor, and isolated signaling (Hara: Para [0016], Fig. 15-117, a first electrode and at least three second electrodes that are electrically isolated at the tip portion).
a shielding between conductors (Barel: Para [0036], isolated electrodes integrated into the housing with shielding/conductive rings to protect signal integrity).
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art to modify the apparatus to include a multi-conductor tip as taught by Hara and Barel in order to facilitate the separate transmission of tilt orientation data via a secondary conductor without interfering with the primary touch coordinate signaling.
With respect to Claim 5, the combination of Barel as modified by Budgifvars, Katsurahira and Hara teaches the input device of claim 4 further comprises:
one or more secondary circuits operably coupled to the secondary conductor, wherein a first secondary circuit of the one or more secondary circuits is operable to:
receive the first difference error signal from the raw data circuit;
up-convert the first difference error signal into a data transmit signal; and
transmit the data transmit signal via the secondary conductor to the touch screen (Hara: Para [0052], [0065], [0092], oscillation circuit 12 performing ASK modulation to shift/up-convert internal data into a high-frequency transmit signal).
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art to modify the apparatus to incorporate the modulation/up-conversion circuitry of Hara into the device of Barel/Budgifvars/Katsurahira to shift the baseband tilt orientation data into a higher frequency band suitable for transmission over a capacitive interface.
With respect to Claim 6, the combination of Barel as modified by Budgifvars, Katsurahira and Hara teaches the input device of claim 4 further comprises generating a ring-back signal (Hara: Para [0059], [0065], detecting a sensor beacon and generating a start signal or identification code to synchronize the transmission).
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art to utilize the handshake protocol of Hara in the device of Barel/Budgifvars/Katsurahira. The generated start signal in Hara's protocol is the functional equivalent of the claimed "ring-back signal" as it serves as a synchronization acknowledgment sent from the pen back to the touch screen.
Conclusion
The prior art made of record and not relied upon is considered pertinent to applicant's disclosure.
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/BRYAN EARLES/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2625