DETAILED ACTION
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.
Claim(s) 1-14 and 16-26 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Jung (US 2020/0201505) in view of Hisano (US 10,845,899).
Regarding claim 1, Jung discloses an interface device comprising:
an electronic device (110, fig. 10); and
an input device (20, fig. 10) communicating with the electronic device (para. 159-160, 162-163),
wherein the electronic device comprising:
a display layer (110 in fig. 2) operating in a unit of display frame (see Display Frame in fig. 6) comprising a blank period (see Blank in fig. 6 and para. 135) and a data period (DP in fig. 6 and para. 132, 135);
a sensor layer (120, fig. 2) disposed on the display layer (see fig. 2) and operating in a first mode to sense a first input generated by the input device (see touch sensing period in para. 79); and
a sensor driver (300, fig. 2) driving the sensor layer (para. 86) and transmitting an uplink signal to the input device (para. 85),
wherein the input device transmits a plurality of first downlink signals (para. 162) comprising first information (see Data in fig. 12 and para. 182) and a plurality of second downlink signals comprising second information (see Position in fig. 12 and para. 182) different from the first information, and
wherein the sensor driver successively receives the plurality of first downlink signals during the blank period (see Data in fig. 12, wherein data is received during blanking period LHB3 in the first frame, also see para. 184) and successively receives the plurality of second downlink signals (see Position in fig. 12).
Jung fails to disclose wherein the sensor driver received a plurality of second downlink signals during the data period.
Hisano discloses wherein the sensor driver successively receives the plurality of first downlink signals (P1+ in fig. 2) during the blank period (see BP1 in display controller 2(b) in fig. 2) and successively receives the plurality of second downlink signals (P2 in fig. 2) during the data period (see DP to the right of BP1 in display controller 2(b) in fig. 2).
When the invention was made (pre-AIA ) or before the effective filing date of the claimed invention (AIA ), it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art to include the teachings of Hisano in the device of Jung. The motivation for doing so would have been to provide the display the ability to adjust the location of the blanking period without transmitting a second uplink signal (Hisano; see col. 6, lines 34-39 and col. 6-7, lines 64-8, wherein the display quality is reduced when providing a second uplink signal to adjust the timings of the blank periods). Ultimately wherein the versatility of the display improves the overall maintained quality of the display.
Regarding claim 2, Jung discloses wherein the input device comprises:
a receiver (2623 in fig. 8) receiving the uplink signal (para. 138);
a transmitter (2622, fig. 8) transmitting the plurality of first downlink signals and the plurality of second downlink signals to the sensor driver (para. 138); and
a power supply (2630 in fig. 8) supplying a power to the input device.
Regarding claim 3, Jung discloses wherein the first information comprises information about the input device (para. 182 and fig. 12) and the second information comprises a signal to determine coordinate information of the input device (para. 182 and fig. 12).
Regarding claim 4, Jung discloses wherein the sensor layer further operates in a second mode (see finger sensing in fig. 12 and para. 190) different from the first mode and sensing a second input generated by a user's body (para. 190).
Regarding claim 5, Jung discloses wherein the sensor layer operates in the second mode during the blank period (see finger sensing in fig. 12 during blank period LHB4).
Regarding claim 6, Jung discloses wherein the second mode comprises a first touch mode and a second touch mode (para. 95, 99; wherein touch is detected through mutual or self capacitance), wherein the sensor layer senses the user's body based on a self-capacitance in the first touch mode (para. 99) and senses the user's body based on a mutual capacitance in the second touch mode (para. 95).
Regarding claim 7, Hisano discloses wherein each of the plurality of second downlink signals operates in a burst mode (see col. 3, lines 44-48).
When the invention was made (pre-AIA ) or before the effective filing date of the claimed invention (AIA ), it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art to include the teachings of Hisano in the device of Jung. The motivation for doing so would have been to allow the display controller to detect the position of the active stylus (Hisano; col. 3, lines 44-48).
Regarding claim 8, Jung discloses wherein each of the plurality of second downlink signals has a same driving period (see periods of multiple Data in fig. 12).
Regarding claim 9, Jung discloses wherein each of the plurality of first downlink signals has at least two different waveforms (para. 186).
Regarding claim 10, Jung discloses wherein the plurality of first downlink signals comprise at least one first waveform and at least one second waveform (para. 186), and
wherein the second waveform is obtained by shifting the first waveform by a predetermined phase (para. 186, 212).
Regarding claim 11, Jung discloses wherein a number of rising edges of the plurality of first downlink signals is smaller than a number of rising edges of the plurality of second downlink signals (para. 186, 212).
Regarding claim 12, Jung discloses wherein the electronic device further comprises a timing controller (170, fig. 2) to drive the display layer (para. 92), the timing controller generates a length signal based on a length of the blank period and a length of the data period (see fig. 6), and the timing controller transmits the length signal to the sensor driver (see fig. 6 and para. 85).
Regarding claim 13, Jung discloses wherein the sensor driver receives the length signal and receives the plurality of first downlink signals and the plurality of second downlink signals based on the length signal (see fig. 12 and para. 172).
Regarding claim 14, Jung discloses wherein the input device generates the plurality of first downlink signals (see Position in fig. 12) and the plurality of second downlink signals (see Data in fig. 12) in response to the uplink signal (para. 182).
Claim 16 is rejected for the same reasons stated for claim 1. See above rejection.
Claims 17-26 are rejected for the same reasons stated for claims 4-13, respectively. See above rejections.
Allowable Subject Matter
Claim 15 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.
Conclusion
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/ROBIN J MISHLER/ Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2628