DETAILED ACTION
This Office Action is in response to the amendment filed on 01/30/2025, wherein claims 1-7 have been examined and are pending.
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 .
Information Disclosure Statement
The information disclosure statement (IDS) was submitted on 01/30/2025. The submission is in compliance with the provision of 37 CFR 1.97. Accordingly, the information disclosure statement is being considered by the examiner.
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.
1. Claims 1-7 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(1) as being anticipated by Yabiku et al. (JP 2015040944- see translation attached) hereinafter Yabiku.
Regarding claim 1, Yabiku discloses an aerial image display system including: a display device that displays a display image; and an optical system that includes a retroreflective member and an optical member having an optical characteristic of reflecting part of incident light and transmitting part of the incident light, and displays an aerial image corresponding to the display image toward a viewer present in a real space (Yabiku Figs. 1-8, [0009]-[0010]: optical device 10 having display unit 20. The display unit 20 includes a display 22; [0012], [0025]-[0027], [0031]-[0034]: half of light beam emitted from display 22 is reflected towards the first retroreflective member 30 by the half mirror 40. The first retroreflective member 30 reflects the incident light beam in the direction from which it was incident. The haft mirror 40 transmits the light beam reflected by the retroreflective member 30 and radiates it in another direction to form an aerial image 82 in front of an observer’s field of view), the aerial image display system comprising:
a position information acquisition unit that acquires position information on the viewer (Yabiku [0018]-[0022]: a detection unit 70 detects the observer’s position including observer’s eye position and outputs position data to the control unit 72); and
a display control unit that variably controls a display direction of the display device to set a display position of the aerial image in a range of a predetermined angle including a presence position of the viewer on a basis of the position information on the viewer acquired (Yabiku [0009]-[0010]: display unit 20 includes display 22, movable arm 24, position adjustment unit 26 and movable part 28 to move the display 22 by the position control function of the position adjustment unit 26 so the display 22 can move in different directions; [0022]-[0024]: control unit 72 acquires position data from the detection unit 70 and control the tilt angle or position of the display 22 as in [0024]; [0029]: the position of the display 22 can be moved to change the position of the formed aerial image to match the observer’s line of sight, hence display the aerial image in a range of a predetermined angle including presence position of the viewer on basis of position information of viewer as in Figs. 1-8).
Regarding claim 3, Yabiku discloses a display control device used in an aerial image display system that displays an aerial image corresponding to a display image to a viewer present in a real space by causing the display image displayed on a display device to be transmitted through an optical system in which a retroreflective member and an optical member that has an optical characteristic of reflecting part of incident light and transmitting part of the incident light are combined (Yabiku Figs. 1-8, [0009]-[0010]: optical device 10 having display unit 20. The display unit 20 includes a display 22; [0012], [0025]-[0027], [0031]-[0034]: half of light beam emitted from display 22 is reflected towards the first retroreflective member 30 by the half mirror 40. The first retroreflective member 30 reflects the incident light beam in the direction from which it was incident. The haft mirror 40 transmits the light beam reflected by the retroreflective member 30 and radiates it in another direction to form an aerial image 82 in front of an observer’s field of view), the display control device comprising:
a position information acquisition unit that acquires position information on the viewer (Yabiku [0018]-[0022]: a detection unit 70 detects the observer’s position including observer’s eye position and outputs position data to the control unit 72); and
a display control unit that variably controls a display direction of the display device to set a display position of the aerial image in a range of a predetermined angle including a presence position of the viewer on a basis of the position information on the viewer acquired (Yabiku [0009]-[0010]: display unit 20 includes display 22, movable arm 24, position adjustment unit 26 and movable part 28 to move the display 22 by the position control function of the position adjustment unit 26 so the display 22 can move in different directions; [0022]-[0024]: control unit 72 acquires position data from the detection unit 70 and control the tilt angle or position of the display 22 as in [0024]; [0029]: the position of the display 22 can be moved to change the position of the formed aerial image to match the observer’s line of sight, hence display the aerial image in a range of a predetermined angle including presence position of the viewer on basis of position information of viewer as in Figs. 1-8).
Regarding claims 2 and 4, Yabiku discloses all the limitations of claims 1 and 3, respectively.
Yabiku discloses wherein the display control unit variably controls the display position and the display direction of the display device to set the display position of the aerial image in the range of the predetermined angle including the presence position of the viewer on the basis of the position information of the viewer acquired (Yabiku [0009]-[0010], [0029]: display unit 20 includes display 22, movable arm 24, position adjustment unit 26 and movable part 28 to move the display 22 by the position control function of the position adjustment unit 26 so the display 22 can move in different directions including moving forward, backward, up, down, left and right directions or tilted in up, down, left and right directions; [0022]-[0024]: control unit 72 acquires position data from the detection unit 70 and control the tilt angle or position of the display 22 as in [0024]; [0029]: the position of the display 22 can be moved to change the position of the formed aerial image to match the observer’s line of sight, hence display the aerial image in a range of a predetermined angle including presence position of the viewer on basis of position information of viewer as in Figs. 1-8).
Regarding claim 5, Yabiku discloses a display control method executed by a control device used in an aerial image display system that displays an aerial image corresponding to a display image to a viewer present in a real space by causing the display image displayed on a display device to be transmitted through an optical system in which a retroreflective member and an optical member that has an optical characteristic of reflecting part of incident light and transmitting part of the incident light are combined (Yabiku Figs. 1-8, [0009]-[0010]: optical device 10 having display unit 20. The display unit 20 includes a display 22; [0012], [0025]-[0027], [0031]-[0034]: half of light beam emitted from display 22 is reflected towards the first retroreflective member 30 by the half mirror 40. The first retroreflective member 30 reflects the incident light beam in the direction from which it was incident. The haft mirror 40 transmits the light beam reflected by the retroreflective member 30 and radiates it in another direction to form an aerial image 82 in front of an observer’s field of view), the display control method comprising:
acquiring position information on the viewer (Yabiku [0018]-[0022]: a detection unit 70 detects the observer’s position including observer’s eye position and outputs position data to the control unit 72); and
variably controlling a display direction of the display device to set a display position of the aerial image within a range of a predetermined angle including a presence position of the viewer on a basis of the position information on the viewer acquired (Yabiku [0009]-[0010]: display unit 20 includes display 22, movable arm 24, position adjustment unit 26 and movable part 28 to move the display 22 by the position control function of the position adjustment unit 26 so the display 22 can move in different directions; [0022]-[0024]: control unit 72 acquires position data from the detection unit 70 and control the tilt angle or position of the display 22 as in [0024]; [0029]: the position of the display 22 can be moved to change the position of the formed aerial image to match the observer’s line of sight, hence display the aerial image in a range of a predetermined angle including presence position of the viewer on basis of position information of viewer as in Figs. 1-8).
Regarding claim 6, Yabiku discloses a non-transitory computer-readable storage medium configured with instructions executable by one or more processors included in a display control device to cause the one or more processors to perform operations comprising:
acquiring position information on a viewer (Yabiku [0018]-[0022]: a detection unit 70 detects the observer’s position including observer’s eye position and outputs position data to the control unit 72), the display control device being used in an aerial image display system that displays an aerial image corresponding to a display image to a viewer present in a real space by causing the display image displayed on a display device to be transmitted through an optical system in which a retroreflective member and an optical member that has an optical characteristic of reflecting part of incident light and transmitting part of the incident light are combined (Yabiku Figs. 1-8, [0009]-[0010]: optical device 10 having display unit 20. The display unit 20 includes a display 22; [0012], [0025]-[0027], [0031]-[0034]: half of light beam emitted from display 22 is reflected towards the first retroreflective member 30 by the half mirror 40. The first retroreflective member 30 reflects the incident light beam in the direction from which it was incident. The haft mirror 40 transmits the light beam reflected by the retroreflective member 30 and radiates it in another direction to form an aerial image 82 in front of an observer’s field of view); and
variably controlling a display direction of the display device to set a display position of the aerial image in a range of a predetermined angle including a presence position of the viewer on a basis of the position information on the viewer acquired (Yabiku [0009]-[0010]: display unit 20 includes display 22, movable arm 24, position adjustment unit 26 and movable part 28 to move the display 22 by the position control function of the position adjustment unit 26 so the display 22 can move in different directions; [0022]-[0024]: control unit 72 acquires position data from the detection unit 70 and control the tilt angle or position of the display 22 as in [0024]; [0029]: the position of the display 22 can be moved to change the position of the formed aerial image to match the observer’s line of sight, hence display the aerial image in a range of a predetermined angle including presence position of the viewer on basis of position information of viewer as in Figs. 1-8).
Regarding claim 7, Yabiku discloses all the limitations of claim 6.
Yabiku discloses wherein the variably controlling the display direction of the display device variably controls the display position and the display direction of the display device to set the display position of the aerial image in the range of the predetermined angle including the presence position of the viewer on the basis of the position information of the viewer acquired (Yabiku [0009]-[0010], [0029]: display unit 20 includes display 22, movable arm 24, position adjustment unit 26 and movable part 28 to move the display 22 by the position control function of the position adjustment unit 26 so the display 22 can move in different directions including moving forward, backward, up, down, left and right directions or tilted in up, down, left and right directions; [0022]-[0024]: control unit 72 acquires position data from the detection unit 70 and control the tilt angle or position of the display 22 as in [0024]; [0029]: the position of the display 22 can be moved to change the position of the formed aerial image to match the observer’s line of sight, hence display the aerial image in a range of a predetermined angle including presence position of the viewer on basis of position information of viewer as in Figs. 1-8).
Conclusion
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to KATHLEEN V NGUYEN whose telephone number is (571)270-0626. The examiner can normally be reached on M-F 9:00am-6:00pm.
If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner’s supervisor, Jamie Atala can be reached on 571-272-7384. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300.
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/KATHLEEN V NGUYEN/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2486
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