DETAILED ACTION
The present application, filed on or after March 16, 2013, is being examined under the first inventor to file provisions of the AIA .
Response to Amendment
The amendment filed on May 26, 2026 has been entered and considered by the Examiner.
Claims 1 and 21 are objected to because of the following informalities:
In particular, claim recites limitations “more than one drive signals” in third thru eighth lines and fourth thru ninth lines of the claims respectively, but it is unclear as to whether the limitations are referring to drive signals or a single drive signal. Therefore, Examiner suggests the limitations “more than one drive signals” recited in the third thru eighth lines and the fourth thru ninth lines of the claims respectively should be amended, without adding new matter, in a manner that clarifies more specifically as to what “more than one drive signals” actually is referring to. Accordingly, any claims dependent on claim 1 are objected to based on same above reasoning.
Claim 2 is objected to because of the following informalities:
In particular, claim recites limitation “more than one drive signals” in third thru sixth lines of the claim, but it is unclear as to whether the limitation is referring to drive signals or a single drive signal. Therefore, Examiner suggests the limitation “more than one drive signals” recited in the third thru sixth lines of the claim should be amended, without adding new matter, in a manner that clarifies more specifically as to what “more than one drive signals” actually is referring to. Accordingly, any claims dependent on claim 2 are objected to based on same above reasoning.
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, 6, 9-14, and 19-21 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Guo et al., U.S. Patent Application Publication 2015/0324023 A1 (hereinafter Guo), in view of Lee et al., U.S. Patent Application Publication 2014/0104226 A1 (hereinafter Lee I).
Regarding claim 1 Guo teaches a touch-sensitive apparatus, the apparatus comprising: an electrode array, comprising at least one drive electrode; drive circuitry configured to generate more than one drive signals comprising at least a first drive signal for driving the at least one drive electrode (100, DS FIGS. 1-3, paragraph[0017] of Guo teaches FIG. 1 is a functional diagram illustrating a touch panel 100 including a number of drive lines DL and sense lines SL, with a capacitive sensor node or sensor Cnm being formed at the overlap of each drive line and sense line, as previously discussed; in the example of FIG. 1, the touch panel 100 includes a total of N drive lines, where N=12, and thus the touch panel includes drive lines DL1-DL12; the touch panel 100 also includes a total of M sense lines, where M=16 and so the touch panel includes sense lines SL1-SL16; the capacitive sensors Cnm are formed at the overlap of the 16 sense lines SL and the 12 drive lines DL and there are accordingly 192 sensors Cnm in the touch panel 100; the subscript n indicates the drive line DL associated with the capacitive sensor Cnm so n=(1-N) in the example of FIG. 1; the subscript m indicates the sense line SL associated with a capacitive sensor Cnm and m=(1−M); selected capacitive sensors Cnm are labeled in FIG. 1 as examples of notation being utilized to identify each sensor in the array of sensors Cnm in the touch panel 100; according to embodiments of the present disclosure, multiple drive lines DL are simultaneously driven or activated with drive signals DS having the same electrical characteristics, and the resulting sense signals SS generated on the sense lines SL are then sensed and processed to detect the presence of touches on the touch panel 100, as will be explained in more detail below, and See also at least paragraphs[0018]-[0024], [0026], and [0029]-[0031] of Guo (i.e., Guo teaches a touch panel having drive lines and sense lines, wherein a touch controller sequentially applies drive signals to the drive lines));
control circuitry configured to: identify a set of N drive electrodes comprising the at least one drive electrode, where N is an integer greater than or equal to one; apply the more than one drive signals to the set of N drive electrodes, wherein the control circuitry is configured to apply the more than one drive signals in a plurality of discrete time periods, wherein a number of electrodes in the set of N drive electrodes is less than the number of discrete time periods (T, DL1-DL12 FIGS. 1-3, paragraph[0021] of Guo teaches referring now to FIG. 3, to scan the entire touch panel 100 the touch controller (not shown) sequentially applies the drive signal DS to each of the drive lines DL1-DL12 in a respective time slot TS; as discussed above and shown in FIG. 2, a time slot TS corresponds to the duration for which the drive signal DS is applied to each drive line DL; thus, as shown in FIG. 3, the touch controller (not shown) initially applies the drive signal DS1 to drive line DL1 in a first time slot TS, which is designated TS1; during this first time slot TS1, the touch controller also senses the sense signals SS1-SS16 (FIG. 1) generated on the sense lines SL1-SL16 in response the DS1 signal; the touch controller then applies the drive signal DS2 to the drive line DL2 in a second time slot TS designated TS2 and senses the sense signals SS1-SS16 generated on the sense lines SL1-SL16 in response the DS2 signal; the touch controller continues sequentially applying the drive signals DS in this way and sensing sense signals SS generated in response to each drive signal during each of the time slots TS3-TS11; finally, the drive signal DS12 is applied to the drive line DL12 in a twelfth time slot TS12 and the sense signals SS1-SS16 during this twelfth time slot are sensed, which completes the sensing of the sensors Cnm of the entire touch panel 100; and this sensing of all the sensors Cnm is referred to as a “scan” of the touch panel 100, and See also at least paragraphs[00017]-[0020], [0022]-[0023] and [0026] of Guo (i.e., Guo teaches a touch panel having set of single drive lines and sense lines, wherein a touch controller sequentially applies a drive signal as a series of pulses over a time period T to each of the drive lines in a respective time slot, and wherein the period of pulses can be made fewer and shorter));
obtain a measurement from the electrode array in each of the plurality of discrete time periods; determine an indication of a capacitive coupling associated with the at least one drive electrode based on the obtained measurements from the electrode array in each of the plurality of discrete time periods; and; for the set of N drive electrodes; in each of the plurality of discrete time periods (T FIGS. 1-4, paragraphs[0022]-[0023] of Guo teaches the detailed operation regarding the manner in which the sense signals SS1-SS16 are generated responsive to the applied drive signals DS will be understood by those skilled in the art, and thus, for the sake of brevity, will not be described in detail herein; briefly, the drive signal DS applied to a given drive line DL is capacitively coupled through the capacitive sensors Cnm to the sense lines SL; the amount of capacitive coupling from the drive lines DL to the sense lines SL depends on the values of the capacitive sensors Cnm, each of which depends on the presence or absence of a touch or hover event proximate the sensor; the value of the capacitive sensor Cnm thus determines the amount of charge that is transferred to sense line SL responsive to each pulse of the drive signal DS (see FIG. 2); this charge transfer is typically integrated over the time slot TS during which the drive signal DS is applied to a given drive line DL to thereby generate a voltage having a value that indicates whether a touch is present or not; the signal generated on the sense line SL due to this charge transfer is the sense signal SS; the value of each capacitive sensor Cnm is reduced by the presence of a touch and thus the capacitive coupling between the drive line DL and sense line SL is lower when a touch is present; as a result, the value of the voltage after integration of the sense signal SS over the time slot TS has a smaller value when a touch is present (i.e., a smaller value of Cnm and thus smaller charge transfer responsive to each pulse of the drive signal DS); the voltage has a larger value when a touch is not present (i.e., a larger value of Cnm and thus more charge transfer each pulse of the drive signal DS); thus, when the voltage is greater than some threshold value the touch controller determines no touch is present at the sensor Cnm and when the voltage is less than this threshold value a touch is determined to be present; the touch controller may process the voltage generated from the sense signal SS in a variety of different ways in determining whether a touch has occurred, as will be appreciated by those skilled in the art; this processing may include, for example, analog-to-digital (ND) conversion, baseline subtraction, low pass filtering, and so on, as will be appreciated by those skilled in the art, and See also at least paragraphs[00017]-[0021], [0024], [0026], [0028]-[0031], and [0034] of Guo (i.e., Guo teaches a touch panel having drive lines and sense lines, wherein a touch controller sequentially applies each drive signal as a series of pulses over a time period T to each of the drive lines in a respective time slot, wherein the period of pulses can be made fewer and shorter, and wherein the touch controller can determine from a generated sense signal a presence of a touch based on amount of capacitive coupling determined from capacitive sensors of the touch panel)); but does not expressly teach determine an indication of noise; based on the obtained measurements from the electrode array.
However, Lee I teaches determine an indication of noise; based on the obtained measurements from the electrode array (FIGS. 5, paragraphs[0097] of Lee I teaches according to another aspect of the present invention, there is provided a touchscreen apparatus including: a panel unit including a plurality of driving electrodes and a plurality of sensing electrodes; a driving circuit unit providing driving signals including a preset number of driving pulses to the plurality of respective driving electrodes of the panel unit; a detecting circuit unit removing electrical noise from a first voltage corresponding to a capacitance change in the panel unit when the electrical noise is included in the first voltage; and a controlling unit controlling the driving circuit unit to generate an additional driving pulse when the electrical noise is included in the first voltage and providing a driving line reset signal delayed by an amount of time corresponding to the additional driving pulse to the detecting circuit unit, and See also at least paragraphs[0016], [0022], [0040]-[0048], [0092]-[0096], and [0098]-[0101] of Lee I (i.e., Lee I teaches determining electrical noise in voltages corresponding to a capacitance change in a panel unit of a touchscreen)).
Furthermore, Guo and Lee I are considered to be analogous art because they are from the same field of endeavor with respect to a display device, and involve the same problem of forming the display device for suitably determining a touch input. Therefore, before the effective filing date of the claimed invention it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art to modify the system of Guo based on Lee I to determine an indication of noise for the set of N drive electrodes based on the obtained measurements from the electrode array in each of the plurality of discrete time periods. One reason for the modification as taught by Lee I is to have a touchscreen apparatus having improved capacitance detection performance by removing electrical noise to compensate for signal loss (paragraph[0013] of Lee I). The same motivation and rationale to combine for claim 1 mentioned above, in light of corresponding statement of grounds of rejection, applies to each respective dependent claim mentioned in the corresponding statement of grounds of rejection.
Regarding claim 2, Guo teaches wherein: the electrode array additionally comprises at least one receive electrode; the more than one drive signals comprises at least a first drive signal and a second drive signal; the control circuitry is configured to: apply the more than one drive signals to the set of N drive electrodes in a plurality of discrete time periods, wherein in at least two of the discrete time periods, the control circuitry is configured to apply a different one of the first drive signal and the second drive signal to the at least a drive electrode of the set of drive electrodes (SL1-SL16, DS1, DS2 FIGS. 1-4, paragraph[0030] of Guo teaches after the termination of the first time slot TS1, the touch controller applies the drive signal DS1 to the first drive line DL1 and at the same time applies a second drive signal DS2 to the second drive line DL2 during a second time slot TS2; each of the drive signals DS1 and DS2 during the second time slot TS2 is a pulse train of only 64 pulses (P=64 in FIG. 2) as indicated through the number 64 shown in the rectangle in FIG. 4 during the second time slot; accordingly, the second time slot TS2 need only be half as long as the first time slot TS1 since the applied drive signals DS1, DS2 include only half the number of pulses as the drive signal DS1 during the first time slot TS1; this application of the drive signals DS1, DS2 to the drive lines DL 1, DL 2 during the second time slot TS2 is illustrated again with a left square bracket adjacent the drive lines DL1, DL2 and the label TS2 in FIG. 5; during the second time slot TS2 once again the touch controller senses the sense signals SS1-SS16 generated on the sense lines SL1-SL16 responsive to the applied first and second drive signals DS1 and DS2 on the drive lines DL1 and DL2; as a result of the drive signals DS1 and DS2 being simultaneously applied to the drive lines DL1 and DL2 during the second time slot TS2, the resulting sense signals SS1-SS16 will contain information about the sensors C11-C116 associated with the first drive line DL1 as well as information about the sensors C21-C216 associated with the second drive line DL2, as will be described in more detail below with reference to FIG. 6, and See also at least paragraphs[00017]-[0023], [0026], [0029], and [0031] of Guo (i.e., Guo teaches a touch panel having drive lines and sense lines, wherein a touch controller sequentially applies drive signals DS1 and DS2 to respective drive lines as pulse train over a time period T to each of the drive lines in a respective time slots));
obtain a measurement from the receive electrode of the electrode array in each of the plurality of discrete time periods; determine, as an indication of a capacitive coupling associated with the at least a drive electrode, a mutual capacitive coupling between each of the set of N drive electrodes and the receive electrode based on the obtained measurements from the receive electrode of the electrode array in each of the plurality of discrete time periods; and; for the set of N drive electrodes; in each of the plurality of discrete time periods (FIGS. 1-6, paragraphs[0022]-[0023] of Guo teaches the detailed operation regarding the manner in which the sense signals SS1-SS16 are generated responsive to the applied drive signals DS will be understood by those skilled in the art, and thus, for the sake of brevity, will not be described in detail herein; briefly, the drive signal DS applied to a given drive line DL is capacitively coupled through the capacitive sensors Cnm to the sense lines SL; the amount of capacitive coupling from the drive lines DL to the sense lines SL depends on the values of the capacitive sensors Cnm, each of which depends on the presence or absence of a touch or hover event proximate the sensor; the value of the capacitive sensor Cnm thus determines the amount of charge that is transferred to sense line SL responsive to each pulse of the drive signal DS (see FIG. 2); this charge transfer is typically integrated over the time slot TS during which the drive signal DS is applied to a given drive line DL to thereby generate a voltage having a value that indicates whether a touch is present or not; the signal generated on the sense line SL due to this charge transfer is the sense signal SS; the value of each capacitive sensor Cnm is reduced by the presence of a touch and thus the capacitive coupling between the drive line DL and sense line SL is lower when a touch is present; as a result, the value of the voltage after integration of the sense signal SS over the time slot TS has a smaller value when a touch is present (i.e., a smaller value of Cnm and thus smaller charge transfer responsive to each pulse of the drive signal DS); the voltage has a larger value when a touch is not present (i.e., a larger value of Cnm and thus more charge transfer each pulse of the drive signal DS); thus, when the voltage is greater than some threshold value the touch controller determines no touch is present at the sensor Cnm and when the voltage is less than this threshold value a touch is determined to be present; the touch controller may process the voltage generated from the sense signal SS in a variety of different ways in determining whether a touch has occurred, as will be appreciated by those skilled in the art; this processing may include, for example, analog-to-digital (ND) conversion, baseline subtraction, low pass filtering, and so on, as will be appreciated by those skilled in the art, and See also at least paragraphs[00017]-[0024], [0026], and [0028]-[0031]-[0035] of Guo (i.e., Guo teaches a touch panel having drive lines and sense lines, wherein a touch controller sequentially applies each drive signal as a series of pulses over a time period T to each of the drive lines in a respective time slot, wherein the period of pulses capable of being made fewer and shorter, wherein the touch controller is capable to determine, from generated sense signals and simultaneously driven drive lines with drive signals over periods of a respective time slot, a presence of a touch based on amount of capacitive coupling determined from capacitive sensors of the touch panel)); but does not expressly teach determine an indication of the noise; based on the obtained measurements from the receive electrode of the electrode array.
However, Lee I teaches determine an indication of the noise; based on the obtained measurements from the receive electrode of the electrode array (FIGS. 5, paragraphs[0097] of Lee I teaches according to another aspect of the present invention, there is provided a touchscreen apparatus including: a panel unit including a plurality of driving electrodes and a plurality of sensing electrodes; a driving circuit unit providing driving signals including a preset number of driving pulses to the plurality of respective driving electrodes of the panel unit; a detecting circuit unit removing electrical noise from a first voltage corresponding to a capacitance change in the panel unit when the electrical noise is included in the first voltage; and a controlling unit controlling the driving circuit unit to generate an additional driving pulse when the electrical noise is included in the first voltage and providing a driving line reset signal delayed by an amount of time corresponding to the additional driving pulse to the detecting circuit unit, and See also at least paragraphs[0016], [0022], [0040]-[0048], [0092]-[0096], and [0098]-[0101] of Lee I (i.e., Lee I teaches determining electrical noise in voltages corresponding to a capacitance change in a sensing electrode of a panel unit of a touchscreen)).
Regarding claim 6, Guo and Lee I teach the touch-sensitive apparatus of any of the preceding claim 1, wherein determining the indication of the capacitive coupling associated with the at least a drive electrode includes combining each of the obtained measurements from each of the plurality of discrete time periods (FIGS. 1-4, paragraphs[0022]-[0023] of Guo teaches the detailed operation regarding the manner in which the sense signals SS1-SS16 are generated responsive to the applied drive signals DS will be understood by those skilled in the art, and thus, for the sake of brevity, will not be described in detail herein; briefly, the drive signal DS applied to a given drive line DL is capacitively coupled through the capacitive sensors Cnm to the sense lines SL; the amount of capacitive coupling from the drive lines DL to the sense lines SL depends on the values of the capacitive sensors Cnm, each of which depends on the presence or absence of a touch or hover event proximate the sensor; the value of the capacitive sensor Cnm thus determines the amount of charge that is transferred to sense line SL responsive to each pulse of the drive signal DS (see FIG. 2); this charge transfer is typically integrated over the time slot TS during which the drive signal DS is applied to a given drive line DL to thereby generate a voltage having a value that indicates whether a touch is present or not; the signal generated on the sense line SL due to this charge transfer is the sense signal SS; the value of each capacitive sensor Cnm is reduced by the presence of a touch and thus the capacitive coupling between the drive line DL and sense line SL is lower when a touch is present; as a result, the value of the voltage after integration of the sense signal SS over the time slot TS has a smaller value when a touch is present (i.e., a smaller value of Cnm and thus smaller charge transfer responsive to each pulse of the drive signal DS); the voltage has a larger value when a touch is not present (i.e., a larger value of Cnm and thus more charge transfer each pulse of the drive signal DS); thus, when the voltage is greater than some threshold value the touch controller determines no touch is present at the sensor Cnm and when the voltage is less than this threshold value a touch is determined to be present; the touch controller may process the voltage generated from the sense signal SS in a variety of different ways in determining whether a touch has occurred, as will be appreciated by those skilled in the art; this processing may include, for example, analog-to-digital (ND) conversion, baseline subtraction, low pass filtering, and so on, as will be appreciated by those skilled in the art, and See also at least paragraphs[00017]-[0021], [0024], [0026], [0028]-[0031], and [0034] of Guo (i.e., Guo teaches a touch panel having drive lines and sense lines, wherein a touch controller sequentially applies each drive signal as a series of pulses over a time period T to each of the drive lines in a respective time slot, wherein the period of pulses can be made fewer and shorter, wherein the touch controller can determine from a generated sense signal a presence of a touch based on amount of capacitive coupling determined from capacitive sensors of the touch panel, and wherein integration of a time slot to generate a voltage having a value that indicates whether a touch is present or not)).
Regarding claim 9, Guo and Lee I teach the touch-sensitive apparatus of any of the preceding claim1, wherein, when the set of N drive electrodes comprises N number of drive electrodes, the control circuitry is configured to apply the drive signals over Y number of discrete time periods, wherein Y is greater than N (FIGS. 1-3, paragraphs[0019]-[0020] of Guo teaches IG. 1 illustrates a user's finger 102 applying a touch in the upper right hand portion of the touch panel 100; the finger 102 is large enough that the finger covers more than one capacitive sensor Cnm when touching the touch panel 100; in the example of FIG. 1, the finger 102 touches the capacitive sensors C115 and C215; as a result, a sense signal SS generated on the sense line SL15 in response to drive signals DS applied on the drive lines DL1 and DL2 will have values indicating the variation in the capacitance values of the sensors C115 and C215 and thus indicating a touch occurring at these capacitive sensors. The drives signals DS applied to the drives lines DL1-DL12 are designated DS1-DS12, respectively, while the sense signals SS generated on the sense lines SL1-SL16 are designated SS1-SS16, respectively; the operation of the touch panel 100 in detecting a touch, such as the touch of the finger 102, will now be described in more detail with reference to FIGS. 2 and 3; in operation, a touch controller (not shown in FIG. 1) sequentially applies a drive signal DS to the drive lines DL1-DL12 and senses the sense signals SS generated on the sense lines SL1-SL16 in response to each of these drive signals; typically, the drive signal DS applied to each of the drive lines DL is a series of pulses or a “pulse train” (PT) as illustrated in FIG. 2; the pulse train PT includes a series of pulses a labeled 1-P, where P is a number defining the total number of pulses that are applied during a time slot TS of the drive signal; the time slot TS defines the entire duration for which the drive signal DS is applied to each drive line DL; and each pulse 1-P has a period T so the time slot TS=(P=T), and See also at least paragraphs[00017]-[0018], [0021], [0022]-[0023] and [0026] of Guo (i.e., Guo teaches a touch panel having drive lines and sense lines, wherein a touch controller is capable to sequentially apply a drive signal as a series of pulses over time periods T to each of the drive lines in a respective time slot, wherein the period of pulses can be made fewer and shorter, and wherein the amount of time periods is greater than or equal to 2 and capable of being greater than the number of drive lines)).
Regarding claim 10, Guo and Lee I teach the touch-sensitive apparatus of claim 9, wherein Y is selected from the sequence of: 2, 4, 8, 12, 16, 20, 24, 28, 32 …, ∆+4, where ∆ is the preceding number of the sequence (FIGS. 1-3, paragraphs[0019]-[0020] of Guo teaches IG. 1 illustrates a user's finger 102 applying a touch in the upper right hand portion of the touch panel 100; the finger 102 is large enough that the finger covers more than one capacitive sensor Cnm when touching the touch panel 100; in the example of FIG. 1, the finger 102 touches the capacitive sensors C115 and C215; as a result, a sense signal SS generated on the sense line SL15 in response to drive signals DS applied on the drive lines DL1 and DL2 will have values indicating the variation in the capacitance values of the sensors C115 and C215 and thus indicating a touch occurring at these capacitive sensors. The drives signals DS applied to the drives lines DL1-DL12 are designated DS1-DS12, respectively, while the sense signals SS generated on the sense lines SL1-SL16 are designated SS1-SS16, respectively; the operation of the touch panel 100 in detecting a touch, such as the touch of the finger 102, will now be described in more detail with reference to FIGS. 2 and 3; in operation, a touch controller (not shown in FIG. 1) sequentially applies a drive signal DS to the drive lines DL1-DL12 and senses the sense signals SS generated on the sense lines SL1-SL16 in response to each of these drive signals; typically, the drive signal DS applied to each of the drive lines DL is a series of pulses or a “pulse train” (PT) as illustrated in FIG. 2; the pulse train PT includes a series of pulses a labeled 1-P, where P is a number defining the total number of pulses that are applied during a time slot TS of the drive signal; the time slot TS defines the entire duration for which the drive signal DS is applied to each drive line DL; and each pulse 1-P has a period T so the time slot TS=(P=T), and See also at least paragraphs[00017]-[0018], [0021], [0022]-[0023] and [0026] of Guo (i.e., Guo teaches a touch panel having drive lines and sense lines, wherein a touch controller is capable to sequentially apply a drive signal as a series of pulses over time periods T to each of the drive lines in a respective time slot, wherein the period of pulses can be made fewer and shorter, and wherein the amount of time periods is greater than or equal to 2 and capable of being greater than the number of drive lines)).
Regarding claim 11, Guo and Lee I teach the touch-sensitive apparatus of claim 10, wherein Y is the next largest value in the sequence from N (FIGS. 1-3, paragraphs[0019]-[0020] of Guo teaches IG. 1 illustrates a user's finger 102 applying a touch in the upper right hand portion of the touch panel 100; the finger 102 is large enough that the finger covers more than one capacitive sensor Cnm when touching the touch panel 100; in the example of FIG. 1, the finger 102 touches the capacitive sensors C115 and C215; as a result, a sense signal SS generated on the sense line SL15 in response to drive signals DS applied on the drive lines DL1 and DL2 will have values indicating the variation in the capacitance values of the sensors C115 and C215 and thus indicating a touch occurring at these capacitive sensors. The drives signals DS applied to the drives lines DL1-DL12 are designated DS1-DS12, respectively, while the sense signals SS generated on the sense lines SL1-SL16 are designated SS1-SS16, respectively; the operation of the touch panel 100 in detecting a touch, such as the touch of the finger 102, will now be described in more detail with reference to FIGS. 2 and 3; in operation, a touch controller (not shown in FIG. 1) sequentially applies a drive signal DS to the drive lines DL1-DL12 and senses the sense signals SS generated on the sense lines SL1-SL16 in response to each of these drive signals; typically, the drive signal DS applied to each of the drive lines DL is a series of pulses or a “pulse train” (PT) as illustrated in FIG. 2; the pulse train PT includes a series of pulses a labeled 1-P, where P is a number defining the total number of pulses that are applied during a time slot TS of the drive signal; the time slot TS defines the entire duration for which the drive signal DS is applied to each drive line DL; and each pulse 1-P has a period T so the time slot TS=(P=T), and See also at least paragraphs[00017]-[0018], [0021], [0022]-[0023] and [0026] of Guo (i.e., Guo teaches a touch panel having drive lines and sense lines, wherein a touch controller is capable to sequentially apply a drive signal as a series of pulses over time periods T to each of the drive lines in a respective time slot, wherein the period of pulses can be made fewer and shorter, and wherein the amount of time periods is greater than or equal to 2 and capable of being greater than the number of drive lines)).
Regarding claim 12, Guo and Lee I teach the touch-sensitive apparatus of any of claim 2, wherein the control circuitry is configured to determine combinations of the first and second drive signals to be applied to the set of N drive electrodes, wherein each electrode of the set of N drive electrodes receives one of the first and second drive signals in a given discrete time period, and wherein each one of the determined combinations of the first drive signal and second drive signals is applied in a respective one of the plurality of discrete time periods (FIGS. 1-3, paragraphs[0019]-[0020] of Guo teaches IG. 1 illustrates a user's finger 102 applying a touch in the upper right hand portion of the touch panel 100; the finger 102 is large enough that the finger covers more than one capacitive sensor Cnm when touching the touch panel 100; in the example of FIG. 1, the finger 102 touches the capacitive sensors C115 and C215; as a result, a sense signal SS generated on the sense line SL15 in response to drive signals DS applied on the drive lines DL1 and DL2 will have values indicating the variation in the capacitance values of the sensors C115 and C215 and thus indicating a touch occurring at these capacitive sensors. The drives signals DS applied to the drives lines DL1-DL12 are designated DS1-DS12, respectively, while the sense signals SS generated on the sense lines SL1-SL16 are designated SS1-SS16, respectively; the operation of the touch panel 100 in detecting a touch, such as the touch of the finger 102, will now be described in more detail with reference to FIGS. 2 and 3; in operation, a touch controller (not shown in FIG. 1) sequentially applies a drive signal DS to the drive lines DL1-DL12 and senses the sense signals SS generated on the sense lines SL1-SL16 in response to each of these drive signals; typically, the drive signal DS applied to each of the drive lines DL is a series of pulses or a “pulse train” (PT) as illustrated in FIG. 2; the pulse train PT includes a series of pulses a labeled 1-P, where P is a number defining the total number of pulses that are applied during a time slot TS of the drive signal; the time slot TS defines the entire duration for which the drive signal DS is applied to each drive line DL; and each pulse 1-P has a period T so the time slot TS=(P=T), and See also at least paragraphs[00017]-[0018], [0021], [0022]-[0023] and [0026] of Guo (i.e., Guo teaches a touch panel having drive lines and sense lines, wherein a touch controller is capable to sequentially apply a drive signal as a series of pulses over time periods T to each of the drive lines in a respective time slot, wherein the period of pulses can be made fewer and shorter, and wherein the amount of time periods is greater than or equal to 2 and capable of being greater than the number of drive lines)).
Regarding claim 13, Guo and Lee I teach the touch-sensitive apparatus of claim 12, wherein each combination of the first drive signal and second drive signal is different from one another (FIGS. 1-6, paragraphs[0022]-[0023] of Guo teaches the detailed operation regarding the manner in which the sense signals SS1-SS16 are generated responsive to the applied drive signals DS will be understood by those skilled in the art, and thus, for the sake of brevity, will not be described in detail herein; briefly, the drive signal DS applied to a given drive line DL is capacitively coupled through the capacitive sensors Cnm to the sense lines SL; the amount of capacitive coupling from the drive lines DL to the sense lines SL depends on the values of the capacitive sensors Cnm, each of which depends on the presence or absence of a touch or hover event proximate the sensor; the value of the capacitive sensor Cnm thus determines the amount of charge that is transferred to sense line SL responsive to each pulse of the drive signal DS (see FIG. 2); this charge transfer is typically integrated over the time slot TS during which the drive signal DS is applied to a given drive line DL to thereby generate a voltage having a value that indicates whether a touch is present or not; the signal generated on the sense line SL due to this charge transfer is the sense signal SS; the value of each capacitive sensor Cnm is reduced by the presence of a touch and thus the capacitive coupling between the drive line DL and sense line SL is lower when a touch is present; as a result, the value of the voltage after integration of the sense signal SS over the time slot TS has a smaller value when a touch is present (i.e., a smaller value of Cnm and thus smaller charge transfer responsive to each pulse of the drive signal DS); the voltage has a larger value when a touch is not present (i.e., a larger value of Cnm and thus more charge transfer each pulse of the drive signal DS); thus, when the voltage is greater than some threshold value the touch controller determines no touch is present at the sensor Cnm and when the voltage is less than this threshold value a touch is determined to be present; the touch controller may process the voltage generated from the sense signal SS in a variety of different ways in determining whether a touch has occurred, as will be appreciated by those skilled in the art; this processing may include, for example, analog-to-digital (ND) conversion, baseline subtraction, low pass filtering, and so on, as will be appreciated by those skilled in the art, and See also at least paragraphs[00017]-[0024], [0026], and [0028]-[0031]-[0035] of Guo (i.e., Guo teaches a touch panel having drive lines and sense lines, wherein a touch controller sequentially applies each drive signal, which include DS1 and DS2, as a series of pulses over a time period T to each of the drive lines in a respective time slot, wherein the period of pulses capable of being made fewer and shorter, wherein the touch controller is capable to determine, from generated sense signals and simultaneously driven drive lines with drive signals over periods of a respective time slot, a presence of a touch based on amount of capacitive coupling determined from capacitive sensors of the touch panel)).
Regarding claim 14, Guo and Lee I teach the touch-sensitive apparatus of any of the preceding claim 1, wherein the set of electrodes comprises only one drive electrode (FIGS. 1-3, paragraph[0021] of Guo teaches referring now to FIG. 3, to scan the entire touch panel 100 the touch controller (not shown) sequentially applies the drive signal DS to each of the drive lines DL1-DL12 in a respective time slot TS; as discussed above and shown in FIG. 2, a time slot TS corresponds to the duration for which the drive signal DS is applied to each drive line DL; thus, as shown in FIG. 3, the touch controller (not shown) initially applies the drive signal DS1 to drive line DL1 in a first time slot TS, which is designated TS1; during this first time slot TS1, the touch controller also senses the sense signals SS1-SS16 (FIG. 1) generated on the sense lines SL1-SL16 in response the DS1 signal; the touch controller then applies the drive signal DS2 to the drive line DL2 in a second time slot TS designated TS2 and senses the sense signals SS1-SS16 generated on the sense lines SL1-SL16 in response the DS2 signal; the touch controller continues sequentially applying the drive signals DS in this way and sensing sense signals SS generated in response to each drive signal during each of the time slots TS3-TS11; finally, the drive signal DS12 is applied to the drive line DL12 in a twelfth time slot TS12 and the sense signals SS1-SS16 during this twelfth time slot are sensed, which completes the sensing of the sensors Cnm of the entire touch panel 100; and this sensing of all the sensors Cnm is referred to as a “scan” of the touch panel 100, and See also at least paragraphs[00017]-[0020], [0022]-[0023] and [0026] of Guo (i.e., Guo teaches a touch panel having set of single drive lines and sense lines, wherein a touch controller sequentially applies a drive signal as a series of pulses over a time period T to each of the drive lines in a respective time slot, and wherein the period of pulses can be made fewer and shorter)).
Regarding claim 19, Guo and Lee I teach further comprising system processing circuitry communicatively coupled to the control circuitry of the touch-sensitive apparatus (906, 902 FIGS. 1-3, and 9, paragraph[0050] of Guo teach FIG. 9 is a functional block diagram of an electronic device 900 including a touch controller 902 that controls a touch screen 904 to sense user touches on the touch panel using the methods of FIGS. 4-8 according to another embodiment of the present disclosure; the electronic device 900 further includes processing circuitry 906 coupled to the touch controller 902 that controls the touch screen 904 to thereby detect touches or touch points P(X,Y,Z) applied on or above a touch panel 908 of the touch screen; in this way a user (not shown) of the electronic device 900 interfaces with and controls the operation of the electronic device; the electronic system or device 900 may be any type of electronic system, such as a personal computer, laptop computer, tablet computer, a smart phone, a portable music or video player, and so on; and for the present description, the electronic device 900 is assumed to be a smart phone by way of example, and See also at least paragraphs[0017]-[0021], and [0051]-[0056] of Guo (i.e., Guo teaches a touch panel having drive lines and sense lines, wherein a touch controller sequentially applies drive signals to the drive lines, and wherein the touch panel includes processing circuitry coupled to the touch controller)).
Regarding claim 20, Guo and Lee I teach the system of claim 19, wherein the system processing circuitry is configured to cause the system to perform a first action in response to receiving a signal output from the control circuitry of the touch-sensitive apparatus indicating the presence of a touch on the touch-sensitive element (FIGS. 1-3, and 9, paragraph[0055] of Guo teach the processing circuitry 906 is coupled to the touch controller 704 to receive the generated touch information TI, including the location of the touch points P(X,Y,Z) and the corresponding type of detected interface event (touch event, hover event, gesture event) associated with the touch point; the processing circuitry 906 executes applications or “apps” 912 that control the electronic device 900 to implement desired functions or perform desired tasks; these apps 912 executing on the processing circuitry 906 interface with a user of the electronic device 900 through the touch controller 902 and touch screen 904, allowing a user to start execution of or “open” the app and to thereafter interface with the app through the touch display and touch panel 908; the processing circuitry 906 represents generally the various types of circuitry contained in the electronic device 900 other than the touch screen 904 and touch controller 902; and where the electronic device 900 is a smart phone, for example, the processing circuitry 906 would typically include a processor, memory, Global Positioning System (GPS) circuitry, Wi-Fi circuitry, Bluetooth circuitry, and so on, and See also at least paragraphs[0017]-[0021], [0050]-[0054], and [0055] of Guo (i.e., Guo teaches an electronic device with the processing circuitry coupled to the touch controller to open an application responsive to receiving a touch event on a touch screen of the electronic device)).
Regarding claim 21 Guo teaches a method for enabling presence of a touch on or in a vicinity of a touch-sensitive element of a touch-sensitive apparatus to be determined, the touch- sensitive apparatus comprising an electrode array, comprising at least one drive electrode, drive circuitry configured to generate more than one drive signals comprising at least a first drive signal for driving the at least one drive electrode (100, DS FIGS. 1-3, paragraph[0017] of Guo teaches FIG. 1 is a functional diagram illustrating a touch panel 100 including a number of drive lines DL and sense lines SL, with a capacitive sensor node or sensor Cnm being formed at the overlap of each drive line and sense line, as previously discussed; in the example of FIG. 1, the touch panel 100 includes a total of N drive lines, where N=12, and thus the touch panel includes drive lines DL1-DL12; the touch panel 100 also includes a total of M sense lines, where M=16 and so the touch panel includes sense lines SL1-SL16; the capacitive sensors Cnm are formed at the overlap of the 16 sense lines SL and the 12 drive lines DL and there are accordingly 192 sensors Cnm in the touch panel 100; the subscript n indicates the drive line DL associated with the capacitive sensor Cnm so n=(1-N) in the example of FIG. 1; the subscript m indicates the sense line SL associated with a capacitive sensor Cnm and m=(1−M); selected capacitive sensors Cnm are labeled in FIG. 1 as examples of notation being utilized to identify each sensor in the array of sensors Cnm in the touch panel 100; according to embodiments of the present disclosure, multiple drive lines DL are simultaneously driven or activated with drive signals DS having the same electrical characteristics, and the resulting sense signals SS generated on the sense lines SL are then sensed and processed to detect the presence of touches on the touch panel 100, as will be explained in more detail below, and See also at least paragraphs[0018]-[0024], [0026], and [0029]-[0031] of Guo (i.e., Guo teaches a touch panel having drive lines and sense lines, wherein a touch controller sequentially applies drive signals to the drive lines for detecting presence of a touch of touches on the touch panel)), and control circuitry, wherein the method comprises: identifying a set of N drive electrodes comprising the at least a drive electrode; applying the more than one drive signals to the set of N drive electrodes in a plurality of discrete time periods, wherein a number of electrodes in the set of N drive electrodes is less a the number of discrete time periods (T, DL1-DL12 FIGS. 1-3, paragraph[0021] of Guo teaches referring now to FIG. 3, to scan the entire touch panel 100 the touch controller (not shown) sequentially applies the drive signal DS to each of the drive lines DL1-DL12 in a respective time slot TS; as discussed above and shown in FIG. 2, a time slot TS corresponds to the duration for which the drive signal DS is applied to each drive line DL; thus, as shown in FIG. 3, the touch controller (not shown) initially applies the drive signal DS1 to drive line DL1 in a first time slot TS, which is designated TS1; during this first time slot TS1, the touch controller also senses the sense signals SS1-SS16 (FIG. 1) generated on the sense lines SL1-SL16 in response the DS1 signal; the touch controller then applies the drive signal DS2 to the drive line DL2 in a second time slot TS designated TS2 and senses the sense signals SS1-SS16 generated on the sense lines SL1-SL16 in response the DS2 signal; the touch controller continues sequentially applying the drive signals DS in this way and sensing sense signals SS generated in response to each drive signal during each of the time slots TS3-TS11; finally, the drive signal DS12 is applied to the drive line DL12 in a twelfth time slot TS12 and the sense signals SS1-SS16 during this twelfth time slot are sensed, which completes the sensing of the sensors Cnm of the entire touch panel 100; and this sensing of all the sensors Cnm is referred to as a “scan” of the touch panel 100, and See also at least paragraphs[00017]-[0020], [0022]-[0023] and [0026] of Guo (i.e., Guo teaches a touch panel having set of single drive lines and sense lines, wherein a touch controller sequentially applies a drive signal as a series of pulses over a time period T to each of the drive lines in a respective time slot, and wherein the period of pulses can be made fewer and shorter));
obtaining a measurement from the electrode array in each of the plurality of discrete time periods; determining an indication of a capacitive coupling associated with the at one least a drive electrode based on the obtained measurements from the electrode array in each of the plurality of discrete time periods; and; for the set of N drive electrodes; in each of the plurality of discrete time periods (T FIGS. 1-4, paragraphs[0022]-[0023] of Guo teaches the detailed operation regarding the manner in which the sense signals SS1-SS16 are generated responsive to the applied drive signals DS will be understood by those skilled in the art, and thus, for the sake of brevity, will not be described in detail herein; briefly, the drive signal DS applied to a given drive line DL is capacitively coupled through the capacitive sensors Cnm to the sense lines SL; the amount of capacitive coupling from the drive lines DL to the sense lines SL depends on the values of the capacitive sensors Cnm, each of which depends on the presence or absence of a touch or hover event proximate the sensor; the value of the capacitive sensor Cnm thus determines the amount of charge that is transferred to sense line SL responsive to each pulse of the drive signal DS (see FIG. 2); this charge transfer is typically integrated over the time slot TS during which the drive signal DS is applied to a given drive line DL to thereby generate a voltage having a value that indicates whether a touch is present or not; the signal generated on the sense line SL due to this charge transfer is the sense signal SS; the value of each capacitive sensor Cnm is reduced by the presence of a touch and thus the capacitive coupling between the drive line DL and sense line SL is lower when a touch is present; as a result, the value of the voltage after integration of the sense signal SS over the time slot TS has a smaller value when a touch is present (i.e., a smaller value of Cnm and thus smaller charge transfer responsive to each pulse of the drive signal DS); the voltage has a larger value when a touch is not present (i.e., a larger value of Cnm and thus more charge transfer each pulse of the drive signal DS); thus, when the voltage is greater than some threshold value the touch controller determines no touch is present at the sensor Cnm and when the voltage is less than this threshold value a touch is determined to be present; the touch controller may process the voltage generated from the sense signal SS in a variety of different ways in determining whether a touch has occurred, as will be appreciated by those skilled in the art; this processing may include, for example, analog-to-digital (ND) conversion, baseline subtraction, low pass filtering, and so on, as will be appreciated by those skilled in the art, and See also at least paragraphs[00017]-[0021], [0024], [0026], [0028]-[0031], and [0034] of Guo (i.e., Guo teaches a touch panel having drive lines and sense lines, wherein a touch controller sequentially applies each drive signal as a series of pulses over a time period T to each of the drive lines in a respective time slot, wherein the period of pulses can be made fewer and shorter, and wherein the touch controller can determine from a generated sense signal a presence of a touch based on amount of capacitive coupling determined from capacitive sensors of the touch panel)); but does not expressly teach determining an indication of noise; based on the obtained measurements from the electrode array.
However, Lee I teaches determine an indication of noise; based on the obtained measurements from the electrode array (FIGS. 5, paragraphs[0097] of Lee I teaches according to another aspect of the present invention, there is provided a touchscreen apparatus including: a panel unit including a plurality of driving electrodes and a plurality of sensing electrodes; a driving circuit unit providing driving signals including a preset number of driving pulses to the plurality of respective driving electrodes of the panel unit; a detecting circuit unit removing electrical noise from a first voltage corresponding to a capacitance change in the panel unit when the electrical noise is included in the first voltage; and a controlling unit controlling the driving circuit unit to generate an additional driving pulse when the electrical noise is included in the first voltage and providing a driving line reset signal delayed by an amount of time corresponding to the additional driving pulse to the detecting circuit unit, and See also at least paragraphs[0016], [0022], [0040]-[0048], [0092]-[0096], and [0098]-[0101] of Lee I (i.e., Lee I teaches determining electrical noise in voltages corresponding to a capacitance change in a panel unit of a touchscreen)).
Furthermore, Guo and Lee I are considered to be analogous art because they are from the same field of endeavor with respect to a display device, and involve the same problem of forming the display device for suitably determining a touch input. Therefore, before the effective filing date of the claimed invention it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art to modify the system and method of Guo based on Lee I for determining an indication of the noise for the set of N drive electrodes based on the obtained measurements from the electrode array in each of the plurality of discrete time periods. One reason for the modification as taught by Lee I is to have a touchscreen apparatus having improved capacitance detection performance by removing electrical noise to compensate for signal loss (paragraph[0013] of Lee I).
Potentially Allowable Subject Matter
Claims 3-5, 7-8, 15-16, and 18 are each objected to as being dependent upon a rejected base claim, but would be allowable if the applicable objection(s) indicated above are properly addressed to overcome the objection(s) and if rewritten in independent form including all of the limitations of the base claim and any intervening claims, because for each of claims 3-5, 7-8, 15-16, and 18 the prior art references of record do not teach the combination of all element limitations as presently claimed.
The prior art made of record and not relied upon is considered pertinent to applicant’s disclosure and include the following:
Karpin et al., U.S. Patent Application Publication 2014/0022211 A1 (hereinafter Karpin) teaches suppressing noise in a touch sensor array by sample-by-sample filtration of digital data using amplitude limiting filter and sorting filters with weights.
Sleeman et al., U.S. Patent Application Publication 2022/0229519 A1 (hereinafter Sleeman I) teaches a mutual capacitance touch-sensitive apparatus for determining presence of touch on a touch-sensitive element of the touch-sensitive apparatus.
Sleeman et al., U.S. Patent Application Publication 2022/0236868 A1 (hereinafter Sleeman II) teaches determining the presence of a touch on a touch-sensitive element of a touch-sensitive apparatus, wherein the touch-sensitive apparatus s configured to operate in both a mutual-capacitance measurement mode and a self-capacitance measurement mode.
Response to Arguments
Applicant's arguments filed May 26, 2026 have been fully considered but they are not persuasive. The following is a brief summary of Applicant’s arguments:
In regard to currently amended claim 1, Applicants submitted that the combination of prior art of record does not teach the following limitations: “determine an indication of a capacitive coupling associated with the at least a drive electrode based on the obtained measurements from the electrode array in each of the plurality of discrete time periods; and determine an indication of the noise for the set of N drive electrodes based on the obtained measurements from the electrode array in each of the plurality of discrete time periods”.
In regard to currently amended claim 21, Applicants submitted that the combination of prior art of record does not teach the following limitations: “determining an indication of a capacitive coupling associated with the at least one drive electrode based on the obtained measurements from the electrode array in each of the plurality of discrete time periods; and determining an indication of noise for the set of N drive electrodes based on the obtained measurements from the electrode array in each of the plurality of discrete time periods”
Examiner respectfully disagrees. In regard to the arguments ‘A’ and ‘B’ summarized above paragraphs[0022]-[0023] of Guo teaches the detailed operation regarding the manner in which the sense signals SS1-SS16 are generated responsive to the applied drive signals DS will be understood by those skilled in the art, and thus, for the sake of brevity, will not be described in detail herein; briefly, the drive signal DS applied to a given drive line DL is capacitively coupled through the capacitive sensors Cnm to the sense lines SL; the amount of capacitive coupling from the drive lines DL to the sense lines SL depends on the values of the capacitive sensors Cnm, each of which depends on the presence or absence of a touch or hover event proximate the sensor; the value of the capacitive sensor Cnm thus determines the amount of charge that is transferred to sense line SL responsive to each pulse of the drive signal DS (see FIG. 2); this charge transfer is typically integrated over the time slot TS during which the drive signal DS is applied to a given drive line DL to thereby generate a voltage having a value that indicates whether a touch is present or not; the signal generated on the sense line SL due to this charge transfer is the sense signal SS; the value of each capacitive sensor Cnm is reduced by the presence of a touch and thus the capacitive coupling between the drive line DL and sense line SL is lower when a touch is present; as a result, the value of the voltage after integration of the sense signal SS over the time slot TS has a smaller value when a touch is present (i.e., a smaller value of Cnm and thus smaller charge transfer responsive to each pulse of the drive signal DS); the voltage has a larger value when a touch is not present (i.e., a larger value of Cnm and thus more charge transfer each pulse of the drive signal DS); thus, when the voltage is greater than some threshold value the touch controller determines no touch is present at the sensor Cnm and when the voltage is less than this threshold value a touch is determined to be present; the touch controller may process the voltage generated from the sense signal SS in a variety of different ways in determining whether a touch has occurred, as will be appreciated by those skilled in the art; this processing may include, for example, analog-to-digital (ND) conversion, baseline subtraction, low pass filtering, and so on, as will be appreciated by those skilled in the art, and See also at least paragraphs[00017]-[0021], [0024], [0026], [0028]-[0031], and [0034] of Guo.
Thus, to clarify. Guo teaches a touch panel having drive lines and sense lines, wherein a touch controller sequentially applies each drive signal as a series of pulses over a distinct time period T to each of the drive lines in a respective time slot, wherein the period of pulses can be made fewer and shorter, and wherein the touch controller can determine, via sensing and processing to detect, from a generated sense signal a presence of a touch that is characteristic of capacitive coupling based on amount of capacitive coupling determined from capacitive sensors of the touch panel.
In addition, paragraphs[0097] of Lee I teaches according to another aspect of the present invention, there is provided a touchscreen apparatus including: a panel unit including a plurality of driving electrodes and a plurality of sensing electrodes; a driving circuit unit providing driving signals including a preset number of driving pulses to the plurality of respective driving electrodes of the panel unit; a detecting circuit unit removing electrical noise from a first voltage corresponding to a capacitance change in the panel unit when the electrical noise is included in the first voltage; and a controlling unit controlling the driving circuit unit to generate an additional driving pulse when the electrical noise is included in the first voltage and providing a driving line reset signal delayed by an amount of time corresponding to the additional driving pulse to the detecting circuit unit, and See also at least paragraphs[0016], [0022], [0040]-[0048], [0092]-[0096], and [0098]-[0101] of Lee I.
Thus, to clarify Lee I teaches determining electrical noise in voltages signals corresponding to a capacitance change in a panel unit of a touchscreen, wherein the panel unit includes a plurality of driving electrodes.
Furthermore, as mentioned above, Guo and Lee I are considered to be analogous art because they are from the same field of endeavor with respect to a display device, and involve the same problem of forming the display device for suitably determining a touch input. Therefore, before the effective filing date of the claimed invention it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art to modify the system of Guo based on Lee I to determine an indication of the noise for the set of N drive electrodes based on the obtained measurements from the electrode array in each of the plurality of discrete time periods. One reason for the modification as taught by Lee I is to have a touchscreen apparatus having improved capacitance detection performance by removing electrical noise to compensate for signal loss (paragraph[0013] of Lee I).
Furthermore, still as mentioned above, Guo and Lee I are considered to be analogous art because they are from the same field of endeavor with respect to a display device, and involve the same problem of forming the display device for suitably determining a touch input. Therefore, before the effective filing date of the claimed invention it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art to modify the system and method of Guo based on Lee I for determining an indication of the noise for the set of N drive electrodes based on the obtained measurements from the electrode array in each of the plurality of discrete time periods. One reason for the modification as taught by Lee I is to have a touchscreen apparatus having improved capacitance detection performance by removing electrical noise to compensate for signal loss (paragraph[0013] of Lee I).
Also, in regard to independent claims 1 and 21 Applicant submitted that similar arguments apply to respective dependent claims. Therefore, the Examiner’s response in regard to arguments ‘A’ and ‘B’, summarized above, also apply to the respective dependent claims.
Conclusion
THIS ACTION IS MADE FINAL. Applicant is reminded of the extension of time policy as set forth in 37 CFR 1.136(a).
A shortened statutory period for reply to this final action is set to expire THREE MONTHS from the mailing date of this action. In the event a first reply is filed within TWO MONTHS of the mailing date of this final action and the advisory action is not mailed until after the end of the THREE-MONTH shortened statutory period, then the shortened statutory period will expire on the date the advisory action is mailed, and any nonprovisional extension fee (37 CFR 1.17(a)) pursuant to 37 CFR 1.136(a) will be calculated from the mailing date of the advisory action. In no event, however, will the statutory period for reply expire later than SIX MONTHS from the mailing date of this final action.
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to ABDUL-SAMAD A ADEDIRAN whose telephone number is (571)272-3128. The examiner can normally be reached Monday through Thursday, 8:00 am to 5:00 pm.
If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner’s supervisor, Amr Awad can be reached at 571-272-7764. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300.
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/ABDUL-SAMAD A ADEDIRAN/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2621
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