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 .
Information Disclosure Statement
The information disclosure statement (IDS) submitted on 09/17/2025 is being considered by the examiner.
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) 18-20, 22, 26-27 and 33 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Gyde et al. (US 2006/0066638) in view of Tanaka et al. (US 2010/0295879).
As to claims 18, 26, 33, Gyde teaches a method of managing displaying content on a display apparatus in an event of failure of a backlight unit of the display apparatus (See at least abstract, ¶26, Figures 1-3)
receiving, by way of a processing unit (see ¶22), a failure status signal identifying at least one defective illumination source within a malfunctioning illumination zone of a display apparatus (see ¶27);
initiating a switching process in response to the failure status signal received by the processing unit (see ¶26), configured to:
switching a content displayed on a malfunctioning displaying zone to a functioning displaying zone (see ¶27);
wherein a switching condition for executing the switching process for switching the content from the malfunctioning displaying zone to the functioning displaying zone is based on a type of content being displayed on the malfunctioning displaying zone (¶28).
Gyde fails to teach darkening the malfunctioning displaying zone.
Tanaka teaches darkening the failure of the backlight display region. (See Tanaka ¶42, ¶81-¶82, Fig 5).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art, before the effective filing date of the claimed invention (AIA ), to implement darkening the failure of the backlight display region, as Tanaka teaches, to modify the Gyde. The motivation for doing so would reduce the backlight power consumption by suppressing deterioration in the image quality in spite of sharp change in the luminance of the display image. (See Tanaka ¶11).
As to claims 19, 27, Tanaka the switching process comprises transmitting, by way of the processing unit, an illumination control signal for darkening the malfunctioning illumination zone. (See Tanaka ¶82-¶83).
As to claim 20, Tanaka teaches the illumination control signal for darkening the malfunctioning illumination zone contains information for dimming the malfunctioning illumination zone. (See Tanaka ¶82-¶83).
As to claim 22, Tanaka teaches the switching process further comprises: identifying, by way of the processing unit, a functioning illumination zone available for supplying light beams through to the functioning displaying zone. (See Tanaka ¶ 88)
Claim(s) 21, 23-25 and 28-32 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Gyde as applied to claim 19 above, and further in view of Wang US 11929043.
As to claims 21, 28, Tanaka fails to teach the illumination control signal for darkening the malfunctioning illumination zone contains information for deactivating the malfunctioning illumination zone.
Wang teaches the backlight image fails to match the actually displayed image, outputs an error signal ERR to the MUX 802, to turn off the local dimming output in Frame N+1, See Wang col. 3, line 36 to col. 4, line 6, col. 7, lines 55-63, col. 8, lines 12-25, and figures 1-10.
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art, before the effective filing date of the claimed invention (AIA ), to implement the backlight image fails to match the actually displayed image, outputs an error signal ERR to the MUX 802, to turn off the local dimming output in Frame N+1, as Wang teaches, to modify the Gyde. The motivation for doing so would improve the important information being displayed accuracy, while increasing driving safety. Wang col. 9, lines 38-51.
As to claims 23, 29, Wang teaches the switching process further comprises: transmitting, by way of the processing unit, an activation control signal configured to activate the functioning illumination zone identified, thereby supplying light beams through the functioning displaying zone. Wang Col. 7, lines 42-63.
As to claims 24, 30, 31, Wang teaches the switching process further comprises: identifying, by way of a content module, whether the type of content being displayed on the malfunctioning displaying zone is a vehicular information. Wang Col. 7, lines 42-63.
As to claims 25, 32, Wang teaches the switching process further comprises: transmitting, by way of the processing unit, to an illumination driver module at least one of: an illumination control signal; and an activation control signal, configured to control the malfunctioning illumination zone and/or a functioning illumination zone. Wang Col. 7, lines 42-63.
Conclusion
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KEVIN M NGUYEN
Patent Examiner, Art Unit 2628
/Kevin M Nguyen/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2628 Telephone: (571) 272-7697
Email: kevin.nguyen2@uspto.gov
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