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 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.
Claim(s) 1-4, 19 and 20 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(1) as being anticipated by Dong et al. (WO2022047651).
[Claim 1]
An encoding method for a light signal, the method comprising:
detecting whether there is a change in a light intensity signal representing a light intensity, the light intensity signal being converted by a photosensitive unit from a received photon stream (Page 6, Paragraph 2, lines 4-8, In some example embodiments, each pixel is configured to respond independently to changes in light intensity in the environment. The pixel compares the measured light intensity change to a predetermined threshold, and if the measured light intensity change exceeds the predetermined threshold, the pixel generates a first data signal, e.g., +1 or -1, indicative of a light intensity change event);
encoding, in response to detecting a change in the light intensity signal, the changed light intensity signal to obtain an encoding result (Page 7, First Paragraph, lines 6-11, fig. 4, In the asynchronous read mode, the read circuit 220 reads the data signal indicating the light intensity change event, and then forms an event stream 402 for all events in the order of occurrence. In this case, the amount of data read each time by the read circuit 220 is related to the amount of event data B .sub.ev for representing a single event (e.g., coordinates (x, y) representing the pixel generating the event, read time stamp t and The sum of the number of bits of the light intensity change amount a) and the number of light intensity change events N .sub.ev are related); and
arranging the encoding result into an encoded sequence according to a time sequence relationship corresponding to changes in the light intensity (Page 7, First Paragraph, lines 6-11) ,
the encoded sequence representing time sequence code of the photon stream, and the time sequence relationship representing an order of the changes in the light intensity within a time period (Page 7, First Paragraph, lines 6-11).
[Claim 2]
The encoding method according to claim 1, further comprising: forming, based on time sequence code of light intensity signals corresponding to a plurality of photosensitive units and on a position arrangement of the plurality of photosensitive units, an encoded sequence array for photon streams in a spatial region that are received by the plurality of photosensitive units (Page 7, First Paragraph, lines 6-11, In the asynchronous read mode, the read circuit 220 reads the data signal indicating the light intensity change event, and then forms an event stream 402 for all events in the order of occurrence. In this case, the amount of data read each time by the read circuit 220 is related to the amount of event data B .sub.ev for representing a single event (e.g., coordinates (x, y) representing the pixel generating the event, read time stamp t and The sum of the number of bits of the light intensity change amount a) and the number of light intensity change events N .sub.ev are related).
[Claim 3]
The encoding method according to claim 1, wherein the encoding, in response to detecting a change in the light intensity signal, the changed light intensity signal to obtain an encoding result comprises: performing the encoding based on the changed light intensity signal and position information of the photosensitive unit to obtain the encoding result, the position information representing an arrangement position of the photosensitive unit in a photosensitive unit array (Page 7, First Paragraph, lines 6-11, In the asynchronous read mode, the read circuit 220 reads the data signal indicating the light intensity change event, and then forms an event stream 402 for all events in the order of occurrence. In this case, the amount of data read each time by the read circuit 220 is related to the amount of event data B .sub.ev for representing a single event (e.g., coordinates (x, y) representing the pixel generating the event, read time stamp t and The sum of the number of bits of the light intensity change amount a) and the number of light intensity change events N .sub.ev are related).
[Claim 4]
The encoding method according to claim 3, wherein the arranging the encoding result into an encoded sequence according to a time sequence relationship corresponding to changes in the light intensity comprises: forming the time sequence code of the photon stream based on encoded information, the time sequence relationship, and the position information, the encoded information comprising the encoding result corresponding to the light intensity signal within the time period (Page 7, First Paragraph, lines 6-11, In the asynchronous read mode, the read circuit 220 reads the data signal indicating the light intensity change event, and then forms an event stream 402 for all events in the order of occurrence. In this case, the amount of data read each time by the read circuit 220 is related to the amount of event data B .sub.ev for representing a single event (e.g., coordinates (x, y) representing the pixel generating the event, read time stamp t and The sum of the number of bits of the light intensity change amount a) and the number of light intensity change events N .sub.ev are related).
[Claims 19, 20]
These are apparatus and computer-readable claims corresponding to method claim 1 and are therefore analyzed and rejected based upon method claim 1.
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) 5-8 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Dong et al. (WO2022047651) in view of Tian et al. (CN-109884588A).
[Claim 5]
Dong fails to teach wherein the light intensity signal comprises a pulse signal encoded by performing pulse modulation on the received photon stream. However Tian teaches at Page 4, Paragraph 8, first 4 lines, pulse signal data processed by the invention is derived from the light intensity signal based on the sensor of the pulse array, sampling principle of the sensor is to accumulate, for each spatial position of the cumulative intensity value obtained signal when the accumulative intensity exceeds the set threshold, sending a pulse signal, within a certain time, emitted by the space position of a pulse array. Therefore taking the combined teachings of Dong and Tian, it would be obvious to one skilled in the art before the effective filing date of the invention to have been motivated to have the light intensity signal comprises a pulse signal encoded by performing pulse modulation on the received photon stream in order to realize the detection, tracking, compression and so on algorithm design and analysis of pulse array signal.
[Claim 6]
Tian teaches wherein the pulse modulation is pulse width modulation, the pulse width modulation comprises quantitative modulation, and the quantitative modulation comprises: converting the received photon stream into a photocurrent and accumulating the photocurrent (Page 5, Paragraph 4, First 5 lines, Specifically, the light intensity signal may be understood as a photon reaches the unit number in the unit time, voltage of the plurality of the electronic unit is photoelectric material, thereby releasing electrons (Photocurrent) by absorbing photons, when aggregation of the formed exceeds the threshold value then to discharge so as to generate a pulse signal. Thus, in a pulse sequence, the time interval between each two pulse signals can indirectly reflect the illumination intensity of this period of time) and generating a pulse signal in response to an accumulated value of the photocurrent reaching an accumulation threshold, wherein the accumulation threshold may be any number of photons or charges that is greater than or equal to 1 (Page 5, Paragraph 4, First 5 lines, Specifically, the light intensity signal may be understood as a photon reaches the unit number in the unit time, voltage of the plurality of the electronic unit is photoelectric material, thereby releasing electrons (Photocurrent) by absorbing photons, when aggregation of the formed exceeds the threshold value then to discharge so as to generate a pulse signal. Thus, in a pulse sequence, the time interval between each two pulse signals can indirectly reflect the illumination intensity of this period of time) in order to realize the detection, tracking, compression and so on algorithm design and analysis of pulse array signal.
[Claim 7]
Tian teaches wherein the pulse width modulation further comprises timing modulation, and the timing modulation comprises: outputting the accumulated value of the photocurrent in response to that an output period is reached and the accumulated value of the photocurrent does not reach the accumulation threshold ((Page 5, Paragraph 4, First 5 lines, Specifically, the light intensity signal may be understood as a photon reaches the unit number in the unit time, voltage of the plurality of the electronic unit is photoelectric material, thereby releasing electrons (Photocurrent) by absorbing photons, when aggregation of the formed exceeds the threshold value then to discharge so as to generate a pulse signal. Thus, in a pulse sequence, the time interval between each two pulse signals can indirectly reflect the illumination intensity of this period of time) in order to realize the detection, tracking, compression and so on algorithm design and analysis of pulse array signal.
[Claim 8]
Tian teaches wherein the encoding, in response to detecting a change in the light intensity signal, the changed light intensity signal to obtain an encoding result comprises at least one of the following: performing encoding based on a pulse start moment and a pulse width of a changed pulse signal (Page 5, Paragraph 4, Thus, in a pulse sequence, the time interval between each two pulse signals can indirectly reflect the illumination intensity of this period of time and the time interval and the illumination intensity in inverse relation, so in the present invention by reverse thinking the opposite pulse sequence into the changes of the illumination intensity in the period of time, so as to be communicated with the other pulse sequence) in order to realize the detection, tracking, compression and so on algorithm design and analysis of pulse array signal.
Allowable Subject Matter
Claims 9-18 and 21-25 are 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. The prior art fails to teach or suggest as recited in claim 9, “determining whether a difference between a pulse width of each pulse signal in the light intensity signal and a specified pulse width is within a deviation range; and in response to determining that the difference between the pulse width of any one pulse signal in the light intensity signal and the specified pulse width exceeds the deviation range, determining that there is a change in the light intensity signal” and claim 21, “voltage with a power supply signal connected to a cathode of the single-photon detector, such that the single-photon detector operates in a reverse bias voltage state; the single-photon detector is separately connected to the quenching transistor and the timer, to perform photon detection, output an electrical signal upon detection of a photon to reset a timing result, and revert to the reverse bias voltage state from a low voltage signal state provided by the quenching transistor; and the timer is separately connected to the quenching transistor and the single-photon detector, to perform timing based on a clock signal of a preset cycle, output a timing result based on an electrical signal output by the single-photon detector, and reset the timing result to restart timing”. Claims 10-18 and 22-25 are dependent from claims 9 and 21 respectively.
Conclusion
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to YOGESH K AGGARWAL whose telephone number is (571)272-7360. The examiner can normally be reached Monday - Friday 9:30-6.
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/YOGESH K AGGARWAL/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2637
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