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 .
Priority
This application discloses and claims only subject matter disclosed in prior Application No. 18/748, 804 (issued as US 12,429,698 B2), filed June 20, 2024, which claims subject matter disclosed in U.S. Application No. 15/925,505 (now issued as U.S. Patent 11,073,695), filed March 18, 2018, U.S. Application 17/385,554 (issued as U.S. Patent 11,754,840), filed July 26, 2021, and U.S. Application 18/342,451 (issued as U.S. Patent 12,055,726 B2) filed on June 27, 2023, and names the inventor or at least one joint inventor named in the prior application. Accordingly, this application constitutes a continuation. Applicant has claimed the benefit of the filing date of the prior application through 35 U.S.C. 120, 37 CFR 1.78, and MPEP § 211 et seq. The presentation of a benefit claim may result in an additional fee under 37 CFR 1.17(w)(1) or (2) being required, if the earliest filing date for which benefit is claimed under 35 U.S.C. 120, 121, 365(c), or 386(c) and 1.78(d) in the application is more than six years before the actual filing date of the application.
Acknowledgment is made of applicant’s claim for domestic priority under 35 U.S.C 120. The certified copy has been filed in US Provisional Application No. 62/474,419, filed on March 21, 2017.
Response to Amendment
As a result of the Preliminary amendment filed on September 15, 2025, claims 2-21 are pending. Claim 1 is canceled. New claims 2-21 were added.
As a result of the Preliminary amendment filed on September 23, 2025, the Specification at Paragraph [0030] has been amended to correctly identify drawings.
Information Disclosure Statement
The information disclosure statement (IDS) submitted on November 12, 2025 and July 1, 2026 are in compliance with the provisions of 37 CFR 1.97. Accordingly, the information disclosure statements are 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.
Claim(s) 2-21 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(1) as being anticipated by Osterhout et al., United States Patent Application Publication No. US 2016/0018647 A1.
Regarding claim 2, Osterhout discloses an eyepiece for a head mounted display (Figs. 1-2, generally), comprising an imaging system comprising:
a substrate comprising first and second surfaces extending parallel to a substrate plane (See Figs. 4-9, particularly Fig. 6 and Detailed Description, [0194], “In another embodiment, the combiner element 602 may include a notch mirror comprised of a multilayer coated substrate wherein the coating is designed to substantially reflect the wavelengths of light provided by the light source and substantially transmit the remaining wavelengths in the visible spectrum”);
a first reflector arranged between the first and second surfaces and non-parallel to the substrate plane (Figs. 4-9, particularly Fig. 4-5, DLP mirrors at varying non-parallel angles; Detailed Description, [0180-0185]); and
a second reflector arranged between the first and second surfaces and spaced apart from the first reflector, the second reflector being arranged non-parallel to the substrate plane (Figs. 4-9, particularly Fig. 4-5, DLP mirrors at varying non-parallel angles; Detailed Description, [0180-0185],
wherein the imaging system is configured to image an object on a first side of the substrate to an image field on an opposite side of the substrate, the imaging comprising the first reflector reflecting light from the object towards the second reflector, the second reflector reflecting the light from the first reflector towards the image field, and the substrate guiding the light between the first and second reflectors by total internal reflection (TIR) (See Figs. 4-9, particular Figs. 4-5 and TIR wedge, #418; Detailed Description, [0180-0190], “ By choosing the angle of the light source 404 relative to the DLP 402 in correspondence to the angle of the internal surface of the TIR wedge 418, illumination light is turned toward the DLP 402 at an angle suitable for providing image light 414 as reflected from “on” pixels. Wherein, the illumination light is provided to the DLP 402 at approximately twice the angle of the pixel mirrors in the DLP 402 that are in the “on” state, such that after reflecting from the pixel mirrors, the image light 414 is directed generally along the optical axis of the field lens. Depending on the state of the DLP pixels, the illumination light from “on” pixels may be reflected as image light 414 which is directed towards a field lens and a lower optical module 204, while illumination light reflected from “off” pixels (generally referred to herein as “dark” state light, “off” pixel light or “off” state light) 410 is directed in a separate direction, which may be trapped and not used for the image that is ultimately presented to the wearer's eye….The angles of the TIR wedge are selected in correspondence to one another to provide TIR reflected illumination light at the correct angle for the DLP mirrors while allowing the image light and dark state light to pass through the thin air gap, various combinations of angles are possible to achieve this.”).
Regarding claim 3, Osterhout discloses wherein an optical path of the light from the object to the image field passes through the first and second surfaces (Figs. 4-5, Detailed Description, [0180-0190], “FIG. 4a illustrates the embodiment described in connection with FIG. 4 with an example set of corresponding angles at the various surfaces with the reflected angles of a ray of light passing through the upper optical module 202”).
Regarding claim 4, Osterhout discloses wherein at least one of the first and second reflectors has positive optical power (see inter alia, Detailed Description, [0378-0380], “In addition, the field of view and focus distance of the eye imaging camera must take into account the reducing effect of the optical power provided by the rotationally curved partial mirror 6860…. In a yet another embodiment, the systems according to the principles of the present invention include a field lens with an internal reflective polarizer and one or more surfaces with optical power.”)
Regarding claim 5, Osterhout discloses wherein the imaging system comprises a camera assembly, and wherein the second reflector is configured to reflect the light toward the camera assembly (See inter alia, Figs. 68-71; Detailed Description, [0378-0390], “The flat partially reflective surface is particularly important when an eye camera is provided for eye imaging that utilizes the flat partially reflective surface for directing the field of view of the eye camera toward the user's eye.”).
Regarding claim 6, Osterhout discloses wherein the first and second reflectors are reflective for infrared optical signals and transmissive for visible optical signals (Detailed Description, [0287], “ In a further embodiment shown in FIG. 33, the partially reflective layer 3360 is comprised of a reflective polarizer on the side facing the illumination light 2973 and a short pass dichroic mirror on the side facing the light from the eye 3371 and the camera 3080. Where the short pass dichroic mirror is a dielectric mirror coating that transmits visible light and reflects infrared light.”).
Regarding claim 7, Osterhout discloses wherein the substrate is transparent for visible wavelengths of light (Detailed Description, [0194], “In another embodiment, the combiner element 602 may include a notch mirror comprised of a multilayer coated substrate wherein the coating is designed to substantially reflect the wavelengths of light provided by the light source and substantially transmit the remaining wavelengths in the visible spectrum”; Detailed Description, [0287], “In a further embodiment shown in FIG. 33, the partially reflective layer 3360 is comprised of a reflective polarizer on the side facing the illumination light 2973 and a short pass dichroic mirror on the side facing the light from the eye 3371 and the camera 3080. Where the short pass dichroic mirror is a dielectric mirror coating that transmits visible light and reflects infrared light….Alternatively, the partially reflective layer 3360 can be comprised of a thin substrate that has a reflective polarizer bonded to one side and a short pass dichroic mirror coating on the other side, where the partially reflective layer 3360 is then bonded between the illumination wedge 2964 and the corrective wedge 2966”).
Regarding claim 8, Osterhout discloses wherein the substrate comprises a polymeric plastic material (See inter alia, Detailed Description, [0387-0398], “Systems and methods provide for a lightweight beam splitter comprised of molded plastic elements and an internal plate element to provide a flat partially reflective surface”).
Regarding claim 9, Osterhout discloses the eyepiece further comprising a light source configured to illuminate a user's eye when the user is wearing the head mounted display (see Figs. 68-71, light source, #6850; Detailed Description, [0373-0385]).
Regarding claim 10, Osterhout discloses wherein the light source illuminates the user's eye with infrared light (see Figs. 68-71, Detailed Description, [0373-0385], “In another embodiment, the system according to the principles of the present invention includes an eye imaging system. FIG. 69 is an illustration of a compact optical display assembly, which includes an eye imaging camera 6992 that captures an image of the user's eye 6880 that is coaxial with the displayed image provided to the user so that a full image of the user's iris can be reliably captured…increase the efficiency of capturing the light reflected from the user's eye 6880 and thereby enable a brighter image of the eye, the rotationally curved partial mirror 6860 can be coated with a partial mirror coating that acts as a full mirror in the wavelengths being captured by the eye imaging camera 6992, for example the coating can reflect 50% of visible light associated with the image light and 90% of near infrared light associated with the eye light 699”).
Regarding claim 11, Osterhout discloses wherein the eyepiece comprises a waveguide stack including a plurality of waveguides, the substrate comprising at least a portion of one of the plurality of waveguides (Detailed Description, [0166], “There are a number of see-through optical designs that may be used, including ones that have a reflective display (e.g. LCoS, DLP), emissive displays (e.g. OLED, LED), hologram, TIR waveguides, and the like”; See next Figs. 8-10 and structure 1060; Detailed Description, [0200-0209], “Structure 1060 includes an angled sawtooth pattern in a transparent waveguide wherein the left edge of each sawtooth clips the steep angle rays of light thereby limiting the angle of the light being redirected.”; structure is a stacked waveguide).
Regarding claim 12, Osterhout discloses a method of imaging an eye of a user using a head-mounted display (Figs. 1-2, generally, Summary), the method comprising:
providing an imaging system of the head-mounted display in front of the eye of the user to be imaged (Figs. 1-2), wherein the imaging system comprises:
a substrate comprising first and second surfaces extending parallel to a substrate plane (See Figs. 4-9, particularly Fig. 6 and Detailed Description, [0194], “In another embodiment, the combiner element 602 may include a notch mirror comprised of a multilayer coated substrate wherein the coating is designed to substantially reflect the wavelengths of light provided by the light source and substantially transmit the remaining wavelengths in the visible spectrum”),
a first reflector arranged between the first and second surfaces and non-parallel to the substrate plane, and a second reflector arranged between the first and second surfaces and spaced apart from the first reflector, the second reflector being arranged non-parallel to the substrate plane e (Figs. 4-9, particularly Fig. 4-5, DLP mirrors at varying non-parallel angles; Detailed Description, [0180-0185]);
reflecting, by the first reflector, light from the eye of the user towards the second reflector (See Figs. 4-9, particular Figs. 4-5 and TIR wedge, #418; Detailed Description, [0180-0190], “By choosing the angle of the light source 404 relative to the DLP 402 in correspondence to the angle of the internal surface of the TIR wedge 418, illumination light is turned toward the DLP 402 at an angle suitable for providing image light 414 as reflected from “on” pixels. Wherein, the illumination light is provided to the DLP 402 at approximately twice the angle of the pixel mirrors in the DLP 402 that are in the “on” state, such that after reflecting from the pixel mirrors, the image light 414 is directed generally along the optical axis of the field lens. Depending on the state of the DLP pixels, the illumination light from “on” pixels may be reflected as image light 414 which is directed towards a field lens and a lower optical module 204, while illumination light reflected from “off” pixels (generally referred to herein as “dark” state light, “off” pixel light or “off” state light) 410 is directed in a separate direction, which may be trapped and not used for the image that is ultimately presented to the wearer's eye….The angles of the TIR wedge are selected in correspondence to one another to provide TIR reflected illumination light at the correct angle for the DLP mirrors while allowing the image light and dark state light to pass through the thin air gap, various combinations of angles are possible to achieve this.”); and
reflecting, by the second reflector, the light from the first reflector towards a camera assembly (See inter alia, Figs. 68-71; Detailed Description, [0378-0390], “The flat partially reflective surface is particularly important when an eye camera is provided for eye imaging that utilizes the flat partially reflective surface for directing the field of view of the eye camera toward the user's eye.”);
capturing, by the camera assembly, the light (Detailed Description, [0270-0280], “FIG. 29 shows an embodiment of the invention that can be used for displaying digital content images to a wearer of the HWC 102 and capturing images of the wearer's eye. In this embodiment, light from the eye 2971 passes back through the optics in the lower module 204, the solid corrective wedge 2966, at least a portion of the light passes through the partially reflective layer 2960, the solid illumination wedge 2964 and is reflected by a plurality of DLP mirrors on the DLP 2955 that are in the “no power” state. The reflected light then passes back through the illumination wedge 2964 and at least a portion of the light is reflected by the partially reflective layer 2960 and the light is captured by the camera 2980.”); and
producing an image of the eye of the user based on the captured light (Detailed Description, [0270-0280], “or comparison, illuminating light rays 2973 from the light source 2958 are also shown being reflected by the partially reflective layer 2960. Where the angle of the illuminating light 2973 is such that the DLP mirrors, when in the “on” state, reflect the illuminating light 2973 to form image light 2969 that substantially shares the same optical axis as the light from the wearer's eye 2971. In this way, images of the wearer's eye are captured in a field of view that overlaps the field of view for the displayed image content”)
Regarding claim 13, Osterhout discloses, wherein reflecting, by the second reflector, the light from the first reflector towards the camera assembly comprises reflecting the light through the second surface opposite the eye of the user (see Figs. 68-71; showing reflected light rays opposite the eye 6880; Detailed Description, [0373-0380]).
Regarding claim 14, wherein light from the eye of the user passes through the first surface proximate the eye of the user when propagating from the eye of the user to the first reflector (see Figs. 68-71, particularly Fig. 70 and eye light #7095; Detailed Description, [0373-0380], “The eye imaging camera 7092 is pointed such that the field of view captured by the eye imaging camera 7092 includes the user's eye 6880 as illustrated by the eye light rays 7095. The quarter wave film 6890 is also extended laterally to change the polarization state of the eye light 7095 in the same way that the polarization state of the image light is changed so that the eye light passes through the beam splitter 6870 and quarter wave 6890, is partially reflected by the rotationally curved partial mirror 6860 and is then reflected by the beam splitter 6870 and is then captured by the eye imaging camera 7092”).
Regarding claim 15, this is met by the rejection to claim 4.
Regarding claim 16, Osterhout discloses wherein the substrate guides the light between the first and second reflectors by total internal reflection (TIR) (See Figs. 4-9, particular Figs. 4-5 and TIR wedge, #418; Detailed Description, [0180-0190], “By choosing the angle of the light source 404 relative to the DLP 402 in correspondence to the angle of the internal surface of the TIR wedge 418, illumination light is turned toward the DLP 402 at an angle suitable for providing image light 414 as reflected from “on” pixels. Wherein, the illumination light is provided to the DLP 402 at approximately twice the angle of the pixel mirrors in the DLP 402 that are in the “on” state, such that after reflecting from the pixel mirrors, the image light 414 is directed generally along the optical axis of the field lens. Depending on the state of the DLP pixels, the illumination light from “on” pixels may be reflected as image light 414 which is directed towards a field lens and a lower optical module 204, while illumination light reflected from “off” pixels (generally referred to herein as “dark” state light, “off” pixel light or “off” state light) 410 is directed in a separate direction, which may be trapped and not used for the image that is ultimately presented to the wearer's eye….The angles of the TIR wedge are selected in correspondence to one another to provide TIR reflected illumination light at the correct angle for the DLP mirrors while allowing the image light and dark state light to pass through the thin air gap, various combinations of angles are possible to achieve this.”);.
Regarding claim 17, this is met by the rejection to claim 6.
Regarding claim 18, this is met by the rejection to claim 7.
Regarding claim 19, this is met by the rejection to claim 8.
Regarding claim 20, Osterhout discloses the method further comprising illuminating, with a light source, the eye of the user with the light that is reflected from the eye of the user (see Figs. 68-71, Detailed Description, [0373-0380], “The illumination light is provided by a light source that includes lights such as LEDs, a backlight 7151, a diffuser 7152 and a polarizer 7153 as has been previously described”).
Regarding claim 21, Osterhout discloses the method further comprising: analyzing the image (see inter alia; Detailed Description, [0481], “An example is to use the HWC camera, image analysis and display to designate items to be found”; See also Detailed Description, [0290-0293][0327-0328]); and
performing one or more of: eye tracking (Fig. 38 and Detailed Description, [0206][0298-0305]); biometric identification (Detailed Description, [0355]; See also Fig. 36a and Detailed Description, [0292]); multiscopic reconstruction of a shape of the eye (Detailed Description, [0330-0331], “ As a result, the shape of the eye and the associated shape of the reflected structured light pattern is different depending on which direction the eye is pointed”); estimating an accommodation state of the eye (Detailed Description, [0342], “In embodiments, eye imaging may be used to capture images of both eyes of the wearer in order to determine the amount of convergence of the eyes (e.g. through technologies described herein elsewhere) to get an understanding of what focal plane is being concentrated on by the wearer… With the compass heading 5910 known, the angle in which the first person is viewing the surroundings can be estimated”); and imaging a retina, iris, other distinguishing pattern of the eye (Detailed Description, [0205][0331]); and evaluating a physiological state of the user based, in part, on the analyzed image (Detailed Description, [0304][0331], “…may enable a situation where the capture of an eye image for identifying the wearer may be completed only when a change in the wearing status is identified. In a contrasting example, capturing eye images to monitor the health of the wearer may require images to be captured periodically (e.g. every few seconds, minutes, hours, days, etc.). For example, the eye images may be taken in minute intervals when the images are being used to monitor the health of the wearer when detected movements indicate that the wearer is exercising”).
Other References
The following references are also cited as pertinent on the PTO-892 but may not be relied upon within this Action:
Benitez et al. (US 2018/0003978 A1)
Krueger (US 2016/0262608 A1)
Border et al. (US 2016/0187654 A1)
Simmons (US 2014/0285429 A1)
Solomon (US 2015/0243068 A1)
Conclusion
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to KWIN XIE whose telephone number is (571)272-7812. The examiner can normally be reached 9:00 AM - 5:00 PM.
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/KWIN XIE/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2626
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