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 .
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 103
In the event the determination of the status of the application as subject to AIA 35 U.S.C. 102 and 103 (or as subject to pre-AIA 35 U.S.C. 102 and 103) is incorrect, any correction of the statutory basis (i.e., changing from AIA to pre-AIA ) for the rejection will not be considered a new ground of rejection if the prior art relied upon, and the rationale supporting the rejection, would be the same under either status.
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.
Claims 16-22 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Ekkaia et al. (hereinafter “Ekkaia”), US Pub. No. 2015/0301781, in view of Zhang et al. (hereinafter “Zhang”), US Pub. No. 2021/0096362.
Regarding claim 16, Ekkaia teaches a backlight unit display apparatus (fig. 2) comprising: one or more modular lighting units operable to illuminate light beams, each of the one or more modular lighting units is operable to interconnect to form at least one illumination zone of the backlight unit (fig. 2, [0011-0019]); wherein: each of the modular lighting unit further comprises: a housing (fig. 2, 8, [0026-0035]); and an illumination source arranged within the housing and in electrical connection with a circuit board (figs. 2, 8, [0035-0037]).
Ekkaia fails to explicitly teach that the interconnected modular lighting units form at least one illumination zone of a backlight unit for a vehicle display apparatus.
However, in the same field of endeavor, Zhang teaches a vehicle display apparatus, such as a head-up display, including a display module divided into a plurality of display subareas, wherein brightness is independently controlled for respective display subareas to create different illumination regions corresponding to information and non-information zones ([0065-0072], figs. 2B, 3A, and 3B).
Therefore, it would have been obvious to a person having ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify Ekkaia’s modular illumination panel for use as the backlight unit of Zhang’s vehicle display apparatus. As such, a person having ordinary skill in the art would appreciate the motivation for doing so would have been to provide independently controllable illumination regions to improve display brightness management (see Zhang, [0065-0072]).
Regarding claim 17, Ekkaia teaches wherein the housing comprises at least one segmentation wall (fig. 8).
Regarding claim 18, Ekkaia teaches wherein the at least one segmentation wall comprises four segmentation walls (fig. 8).
Regarding claim 19, Ekkaia teaches wherein each of the segmentation walls of the housing has a curved surface ([0135]).
Regarding claim 20, Ekkaia teaches wherein each of the segmentation walls of the housing has a substantially flat surface ([0011-0012]).
Regarding claim 21, Ekkaia teaches wherein the at least one segmentation wall further comprises a reflective coating ([0255]).
Regarding claim 22, Ekkaia teaches wherein each modular lighting unit further comprises an optical state layer on a side opposite to the circuit board ([0150, 0232]).
Claims 23-29 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Ekkaia et al. (hereinafter “Ekkaia”), US Pub. No. 2015/0301781, in view of Zhang et al. (hereinafter “Zhang”), US Pub. No. 2021/0096362, and in further view of Zhao et al. (hereinafter “Zhao”), WO2020/025648 (provided by applicant).
Regarding claim 23, Ekkaia teaches a display apparatus (fig. 2) comprising: one or more modular lighting units operable to illuminate light beams, each of the one or more modular lighting units is operable to interconnect to form at least one illumination zone of the backlight unit (fig. 2, [0011-0019]); wherein: each of the modular lighting unit further comprises: a housing (fig. 2, 8, [0026-0035]); and an illumination source arranged within the housing and in electrical connection with a circuit board (figs. 2, 8, [0035-0037]).
Ekkaia fails to explicitly teach that the interconnected modular lighting units form at least one illumination zone of a backlight unit for a vehicle display apparatus.
However, in the same field of endeavor, Zhang teaches a vehicle display apparatus, such as a head-up display, including a display module divided into a plurality of display subareas, wherein brightness is independently controlled for respective display subareas to create different illumination regions corresponding to information and non-information zones ([0065-0072], figs. 2B, 3A, and 3B).
Therefore, it would have been obvious to a person having ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify Ekkaia’s modular illumination panel for use as the backlight unit of Zhang’s vehicle display apparatus. As such, a person having ordinary skill in the art would appreciate the motivation for doing so would have been to provide independently controllable illumination regions to improve display brightness management (see Zhang, [0065-0072]).
Ekkaia and Zhang and Zhang fail to explicitly teach a processing unit operable configured to: execute a set of instructions to send pulse width modulation (PWM) signals to the backlight unit to illuminate the light beams through the display layer, and execute the set of instructions to send PWM signals to control a percentage of brightness of at least one illumination zone of the backlight unit illuminating through the display layer.
However, in the same field of endeavor, Zhao teaches wherein the adjustment of illumination intensity may be undertaken by using pulse-width modulation to control the duty cycle of each light source (see p. 17, lines 29-31) and wherein the illumination intensity of each light source may be adjusted to achieve content brightness varying between 100% and less than 100%, e.g. about 90%-10% of the maximum brightness (see p. 17, lines 10-13).
Regarding claim 24, Zhang teaches wherein the display layer is a twisted nematic display layer ([0013, 0058]).
Regarding claim 25, Zhao teaches wherein the processing unit is further operable to execute the set of instructions to simultaneously adjust for each of the at least one illumination zone: a RGB value of the display layer (p. 22, lines 1-20; fig. 6); and a pulse width modulation (PWM) value of the backlight unit (p. 17, lines 10-13, 29-31).
Regarding claim 26, Zhao teaches wherein the processing unit is further operable to execute the set of instructions to send PWM signals to control: a percentage of brightness of a first illumination zone of the backlight unit illuminating through the display layer; and a percentage of brightness of a second illumination zone of the backlight unit illuminating through the display layer, wherein the percentage of brightness of the first illumination zone is a value different from the percentage of brightness of the second illumination zone (p. 17, lines 1-35).
Regarding claim 27, Zhang teaches wherein the vehicle display apparatus consists of an in-vehicle apparatus (figs. 3A-3B).
Regarding claim 28, it is a method of claim 23 and is rejected on the same grounds presented above.
Regarding claim 29, it is a non-transitory computer readable medium of claim 23 and is rejected on the same grounds presented above.
Conclusion
The prior art made of record and not relied upon is considered pertinent to applicant's disclosure:
Karafin et al. (US Pub. No. 2022/0277684) teaches a modular display system.
Robinson et al. (US Pub. No. 2023/0254457) teaches a display system including a plurality of tiled display devices.
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to KENNETH B LEE JR whose telephone number is (571)270-3147. The examiner can normally be reached Mon - Fri 9am-5pm.
Examiner interviews are available via telephone, in-person, and video conferencing using a USPTO supplied web-based collaboration tool. To schedule an interview, applicant is encouraged to use the USPTO Automated Interview Request (AIR) at http://www.uspto.gov/interviewpractice.
If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner’s supervisor, William Boddie can be reached at 571-272-0666. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300.
Information regarding the status of published or unpublished applications may be obtained from Patent Center. Unpublished application information in Patent Center is available to registered users. To file and manage patent submissions in Patent Center, visit: https://patentcenter.uspto.gov. Visit https://www.uspto.gov/patents/apply/patent-center for more information about Patent Center and https://www.uspto.gov/patents/docx for information about filing in DOCX format. For additional questions, contact the Electronic Business Center (EBC) at 866-217-9197 (toll-free). If you would like assistance from a USPTO Customer Service Representative, call 800-786-9199 (IN USA OR CANADA) or 571-272-1000.
/KENNETH B LEE JR/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2625
Prosecution Insights