Appeal 2007-1280
Application 10/894,950
signals to electrical signals, sorting or routing them and reshaping them into
different electrical signals which are in turn retransmitted as converted
optical signals to other satellites. At a minimum in Lenormand, the showing
in figure 6 with respect to element 86 comprising a claimed receiver
performs the function of receiving optical signals and converting them into
digital data signals for handling by the routing unit 88. The discussion at the
bottom half of column 5 of Lenormand indicates that between the decoding
functions of the receiver 86 and the encoding functions of encoder 90
various error correction capabilities are discussed particularly in the
paragraph at column 5, lines 54 through 59. It therefore appears to us that
the artisan would well appreciate that some form of reshaping function is
already contemplated within Lenormand.
Notwithstanding these considerations, to the extent that Lenormand
does not detail these implicit reshaping capabilities, the Examiner’s reliance
upon Harres to perform this function is compelling of the obviousness of the
combinability of these references. Like the optical satellite system of
Lenormand, Harres contemplates the system to be used in an optical
communication environment such as depicted in figure 4 where the optical
detector 50, the functionality of which is shown in figure 1 and the noise
generating effects are shown in figure 2, feed the signal processor 52 and its
respective corresponding decoder 58 to yield a determination of a logical 1
or logical 0. These functions are consistent with the broad reshaping
functions of the independent claims on appeal as well as the functionality of
dependent claims 19 and 20. In addition to the actual logic level outputs
shown in figure 4, corresponding functional operations are shown as steps
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