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 .
In the response to this Office Action, the Examiner respectfully requests that support be shown for language added to any original claims on amendment and any new claims. That is, indicate support for newly added claim language by specifically pointing to page(s) and line numbers in the specification and/or drawing figure(s). This will assist the Examiner in prosecuting this application.
Continued Examination Under 37 CFR 1.114
A request for continued examination under 37 CFR 1.114, including the fee set forth in 37 CFR 1.17(e), was filed in this application after final rejection. Since this application is eligible for continued examination under 37 CFR 1.114, and the fee set forth in 37 CFR 1.17(e) has been timely paid, the finality of the previous Office action has been withdrawn pursuant to 37 CFR 1.114. Applicant's submission filed on 08/27/2025 has been entered.
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 of this title, 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 1-15 and 43-48 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over U.S. Patent Application Publication 2008/0192988 A1 to Uludag et al. (hereinafter "Uludag") in view of U.S. Patent Application Publication 2018/0060554 A1 to Kontsevich et al. (hereinafter "Kontsevich") and U.S. Patent 4,236,082 to Butler (hereinafter "Butler"), and further in view of PCT Publication WO 2017082100 A1 to Miura et al. (hereinafter "Miura").
Regarding Claim 1, Uludag teaches a method of biometric identification of a subject comprising: using a biometric reader providing a light source and an imager; positioning a subject hand palm facing the light source and imager; illuminating the palm with the light source; capturing an image of the palm (Fig. 1; Claim 1; Para. 34-47 of Uludag; light may be polarized 108 by a polarizer 112 disposed between the illumination source 116 and the platen 104. Light scattered 136 from the hand is collected by an imagining array 120. The scattered light 136 may be imaged onto the array 120); and determining characteristics in the image (Para. 38-40, 50-52, 61-64 of Uludag; the whole-hand approach thus uses multispectral imaging to collect multiple modalities, with particular embodiments collecting four modalities: five fingerprints, a palmprint, handshape, and chromatic texture. In addition to being able to perform pattern matching on fingerprints, handshape, and palmprints in the usual way, certain embodiments use other observable optical properties of the skin to aid biometric determinations… three layers are typically identified: the epidermis, dermis and subcutaneous, each with distinct physiological and optical properties. As well, skin contains portions of other physiological systems such as the smallest blood vessels of the circulatory system, the capillaries, which bring blood very close to the surface of the skin… Morphological operators then remove the noise in the background and fill in the holes in the hand region, producing a binary image of the hand… raw Bayer image data thus collected may be converted into a grayscale image at block 412, permitting the image to be segmented into foreground and background portions at block 416. The segmented image may then be used to localize fingerprints at block 420 by generating a one-dimensional projection of the segmentation map. The resulting data may be used at block 424 to extract skin features, allowing fingerprints to be match at block 428 and palmprints to be matched at block 432… To extract palmprint features, each ROI may be filtered with an orthogonal line ordinal filter).
Uludag does not explicitly disclose an ultraviolet light source; positioning a subject hand palm facing the light source and imager without contacting said biometric reader; illuminating the palm with the ultraviolet light source to generate fluorescence; capturing an image of the fluorescence of the palm; and determining characteristics of capillary beds in the image.
However, Kontsevich teaches an ultraviolet light source; positioning a subject hand palm facing the light source and imager without contacting a biometric reader (Figs. 1-4: Para. 25-60 of Kontsevich; mobile telephone 50 includes logic to execute a sequence of operations to perform a palm authentication process. The sequence of operations includes illuminating a field of view of the camera with an illumination source having an emission spectrum including wavelengths in a range less than 485 nm, in the blue/violet or near ultraviolet range. Also, the operations include capturing a set of images of a palm in the illuminated field of view using the camera. The sequence of operations includes processing the set of images to determine a set of identifying features of the palm).
Therefore, at the time when the invention was filed, it would have been obvious to a person of ordinary skill in the art to include an ultraviolet light source; positioning a subject hand palm facing the light source and imager without contacting said biometric reader using the teachings of Kontsevich in order to modify the device taught by Uludag. The motivation to combine these analogous arts would have been to provide a system for capturing palm lines with blue light with wavelengths below 485 nm that can provide advantages, for example: (i) produce high-contrast images; (ii) do not attract attention of other people in the dark environment (Para. 3-6, 100 of Kontsevich).
The combination of Uludag and Kontsevich does not explicitly disclose illuminating the palm with the ultraviolet light source to generate fluorescence; capturing an image of the fluorescence of the palm; and determining characteristics of capillary beds in the image.
However, Butler teaches illuminating a palm with the ultraviolet light source to generate fluorescence; capturing an image of the fluorescence of the palm (Figs. 1-2; Abstract; Col. 3, ln. 5 to Col. 5, ln. 15 of Butler; ultraviolet light source 40 is turned on, providing an ultraviolet flash or strobe of radiant energy, which is absorbed by the palm. During the ultraviolet excitation and after termination thereof, the palm emits visible light for a short period of time during which image details, primarily those of the crease lines, become available due to fluorescence and phosphorescence… with the palm exposed to both an ultraviolet light source 40 and the camera 12… Optical filters 42 and 44 may be provided whereby filter 42 passes light having a wavelength of from 350 to 400 nanometers to ensure that only ultraviolet light reaches the palm, and whereby filter 44 passes light having a wavelength of from 450 to 550 nanometers to ensure that only visible light reaches the camera 12… When the palm detail information has been recorded by camera 12, the identification system operates on the stored information under control of the process and control logic unit 34).
Therefore, at the time when the invention was filed, it would have been obvious to a person of ordinary skill in the art to include illuminating the palm with the ultraviolet light source to generate fluorescence; capturing an image of the fluorescence of the palm using the teachings of Butler in order to modify the display apparatus taught by the combination of Uludag and Kontsevich. The motivation to combine these analogous arts would have been to provide a method and apparatus for enhancing the image details of an object before recording by a camera of an identification system (Abstract of Butler).
The combination of Uludag, Kontsevich, and Butler does not explicitly disclose determining characteristics of capillary beds in the image.
However, Miura teaches determining characteristics of capillaries in an image (Figs. 2, 18; Para. 10-36 of Miura; By irradiating a plurality of visible lights, the input device 2 can capture various biological features existing in the skin of the fingertip... there are fingerprints, wrinkles of the epidermis, wrinkles of the joints, patterns of melanin such as veins, spots and moles, patterns of the blood… Various biological features such as fingerprints and epidermal wrinkles, finger joint wrinkles, melanin, blood in blood capillaries, arteries, veins, subcutaneous fat and the like exist in the skin tissue, and light absorption rate and reflectance are different. Therefore, by previously investigating the reflection characteristics of each living tissue and irradiating a plurality of visible lights and observing them at the same time, it is possible to independently extract the information of each living tissue).
Therefore, at the time when the invention was filed, it would have been obvious to a person of ordinary skill in the art to include determining characteristics of capillary beds in the image using the teachings of Miura in order to modify the display apparatus taught by the combination of Uludag, Kontsevich, and Butler. The motivation to combine these analogous arts would have been to provide a biometric authentication device which may be easily operated, has high precision, and is compact (Abstract of Miura).
Regarding Claim 2, the combination of Uludag, Kontsevich, Butler, and Miura teaches the step of identifying the subject based on the characteristics of the capillary beds (Fig. 18 of Miura; Various biological features such as fingerprints and epidermal wrinkles, finger joint wrinkles, melanin, blood in blood capillaries, arteries, veins, subcutaneous fat and the like exist in the skin tissue, and light absorption rate and reflectance are different. Therefore, by previously investigating the reflection characteristics of each living tissue and irradiating a plurality of visible lights and observing them at the same time, it is possible to independently extract the information of each living tissue
Para. 39, 50-52, 61 of Uludag; Morphological operators then remove the noise in the background and fill in the holes in the hand region, producing a binary image of the hand… raw Bayer image data thus collected may be converted into a grayscale image at block 412, permitting the image to be segmented into foreground and background portions at block 416. The segmented image may then be used to localize fingerprints at block 420 by generating a one-dimensional projection of the segmentation map. The resulting data may be used at block 424 to extract skin features, allowing fingerprints to be match at block 428 and palmprints to be matched at block 432).
Regarding Claim 3, the combination of Uludag, Kontsevich, Butler, and Miura teaches that determining characteristics of capillary beds in the image includes determining locations of the capillary beds (Fig. 18 of Miura; Various biological features such as fingerprints and epidermal wrinkles, finger joint wrinkles, melanin, blood in blood capillaries, arteries, veins, subcutaneous fat and the like exist in the skin tissue, and light absorption rate and reflectance are different. Therefore, by previously investigating the reflection characteristics of each living tissue and irradiating a plurality of visible lights and observing them at the same time, it is possible to independently extract the information of each living tissue
Para. 39, 50-52, 61 of Uludag; Morphological operators then remove the noise in the background and fill in the holes in the hand region, producing a binary image of the hand… raw Bayer image data thus collected may be converted into a grayscale image at block 412, permitting the image to be segmented into foreground and background portions at block 416. The segmented image may then be used to localize fingerprints at block 420 by generating a one-dimensional projection of the segmentation map. The resulting data may be used at block 424 to extract skin features, allowing fingerprints to be match at block 428 and palmprints to be matched at block 432).
Regarding Claim 4, the combination of Uludag, Kontsevich, Butler, and Miura teaches processing the image to filter image features of the palm other than the capillary beds (Fig. 18 of Miura; Various biological features such as fingerprints and epidermal wrinkles, finger joint wrinkles, melanin, blood in blood capillaries, arteries, veins, subcutaneous fat and the like exist in the skin tissue, and light absorption rate and reflectance are different. Therefore, by previously investigating the reflection characteristics of each living tissue and irradiating a plurality of visible lights and observing them at the same time, it is possible to independently extract the information of each living tissue
Para. 39, 50-52, 61-64 of Uludag; Morphological operators then remove the noise in the background and fill in the holes in the hand region, producing a binary image of the hand… raw Bayer image data thus collected may be converted into a grayscale image at block 412, permitting the image to be segmented into foreground and background portions at block 416. The segmented image may then be used to localize fingerprints at block 420 by generating a one-dimensional projection of the segmentation map. The resulting data may be used at block 424 to extract skin features, allowing fingerprints to be match at block 428 and palmprints to be matched at block 432… To extract palmprint features, each ROI may be filtered with an orthogonal line ordinal filter).
Regarding Claim 5, the combination of Uludag, Kontsevich, Butler, and Miura teaches that processing the image to filter image features of the palm other than the capillary beds includes removing surface ridge pattern features (Fig. 18 of Miura; Various biological features such as fingerprints and epidermal wrinkles, finger joint wrinkles, melanin, blood in blood capillaries, arteries, veins, subcutaneous fat and the like exist in the skin tissue, and light absorption rate and reflectance are different. Therefore, by previously investigating the reflection characteristics of each living tissue and irradiating a plurality of visible lights and observing them at the same time, it is possible to independently extract the information of each living tissue
Para. 39, 50-52, 61-64 of Uludag; Morphological operators then remove the noise in the background and fill in the holes in the hand region, producing a binary image of the hand… raw Bayer image data thus collected may be converted into a grayscale image at block 412, permitting the image to be segmented into foreground and background portions at block 416. The segmented image may then be used to localize fingerprints at block 420 by generating a one-dimensional projection of the segmentation map. The resulting data may be used at block 424 to extract skin features, allowing fingerprints to be match at block 428 and palmprints to be matched at block 432… To extract palmprint features, each ROI may be filtered with an orthogonal line ordinal filter).
Regarding Claim 6, the combination of Uludag, Kontsevich, Butler, and Miura teaches that processing the image to filter image features of the palm other than the capillary beds includes spatially filtering to remove detail with a frequency of less than a selected threshold, the selected threshold being less than 1 mm (Fig. 18 of Miura; Various biological features such as fingerprints and epidermal wrinkles, finger joint wrinkles, melanin, blood in blood capillaries, arteries, veins, subcutaneous fat and the like exist in the skin tissue, and light absorption rate and reflectance are different. Therefore, by previously investigating the reflection characteristics of each living tissue and irradiating a plurality of visible lights and observing them at the same time, it is possible to independently extract the information of each living tissue
Para. 39, 50-52, 61-64 of Uludag; Morphological operators then remove the noise in the background and fill in the holes in the hand region, producing a binary image of the hand… raw Bayer image data thus collected may be converted into a grayscale image at block 412, permitting the image to be segmented into foreground and background portions at block 416. The segmented image may then be used to localize fingerprints at block 420 by generating a one-dimensional projection of the segmentation map. The resulting data may be used at block 424 to extract skin features, allowing fingerprints to be match at block 428 and palmprints to be matched at block 432… To extract palmprint features, each ROI may be filtered with an orthogonal line ordinal filter
NOTE – Spatially filtering to remove detail with a frequency of less than a selected threshold of less than 1 mm would only require routine skill for a person of ordinary skill in the art based on the combination of Uludag, Kontsevich, Butler, and Miura. Therefore, one of ordinary skill in the art would have pursued processing the image to filter image features of the palm other than the capillary beds includes spatially filtering to remove detail with a frequency of less than a selected threshold, the selected threshold being less than 1 mm with a reasonable expectation of success that would have yielded predictable results and can be accomplished without any undue experimentation in order to provide multibiometric systems that provide higher absolute levels of accuracy, be more robust to sampling and environmental conditions, and are generally harder to defraud or spoof).
Regarding Claim 7, the combination of Uludag, Kontsevich, Butler, and Miura teaches that illuminating the palm includes illuminating with visible light (Fig. 1; Para. 34-47 of Uludag; light sources are white-light LEDs).
Regarding Claim 8, the combination of Uludag, Kontsevich, Butler, and Miura teaches that illuminating the palm includes illuminating with primarily green light (Fig. 2 of Miura; wavelength of the visible light source 32 can be arbitrarily selected from about 450 nm to 570 nm, that is, from blue to green).
Regarding Claim 9, the combination of Uludag, Kontsevich, Butler, and Miura teaches that illuminating the palm includes illumination with light having an energy spectrum mostly below a wavelength of 575 nm (Fig. 2 of Miura; light source 32 selects 550 nm green wavelength).
Regarding Claim 10, the combination of Uludag, Kontsevich, Butler, and Miura teaches that illuminating the palm includes illumination with light having a percentage energy content in the red and infrared wavelengths of less than 5% (Fig. 2 of Miura; wavelength of the visible light source 32 can be arbitrarily selected from about 450 nm to 570 nm, that is, from blue to green).
Regarding Claim 11, the combination of Uludag, Kontsevich, Butler, and Miura teaches that illuminating the palm includes illumination with polarized light (Fig. 1; Para. 34-40 of Uludag; polarizer 112).
Regarding Claim 12, the combination of Uludag, Kontsevich, Butler, and Miura teaches providing a circular polarizer between the palm and both the light source and the imager (Fig. 1; Para. 34-40 of Uludag; polarizer 112… polarizer 128 so that polarized light 124 is incident on the imaging array 120… the polarizer may be a linear polarizer or a circular polarizer).
Regarding Claim 13, the combination of Uludag, Kontsevich, Butler, and Miura teaches that capturing an image includes capturing additional biometric feature information about the hand, the additional information biometric feature including at least one of hand periphery, surface ridges, fingerprints, minutiae, creases, and blood vessels (Para. 34-47 of Uludag; fingerprints 204, palmprint 208, and hand shape illustrated in FIG. 2B).
Regarding Claim 14, the combination of Uludag, Kontsevich, Butler, and Miura teaches that where a biometric match is determined based on location information of the capillary beds and location information of the additional biometric features (Fig. 18 of Miura; Various biological features such as fingerprints and epidermal wrinkles, finger joint wrinkles, melanin, blood in blood capillaries, arteries, veins, subcutaneous fat and the like exist in the skin tissue, and light absorption rate and reflectance are different. Therefore, by previously investigating the reflection characteristics of each living tissue and irradiating a plurality of visible lights and observing them at the same time, it is possible to independently extract the information of each living tissue
Fig. 4; Claim 10 of Uludag; analyzing the combined biometric modality comprises analyzing the combined biometric modality to determine an identity of the individual or to verify the identity of the individual
Para. 32-39, 50-52, 61-64 of Uludag; Morphological operators then remove the noise in the background and fill in the holes in the hand region, producing a binary image of the hand… raw Bayer image data thus collected may be converted into a grayscale image at block 412, permitting the image to be segmented into foreground and background portions at block 416. The segmented image may then be used to localize fingerprints at block 420 by generating a one-dimensional projection of the segmentation map. The resulting data may be used at block 424 to extract skin features, allowing fingerprints to be match at block 428 and palmprints to be matched at block 432).
Regarding Claim 15, the combination of Uludag, Kontsevich, Butler, and Miura teaches positioning the palm away from the light source and the imager (Fig. 1; Para. 34-47 of Uludag; light may be polarized 108 by a polarizer 112 disposed between the illumination source 116 and the platen 104. Light scattered 136 from the hand is collected by an imagining array 120. The scattered light 136 may be imaged onto the array 120).
Regarding Claim 43, the combination of Uludag, Kontsevich, Butler, and Miura teaches that the illuminating of the palm is with unpolarized ultraviolent light (Fig. 1; Col. 3, ln. 5 to Col. 5, ln. 15 of Butler; ultraviolet light source 40).
Regarding Claim 44, the combination of Uludag, Kontsevich, Butler, and Miura teaches that capturing the image is capturing an unpolarized image (Fig. 1; Col. 3, ln. 5 to Col. 5, ln. 15 of Butler; camera 12).
Regarding Claim 45, the combination of Uludag, Kontsevich, Butler, and Miura teaches maintaining a space between the ultraviolet light source and the palm free of polarizers (Fig. 1; Col. 3, ln. 5 to Col. 5, ln. 15 of Butler; ultraviolet light source 40 is turned on, providing an ultraviolet flash or strobe of radiant energy, which is absorbed by the palm).
Regarding Claim 46, the combination of Uludag, Kontsevich, Butler, and Miura teaches maintaining a space between the imager and the palm free of polarizers (Fig. 1; Col. 3, ln. 5 to Col. 5, ln. 15 of Butler; filter 44 passes light having a wavelength of from 450 to 550 nanometers to ensure that only visible light reaches the camera 12).
Regarding Claim 47, the combination of Uludag, Kontsevich, Butler, and Miura teaches that capturing the image includes capturing a visible light image (Fig. 1; Col. 3, ln. 5 to Col. 5, ln. 15 of Butler; filter 44 passes light having a wavelength of from 450 to 550 nanometers to ensure that only visible light reaches the camera 12).
Regarding Claim 48, the combination of Uludag, Kontsevich, Butler, and Miura teaches providing an ultraviolet blocking filter at the imager (Fig. 1; Col. 3, ln. 5 to Col. 5, ln. 15 of Butler; filter 44 passes light having a wavelength of from 450 to 550 nanometers to ensure that only visible light reaches the camera 12).
Response to Arguments
Applicant's arguments filed 08/27/2028 have been fully considered but they are not persuasive.
Applicant originally elected Species I, directed to claims 1-15 and withdrew claims 16-42. Since applicant has received an action on the merits for the originally presented invention, this invention has been constructively elected by original presentation for prosecution on the merits. Accordingly, claims 16-42 withdrawn from consideration as being directed to a non-elected invention. See 37 CFR 1.142(b) and MPEP § 821.03.
Restriction for examination purposes as indicated is proper because all the inventions listed in this action are independent or distinct and there would be a serious search and/or examination burden if restriction were not required because: the inventions require a different field of search (e.g., searching different classes/subclasses or electronic resources, or employing different search strategies or search queries).
Examiner therefore rejects claims 1-15 and 43-48 and withdraws claims 16-42 from consideration.
Conclusion
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/ABHISHEK SARMA/
Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2621