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 .
DETAILED ACTION
Claims 1-18 are pending. Claims 1-8 and 17-18 have been examined and rejected. Claims 9-16 have also been objected.
Claim Interpretation
The following is a quotation of 35 U.S.C. 112(f):
(f) Element in Claim for a Combination. – An element in a claim for a combination may be expressed as a means or step for performing a specified function without the recital of structure, material, or acts in support thereof, and such claim shall be construed to cover the corresponding structure, material, or acts described in the specification and equivalents thereof.
The following is a quotation of pre-AIA 35 U.S.C. 112, sixth paragraph:
An element in a claim for a combination may be expressed as a means or step for performing a specified function without the recital of structure, material, or acts in support thereof, and such claim shall be construed to cover the corresponding structure, material, or acts described in the specification and equivalents thereof.
This application includes one or more claim limitations that do not use the word “means,” but are nonetheless being interpreted under 35 U.S.C. 112(f) or pre-AIA 35 U.S.C. 112, sixth paragraph, because the claim limitation(s) uses a generic placeholder that is coupled with functional language without reciting sufficient structure to perform the recited function and the generic placeholder is not preceded by a structural modifier. Such claim limitation(s) is/are: “a control unit configured to” in claim 18. A control unit according to the specification ¶ 0113 can be a microcontroller, or an integrated circuit.
Because this/these claim limitation(s) is/are being interpreted under 35 U.S.C. 112(f) or pre-AIA 35 U.S.C. 112, sixth paragraph, it/they is/are being interpreted to cover the corresponding structure described in the specification as performing the claimed function, and equivalents thereof.
If applicant does not intend to have this/these limitation(s) interpreted under 35 U.S.C. 112(f) or pre-AIA 35 U.S.C. 112, sixth paragraph, applicant may: (1) amend the claim limitation(s) to avoid it/them being interpreted under 35 U.S.C. 112(f) or pre-AIA 35 U.S.C. 112, sixth paragraph (e.g., by reciting sufficient structure to perform the claimed function); or (2) present a sufficient showing that the claim limitation(s) recite(s) sufficient structure to perform the claimed function so as to avoid it/them being interpreted under 35 U.S.C. 112(f) or pre-AIA 35 U.S.C. 112, sixth paragraph.
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.
Claims 1-8 and 17-18 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(1) as being anticipated by Brunton et al. (Pushing the Limits of 3D Color Printing: Error Diffusion with Translucent Materials, ACM Transaction on Graphics, 8 Jun 2015).
As per claim 1, Brunton teaches a method for three-dimensional printing comprising:
dithering a set surface of a printing object (p. 2 left col. ¶ 2-3, last paragraph – right col. ¶ 1; Brunton teaches tessellating an object into volume elements on surfaces for printing); and
printing the printing object with the dithered surface (p. 2 left col. ¶ 2-3, last paragraph – right col. ¶ 2; Brunton teaches printing the object with the dithered surface), wherein the dithering includes:
determining the set surface of the printing object (p. 2 left col. ¶ 2-3; Brunton teaches determining a surface of an object to tesselate for printing),
providing a spatially high-frequent dithering signal (p. 3 left col. ¶ 1, p. 4 left col. ¶ 3, Brunton teaches using spatially high-frequencies for achromatic and chromatic contrast; this teaching means a spatially high-frequent dithering signal is provide) and
modifying the set surface as a function of the dithering signal (p. 4 left col. ¶ 3; Brunton teaches using spatially high-frequencies for achromatic and chromatic contrast as a function of frequency for printing; this teaching reads onto this limitation).
As per claim 2, Brunton teaches the method of claim 1 wherein the dithering further includes:
determining a voxel grid of a bounding box of the printing object or a portion thereof (p. 3 right col. ¶ 4; Brunton teaches performing voxelization comprising axis-aligned bounding box of out shape being discretized of the object; this teaching reads onto this limitation);
determining a voxel-specific surface distance information for each voxel of the bounding box or for selected voxels of the bounding box, wherein the voxel-specific surface distance information represents a distance between the voxel and the set surface (p. 7 right col. ¶ 2-3; Brunton teaches computing distance of voxels to the surface);
modifying the surface distance information as a function of the dithering signal (p. 7 right col. ¶ 2-3; Brunton teaches computing distance of voxels to the surface and writing values to each voxel); and
determining the modified surface depending on the modified surface distance information or
As per claim 3, Brunton teaches the method of claim 2 wherein the dithering includes:
providing a three-dimensional dithering mask (p. 7 right col. ¶ 2-3; Brunton teaches computing distance of voxels to the surface, moving a mask over the surface voxels, and writing the mask value to the voxel at the corresponding offset; this teaching reads onto this limitation); and
for each voxel of the bounding box or for selected voxels of the bounding box:
determining, a voxel-specific distance modifying value as a function of at least one entry of the dithering mask (p. 7 right col. ¶ 2-3; Brunton teaches computing distance of voxels to the surface, moving a mask over the surface voxels, and writing the mask value to the voxel at the corresponding offset; this teaching reads onto this limitation), and
modifying the voxel-specific distance information as a function of the distance modifying value (p. 7 right col. ¶ 2-3; Brunton teaches computing distance of voxels to the surface, moving a mask over the surface voxels, and writing the mask value to the voxel at the corresponding offset; this teaching reads onto this limitation).
As per claim 4, Brunton teaches the method of claim 3 wherein:
one mask element is assigned to each voxel of the bounding box or to the selected voxels of the bounding box (p. 7 right col. ¶ 2-3; Brunton teaches computing distance of voxels to the surface, moving a mask over the surface voxels, and writing the mask value to the voxel at the corresponding offset; this teaching reads onto this limitation including both choices); and
the voxel-specific distance modifying value for a selected voxel is determined as the value of the mask element that is assigned to the selected voxel or as the value of the mask element that is assigned to the nearest surface voxel of the selected voxel (p. 7 right col. ¶ 2-3; Brunton teaches computing distance of voxels to the surface, moving a mask over the surface voxels, and writing the mask value to the voxel at the corresponding offset; this teaching reads onto this limitation including both choices).
As per claim 5, Brunton teaches the method of claim 3 wherein:
one mask element is assigned to each voxel of the bounding box or to the selected voxels of the bounding box (p. 7 right col. ¶ 2-3; Brunton teaches computing distance of voxels to the surface, moving a mask over the surface voxels, and writing the mask value to the voxel at the corresponding offset; this teaching reads onto this limitation including both choices); and
the voxel-specific distance modifying value for a selected voxel is determined as a projection value resulting from at least one projection of the values of the mask elements to the selected voxel (p. 7 right col. ¶ 2-3; Brunton teaches computing distance of voxels to the surface, moving a mask over the surface voxels, and writing the mask value to the voxel at the corresponding offset; this teaching reads onto this limitation including both choices).
As per claim 6, Brunton teaches the method of claim 3 further comprising scaling the voxel-specific distance modifying value by a scaling factor that is determined based on at least one of:
a voxel size (p. 7 right col. ¶ 2-3, p. 8 left col. ¶ 3; Brunston teaches computing distance of voxels to the surface, moving a mask over the surface voxels, and writing the mask value to the voxel at the corresponding offset; the mask value and offset are related to dmax, and dmax is associated with voxel size as indicated in p. 8 left col. ¶ 3; hence, the corresponding voxel-specific distance and offset for each voxel with said each voxel correspond to a scaling factor determined based on a voxel size); and
As per claim 7, Brunton teaches the method of claim 1 wherein the dithering includes:
determining a voxel grid of a bounding box of the printing object or a portion thereof (p. 4 right col. ¶ 4; Brunton teaches generating regular grid of voxels and bounding box of an object to be printed);
classifying voxels which are intersected by the set surface as surface voxels (p. 5 right col. ¶ 3-4, p. 6 Fig. 8; Brunton teaches distinguishing voxels of interior voxels or exterior voxels, corresponding to empty voxels, of a surface; this distinguishing-voxel teaching reads onto classifying voxels as recited in this limitation); and
modifying the surface voxel classification as a function of the dithering signal (p. 5 right col. ¶ 3-4, p. 6 Fig. 8; Brunton teaches distinguishing voxels of interior voxels or exterior voxels, corresponding to empty voxels, of a surface as shown in Fig. 8; this teaching reads onto this limitation).
As per claim 8, Brunton teaches the method of claim 1 further comprising eroding the surface of the printing object (this step of eroding the surface of the printing object comprises limitations as recited in claims 3-5 and 7 according to the instant application’s specification ¶ 0070-0073, which have been discussed above; this claim is, hence, rejected for the same reasons).
As per claim 17, Brunton teaches a non-transitory computer-readable medium comprising instructions that implement the method of claim 1 (p. 11 left col. ¶ 2; Brunton teaches using software to perform method).
As per claim 18, Brunton teaches a 3D printing device comprising:
a printing device (p. 1 right col. ¶ 3; Brunton teaches using a 3D printer for printing); and
a control unit configured to control the printing device using the method of claim 1 (p. 9 right col. ¶ 2; Brunton teaches using a PC to perform printing).
Allowable Subject Matter
Claims 9-16 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.
As per claim 9, Brunton teaches the method of claim 8 wherein the eroding includes:
determining a set surface of the printing object in a selected z-slice (p. 4 right col. ¶ 4-6, p. 5 right col. ¶ 2; Brunton teaches generating slices from the printing object in z direction to form surfaces); and
determining a reference axis as a medial axis of the surface or a subset thereof (p. 4 right col. ¶ 4-6; Brunston teaches aligning axis bounding box of shape for grided voxels of slices; this axis corresponds to a reference axis as recited in this limitation).
Brunton and other cited prior arts either alone or in combination do not teach:
determining, for each or selected points of the surface, a distance to the reference axis and an erosion value as a function of the distance; and
modifying the surface depending on the erosion value.
As per claim 10, Brunton and other cited prior arts either alone or in combination do not teach the method of claim 9 wherein the eroding includes:
determining, at least for each surface voxel of the selected z-slice, a voxel- specific distance to the reference axis and an erosion value as a function of the distance;
modifying the voxel-specific surface distance information as a function of the erosion value; and
determining the modified surface depending on the modified surface distance information or classifying object voxels and non-object voxels based on the modified surface distance information.
As per claim 11, Brunton and other cited prior arts either alone or in combination do not teach the method of claim 10 wherein the voxel-specific distance to the reference axis is determined as a function of the distance between a center of the voxel and the reference axis and the distance between the voxel center and the surface along the surface normal.
As per claim 12, Brunton and other cited prior arts either alone or in combination do not teach the method of claim 9 wherein the erosion value and the distance to the reference axis are positively correlated for at least one interval of distance values.
As per claim 13, Brunton and other cited prior arts either alone or in combination do not teach the method of claim 9 wherein the erosion value is set to a minimal value in response to the distance to the reference axis being smaller than a predetermined threshold value.
As per claim 14, Brunton and other cited prior arts either alone or in combination do not teach the method of claim 13 wherein the erosion value is set to a maximal value in response to the distance to the reference axis being greater than the predetermined threshold value.
As per claim 15, Brunton and other cited prior arts either alone or in combination do not teach the method of claim 13 wherein the erosion value is set to a maximal value in response to the distance to the reference axis being greater than a further predetermined threshold value.
As per claim 16, Brunton and other cited prior arts either alone or in combination do not teach the method of claim 9 wherein the erosion value is set to a maximal value in response to the distance to the reference axis being greater than a predetermined threshold value.
Conclusion
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to Cuong Van Luu whose telephone number is 571-272-8572. The examiner can normally be reached on Monday - Friday from 8:30 to 5:00.
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/CUONG V LUU/Examiner, Art Unit 2189
/REHANA PERVEEN/Supervisory Patent Examiner, Art Unit 2189