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 .
Response for Election/Restrictions
Applicant's election without traverse of Group III (claims 11-20) in the reply filed on 12/19/2025 is acknowledged. Non-elected Group I (claims 1-5) and Group II (claims 6-10) are withdrawn from consideration. The requirement is still deemed proper and is therefore made FINAL.
Information Disclosure Statement
The information disclosure statement (IDS) submitted on 12/08/2023, 09/18/2023, and 06/10/2022. The submission is in compliance with the provisions of 37 CFR 1.97. Accordingly, the information disclosure statement is being considered by the examiner.
Claim Objections
Claims 18-20 are objected to because of the following informalities:
In claim 18: the term: “and/or” should be changed to --or--.
Appropriate correction is required.
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 11 and 16-17 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(1) as being anticipated by Denker et al. (US 20180324908A1).
Regarding claim 11, Denker discloses
A control method (cooking method 4100, fig.41) for a cooking apparatus [Par.0245 cited: “…cooking method 4100 using image analysis…”], comprising:
acquiring image information of a cooked food material (capture image and sensor data 4104, fig.41) [Par.0245 cited: “…one or more images is captured in step 4104 (and optionally, data from one or more sensors)…”];
dividing the image information of the cooked food material into multiple regions according to pixel information in the image information of the cooked food material (extract features from image and sensor data 4106, fig.41) [Par.0245 cited: “…features are extracted from the captured image and received sensor data…”] [Par.0226 cited: “…through a process that includes feature extraction (e.g., converting image pixel information to a higher level subset of features for input to the neural network…”]; and
selecting a target operation mode according to a comparison result of a color difference value of any two regions and a first color difference threshold (adjust image to know color 4012, fig.40) [Par.0226 cited: “…heating sensor input may be converted to an appropriate scale (Fahrenheit or Celsius) and directly compared to a threshold…”], and controlling heating devices (heating elements 218, fig.2) of the cooking apparatus to operate according to the target operation mode [Par.0085 cited: “…heat adjustment algorithm is capable of dynamically controlling the heating elements 218 (e.g., adjusting output power, spectral power distribution, and/or peak wavelength) in real-time in response to changing input variables…”].
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Regarding claim 16, Denker discloses
before selecting the target operation mode according to the comparison result of the color difference value of the any two regions and the first color difference threshold (adjust image to know color 4012, fig.40) [Par.0226 cited: “…heating sensor input may be converted to an appropriate scale (Fahrenheit or Celsius) and directly compared to a threshold…”], and controlling the heating devices (heating elements 218, fig.2) of the cooking apparatus to operate according to the target operation mode: determining the cooked food material according to the image information of the cooked food material; and controlling the heating devices (heating elements 218) to operate according to an operation mode corresponding to the cooked food material [Par.0085 cited: “…heat adjustment algorithm is capable of dynamically controlling the heating elements 218 (e.g., adjusting output power, spectral power distribution, and/or peak wavelength) in real-time in response to changing input variables…”].
Regarding claim 17, Denker discloses
determining the first color difference threshold according to the cooked food material (adjust image to know color 4012, fig.40) [Par.0226 cited: “…heating sensor input may be converted to an appropriate scale (Fahrenheit or Celsius) and directly compared to a threshold…”].
Allowable Subject Matter
Claims 12-15 and 18-20 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.
The following is a statement of reasons for allowance:
Allowance of claims 12 and 14-15 is indicated because: the prior art of record does not anticipate or render fairly obvious in combination to teach the limitations as cited in the claim such as determining that the color difference value of any two regions is equal to or smaller than the first color difference threshold, and controlling the heating devices to further operate according to the current operation mode; and determining that the color difference value of any two regions is greater than the first color difference threshold, and controlling the heating devices to operate according to a by-region heating mode….as cited in the dependent claim 12.
Allowance of claim 13 is indicated because: the prior art of record does not anticipate or render fairly obvious in combination to teach the limitations as cited in the claim such as determining contour information of the cooked food material according to the image information of the cooked food material; acquiring the pixel information of the cooked food material according to the contour information of the cooked food material; dividing any two pieces of pixel information of which a color difference value is smaller than or equal to a second color difference threshold into the same region; and dividing any two pieces of pixel information of which a color difference value is greater than the second color difference threshold into different regions; wherein the second color difference threshold is smaller than the first color difference threshold….as cited in the dependent claim 13.
Allowance of claims 18-20 is indicated because: the prior art of record does not anticipate or render fairly obvious in combination to teach the limitations as cited in the claim such as controlling a storage device of the cooking apparatus to rotate according to a first angular speed, and controlling a heating element of the cooking apparatus to heat according to first heating power; acquiring images of different regions on the surface of food, wherein the food is located on the storage device; calculating a color difference value of food regions in a first image corresponding to the current region and a second image corresponding to other regions, wherein other regions refer to any regions except the current region on the surface of the food, and the first image and the second image are acquired within a preset rotation angle range of the storage device; and determining, according to the color difference value and a preset color difference threshold, whether the first angular speed and/or the first heating power is adjusted….as cited in the dependent claim 18.
Conclusion
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to PHUONG T NGUYEN whose telephone number is (571)270-1834. The examiner can normally be reached 9.00am-5.00pm.
If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner’s supervisor, Steven Crabb can be reached on 571-270-5095. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300.
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/PHUONG T NGUYEN/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 3761
01/03/2026