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
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 1, 3-4 and 6-12, 14-18 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Vuppala et al. (2022/0036609).
Regarding claim 1, Vuppala discloses a method of processing an x-ray image, comprising: obtaining first lower-radiation dose three-dimensional image data during a first scan of a patient: and detecting, using a trained neural network, a presence of an artifact in the first lower- radiation dose three-dimensional image data. (Vuppala, [0025])
Regarding the subject matter added via amendment previously found in claim 5, Vuppala further discloses obtaining second higher-radiation dose three-dimensional image data during a second scan of the patient; and applying artifact correction to the second higher-radiation dose three-dimensional image data if the trained neural network detects the presence of the artifact. (Vuppala, [0073], [0076])
Vuppala does not explicitly disclose omitting the artifact correction step in the event the trained neural network does not detect the presence of an artifact.
However this step is obvious as the omission of an undesired step when its function is not desired. See MPEP 2144.04(II)(A). In this case, if the trained neural network does not detect an artifact, the artifact correction procedure for the image data is unnecessary and therefore obvious to omit.
Regarding the subject matter added via further amendment, Vuppala further discloses the artifact is a metal artifact. (Vuppala, [0064]) Further characterization of the properties of the metal artifact does not patentably distinguish the claimed invention from Vuppala.
Regarding claim 3, Vuppala further discloses the trained neural network is a trained binary classification neural network trained to detect the presence of the artifact. (Vuppala, [0063])
Regarding claim 4, Vuppala further discloses the trained neural network is a trained classification neural network trained to detect a presence of plural artifacts of different materials. (Vuppala, [0064])
Claims 9, 11-12 and 18 are rejected on the same grounds as claims 1-5, as they have the same substantive limitations.
Regarding claim 17, Vuppala further discloses an x-ray transmitter and an x-ray detector for acquiring the first lower-radiation close three-dimensional image data during the first scan of a patient. (Vuppala [0009], [0010])
Claims 6-8 and 14-16 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Vuppala.
Regarding claims 6-8 and 14-16, each of half-scan, full-scan, and sparse reconstructions are well-known in the art of CT reconstructions, and applying the artifact detection technique of Vuppala to conventional CT reconstruction techniques would be obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art in order to detect artifacts therein.
Response to Arguments
Applicant attempts to distinguish the claimed invention from Vuppala by pointing out that metal artifacts may occasionally not be present even when the metal foreign object is present. However the mechanism of artifact removal by detection and correction by trained neural network is similar between the claimed invention and the prior art, and the claimed proviso regarding the category of the artifacts does nothing to refine either the method steps performed or the structure or the imaging apparatus and cannot meaningfully distinguish the claimed subject matter from the prior art of record.
Conclusion
Applicant's amendment necessitated the new ground(s) of rejection presented in this Office action. Accordingly, THIS ACTION IS MADE FINAL. See MPEP § 706.07(a). Applicant is reminded of the extension of time policy as set forth in 37 CFR 1.136(a).
A shortened statutory period for reply to this final action is set to expire THREE MONTHS from the mailing date of this action. In the event a first reply is filed within TWO MONTHS of the mailing date of this final action and the advisory action is not mailed until after the end of the THREE-MONTH shortened statutory period, then the shortened statutory period will expire on the date the advisory action is mailed, and any nonprovisional extension fee (37 CFR 1.17(a)) pursuant to 37 CFR 1.136(a) will be calculated from the mailing date of the advisory action. In no event, however, will the statutory period for reply expire later than SIX MONTHS from the mailing date of this final action.
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to EDWIN C GUNBERG whose telephone number is (571)270-3107. The examiner can normally be reached Monday-Friday, 8:30AM-5:00PM.
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/EDWIN C GUNBERG/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2884