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 .
Withdrawn of Last Office action
1. Applicant’s arguments , filed 06/25/2026 with respect to the rejection of claim under 35 U.S.C. § 103 have been fully considered and are persuasive. The rejection of claims 1-20 under 35 U.S.C. § 103 has been withdrawn.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 103
1. In the event the determination of the status of the application as subject to AIA 35 U.S.C. 102 and 103 (or as subject to pre-AIA 35 U.S.C. 102 and 103) is incorrect, any correction of the statutory basis for the rejection will not be considered a new ground of rejection if the prior art relied upon, and the rationale supporting the rejection, would be the same under either status.
2. 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.
3. Claims 1-6, and 10-18, and 20 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Ringl US 2012/0141008 A1, in view of Breeuwer et al, US 2010/0201687 A1, and in view of Soza et al, US 2018/0336966 A1.
4. As per claim 1, Ringl discloses: A method for transformation of a 3D representation of a part of a body, the method comprising:
defining a central axis of the part of the body; (Ringl, [0045], “For determining a central axis Z through the skull S, two pairs of parallel virtual planes E, E' preferably arranged at right angles to each other are formed, and the planes E, E' of each pair are moved from a position on both sides of the skull S toward each other.”)
defining a transformation surface including a cylinder outer surface that is axis- symmetrical to the central axis;
5. Ringl doesn’t expressly disclose:
defining a transformation surface including a cylinder outer surface that is axis- symmetrical to the central axis;
spatially assigning voxels representing the part of the body to the transformation surface, wherein the spatially assigning is undertaken in a radial direction outwards from the central axis;
applying an unfolding transformation to the transformation surface and the voxels assigned to the transformation surface, wherein the transformation surface is unfolded in a plane and the voxels maintain their spatial assignment to the unfolded transformation surface.
6. Breeuwer discloses:
defining a transformation surface including a cylinder outer surface that is axis- symmetrical to the central axis; (Breeuwer, [0063], and [0065])
7. Breeuwer is analogous art with respect to Ringl because they are from the same field of endeavor. Before the effective filing date of the claimed invention, it would have been obvious to a person of ordinary skill in the art to include the process of defining a transformation surface including a cylinder outer surface that is axis- symmetrical to the central axis; as taught by Breeuwer into the teaching of Ringl. The suggestion for doing so would improve the coupling between quantitative analysis data and anatomy. Therefore, it would have been obvious to combine Breeuwer with Ringl.
8. Ringl in view of Breeuwer doesn’t expressly disclose:
spatially assigning voxels representing the part of the body to the transformation surface, wherein the spatially assigning is undertaken in a radial direction outwards from the central axis;
applying an unfolding transformation to the transformation surface and the voxels assigned to the transformation surface, wherein the transformation surface is unfolded in a plane and the voxels maintain their spatial assignment to the unfolded transformation surface.
9. Soza discloses:
spatially assigning voxels representing the part of the body to the transformation surface, wherein the spatially assigning is undertaken in a radial direction outwards from the central axis; (Soza, [0091] A one-to-one assignment between voxels of the 3D image data records and pixels of the unrolled flat slice can therefore be realized, for instance.”, and [0097] a beam definition unit, which is embodied to define a plurality of beams, which each run radially with respect to the center line of the elongated anatomical structure and which intersect the at least one curved slice,)
applying an unfolding transformation to the transformation surface and the voxels assigned to the transformation surface, wherein the transformation surface is unfolded in a plane and the voxels maintain their spatial assignment to the unfolded transformation surface. (Soza, [0093],” The elongated anatomical structure can, in particular, be a rib and/or comprise a rib. The rib can be an unfolded rib, in particular. The rib can be unfolded for instance using a known method of rib unfolding. The elongated anatomical structure can also comprise a vertebral body..”, and [0149] Embodiments of an inventive solution allows, in at least one embodiment, a method of rib unfolding to be realized, such that a dimension reduction from 3D to 2D is permitted. The ribs can therefore be visualized via a relatively compact 2D display.)
10. Soza is analogous art with respect to Ringl in view of Breeuwer because they are from the same field of endeavor. Before the effective filing date of the claimed invention, it would have been obvious to a person of ordinary skill in the art to include the process of installing the processes of spatially assigning voxels representing the part of the body to the transformation surface, wherein the spatially assigning is undertaken in a radial direction outwards from the central axis; and applying an unfolding transformation to the transformation surface and the voxels assigned to the transformation surface, wherein the transformation surface is unfolded in a plane and the voxels maintain their spatial assignment to the unfolded transformation surface.
as taught by Soza into the teaching of Ringl in view of Breeuwer. The suggestion for doing so would allow an improved representation of elongated anatomical structures. Therefore, it would have been obvious to combine Soza with Ringl in view of Breeuwer.
11. As per claim 2, Ringl in view of Breeuwer, and in view of Soza discloses: The method as claimed in claim 1, wherein the transformation surface includes a projection surface, and transformation of the voxels includes projecting the voxels representing the part of the body onto the projection surface. (Soza, [0138], “On the basis of the at least one unrolled flat slice, in particular on the basis of the volume data record, a 2D image can be generated by projections, in particular using different filters, such as e.g. minimum, maximum intensity projection or averaging. On the basis of the previously determined segmentation of the respectively hard and soft bone regions, the projection can be calculated separately or together for both segments, in each case. This separation allows 2D displays of the two regions to be generated, by e.g. different filters such as e.g. minimum, maximum intensity projection or averaging being applied to the at least one unrolled flat slice, in particular to the volume data record VD.”, and [0090],” For instance, each voxel of the 3D image data record can be scanned into the spiral-shaped slice, in particular in a one-to-one manner.”)
12. As per claim 3, Ringl in view of Breeuwer, and in view of in view of Soza discloses: The method as claimed in claim 2, wherein the voxels representing the part of the body that are arranged in a projection direction are shifted in the projection direction by a distance between the central axis and the projection surface. (Soza, [0133], “ With radial ray tracing, which is shown in FIG. 4, samples are scanned radially into the respective curved slice LR, while retaining the distance from the center which is disposed on the center line CL. The resulting gray scale value image can be calculated by scanning the original image along the surface of the ribs into the at least one curved slice, which thus forms a projection surface. In such cases the center line CL of the rib is plotted onto the X-axis.”, and [0088], “ According to one embodiment of the invention, provision is made for the at least one part of the 3D image data record to be the 3D image data record and/or for the at least one part of the 3D image data record to be that quantity of voxels of the 3D image data record which represents a segmented partial structure of the elongated anatomical structure.)
13. As per claim 4, Ringl in view of Breeuwer, and in view of in view of Soza discloses: The method as claimed in claim 3, wherein the voxels representing the part of the body that are arranged in a projection direction are shifted such that the voxels are subsequently arranged in relation to the central axis positioned outside of the projection surface. (Soza, [0100],” According to one embodiment of the invention, the image data processing unit has a beam definition unit, which is embodied to define a plurality of beams, which each run radially with respect to the center line of the elongated anatomical structure and which intersect the at least one curved slice.”, and [0131], “Alternatively, the bones can also be segmented by way of an oval method, in which beams run from the outside in the direction of the center line CL and stop upon contact with the bone.”)
14. As per claim 14, Ringl in view of Breeuwer, and in view of in view of Soza discloses: The method as claimed in claim 4, wherein, after shifting of the voxels, the method comprises:
transforming the projection surface into a plane, and assigning the voxels to the plane with a same transformation. (Soza, [0130],” The elongated anatomical structure RX can be an unfolded rib, in particular. FIG. 3 shows a medical image I1 with unfolded ribs R1. 24 unfolded ribs are typically present on an image. A sectional image of the rib is shown with a sectional plane, in each case.”, and [0091] A one-to-one assignment between voxels of the 3D image data records and pixels of the unrolled flat slice can therefore be realized, for instance. This prevents features, which are present in the 3D image data record, from being overlooked during diagnosis on the basis of the unrolled flat slice.)
15. As per claim 5, Ringl in view of Breeuwer, and in view of in view of Soza discloses: The method as claimed in claim 3, wherein, after shifting of the voxels, the method comprises:
transforming the projection surface into a plane, and assigning the voxels to the plane with a same transformation. (Soza, [0130],” The elongated anatomical structure RX can be an unfolded rib, in particular. FIG. 3 shows a medical image I1 with unfolded ribs R1. 24 unfolded ribs are typically present on an image. A sectional image of the rib is shown with a sectional plane, in each case.”, and [0091] A one-to-one assignment between voxels of the 3D image data records and pixels of the unrolled flat slice can therefore be realized, for instance. This prevents features, which are present in the 3D image data record, from being overlooked during diagnosis on the basis of the unrolled flat slice.)
16. As per claim 6, Ringl in view of Breeuwer, and in view of in view of Soza discloses: The method as claimed in claim 1, wherein the unfolding transformation includes a reformation, the transformation surface includes a multiplicity of cut surfaces, the cut surfaces are arranged coaxially about the central axis, and the cut surfaces define slices lying between neighboring cut surfaces, which are cut in an axial direction and transformed into a flat slice. (Soza, Figure 6, [0089], ” According to one embodiment of the invention, the at least one curved slice is a spiral-shaped slice, which winds around the center line of the elongated anatomical structure.”, and [0099], “an unrolling unit, which is embodied to unroll the at least one curved slice, into which the at least one part of the 3D medical image data record has been scanned, wherein at least one unrolled flat slice is determined.”)
17. Claims 10-13, and 20, which are similar in scope to claim 1, thus rejected under the same rationale.
18. Claims 15-18, and, which are similar in scope to claim 6, thus rejected under the same rationale.
19. Claims 8, and 9 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Ringl US 2012/0141008 A1, in view of Breeuwer et al, US 2010/0201687 A1, and in view of Soza et al, US 2018/0336966 A1, and further in view of Moriwaki et al, US 2021/0287369 A1,
20. As per claim 8, Ringl in view of Soza discloses: The method as claimed in claim 1, (See rejection of claim 1)
21. Ringl in view of Breeuwer, and in view of in view of Soza doesn’t expressly disclose: The part of the body includes a hollow organ.
22. Moriwaki discloses: The part of the body includes a hollow organ. (Moriwaki, [0030],” Condition a: a lung field region and a region W corresponding to a hollow portion of a hollow organ are present in the CT image, and the range of the x coordinate of the region W overlaps the range of the x coordinate of the lung field region.”)
23. Moriwaki is analogous art with respect to Ringl in view of Breeuwer, and in view of in view of Soza because they are from the same field of endeavor. Before the effective filing date of the claimed invention, it would have been obvious to a person of ordinary skill in the art to include that the part of the body includes a hollow organ, as taught by Moriwaki into the teaching of Ringl in view of Breeuwer, and in view of in view of Soza. The suggestion for doing so would include a lung field region and a region corresponding to a hollow portion of a hollow organ.. Therefore, it would have been obvious to combine Moriwaki with Ringl in view of Breeuwer, and in view of in view of Soza.
24. As per claim 9, Ringl in view of Breeuwer, and in view of in view of Soza, and Ringl in view of Moriwaki discloses: The method as claimed in claim 8, wherein the hollow organ comprises one of a heart, a bladder, a prostate, a uterus, lungs, a stomach, or a thyroid. (Moriwaki, [0030],” Condition a: a lung field region and a region W corresponding to a hollow portion of a hollow organ are present in the CT image, and the range of the x coordinate of the region W overlaps the range of the x coordinate of the lung field region.”)
Conclusion
25. Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to ABDERRAHIM MEROUAN whose telephone number is (571)270-5254. The examiner can normally be reached 9 AM -- 5 PM.
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/ABDERRAHIM MEROUAN/Supervisory Patent Examiner, Art Unit 2683
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