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
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 1-4 6-11 and 13 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(1) as being anticipated by Manuel Blanco Valentín (“Deep Learning Methods on Geological Reservoir Borehole Log Images and Applications”, CBPF – Centro Brasileiro de Pesquisas Físicas, 2018).
With respect to claim 1, Blanco teaches obtaining a period value of the pad artifacts in the ultrasonic image (page 48, ultrasonic borehole image, page 53-54 3.4.2.2 Automatic pad period detection) ;
modeling the pad artifacts as a periodic square wave on an azimuthal axis based on the period value of the pad artifacts (page 49, 3.4.2.1 Pad rejector filter design, model the traces that these pads leave noise added by the pads of the logging tool on each line of borehole image as a square wave);
providing a filter based on the modeling of the pad artifacts, wherein the filter is configured to remove the pad artifacts from the ultrasonic image (page 53, equation (3.26) and (3.27));
generating a modified ultrasonic image based on the filter and the ultrasonic image (page 102, In order to adjust the ultrasonic borehole image data to these conditions, first the pad-removal filter designed by Valentin (2018), and presented in 3.4.2, was applied to the ultrasonic borehole image data, so that the artifacts caused by the pads of the logging tool would be removed and the real values of ultrasonic response of the rock lying undernearth them would stand out)
determining one or more geological properties of the well based on the modified ultrasonic image; and characterizing the well based on the one or more geological properties of the well (Section 6.2.2 and Section 6.3 describe using the processed images to estimate petrophysical properties, specifically "porosity and permeability logs" (Figure 6.1 and Figure 6.4). This prediction of petrophysical values is the literal equivalent of "determining one or more geological properties" for the purpose of "characterizing the well.").
With respect to claim 2, Blanco teaches obtaining the period value of the pad artifacts in the ultrasonic image comprises receiving data with a complete azimuthal sweep, after sweeping 360֠ of a well wall (page 20 2.4.2 Acoustic Televiewers, Acoustic Televiewers are azimuthal imaging tools, which means that there is usually one sensor that rotates a certain number of times to cover all 360 degrees that form the borehole wall).
With respect to claim 3, Blanco teaches obtaining a magnitude of a one-dimensional spectrum of a Fourier transform of each line of an input the ultrasonic image (page 54, extract the 1-D fft for each line of our image)
With respect to claim 4, Blanco teaches calculating an average, by frequency, for all lines, to obtain an average of a one-dimensional spectrum for all lines of the ultrasonic image (page 54, Figure 3.17 – Average of the magnitude of the FFT obtained from the image Uxy for each line).
With respect to claim 6, Blanco teaches the periodic square wave is defined as an infinite summation of spaced square pulses of a constant value (page 51 equation (3.20); Section 3.4.2.1 and Equations 3.19 and 3.20 define the pad traces signal model as an infinite series of square "pulse waves" with a "non-zero constant value." This is further visualized in Figure 3.14.).
With respect to claim 7, Blanco teaches applying the Fourier transform to the square wave (page 51 equation (3.19)-(3.21); Section 3.4.2.1 calculates the Fourier transform of the square wave model in Equations 3.21, 3.23, 3.24, and 3.25.).
With respect to claim 8, Blanco teaches generating the modified ultrasonic image based on the filter and the ultrasonic image comprises multiplying the model and a two-dimensional Fourier transform of an input the ultrasonic image. (page 31, equation (3.27); Section 3.4.2.1, Equation 3.16, demonstrates the filtered image in the frequency domain as the product of the image's FFT and the filter. Valentín explicitly cites the "convolution theorem" (Table 4) to justify this frequency-domain multiplication.).
With respect to claim 9, Blanco teaches generating the modified ultrasonic image comprises applying an inverse two- dimensional Fourier transform (page 31, equation (3.27), the reference does not explicitly teach inverse two- dimensional Fourier however it disclose two- dimensional Fourier transform, in order to get recognizable result image inverse Fourier transform is required; Valentín Sections 3.1 and 3.4.2.1 describe the restoration process where the final processed image is generated by transforming the filtered frequency-domain signal back to the spatial domain via the inverse FFT.).
With respect to claim 10, Blanco teaches the period value of the pad artifacts is obtained from a tool that performs amplitude measurements by a transducer of emission and reception of ultrasonic waves (page 47,Fig. 3.11; Section 2.4.2 and Figure 2.6 describe the acoustic televiewer transducer emitting a wave and measuring the "amplitude of the reflected sound wave" stored as pixels. Section 3.4.2.2 specifically links these amplitude measurements to the "Automatic pad period detection).
With respect to claim 11, Blanco teaches the wells comprise a borehole for any type of reservoir and without casing (page 47,Fig. 3.11; Section 6 discusses carbonate reservoir logging in the "brazilian pre-salt region" (Abstract). In petrophysical practice, this logging phase is conducted in the "un-cased open-hole" phase of drilling (Sections 1 and 2), inherently satisfying the "without casing" limitation.).
Claim 13 is rejected as same reason as claim 1 above.
Conclusion
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to Randolph Chu whose telephone number is 571-270-1145. The examiner can normally be reached on Monday to Thursday from 7:30 am - 5 pm.
If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner’s supervisor, Matthew Bella can be reached on (571) 272-7778.
The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300.
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/RANDOLPH I CHU/
Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2667
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