Prosecution Insights
Last updated: May 29, 2026
Application No. 17/994,912

SYSTEMS AND METHODS TO PROPOSE A SOLAR PROJECT

Non-Final OA §103
Filed
Nov 28, 2022
Priority
Nov 29, 2021 — provisional 63/264,657
Examiner
JOHNSON, CEDRIC D
Art Unit
2186
Tech Center
2100 — Computer Architecture & Software
Assignee
Speed Of Light Ops LLC (Dba Solo)
OA Round
1 (Non-Final)
82%
Grant Probability
Favorable
1-2
OA Rounds
0m
Est. Remaining
99%
With Interview

Examiner Intelligence

Grants 82% — above average
82%
Career Allowance Rate
532 granted / 650 resolved
+26.8% vs TC avg
Strong +23% interview lift
Without
With
+23.1%
Interview Lift
resolved cases with interview
Typical timeline
3y 0m
Avg Prosecution
15 currently pending
Career history
673
Total Applications
across all art units

Statute-Specific Performance

§101
15.2%
-24.8% vs TC avg
§103
72.6%
+32.6% vs TC avg
§102
4.4%
-35.6% vs TC avg
§112
7.7%
-32.3% vs TC avg
Black line = Tech Center average estimate • Based on career data from 650 resolved cases

Office Action

§103
DETAILED ACTION This Office Action is a first Office Action on the merits of the application. Claims 1 - 23 are presented for examination. Claims 1 - 23 are rejected. 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. The factual inquiries for establishing a background for determining obviousness under 35 U.S.C. 103 are summarized as follows: 1. Determining the scope and contents of the prior art. 2. Ascertaining the differences between the prior art and the claims at issue. 3. Resolving the level of ordinary skill in the pertinent art. 4. Considering objective evidence present in the application indicating obviousness or nonobviousness. This application currently names joint inventors. In considering patentability of the claims the examiner presumes that the subject matter of the various claims was commonly owned as of the effective filing date of the claimed invention(s) absent any evidence to the contrary. Applicant is advised of the obligation under 37 CFR 1.56 to point out the inventor and effective filing dates of each claim that was not commonly owned as of the effective filing date of the later invention in order for the examiner to consider the applicability of 35 U.S.C. 102(b)(2)(C) for any potential 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(2) prior art against the later invention. Claims 1 - 23 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Stevens et al. (U.S. PG Pub 2021/0272358 A1), hereinafter “Stevens”, in view of Woro (U.S. PG Pub 2009/0125275 A1), hereinafter “Woro”, and further in view of Bueno et al. (“Feasibility Analysis of a Solar Photovoltaic Array Integrated on Facades of a Commercial Building”), hereinafter “Bueno”. As per claim 1, Stevens discloses: a network interface to couple to one or more client computing devices over a communication network (Stevens, par [0098] discloses a computer architecture including network interfaces coupled by at least one bus.) memory to store one or more of, point cloud data, and computer-readable instructions that when executed by a processor cause the system to perform operations (Stevens, par [0105] discloses memory storing software program for execution by an instruction execution system.) one or more processors to execute the computer-readable instructions to cause the system to perform operations to (Stevens, par [0098] discloses the computer architecture including one or more processors.) receive point cloud data for a site of a potential solar electrical generation system (Stevens, par [0009] discloses point cloud data to determine the size and shape of a roof of a building to provide locations of potential solar panels to maximize the sunlight exposure, and par [0052] discloses using sensors to obtain point cloud data.) model the point cloud data to generate a structure representation of a structure at the site, the structure representation including one or more roof faces for the structure (Stevens, par [0007] discloses a three-dimensional building model created from aerial imaging, including using roof faces to convert to 2D then into 3D polygons for the building model, with par [0052] adding the three-dimensional building model created from point cloud data.) model the point cloud data to generate a site representation of the site that includes the structure and one or more objects adjacent the structure (Stevens, par [0052] discloses using point cloud to reconstruct a three-dimensional building model and obstructions to the roof of the building model.) Stevens does not expressly disclose: simulate a path of the sun with respect to the site representation of the site to identify areas of the one or more roof faces that are shaded from the sun; determine an insolation value for every area of the one or more roof faces, considering the areas of the one or more roof faces that are shaded; detect placement obstacles on the one or more roof faces based on overhead imagery of the site; determine measurements of each of the one or more roof faces; determine proposed placement of one or more solar panels of the potential solar electrical generation system on the one or more roof faces, based on the insolation values, the measurements of the roof face, and the placement obstacles; and generate a digital interactive solar proposal to present the proposed placement of the one or more solar panels. Woro however discloses: simulate a path of the sun with respect to the site representation of the site to identify areas of the one or more roof faces that are shaded from the sun (Woro, par [0138] discloses a Sun’s path simulation performed on an area, to indicate a shadow condition or non-shadow condition for an area, with par [0050] adds a shadow simulation performed to how rooftop areas with shadows and areas without shadows.) determine an insolation value for every area of the one or more roof faces, considering the areas of the one or more roof faces that are shaded (Woro, par [0138] discloses solar irradiance values obtained and transformed to binary numbers to represent shadow areas and non-shadow areas, including a rooftop area.) detect placement obstacles on the one or more roof faces based on overhead imagery of the site (Woro, par [0050] discloses determining obstructions casting shadows, including vegetation and other buildings, over a period of time, with an overlaid file showing areas on the roof that have shade, and areas that are shade free.) determine measurements of each of the one or more roof faces (Woro, par [0055] discloses polygons representing rooftop sections obtained with attributes obtained for the roof components, including roof type, area, and angle (slope).) The area of the roof components for the roof is interpreted to provide the measurements. Before the effective filing date of the claimed invention, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art to combine the point cloud data to model a 3D building, including its roof and potential locations for solar panels teaching of Stevens with the simulation of the Sun’s path, rooftop area disclosing sun and shaded areas using solar irradiance values regarding solar panel teaching of Woro. The motivation to do so would have been because Woro discloses the benefit of a system that enables datasets to offer precise readings of roof specifications and shade, while also allowing restrictions to be placed on large demographic datasets that will adhere to input by a system user or set geodemographic parameters (Woro, par [0057]). The combination of Stevens and Woro does not expressly disclose: determine proposed placement of one or more solar panels of the potential solar electrical generation system on the one or more roof faces, based on the insolation values, the measurements of the roof face, and the placement obstacles; and generate a digital interactive solar proposal to present the proposed placement of the one or more solar panels. Bueno however discloses: determine proposed placement of one or more solar panels of the potential solar electrical generation system on the one or more roof faces, based on the insolation values, the measurements of the roof face, and the placement obstacles (Bueno, page 2, left col, ln 1 - 10 discloses a building model designed for placement of photovoltaic (PV) panels, site information of the building represented by the model, including north offset, coordinate information, climate, and altitude, as well as solar radiation projected on the building, with additional rooftop area information in Table II, and right col, ln 17 - 24 discloses placement of solar PV modules at certain angles on a flat surface of a building.) generate a digital interactive solar proposal to present the proposed placement of the one or more solar panels (Bueno, page 2, left col, ln 9 - 12 discloses a photovoltaic (PV) system proposed that provides an estimation of the amount of energy the PV system is estimated to produce and a rendition of the building surfaces and the PV panel, with page 3, right col, ln 24 - 28 adds all faces (facades) of the building, according to its geometry, used in a proposal for placement of PV modules for the entire area available, shown in FIG. 3, based on the proposal of the two PV modules.) Before the effective filing date of the claimed invention, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art to combine the point cloud data to model a 3D building, including its roof and potential locations for solar panels teaching of Stevens and the simulation of the Sun’s path, rooftop area disclosing sun and shaded areas using solar irradiance values regarding solar panel teaching of Woro with the proposal of PV modules for a building teaching of Bueno. The motivation to do so would have been because Bueno discloses the benefit of using PV panels for a building to include facades in addition to rooftop panels that makes the approach financially viable in the short and medium term, as well as contribute to disseminate nearly zero-energy buildings around to world (Bueno, page 4, left col, ln 8 - 20). As per claim 12, Stevens discloses: a computer-implemented method to provide a digital interactive solar proposal, comprising accessing point cloud data for a site of a potential solar electrical generation system (Stevens, par [0009] discloses point cloud data to determine the size and shape of a roof of a building to provide locations of potential solar panels to maximize the sunlight exposure, and par [0052] discloses using sensors to obtain point cloud data.) modeling, by one or more processors, the point cloud data to generate a structure representation of a structure at the site, the structure representation including one or more roof faces for the structure (Stevens, par [0007] discloses a three-dimensional building model created from aerial imaging, including using roof faces to convert to 2D then into 3D polygons for the building model, with par [0052] adding the three-dimensional building model created from point cloud data.) modeling, by the one or more processors, the point cloud data for the site to produce a three-dimensional (3D) model of the site that includes one or more roof faces for a structure at the site (Stevens, par [0007] discloses a three-dimensional building model created from aerial imaging, including using roof faces to convert to 2D then into 3D polygons for the building model, with par [0052] adding the three-dimensional building model created from point cloud data.) and one or more perimeter objects adjacent the structure (Stevens, par [0094] discloses modeling a 3D building with obstructions and its surroundings obtained from LiDAR information, with par [0009] clarifying the LiDAR information includes LiDAR point cloud information.) Stevens does not expressly disclose: simulating, by the one or more processors, a path of the sun with respect to the site to identify areas of the structure that are shaded from the sun; determining an insolation value for every area of the one or more roof faces of the structure, considering areas of the one or more roof faces that are shaded; detecting, by the one or more processors, placement obstacles on the one or more roof faces based on overhead imagery of the site; determining, by the one or more processors, dimensions of each of the one or more roof faces; determining, by the one or more processors, proposed placement of one or more panels on the one or more roof faces, based on the irradiation values, the dimensions of each of the one or more roof faces, and the placement obstructions on the one or more roof faces; calculating, by the one or more processors, energy production of the one or more solar panels based on the insolation values; and generating, by the one or more processors, a digital interactive proposal to present the proposed placement of the one or more solar panels. Woro however discloses: simulating, by the one or more processors, a path of the sun with respect to the site to identify areas of the structure that are shaded from the sun (Woro, par [0138] discloses a Sun’s path simulation performed on an area, to indicate a shadow condition or non-shadow condition for an area, with par [0050] adds a shadow simulation performed to how rooftop areas with shadows and areas without shadows.) determining an insolation value for every area of the one or more roof faces of the structure, considering areas of the one or more roof faces that are shaded (Woro, par [0138] discloses solar irradiance values obtained and transformed to binary numbers to represent shadow areas and non-shadow areas, including a rooftop area.) detecting, by the one or more processors, placement obstacles on the one or more roof faces based on overhead imagery of the site (Woro, par [0050] discloses determining obstructions casting shadows, including vegetation and other buildings, over a period of time, with an overlaid file showing areas on the roof that have shade, and areas that are shade free.) determining, by the one or more processors, dimensions of each of the one or more roof faces (Woro, par [0055] discloses polygons representing rooftop sections obtained with attributes obtained for the roof components, including roof type, area, and angle (slope).) The area of the roof components for the roof is interpreted to provide dimensional measurements, for example area is typically obtained by a width and length measurement in 2D and length, width, and height/depth for 3D. Before the effective filing date of the claimed invention, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art to combine the point cloud data to model a 3D building, including its roof and potential locations for solar panels teaching of Stevens with the simulation of the Sun’s path, rooftop area disclosing sun and shaded areas using solar irradiance values regarding solar panel teaching of Woro. The motivation to do so would have been because Woro discloses the benefit of a system that enables datasets to offer precise readings of roof specifications and shade, while also allowing restrictions to be placed on large demographic datasets that will adhere to input by a system user or set geodemographic parameters (Woro, par [0057]). The combination of Stevens and Woro does not expressly disclose: determining, by the one or more processors, proposed placement of one or more panels on the one or more roof faces, based on the irradiation values, the dimensions of each of the one or more roof faces, and the placement obstructions on the one or more roof faces; calculating, by the one or more processors, energy production of the one or more solar panels based on the insolation values; and generating, by the one or more processors, a digital interactive proposal to present the proposed placement of the one or more solar panels Bueno however discloses: determining, by the one or more processors, proposed placement of one or more panels on the one or more roof faces, based on the irradiation values, the dimensions of each of the one or more roof faces, and the placement obstructions on the one or more roof faces (Bueno, page 2, left col, ln 1 - 10 discloses a building model designed for placement of photovoltaic (PV) panels, site information of the building represented by the model, including north offset, coordinate information, climate, and altitude, as well as solar radiation projected on the building, with additional rooftop area information in Table II, with page 2, right col, ln 17 - 24 discloses placement of solar PV modules at certain angles on a flat surface of a building, and page 4, left col, ln3 - 6 adds irradiance incidence on surfaces affecting the total energy production based on the angles on the façades area.) calculating, by the one or more processors, energy production of the one or more solar panels based on the insolation values (Bueno, page 3, right col, ln 1 - 10 discloses a formula used to obtain the annual production of energy for the PV system by each façade, including the solar radiation, with page 2, left column, lines 27 - 35 adds solar radiation simulation includes shadows affecting the PV system, to determine the times when the PV array is shaded.) generating, by the one or more processors, a digital interactive proposal to present the proposed placement of the one or more solar panels (Bueno, page 2, left col, ln 9 - 12 discloses a photovoltaic (PV) system proposed that provides an estimation of the amount of energy the PV system is estimated to produce and a rendition of the building surfaces and the PV panel, with page 3, right col, ln 24 - 28 adds all faces (facades) of the building, according to its geometry, used in a proposal for placement of PV modules for the entire area available, shown in FIG. 3, based on the proposal of the two PV modules.) Before the effective filing date of the claimed invention, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art to combine the point cloud data to model a 3D building, including its roof and potential locations for solar panels teaching of Stevens and the simulation of the Sun’s path, rooftop area disclosing sun and shaded areas using solar irradiance values regarding solar panel teaching of Woro with the proposal of PV modules for a building teaching of Bueno. The motivation to do so would have been because Bueno discloses the benefit of using PV panels for a building to include facades in addition to rooftop panels that makes the approach financially viable in the short and medium term, as well as contribute to disseminate nearly zero-energy buildings around to world (Bueno, page 4, left col, ln 8 - 20). For claim 2: The combination of Stevens, Woro, and Bueno discloses claim 2: The system of claim 1, wherein: the one or more processors are further to execute the computer-readable instructions to cause the system to perform operations including calculating energy production of the one or more solar panels based on the insolation values, and wherein the digital interactive solar proposal is generated to present the calculated energy production of the one or more solar panels (Stevens, par [0076] discloses the roof model, shading/irradiance information from the model, information of the component to generate a virtual solar energy system, and par [0078] adds the electrical performance of the system simulated to determine the output in kilowatt for each hour, which is used to calculate the performance for a simulated year.) For claim 3: The combination of Stevens, Woro, and Bueno discloses claim 3: The system of claim 1, wherein: modeling the point cloud data to generate the site representation comprises generating a three-dimensional mesh (Stevens, par [0009] discloses 3D point cloud data, also recited as LiDAR point cloud data, with par [0057] adds 3D meshes generated from LiDAR data.) For claim 4: The combination of Stevens, Woro, and Bueno discloses claim 4: The system of claim 1, wherein: modeling the point cloud data to generate the structure representation comprises generating a three-dimensional model (Stevens, par [0009] discloses using 3D point cloud data in a solar energy system to produce a three-dimensional model to generate and simulate a virtual solar energy system.) For claim 5: The combination of Stevens, Woro, and Bueno discloses claim 5. The system of claim 1, wherein modeling the point cloud data to generate the structure representation comprises identifying vertices of one or more roof faces of the site, based on imagery of the site (Stevens, par [0055] discloses obtaining a height map from LiDAR point cloud data regarding a building estimation, and par [0058] adds using the LiDAR and aerial image data to align the data.) detecting edges of each roof face of the one or more roof faces using one or more of the imagery of the site and the point cloud data (Stevens, par [0063] discloses using the image data to segment a face using a neural network to perform roof face segmentation, and par [0065] adds edge and nodes from images detected from the roof faces.) detecting a two-dimensional face of each roof face of the one or more roof faces (Stevens, par [0066] discloses a roof face without gaps from a generated 2D mesh, with each roof face used to obtain a polygon, and par [0092] discloses obtaining roof faces from roof face segmentation.) detecting a three-dimensional plane of the one or more roof faces (Stevens, par [0067] discloses projecting 2D polygons into 2D polygons based on the conversion of roof planes.) generating a representation of each roof face of the one or more roof faces based on the corresponding vertices, edges, two-dimensional face, and three-dimensional plane (Stevens, par [0067] discloses the 3D polygons crated from the projected 2D polygons and roof planes from 2D mesh and roof faces, with par [0092 adding 3D data also used to obtain 3D polygons with detected edge types.) joining the representations of the one or more roof faces to create a three- dimensional model of the roof of the structure (Stevens, par [0093] discloses matching the image with a roof template, and using 3D roof faces from roof face segmentation to obtain the 3D roof representation.) For claim 6: The combination of Stevens, Woro, and Bueno discloses the system of claim 1, wherein simulating a path of the sun with respect to the site comprises obtaining sun positions for a plurality of points in time that is representative of phases throughout the year given a geolocation of the site (Woro, par [0048] discloses annual shading effects including points determined based on the sun and points on a building rooftop, with par [0138] discloses points on a Sun’s path at time intervals or points.) filtering the sun positions to daytime sun positions (Woro, par [0138] discloses an extraction of solar radiance values representing coverage area regarding the Sun’s path simulation across an area, with binary code showing shadow and non-shadow areas on a rooftop.) determining the daytime sun positions for multiple days of a year (Woro, par [0138] discloses points indicating the Sun’s path in a simulation in an area including a rooftop, with par [0042] discloses data of the Sun’s path in the sky, split in hourly intervals, daily, for a year.) simulating the sun positions for the multiple days of the year to find shade on the one or more roof surfaces (Woro, par [0138 - [0139] discloses a simulation of shadows and a representation of the position of the Sun at a specified time and day of the year in a specific area, including a rooftop area.) Before the effective filing date of the claimed invention, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art to combine the point cloud data to model a 3D building, including its roof and potential locations for solar panels teaching of Stevens, the simulation of the Sun’s path, rooftop area disclosing sun and shaded areas using solar irradiance values regarding solar panel teaching of Woro with the proposal of PV modules for a building teaching of Bueno, and the additional teaching of simulation of the Sun’s path and at a providing hourly intervals over each day of a year, also found in Woro. The motivation to do so would have been because Woro discloses the benefit of a system that enables datasets to offer precise readings of roof specifications and shade, while also allowing restrictions to be placed on large demographic datasets that will adhere to input by a system user or set geodemographic parameters (Woro, par [0057]). For claim 7: The combination of Stevens, Woro, and Bueno discloses claim 7. The system of claim 1, wherein determining an insolation value for every area of the one or more roof faces comprises masking roof points of the point cloud (Stevens, par [0009] discloses point cloud data to estimate the shape and size of a roof, with par [0055] discloses filtering outlier points for the point cloud data to prep for the building estimation.) determining a maximum available irradiance at each point of each roof face of the one or more roof faces (Stevens, par [0052] discloses a shading module providing output data in the form of irradiance data for a 3D building model, taking roof obstructions into considerations.) determining a shade metric at each point of each roof face of the one or more roof faces (Stevens, par [0094] discloses shading over a solar panel for a given point on a roof or solar panel itself.) determining the one or more insolation values based on the maximum available irradiance and shade metric at each point of each roof face of the one or more roof faces (Stevens, par [0094] discloses calculating irradiance according to the amount of sunlight hitting the panels for every hour of a simulated year, with par [0076] defining irradiance/shading data as the change of radiant energy per unit area, interpreted that the shading data pertains to the times when sunlight is not hitting the panels, and can be obtained from the same data.) For claim 8: The combination of Stevens, Woro, and Bueno discloses claim 8: The system of claim 1, wherein: the one or more processors are further to execute the computer-readable instructions to cause the system to perform operations including generating a visual representation of the roof surfaces that indicates the insolation value of each of the roof surfaces (Woro, par [0138] discloses solar irradiance values obtained and changed to binary numbers to represent shadow areas and non-shadow areas, including a rooftop area, with par [0141] adds FIG. 14A and 14B, showing shade from a hill (hillshade) covering portions of a rooftop, with the FIGS indicating shaded area as the binary number “1”.) Before the effective filing date of the claimed invention, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art to combine the point cloud data to model a 3D building, including its roof and potential locations for solar panels teaching of Stevens, the simulation of the Sun’s path, rooftop area disclosing sun and shaded areas using solar irradiance values regarding solar panel teaching of Woro with the proposal of PV modules for a building teaching of Bueno, and the additional teaching of the visualization of the rooftop area indicating the shading area, also found in Woro. The motivation to do so would have been because Woro discloses the benefit of a system that enables datasets to offer precise readings of roof specifications and shade, while also allowing restrictions to be placed on large demographic datasets that will adhere to input by a system user or set geodemographic parameters (Woro, par [0057]). For claim 9: The combination of Stevens, Woro, and Bueno discloses claim 9: The system of claim 1, wherein the one or more processors are further to execute the computer-readable instructions to cause the system to perform operations to receive the overhead imagery of the site (Stevens, par [0007] discloses aerial images of a building obtained using at least one processor.) For claim 10: The combination of Stevens, Woro, and Bueno discloses claim 10: The system of claim 9, wherein detecting the placement obstacles on the one or more roof faces comprises processing the overhead imagery using a neural network trained to identify placement obstacles on roof faces (Stevens, par [0009] discloses using aerial imagery and point cloud data, as well as neural networks to determine a roof and the placement of solar panels to obtain maximum sun exposure.) For claim 11: The combination of Stevens, Woro, and Bueno discloses claim 11: The system of claim 1, wherein: the one or more processors are further to execute the computer-readable instructions to cause the system to perform operations to provide the digital interactive proposal over a communication network to a client computing device (Stevens, par [0086] discloses the report regarding the solar panels provided to the customer or installer, as well as provided in a GUI, and par [0098] discloses network interfaces included in the computer architecture, and [0102] adds network connections established and maintained for network communication for the system.) For claim 14: The combination of Stevens, Woro, and Bueno discloses claim 14: The method of claim 12, wherein the digital interactive solar proposal is generated to present the calculated energy production (Bueno, page 2, left col, ln 9 - 12 discloses an estimation of the amount of energy the PV system to produce and a rendition of the building surfaces and the PV panel, with page 3, right col, ln 24 - 28 adds all faces (facades) of the building, according to its geometry, used in a proposal for placement of PV modules for the entire area available, shown in FIG. 3, based on the proposal of the two PV modules.) Before the effective filing date of the claimed invention, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art to combine the point cloud data to model a 3D building, including its roof and potential locations for solar panels teaching of Stevens and the simulation of the Sun’s path, rooftop area disclosing sun and shaded areas using solar irradiance values regarding solar panel teaching of Woro with the proposal of PV modules for a building teaching of Bueno, and the figure showing the coverage of the proposal of PV modules, also found in Bueno. The motivation to do so would have been because Bueno discloses the benefit of using PV panels for a building to include facades in addition to rooftop panels that makes the approach financially viable in the short and medium term, as well as contribute to disseminate nearly zero-energy buildings around to world (Bueno, page 4, left col, ln 8 - 20). For claim 15: The combination of Stevens, Woro, and Bueno discloses claim 15: The method of claim 12, wherein modeling the point cloud data to generate the site representation comprises generating a mesh model for the site from the point cloud data (Stevens, par [0009] discloses 3D point cloud data, also recited as LiDAR point cloud data, with par [0057] adds 3D meshes generated from LiDAR data.) For claim 18: The combination of Stevens, Woro, and Bueno discloses claim 18: The method of claim 17, wherein modeling the point cloud data further comprises adding a representation of each vertical wall extending from a roof face of the one or more roof faces to a ground plane (Stevens, par [0073] discloses a neural network to detect a wall for each column and row of an image grid in an image, and combining the walls and roof planes using a fitting algorithm. FIG. 19 shows the combining of the wall and roof planes, which also shows walls from the roof extending to the bottom to create a base for the building.) For claim 22: The combination of Stevens, Woro, and Bueno discloses claim 22: The method of claim 12, wherein the one or more roof faces are planar (Stevens, par [0007] discloses roof faces becoming two-dimensional polygons during steps of creating a 3D building.) As per claims 13, 16, 17, 19, 20, 21, and 23, note the rejections of claims 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9 and 11 above. The instant claims 13, 16, 17, 19, 20, 21, and 23 recites substantially the same limitations as the above rejected claims 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9 and 11, and are therefore rejected under the same prior art teachings. Conclusion Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to CEDRIC D JOHNSON whose telephone number is (571)270-7089. The examiner can normally be reached M-Th 4:30am - 2:00pm, F 4:30am - 11:30am. Examiner interviews are available via telephone, in-person, and video conferencing using a USPTO supplied web-based collaboration tool. To schedule an interview, applicant is encouraged to use the USPTO Automated Interview Request (AIR) at http://www.uspto.gov/interviewpractice. If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner’s supervisor, Renee Chavez can be reached at 571-270-1104. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300. Information regarding the status of published or unpublished applications may be obtained from Patent Center. Unpublished application information in Patent Center is available to registered users. To file and manage patent submissions in Patent Center, visit: https://patentcenter.uspto.gov. Visit https://www.uspto.gov/patents/apply/patent-center for more information about Patent Center and https://www.uspto.gov/patents/docx for information about filing in DOCX format. For additional questions, contact the Electronic Business Center (EBC) at 866-217-9197 (toll-free). If you would like assistance from a USPTO Customer Service Representative, call 800-786-9199 (IN USA OR CANADA) or 571-272-1000. /Cedric Johnson/ Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2186 May 2, 2026
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Prosecution Timeline

Nov 28, 2022
Application Filed
May 13, 2026
Non-Final Rejection mailed — §103 (current)

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Expected OA Rounds
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