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 .
Continued Examination Under 37 CFR 1.114
A request for continued examination under 37 CFR 1.114, including the fee set forth in 37 CFR 1.17(e), was filed in this application after final rejection. Since this application is eligible for continued examination under 37 CFR 1.114, and the fee set forth in 37 CFR 1.17(e) has been timely paid, the finality of the previous Office action has been withdrawn pursuant to 37 CFR 1.114. Applicant's submission filed on 04/30/2026 has been entered.
Response to Amendment
The amendment filed on 04/30/2026 has been entered. Claims 11-12, 14-16, 18-23 and 21-22 are currently pending and have been examined. Claims 11-12, 19-20 and 23 are amended, claims 40-46 are new.
Response to Arguments
Applicant’s arguments, filed 03/08/2026, pages 6-10 have been considered and are persuasive
Applicant’s arguments, see pages 6-10, filed 04/30/2026, with respect to the rejection(s) of claim 1 under 35 U.S.C 102 have been fully considered and are persuasive. Therefore, the rejection has been withdrawn. However, upon further consideration, a new ground(s) of rejection is made in view of Ali (M. A. Ali and M. Moghaddam, "3D Nonlinear Super-Resolution Microwave Inversion Technique Using Time-Domain Data," in IEEE Transactions on Antennas and Propagation, vol. 58, no. 7, pp. 2327-2336, July 2010).
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.
Claims 11-12, 14-6, 18-19, 23, 40-42 and 44-46 are rejected under 35 U.S.C 103 as being unpatentable over Ostadrahimi (US20140218230A1) in view of Ali (M. A. Ali and M. Moghaddam, "3D Nonlinear Super-Resolution Microwave Inversion Technique Using Time-Domain Data," in IEEE Transactions on Antennas and Propagation, vol. 58, no. 7, pp. 2327-2336, July 2010).
Regarding claim 11 Ostadrahimi discloses: A Radio-Frequency (RF) tomograph utilizing RF signals to determine objects present in and beyond a cluttered surveyed media, the RF tomograph comprising (Abstract: “Methods and systems may image an object of interest using one or more probes. More specifically, such exemplary methods and systems may deliver electromagnetic energy (e.g., microwave energy) using a transmitting antenna to the object while activating a probe to interact with the scattered field and sampling the resulting scattered field using one or more receiving antennas. The sampled electromagnetic energy may then be used to reconstruct an image of the object.”): at least one electromagnetic aerial interface comprising a plurality of conductors to transmit RF signals towards the surveyed media and to receive RF signals reflected therefrom (Para [0015]: “Exemplary imaging systems and methods described herein may provide an imaging modality that illuminates an object of interest (0I) by microwave or millimeter wave electromagnetic energy with multiple polarizations simultaneously. A multitude of antennas (e.g., collecting or receiving antennas, transmitting antennas, etc.) and probes may be introduced, which may be distributed at different spatial locations around the OI.”), a dielectric base facing the surveyed media conductors (Para. [0109]:’ An exemplary dual-polarized imaging setup 250 including a plurality of antenna assemblies 252 utilizing horn antennas 254 is depicted in FIG. 7. The system may include a measurement chamber 260, which may be a metallic chamber and may be filled with high permittivity materials such as water for imaging of biological tissues. In at least one embodiment, the measurement chamber 260 may include nonconductive material such as, e.g., PLEXIGLASS.”), and an adapter to conduct and control current to and from the plurality of conductors (Para. [0125]: “A 2 to 24 port RF electromechanical multiplexer (e.g., an Agilent 85070A) may be used to switch to a chosen active transmitting or receiving antenna. The isolation between ports may be 95 dB. The multiplexer may be connected to 2 ports of an Agilent 5071C VNA. The multiplexer and the VNA may be both controlled by the data acquisition program via the controller computer unit. Their connection may be established through a General Purpose Interface Bus (GPIB).”); an apparatus comprising a processor, an RF transmitter, an RF receiver, a processor and a memory unit (Para [0006]:” A direct system 20 is illustrated in FIG. 15. As shown, an OI 10 is surrounded by a plurality of transmitting and receiving antennas 22. To image the OI, an antenna 22 (the leftmost antenna as shown) may deliver electromagnetic energy 12 (e.g., microwaves) having a selected polarization to the OI 10. The scattered field resulting from the electromagnetic energy impinging on the OI 10 may be collected by one or more of the antennas 22 that are not delivering electromagnetic energy to the OI 10 (e.g., all the antennas 22 except for the leftmost antenna, etc.). The signals received by the antennas 22 may be used to reconstruct an image of the OI within a pre-defined imaging domain 32.”); and a display to present images generated by the apparatus (Figures 6A and 6B);
Ostadrahimi does not teach “wherein the apparatus is configured to implement radio tomography synthesized focusing based upon a reflection-transform algorithm for determining a dielectric inhomogeneity (AE(r)) at a three- dimensional position (ri) located in the objects”
However, Ali in the analogous arts teaches: wherein the apparatus is configured to implement radio tomography synthesized focusing based upon a reflection-transform algorithm for determining a dielectric inhomogeneity (AE(r)) at a three- dimensional position (ri) located in the objects (Figure 1; Section II: “Fig. 1 shows a simple configuration for retrieval of the unknown electrical properties of a general inhomogeneous unknown object in a 3D space. Microwave signals generated by a transmitting source (T) illuminate the object from different positions and the scattered signals are recorded in time by each receiver (R). The full-view geometry is shown in Fig. 1, but the technique applied equally to limited-angle geometries.”; “Equation (4) is a nonlinear integral equation of both the object function O(r′) and the electric field inside the object E(r′,t), whose direct solution is generally not possible. Thus the BIM is used to solve for the object function O(r′) using time-domain data to retrieve the 3D map of electrical properties of the object. In BIM, the field inside the object is initially assumed to be equal to the incident field, which is the Born approximation.”
It would have been obvious to someone in the art prior to the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify Ostadrahimi with Ali to incorporate the feature of: wherein the apparatus is configured to implement radio tomography synthesized focusing based upon a reflection-transform algorithm for determining a dielectric inhomogeneity (AE(r)) at a three- dimensional position (ri) located in the objects. Ostadrahimi and Ali are all considered analogous arts as they all disclose the use of sensor technology to detect objects. However, Ostadrahimi fails to disclose a feature of using reflection data to infer a 3D dielectric inhomogeneity within objects. This feature is disclosed by Ali. It would have been obvious to someone in the art prior to the effective filling date of the claimed invention to modify Ostadrahimi with Ali to incorporate the feature of: wherein the apparatus is configured to implement radio tomography synthesized focusing based upon a reflection-transform algorithm for determining a dielectric inhomogeneity (AE(r)) at a three- dimensional position (ri) located in the objects as such a feature would increase the resolution and efficiency of the system.
Regarding claim 12 the combination of Ostadrahimi and Ali discloses all the limitations of claim 11. Ali further teaches: the algorithm comprises calculating a propagation time delay which is proportional to a sum of a first distance between the position (ri) and a position on the RF transmitter and a second distance between the position (ri), and a position on the RF receiver (Section II: “Fig. 1 shows a simple configuration for retrieval of the unknown electrical properties of a general inhomogeneous unknown object in a 3D space. Microwave signals generated by a transmitting source (T) illuminate the object from different positions and the scattered signals are recorded in time by each receiver (R). The full-view geometry is shown in Fig. 1, but the technique applied equally to limited-angle geometries.”)
The reason for combining Ostadrahimi with Ali is the same as one given in claim 11 above.
Regarding claim 14 the combination of Ostadrahimi and Ali discloses all the limitations of claim 12. Ostadrahimi further teaches: wherein said RF receiver is configured to receive and preprocess RF-signals from said at least one electromagnetic aerial interface followed by converting them into digital raw data and storing the raw data in said memory unit (Para. [0077]: “Further, the processing apparatus 122 includes data storage 124. Data storage 124 allows for access to processing programs or routines 126 and one or more other types of data 128 that may be employed to carry out the exemplary imaging methods (e.g., one which is shown generally in the block diagram of FIG. 2).”).
Regarding claim 15 the combination of Ostadrahimi and Ali discloses all the limitations of claim 14. Ostadrahimi further teaches: wherein said processor is also configured to reconstruct images from the raw data (Para [0070]: “Using the exemplary method 70 depicted in FIG. 2, many scattered field data sets, or imaging data sets, may be gathered for each probe from multiple different angles. Such data sets may be used to reconstruct an image of the object.”).
Regarding claim 18 the combination of Ostadrahimi and Ali discloses all the limitations of claim 11. Ostadrahimi further teaches: wherein said display is adapted to support graphic user interface functionalities to enable users of the RF tomograph to input information and instructions to said apparatus (Para. [0080]: “n one or more embodiments, the system 120 may be implemented using one or more computer programs executed on programmable computers, such as computers that include, for example, processing capabilities, data storage (e.g., volatile or non-volatile memory and/or storage elements), input devices, and output devices. Program code and/or logic described herein may be applied to input data to perform functionality described herein and generate desired output information. The output information may be applied as input to one or more other devices and/or processes as described herein or as would be applied in a known fashion.”), and wherein said display is an integral part of said apparatus or connected to said apparatus as an external display selected from the group consisting of a touchscreen; a notepad; a laptop; a smartphone; a workstation (Figure 6A; Para. [0107]: “Using the exemplary methods and systems described herein, reconstructed images of the relative permittivity of OIs may be quantitatively reconstructed. Due to the wide frequency band of the antennas (e.g., DLVAs), multiple frequency inversion may also be achieved with this exemplary system. To test the exemplary system's imaging ability, a complicated object with relative complex permittivity of 2.3+j0 as depicted in FIG. 6A (dimensions are in centimeters) was imaged. The reconstructed quantitative image for the real part of the OI's permittivity is shown in FIG. 6B and the reconstructed quantitative image for the imaginary part of the OI's permittivity is shown in FIG. 6C.”); and any combination thereof.
Regarding claim 19 the combination of Ostadrahimi and Ali discloses all the limitations of claim 11. Ostadrahimi further teaches: wherein said at least one electromagnetic aerial interface is comprised of one electromagnetic aerial interface configured as a receiving antenna and a second electromagnetic aerial interface configured as a transmitting antenna (Para [0058]: “Each exemplary antenna assembly 52 may include an antenna 54 and one or more probes 56 associated with each antenna 54 (e.g., the one or more probes 56 associated with an antenna 54 may be in the vicinity of such antenna 54). Each antenna assembly 52 may further include a waveguide 55 configured to collect and direct electromagnetic energy towards the antenna 54. Each antenna 54 may be used as a transmitter of electromagnetic energy (e.g., microwave energy) and/or a receiver of electromagnetic energy (e.g., scattered microwave energy). Each probe 56 may be configured to interact with a selected polarity of electromagnetic energy.”), wherein the transmitting antenna and the receiving antenna are facing opposite ends of the surveyed media (Figure 1, element 10), and wherein the RF tomograph moves the surveyed media between the transmitting antenna and the receiving antenna.
Regarding claim 21 the combination of Ostadrahimi and Ali discloses all the limitations of claim 11. Ostadrahimi further teaches: wherein said at least one electromagnetic aerial interface is an antenna selected from the group consisting of: a parabolic antenna, a Rupor antenna, a Yagi antenna, an array antenna, and any combination thereof ((Figures 4A-4B, antennas constitute an array).
Regarding claim 40 the combination of Ostadrahimi and Ali discloses all the limitations of claim 11. Ostadrahimi further teaches: wherein each conductor of said plurality of conductors is configured to transmit and receive RF signals ranging from hundreds to thousands of Megahertz (MHz) at a variable power range and in different phases (Para [0123]: “The plurality of antennas may include 24 DLVAs mounted on a measurement chamber, which is a Plexiglas cylinder, 50.8 centimeters (cm) tall, with equal angular spacing of 15. degree.. Each DLVA may be designed for an ultra-wideband frequency range of 3.1 to 10.6 GHz, and may include two layers held together by 7 Nylon screws. “).
Regarding claim 41 the combination of Ostadrahimi and Ali discloses all the limitations of claim 11. Ostadrahimi further teaches: wherein said plurality of conductors are used for transmitting Extremely-Short-Pulses (ESP) and continuous RF signals in an Ultra-Wide-Band (UWB) frequency range (Para [0123]: “The plurality of antennas may include 24 DLVAs mounted on a measurement chamber, which is a Plexiglas cylinder, 50.8 centimeters (cm) tall, with equal angular spacing of 15.degree.. Each DLVA may be designed for an ultra-wideband frequency range of 3.1 to 10.6 GHz, and may include two layers held together by 7 Nylon screws. “).
Regarding claim 42 the combination of Ostadrahimi and Ali discloses all the limitations of claim 11. Ostadrahimi further teaches: wherein each conductor of said plurality of conductors comprises a conductive alloy and has a size that ranges from a few millimeters to 30 millimeters (Para [0098]: “The antenna 154 may include a first planar substrate 170 and a second planar substrate 172 coupled to or adjacent each other. As shown, the first substrate 170 is coupled to the second substrate 172 using plastic rivets 174. Each substrate includes conductive portions 176 and nonconductive portions 178. The conductive portions 176 may be configured to receive (e.g., sample or measured) electromagnetic energy when being used as a collector antenna and to deliver electromagnetic energy of a particular polarity when being used as a transmitter antenna. The conductive portions 176 may include one or more conductive materials such as, e.g., copper, aluminum, silver, brass, gold, gold laminated copper, etc. In at least one embodiment, the conductive portions 176 include copper material.”)
Regarding claim 44 the combination of Ostadrahimi and Ali discloses all the limitations of claim 11. Ostadrahimi further teaches: wherein said adapter switches said plurality of conductors from transmission to reception and vice versa (Para. [0013]:” The method of claim 1, wherein each probe of the one or more probes of the plurality of antenna assemblies conductive segments comprises: a plurality of conductive segments, and a plurality of switchable segments coupling the conductive segments, wherein the switchable segments are configurable between a conducting configuration and a non-conducting configuration, wherein the plurality of conductive segments are electrically coupled via the switchable segments when the switchable segments are configured in the conducting configuration, wherein the plurality of conductive segments are electrically isolated from one another when the switchable segments are configured in the non-conducting configuration, wherein the switchable segments are configured in the conducting configuration when the probe is in the active configuration, wherein the switchable segments are configured in the non-conducting configuration when the probe is in the inactive configuration.”)
Regarding claim 45 the combination of Ostadrahimi and Ali discloses all the limitations of claim 11. Ostadrahimi further teaches: wherein said adapter assigns a portion of conductors as transmitting conductors and another portion as receiving conductors, and wherein the transmitting conductors and the receiving conductors are enabled simultaneously or alternately (Para. [0099]: “The probe 156 may include conductive segments 159 and switchable segments 164. The conductive segments 159 may include one or more conductive materials such as, e.g., copper, aluminum, silver, gold, brass, etc. In at least one embodiment, the conductive segments 159 include copper. The probe 156 may be modulated (e.g., activated, inactivated, etc.) through the use of the switchable segments 164 (e.g., switches, embedded PIN diodes). More specifically, to increase the sensitivity of probe 156, five equally spaced switching PIN diodes may be used to implement the switchable segments 164 (e.g., the PIN diodes may be embedded on the probe 156 in series between the conductive segments 159). During modulation, or activation, of the probe, the diodes may be biased from reversed bias state, "off," to a forward bias state, "on." When the PIN diodes are in the reverse bias state, or "off," the probe 156 is invisible to electromagnetic fields (e.g., the scattered field). When the PIN diodes are in the forward bias state, or "on," the probe 156 is capable of interacting with electromagnetic fields parallel to its axis (or electromagnetic fields of the selected polarization).”).
Regarding claim 46 the combination of Ostadrahimi and Ali discloses all the limitations of claim 11. Ostadrahimi further teaches: wherein said adapter assigns a plurality of segments each comprising at least one conductor designated as a transmitting conductor and at least one conductor designated as a receiving conductor (Para [0058]: “Each exemplary antenna assembly 52 may include an antenna 54 and one or more probes 56 associated with each antenna 54 (e.g., the one or more probes 56 associated with an antenna 54 may be in the vicinity of such antenna 54). Each antenna assembly 52 may further include a waveguide 55 configured to collect and direct electromagnetic energy towards the antenna 54. Each antenna 54 may be used as a transmitter of electromagnetic energy (e.g., microwave energy) and/or a receiver of electromagnetic energy (e.g., scattered microwave energy). Each probe 56 may be configured to interact with a selected polarity of electromagnetic energy.”), wherein the segments are activated, by said adapter, in queues so that each segment project RF signals and receive reflected RF signals from a different angle (Para [0127]: “A data acquisition program running on a controller computer may control all the instruments of the exemplary system. The controller computer may be directly connected to the probe driver circuit module via a USB connection. The multiplexer and the VNA may be connected through a GPIB-Ethernet hub. For collecting each dataset, a transmitting antenna may be chosen by switching it to one of the VNA ports. For each transmitting antenna, the other 23 receiving antennas may be switched sequentially to the second port of the VNA resulting in 24.times.23=552 measurements at each frequency. Each collector, or receiving antenna, may be configured to collect two measurements: one with the nearest probe (e.g., the closely coupled antenna) closed and another with the nearest probe (e.g., the closely coupled antenna) opened. More specifically, when the probe is closed (e.g., active and affecting the scattered electromagnetic field), the collector may measure the resultant scattered field that is affected by the probe, and when the probe is open (e.g., inactive and invisible to the scattered electromagnetic field), the collector may measure the resultant scattered field that is unaffected by the probe. By comparing these two measurements, the scattered field at the probe may be determined.”).
Regarding claim 23 the combination of Ostadrahimi and Ali discloses all the limitations of claim 11. Ostadrahimi further teaches: wherein the side of said dielectric base has a geometric profile selected from the group consisting of flat, concave, convex, parabolic, and any combination thereof (Figure 4A).
Claims 16 and 20 are rejected under 35 U.S.C 103 as being unpatentable over Ostadrahimi (US20140218230A1) in view of Ali (M. A. Ali and M. Moghaddam, "3D Nonlinear Super-Resolution Microwave Inversion Technique Using Time-Domain Data," in IEEE Transactions on Antennas and Propagation, vol. 58, no. 7, pp. 2327-2336, July 2010).
and further in view of Beckner (US20070132630A1).
Regarding claim 16 the combination of Ostadrahimi and Ali discloses all the limitations of claim 15. Ostadrahimi does not teach “wherein said apparatus further comprises an auxiliary input amplifier configured to assist said RF-receiver in amplifying RF; and an auxiliary output amplifier configured to assist said RF transmitter in boosting up RF-transmission-signals “.
However, Beckner in the analogous art teaches: wherein said apparatus further comprises an auxiliary input amplifier configured to assist said RF-receiver in amplifying RF- signals (Para. [0026]: “The return flight of an echo signal 124 will experience a similar propagation time delay. So it will not arrive as frequency fl until a time t3 at a pair of receiving antennas 126 and 128. After being selected by matrix 112, the received signals are amplified by a low-noise amplifier (LNA) 130. A Q-sampler 131 provides a quadrature local oscillator (LO) demodulation reference for a Q-mixer 132. An I-sampler 133 provides an in-phase local oscillator (LO) demodulation reference for an I-mixer 134. These analog signals are digitally sampled by analog-to-digital converters (ADC) 136 and 138.”); and an auxiliary output amplifier configured to assist said RF transmitter in boosting up RF-transmission-signals (Para. [0023]: “The radar system 100 comprises a frequency modulator (FM) 102 that causes a continuous wave (CW) generator 104 to linearly sweep through a band of frequencies. For example, at a time-1 (t1) the transmitter frequency from CW generator 104 will be frequency-1 (f1). At a time-2 (t2), the transmitter frequency will slew up to a frequency-2 (f2). And at a time-3 (t3), the transmitter frequency will slew further to a frequency-3 (f3). An in-phase (I) unit 106 digitally produces an I-signal, and a quadrature-phase (Q) unit 108 digitally produces a Q-signal 90-degrees shifted in phase. The I-signal is amplified by a power amplifier 110 before being selectively switched through an antenna matrix 112 to a rotating antenna array 114.”).
It would have been obvious to someone in the art prior to the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify Ostadrahimi with Beckner to incorporate the feature of: wherein said apparatus further comprises an auxiliary input amplifier configured to assist said RF-receiver in amplifying RF; and an auxiliary output amplifier configured to assist said RF transmitter in boosting up RF-transmission-signals. Ostadrahimi and Beckner are all considered analogous arts as they all disclose the use of radar technology to detect objects. However, Ostadrahimi fails to disclose a feature of signal amplification. This feature is disclosed by Beckner. It would have been obvious to someone in the art prior to the effective filling date of the claimed invention to modify Ostadrahimi with Beckner to incorporate the feature of: wherein said apparatus further comprises an auxiliary input amplifier configured to assist said RF-receiver in amplifying RF; and an auxiliary output amplifier configured to assist said RF transmitter in boosting up RF-transmission-signals as such a feature would increase the system’s signal processing efficiency.
Regarding claim 20 the combination of Ostadrahimi and Ali discloses all the limitations of claim 11. Ostadrahimi does not teach” wherein said at least one electromagnetic aerial interface is mounted on a mobile device configured to move along the surveyed media while said at least one electromagnetic aerial interface transmit RF signals toward the surveyed media and receive reflected RF signals from the surveyed media, and wherein said apparatus synchronizes the signals with coordinates of the mobile device while moving along the surveyed media “
However, Beckner in the analogous arts teaches: wherein said at least one electromagnetic aerial interface is mounted on a mobile device configured to move along the surveyed media while said at least one electromagnetic aerial interface transmit RF signals toward the surveyed media and receive reflected RF signals from the surveyed media (Para. [0032]: “FIG. 2B shows radar system 200 from the side with antenna array disc 202 rotating horizontally and normal to the page. The radar-absorbing shroud 204 protects the antennas from emitting or receiving spurious signals from the sides or top. A motor 212 turns the disc 202 within the shroud 204, and can be attached to stationary objects to scan moving targets, or moving objects to scan stationary and moving targets, e.g., a tripod, a wall, a gateway, a roadway, a boom arm, an aircraft, a vehicle, a crane, etc. An encoder 214 reports the shaft angle of axis 210.”), and wherein said apparatus synchronizes the signals with coordinates of the mobile device while moving along the surveyed media (Para. [0033]: “A radar unit 216 rides along on disc 202 with antennas 206 and 208. It wirelessly communicates its measurements to a WiFi receiver 218. For example, a pair of radar targets 220 and 222 echo signals back, and their relative locations are measured by radar unit 216. Over time, many such measurements can be collected as the disc rotates and the geometries change to allow different perspectives. The otherwise one-dimension measurements of the radar echo returns can then be used to paint a high-resolution three-dimensional picture as the antenna positions are correlated to the measurements obtained.”).
It would have been obvious to someone in the art prior to the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify Ostadrahimi with Beckner to incorporate the feature of: wherein said at least one electromagnetic aerial interface is mounted on a mobile device configured to move along the surveyed media while said at least one electromagnetic aerial interface transmit RF signals toward the surveyed media and receive reflected RF signals from the surveyed media, and wherein said apparatus synchronizes the signals with coordinates of the mobile device while moving along the surveyed media. Ostadrahimi and Beckner are all considered analogous arts as they all disclose the use of radar technology to detect objects. However, Ostadrahimi fails to disclose a feature of signal amplification. This feature is disclosed by Beckner. It would have been obvious to someone in the art prior to the effective filling date of the claimed invention to modify Ostadrahimi with Beckner to incorporate the feature of: wherein said at least one electromagnetic aerial interface is mounted on a mobile device configured to move along the surveyed media while said at least one electromagnetic aerial interface transmit RF signals toward the surveyed media and receive reflected RF signals from the surveyed media, and wherein said apparatus synchronizes the signals with coordinates of the mobile device while moving along the surveyed media. as such a feature would increase the efficiency of the system.
Claim 22 is rejected under 35 U.S.C 103 as being unpatentable over Ostadrahimi (US20140218230A1) in view of Ali (M. A. Ali and M. Moghaddam, "3D Nonlinear Super-Resolution Microwave Inversion Technique Using Time-Domain Data," in IEEE Transactions on Antennas and Propagation, vol. 58, no. 7, pp. 2327-2336, July 2010),in view of Peschmann (US20090041187A1) and further in view of Pilipovic (Pilipovic, I. Kastelan and M. Leporis, "A real-time projection system based on object motion detection and tracking using optical camera," 2011 18th International Conference on Systems, Signals and Image Processing, Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina, 2011, pp. 1-4.).
Regarding claim 22 Ostadrahimi discloses all the limitations of claim 21. Ostadrahimi does not teach “configured to operate in reflection application that utilizes the antenna in stationary position, wherein the antenna is configured to transmit RF-transmission-signals adapted to penetrate a barrier and receive RF- signals reflected back, through the barrier from at least one entity moving behind the barrier “.
However, Peschmann in the analogous arts teaches: configured to operate in reflection application that utilizes the antenna in stationary position, wherein the antenna is configured to transmit RF-transmission-signals adapted to penetrate a barrier and receive RF- signals reflected back, through the barrier from at least one entity moving behind the barrier (Para. [0183]: “Transmit/receive pairs are arranged in a linear array. The object to be scanned passes through such transmit/receive pairs (for example, by means of a conveyor belt), creating a two-dimensional image of conductive items concealed within an object under inspection. By repeating this process for each dimension (in a three dimensional structure, the dimensions run along each of an x-axis, a y-axis, and a z-axis, whereby the conveyor belt runs along the x-axis and image patterns are obtained in the y and z-axes), it becomes possible to estimate the volume of conductive items/objects. An appropriate design of antenna rays enables the measurement of the metallic or conductive content of items concealed within a three-dimensional object, in each physical dimension, while the object under examination moves in only one direction (for example, along the x-axis, as on a conveyor belt).”). Ostadrahimi does not teach “wherein said apparatus further comprises a camera configured to determine coordinates of at least one entity moving behind the barrier“.
However, Pilipovic in the analogous arts teaches: wherein said apparatus further comprises a camera configured to determine coordinates of at least one entity moving behind the barrier (Section III: “In our solution the object of interest is marked in the first frame, and afterwards its movement is tracked in limited area of the picture thus decreasing the processing time. A limited area size is adaptively re-adjusted according to predicted object ROI movement between two frames as proposed in [8]. If the marker within the currently processed frame is not found, a position of the previously found marker is used, thus providing a continuous projection. In section III a solution for measuring model distance from the camera i.e. projector is described. Based on the detected marker's position in the frame, model height and width expressed in pixels, model proportions obtained during calibration process and the distance from the camera/projector [cm] it is possible to convert the dimensions of the ROI expressed in pixels into dimensions of the ROI expressed in cm.“), and wherein said apparatus synchronizes the signals with coordinates of the at least one entity moving behind the barrier.
It would have been obvious to someone in the art prior to the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify Ostadrahimi with Pilipovic to incorporate the feature of: wherein said apparatus further comprises a camera configured to determine coordinates of at least one entity moving behind the barrier. Ostadrahimi and Pilipovic are all considered analogous arts as they all disclose the use of sensor technology to detect objects. However, Ostadrahimi fails to disclose a feature of using camera to track the position of a target. This feature is disclosed by Pilipovic. It would have been obvious to someone in the art prior to the effective filling date of the claimed invention to modify Ostadrahimi with Pilipovic to incorporate the feature of: wherein said apparatus further comprises a camera configured to determine coordinates of at least one entity moving behind the barrier as such a feature because adding camera data makes the system multimodal which has high efficiency compared to radar only systems.
Claim 43 is rejected under 35 U.S.C 103 as being unpatentable over Ostadrahimi (US20140218230A1) in view of Ali (M. A. Ali and M. Moghaddam, "3D Nonlinear Super-Resolution Microwave Inversion Technique Using Time-Domain Data," in IEEE Transactions on Antennas and Propagation, vol. 58, no. 7, pp. 2327-2336, July 2010) and further in view of Hiramatsu (US6832081B1).
Regarding 43 the combination of Ostadrahimi and Ali discloses all the limitations of claim 11. Ostadrahimi does not teach “wherein conductors of said plurality of conductors are spaced apart from one another by a length smaller than 1.5 times an average wavelength of transmitting and receiving frequencies to ensure the radio tomography focusing“.
However, Hiramatsu in the analogous arts teaches: wherein conductors of said plurality of conductors are spaced apart from one another by a length smaller than 1.5 times an average wavelength of transmitting and receiving frequencies to ensure the radio tomography focusing (Para. [0051]: “According to another aspect of the invention, a millimeter wave transmitting/receiving apparatus comprises: a pair of parallel plate conductors opposed to each other at a spacing equal to or shorter than half the wavelength of a high-frequency signal to be transmitted; a circulator made of two ferromagnetic plates provided between the pair of parallel plate conductors and opposed to each other in the same direction as the pair of parallel plate conductors are spaced apart; a first dielectric strip arranged between the pair of parallel plate conductors; a millimeter wave signal oscillator provided at one end of the first dielectric strip for outputting a millimeter wave signal to be transmitted; a second dielectric strip connected with the one end of the first dielectric strip and radially arranged with respect to the circulator between the pair of parallel plate conductors; a third dielectric strip radially arranged with respect to the circulator between the pair of parallel plate conductors and having a transmitting/receiving antenna at its leading end; a fourth dielectric strip radially arranged with respect to the circulator between the pair of parallel plate conductors; first, second, third and fourth mode suppressors arranged between the one end of the first dielectric strip and the millimeter wave signal oscillator and between the second,”).
It would have been obvious to someone in the art prior to the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify Ostadrahimi with Hiramatsu to incorporate the feature of: wherein conductors of said plurality of conductors are spaced apart from one another by a length smaller than 1.5 times an average wavelength of transmitting and receiving frequencies to ensure a radio tomography focusing. Ostadrahimi and Hiramatsu are all considered analogous arts as they all disclose the use of radar technology to detect objects. However, Ostadrahimi fails to disclose a feature of spacing of antenna conductors. This feature is disclosed by Hiramatsu. It would have been obvious to someone in the art prior to the effective filling date of the claimed invention to modify Ostadrahimi with Hiramatsu to incorporate the feature of: wherein conductors of said plurality of conductors are spaced apart from one another by a length smaller than 1.5 times an average wavelength of transmitting and receiving frequencies to ensure a radio tomography focusing as such a feature would increase the signal quality and efficiency of the system.
Conclusion
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to Bongani J. Mashele whose telephone number is (703)756-5861. The examiner can normally be reached Monday-Friday, 8:00AM-5:00PM (CT).
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/BONGANI JABULANI MASHELE/Examiner, Art Unit 3648
/TIMOTHY A BRAINARD/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 3648
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