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. Priority Receipt is acknowledged of certified copies of papers required by 37 CFR 1.55. Information Disclosure Statement The information disclosure statement (IDS) submitted on 9/01/2023 was filed and is being considered by the examiner. 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. Claim (s) 1, 3, and 5 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Pfau et al (US 2021/0166131 A1) in view of Yao et al (US 2018/0144279 A1) . In regard to claims 1, 3, and 5, Pfau et al disclose a non-transitory computer-readable recording medium storing a machine learning program for causing a computer to execute a process, the process comprising: in training a machine learning model that performs clustering of a data group, generating a second optimization function by converting a first optimization function that uses normalized cut ( NCut ) based on an introduction of a neural network and; and executing the training of the machine learning model by executing processing of optimizing the second optimization function ( Pfau et al teaches a NN trained to approximate the top eigenfunctions of a linear operator derived from a similarity kernel) . Pfau et al fail to disclose a uniform assumption for a cluster in the clustering . Yao et al teaches a uniform assumption for a cluster in the clustering. (A k-balanced cut.) It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art at the time of filing to add the uniform assumption of Yao et al to the loss function of Pfau et al to ensure a balanced cut of the clusters. Claim (s) 2, 4, and 6 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Pfau et al (US 2021/0166131 A1) in view of Yao et al (US 2018/0144279 A1) , and further in view of Porikli et al (US 2015/0030231 A1). In regard to claims 2, 4, and 6, the combination of Pfau et al and Yao et al fail to disclose a manifold constraint . Porikli et al teaches generating a constraint function based on a manifold constraint . (Laplacian constraint.) It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art at the time of filing to provide the constraint of Porikli et al to the combination of Pfau et al and Yao et al in order to penalize the model for categorizing points which are adjacent to each other. Conclusion Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to FILLIN "Examiner name" \* MERGEFORMAT CHRISTOPHER E DUNAY whose telephone number is FILLIN "Phone number" \* MERGEFORMAT (571)270-1222 . The examiner can normally be reached FILLIN "Work Schedule?" \* MERGEFORMAT 7:00 am - 6:00 pm . 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, FILLIN "SPE Name?" \* MERGEFORMAT James (Jong-Suk) Lee can be reached at FILLIN "SPE Phone?" \* MERGEFORMAT 571-272-7044 . 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. /CHRISTOPHER E DUNAY/ Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2875