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 Objections
Claims 11, 13 are objected to because of the following informalities: “device” in claim 11, 13, line 1 should be changed to “instrument”. Appropriate correction is required.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 103
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 (i.e., changing from AIA to pre-AIA ) 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.
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.
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.
Claim(s) 1-6, 13-16 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Borremans (US 2017/0195586) in view of Kawabata (US 2014/0185927).
As to claim 1, Borremans discloses a color measurement instrument (Fig. 1, para. 0052) for measuring colors of areas of interest of a target object, comprising:
a spectral engine, having a first field of view (para. 0255, e.g., target area; the region which falls within the field of view of the spectrometer module 10, and to output display data to a display 160 of the user device 100 for providing an indication of the target area on the display 160);
a camera, having a second field of view, the second field of view being larger than the first field of view and encompassing the first field of view (para. 0253, 0258, 0269, e.g., field of view of a scenery);
a display (Fig. 5, item 160, para. 0255); and
a processor (Fig. 4, item 120, para. 0255) coupled to the spectral engine, camera and display, the processor configured with instructions stored in non-volatile memory that, when executed by the processor, cause the processor to:
generate a live view of the second field of view (para. 0258, 0276);
process image data to automatically detect one or more areas of interest within the second field of view (para. 0269, 0270, 0276);
process image data to obtain color value preview measurements for one or more areas of interest from the live view of the second field of view without using the spectral engine (para. 0270, i.e., determined RGB color values; e.g., the processing unit 120 of the user device 100 is adapted to determine an RGB equivalent corresponding to the spectral information acquired by the spectrometer module 10 from the region and to output display data to a display 160 of the user device 100 for providing an indication of the RGB equivalent on the display 160); and
cause the spectral engine to make a spectral measurement, of an area of interest on the
target object for which color value preview measurements have been displayed when the area of interest comes within the first field of view (para. 0257, 0272, 0274).
Although Borremans discloses displaying the color value preview measurements over their respective areas of interest in the displayed live view (para. 0269, 0270, 0276), Borremans is silent regarding superimposing the color value preview measurements over their respective areas of interest in the displayed live view; and
Kawabata teaches superimposing the color value preview measurements over their respective areas of interest in the displayed live view (para. 0080-0084).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art to modify displaying the color value preview measurements in Borremans with superimposing the color value preview measurements over their respective areas of interest in the displayed live view as taught by Kawabata since doing so would merely combine prior art elements according to known methods to yield predictable results, and would easily perceive the image matching.
As to claim 2, the combination of Borremans and Kawabata discloses the color measurement instrument of claim 1, wherein the instructions stored in non-volatile memory further comprise instructions that, when executed by the processor, cause the processor to:
obtain from the camera a measurement image comprising at least a portion of the second field of view including the first field of view (Borremans , para. 2069, 2070, 2076); and
display color values from a measurement made by the spectral engine along with at least a portion of the measurement image including the first field of view (Borremans, para. 2069, 2070, 2076).
As to claim 3, the combination of Borremans and Kawabata discloses the color measurement instrument of claim 2, wherein the measurement image is captured by the camera concurrently with the measurement by the spectral engine (Borremans, para. 0274).
As to claim 4, the combination of Borremans and Kawabata discloses the color measurement instrument of claim 2, wherein the displayed at least a portion of the measurement image comprises a thumbnail image including the first field of view (Kawabata, para. 0111).
As to claim 5, the combination of Borremans and Kawabata discloses the color measurement instrument of claim 2, or wherein the instructions stored in non-volatile memory further comprise instructions that, when executed by the processor, cause the processor to store the color values from a measurement made by the spectral engine along with the measurement image (Borremans, para. 0274, 0269).
As to claim 6, the combination of Borremans and Kawabata discloses the color measurement instrument of claim 2, wherein the measurement image comprises substantially all of the second field of view, and wherein the instructions stored in non-volatile memory further comprise instructions that, when executed by the processor, cause the processor to store the color values from a measurement made by the spectral engine along with the measurement image (Borremans, para. 0274, 0269).
As to claim 13, the combination of Borremans and Kawabata discloses the color measurement device of any of the preceding claims, wherein the instructions stored in non-volatile memory further comprise instructions that, when executed by the processor, cause the processor to display a live view of the second field of view on the display with a representation of the location of the first field of view superimposed on the live view of the second field of view (Borremans, para. 2069, 2070, 2076; Kawabata, para. 0080-0084).
As to claim 14, the combination of Borremans and Kawabata discloses the color measurement instrument of claim 13, wherein the instructions stored in non-volatile memory further comprise instructions that, when executed by the processor, cause the spectral engine to make a color measurement of an area of interest on the target object within the first field of view (Borremans, para. 0257, 0272).
As to claim 15, the combination of Borremans and Kawabata discloses the color measurement instrument of claim 1, wherein the color value preview measurements comprise numerical valves in a three-dimensional color space (Borremans, para. 0270, Kawabata, para. 0086, 0088).
As to claim 16, the combination of Borremans and Kawabata discloses the color measurement instrument of claims 1, wherein the color value preview measurements comprise L*a*b* values (Kawabata, para. 0086, 0088).
Claim(s) 10-13 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Borremans (US 2017/0195586) in view of Kawabata (US 2014/0185927) and further in view of BOES (US 2018/0357793).
As to claim 10, the combination of Borremans and Kawabata is silent regarding zooming and displaying a magnified live view of the target object for close visual inspection.
BOES teaches zooming and displaying a magnified live view of the target object for close visual inspection (para. 0036, 0037).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art to incorporate BOES’s teaching of zooming and displaying a magnified live view of the target object into the combination of Borremans and Kawabata since doing so would merely combine prior art elements according to known methods to yield predictable results, and would provide a better visual inspection.
As to claim 11, the combination of Borremans, Kawabata and BOES discloses the color measurement device of claim 10, wherein the instructions stored in non-volatile memory further comprise instructions that, when executed by the processor, cause the processor to record images of magnified views for quality assurance purposes (BOES, para. 0036, 0037).
As to claim 12, the combination of Borremans and Kawabata is silent regarding reading bar code information on the target object and retrieve quality assurance metrics from a computer/server based on the bar code reading.
BOES teaches using bar code scanning for color selection from an image (para. 0066).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art to incorporate BOES’s teaching of using bar code scanning for color selection from an image into the combination of Borremans and Kawabata since doing so would merely combine prior art elements according to known methods to yield predictable results, and would enable retrieving matching color information.
Allowable Subject Matter
Claims 7-9 are objected to as being dependent upon a rejected base claim, but would be allowable if rewritten in independent form including all of the limitations of the base claim and any intervening claims.
The following is a statement of reasons for the indication of allowable subject matter: None of the prior art discloses the combination of features required by claim 7.
Conclusion
The prior art made of record and not relied upon is considered pertinent to applicant's disclosure. EHBETS discloses a non-contact spectral measurement system comprising a retro-reflection multispectral sensing system and a position correction system.
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/PHUOC TRAN/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2668