18/278,739Notice 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 .
DETAILED ACTION
INFORMATION DISCLOSURE STATEMENT
The information disclosure statement (IDS) submitted on 03/29/2024 & 09/25/2024 is in compliance with the provisions of 37 CFR 1.97. Accordingly, the information disclosure statement is being considered by the examiner.
FOREIGN PRIORITY
A claim for foreign priority under 35 U.S.C § 119 (a) - (d), which was contained in the Declaration and Power of Attorney filed on 06/13/2024 has been acknowledged. Acknowledgement of claimed foreign priority and receipt of priority documents is reflected in form PTO-326 Office Action Summary.
NOTICE OF PRELIMINARY AMENDMENT
The Examiner acknowledges the amended claims filed on 08/24/2023.
- Claim 6 has been amended.
- Claims 9-11 have been cancelled.
- Claims 12-23 have been added.
CLAIM REJECTIONS - 35 USC § 101
35 U.S.C. 101 reads as follows:
Whoever invents or discovers any new and useful process, machine, manufacture, or composition of matter, or any new and useful improvement thereof, may obtain a patent therefor, subject to the conditions and requirements of this title.
Claims 20-23 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 101 as being directed to non-statutory subjected matter. The examiner has reviewed the claim 20 but notes that nowhere in the specification is the “computer readable medium” defined to preclude the inclusion of transitory subject matter. "The broadest reasonable interpretation of a claim drawn to a computer readable medium (CRM) typically covers forms of non-transitory tangible media and transitory propagating signal per se in view of the ordinary and customary meaning of computer readable media, particularly when the specification is silent. See MPEP 2111.01. when the broadest reasonable interpretation of a claims covers a signal per se, the claim must be rejected under 35 U.S.C 101 as covering non-statutory subject matter"(emphasis added). That is, when a specification is silent about a claimed "computer readable medium (CRM)", given the broadest reasonable interpretation, we should treat that as covers both non-transitory tangible media and transitory media (e.g., signal per se), and the claimed CRM should be rejected under 35 USC 101. In this case, the instant specification is silent about the claimed “computer readable medium" defined to preclude the inclusion of transitory subject matter. Given the broadest reasonable interpretation, " computer readable medium” covers transitory medium such as transmission medium or carrier, thus, claim 20 is rejected under 35 USC 101. Claims 21-23 dependent on claim 20 are rejected for the same reasons. Examiner submits inclusion of term non-transitory alleviates this issue.
ALLOWABLE SUBJECT MATTER
Claims 1-8 & 12-19 are allowed.
The following is an examiner’s statement of reasons for allowance: Regarding independent claims 1 & 12, the prior art of record fails to teach or fairly suggest the combination of all limitations of independent claims 1 & 12 that includes:
Claims 1 & 12:
…
“
determining a first estimated sparse depth map and first estimated pose information corresponding to a first video frame in a video frame sequence, wherein the video frame sequence is acquired by a mobile RGB camera; determining a first corrected sparse depth map and first corrected pose information corresponding to the first video frame based on the first video frame, the first estimated sparse depth map, the first estimated pose information, a second video frame in the video frame sequence before the first video frame, a second estimated sparse depth map and second estimated pose information corresponding to the second video frame, and a target sparse depth map that is synchronized with the first video frame and acquired by a depth camera; and determining a dense depth map corresponding to the first video frame based on the first video frame, the first corrected sparse depth map, the first corrected pose information, the second video frame, and a second corrected sparse depth map and second corrected pose information of the second video frame.
”
Regarding dependent claims 2-8 & 13-19 these claims are allowed because of their dependence on independent claims 1 & 12 which has been deemed allowable subject matter above.
The following is the summary of closest references of record:
Baig et al. (U.S. Patent 11,238,604) discloses a system and techniques that use one or more machine learning models to predict a dense depth map (e.g., of depth values for all pixels or at least more pixels than a sparse estimation source (e.g., SLAM)). In some implementations, the machine learning model includes two sub models (e.g., neural networks). The first machine learning model predicts computer vision data such as semantic labels and surface normal directions from an input image. This computer vision data will be used to add to or otherwise improve sparse depth data. Specifically, a second machine learning model takes the semantic labels and surface normal directions from and sparse depth data (e.g., 3D points) from a sparse point estimation source (e.g., SLAM) as inputs and outputs a depth map. The output depth map effectively densities the initial depth data (e.g., from SLAM) by providing depth data for additional pixels of the image.
CONCLUSION
No prior art has been found for claims 1-8, 12-19 & 20-23 in their current form.
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to Stephen P Coleman whose telephone number is (571)270-5931. The examiner can normally be reached Monday-Thursday 8AM-5PM.
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If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner’s supervisor, Andrew Moyer can be reached at (571) 272-9523. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300.
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Stephen P. Coleman
Primary Examiner
Art Unit 2675
/STEPHEN P COLEMAN/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2675
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