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 .
Response to Amendment
The rejection under 35 U.S.C. 112(a) has been withdrawn in light of the amendment to the claims filed on 20 October 2025.
The rejection under 35 U.S.C. 112(b) has been withdrawn in light of the amendment to the claims filed on 20 October 2025.
The rejection under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(1) has been withdrawn in light of the amendment to the claims filed on 20 October 2025.
The objections to the drawings & claims have been withdrawn in light of the amendment to the claims filed on 20 October 2025.
Claim Objections
Claim 5 objected to because of improper dependent form: Claim 4, from which Claim 5 depends, is now cancelled. 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 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.
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.
Claim 1-2, 5, 8-9, & 11-16 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Khan et al. (US PGPUB 20160249811; hereinafter "Khan") .
With regards to Claim 1, Khan discloses a heat diffusion imaging device (endoscope 101; see Chung ¶ [0020] & FIGs. 1-2) comprising:
a thermal camera configured to detect thermal IR signals (the instrument including a mid-wavelength infrared source and a mid-wavelength infrared imager; see Khan ¶ [0051] & FIG. 2; it should be appreciated that according to ISO 20473 (est. 2007) mid-infrared covers the range of 3–50 μm);
a controller, configured to in-vivo control a temperature of a portion of an organ (controllable infrared source 128 {i.e. temperature control unit}; see Khan ¶ [0024 & 0027]);
an electromagnetic (EM) radiation source providing EM radiation (the controllable {i.e. connected to the processing system 132} IR source 128 as an infrared illumination with short-wavelength infrared light-emitting diodes with a wavelength of between 0.8 and 2.5 micron; see Khan ¶ [0021 & 0026] & FIG. 2 which clearly illustrates the IR source 128 at the proximal {i.e. second} end); and
an endoscope (endoscope 101; see Khan ¶ [0020] & FIGs. 1-2) comprising:
a first array of optical fibers configured to transfer thermal IR signals (infrared lens 108 at a distal end {i.e. first end} is arranged to focus light onto a coherent fiber-optic bundle 118 arranged to guide infrared-wavelength light into a short- or mid-wavelength infrared camera 120; see Khan ¶ [0016] & FIG. 2; it should be appreciated that according to ISO 20473 (est. 2007) mid-infrared covers the range of 3–50 μm); and
a second array of optical fibers configured to transfer EM waves (FIG. 2 of Khan clearly illustrates fiber optic bundle 126 for transferring the IR light to the tissue at the distal end {i.e. first end} via window 110, wherein infrared source 128 is a mid-infrared source; see Khan ¶ [0021 & 0051]); and
a connector configured to connect the first array of optical fibers to the thermal camera (onto a coherent fiber-optic bundle 118 arranged to guide infrared-wavelength light into a mid-wavelength infrared camera 120; see Khan ¶ [0016] & FIG. 2; it should be appreciated that an optical coupling exists in order to transfer the infrared light from the fiber-optic bundle 118 to the sensor of the IR camera 120).
While Khan discloses the instrument including a mid-wavelength infrared source and a mid-wavelength infrared imager and that ISO 20473 (est. 2007) establishes that mid-infrared covers the range of 3–50 μm; however, it appears that Khan may be silent to the claimed a camera wavelength between 7.5 - 14 µm and an EM radiation source wavelength of 350-1200nm. However, since the instant specification fails to establish a criticality of the claimed single wavelength in between said ranges and that the Khan’s range encompasses & overlaps the claimed ranges, respectively, it would have been obvious to someone of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to have modified Khan to provide at least a wavelength within said ranges. Doing so is sufficient to support an obviousness rejection as laid out in MPEP § 2144.05.
With regards to Claim 21, modified Khan teaches of discloses wherein the thermal camera is located at a second end of the device (FIG. 2 of Khan clearly illustrates the IR camera 120 at a proximal end).
With regards to Claim 54, modified Khan teaches of wherein the second array of optical fibers is thermally isolated from the first array of optical fibers (FIG. 2 of Khan clearly illustrates a gap between fiber-optic bundle 118 {i.e. first array} and fiber-optic bundle 126 {i.e. second array}, one of ordinary skill in the art would recognize that any gap between fiber optic bundles would provide some thermal isolation).
With regards to Claim 81, modified Khan teaches of further comprising:
an optical camera, located at the second end of the device, configured to receive optical signal in the visible wavelength range (the optical lens 104 is arranged to focus light onto a coherent fiber-optic bundle 114 capable of guiding visible-wavelength light into a camera 116; see Khan ¶ [0016]).
With regards to Claim 98, modified Khan teaches of further comprises:
a third array of optical fibers configured to transfer signals in the visible wavelength range, from the first end of the device to the optical camera (the optical lens 104 is arranged to focus light onto a coherent fiber-optic bundle 114 capable of guiding visible-wavelength light into a camera 116; see Khan ¶ [0016]); and
a connector configured to connect the third array of optical fibers to the optical camera (onto a coherent fiber-optic bundle 114 capable of guiding visible-wavelength light into a camera 116; see Khan ¶ [0016] & FIG. 2; it should be appreciated that an optical coupling exists in order to transfer the visible light from the fiber-optic bundle 114 to the sensor of the camera 116).
With regards to Claim 111, modified Khan teaches of further comprising:
a controller (image processing system 132; see Khan ¶ [0029]) configured to:
receive thermal optical data from the thermal camera (receiving thermal images; see Khan ¶ [0029]); and
determine locations of at least one first type of tissue and at least one second type of tissue in the portion of the organ based comparing heat decay rates in the thermal optical data between different tissue regions (tissues differ in cooling rate, modelling different types of tissues based on rate of decay of the temperature; see Khan ¶ [0029]).
With regards to Claim 1211, modified Khan teaches of wherein the controller is further configured to control the heating unit to elevate the temperature of the portion of the organ to a predetermined temperature (by varying the temperature of the tissue using infrared heating {i.e. controlling the heating unit to elevate temperature}, these additional tissue properties that are being sensed will vary to differentiate different tissue types; see Khan ¶ [0032]).
With regards to Claim 1311, modified Khan teaches of wherein the thermal optical data comprises thermal IR signals received from two or more different adjacent locations in the portion of the organ (by varying the temperature of the tissue using infrared heating {i.e. controlling the heating unit to elevate temperature}, these additional tissue properties that are being sensed will vary to differentiate different tissue types; see Khan ¶ [0032]), and
wherein the controller is further configured to extrapolate the optical data to form a continuous map of the portion of the organ (wherein one of the image processing methods include image averaging, i.e. averaging amounts to extrapolating because the average of any two adjacent data points amounts to inferring unknown values {i.e. extrapolating} and the image being the map; see Khan ¶ [0029]).
With regards to Claim 1410, modified Khan teaches of wherein the controller is configured to:
receive visible optical data in the visible wavelength range from an optical camera (the optical lens 104 is arranged to focus light onto a coherent fiber-optic bundle 114 capable of guiding visible-wavelength light into a camera 116; see Khan ¶ [0016]); and
combine the visible optical data and the thermal optical data to form a single map of the portion of the organ (these images {i.e. thermal images} derived from heating and/or cooling rate at pixels are superimposed {i.e. combined} on, or alternated with, visible-light images to inform a surgeon of structures that are on, or lie below, the tissue surface and are not visible in visible-light images; see Khan ¶ [0029]; it should be appreciated that the superimposed image of the tissue surface amounts to a map of pixels).
With regards to Claim 1511, modified Khan teaches of wherein the controller is configured to:
receive visible optical data in the visible wavelength range from an optical camera (the optical lens 104 is arranged to focus light onto a coherent fiber-optic bundle 114 capable of guiding visible-wavelength light into a camera 116; see Khan ¶ [0016]); and
form a registration between the visible optical data and the thermal optical data (The thermal imaging system is then used to identify where the probe was located so that these additional properties sensed can be registered to the correct location within visible spectrum images recorded with optical cameras, and composite images displayed for surgical guidance; see Khan ¶ [0031]).
With regards to Claim 1611, modified Khan teaches of wherein the organ is a moving organ (provide three dimensional imaging of tissue or other objects that may be near endoscope head 102; see Khan ¶ [0019]; it should be appreciated that all tissues undergo movement under a broadest reasonable interpretation), and the controller is configured to:
receive a stream of images, of the portion of the organ, from the thermal camera (Electronic optical camera 116 and infrared camera 120 are coupled to provide images to an image display, storage, and processing system 132; see Khan ¶ [0016]; it should be appreciated that at least two images amount to a stream under a broadest reasonable interpretation because the scope of “stream” is not specially defined); and
correct noise in the received stream of images, originated form the movement of the organ, by comparing at least two consecutive images from the stream of images (image processing system 132 applying image denoising; see Khan ¶ [0029]; it should be appreciated that variational denoising is well known to utilize image priors {i.e. at least two consecutive images} to calculate a denoised image1).
Claim 3 is rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Khan as applied to Claim 1 above, and in further view of Gal et al. (US PGPUB 20150305603; hereinafter "Gal") .
With regards to Claim 31, while modified Khan discloses all of the limitations of intervening claim 1 as shown above, it appears that modified Khan may be silent to Khan discloses wherein the connector comprises:
at least one black body element for bundling together the optical fibers in the array; and
at least one optical lens configured to direct the thermal IR signals form the array to a thermal sensor in the thermal camera.
However, Gal teaches of fiber optic camera system for use with an endoscope (see Gal Abstract and ¶ [0010]). In particular, Gal taches of:
at least one black body element for bundling together the optical fibers in the array (housing 36 {i.e. connector} which includes a channel to receive a ferrule to align the fiber bundle 14 coaxially with the imaging sensor 24; see Gal ¶ [0058] & FIG. 5B; it should be appreciated that fiber optic ferrules are well known to be metallic in nature, e.g. aluminum and/or stainless steel2); and
at least one optical lens configured to direct the thermal IR signals form the array to a thermal sensor in the thermal camera (lenses 22 disposed within the housing 36 are optically aligned with the fiber bundle 14 and imaging sensor 24; see Gal ¶ [0058] & FIG. 5B).
Modified Khan and Gal are both considered to be analogous to the claimed invention because they are in the same field of fiber optic endoscopes. Therefore, it would have been obvious to someone of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to have further modified Khan to incorporate the above teachings of to provide at least the limitations above. Doing so would aid in maintaining optical alignment between the imaging sensor and fiber bundle (see Gal ¶ [0058]).
Claim 10 is rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Khan as applied to Claim 1 above, and in further view of Gill et al. (US PGPUB 20050283048; hereinafter "Gill").
With regards to Claim 108, while modified Khan discloses all of the limitations of intervening claim 8 as shown above, it appears that Khan may be silent to further comprising;
an ultraviolet (UV) source for providing UV light to the first end of the device, and
wherein the optical camera is further configured to take images of the portion of the object in response to the provision of UV light.
However, Gill teaches of an endoscope 20 with an illumination system 40 which transmits incident light via optical fibers (see Gill ¶ [0057]) to distal end (see Gill ¶ [0045]) and . The system includes an infrared or ultraviolet light sources for imaging or treatment (see Gill ¶ [0101]). The imaging unit also includes a lens system 112A for projecting the image from the proximal end 124 of the optical fibers 26 to the CCD 30b (see Gill ¶ [0065]).
Modified Khan and Gill are both considered to be analogous to the claimed invention because they are in the same field of endoscopic imaging. Therefore, it would have been obvious to someone of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to have further modified Khan to incorporate the above teachings of Gill to provide at least the limitations above. Doing so would aid in multispectral imaging (see Gill ¶ [0093]).
Response to Arguments
Applicant's arguments filed 20 October 2025 with respect the rejection under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(1) have been fully considered but they are not persuasive. However, without conceding to Applicant’s arguments, the Office has reintroduced Khan as an obviousness type reference.
In particular, Applicant argues that Khan’s range of 0.8 to 4.6 microns does not anticipate that claimed wavelength of 7.5 - 14 µm.
The Office does not concede; however, it should be appreciated that Applicant’s argument that the wavelength of 7.5-14 μm to “were found by the inventors to be suitable for distinguishing between two types of tissues, a healthy one and a cancerous one, see for example, paragraph [0026] of the application as-filed.” The Office disagrees. While Khan discloses a various ranges, Khan still discloses that the instrument includes a mid-wavelength infrared source and a mid-wavelength infrared imager. Since ISO 20473 (est. 2007) establishes that mid-infrared covers the range of 3–50 μm, the Khan range encompasses the claimed ranges. Moreover, the instant specification fails to establish any explicit criticality of the claimed wavelength range to the identification of cancerous tissue as described in the published instant specification ¶ [0028]. For at least this reason, Applicant’s arguments are not persuasive.
Applicant also contends that “Khan also fails to disclose the wavelength range of 350-1200nm of the second array of optical fibers that is generated by the EM radiation source.” In support, Applicant argues that “Visible-light illuminator 124 of produces visible light (380-780 nm) that only partially overlap with the claimed 350-1200nm, as the purpose of the two radiation is different.” The Office disagrees. The Office clearly cites the IR source 128 and not the visible light lamp 124. Moreover, Khan describes the IR source 128 as an infrared illumination with short- or mid- wavelength infrared light-emitting diodes (see Khan ¶ [0021 & 0051]). For at least this reason, Applicant’s arguments are not persuasive.
With regards to dependent claims, Applicant relies on the virtue of their dependency upon abovementioned independent claim 1 to argue novelty. Accordingly, said argument is not persuasive for at least the same reasons as Claim 1 as detailed above.
Conclusion
Applicant's amendment necessitated the new ground(s) of rejection presented in this Office action. Accordingly, THIS ACTION IS MADE FINAL. See MPEP § 706.07(a). Applicant is reminded of the extension of time policy as set forth in 37 CFR 1.136(a).
A shortened statutory period for reply to this final action is set to expire THREE MONTHS from the mailing date of this action. In the event a first reply is filed within TWO MONTHS of the mailing date of this final action and the advisory action is not mailed until after the end of the THREE-MONTH shortened statutory period, then the shortened statutory period will expire on the date the advisory action is mailed, and any extension fee pursuant to 37 CFR 1.136(a) will be calculated from the mailing date of the advisory action. In no event, however, will the statutory period for reply expire later than SIX MONTHS from the date of this final action.
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to ASHISH S. JASANI whose telephone number is (571)272-6402. The examiner can normally be reached M-F 8:00 am - 4:00 pm (CST).
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If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner’s supervisor, Keith M. Raymond can be reached on (571) 270-1790. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300.
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/ASHISH S. JASANI/Examiner, Art Unit 3798
/KEITH M RAYMOND/Supervisory Patent Examiner, Art Unit 3798
1 Fan et al. (“Brief review of image denoising techniques,” (8 July 2019), Visual Computing for Industry, Biomedicine, and Art volume 2, Article number: 7; <https://vciba.springeropen.com/articles/10.1186/s42492-019-0016-7>.
2 Gust et al. (US 6,432,047 B1) – see Gust col. 5, lines 23-30.