DETAILED ACTION
The present application, filed on or after March 16, 2013, is being examined under the first inventor to file provisions of the AIA .
Claims 1-20 are pending.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 103
The following is a quotation of pre-AIA 35 U.S.C. 103(a) which forms the basis for all obviousness rejections set forth in this Office action:
(a) A patent may not be obtained though the invention is not identically disclosed or described as set forth in section 102 of this title, if the differences between the subject matter sought to be patented and the prior art are such that the subject matter as a whole would have been obvious at the time the invention was made to a person having ordinary skill in the art to which said subject matter pertains. Patentability shall not be negatived by the manner in which the invention was made.
Claim(s) 1-8 and 19-20 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Kuang et al (Breaking the Diffraction Barrier, 2013).
Regarding claims 1, 10 and 19-20, Kuang teaches a computer-implemented image processing method with a computer processor and computer memory, comprising:
accessing, from the computer memory, a non-toroidal beam image component comprising a set of pixel intensities across an imaging area and a toroidal beam image component comprising a set of pixel intensities across the imaging area that are obtained with a detector,
(Kuang, Fig. 1c, confocal (single peak), non-doughnut-shaped image after pinhole filtering; Fig. 1d, negative confocal (multi-peak), doughnut-shaped image after pinhole filtering, “In FED (fluorescence emission difference microscopy), two different scanning images must be processed. One is the conventional confocal image acquired when the sample is illuminated by a solid excitation pattern; the other, the negative confocal image, is obtained when the sample is illuminated by a doughnut-shaped excitation pattern that can be generated by modulating the illumination beam with a vortex 0–2 phase plate. Both images are detected by the same pinhole, which works as a spatial filter”, p2:c1; “The fiber is attached to an avalanche photodiode ... which detects the intensity of the fluorescence beam. The detected fluorescence data are processed by a counting module ... and saved to a PC”, p5:c2-p6:c1; use a photodiode to detect light)
wherein the non-toroidal beam image component includes one or more pixel intensities that are at a saturating level of the detector;
identifying a peak non-toroidal imaging pixel intensity across the imaging area that is the highest non-toroidal beam imaging pixel intensity below the saturating level of the detector;
(Kuang, Fig. 2(d) shows normalized negative confocal beam profiles (=> “toroidal”) in which the normalized detector saturation level is “1”; two beam profiles of ζ=3, and ζ=3 are saturated; the beam profile of ζ=1 shows a normalized peak intensity I_n(peak) just below saturation for the negative confocal beam I_n; I_n or I_n(peak) is unitless and corresponds to real intensity power P_n or P_n(peak), respectively, with power measurement unit (e.g., mW); obviously, similar behavior can be seen for confocal beam profiles (=> “non-toroidal”) with a normalized peak intensity I_c(peak) just below saturation for the confocal beam I_c which corresponds to real intensity P_c or P_c(peak), respectively, with power measurement unit (e.g., mW))
scaling, with the computer processor, an image intensity of at least one pixel of the toroidal beam image component without scaling the non-toroidal beam image component, by a scaling ratio that is defined as a ratio between the peak non-toroidal beam imaging pixel intensity across the imaging area and a peak toroidal beam imaging intensity across the imaging area to produce a scaled image intensity; and
(Kuang, “The final super-resolution FED image is constructed by intensity subtraction of these two images,
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where I_c, I_n, I_fed are the normalized intensity distributions of the confocal, negative confocal and FED images, respectively and r is the subtractive factor”, p2:c1; In equation (1), both the confocal (I_c, non-toroidal) and negative confocal (I_n, toroidal/doughnut-shaped) images are normalized intensities corresponding to real power P_c and , which requires scaling the maximum pixel intensity (the peak) of each of I_c and I_n to 1 before calculating the intensity difference; data normalization is well defined in the art (e.g., see Thakur, “Normalization Formula”, 2022, (https://web.archive.org/web/20221001053816/https://www.educba.com/normalization-formula/); in Thakur,
let x_min =0, then, normalized x_new(normalized to x_max) = x/x_max;
apply this general normalization formula to I_n, we have
I_n = P_n/P_n(peak) = P_n/P_n(peak) * (P_c(peak)/P_c(peak));
so that I_n * P_c(peak) = (P_c(peak)/P_n(peak))*P_n;
note that left side represents the P_n scaled to reference P_c(peak);
That is, P_n(scaled) = I_n * P_c(peak) = (P_c(peak)/P_n(peak))*P_n, eq. (2);
in eq. (2), when P_n = P_n(peak), P_n(scaled) is scaled to being P_c(peak), that is,
P_n(scaled, peak) = P_c(peak), meaning that the normalized I_c and I_n with max intensity “1” correspond to P_n(scaled, peak) and P_c(peak) are the same; also in eq. (2), only P_n, not P_c, is scaled)
determining a difference between the scaled image intensity of the at least one pixel of the toroidal image component and an image intensity of a corresponding pixel of the non-toroidal image components to form at least a portion of an image.
(Kuang, “The final super-resolution FED image is constructed by intensity subtraction of these two images, I(fed) = I(c) – r*I(n), eq. (1); where I(c), I(n), I(fed) are the normalized intensity distributions of the confocal, negative confocal and FED images, respectively and r is the subtractive factor”, p2:c1; when r=1, I_fed of eq. (1) represents the difference between the normalized I_c and I_n; using eq. (2) to convert eq.(1) to real power in reference (scaled) to P_c(peak) leads to:
I_fed*P_c(peak) = I_c*Pc(peak) - I_n*P_c(peak); then scaling eq. (1) to P_c(peak) becomes:
P_fed(scaled) = P_c – P_n(scaled), eq. (3) ;
only P_n and the resulting P_fed, not P_c, are scaled)
Regarding claims 4 and 13, Kuang teaches its/their respective base claim(s).
Kuang further teaches the method of claim 1, further comprising acquiring the non-toroidal beam image component and the toroidal beam image component by:
directing a non-toroidal beam to a sample area and detecting non-toroidal beam induced response light from the sample area,
wherein the detected non-toroidal beam induced response light corresponds to the non-toroidal beam image component; and
directing a toroidal beam to the sample area and detecting toroidal beam induced response light from the sample area,
wherein the detected toroidal beam induced response light corresponds to the toroidal image component.
(Kuang, Fig. 1; “In FED, two different scanning images must be processed. One is the conventional confocal image acquired when the sample is illuminated by a solid excitation pattern; the other, the negative confocal image, is obtained when the sample is illuminated by a doughnut-shaped excitation pattern that can be generated by modulating the illumination beam with a vortex 0–2
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phase plate. Both images are detected by the same pinhole, which works as a spatial filter”, p2:c1)
Regarding claims 5 and 14, Kuang teaches its/their respective base claim(s).
Kuang further teaches the method of claim 4, wherein the non-toroidal beam comprises a Gaussian intensity profile at the sample area and the toroidal beam comprises a toroidal intensity profile at the sample area.
(Kuang, Figs. 1(a) and 1(c); Gaussian beam distribution; “intensity distributions with a Gaussian function”, p6:c1
Regarding claims 6 and 15, Kuang teaches its/their respective base claim(s).
Kuang further teaches the method of claim 4, wherein the directing the toroidal beam to the sample area comprises directing a source beam through a vortex phase plate to produce the toroidal beam.
(Kuang, “whereas in the negative confocal case, where the illumination beam is phase-modulated by a vortex 0–2pi phase plate, f(θ, φ)”, p5:c2)
Regarding claim 8, Kuang teaches its/their respective base claim(s).
Kuang further teaches the method of claim 1, wherein the formed image is a super-resolution image.
(Kuang, the FED shown in Fig. 1(d) is a “The final super-resolution FED image”, p2:c1)
Regarding claim 16, Kuang teaches its/their respective base claim(s).
Kuang further teaches the apparatus of claim 15, wherein the beam source comprises an azimuthal polarizer and a spatial light modulator situated to produce the toroidal beam.
(Kuang, “f(θ, φ) is the phase modulation function for the incident beam. In the confocal case, f(θ, φ) = 0, whereas in the negative confocal case, where the illumination beam is phase-modulated by a vortex 0–2pi phase plate, f(θ, φ) = φ”, p5:c2; φ is azimuth variable)
Regarding claim 18, Kuang teaches its/their respective base claim(s).
Kuang further teaches the apparatus of claim 10, wherein the formed image is a super-resolution light scattering image, phosphorescence image, or a fluorescence image.
(Kuang, the FED shown in Fig. 1(d) is a “The final super-resolution FED image”, “fluorescence emission difference microscopy (FED)”, p2:c1)
Claim(s) 9 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Kuang et al (Breaking the Diffraction Barrier, 2013) in view of Wang et al (WF Super-Resolved Raman Imaging, 2021).
Regarding claim 9, Kuang teaches its/their respective base claim(s).
Kuang does not expressly disclose but Wang teaches the method of claim 8, wherein the super-resolution image is a Raman scattering image.
(Wang, Fig. 1, structured illumination Raman microscopy)
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention was made to incorporate the teachings of Wang into the system or method of Kuang in order to use Raman spectroscopy for rapid, non-destructive molecular analysis with high specificity and minimal sample preparation. The combination of Kuang and Wang also teaches other enhanced capabilities.
Response to Arguments
Applicant's arguments filed on 1/5/2026 with respect to one or more of the pending claims have been fully considered but they are not persuasive.
Regarding claim(s) 1, 10 and 20, Applicant, in the remarks, argues that the cited reference(s) fails to teach the newly amended limitations in the claims.
The Examiner respectfully disagreed. The office action has been updated to address applicant’s argument. See the updated review comments for details.
Conclusion
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/JIANXUN YANG/
Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2662 2/7/2026