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 Arguments
First, with respect to the claim amendmets, the examiner is incorporating Choi (20090060280) who teaches the amendments in pars. 79-82.
Second with respect to the arguments regarding pose, the examiner believes that Grabner expressly teaches 3D pose in pars. 60-61.
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) 21-23, 26-28, 30-33 and 42 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Grabner (20190147221) in view of Rhemann (20140241612) in further view of Choi (20090060280).
Regarding claim 21, Grabner teaches a method for determining a pose of an object, the method comprising: obtaining plural images of a field of view comprising one or more (pars. 9-10);
processing at least a first image of the plural images to identify one or more of the objects in the first image and to determine a search range corresponding to the object (pars. 9-10 and par. 163, processing to determine pose);
Rhemann teaches that the images are objects from plural viewpoints and performing stereo matching between the first image of the plural images and a second image of the plural images to determine an accurate pose of the object wherein the stereo matching is limited to the search range (figure 1, par. 9 and par. 24).
It would have been obvious prior to the effective filing date of the invention to one of ordinary skill in the art to include in Grabner the ability to locate perform stereo matching as taught by Rhemann in order to allow the system to locate any object from multiple viewpoints.
Choi teaches wherein processing the at least a first image of the plural images comprises determining a coarse pose of the candidate object and wherein the search range is based at least in part on the coarse pose (see pars. 79-82, which teaches determing low resolution position based on a search range);
Regarding claim 22, see Rhemann pars. 46-47 and Grabner par. 60.
Regarding claim 23, see pars. 143-145 of Grabner.
Regarding claim 26, see par. 60-61 and 166 of Grabner which teaches 3d pose of the object and pars. 163-165 of Grabner that teaches 2D center of the target object.
Regarding claim 27, see pars. 31-32 of Rhemann.
Regarding claim 28, see par. 44 of Rhemann.
Regarding claim 30, see pars. 46-47 of Rhemann.
Regarding claim 31, see pars. 71-72 of Grabner.
Regarding claim 32, see par. 32 of Rhemann.
Regarding claim 33, see pars. 24 and 45-47 of Rhemann.
Regarding claim 42, see the rejection of claim 1.
Claim(s) 24 and 29 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Grabner (20190147221) in view of Rhemann (20140241612) in view of Choi and in further view of Chen (20190317519).
Regrading claim 24, Chen teaches wherein the bounding boxes comprise rotated 2D bounding boxes (see par. 48, yaw pitch etc.).
It would have been obvious prior to the effective filing date of the invention to one of ordinary skill in the art to include in Grabner, Choi and Rhemann the ability to have a rotated bounding box as taught by Chen in order to allow the system to better identify to the pose of the object.
Regarding claim 29, see pars. 46-50 of Chen and the rejection of claim 1.
Claim(s) 34-41 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Grabner (20190147221) in view of Rhemann (20140241612) in view of Choi in further view of Tremblay (20190228495).
Regarding claim 34, par. 24 Rhemann teaches a robotic system.
Tremblay teaches selecting an object to pick up in pars 35 and 50.
It would have been obvious prior to the effective filing date of the invention to one of ordinary skill in the art to include in Grabner, Choi and Rhemann the ability to have a use a robotic arm to pick things up as taught by Tremblay in order to allow the system to instruct a robot to perform an actrion.
Regarding claim see par. 171-174 of Grabner.
Regarding claim 36, see pars. 171-174 of Grabner, coarse to fine.
Regarding claim 37, see pars. 48-49 of Chen.
Regarding claim 38, see par. 68-70 of Grabner (silhouetes) and par. 50 of Tremblay.
Regarding claim 39, see figure 4 and pars. 50-51 of Tremblay.
Regarding claim 40, pars. 53-56 of Rhemann, analyzing followed by action and see figure 4 of Tremblay that has each action in a step.
Regarding claim 41, see pars. 34-35, initial guess is a cache for the next step.
Claim(s) 25 is rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Grabner (20190147221) in view of Rhemann (20140241612) in view of Choi and in further view of Gernoth (2019008149).
Regrading claim 25, Gernoth teaches wherein processing the plural images comprises determining an occlusion value for the at least one object, the occlusion value indicating a degree to which the object is occluded (pars. 43 and 57-58).
It would have been obvious prior to the effective filing date of the invention to one of ordinary skill in the art to include in Grabner, Choi, and Rhemann the ability to add an occlusion value as taught by Gernoth in order to allow the system to determine the level of occlusion.
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 nonprovisional extension fee (37 CFR 1.17(a)) 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 mailing date of this final action.
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to HADI AKHAVANNIK whose telephone number is (571)272-8622. The examiner can normally be reached 9 AM - 5 PM Monday to Friday.
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/HADI AKHAVANNIK/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2676