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
The examiner agrees with Applicant’s explanation of Yamada. However, under U.S. patent practice, there is insufficient difference between “processing condition” and “processing parameter” to distinguish over Yamada. As per the attached interview summary, specifying what the processing parameter is should overcome Yamada.
Priority
Acknowledgment is made of applicant’s claim for foreign priority under 35 U.S.C. 119 (a)-(d). The certified copy has been filed in parent Application No. JP 2022-098151, filed on June 17th, 2022.
Information Disclosure Statement
All of the Information Disclosure Statements (IDS) are considered by the examiner.
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.
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.
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) 1-3, 5-9 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Yamada et al. (JP Patent 7373273 B2, hereafter Yamada).
Regarding claim 1, Yamada teaches A control device (Paragraph [0010] “The radiography system includes a control device 100”), comprising: a hardware processor that acquires a radiographic image, wherein (Paragraph [0011] “The radiation detection device 110 detects radiation emitted from the radiation generation device 150 and passed through a subject (not shown), and outputs image data corresponding to the radiation. Note that the image data can also be referred to as a medical image or a radiation image.”) the hardware processor acquires an imaging condition of the radiographic image, automatically selects a type and a processing parameter of predetermined processing to be executed on the acquired radiographic image based on the acquired imaging condition and executes the selected predetermined processing on the radiographic image. (Paragraph [0015])
Regarding claim 2, Yamada teaches The control device according to claim 1, wherein the hardware processor automatically selects the type and the processing parameter of the predetermined processing based on any one of machine learning, statistical information, and a content of the predetermined processing executed on a radiographic image captured in a past. (Paragraph [0014] “The learning result data storage unit 106 stores learning result data obtained by machine learning using teacher images. Further, the learning result data acquisition unit 105 includes information that associates various words and word combinations included in the examination information with the learning result data stored in the learning result data storage unit 106.”)
Regarding claim 3, Yamada teaches The control device according to claim 1, wherein the hardware processor displays, on a display part, the radiographic image on which the predetermined processing has been executed. (Paragraph [0015] “The image processing unit 102 causes the display unit 140 to display the image after image processing.”)
Regarding claim 5, Yamada teaches A control method, comprising: acquiring a radiographic image;( Paragraph [0011] “The radiation detection device 110 detects radiation emitted from the radiation generation device 150 and passed through a subject (not shown), and outputs image data corresponding to the radiation. Note that the image data can also be referred to as a medical image or a radiation image.”) acquiring an imaging condition of the radiographic image; (Figure 4(b)) automatically selecting a type and a processing parameter of predetermined processing based on the acquired imaging condition; and executing the predetermined processing on the acquired radiographic image. (Paragraph [0015])
Regarding claim 6, Yamada teaches A non-transitory computer-readable recording medium that causes a computer of a control device to function as: (Paragraph [0041] “The present invention provides a system or device with a program that implements one or more of the functions of the embodiments described above via a network or a storage medium, and one or more processors in the computer of the system or device reads and executes the program. This can also be achieved by processing. It can also be realized by a circuit (for example, ASIC) that realizes one or more functions.”) a hardware processor that acquires a radiographic image, wherein (Paragraph [0011] “The radiation detection device 110 detects radiation emitted from the radiation generation device 150 and passed through a subject (not shown), and outputs image data corresponding to the radiation. Note that the image data can also be referred to as a medical image or a radiation image.”) the hardware processor acquires an imaging condition of the radiographic image, automatically selects a type and a processing parameter of predetermined processing to be executed on the acquired radiographic image based on the acquired imaging condition and executes the selected predetermined processing on the radiographic image. (Paragraph [0015])
Claims 7-9 are rejected as per claim 1.
Claim 4 is rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Yamada, in further view of Tomoko et al. (JP Publication 2023125605 A, hereafter Tomoko).
Regarding claim 4, Yamada teaches the control device according to claim 1, however does not teach the radiographic image includes a plurality of frame images.
However, Tomoko teaches the radiographic image includes a plurality of frame images. (Paragraph [0024] “This includes images after performing , and images after performing image composition etc. using a plurality of radiation images.”)
Yamada and Tomoko are considered analogous to the claimed invention because both deal in the same field of radiographical image/information processing. Therefore, it would be obvious to someone of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to have modified Yamada to incorporate the teachings of Tomoko where the radiographic image includes a plurality of radiation images. Doing so would advantageously make it so that the best possible image is acquired by the system.
Pertinent References
The prior art made of record and not relied upon is considered pertinent to applicant’s disclosure.
JP Patent Publication 2023077987 A to Arima et al. discloses To allow a captured image and a processed image to be identified. SOLUTION: A medical information processing device includes: transmission means for transmitting a medical image captured by an imaging device, which is a source image to be processed in an outside system, to the outside system; acquisition means for acquiring a processed image generated from the source image by the processing executed in the outside system; and display control means for displaying, in a display part, a thumbnail of the source image and a thumbnail of the processed image. The display control means displays the thumbnail of the processed image in a display mode different from that of the thumbnail of the source image so that the processed image is identified to be an image processed in the outside system.
US Patent 11302004 B2 to Shimizu et al. discloses A control apparatus includes a reception unit that receives a plurality of reduced images included in a radiographic image in stages from a radiographic imaging apparatus, and a display control unit that, in a case where the radiographic image meets a pre-determined standard, displays a first image generated from the reduced images on a display unit, and in a case where the radiographic image does not meet the pre-determined standard, displays on the display unit a second image generated from more reduced images than the reduced images from which the first image is generated.
US Patent 10853688 B2 to Iijima et al. discloses A radiation image capturing system includes a plurality of radiation image capturing apparatuses that each performs an image capturing operation to capture a radiation image based on radiation emitted from a radiation generating apparatus and transmitted through an object, a control apparatus that communicates with the plurality of radiation image capturing apparatuses, a calculation unit that calculates information about similarity between the radiation image and a reference image, and an image acquisition unit that acquires the radiation image from the radiation image capturing apparatus selected from the plurality of radiation image capturing apparatuses based on the information about similarity.
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 DAVID ORANGE whose telephone number is (571)270-1799. The examiner can normally be reached Mon-Fri, 9-5.
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/DAVID ORANGE/ Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2663
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