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
Amendment received in response to the Non-Final Rejection mailed 12/5/2025 has been entered and made of record. Claims 1, 3-7, and 9-13 remain pending with claims 4-6 and 9-11 withdrawn from consideration.
Response to Arguments
Applicant’s arguments towards the 35 USC 101 rejection have been considered. Previous dependent claim 8, which was not rejected under 101, was incorporated into the independent claims. As such, the 101 rejection is withdrawn.
Applicant’s additional arguments have been considered but not persuasive. The reason is the limitation in question is done “according to an order”, which based on the broadest reasonable interpretation in light of the specification, is still broad enough that the order as disclosed within Kawamura is sufficient for the radiation to be transmitted within. In this case, the order is the changing of the attenuation coefficient of each composition as seen in Par. [0046]. Thus, based on the broadness of the limitation within the claim, Kawamura still does meet each limitation of the claims.
Based on these facts, this action is made FINAL.
Information Disclosure Statement
The information disclosure statements (IDS) submitted on 5/12/2026 and 6/3/2026 are in compliance with the provisions of 37 CFR 1.97. Accordingly, the information disclosure statements are being 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.
Claims 1, 3, 7, and 12-13 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Kawamura (US Pub 20210100520), included in the IDS dated 7/10/2023.
Regarding claim 1, Kawamura discloses a radiation image processing device (Kawamura Fig. 1, image apparatus) comprising:
at least one processor (Kawamura Fig. 2, Element 21, CPU),
wherein the processor
derives, based on at least one radiation image based on radiation that is transmitted through a subject including a plurality of compositions, a thickness of at least one composition of the plurality of compositions for each pixel of the radiation image (Kawamura Par. [0032], derives the body thickness of the subject H for the pixels of the radiographic image), and
derives a composition image for the at least one composition by using an attenuation coefficient based only on the thickness of the at least one composition (Kawamura Par. [0032], derives composition image into a thickness by using an attenuation coefficient in the muscle of the subject),
wherein the processor
acquires two radiation images based on radiation that is transmitted through the subject and has different energy distributions from each other (Kawamura Par. [0028] and [0032], derives first and second radiographic images from which the scattered radiation components are removed, such that the first and second radiographic image have energy distributions different from one another),
derives body thicknesses of the subject as a first body thickness and a second body thickness, respectively, for each pixel for each of the two radiation images by using an attenuation coefficient according to an order in which the radiation is transmitted through the plurality of compositions (Kawamura Par. [0032] and [0046], derives the body thickness of the subject H for the pixels of the first and second radiographic image by using an attention coefficient of the radiations for different energy distributions for a plurality of compositions), and
derives the thickness of the at least one composition based on the first body thickness and the second body thickness (Kawamura Par. [0046], derive the thickness of the thickness of the composition between the first body thickness and second body thickness), and
wherein the processor displays the composition image on a display (Kawamura Par. [0069], displays a distribution of the composition ratios in superimposition with any of the two radiographic images).
Although different embodiments of Kawamura have been referred to, it would have been exceedingly obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify Kawamura by combining Kawamura’s similar embodiments in order to not limit the embodiments to themselves but include other evident combinations and extensions thereof (Kawamura Par. [0061]).
Regarding claim 3, Kawamura discloses the radiation image processing device according to claim 2, wherein the processor derives the thickness of the at least one composition by regarding the subject as a model that is divided such that the plurality of compositions each are grouped together to have one thickness (Kawamura Par. [0056], derive the muscle composition by dividing the derived muscle thickness).
Regarding claim 7, Kawamura discloses the radiation image processing device according to claim 2, wherein the two radiation images are acquired by two radiation detectors stacked on each other by simultaneously irradiating the two radiation detectors with the radiation transmitted through the subject (Kawamura Par. [0068], simultaneously irradiating the two detection units through the subject).
Regarding claims 12-13, the rejection of claim 1 is incorporated herein. In addition, the processing device of claim 1 corresponds to the method of claim 12, as well as the non-transitory computer-readable storage medium (Kawamura Fig. 2, Element 23, Storage) of claim 13, and performs the steps disclosed herein.
Conclusion
THIS ACTION IS MADE FINAL. 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.
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/VINCENT RUDOLPH/Supervisory Patent Examiner, Art Unit 2671
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