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 .
Continued Examination Under 37 CFR 1.114
A request for continued examination under 37 CFR 1.114, including the fee set forth in 37 CFR 1.17(e), was filed in this application after allowance or after an Office action under Ex Parte Quayle, 25 USPQ 74, 453 O.G. 213 (Comm'r Pat. 1935). Since this application is eligible for continued examination under 37 CFR 1.114, and the fee set forth in 37 CFR 1.17(e) has been timely paid, prosecution in this application has been reopened pursuant to 37 CFR 1.114. Applicant's submission filed on 06 April 2026 has been entered.
Information Disclosure Statement
The information disclosure statement filed 06 April 2026 contains reference a number of non-patent literature documents which are office actions for various related applications (see pp. 3-5). These office actions in turn contain information disclosure statements filed in the related applications and considered by the examiners of the related applications.
These NPL documents are be considered solely for the text they contain, and any cited documents therein are not considered by the examiner of the present application unless previously listed in a proper information disclosure statement or on a PTO-829 form..
The listing of references in the NPL documents is not a proper information disclosure statement. 37 CFR 1.98(b) requires a separate list of all patents, publications, or other information submitted for consideration by the Office, see MPEP § 609.04(a). Therefore, unless the references have been cited by the examiner on form PTO-892 or separately provided in a proper information disclosure statement, they have not been considered.
Additionally, Applicant is reminded of MPEP 609.02(II):
2. Continuation Applications, Divisional Applications, or Continuation-in-Part Applications Filed Under 37 CFR 1.53(b)
The examiner will consider information which has been considered by the Office in a parent application (other than an international application; see subsection I., above) when examining: (A) a continuation application filed under 37 CFR 1.53(b), (B) a divisional application filed under 37 CFR 1.53(b), or (C) a continuation-in-part application filed under 37 CFR 1.53(b). A listing of the information need not be resubmitted in the continuing application unless the applicant desires the information to be printed on the patent.
If resubmitting a listing of the information, applicant should submit a new listing that complies with the format requirements in 37 CFR 1.98(a)(1) and the timing requirements of 37 CFR 1.97. Applicants are strongly discouraged from submitting a list that includes copies of PTO/SB/08 or PTO-892 forms from other applications. A completed PTO/SB/08 form from another application may already have initials of an examiner and the application number of another application. This information will likely confuse the record. Furthermore, when the spaces provided on the form have initials of an examiner, there are no spaces available next to the documents listed for the examiner of the subsequent application to provide his or her initials, and the previously relevant initials may be erroneously construed as being applied for the current application.
Claim Objections
Claim 8 is objected to because of the following informalities: claim 8 recites “the quality metric value”. Claim 7, from which claim 8 depends, recites “quality metric values for the images”. It is suggested that claim 8 be amended to recite “the quality metric value for each image comprises a cost function value” or “the quality metric values comprise cost function values” for consistency with the plurality of quality metric values defined in claim 7.
Appropriate correction is required.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 112
The following is a quotation of 35 U.S.C. 112(b):
(b) CONCLUSION.—The specification shall conclude with one or more claims particularly pointing out and distinctly claiming the subject matter which the inventor or a joint inventor regards as the invention.
The following is a quotation of 35 U.S.C. 112 (pre-AIA ), second paragraph:
The specification shall conclude with one or more claims particularly pointing out and distinctly claiming the subject matter which the applicant regards as his invention.
Claims 1-15 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 112(b) or 35 U.S.C. 112 (pre-AIA ), second paragraph, as being indefinite for failing to particularly point out and distinctly claim the subject matter which the inventor or a joint inventor (or for applications subject to pre-AIA 35 U.S.C. 112, the applicant), regards as the invention.[claims 1-15]
Claims 1-15 have been amended to recite “wherein the first image and the second image are sampled sequentially in time”. However, it is unclear whether sampling images “sequentially in time” requires that the sampling of a first image and the sampling of the second image happen immediately after/before one another such that no operation occur in between the two samplings, or whether other operations, such as the claimed storing and illumination by the strobe unit occurring between the two samplings is permitted.
The specification describes sampling of two or more images sequentially (e.g. Paragraphs 041, 043-044, 0105) but does not state that the images are sampled “sequentially in time” as now required in claims 1-15.
The specifications additionally describes that the images may be sampled in sequential time intervals 410 (e.g. Paragraphs 0102-0103 and Figure 4A), but this merely requires that the time intervals themselves be sequential as shown in Figure 4A and does not describe where in each time interval the images are sampled, or describe the relationship between the sampling operations and other operations such as storing and illuminating. It is unclear whether the claimed “wherein the first image and the second image are sampled sequentially in time” is to be read as sampling during sequential time intervals as described in these paragraphs and Figure 4A.
Figure 1B shows an example of the sample operation where the strobe and camera units are configured, an image is sampled and then stored before repeating the process (e.g. Steps 122-128). While the images may be said the sampled sequentially with respect to the image sampling operations (i.e. a first image is sampled and a second image is sampled without any additional images being sampled between the sampling of the first and second images), it is unclear whether the sampling operations may be considered to occur “sequentially in time” as required by the claims.
Thus it is unclear whether the claims require that the sampling operations happen sequentially in time (i.e. one after the other), with or without additional operations between the samplings, whether the claims require that the sampling operations occur in sequential time intervals (i.e. one time interval after the other where each time interval includes a sampling, with or without operations between the samplings, or some other arrangement for the first and second samplings to be “sequential in time”.
Clarification as to the meaning of “sequentially in time” and its relation to “sequentially” and “sequential time intervals” described in the specification is required.
Allowable Subject Matter
Claims 1-15 would be allowable if rewritten or amended to overcome the rejection(s) under 35 U.S.C. 112(b) or 35 U.S.C. 112 (pre-AIA ), 2nd paragraph, set forth in this Office action.
Since the Applicant’s arguments of record filed on 06 April 2026 (page(s) 6) and 19 November 2025 (page(s) 6) are persuasive regarding the currently claimed subject matter which is/are not taught nor suggested by the prior art of record, either alone or in combination, the reasons for allowance have been fully addressed and complied according to MPEP 1302.14(I).
Conclusion
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to TIMOTHY J HENN whose telephone number is (571)272-7310. The examiner can normally be reached Monday-Friday ~10-6.
Examiner interviews are available via telephone, in-person, and video conferencing using a USPTO supplied web-based collaboration tool. To schedule an interview, applicant is encouraged to use the USPTO Automated Interview Request (AIR) at http://www.uspto.gov/interviewpractice.
If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner’s supervisor, Twyler Haskins can be reached at (571) 272-7406. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300.
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/Timothy J Henn/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2639
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