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 .
Priority
Receipt is acknowledged of certified copies of papers required by 37 CFR 1.55.
Claim Objections
Claims 9 and 12 objected to because of the following informalities:
Claim 9, lines 2-3, recites “wherein the contour region is a boundary of the sub-regions, and is free from an offset along with the sub-regions.”, it is unclear of the meaning of “free from an offset along with the sub-regions”. For the purpose of examination, claim 9 is interpreted as “wherein the contour region is a boundary of the sub-regions”.
Claim 12, lines 4-5, recites “determining the exposed filling region as a model outer surface region without being performed sub-region segmentation on.”, it is unclear of the meaning of “without being performed sub-region segmentation on”. For the purpose of examination, claim 12 is interpreted as “determining the exposed filling region as a model outer surface region”.
Appropriate correction is required.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 101
35 U.S.C. 101 reads as follows:
Whoever invents or discovers any new and useful process, machine, manufacture, or composition of matter, or any new and useful improvement thereof, may obtain a patent therefor, subject to the conditions and requirements of this title.
Claim 19 rejected under 35 U.S.C. 101 because the claimed invention is directed to non-statutory subject matter. The claim(s) does/do not fall within at least one of the four categories of patent eligible subject matter because Claim 19 recites a storage medium. The broadest reasonable interpretation of a claim drawn to a storage medium typically covers forms of non-transitory tangible media and transitory propagating signals per se in view of the ordinary and customary meaning of a storage media, particularly when the specification is silent. See MPEP 2111.01. When the broadest reasonable interpretation of a claim covers a signal per se, the claim must be rejected under 35 U.S.C. 101 as covering non-statutory subject matter. The USPTO recognizes that applicants may have claims directed to storage media that cover signals per se, which the USPTO must reject under 35 U.S.C. 101 as covering both non-statutory subject matter and statutory subject matter. A claim drawn to such a storage medium that covers both transitory and non-transitory embodiments may be amended to narrow the claim to cover only statutory embodiments to avoid a rejection under 35 U.S.C. $ I01 by adding the limitation "non-transitory" to the claim. Such an amendment would typically not raise the issue of new matter, even when the specification is silent because the broadest reasonable interpretation relies on the ordinary and customary meaning that includes signals per se.
Applicant’s specification in paragraph [0239] recites “The computer program product or the computer program is stored in a computer-readable storage medium. The processor of a computer device may read the computer program from the computer-readable storage medium. The processor executes the computer program, such that the computer device is enabled to execute the above 3D printing method. Similarly, the content in the above method embodiments is applicable to the present storage medium embodiments.”. Since Applicant’s disclosure does not limit the definition of “a storage medium”, it could be a signal.
As an additional note, a non-transitory storage medium having executable programming instructions stored thereon is considered statutory as non-transitory storage media excludes transitory data signals.
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.
Claim(s) 1-7, 9, 12-16 and 19-20 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Hou et al (IDS US20190337219 A1), hereinafter as Hou, in view of Ma et al. (CN 112706407 A), hereinafter as Ma. The original and a machine translation of Ma are provided by the examiner. The paragraphs of the machine translation of Ma start with both number and letter “n”.
Regarding claim 1, Hou teaches A method for processing a slice image for 3D printing (Hou paragraph [0008] “The present disclosure provides a photocuring-type three-dimensional printing method”), comprising:
separating each slice image to obtain a contour region, and a filling region that is defined in the contour region (Hou teaches the exposed area as the contour region, and the internal area as the filling region, paragraph [0067] “Referring to FIG. 4A, step 203 identifies at least a portion of layers of the three-dimensional data model 300, such as layer 490. It identifies the exposed area 311 and internal area 312……The internal area is the covered area. For example, the bottom surface of the internal area 312 is covered by its supporting portion, both sides are covered by the exposed area 311, and the top surface is covered by other internal areas.”), and segmenting the filling region into several sub-regions (Hou paragraph [0073] “In step 601, dividing the internal areas into a complementary first pattern and a second pattern”), wherein there is a gap between adjacent sub-regions in the same slice image (Hou teaches the well-shaped stripes as the gap between square sub-regions, paragraph [0078] “FIG. 9 is a schematic diagram of pattern discrimination according to another embodiment of the present disclosure. Referring to FIG. 9, in the pattern 90 of the present embodiment, the first pattern 91 is a square separated by well-shaped stripe, and the second pattern 92 is well-shaped stripe. Here, the square can be defined as 10-50 pixels, and the well-shaped stripes are, in one embodiment, 2-10 pixels.”), ……
and using the contour region and either of the sub-regions and the gaps as exposure regions for exposing and curing in 3D printing (Hou paragraph [0065] “In step 204, performing exposure at each layer for the exposed areas of the at least a portion of layers, and performing an exposure process at an interval of multiple layers for the internal areas of the at least a portion of layers.”).
Hou is silent in teaching …… and the adjacent sub-regions of adjacent slice images are partially overlapped in a perpendicular direction; Ma teaches …… and the adjacent sub-regions of adjacent slice images are partially overlapped in a perpendicular direction (Ma teaches two cross-sectional images as the adjacent slice images, partially overlapped in Figure 5, further teaches the cross-sectional images are perpendicular to the printing direction from bottom to top, paragraph [n0056] “Taking the cross-sectional images of the three-dimensional data model stepwise detection of 1-3 layers as an example, the computer device extracts the image feature Feature_11 (shaded part in the figure) of the cross-sectional images Pi and Pi+1 of the i-th layer and the i+1-th layer when they overlap. The cross-sectional image Pi+1 contains a newly added nonoverlapping area relative to the cross-sectional image Pi and has an independent closed contour.”, paragraph [n0038] “please refer to Figures 1 and 2, which both show illustrations of the three dimensional data model of the toothed object being transversely cut by cross-sections Li and Li+1 at different height positions. The direction perpendicular to the paper surface corresponds to the printing direction from bottom to top.”).
Hou and Ma are in the same field of endeavor, namely 3D printing. Ma teaches a method to maintain the surface shape formed by the accumulation of pattern cross-sections during the layer-by-layer manufacturing process of the 3D data model to improve efficiency (paragraph [n0114] “it is beneficial for users who use 3D components as products to not need to design a support data model, which effectively improves the work efficiency of the pre-processing stage.”). Therefore, it would have been obvious for a person of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to combine the teaching of Ma with the method of Hou to improve efficiency.
Regarding claim 2, Hou in view of Ma teach The method for processing the slice image for 3D printing as claimed in claim 1, wherein before the slice images are separated to obtain the contour region, and the filling region that is defined in the contour region, the method for processing the slice image for 3D printing further comprises: and further teach
slicing a three-dimensional model to generate a series of slice images (Hou paragraph [0066] “As shown in FIG. 3B, step 202 is to divide, for example, the three-dimensional data model 300 into a plurality of layers 310, 320, 330, . . . , 560”);
and selecting at least two consecutive slice images from the series of slice images (Hou teaches two consecutive layers 490 and 500 in Figure 4B, paragraph [0068] “Referring to FIG. 4B, the exposed area 321 extends from layer 490 through layer 500.”);
and separating the slice images to obtain the contour region, and the filling region that is defined in the contour region (Hou teaches the exposed area as the contour region, and the internal area as the filling region, paragraph [0067] “Referring to FIG. 4A, step 203 identifies at least a portion of layers of the three-dimensional data model 300, such as layer 490. It identifies the exposed area 311 and internal area 312……The internal area is the covered area. For example, the bottom surface of the internal area 312 is covered by its supporting portion, both sides are covered by the exposed area 311, and the top surface is covered by other internal areas.”), and segmenting the filling region into the several sub-regions comprises:
separating the selected slice images to obtain contour regions, and filling regions that are defined in the contour regions (Hou teaches the limitation above), and segmenting the filling regions into the several sub-regions (Hou paragraph [0073] “In step 601, dividing the internal areas into a complementary first pattern and a second pattern”).
Regarding claim 3, Hou in view of Ma teach The method for processing the slice image for 3D printing as claimed in claim 1, wherein before the slice images are separated to obtain the contour region, and the filling region that is defined in the contour region, the method for processing the slice image for 3D printing further comprises: and further teach
slicing a three-dimensional model to generate a series of slice images (Hou paragraph [0066] “As shown in FIG. 3B, step 202 is to divide, for example, the three-dimensional data model 300 into a plurality of layers 310, 320, 330, . . . , 560”);
separating the slice images to obtain the contour region, and the filling region that is defined in the contour region (Hou teaches the exposed area as the contour region, and the internal area as the filling region, paragraph [0067] “Referring to FIG. 4A, step 203 identifies at least a portion of layers of the three-dimensional data model 300, such as layer 490. It identifies the exposed area 311 and internal area 312……The internal area is the covered area. For example, the bottom surface of the internal area 312 is covered by its supporting portion, both sides are covered by the exposed area 311, and the top surface is covered by other internal areas.”), and segmenting the filling region into the several sub-regions comprises:
separating each slice image of the series of slice images to obtain the contour region, and filling region that are defined in the contour region (Hou teaches the limitation above), and segmenting the filling region into the several sub-regions (Hou paragraph [0073] “In step 601, dividing the internal areas into a complementary first pattern and a second pattern”).
Regarding claim 4, Hou in view of Ma teach The method for processing the slice image for 3D printing as claimed in claim 1, and further teach wherein the contour region and the filling region are overlapped as to form an overlap area, and a width of the overlap area is 1-10mm; or the contour region and the filling region are non-overlapped with each other (Hou teaches the island-shaped area 312 and the bottom shell area of 314 in Figure 14A, as shown in the photo, there is no overlapping between 314 and 312, paragraph [0108] “It can be understood that the bottom shell area and the exposed area are partially overlapped, and the island-shaped area and the internal area may also overlap.”)
Regarding claim 5, Hou in view of Ma teach The method for processing the slice image for 3D printing as claimed in claim 1, wherein segmenting the filling regions into the several sub-regions comprises: and further teach segmenting the filling regions into the several sub-regions that are in closed shapes (Hou teaches a square sub-region as the closed shape, paragraph [0078] “Referring to FIG. 9, in the pattern 90 of the present embodiment, the first pattern 91 is a square separated by well-shaped stripe”).
Regarding claim 6, Hou in view of Ma teach The method for processing the slice image for 3D printing as claimed in claim 5, wherein segmenting the filling regions into the several sub-regions comprises: and further teach segmenting the filling regions into the several sub-regions that have an equal area and are in closed shapes (Hou teaches a square sub-region with the equal area, paragraph [0078] “Referring to FIG. 9, in the pattern 90 of the present embodiment, the first pattern 91 is a square separated by well-shaped stripe”).
Regarding claim 7, Hou in view of Ma teach The method for processing the slice image for 3D printing as claimed in claim 6, wherein segmenting the filling regions into the several sub-regions comprises: and further teach segmenting the filling regions into the several sub-regions that are in closed shapes (Hou paragraph [0076] “Referring to FIG. 7, the first pattern 71 and the second pattern 72 of the present embodiment are diagonal squares in the checkerboard 70.”) according to at least one of following: features of the filling regions, distances from the contour regions, and a preset performance condition (Hou teaches reducing deformation as the preset performance condition, paragraph [0077] “FIGS. 8A and 8B, the first exposure step is to expose the first pattern 71 at first, and the second exposure step is to expose the second pattern 72, although the order may be reversed. Regardless of the influence between layers, for the first exposure, because the exposed areas are not connected at all, so its contraction has no effect on the overall deformation; …… However, there are improvement overall.”); wherein areas of at least part of the sub-regions are different from each other (Hou paragraph [0076] “The first pattern 71 and the second pattern 72 are complementary, each consisting of equal-sized squares that are not connected to each other.”).
Regarding claim 9, Hou in view of Ma teach The method for processing the slice image for 3D printing as claimed in claim 6, and further teach wherein the contour region is a boundary of the sub-regions, and is free from an offset along with the sub-regions (Hou paragraph [0067] “Referring to FIG. 4A, step 203 identifies at least a portion of layers of the three-dimensional data model 300 , such as layer 490 . It identifies the exposed area 311 and internal area 312 …… The exposed area includes an upper shell, side edges, and a bottom shell…….For example, the bottom surface of the internal area 312 is covered by its supporting portion, both sides are covered by the exposed area 311 , and the top surface is covered by other internal areas.”).
Regarding claim 12, Hou in view of Ma teach The method for processing the slice image for 3D printing as claimed in claim 1, and further teach further comprising: if the current slice image has an exposed filling region compared to the first several or last several slice images of the current slice image, determining the exposed filling region as a model outer surface region without being performed sub-region segmentation on (Hou teaches determination of bottom shell area as the model outer surface by comparing with adjacent slices, paragraph [0126] “When identifying the bottom shell area 314 and the island-shaped area 312 of a layer, the layer can be compared with its previous layer, and the part of the layer that is not blocked by the previous layer is the bottom shell area, when the size of this area reaches the threshold, the identification result which is required in step 1504 will be obtained. Further, if the area which is laterally surrounded by the bottom shell area is an island-shaped area, it is indicated that the area is connected to the supporting portion of the previous layer.”).
Regarding claim 13, Hou in view of Ma teach The method for processing the slice image for 3D printing as claimed in claim 1, and further teach further comprising: setting a curing depth of the contour region to be greater than or equal to a curing depth of the filling region (Hou teaches a greater exposure intensity for the exposed area, implicitly teaches the greater curing depth for the contour region, paragraph [0085] “different exposure intensities can be assigned to the exposed area and the internal area of the printing object. Specifically, the exposure intensity of the internal area is weaker than the exposure intensity of the exposed area. Since the internal entities account for the vast majority of the printed workpiece, the overall heating and contraction can be greatly reduced.”).
Regarding claim 14, Hou in view of Ma teach The method for processing the slice image for 3D printing as claimed in claim 1, and further teach further comprising: controlling a light projector to expose based on the contour region and the filling region of the each slice image (Hou paragraph [0056-0058] “image exposure system 120 may use Digital Light Procession (DLP) projection technology. DLP projection imaging technology is implemented by using a Digital Micromirror Device (DMD) to control the reflection of light…… image exposure system 120 may also use liquid crystal display (LCD) projection techniques……The three-dimensional data model can be decomposed into a plurality of two-dimensional images; the images will be transmitted to the image exposure system 120, and then be projected by the latter.”).
Regarding claim 15, Hou in view of Ma teach The method for processing the slice image for 3D printing as claimed in claim 14, controlling the light projector to expose based on the contour region and the filling region of the each slice image comprises one of following: and further teach
exposing the contour region firstly, then exposing the filling region;
exposing the filling region firstly, then exposing the contour region;
exposing the filling region and the contour region at the same time (Hou teaches the first exposure period earlier than the second exposure period, further teaches different exposure intensities for the internal region as the filling region, and the exposed area as the contour region, it would have been obvious for a person of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to combine the teaching of these two embodiments, paragraph [0114] “the first exposure period and the second exposure period do not overlap at all, that is, after the end of the first exposure period, the second exposure period begins.”, paragraph [0020] “exposing the exposed areas with the first exposure intensity, and exposing the internal areas with the second exposure intensity.”)
Regarding claim 16, Hou in view of Ma teach The method for processing the slice image for 3D printing as claimed in claim 15, and further teach wherein when exposing the filling region and the contour region at the same time (Hou teaches exposed the island-shaped area 312 as the filling region, and the bottom shell area 314 as the contour region at the same time, paragraph [0110] “In step 1307, when the island-shaped area 312 and the bottom shell area 314 are exposed, areas outside the respective separated areas 313 are first exposed during the first exposure period, including the bottom shell area 314 and the island-shaped area 312 (slashed shadow and dotted shadow in FIG. 14B)”), an exposure intensity and/or exposure time of the contour region is greater than that of the filling region (Hou paragraph [0020] “In an embodiment of the disclosure, the method further includes: assigning a first exposure intensity to the exposed areas, and assigning a second exposure intensity to the internal areas, wherein the first exposure intensity is greater than the second exposure intensity; and exposing the exposed areas with the first exposure intensity, and exposing the internal areas with the second exposure intensity.”).
Regarding claim 19, it recites similar limitations of claim 1 but in a storage medium form. The rationale of claim 1 rejection is applied to reject claim 19. In addition, Hou teaches A storage medium, storing a program that is executable by a processor, wherein, when being executed by the processor, the program executable by the processor is configured to execute following actions (Hou paragraph [0141] “aspects of the present application may be embodied in a computer product located in one or more computer readable medium(s) including a computer readable program code.”).
Regarding claim 20, it recites similar limitations of claim 1 but in a system form. The rationale of claim 1 rejection is applied to reject claim 20. In addition, Hou teaches A system for processing a slice image for 3D printing (Hou paragraph [0053] “Embodiments of the present disclosure describing a photocuring-type three-dimensional printing method” and paragraph [0141] “The above hardware or software may be referred to as a “data block”, “device”, “engine”, “unit”, “component”, or “system”.”), comprising a printing unit and a computer device connected to the printing unit (Hou Figure 1, paragraph [0054] “FIG. 1 is the basic structure of a photocuring-type three-dimensional printing device. This three-dimensional (3D) printing device 100 includes a material tank 110 for containing photocurable resin, an image exposure system 120 for curing the photocurable resin, and a lifting platform 130 for joining the molded workpiece.”), wherein the printing unit is configured to print a three-dimensional model according to an instruction; the computer device comprises: at least one processor, and at least one memory, configured to store at least one program; and when the at least one program is executed by the at least one processor, the at least one processor is enabled to implement following actions (Hou paragraph [0133] “Returning to FIG. 1, a computer may be included in the photocuring-type three-dimensional printing device 100 to perform the methods and steps involved. The computer can include memory and processor. The memory stores computer readable instructions. The processor executes the computer readable instructions to implement the steps described below”).
Allowable Subject Matter
Claim 8, 10-11 and 17-18 objected to as being dependent upon a rejected base claim, but would be allowable if rewritten in independent form including all of the limitations of the base claim and any intervening claims.
The following is a statement of reasons for the indication of allowable subject matter:
Regarding claim 8, the closest prior art of Hou teaches using squares as the sub-region in the filling area (paragraph [0014-0016] “the first pattern and the second pattern are diagonal squares in a checkerboard. In an embodiment of the disclosure, the one-dimensional size of each square is 2-20 pixels. In an embodiment of the disclosure, the first pattern are squares separated by well-shaped stripe, the second pattern is well-shaped stripe.”). However, Hou fails to teach the combined limitation below as a whole, “complete square sub-regions that are distributed in the filling regions and incomplete square sub-regions that are distributed close to a boundary of the filling regions”. Furthermore, no prior art of record either alone or in combination teaches the above limitation as a whole. Therefore, claim 8 is considered to allowable.
Regarding claim 10, the closest prior art of Ma teaches determining new non-overlapping area between adjacent cross section images. However, Ma fails to teach the combined limitation below as a whole, “offsetting, by a preset distance, the sub-regions of the adjacent slice images at the same position in the perpendicular direction along a preset direction.”. Furthermore, no prior art of record either alone or in combination teaches the above limitation as a whole. Therefore, claim 10 is considered to allowable.
Claim 11 contain allowable subject matter because they depend on claim 10 that contains allowable subject matter.
Regarding claim 17, the closet prior art of Jeng et al. (US 20160200042 A1), hereinafter as Jeng, teaches using multiple light source in 3D printing, and further teaches the inner contour region and outer contour region (paragraph [0020] “Depending on the type of photosensitive resin 41 that is used, the light source 1 can be a point light source, a linear light source, a planar light source or a combination thereof.”). However, Jeng fails to teach the combined limitation below as a whole, “The method for processing the slice image for 3D printing as claimed in claim 15, wherein the filling region and the contour region are cured by using different light sources.”. Furthermore, no prior art of record either alone or in combination teaches the above limitation as a whole. Therefore, claim 17 is considered to allowable.
Claim 18 contain allowable subject matter because they depend on claim 17 that contains allowable subject matter.
Conclusion
The prior art made of record and not relied upon is considered pertinent to applicant's disclosure.
Wang et al. (US 20220410483 A1) teaches a 3D printing method based on STL slicing model.
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to XIAOMING WEI whose telephone number is (571)272-3831. The examiner can normally be reached M-F 8:00-5:00.
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If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner’s supervisor, Kee Tung can be reached at (571)272-7794. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300.
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/XIAOMING WEI/Examiner, Art Unit 2611
/KEE M TUNG/Supervisory Patent Examiner, Art Unit 2611