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 .
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.
Claims 1-20 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 112(b) as being indefinite for failing to particularly point out and distinctly claim the subject matter which the inventor or a joint inventor regards as the invention.
Claim 1 recites “wherein the optical axis of a tilted camera of the plurality of cameras is inclined or declined at a first angle relative to the horizontal plane, the first angle being greater than or equal to zero degrees.” It appears to be contradictory that the camera is labeled as a “tilted” camera that is “inclined or declined” but can have an angle equal to zero degrees, meaning the camera would not be tilted (or inclined or declined), and therefore it is unclear if the scope of the claim requires the camera to be tilted relative to the horizontal plane. Additionally, the claim later recites using “modified versions of expected edge locations” for images captured with the “tilted camera,” but if the “tilted camera” actually has no tilt, then it is unclear how it would work to use modified versions of the edge locations rather than the unmodified versions of the edge locations used for other, non-tilted cameras. Because of these discrepancies, the scope of the claim is unclear. The Examiner recommends amending the claim to recite “wherein the optical axis of a tilted camera of the plurality of cameras is inclined or declined at a first angle relative to the horizontal plane, the first angle being greater than
Claims 8 and 15 are rejected for the same reasons as claim 1, and the remaining claims depend on one of the rejected independent claims but fail to cure the cited deficiencies.
Allowable Subject Matter
Claims 1-20 would be allowable if rewritten or amended to overcome the rejections under 35 U.S.C. 112(b) set forth in this Office action. The following is a statement of reasons for the indication of allowable subject matter: As best understood in light of the 112(b) rejections set forth above, the known prior art does not disclose, in the context of the remaining limitations, wherein measuring at least the respective vertical position and the respective horizontal position of the 2D calibration image captured by the tilted camera includes using modified versions of expected edge locations or reference image edge locations to compute offsets. This feature is not necessarily allowable in a broader claim, but when considered in light of the claimed 3D imaging of a sample in a vessel including capturing a plurality of backlit calibration images of the vessel from positions around the vessel by a plurality of cameras and a tilted camera, measuring respective vertical and horizontal positions and rotations of the calibration images, generating the claimed calibration data, capturing sample images, and digitally resampling the captured sample images based on the calibration data to correct for vertical offset, horizontal offset, and rotational offset, the claim would not have been obvious over the known prior art.
Conclusion
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to Ryan McCulley whose telephone number is (571)270-3754. The examiner can normally be reached Monday through Friday, 8:00am - 4:30pm.
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/RYAN MCCULLEY/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2611