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 .
This office action is in response to communication filed on 2/5/2026. Claim 2 has been canceled. Claims 1 and 3-13 are pending on this application.
Response to Arguments
Applicant’s arguments, see Remarks, filed 2/5/2026, with respect to claims 1-12 under 35 USC 101 have been fully considered and are persuasive. The rejection of claims 1-12 under 35 USC 101 directed to an abstract idea has been withdrawn.
Applicant’s arguments, see Remarks, filed 2/5/2026, with respect to the rejection(s) of claim(s) 1 and 3-13 under 35 USC 102 have been fully considered and are persuasive. Therefore, the rejection has been withdrawn. However, upon further consideration, a new ground(s) of rejection is made in view of Hollinger et al (US20170307341).
Information Disclosure Statement
The information disclosure statement (IDS) submitted on 9/30/2025 is in compliance with the provisions of 37 CFR 1.97. Accordingly, the information disclosure statement is being considered by the examiner.
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.
Claims 2-11 are 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 the claim recites a computer program. Products that do not have a physical or tangible form, such as information (often referred to as “data per se”) or a computer program per se (often referred to as “software per se”) when claimed as a product without any structural recitations are not directed to any of the statutory categories (See MPEP 2106.03). The applicant is advised to amend the claims to recite the non-transitory computer readable medium.
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 and 3-13 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over McNally et al (US20220341716) in view of Hollinger et al (US20170307341).
Regarding claim 1, McNally teaches a computer program stored in a non-transitory computer-readable storage medium (para. [0093]), the computer program providing a method of generating a training dataset for dart pin location identification (para. [0077]) when being executed in one or more processors of a computing device for training a dart pin location identification network model to more accurately identify the hit location of at least one dart pin in various environments (para. [0080]-[0081]), the method comprising:
obtaining a dart target photographing training image in which at least one dart pin hits in one segment of a dart target (fig. 3; para. [0062]), wherein a plurality of segments included in the dart target each includes a predetermined number of bits (dartboards are known to be manufactured with holes, see para. [0006]); and
assigning a label corresponding to the obtained dart target photographing training image (para. [0067]-[0068], bounding boxes; para. [0071], the score of any dart), wherein the dart target photographing training image includes at least two images (para. [0077]) corresponding to one label (para. [0067], it would be obvious for the multiple images to correspond to one label when a dart detected and keypoint detection is utilized), each positioned in a predetermined direction (para. [0077]).
McNally fails to teach wherein the at least two images corresponding to the one label are generated by at least two cameras. However Hollinger teaches generating, with multiple cameras (102A and 102B in fig. 2) positioned in a predetermined direction (212A and 212B in fig. 2; para. [0045], a pair of cameras are positioned about 90 degrees apart with respect to the center of the bullseye), at least two images of a dart board (para. [0037], capture images of darts landing on board 108) corresponding to one label (para. [0036], the proper point value based on which region 204 the dart 110 is calculated to be in. This is interpreted to be a label).
Therefore taking the combined teachings of McNally and Hollinger as a whole, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art at the time the invention was filed to incorporate the steps of Hollinger into the method of McNally. The motivation to combine Hollinger and McNally would be to accurately locate and score traditional steel-tipped darts used with a standard board with as few as two cameras (para. [0009] of Hollinger).
Regarding claim 3, the modified method of McNally teaches a computer program wherein the obtaining of the dart target photographing training image in which at least one dart pin hits in the one segment of the dart target includes:
obtaining a first dart target photographing training image of a first dart pin hitting on a first bit included in a first segment of the dart target (fig. 6D of McNally); and
obtaining a second dart target photographing training image of the first dart pin hitting on a second bit included in the first segment of the dart target (fig. 6E of McNally).
Regarding claim 4, the modified method of McNally teaches a computer program wherein the obtaining of the dart target photographing training image in which at least one dart pin hits in the one segment of the dart target further includes:
obtaining a third dart target photographing training image of the first dart pin hitting on a third bit included in a second segment of the dart target (fig. 6A of McNally).
Regarding claim 5, the modified method of McNally teaches a computer program wherein the obtaining of the dart target photographing training image in which at least one dart pin hits in the one segment of the dart target further includes:
obtaining a fourth dart target photographing training image in which the first dart pin hits on the first bit included in the first segment of the dart target and a second dart pin hits on the second bit included in the first segment of the dart target (fig. 6F of McNally).
Regarding claim 6, the modified method of McNally teaches a computer program further comprising: obtaining a fifth dart target photographing training image in which the first dart pin hits on the first bit included in the first segment of the dart target and a second dart pin hits on a fourth bit included in the first segment of the dart target (fig. 6G of McNally).
Regarding claim 7, the modified method of McNally teaches a computer program of claim 3, wherein the obtaining of the dart target photographing training image in which at least one dart pin hits in the one segment of the dart target further includes:
obtaining a sixth dart target photographing training image in which the first dart pin hits on the first bit included in the first segment of the dart target and a second dart pin hits on a third bit included in a second segment of the dart target (fig. 6A of McNally).
Regarding claim 8, the modified method of McNally teaches a computer program further comprising:
obtaining a seventh dart target photographing training image in which the first dart pin hits on the first bit included in the first segment of the dart target and the second dart pin hits on a fifth bit included in a second segment of the dart target (fig. 6B of McNally).
Regarding claim 9, the modified method of McNally teaches a computer program wherein the obtaining of the first dart target photographing training image of the first dart pin hitting on the first bit included in the first segment of the dart target includes:
obtaining the first dart target photographing training image under a first photographing environment condition (para. [0077] of McNally, Several windows were in the vicinity of the dartboards, and images were collected during the day and at night, which provided a variety of natural and artificial lighting conditions); and
obtaining the first dart target photographing training image under a second photographing environment condition (para. [0077] of McNally, Several windows were in the vicinity of the dartboards, and images were collected during the day and at night, which provided a variety of natural and artificial lighting conditions).
Regarding claim 10, the modified method of McNally teaches a computer program wherein the label is determined based on a location of a segment hit by a dart pin (para. [0067] of McNally, keypoint bounding box; para. [0071] of McNally, the score of any dart. The represented mapping of dartboard image keypoints to dart scores; para. [0078] of McNally, Up to seven keypoints were labeled in each image).
Regarding claim 11, the modified method of McNally teaches a computer program wherein the label is determined based on the location of the segment and a location of a bit in the one segment (para. [0071] of McNally).
Regarding claim 12, the claim recites similar subject matter as claim 1 and is rejected for the same reasons as stated above.
Regarding claim 13, the claim recites similar subject matter as claim 1 and is rejected for the same reasons as stated above.
Conclusion
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to LEON VIET Q NGUYEN whose telephone number is (571)270-1185. The examiner can normally be reached Mon-Fri 11AM-7PM.
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/LEON VIET Q NGUYEN/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2663