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 1 has been amended. Claims 2-20 have been cancelled. Claims 21-40 have been added.
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 final rejection. 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and the fee set forth in 37 CFR 1.17(e) has been timely paid, the finality of the previous Office action has been withdrawn pursuant to 37 CFR 1.114. Applicant's submission filed on 11/17/2025 has been entered.
Response to Arguments
Applicant’s arguments, filed 11/17/2025, with respect to the rejection of claim 1 under 35 U.S.C. 103 have been fully considered and are persuasive. The rejection of claim 1 has been withdrawn.
Claim Objections
Claims 37-39 are objected to because of the following informalities: claims 37-39 are dependent on now cancelled claim 17. Appropriate correction is required.
Allowable Subject Matter
Claims 1, 21-35 are allowed.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 103
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 36 and 40 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over FENGLER in view of Kuster further in view of Mak.
Regarding claim 36, FENGLER teaches a method for simultaneously visualizing white light and visible fluorescent light from an object, comprising the steps of:
generating illumination light comprising white light and fluorescence excitation light ([0080] In some variations, a fluorescence imaging system for imaging an object may include: a white light provider that emits white light, an excitation light provider that emits excitation light in a plurality of excitation wavebands for causing the object to emit fluorescent light);
filtering the illumination light via a first optical notch rejection filter to remove excitation wavelengths (the optical assembly may include a filter that blocks light in the excitation wavebands and transmits at least a portion of reflected white light and fluorescent light from the object [0036]);
directing the filtered illumination light to the object via delivery optics ([0155] As shown in FIGS. 6A-6B, in some variations, the optical assembly may include a fluorescence excitation light blocking filter 610 that substantially exclude excitation light from reaching the image sensor.);
collecting reflected light from the object via imaging optics (FIG. 6A, the image sensor assembly may include a single sensor 640a [0164]);
filtering the reflected light using a fluorescence excitation light removal filter to block excitation light ([0027] In some variations, blocking light in the excitation wavebands and transmitting at least a portion of the reflected white light and fluorescent light may be performed by a filter that has an optical density of at least 4 for blocking substantially all light in the excitation wavebands.);
splitting the filtered reflected light into a white light path and a fluorescence path using a beam splitter (the optical assembly may comprise a beam splitter that separates the transmitted light into a first branch of reflected white light and a second branch of fluorescent light.);
further filtering the white light path using a second optical notch rejection filter (Fig. 4B);
filtering the fluorescence path using an optical notch pass filter ([0107] as shown in FIG. 12A, the two-sensor prism configuration may include a beam splitter 1200a that receives and spectrally divides incident light 1210 transmitted by the fluorescence excitation light blocking filter into a first branch toward a first sensor 1220 and a second branch toward a second sensor 1230.);
Fengler does not explicitly teach the following limitations, however, in an analogous art, Kuster teaches capturing images via a first camera for white light ([0072] The second light portion 20 passes through the band-stop filter 24. The reflected visible light of the second light portion 20' exiting the band-stop filter 24 is captured by a second sensor 25. The second sensor 25 may be a visible camera such as for example a charge coupled device (CCD).) and a second camera for fluorescence light (The fluorescence sensor 23 may for example be a fluorescence camera, for example, an NIR camera if the fluorescent emission bands are in the near infrared range. [0071]).
It would have been obvious for a person of ordinary skill in the art, before the effective filling date of the claimed invention, to take the teachings of Kuster and apply them to Fengler. One would be motivated as such as for improving the quality of the signals/image captured in a microscope (Kuster: [0028]).
Fengler in view of Kuster does not explicitly teach the following limitations, however, in an analogous art, Mak teaches selecting filters dynamically from a plurality of distinct filters via a filter wheel, slider, or tunable filter ([0057] The optical assembly 505 may also include one or more auxiliary optics (not shown) such as a filter wheel for selecting an optical filter for imaging. The filter wheel may hold one or more optical filters, for example an optical filter for fluorescence imaging. The filter wheel may also be motorized and may be controlled by the controller 530, to place a selected optical filter in the optical path.).
It would have been obvious for a person of ordinary skill in the art, before the effective filling date of the claimed invention, to take the teachings of Mak and apply them to Fengler in view of Kuster. One would be motivated as such as to place a selected optical filter in the optical path (Mak: [0057]).
Claim 40 is rejected under the same arts and evidence used to reject claim 36.
Conclusion
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to HESHAM K ABOUZAHRA whose telephone number is (571)270-0425. The examiner can normally be reached M-F 8-5.
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/HESHAM K ABOUZAHRA/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2486