DETAILED ACTION
The present application, filed on or after March 16, 2013, is being examined under the first inventor to file provisions of the AIA . 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 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.
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and the fee set forth in 37 CFR 1.17(e) has been timely paid, the finality of the previous Office action has been withdrawn pursuant to 37 CFR 1.114.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 03/24/2026 has been entered. Claims 1, 5, and 18 were amended. Claims 1-7, 9-12, and 14-22 are pending in the application.
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.
Claim(s) 1-7, 9-12, 14, 17-18, and 20 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Wu et al. (US 2019/0005306) in view of Beghtol et al. (US 2019/0188513), Sitton et al. (US 2018/0289317), Bohn et al. (US 6002124), and Patil et al. (US 2022/0087644).
Regarding claim 1, Wu teaches/suggests: A scanning device, comprising:
a body; a scanner coupled with the body (Wu Fig. 1: 3D scanner 110),
a
a processor (Wu Fig. 1: processor 120) configured to:
generate a three-dimensional model of the facial feature (Wu [0022] “the processor 120 receives the three-dimensional information to construct the corresponding facial three-dimensional model 200”).
Wu is silent regarding a camera. Beghtol, however, teaches/suggests a camera (Beghtol [0033] “a handheld scanner 302a containing a stereoscopic camera system 304a having a first camera module 306a and a second camera module 306b”). Before the effective filing date of the claimed invention, it would have been obvious for one of ordinary skill in the art to modify the 3D scanner of Wu to include the stereoscopic camera system of Beghtol for stereoscopy.
Wu as modified by Beghtol does not teach/suggest:
wherein the scanner is coupled with the device with a flexible connector configured to articulate the scanner;
Sitton, however, teaches/suggests:
wherein the scanner is coupled with the device with a flexible connector configured to articulate the scanner (Sitton [0144] “a flexible and/or articulated joint couplings, ranging from a simple single plane hinge to a ball-and-socket joint that affords a full 360° range of motion. Such flexible couplings ensure complete contact with the skin, particularly over contoured portions of the body”);
Before the effective filing date of the claimed invention, it would have been obvious for one of ordinary skill in the art to modify the 3D scanner of Wu as modified by Beghtol to include the flexible couplings of Sitton for contact scanning.
Wu as modified by Beghtol and Sitton does not teach/suggest:
a position sensor coupled to the scanner;
detect a position and a curvature of the facial feature based on the position sensor;
combine the plurality of images into a single image;
Bohn, however, teaches/suggests:
a position sensor coupled to the scanner (Bohn col. 2 ll. 7-20 “One type of hand-held scanner device may include a position sensing or 'navigation' system”);
combine the plurality of images into a single image (Bohn col. 2 ll. 7-20 “allow the various portions of the scanned image data to be 'stitched' together to form a single unitary image”);
Before the effective filing date of the claimed invention, it would have been obvious for one of ordinary skill in the art to modify the 3D scanner of Wu as modified by Beghtol and Sitton to include the position sensing system of Bohn for image stitching. As such, Wu as modified by Beghtol, Sitton, and Bohn teaches/suggests:
detect a position and a curvature of the facial feature based on the position sensor (Sitton [0144] “Such flexible couplings ensure complete contact with the skin, particularly over contoured portions of the body” Bohn col. 2 ll. 7-20 “determining the position of the hand-held scanner with respect to the object being scanned”);
Wu as modified by Beghtol, Sitton, and Bohn does not teach/suggest:
a user interface configured to provide a scanning guide, wherein the scanning guide comprises a graphical representation of the facial feature and an arrow indicating a direction to move the scanning device;
Patil, however, teaches/suggests:
a user interface configured to provide a scanning guide, wherein the scanning guide comprises a graphical representation of the aid the operator in achieving the right scan plane for acquiring images of relevant features of the patient's liver. The visual guidance cues may include, by way of illustration, one or more display elements (e.g., an arrow, a symbol, etc.) indicating a direction of and/or amount of pressure to apply to the probe and/or a direction to which to adjust a position of the probe ... a 3D model of a liver”);
Before the effective filing date of the claimed invention, it would have been obvious for one of ordinary skill in the art to modify the 3D scanner of Wu as modified by Beghtol, Sitton, and Bohn to include the display device of Patil to aid the scanning.
Regarding claim 2, Wu as modified by Beghtol, Sitton, Bohn, and Patil does not teach/suggest: The device of Claim 1, further comprising a light source configured to illuminate the facial feature. Bohn further teaches/suggests a light source (Bohn col. 1 ll. 45-63 “A typical hand-held optical scanner may include illumination and optical systems … the illumination system may include a light source”). Before the effective filing date of the claimed invention, it would have been obvious for one of ordinary skill in the art to modify the 3D scanner of Wu as modified by Beghtol, Sitton, Bohn, and Patil to include the light source of Bohn for illumination.
As such, Wu as modified by Beghtol, Sitton, Bohn, and Patil teaches/suggests a light source configured to illuminate the facial feature (Wu [0021] “the three-dimensional scanner 110 scans the face in a non-contact scanning way and generates the three-dimensional information corresponding to the face” Bohn col. 1 ll. 45-63 “A typical hand-held optical scanner may include illumination and optical systems … the illumination system may include a light source”).
Regarding claim 3, Wu as modified by Beghtol, Sitton, Bohn, and Patil teaches/suggests: The device of Claim 1, wherein the camera is a first camera, and the device further comprises a second camera (Beghtol Fig. 3A: camera modules 306A and 306B). The same rationale to combine as set forth in the rejection of claim 3 is incorporated herein.
Regarding claim 4, Wu as modified by Beghtol, Sitton, Bohn, and Patil teaches/suggests: The device of Claim 3, wherein the first camera is located on a first side of the scanner, and the second camera is located on a second side opposite the first side of the scanner (Beghtol Fig. 3A: camera modules 306A and 306B). The same rationale to combine as set forth in the rejection of claim 3 is incorporated herein.
Regarding claim 5, Wu as modified by Beghtol, Sitton, Bohn, and Patil teaches/suggests: The device of Claim 1, wherein the scanning guide further comprises one or more alerts (Patil [0068] “The visual guidance cues may include, by way of illustration, one or more display elements (e.g., an arrow, a symbol, etc.) indicating a direction of and/or amount of pressure to apply to the probe and/or a direction to which to adjust a position of the probe, textual instructions to adjust one or more scan settings of the ultrasound imaging system, etc.”). The same rationale to combine as set forth in the rejection of claim 1 is incorporated herein.
Regarding claim 6, Wu as modified by Beghtol, Sitton, Bohn, and Patil teaches/suggests: The device of Claim 1, wherein the facial feature is an eyebrow, an eye, a mouth, a nose, a wrinkle, or acne (Wu [0021] “The three-dimensional information includes facial information, such as a facial shape, a distance between two eyes, an ear shape, a nasion height, a lip shape and an eyebrow shape”).
Regarding claim 7, Wu as modified by Beghtol, Sitton, Bohn, and Patil teaches/suggests: The device of Claim 1, wherein the position sensor is configured to contact a surface as the position sensor rolls over the surface and measure a curvature of the surface (Sitton [0144] “Such flexible couplings ensure complete contact with the skin, particularly over contoured portions of the body” Bohn col. 2 ll. 7-20 “determining the position of the hand-held scanner with respect to the object being scanned”). The same rationale to combine as set forth in the rejection of claim 1 is incorporated herein.
Regarding claim 9, Wu as modified by Beghtol, Sitton, Bohn, and Patil teaches/suggests: The device of Claim 1, wherein the flexible connector is a pivot, a hinge, or a joint (Sitton [0144] “a flexible and/or articulated joint couplings, ranging from a simple single plane hinge to a ball-and-socket joint that affords a full 360° range of motion”). The same rationale to combine as set forth in the rejection of claim 1 is incorporated herein.
Regarding claim 10, Wu, Beghtol, Sitton, Bohn, and Patil are silent regarding: The device of Claim 1, wherein the position sensor is an accelerometer. However, official notice is taken that the concept and advantages of an accelerometer are well known and expected in the art. It would have been obvious for the position sensing system of Wu as modified by Beghtol, Sitton, Bohn, and Patil to include an accelerometer to determine the position of the scanner.
Claim 11 recites limitation(s) similar in scope to those of claim 1, and is rejected for the same reason(s).
Regarding claim 12, Wu as modified by Beghtol, Sitton, Bohn, and Patil teaches/suggests: The method of Claim 11, wherein detecting the position of the facial feature comprises detecting a curvature of the facial feature with the position sensor (Sitton [0144] “Such flexible couplings ensure complete contact with the skin, particularly over contoured portions of the body” Bohn col. 2 ll. 7-20 “determining the position of the hand-held scanner with respect to the object being scanned”). The same rationale to combine as set forth in the rejection of claim 1 is incorporated herein.
Regarding claim 14, Wu as modified by Beghtol, Sitton, Bohn, and Patil teaches/suggests: The method of Claim 11, further comprising:
illuminating the facial feature before taking the plurality of images (Wu [0021] “the three-dimensional scanner 110 scans the face in a non-contact scanning way and generates the three-dimensional information corresponding to the face” Bohn col. 1 ll. 45-63 “A typical hand-held optical scanner may include illumination and optical systems … the illumination system may include a light source”).
The same rationale to combine as set forth in the rejection of claim 2 is incorporated herein.
Regarding claim 17, Wu as modified by Beghtol, Sitton, Bohn, and Patil teaches/suggests: The method of Claim 14, further comprising:
directing the scanning device to move in a direction over the facial feature (Wu [0021] “the three-dimensional scanner 110 scans the face in a non-contact scanning way and generates the three-dimensional information corresponding to the face” Patil [0068] “The visual guidance cues may include, by way of illustration, one or more display elements (e.g., an arrow, a symbol, etc.) indicating a direction of and/or amount of pressure to apply to the probe and/or a direction to which to adjust a position of the probe”).
The same rationale to combine as set forth in the rejection of claim 1 is incorporated herein.
Regarding claim 18, Wu as modified by Beghtol, Sitton, Bohn, and Patil teaches/suggests: The method of Claim 17, further comprising:
displaying the scanning guide on the user interface of the scanning device (Patil [0068] “the processor may display visual guidance cues on a display device of the ultrasound system (e.g., the display device 118 of the ultrasound system 100 of FIG. 1) to aid the operator in achieving the right scan plane for acquiring images of relevant features of the patient's liver”).
The same rationale to combine as set forth in the rejection of claim 1 is incorporated herein.
Regarding claim 20, Wu as modified by Beghtol, Sitton, Bohn, and Patil teaches/suggests: The method of Claim 18, wherein the scanning guide comprises a graphical representation of the facial feature and an arrow pointing in the direction a user can move the scanning device (Wu [0021] “the three-dimensional scanner 110 scans the face in a non-contact scanning way and generates the three-dimensional information corresponding to the face” Patil [0068] “The visual guidance cues may include, by way of illustration, one or more display elements (e.g., an arrow, a symbol, etc.) indicating a direction of and/or amount of pressure to apply to the probe and/or a direction to which to adjust a position of the probe ... a 3D model of a liver”). The same rationale to combine as set forth in the rejection of claim 1 is incorporated herein.
Claim(s) 15 and 16 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Wu et al. (US 2019/0005306) in view of Beghtol et al. (US 2019/0188513), Sitton et al. (US 2018/0289317), Bohn et al. (US 6002124), and Patil et al. (US 2022/0087644) as applied to claim 14 above, and further in view of Gao et al. (US 2022/0232138).
Regarding claim 15, Wu as modified by Beghtol, Sitton, Bohn, and Patil does not teach/suggest: The method of Claim 14, further comprising:
detecting a lighting of the facial feature; and
when the lighting is below a threshold, illuminating the facial feature with a light source on the scanning device.
Gao, however, teaches/suggests:
detecting a lighting of the
when the lighting is below a threshold, illuminating the activated when needed”).
Before the effective filing date of the claimed invention, it would have been obvious for one of ordinary skill in the art to modify the 3D scanner of Wu as modified by Beghtol, Sitton, Bohn, and Patil to include the light source of Gao for illumination.
Regarding claim 16, Wu as modified by Beghtol, Sitton, Bohn, and Patil does not teach/suggest: The method of Claim 14, further comprising:
detecting a lighting of the facial feature; and
when the lighting is below a threshold, issuing an alert to illuminate the facial feature.
Gao, however, teaches/suggests:
detecting a lighting of the
when the lighting is below a threshold, illuminate the activated when needed”).
The same rationale to combine as set forth in the rejection of claim 15 is incorporated herein. As such, Wu as modified by Beghtol, Sitton, Bohn, Patil, and Gao teaches/suggests:
when the lighting is below a threshold, issuing an alert to illuminate the facial feature (Wu [0021] “the three-dimensional scanner 110 scans the face in a non-contact scanning way and generates the three-dimensional information corresponding to the face” Patil [0068] “The visual guidance cues may include, by way of illustration, … textual instructions to adjust one or more scan settings of the ultrasound imaging system, etc.” Gao [0031] “temporarily activating the light source and the imager in response to a triggering event, such as … comparing an ambient light to an illumination threshold … the light can be activated when needed”).
Claim(s) 19 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Wu et al. (US 2019/0005306) in view of Beghtol et al. (US 2019/0188513), Sitton et al. (US 2018/0289317), Bohn et al. (US 6002124), and Patil et al. (US 2022/0087644) as applied to claim 18 above, and further in view of Baldwin et al. (US 2018/0367732).
Regarding claim 19, Wu as modified by Beghtol, Sitton, Bohn, and Patil teaches/suggests: The method of Claim 18, wherein the scanning guide comprises an arrow pointing in a direction a user can move the scanning device (Wu [0021] “the three-dimensional scanner 110 scans the face in a non-contact scanning way and generates the three-dimensional information corresponding to the face” Patil [0068] “The visual guidance cues may include, by way of illustration, one or more display elements (e.g., an arrow, a symbol, etc.) indicating a direction of and/or amount of pressure to apply to the probe and/or a direction to which to adjust a position of the probe”). The same rationale to combine as set forth in the rejection of claim 1 is incorporated herein.
Wu as modified by Beghtol, Sitton, Bohn, and Patil does not teach/suggest the scanning guide comprises one or more of the plurality of images of the facial feature. Baldwin, however, teaches/suggests the scanning guide comprises one or more of the plurality of images of the facial feature (Baldwin [0027] “the visual cues can include an arrow 206 overlaid on a display element of the computing device originating from the center of the current image being captured and pointing in the direction of the scan”). Before the effective filing date of the claimed invention, it would have been obvious for one of ordinary skill in the art to modify the visual cues of Wu as modified by Beghtol, Sitton, Bohn, and Patil to include the captured images as taught/suggested by Baldwin to aid the scanning.
Claim(s) 21 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Wu et al. (US 2019/0005306) in view of Beghtol et al. (US 2019/0188513), Sitton et al. (US 2018/0289317), Bohn et al. (US 6002124), and Patil et al. (US 2022/0087644) as applied to claim 1 above, and further in view of Flugge et al. (US 8998090).
Regarding claim 21, Wu as modified by Beghtol, Sitton, Bohn, and Patil does not teach/suggest: The device of Claim 1, wherein the device further comprises a scanning window configured to allow internal scanning components to visualize the facial feature. Flugge, however, teaches/suggests a scanning window configured to allow internal scanning components to visualize the align the scanner 22 with the mark 38 or features of the mark”). Before the effective filing date of the claimed invention, it would have been obvious for one of ordinary skill in the art to modify the 3D scanner of Wu as modified by Beghtol, Sitton, Bohn, and Patil to include the scan window of Flugge for alignment.
Claim(s) 22 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Wu et al. (US 2019/0005306) in view of Beghtol et al. (US 2019/0188513), Sitton et al. (US 2018/0289317), Bohn et al. (US 6002124), and Patil et al. (US 2022/0087644) as applied to claim 1 above, and further in view of Lin (US 2007/0115515).
Regarding claim 22, Wu as modified by Beghtol, Sitton, Bohn, and Patil does not teach/suggest: The device of Claim 1, wherein the device further comprises one or more spacers configured to contact a surface and provide a distance between the scanner and the surface. Lin, however, teaches/suggests one or more spacers (Lin [0028] “The spacer portions 111 substantially contact the transparent plate 105 to separate the transparent plate 105 from the scan module 102 by a preset distance”). Before the effective filing date of the claimed invention, it would have been obvious for one of ordinary skill in the art to modify the 3D scanner of Wu as modified by Beghtol, Sitton, Bohn, and Patil to include the spacers of Lin for buffering.
As such, Wu as modified by Beghtol, Sitton, Bohn, Patil, and Lin teaches/suggests one or more spacers configured to contact a surface and provide a distance between the scanner and the surface (Sitton [0144] “Such flexible couplings ensure complete contact with the skin, particularly over contoured portions of the body” Lin [0028] “The spacer portions 111 substantially contact the transparent plate 105 to separate the transparent plate 105 from the scan module 102 by a preset distance”).
Response to Arguments
Applicant's arguments filed on 03/24/2026 have been fully considered but they are moot in view of the new ground(s) of rejection set forth in this Office action.
Conclusion
The prior art made of record and not relied upon is considered pertinent to applicant's disclosure:
US 2016/0101572 – visual cues
US 2020/0188030 – visual instructions
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to ANH-TUAN V NGUYEN whose telephone number is 571-270-7513. The examiner can normally be reached on M-F 9AM-5PM ET. 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, JASON CHAN can be reached on 571-272-3022. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300.
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/ANH-TUAN V NGUYEN/
Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2619
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