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 § 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 – 18 and 20 – 22 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Oyama (WIPO Patent Application Publication WO 2019/150515, IDS), in view of Ota et al. (Japanese Patent Application Publication JP 2020-179173, IDS), hereinafter referred as Ota.
Regarding claim 1, Oyama discloses a system for determining an oral care condition within an oral cavity (Fig. 1), the system comprising:
an intraoral device (Fig. 3, #20) comprising:
a light source configured to emit light within the oral cavity (Fig. 3, #24b); and
a camera configured to capture an image of at least one tooth and gums adjacent the at least one tooth within the oral cavity (Fig. 3, #24a); and
one or more processors (Fig. 6, #223) configured to:
receive the image of the at least one tooth and gums adjacent the at least one tooth (page 4, para. 2 from bottom);
differentiate the at least one tooth and the gums adjacent the at least one tooth as a tooth segment and a gums segment (page 4, para. 2 from bottom “The portable terminal 210 classifies the image received by the activated dedicated application software into various parts such as plaque, teeth, gums, and the like, and performs image processing”);
determine, via a computing algorithm, the oral care condition based on the gums segment input into the computing algorithm (page 4, para. 2 from bottom; page 9, paras. 2 – 3).
However, Oyama fails to explicitly disclose the system wherein input the gums segment into a machine learning model; and the determining is via a machine learning model.
However, in a similar field of endeavor Ota discloses an image processing system for detecting oral condition (abstract). In addition, Ota discloses the system wherein input the gums segment into a machine learning model; and determining oral care condition via a machine learning model (pages 5 - 6).
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify the invention of Oyama, and input the gums segment into a machine learning model; and the determining is via a machine learning model. The motivation for doing this is to automate, speed up, and improve quality for determination.
Regarding claim 2 (depends on claim 1), Oyama discloses the system wherein the camera is a consumer grade camera (Fig. 3, #24a).
However, Oyama fails to explicitly disclose the system wherein the machine learning model determines the oral care condition via a deep learning technique.
However, in a similar field of endeavor Ota discloses an image processing system for detecting oral condition (abstract). In addition, Ota discloses the system wherein the machine learning model determines the oral care condition via a deep learning technique (page 5, deep learning).
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify the invention of Oyama, and wherein the machine learning model determines the oral care condition via a deep learning technique. The motivation for doing this is to automate, speed up, and improve quality for determination.
Regarding claim 3 (depends on claim 1), Oyama discloses the system wherein the light source of the intraoral device comprises a plurality of light emitting diode (LED) lights, at least one of the LED lights surrounding the camera (page 5, para. 5, LED).
Regarding claim 4 (depends on claim 1), Ota discloses the system wherein the one or more processors is configured to populate the machine learning model via inputting, into the machine learning model, a plurality of training images comprising the at least one tooth and gums adjacent the at least one tooth within the oral cavity (pages 5 - 6).
Regarding claim 5 (depends on claim 1), Oyama discloses the system wherein at least one of the one or more processors are located on a mobile device or a server (Fig. 5 and 6).
Regarding claim 6 (depends on claim 1), Ota discloses the system wherein the one or more processors are further configured to determine degrees of severities of the oral care condition (page 6, last para.).
Regarding claim 7 (depends on claim 1), Ota discloses the system wherein the one or more processors is configured to:
manipulate the received image of the at least one tooth and gums adjacent the at least one tooth within the oral cavity, the manipulation of the received image comprising flipping the received image or cropping the received image (page 6, para. 4);
generate a new image of the at least one tooth and gums adjacent the at least one tooth within the oral cavity based on the flipping of the received image or the cropping of the received image (page 6, para. 4); and
input portions of the new image into the machine learning model (page 6, para. 4).
Regarding claim 9 (depends on claim 1), Oyama discloses the system wherein the intraoral device comprises: a body portion having a button configured to cause the camera to capture the image of the at least one tooth and gums adjacent the at least one tooth within the oral cavity; a neck portion housing the light source and the camera; and wherein the camera is located on a distal portion of the neck of the intraoral device (Fig. 3).
Regarding claim 10 (depends on claim 1), Ota discloses the system wherein the one or more processors are configured to cause the determined oral care condition to be displayed upon a display (page 10, para. 4).
Regarding claim 11 (depends on claim 1), Ota discloses the system wherein the oral care condition comprises at least one of gingivitis, plaque, receding gums, periodontitis, or tonsillitis (page 6, last para. to page 7, para. 3; page 8, para. 2).
Regarding claims 12 – 18 and 20 – 22, they are corresponding to claims 1 – 2, 4, 3, 5 – 7 and 9 – 11, respectively, thus, they are interpreted and rejected for the same reason set forth for claims 1 – 2, 4, 3, 5 – 7 and 9 – 11.
Conclusion
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to QIAN YANG whose telephone number is (571)270-7239. The examiner can normally be reached on Monday-Thursday 8am-6pm.
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/QIAN YANG/
Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2677