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 § 102
The following is a quotation of the appropriate paragraphs of 35 U.S.C. 102 that form the basis for the rejections under this section made in this Office action:
A person shall be entitled to a patent unless –
(a)(1) the claimed invention was patented, described in a printed publication, or in public use, on sale, or otherwise available to the public before the effective filing date of the claimed invention.
(a)(2) the claimed invention was described in a patent issued under section 151, or in an application for patent published or deemed published under section 122(b), in which the patent or application, as the case may be, names another inventor and was effectively filed before the effective filing date of the claimed invention.
Claims 1-10 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(1) and 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(2) as being anticipated by U.S. Patent No. 10,880,007 (“Hveding”).
Claim 1
Hveding discloses an automatic calibration method for distributed fiber optic sensing (DFOS) / distributed temperature sensing (DTS): operating a distributed fiber optic sensing (DFOS) / distributed vibration sensing (DVS) system to obtain calibration temperatures at a plurality of calibration points along an optical sensor fiber (col. 9, lns 37-57, calibration curve generated); operating a DFOS / distributed temperature sensing (DTS) system to obtain temperatures at one or more points along the length of the optical sensor fiber (col. 9, lns 37-57, reference temperature measurement); calibrating the temperatures obtained from DFOS/DTS using the calibration temperatures obtained via DVS (col. 9, lns 37-57, calibration curve applied).
Claim 2
Hveding discloses the method of claim 1 further comprising: measuring, using a thermometer, the calibration temperatures at the plurality of calibration points along the optical sensor fiber; applying, by a plurality of acoustic modems, mechanical vibrations representative of the calibration temperatures to the optical sensor fiber (col. 7, lns 7-21).
Claim 3
Hveding discloses the method of claim 2 wherein each individual one of the plurality of acoustic modems is located at a respective calibration point along the length of the optical sensor fiber (col. 7, lns 7-21).
Claim 4
Hveding discloses the method of claim 3 wherein the optical sensing fiber comprises a plurality of sections of optical sensor fiber, each section of the optical sensor fiber in optical communication with at least one other section of the optical sensor fiber (col. 9, lns 37-57).
Claim 5
Hveding discloses the method of claim 4 wherein each section includes at least two calibration points along the optical sensor fiber at which a calibration temperature is measured (col. 9, lns 37-57).
Claim 6
Hveding discloses the method of claim 5 wherein one of the at least two calibration points of each individual section is located at a beginning the individual section and another one of the at least two calibration points of the individual section is located at the end of the individual section (col. 7, lns 7-21).
Claim 7
Hveding discloses the method of claim 1 wherein the operating the distributed fiber optic sensing (DFOS) / distributed vibration sensing (DVS) system to obtain calibration temperatures at the plurality of calibration points along the optical sensor fiber is performed periodically (col. 7, lns 7-21).
Claim 8
Hveding discloses the method of 1 wherein the operating the distributed fiber optic sensing (DFOS) / distributed vibration sensing (DVS) system to obtain calibration temperatures at the plurality of calibration points along the optical sensor fiber and the operating the DFOS / distributed temperature sensing (DTS) system to obtain the temperatures at one or more points along the length of the optical sensing fiber are performed concurrently (col. 9, lns 37-57, simultaneous).
Claim 9
Hveding discloses the method of claim 1 wherein calibration points are located in temperature calibration zones each zone including a plurality of individual calibration points (col. 9, lns 37-57).
Claim 10
Hveding discloses the method of claim 4 wherein one or more calibration temperatures are obtained from each one of the plurality of sections (col. 9, lns 37-57).
Conclusion
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to ERICA S Y LIN whose telephone number is (571)270-7911. The examiner can normally be reached M-F 8-4, TW M,W.
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If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner’s supervisor, Douglas X Rodriguez can be reached at (571) 431-0716. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300.
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/ERICA S LIN/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2853