Prosecution Insights
Last updated: April 19, 2026
Application No. 18/617,608

SPHERICAL SHEARLET-BASED COMPRESSION AND RECONSTRUCTION METHOD FOR THREE-DIMENSIONAL SCALAR INFORMATION

Non-Final OA §101
Filed
Mar 26, 2024
Examiner
ANSARI, TAHMINA N
Art Unit
2674
Tech Center
2600 — Communications
Assignee
ZHEJIANG UNIVERSITY
OA Round
1 (Non-Final)
86%
Grant Probability
Favorable
1-2
OA Rounds
2y 8m
To Grant
99%
With Interview

Examiner Intelligence

Grants 86% — above average
86%
Career Allow Rate
743 granted / 868 resolved
+23.6% vs TC avg
Strong +18% interview lift
Without
With
+17.9%
Interview Lift
resolved cases with interview
Typical timeline
2y 8m
Avg Prosecution
33 currently pending
Career history
901
Total Applications
across all art units

Statute-Specific Performance

§101
12.2%
-27.8% vs TC avg
§103
40.4%
+0.4% vs TC avg
§102
22.6%
-17.4% vs TC avg
§112
10.5%
-29.5% vs TC avg
Black line = Tech Center average estimate • Based on career data from 868 resolved cases

Office Action

§101
DETAILED ACTION Notice of Pre-AIA or AIA Status Claims 1-4 are pending in this application. 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. Information Disclosure Statement The information disclosure statement (IDS), submitted on March 26, 2024, is in compliance with the provisions of 37 CFR 1.97 and 1.98(a)(3) and MPEP 609.04(a)(III). There was one US PG Publication US PGPub US20180025535A1 to Lessig that was available in English, and as such this reference from the information disclosure statement is being considered by the examiner. However, applicant did not provide a translation for cited references of the Foreign Patent Documents or the Foreign Non-Patent literatures, which includes: “CN 116385642, CN 115690316, CN 115222914, CN 111880222, CN 107659314, CN 105957029 and the non-patent literatures cited by applicant” nor a translated abstract. These references include several foreign patents as well as an office action from a foreign patent office, and these documents may be pertinent and qualify as prior art for the presented claims. Applicant is requested to supply COMPLETE ENGLISH translations of these documents in order to ensure that they can be fully considered. Presently, these references have not considered by the examiner and has been lined through in the submitted information disclosure statement. Specification The title of the invention is not descriptive. A new title is required that is clearly indicative of the invention to which the claims are directed. 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 1-4 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 claimed invention is directed to a judicial exception (i.e., abstract idea – a mathematical concept or algorithm) without significantly more. (1) Are the claims directed to a process, machine, manufacture or composition of matter; (2A) Prong One: Are the claims directed to a judicially recognized exception, i.e., a law of nature, a natural phenomenon, or an abstract idea; Prong Two: If the claims are directed to a judicial exception under Prong One, then is the judicial exception integrated into a practical application; (2B) If the claims are directed to a judicial exception and do not integrate the judicial exception, do the claims provide an inventive concept. With regard to (1), the instant claims recite a method, therefore the answer is "YES". With regard to (2A), Prong One: “YES”. When viewed under the broadest most reasonable interpretation, the instant claims are directed to a Judicial Exception – an abstract idea belonging to the group of mathematical concept and/or an idea of itself for compression and reconstruction method for 3D scalar information. The step of “decomposing a three-dimensional space / partitioning V into nonintersecting concentric spherical layers / partitioning three-dimensional scalar data / selecting different probability measures / setting a spherical layer selection mechanism / extracting layer by layer / defining 1W as a characteristic function / decomposing, extracting and storing / decomposing, reconstructing data from each layer” is considered to be judicially recited mathematical concept/algorithm. The nature of these steps are clearly directed to an overall mathematical concept and there is nothing in the claim that requires more than an operation that a human, armed with the appropriate apparatus executing a mathematical algorithm (in this case “values”) can perform. With regard to (2A), Prong Two: No. The instant claims do not apply, rely on, or use the judicial exception in a manner that imposes a meaningful limit on the judicial exception of “spherical shearlet-based compression and reconstruction method for three-dimensional scalar information, applied to decomposing, extracting, storing and reconstructing scalar data including three-dimensional geometric data having a spherical distribution feature and random data satisfying certain probability distributions” and therefore does not integrate the judicial exception into a practical application. In particular, the claim includes additional elements as follows and includes using a processing apparatus to perform the following: a. A spherical shearlet-based compression and reconstruction method for three-dimensional scalar information, applied to decomposing, extracting, storing and reconstructing scalar data including three-dimensional geometric data having a spherical distribution feature and random data satisfying certain probability distributions, wherein the method comprises the following steps: (Preamble) b. step S1: decomposing a three-dimensional space or a set V into concentric spherical layers, ⋃i∈IVri,ri+1=V, and partitioning, layer by layer, scalar data information X distributed in the three-dimensional space, wherein V represents an entire three-dimensional real space R3, or a bounded set comprising to-be-processed data; c. partitioning V into nonintersecting concentric spherical layers Vri,ri+1, where i∈I, according to the scale or size s0 of a local feature that needs to be extracted, wherein ri+1-ri∝s0, ⋃i∈IVri,ri+1=V, and partitioning three-dimensional scalar data correspondingly into Xii∈I, where Xi represents data of X contained in the concentric spherical layers Vri,ri+1, an index set I represents a finite set or a countable set in modeling sense and a finite set in actual operation sense; d. and selecting different probability measures μ to adapt to different types of data, and letting the restriction of the probability measures μ on the concentric spherical layers Vri,ri+1 be dμVri,ri+1=Xidv, wherein an analyzed three-dimensional data distribution is a continuous distribution or a discrete distribution; e. step S2: setting a spherical layer selection mechanism FS:X→FSX=FSXii∈I+ based on a type of the three-dimensional scalar data X, and extracting, layer by layer, spherical information to be processed by a discrete spherical shearlet system; f. and defining 1W as a characteristic function of a set W in the three-dimensional space, and considering a data distribution X=Xc=cW∙1W, namely X is a non-zero constant cW on a locally connected space set W and almost everywhere zero on its complement Wc, wherein when each concentric spherical layer Vri,ri+1 of Vri,ri+1i∈I+ is fully refined, the to-be-processed data have expressions: PNG media_image1.png 193 795 media_image1.png Greyscale ; g. stepS3: decomposing, extracting and storing, by the discrete spherical shearlet system, the spherical data from each layer, to reconstruct data in the three-dimensional space, wherein the discrete spherical shearlet system has an expression: PNG media_image2.png 71 678 media_image2.png Greyscale where {ak}k≥1 represents a sampling of the positive real axis, ak monotonically approach zero; index α represents a degree of anisotropy, and the smaller a value of the index α is, the higher the degree of anisotropy is; and G represents a finite or countable discrete subset of an orthogonal group SO3, so that an integral of a square-integrable spherical function h on the orthogonal group SO3 has a discrete expression: PNG media_image3.png 72 536 media_image3.png Greyscale where z0 represents a selected pole on a sphere, and wj represents a weight; the discrete spherical shearlet system can be obtained from a single or a finite number of generation functions Sα through spherical dilation transform Da and spherical rotation on a discretized parameter set, wherein when Pl is a projection onto the space spanned by spherical harmonic functions of degrees n=1,⋯,l, and Sα satisfies a restriction condition: PNG media_image4.png 60 566 media_image4.png Greyscale h. where in the discrete spherical shearlet system Sj,kj,k has the function of stably decomposing and reconstructing spherical information and has an adjustable anisotropic support, namely, when S2 is a two-dimensional sphere and R symbolizes real domain, inputted spherical information Xs:S2→R after normalization has a reconstruction formula: PNG media_image5.png 104 601 media_image5.png Greyscale where L represents a positive integer, Xs represents a distribution or a random variable that satisfies a square integrable condition, and a spherical shearlet transform of Xsin discrete form has an expression: PNG media_image6.png 62 525 media_image6.png Greyscale where PlSj,k is calculated prior to performing the spherical shearlet transform; i. decomposing, reconstructing data from each layer by the spherical shearlet according to the formula (5a), and storing corresponding coefficients cj,ki,+j,k and cj,ki,-j,k obtained from the spherical shearlet transform. Step (a) is a preamble, while the steps (b) through (i) are all directed to different steps in an overall mathematical concept or algorithm that can be used in the operation to for spherical shearlet-based compression and reconstruction method for three-dimensional data, and is directed towards a recited judicial exception. Supplying “three-dimensional” data does not provide for “integration” of the mathematical algorithm into a practical application, as said “data” do not change the way in which said apparatus operates. In fact, there are no limits on the method for “compression and reconstruction”, which is recited at a high level of generality and the claim does not integrate the judicial exception into a practical application in the claim. With regard to (2B), the pending claims do not add a meaningful limitation to the overall judicial exception of a mathematical algorithm. At best, the pending claims merely apply the mathematical algorithm to 3D data, and generally link the use of the judicial exception to the overall field of 3D data. Dependent claims 2-4 are rejected for the same reasons; claims are directed to a judicial exception and do not integrate the judicial exception. Further examination on the merits is precluded until the claims are determined to directed towards statutory subject matter. Conclusion The prior art made of record in form PTO-892 and not relied upon is considered pertinent to applicant's disclosure. PNG media_image7.png 187 879 media_image7.png Greyscale Google Translation of CN 118697921. Sun, Yizhi. Thoughts on Harmonic Analysis on the Sphere: spherical wavelet frames and kernels. Diss. Dissertation, Berlin, Technische Universität Berlin, 2019, 2020. Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to TAHMINA ANSARI whose telephone number is 571-270-3379. The examiner can normally be reached on IFP Flex - Monday through Friday 9 to 5. If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner’s supervisor, O’NEAL MISTRY can be reached on 313-446-4912. The fax phone numbers for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned are 571-273-8300 for regular communications and 571-273-8300 for After Final communications. TC 2600’s customer service number is 571-272-2600. Any inquiry of a general nature or relating to the status of this application or proceeding should be directed to the receptionist whose telephone number is 571-272-2600. 2674 /Tahmina Ansari/ February 4, 2026 /TAHMINA N ANSARI/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2674
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Prosecution Timeline

Mar 26, 2024
Application Filed
Feb 04, 2026
Non-Final Rejection — §101 (current)

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Prosecution Projections

1-2
Expected OA Rounds
86%
Grant Probability
99%
With Interview (+17.9%)
2y 8m
Median Time to Grant
Low
PTA Risk
Based on 868 resolved cases by this examiner. Grant probability derived from career allow rate.

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