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 .
This Office Action is responsive to remarks filed on 03/28/2024. Claims 1-18 are pending in the instant application. Claims 1, 17 and 18 are independent. An Office Action on the merits follows here below.
Priority
Receipt is acknowledged of certified copies of papers required by 37 CFR 1.55.
Specification
The abstract of the disclosure is objected to because the patent abstract should be concise statement that does not recite legal phraseology and should not merely recite an instant claim. Correction is required. See MPEP § 608.01[b].
Information Disclosure Statement
The information disclosure statement (IDS) submitted on 03/28/2024 is in compliance with the provisions of 37 CFR 1.97. Accordingly, the information disclosure statement is being considered by the examiner.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 102
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 (i.e., changing from AIA to pre-AIA ) 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.
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, 2, 4, 6, 17 and 18 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(1) as being anticipated by Oosake (US 20200193236 A1).
Regarding Claim 1: Oosake discloses a non-transitory computer readable recording medium storing instructions causing a computer to execute (Refer to para [002]; “The invention relates to a medical image processing device, a medical image processing method, and a non-transitory computer readable medium for storing a medical image processing program, and more particularly relates to a technique for performing a recognition process of a medical image by using a recognizer.”): extracting, from a medical image, an image region including a lesion candidate region obtained by processing the medical image (Refer to para [022]; “In the medical image processing device according still another aspect of the invention, each of the first recognizer and the second recognizer may detect a position of a lesion candidate from the medical image.”) causing a display to display the image region (“In this manner, it is possible to cause the display unit to display which region of the medical image the lesion candidate is in.”) and identifying a confirmation result of the image region (Refer to para [109, 115 and 148]; “Further, the recognition results expressed by bar graphs are displayed below the category classification by the information display control unit 45B.”).
Regarding Claim 2: Oosake discloses the instructions cause the computer to execute (Refer to para [002]; “The invention relates to a medical image processing device, a medical image processing method, and a non-transitory computer readable medium for storing a medical image processing program, and more particularly relates to a technique for performing a recognition process of a medical image by using a recognizer.”): identifying an interpretation determination result of the lesion candidate region in the image region (Refer to para [091]; “The recognition confidence level determination device 43 is a portion that determines the confidence level for the recognition result by the first recognizer 41, and the recognition confidence level determination device 43 calculates the confidence level from the recognition result (for example, scores of likeness to lesions) of the first recognizer 41, and in this example, determines whether the confidence level is “high” or “low”. The scores of likeness to lesions may be used as the confidence level.”).
Regarding Claim 4: Oosake discloses the instructions cause the computer (“a processor device 12”) to execute: displaying an indication (Refer to para [101]; “The image display control unit 45A causes the display unit 16 to display the video 38 and the static image 39 which are being captured…”) for confirming a state of the lesion candidate region (Refer to para [161]; “a medical image analysis processing unit that detects presence or absence of a target to be noticed, on the basis of a feature quantity of pixels of a medical image, and a medical image analysis result acquisition unit that acquires an analysis result of the medical image analysis processing unit.”) and associating the lesion candidate region with the indication (Refer to para [082]; “The first recognizer 41 detects a lesion (lesion candidate) on the image using the calculated feature quantity, and obtains a first recognition result of a category classification indicating which of a plurality of categories relating to a lesion, such as “neoplastic”, “non-neoplastic”, and “others” the medical image belongs to.”).
Regarding Claim 6: Oosake discloses the image region is configured as a plurality of image regions (Refer to para [023 and 024]; “In the medical image processing device according still another aspect of the invention, each of the first recognizer and the second recognizer may classify the medical image into any category of a plurality of categories relating to a lesion. In the medical image processing device according still another aspect of the invention, each of the first recognizer and the second recognizer may classify a plurality of lesion regions on the medical image into any category of a plurality of categories relating to a lesion. As the plurality of categories relating to the lesion, for example, there are categories such as “neoplastic”, “non-neoplastic”, and “others”.”) the image regions respectively include lesion candidate regions different from each other (Refer to para [089]; “Returning to FIG. 2, the second recognizer 42 has the same configuration as the first recognizer 41, and performs a recognition process of the captured image to obtain a second recognition result of a category classification or the like. However, the second recognizer 42 is different from the first recognizer 41 in that the recognition accuracy of the image is higher than that of the first recognizer 41, the operation load of the recognition process is greater than that of the first recognizer 41, and the time for the image recognition process becomes longer.”) and the instructions cause the computer to visually list the image regions (Refer to para [031]; “In a case where the recognition process by the second recognizer is performed, the confidence level for the recognition result (category classification) of the second recognizer may be lowered in some cases. In this case, in a case where the category classification with a low confidence level is presented to the user, there is a high risk of presenting an incorrect category classification. Thus, the category selection menu is displayed on the display unit so that the selection of the category classification by the user is received.”).
Regarding Claim 17: Oosake discloses medical image display apparatus (Refer to para [002]; “The invention relates to a medical image processing device, a medical image processing method, and a non-transitory computer readable medium for storing a medical image processing program, and more particularly relates to a technique for performing a recognition process of a medical image by using a recognizer.”) comprising a hardware processor (Refer to para [074]; “In this way, various control units are configured using one or more of the above-described various processors as hardware structures.”) that: extracts, from a medical image, an image region including a lesion candidate region obtained by processing the medical image (Refer to para [022]; “In the medical image processing device according still another aspect of the invention, each of the first recognizer and the second recognizer may detect a position of a lesion candidate from the medical image.”) causes a display to display the image region; (“In this manner, it is possible to cause the display unit to display which region of the medical image the lesion candidate is in.”) and identifies a confirmation result of the image region (Refer to para [109, 115 and 148]; “Further, the recognition results expressed by bar graphs are displayed below the category classification by the information display control unit 45B.”).
Regarding Claim 18: Oosake discloses a medical image display method (Refer to para [002]; “The invention relates to a medical image processing device, a medical image processing method, and a non-transitory computer readable medium for storing a medical image processing program, and more particularly relates to a technique for performing a recognition process of a medical image by using a recognizer.”), causing a hardware processor to execute: extracting, from a medical image, an image region including a lesion candidate region obtained by processing the medical image (Refer to para [022]; “In the medical image processing device according still another aspect of the invention, each of the first recognizer and the second recognizer may detect a position of a lesion candidate from the medical image.”) causing a display to display the image region (“In this manner, it is possible to cause the display unit to display which region of the medical image the lesion candidate is in.”) and identifying a confirmation result of the image region (Refer to para [109, 115 and 148]; “Further, the recognition results expressed by bar graphs are displayed below the category classification by the information display control unit 45B.”).
Allowable Subject Matter
Claims 3, 5, 7, 8 -16 are objected to as being dependent upon a rejected base claim, but would be allowable if rewritten in independent form including all of the limitations of the base claim and any intervening claims.
The prior art either singly or in combination does not teach, disclose or suggest at least the following claim limitation(s): “… obtaining a confirmation result of the lesion candidate region obtained by processing a second medical image at an identical site of an identical patient imaged before the first medical image, and comparing the confirmation result of the lesion candidate region on the first medical image with the confirmation result of the lesion candidate region on the second medical image, and the instructions cause the computer to execute changing a display mode of the image region in accordance with a comparison result.”
Conclusion
The prior art made of record and not relied upon is considered pertinent to applicant's disclosure:
Related Applications: 18/500536 (US 20240161231 A1) 18/318324 (US 20230377725 A1)
18/975336 (US 20250195021 A1)
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MIA M. THOMAS
Primary Examiner
Art Unit 2665
/MIA M THOMAS/Primary Examiner
Art Unit 2665