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 § 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, 2 6, 10, 11, 15, 19, 20 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Yuan (WO-2015164825-A1) in view of Zaitsev (US-20110148410-A1).
Regarding claim 1
Yuan discloses
A method for reconstructing images using a self-calibrated subspace reconstruction ([0065]), the method comprising:
receiving data acquired from a subject using a magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) system ([0004], main magnet is also inherent in any MRI machine);
generating aliasing-free low resolution images from at least a portion of the received data using temporally local low-rank matrix completion ([0038]—[0041]);
estimating a temporally global subspace using the images ([0066]); and
generating images from the received data using temporally global subspace reconstruction that utilizes the estimated temporally global subspace ([0066]—[0083], global subspace is k-space and that is turned into MRI images with inverse Fourier transform).
Yuan does not disclose
“generating aliasing-free low resolution images.”
Zaitsev, however, teaches
generating aliasing-free low resolution images ([0008]—[0011] & [0006] & [00118]).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to include the “alias-free, low resolution image facility” as taught by Zaitsev in the system of Yuan.
The justification for this modification would be to speed up image acquisition and also have an imaging technique that can image dynamic images such as blood flow and joint movement.
Regarding claim 10
Yuan discloses
A magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) system ([0034]), comprising:
a magnet system configured to generate a polarizing magnetic field about a portion of a subject positioned ([0004], main magnet is also inherent in any MRI machine);
a magnetic gradient system including a plurality of magnetic gradient coils configured to apply at least one magnetic gradient field to the polarizing magnetic field ([0124]);
a radio frequency (RF) system configured to apply an RF excitation field to the subject, and to receive magnetic resonance signals from the subject using a coil array ([0124], there are many “coils”, and so an “array”); and
at least one processor ([0006]) configured to:
direct the plurality of magnetic gradient coils and the RF system to perform a pulse sequence to acquire data from a subject ([0044] 3D MPRAGE is a gradient echo 3D pulse sequence);
generate images from at least a portion of the received data using temporally local low-rank matrix completion ([0038]—[0041]);
estimate a temporally global subspace using the images ([0066]); and
generate images from the received data using temporally global subspace reconstruction that utilizes the estimated temporally global subspace ([0066]—[0083], global subspace is k-space and that is turned into MRI images with inverse Fourier transform).
Yuan does not disclose
“generating aliasing-free low resolution images.”
Zaitsev, however, teaches
generating aliasing-free low resolution images ([0008]—[0011] & [0006] & [00118]).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to include the “alias-free, low resolution image facility” as taught by Zaitsev in the system of Yuan.
The justification for this modification would be to speed up image acquisition and also have an imaging technique that can image dynamic images such as blood flow and joint movement.
Regarding claim 11
Yuan in view of Zaitsev teach the MRI system according to claim 10,
Zaitsev, applied to claim 11, further teaches
wherein the at least one processor is further configured to generate a set of corrected high resolution images from the aliasing-free high resolution images (ABSTRACT & [0012]).
Regarding claim 2
The steps of the method claim 2 are met by the operation of apparatus claim 11.
Regarding claim 15
Yuan in view of Zaitsev teach the MRI system according to claim 10,
Zaitsev, applied to claim 15, further teaches
wherein the at least a portion of the received data is a set of central k-space data extracted from the received data ([0068]—[0069]).
Regarding claim 6
The steps of the method claim 6 are met by the operation of apparatus claim 15.
Regarding claim 19
Yuan discloses
A non-transitory, computer readable medium storing instructions ([0123]) that, when executed by one or more processors ([0006]), perform a set of functions, the set of functions comprising:
receiving data acquired from a subject using a magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) system ([0066]);
generating images from at least a portion of the received data using temporally local low-rank matrix completion ([0038]—[0041]);
estimating a temporally global subspace using the images ([0066]); and
generating images from the received data using temporally global subspace reconstruction that utilizes the estimated temporally global subspace ([0066]—[0083], global subspace is k-space and that is turned into MRI images with inverse Fourier transform).
Yuan does not disclose
“generating aliasing-free high resolution images.”
Zaitsev, however, teaches
generating aliasing-free high resolution images ([0008]—[0011] & [0006] & [00118]).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to include the “alias-free, low resolution image facility” as taught by Zaitsev in the system of Yuan.
The justification for this modification would be to speed up image acquisition and also have an imaging technique that can image dynamic images such as blood flow and joint movement.
Regarding claim 20
Yuan in view of Zaitsev teach the non-transitory computer readable medium according to claim 19,
Zaitsev, applied to claim 20, further teaches
wherein the at least a portion of the received data is a set of central k-space data extracted from the received data ([0068]—[0069]).
Claim(s) 3, 12 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Yuan (WO-2015164825-A1) in view of Zaitsev (US-20110148410-A1) in view of Jung et al. (US-20210298683-A1).
Regarding claim 12
Yuan in view of Zaitsev teach the MRI system according to claim 11,
Yuan in view of Zaitsev do not teach
“wherein generating a set of corrected high resolution images from the aliasing-free high resolution images comprises:
detecting one or more corrupted segments in the aliasing free high resolution images; and
excluding the corrupted segments from the aliasing-free high resolution images”.
Jung, however, teaches
wherein generating a set of corrected high resolution images from the aliasing-free high resolution images comprises:
detecting one or more corrupted segments in the aliasing free high resolution images ([0242]); and
excluding the corrupted segments from the aliasing-free high resolution images ([0058] & [0100]).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to include the “facility for removing corrupted segments” as taught by Jung in the system of Yuan in view of Zaitsev.
The justification for this modification would be to remove corrupted parts of the MRI data for better fidelity.
Regarding claim 3
The steps of the method claim 3 are met by the operation of apparatus claim 12.
Claim(s) 4, 13, 5, 14 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Yuan (WO-2015164825-A1) in view of Zaitsev (US-20110148410-A1) in view of Sommer (EP-3425416-A1).
Regarding claim 13
Yuan in view of Zaitsev teach the MRI system according to claim 10,
Yuan in view of Zaitsev do not teach
“wherein the pulse sequence is a magnetic resonance fingerprinting (MRF) pulse sequence, the acquired data from the subject is MRF data and the aliasing-free high resolution images are MRF images”.
Sommer, however, teaches
wherein the pulse sequence is a magnetic resonance fingerprinting (MRF) pulse sequence, the acquired data from the subject is MRF data and the aliasing-
free high resolution images are MRF images (¶ 14 – 16 under DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE EMBODIMENTS).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to include the “high resolution MRF images” as taught by Sommer in the system of Yuan in view of Zaitsev.
The justification for this modification would be to create an MRI technique that offers faster, more quantitative tissue analysis.
Regarding claim 4
The steps of the method claim 4 are met by the operation of apparatus claim 13.
Regarding claim 14
Yuan in view of Zaitsev teach the MRI system according to claim 10,
Yuan in view of Zaitsev do not teach
“wherein the pulse sequence is a multidimensional magnetic resonance fingerprinting (mdMRF) pulse sequence, the acquired data from the subject is mdMRF data and the aliasing-free high resolution images are mdMRF images”.
Sommer, however, teaches
wherein the pulse sequence is a multidimensional magnetic resonance fingerprinting (mdMRF) pulse sequence, the acquired data from the subject is mdMRF data and the aliasing-free high resolution images are mdMRF images (¶ 46 under SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION & (¶ 14 – 16 under DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE EMBODIMENTS).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to include the “multidimensional mdMRF” as taught by Sommer in the system of Yuan in view of Zaitsev.
The justification for this modification would be to create an MRI technique that offers faster, more quantitative tissue analysis and does this multidimensionally—2D or 3 D.
Regarding claim 5
The steps of the method claim 5 are met by the operation of apparatus claim 14.
Claim(s) 8, 17 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Yuan (WO-2015164825-A1) in view of Zaitsev (US-20110148410-A1) in view of Cunningham (CA-2833620-C).
Regarding claim 17
Yuan in view of Zaitsev teach the MRI system according to claim 10,
Yuan in view of Zaitsev do not teach
“wherein estimating the temporally global subspace using the aliasing-free low resolution images comprises performing singular value decomposition and truncation on the aliasing-free low resolution images”.
Cunningham, however, teaches
wherein estimating the temporally global subspace using the aliasing-free low resolution images comprises performing singular value decomposition and truncation on the aliasing-free low resolution images ([0049]).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to include the “singular value decomposition with truncation facility” as taught by Cunningham in the system of Yuan in view of Zaitsev.
The justification for this modification would be to improve the accuracy of the image-reconstruction process.
Regarding claim 8
The steps of the method claim 8 are met by the operation of apparatus claim 17.
Allowable Subject Matter
Claim 7, 9 & 16, 18 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.
Regarding claim 7
Nothing in the prior art of record teaches or discloses
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Regarding claim 9
Nothing in the prior art of record teaches or discloses
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Regarding claim 16
Nothing in the prior art of record teaches or discloses
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Regarding claim 18
Nothing in the prior art of record teaches or discloses
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Conclusion
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to FREDERICK WENDEROTH whose telephone number is (571)270-1945. The examiner can normally be reached M-F 7 a.m. - 4
p.m.
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If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner’s supervisor, Walter Lindsay can be reached at 571-272-1674. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300.
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/WALTER L LINDSAY JR/Supervisory Patent Examiner, Art Unit 2852
/Frederick Wenderoth/
Examiner, Art Unit 2852