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 .
Priority
Acknowledgment is made of applicant’s claim for foreign priority under 35 U.S.C. 119 (a)-(d). The certified copy has been filed in parent Application No. JP2023-080762, filed on 05/16/2023.
Receipt is acknowledged of certified copies of papers required by 37 CFR 1.55.
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.
The factual inquiries for establishing a background for determining obviousness under 35 U.S.C. 103 are summarized as follows:
1. Determining the scope and contents of the prior art.
2. Ascertaining the differences between the prior art and the claims at issue.
3. Resolving the level of ordinary skill in the pertinent art.
4. Considering objective evidence present in the application indicating obviousness or nonobviousness.
Claims 1 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Zhu et al. (CN 109530955 A, hereinafter Zhu) in view of Yoneda et al. (JP 2008126274 A1, hereinafter Yoneda) and Brown et al. (US 5118193 A1, hereinafter Brown).
Regarding claim 1, Zhu discloses a sputter measurement system that measures a sputter flying from a molten portion that is melted during welding (Page 3, Para. 2, “welding image to measure droplet transfer behaviour of gas shielded welding wire”, and Page 7, Para. 2 from end, “the welding spatter 18 times > 20 times per second, judging the gas shielded welding wire 8 at this time is in short circuit transition state, unstable droplet transfer behaviour.”), the sputter measurement system comprising:
a camera that captures an image of an observation region including the molten portion (Page 6, Para. 3, “high speed camera 1 can collect the clear welding image 21.”, where the welding imaging includes the molten portion of the weld);
a spot light source that applies spot light toward the observation region from a side with respect to the observation region when viewed from the camera (Page 6, Para. 3, “The invention adopts luminous intensity higher than the electric arc 9 arc of the auxiliary light source 3 and (or) the auxiliary light source 4 and with optical filter system 2 to improve contrast of the welding image 21 to highlight the welding image 21 in drop 10 and the welding 18.”); and
a controller that measures the sputter based on the image captured by the camera (Page 4, Para. 1, “welding spatter generation times of > 20 times per second, determines gas shielded welding wire is in short circuit transition state at the moment, fused drop transition behaviour is not stable”, where the spatter amount can be determined through the image and controller which is included in the computer, Page 3, Para. 4-5, “welding image, the welding seam section forming the picture shooting gas shielded welding after welding; form) by transition form, size, frequency, and welding of fused drop computer detecting electric arc voltage and welding current signal of the standard deviation is σ, the welding splash in the image”).
Zhu does not disclose:
measuring a size of a sputter flying from a molten portion;
the spot light applies spot light toward the observation region from a lateral side with respect to the observation region when viewed from the camera;
a controller that measures the size of the sputter based on the image captured.
However, Yoneda discloses, in the similar field of spatter measurements (Abstract, “To accurately measure spatter generation and its behavior by using an image processing means”), where the size of a sputter is measured by a controller through the image captured (Page 3, Para. 4-5, “By recognizing spatter from the frame image in this way, it is possible to accurately grasp the occurrence of individual spatters under the above-mentioned arc welding conditions, and it is also possible to grasp properties such as the size and moving speed of each spatter. . In addition, by using all frame images from the start to the end of arc welding as the object of investigation, the amount of spatter generated by the arc welding can be measured.”, and Page 7, Para. 4, “sputter recognition means 50 are realized in the form of a program on a personal computer or workstation, but of course, an ASIC or FPGA that realizes these functions.”). It would have been obvious for one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filling date of the claimed invention to have modified the sputter amount measurement system from Zhu to include the determining the size of the sputters as taught by Yoneda.
One of ordinary skill in the art would have been motivated to make this modification in order to gain the advantage of being able to use the size information of the sputters to gain insight into the properties of the sputters, which can assist the user with understanding more about the sputters, as stated by Yoneda, Page 10, Para. 5, “Further, by extracting the feature amount in this way, the size and the like of each sputter P can be grasped. In this case, the recognized plurality of spatters P can be classified using various feature amounts as indexes, which is effective for grasping the properties of the sputters P.”.
Brown discloses, in the similar field of imaging an object and directing light towards the object (Abstract, “An apparatus and method for inspecting coatings on the surface of an object includes a light source of a ring light”), where the spot light applies spot light toward the observation region from a lateral side with respect to the observation region when viewed from the camera (Fig. 2, where the camera is shown to be directed in the Y-axis and the spot light is shown to be directed in the X-axis, where the spot light would be lateral to the observation region when viewed from the camera). It would have been obvious for one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filling date of the claimed invention to have modified the spot light in modified Zhu to further include a spot light that is lateral to the observation region as taught by Brown.
One of ordinary skill in the art would have been motivated to make this modification in order to gain the advantage of being able to use the lateral spot light to allow for even 360 degrees of illumination that can be used to inspect objects that have problems with glare, as stated by Brown, Section 2, lines 55-60, “The combination of the ring light 32 and light diffuser 30 produces even illumination 360 degrees around the object being inspected. While the drawings show axial electronic components, the lighting system disclosed could be used to inspect any object which has problems with glare.”.
Claims 2 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Zhu et al. (CN 109530955 A, hereinafter Zhu) in view of Yoneda et al. (JP 2008126274 A1, hereinafter Yoneda) and Brown et al. (US 5118193 A1, hereinafter Brown) in further view of Reiz et al. (EP 3550256 A1, hereinafter Reiz).
Regarding claim 2, modified Zhu teaches the apparatus according to claim 1, as set forth above.
Modified Zhu does not disclose:
further comprising a telecentric lens disposed between the molten portion and the camera.
However, Reiz discloses, in the similar field of imaging a weld area (Abstract, “Sensors of measuring positions along or around a sensor axis, • detecting the visible weld seam geometry or the data by means of sensor in each approached measuring position”), where a telecentric lens is disposed between the weld area and the camera (Page 4, Para. 4, “Preferably, the sensor is designed as a camera having a telecentric lens, which has a cylindrically extending field of view. In this type of lens, the difference to the standard lens which has a conical field of view is that it has a cylindrically extending field of view.”). It would have been obvious for one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filling date of the claimed invention to have modified the camera in modified Zhu to include a telecentric lens as taught by Reiz.
One of ordinary skill in the art would have been motivated to make this modification in order to gain the advantage of being able to not need to arrange the observation area directly in the center of the field of view of the lens, where this can allow a user to have more tolerance for the camera location, as stated by Reiz, Page 4, Para. 4, “In this type of lens, the difference to the standard lens which has a conical field of view is that it has a cylindrically extending field of view. As a result, the weld must be here not necessarily be arranged in the center of the field of view as in a standard lens, but the lens must be directed perpendicular to the weld or the optical axis of the lens must be directed at right angles to the pipe center axis.”.
Claims 3 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Zhu et al. (CN 109530955 A, hereinafter Zhu) in view of Yoneda et al. (JP 2008126274 A1, hereinafter Yoneda) and Brown et al. (US 5118193 A1, hereinafter Brown) in further view of Reiz et al. (EP 3550256 A1, hereinafter Reiz) and Yguerabide et al. (WO 03021853 A2, hereinafter Yguerabide).
Regarding claim 3, modified Zhu teaches the apparatus according to claim 2, as set forth above, wherein a position of the molten portion is included in a depth-of-field range of the telecentric lens (Teaching from Reiz, Page 4, Para. 4, “Preferably, the sensor is designed as a camera having a telecentric lens, which has a cylindrically extending field of view. In this type of lens, the difference to the standard lens which has a conical field of view is that it has a cylindrically extending field of view.”, where the camera is already able to view the observation area in Zhu and Reiz’s telecentric lens would only serve to extend the area of observation).
Modified Zhu does not disclose:
the sputter measurement system further comprising a member disposed between the molten portion and the spot light source, the member being provided with a slit for matching an application range of the spot light with the depth-of-field range of the telecentric lens.
However, Yguerabide discloses, in the similar field of capturing and analyzing images (Page 1, lines 19-20, “invention provides apparatus for capturing, processing and analyzing images of samples having resonance light scattering (RLS) particle labels.”), where between the observation area and the light source is a member with a slit that matches the application range of the spot light with the range of the camera lens (Modified Fig. 9, where the member with slit is shown between the spot light and observation area, where the light created matches the camera viewing location; Page 27, lines 11-13, “The illumination assembly includes, for example, illumination source 364 for generating light and line generator 366, such as a cylindrical lens, for producing a line of light 368 from the illumination source.”). It would have been obvious for one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filling date of the claimed invention to have modified the imaging system in modified Zhu to include the member as taught by Yguerabide.
One of ordinary skill in the art would have been motivated to make this modification in order to gain the advantage of being able to accommodate different camera lens and their viewing angles, where the line generator is used with a linear camera and the same could be applied for other camera lens shapes, as stated by Yguerabide, Page 28, lines 9-13, “However, camera 360 is, in this embodiment, a linear CCD camera, or alternatively a CMOS sensor for detecting a focused line of scattered light. The illumination assembly includes, for example, illumination source 364 for generating light and line generator 366, such as a cylindrical lens, for producing a line of light 368 from the illumination source.”.
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Modified Figure 9, Yguerabide
Conclusion
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to KEVIN GUANHUA WEN whose telephone number is (571)272-9940 and whose email is kevin.wen@uspto.gov. The examiner can normally be reached Monday-Friday 10:00 am - 6:00 pm.
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/KEVIN GUANHUA WEN/Examiner, Art Unit 3761
09/09/2026
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