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
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.
Claim(s) 1 and 9-20 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(1) as being anticipated by Zhou et al. (CN107015230B, Espacenet machine translation to English), hereinafter “Zhou”.
Regarding claim 1, Zhou teaches:
An ultrasound imaging method (See the Abstract.), comprising:
encoding initial ultrasound pulsed waves to obtain target ultrasound pulsed waves (See [0033]: “at the ultrasonic transmitter, encoding a pulse signal, then modulating a carrier wave with the encoded signal, and exciting an ultrasonic sensor with the modulated pulse excitation sequence;”.), and obtaining multiple sets of ultrasound echo data of a to-be-imaged area based on the target ultrasound pulsed waves (See [0093]: “The main controller is used to generate pulse excitation sequences and detect and process echo signals;”.), the number of cycles of each of the target ultrasound pulsed waves being greater (See Figs. 3e-f.) than the number of cycles of each of the initial ultrasound pulsed waves (See Fig. 3b.); and
decoding the multiple sets of the ultrasound echo data to obtain an ultrasound image sequence (See [0088]: “If crosstalk is mixed in the useful echo signal, the cross-correlation operation between the echo signal and the reference signal after the echo signal enters the correlation demodulator can suppress the influence of crosstalk on the ranging result. Therefore, choosing the m sequence can suppress ultrasonic crosstalk to a certain extent.”).
Regarding claim 9, Zhou teaches:
The method according to claim 1, wherein encoding the initial ultrasound pulsed waves to obtain the target ultrasound pulsed waves, comprising: obtaining a Walsh matrix; forming a waveform encoding matrix based on the Walsh matrix and delays of channels of the initial ultrasound pulsed waves; and encoding the initial ultrasound pulsed waves based on the waveform encoding matrix to obtain the target ultrasound pulsed waves (See [0084]: “Walsh sequences are a type of orthogonal sequence. Below, we select a Walsh sequence of length 16 that is balanced, where n1 = [1 -1 -1 1 -1 -1 1 1 -1 -1 1 1 -1 -1 1] and n2 = [1 1 -1 -1 -1 -1 1 1 -1 -1 1 1 1 1 -1 -1]. Its symbol width is 25 μs, the sampling frequency is more than 3 times the frequency of the reference signal, and a total of 58 points are collected. Observe the autocorrelation function of the reference signal after being encoded by n1 and n2, and the cross-correlation function between the useful echo signal and its respective reference signal after crosstalk is added.”).
Regarding claim 10, Zhou teaches:
The method according to claim 9, wherein before forming the waveform encoding matrix based on the Walsh matrix and the delays of channels of the initial ultrasound pulsed waves, the method further comprises: determining the delays of channels of the initial ultrasound pulsed waves based on the number of transmission angles and a maximum transmission angle of the initial ultrasound pulsed waves (See [0033]: “and the reference signal is continuously delayed to obtain the cross-correlation function peak value to obtain the transit time, thereby obtaining the distance.”).
Regarding claim 11, Zhou teaches:
The method according to claim 9, wherein the Walsh matrix is as follows: Wp,q=∏k=0M-1[R(k+1,q)]g(p)k wherein R(k+1,q) denotes a Rademaker function, g(p) denotes a Gray code of p, g(p)k denotes a k-th bit of the Gray code g(p), p denotes an index number of the number of times the initial ultrasound pulsed waves transmit, p =1, 2 to 2na, na denotes any one of 1, 2, 3 or 4, M denotes an order of the Walsh matrix,M=2na, and q denotes a continuous time variable (See [0084]. The examiner asserts that the described Walsh sequences encompasses these limitations.).
Regarding claim 12, Zhou teaches:
The method according to claim 11, wherein the target ultrasound pulsed waves are as follows: TWB(i,p)(1+j-1×NTW)toj×NTW=TWA(i,j)×Wp,q, where TWBi,p denotes the target ultrasound pulsed waves, i denotes an index number of an array element of a transducer, j denotes an index number of a transmission angle, TWAi,j denotes the initial ultrasound pulsed waves, and NTW denotes a length of the initial ultrasound pulsed wavesTWA(i,j) (See [0033]: “at the ultrasonic transmitter, encoding a pulse signal, then modulating a carrier wave with the encoded signal, and exciting an ultrasonic sensor with the modulated pulse excitation sequence;”. Then see [0061].).
Regarding claim 13, Zhou teaches:
The method of claim 12, wherein the order M of the Walsh matrix is equal to the number of transmission angles of the initial ultrasound pulsed waves (See [0084]: “Walsh sequences are a type of orthogonal sequence. Below, we select a Walsh sequence of length 16 that is balanced, where n1 = [1 -1 -1 1 -1 -1 1 1 -1 -1 1 1 -1 -1 1] and n2 = [1 1 -1 -1 -1 -1 1 1 -1 -1 1 1 1 1 -1 -1]. Its symbol width is 25 μs, the sampling frequency is more than 3 times the frequency of the reference signal, and a total of 58 points are collected. Observe the autocorrelation function of the reference signal after being encoded by n1 and n2, and the cross-correlation function between the useful echo signal and its respective reference signal after crosstalk is added.”).
Regarding claim 14, Zhou teaches:
The method according to claim 9, wherein encoding the initial ultrasound pulsed waves based on the waveform encoding matrix to obtain the target ultrasound pulsed waves comprises: encoding each channel of the initial ultrasound pulsed waves based on the waveform encoding matrix to obtain a transmission waveform of each channel; and obtaining the target ultrasound pulsed waves based on the transmission waveform of each channel (See [0033]: “at the ultrasonic transmitter, encoding a pulse signal, then modulating a carrier wave with the encoded signal, and exciting an ultrasonic sensor with the modulated pulse excitation sequence;”. Then see [0084]-- multiple sensors/channels are present.).
Regarding claim 15, Zhou teaches:
The method according to claim 9, wherein decoding the multiple sets of the ultrasound echo data to obtain the ultrasound image sequence comprises: obtaining an inverse matrix of the waveform encoding matrix to serve as a waveform decoding matrix; decoding each set of the multiple sets of ultrasound echo data based on the waveform decoding matrix to obtain multiple sets of radio frequency (RF) data, respectively; and performing beamforming on each set of the multiple sets of RF data based on transmission parameters of the initial ultrasound pulsed waves to obtain the ultrasound image sequence (See [0088]: “If crosstalk is mixed in the useful echo signal, the cross-correlation operation between the echo signal and the reference signal after the echo signal enters the correlation demodulator can suppress the influence of crosstalk on the ranging result.”).
Regarding claim 16, Zhou teaches:
The method according to claim 15, wherein: the waveform decoding matrix is the inverse matrix of the Walsh matrix; and the multiple sets of RF data are as follows: RFB(i,p)=∑j=1MRFA(i,j)×W'p,j wherein RFB(i,p) denotes the RF data, RFA(i,j) denotes the ultrasound echo data, and W'p,j denotes the inverse matrix of the Walsh matrix (See [0088]: “If crosstalk is mixed in the useful echo signal, the cross-correlation operation between the echo signal and the reference signal after the echo signal enters the correlation demodulator can suppress the influence of crosstalk on the ranging result.”).
Regarding claim 17, Zhou teaches:
The method according to claim 10, wherein the number of the transmission angles of the initial ultrasound pulsed waves is 2na, wherein na is any one of 1, 2, 3 or 4 (); or the maximum transmission angle is any value from 3 degrees to 24 degrees (See [0033]: “and the reference signal is continuously delayed to obtain the cross-correlation function peak value to obtain the transit time, thereby obtaining the distance.”).
Zhou teaches claim 18 for the reasons given in the treatment of claim 1.
Zhou teaches claim 19 for the reasons given in the treatment of claim 1.
Regarding claim 20, Zhou teaches:
An ultrasound imaging system, comprising: a waveform generator and an ultrasonic transducer, which are configured for generating and transmitting target ultrasound pulsed waves; and a computer device connected to the waveform generator and the ultrasonic transducer, wherein the computer device, when executing a computer program, performs steps of the method of claim 1 (See Figs. 1-2.).
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.
Claim(s) 2-8 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Zhou (CN107015230B, Espacenet machine translation to English) in view of Hashemseresht et al. (High-resolution and high-contrast ultrafast ultrasound imaging using coherent plane wave adaptive compounding, 2022, Biomedical Signal Processing and Control, Vol. 73, Pages 1-14), hereinafter “Hashemseresht”.
Claim 2 is met by the combination of Zhou and Hashemseresht, wherein
Zhou teaches:
The method according to claim 1, wherein: the to-be-imaged area comprises a target area (See [0026]: “d---Distance between the ultrasonic sensor and the object being measured”.); and the method further comprises:
Zhou does not disclose the following; however, Hashemseresht discloses:
performing cyclic polling-based coherent compounding on the ultrasound image sequence to obtain a plurality of target image sequences, each of the plurality of target image sequences comprising multiple single-angle unfocused wave images that are sequentially adjacent in the ultrasound image sequence; and processing the plurality of target image sequences separately for the target area to obtain a target-area image sequence capable of imaging the target area (See Fig. 2 and page 4, section 3.2: “As it can be seen from Eq. (4), to create the CPWC output, plane wave imaging (PWI) is done in the direction of different angles, the back scattered echoes reached to the array elements are beam-formed using the DAS method, and finally, the beam-formed RF data at different angles are coherently combined…As can be seen in this figure, after beamforming of the image data for each angle with DAS beamformer, we apply the adaptive angular weighting process for assigning a special value to each plane wave, and finally combined them coherently to create the final beam-formed data.”).
Zhou and Hashemseresht together disclose the limitations of claim 2. Hashemseresht is directed to a similar field of art (ultrasound image quality improvement). Therefore, Zhou and Hashemseresht are combinable. Modifying the system and method of Zhou by adding the capability of “performing cyclic polling-based coherent compounding”, as taught by Hashemseresht, would yield the expected and predictable result of improved resolution and contrast. Therefore, it would have been obvious to a person of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to combine Zhou and Hashemseresht in this way.
Claim 3 is met by the combination of Zhou and Hashemseresht, wherein
The combination of Zhou and Hashemseresht discloses:
The method according to claim 2, wherein, performing the cyclic polling-based coherent compounding on the ultrasound image sequence to obtain the plurality of target image sequences comprises:
And Hashemseresht further discloses:
determining a current target image sequence by selecting from single-angle unfocused wave images in the ultrasound image sequence; and determining a next target image sequence by selecting from the single-angle unfocused wave images in the ultrasound image sequence based on the current target image sequence, until the plurality of target image sequences are obtained, wherein the next target image sequence comprises at least one of single-angle unfocused wave images in the current target image sequence (See page 5: “Since reaching an acceptable image quality even with a limited number of angles, i.e., reducing the tradeoff between the image quality and the frame rate, is another important aim or advantage of this work, we also studied the proposed method for 25 angles randomly selected from the total 75 angles. This random sampling pattern (RSP) is defined as Eq. (12):”.).
See the motivation to combine in the treatment of claim 2.
Claim 4 is met by the combination of Zhou and Hashemseresht, wherein
The combination of Zhou and Hashemseresht discloses:
The method according to claim 2, wherein:
And Hashemseresht further discloses:
the to-be-imaged area further comprises a related area (See page 4, right column: “side lobes”. Side lobe artifacts meet the claimed “related area”.); and the method further comprises: performing coherent compounding on multiple sets of complex image sequences in the ultrasound image sequence to obtain relation image sequences, each set of complex image sequences comprising multiple single-angle unfocused wave images (See Fig. 2 and page 4, section 3.2: “As it can be seen from Eq. (4), to create the CPWC output, plane wave imaging (PWI) is done in the direction of different angles, the back scattered echoes reached to the array elements are beam-formed using the DAS method, and finally, the beam-formed RF data at different angles are coherently combined…As can be seen in this figure, after beamforming of the image data for each angle with DAS beamformer, we apply the adaptive angular weighting process for assigning a special value to each plane wave, and finally combined them coherently to create the final beam-formed data.”); and processing the relation image sequences separately for the related area to obtain a related-area image sequence capable of imaging the related area (See page 4, right column: “In addition to the weighting using the MV technique for improving the resolution, we also use the coherence factor (CF) to suppress the side lobes further.”).
See the motivation to combine in the treatment of claim 2.
Claim 5 is met by the combination of Zhou and Hashemseresht, wherein
The combination of Zhou and Hashemseresht discloses:
The method according to claim 4, further comprising:
And Hashemseresht further discloses:
splicing the target-area image sequence and the related-area image sequence to obtain a to-be-imaged-area complex image sequence (See Eq. 9 on page 4.).
See the motivation to combine in the treatment of claim 2.
Claim 6 is met by the combination of Zhou and Hashemseresht, wherein
The combination of Zhou and Hashemseresht discloses:
The method according to claim 5, further comprising:
And Zhou further discloses:
performing imaging on the to-be-imaged-area complex image sequence to obtain a to-be-imaged-area ultrasound image (See [0088]: “If crosstalk is mixed in the useful echo signal, the cross-correlation operation between the echo signal and the reference signal after the echo signal enters the correlation demodulator can suppress the influence of crosstalk on the ranging result. Therefore, choosing the m sequence can suppress ultrasonic crosstalk to a certain extent.”).
Claim 7 is met by the combination of Zhou and Hashemseresht, wherein
The combination of Zhou and Hashemseresht discloses:
The method according to claim 6, wherein, performing imaging on the to-be-imaged-area complex image sequence to obtain the to-be-imaged-area ultrasound image comprises:
And Hashemseresht further discloses:
multiplying the to-be-imaged-area complex image sequence by a conjugate thereof; and summing a product of the to-be-imaged-area complex image sequence and the conjugate thereof along the time dimension, and performing a logarithmic compression to obtain the to-be-imaged-area ultrasound image (See page 5, section 3.3: “where μf and μb are the average intensities, after logarithm compression (in dB), in the foreground and background regions”.).
See the motivation to combine in the treatment of claim 2.
Claim 8 is met by the combination of Zhou and Hashemseresht, wherein
The combination of Zhou and Hashemseresht discloses:
The method according to claim 5, wherein: processing the plurality of target image sequences separately for the target area comprises:
And Hashemseresht further discloses:
performing random singular value decomposition filtering on the plurality of target image sequences separately for the target area; or processing the relation image sequences separately for the related area, comprises: performing singular value decomposition filtering on the relation image sequences separately for the related area (See page 2, left column: “Wei Gue et al. [16] proposed the singular value decomposition (SVD) approach to reduce CPWC side lobes.”).
See the motivation to combine in the treatment of claim 2.
Contact
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to JONATHAN S LEE whose telephone number is (571)272-1981. The examiner can normally be reached 11:30 AM - 7:30 PM.
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/Jonathan S Lee/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2677
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