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 § 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, 4-5, 6-7, 9-12 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 101 because:
Eligibility Step 1 (MPEP 2106. 3, subsection II): The claims, after reviewing the entire application disclosure, considered as a whole, are determined to be directed to one of the statutory category (processes, machines, manufactures, and compositions of matter): A method/apparatus/system.
Eligibility Step 2A (MPEP 2106. 4, subsection II):
Prong One: The claims recite the limitation receiving a solar panel image to estimate of soiling losses. This step sequence as analyzed can “practically be performed in the Human Mind” with/without sketching on paper. As stated in MPEP 2106.04(a)(2), III. Mental Processes, “A claim that encompasses a Human Performing the step(s) mentally with or without a physical aid recites a mental process”; as a result, the claim recites a mental process that falls within at least one of the abstract idea groupings (MPEP 2106.04(a) Abstract Ideas: The enumerated groupings of abstract ideas: Mathematical concepts, Certain methods of organizing human activity, Mental processes). As a result, the claims recite a judicial exception.
Prong Two: The additional steps/actions/elements recited in the claims:
- outputting/displaying/storing/performing further estimation - (Insignificant post solution activity (MPEP 2106.05(g))
When viewed in combination of as a whole, the recited additional steps/actions/elements do no more than add insignificant extra-solution to the judicial exception. As a result, these additional steps/actions/elements do not integrate the judicial exception into a practical application because they do not impose any meaningful limits on practicing the abstract idea. These claims are therefore directed to an abstract idea.
Eligibility Step 2B (MPEP 2106. 5: Whether a claim amounts to significantly more):
The additional steps/actions/elements recited in the claims, outputting/displaying/storing/performing further estimation, are conventional steps in a determination process, do not add an inventive concept to the claim because they do is no more than adding insignificant pre-solution and post-solution activities to the judicial exception.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 102
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.
2. Claim(s) 1-2, 7, 12-15 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(1) as being anticipated by Anderegg (US 11611314).
Regarding to claims 1, 7, 12:
Anderegg discloses a computer-implemented method of analyzing soiling losses, the method comprising:
receiving an image of a surface of a solar panel (column 3, lines 40-43: Capture an image of the solar panel and receive the image of the solar panel);
analyzing the image to determine an estimate of soiling losses; and outputting the estimate of soiling losses (column 3, lines 43-45: Determine the likely cause of the deviation from the expected power range based further on the image of the solar panel).
Regarding to claim 2: further comprising at least one of forecasting energy production from the solar, assessing performance of the solar panel, and instructing a user to clean the solar panel or when to clean the solar panel (column 2, line 65 to column 3, line 7: Outputting an instruction to activate the automatic cleaning system based on the determined power outputted by the solar panel respects to the expected power range).
Regarding to claim 7: Inputting the image into a model, and using the model to analyze the image to determine the estimate of soiling losses (column 8, lines 58-67: One or more machine learning models to analyze the data).
Regarding to claim 12: receiving and preprocessing training data to train a machine learning model to estimate soiling loss (column 9, lines 1-13).
Regarding to claims 13-14: wherein the soiling loss comprises at least one of particle size, mass loading or area loading and wherein the soiling loss comprises an estimate of power loss.
(column 7, lines 39-49).
Regarding to claim 15: wherein the machine learning model is a convolutional neural network (column 8, line 58-67: The machine learning models generates the thresholds to determine the actions. The server includes one or more neural networks).
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) 3, 6, 8, 16-20 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Anderegg (US 11611314) in view of Chen et al. (US 2020/0134831).
Anderegg discloses the claimed invention as discussed above, but is silent wherein the image is a digital microscope image, and further comprising preprocessing the training data comprises performing thresholding operation on the plurality of images, performing random flips on one or more images, aggregating at least two of the plurality of images into a composite image, converting the plurality of images into binary images, and determining a plurality of pixel values for the plurality of images.
Chen discloses a process for image processing for training machine learning models comprising receiving microscopy images (paragraph [0021]), performing thresholding operation on the plurality of images (paragraph [0029]), performing random flips on one or more images for data augmentation (paragraph [0048]), aggregating at least two of the plurality of images into a composite image (paragraph [0019]), converting the plurality of images into binary images (paragraph [0019]), and determining a plurality of pixel values for the plurality of images (paragraph [0014]).
Therefore, it would have been obvious for one having ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify Anderegg’s method to include processing the images as disclosed by Chen for qualitative analyzing of image data involving to the application of image processing algorithms to a microscope image (paragraph [0003]).
CONTACT INFORMATION
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to LAM S NGUYEN whose telephone number is (571)272-2151.
Examiner interviews are available via telephone, in-person, and video conferencing using a USPTO supplied web-based collaboration tool. To schedule an interview, applicant is encouraged to use the USPTO Automated Interview Request (AIR) at http://www.uspto.gov/interviewpractice.
If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner’s supervisor, DOUGLAS RODRIGUEZ, can be reached on 571-431-0716. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300.
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/LAM S NGUYEN/ Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2853
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