DETAILED ACTION
Applicant's amendment of June 3, 2026 overcomes the following:
Drawing objections
Specification objections
Applicant has amended claims 1-4 and 12. Claims 1-15 and 59-60 are pending.
Drawings
Replacement drawings were received on June 3, 2026. These drawings are acceptable.
Response to Arguments
Applicant’s arguments filed on June 3, 2026 with respect to amended claims is acknowledged. However, although claim amendment of June 3, 2026 addressed most indefinite issues previously set forth in the last Office action (OA), some indefinite issues related to independent claim 1 remain, as indicated below.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 112
The following is a quotation of 35 U.S.C. 112(b):
(b) CONCLUSION.—The specification shall conclude with one or more claims particularly pointing out and distinctly claiming the subject matter which the inventor or a joint inventor regards as the invention.
The following is a quotation of 35 U.S.C. 112 (pre-AIA ), second paragraph:
The specification shall conclude with one or more claims particularly pointing out and distinctly claiming the subject matter which the applicant regards as his invention.
Claims 1-15 and 59-60 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 112(b) or 35 U.S.C. 112 (pre-AIA ), second paragraph, as being indefinite for failing to particularly point out and distinctly claim the subject matter which the inventor or a joint inventor (or for applications subject to pre-AIA 35 U.S.C. 112, the applicant), regards as the invention.
Claim 1 recites the limitation “extracting the cross-modal feature from the aligned feature image… wherein each cross-modal feature comprises a cross-modal feature parameter” in lines 13-14 of the claim. However, examiner cannot clearly ascertain which one of the claimed “plurality of cross-modal features” recited in line 3 of the claim corresponds to the claimed “the cross-modal feature” recited in lines 13-14 of the claim because the claimed “cross-modal features” term recited in line 3 of the claim, and the claimed “cross-modal feature parameter” term recited in lines 4-5 of the claim, respectively, are not clearly defined, or differentiated, by the claims. Therefore, it is not clear how the claimed “cross-modal feature parameter” recited in lines 4-14 of the claim relates to the claimed “plurality of cross-modal features” previously recited in lines 3-5 of the claim because neither are defined by the claim(s). Additionally, it is not clear if the claimed “a cross-modal feature parameter” recited in line 14 of the claim encompass embodiments corresponding to the claimed “at least one cross-modal feature parameter” previously recited in lines 4-5 of the claim, or if the claimed “a cross-modal feature parameter” recited in line 14 of the claim encompass embodiments corresponding to another “cross-modal feature parameter” different from the claimed “at least one cross-modal feature parameter” previously recited in lines 4-5 of the claim, for example.
Therefore, based on above, the metes and bounds of the claim are not clearly set forth and the examiner cannot clearly determine which elements are encompassed by the claim language, which renders the claim indefinite.
Claims 2-15 and 59-60 are rejected by virtue of being dependent upon rejected base claim 1.
Conclusion
The prior art made of record cited in PTO-892 and not relied upon is considered pertinent to applicant's disclosure.
In particular, US 2014/0254900 A1 (Sturm et al.), Applicant cited prior art furnished via IDS, appears to disclose an inventive concept similar to applicant's claimed invention. For example, 2014/0254900 A1 discloses “aligning the first coordinate space and the second coordinate space, thereby combining information from the first modality and the second modality into a combined data set… The alignment of positional data from multiple imaging modalities is typically referred to as co-registration. Co-registration generally refers to any method of re-aligning images, and in particular aligning or overlaying images from different modalities. Co-registration is often used to overlay structural and functional images as well as link functional scans to anatomical scans. The co-registration of images and positional data from multiple imaging modalities is known in the art… exemplary method of co-registration is now described which uses x-ray fluoroscopy and intravascular ultrasound to obtain a co-registered intravascular data set. The invention, however, encompasses any and all imaging modalities, including without limitation, intravascular ultrasound (IVUS), optical coherence tomography (OCT), x-ray angiography, Computerized Tomography (CT) angiography, and Magnetic Resonance (MR) angiography… co-registration processor 30 receives IVUS image data from the catheter image processor 26 via line 32 and radiological image data from the radiological image processor 18 via line 34… The co-registration processor 30 renders a co-registration image including both radiological and IVUS image frames derived from the received image data… individually rendered frames of stored image data are appropriately tagged (e.g., time stamp, sequence number, etc.) to correlate IVUS image frames and corresponding radiological (radiopaque marker) image data frames… Once the co-registered set of data is obtained, for example, by using the methods described above, the co-registered set of data can then be applied to facilitate detecting a feature of interest in a given modality… this may comprise using the co-registered data set to train a search algorithm for detecting the feature of interest in a given modality… Features are extracted from both and aligned to obtain a co-registered data set”, for example.
Also, US 2011/0280455 A1 (Alexandrov et al.) discloses “invention relates to the spatially resolved determination of the nature and state of a tissue from spatially resolved mass spectra of a tissue section… the quality of spatially resolved tissue states is improved by a method involving the following steps… (a) acquisition of spatially resolved mass spectra of a tissue section or parts of a tissue section… (b) generation of at least two mass images from the spatially resolved mass spectra, the mass images comprising the ion current signals of predetermined mass intervals… (c) smoothing of the mass images using a smoothing algorithm with smoothing parameters, and… (d) calculation of a status image from the smoothed mass images by means of a classification algorithm derived from mathematical statistics… For an evaluation, several of the spatially resolved mass spectra of a tissue section can be used as input data; mass spectra of partial regions may be selected on account of additionally available information, e.g. from light-optical images of the tissue section, and thus different types of tissue or regions of diseased and healthy tissue may be taken into account. The selection of mass intervals in the spatially resolved mass spectra, with which an iterative optimization process is started, can be done in different ways… a status image (50) is calculated from spatially resolved mass spectra (20) of a tissue section (1)… the tissue section (1) is prepared on a sample support (2), and spatially resolved mass spectra S(x,y,m) (20) of the tissue section (1) are acquired… ions (5) generated by the individual MALDI processes are analyzed in a time-of-flight mass spectrometer (not shown) with axial ion injection so that a spatially resolved mass spectrum… from summed individual spectra is assigned to every pixel… Another way of viewing all the spatially resolved mass spectra S(x,y,m) (20) consists in dividing the mass spectra into mass intervals so that the signals in one mass interval m, produce a two-dimensional mass image… and the spatially resolved mass spectra S(x,y,m) (20) are composed of a large number of mass images… mass images are selected from the spatially resolved mass spectra” in Par. [0001-34], for example.
Additionally, US 2019/0307390 A1 (Bawendi et al.) discloses “detecting disease states… determining a progression state for a patient may be useful for monitoring disease states in patients to determine if treatment and/or therapy is necessary. For example, based on a progression state of a patient, the likelihood of disease presence, disease severity, possible treatments and/or medications, as well as follow up frequency (e.g., every three months, six months, etc.) may be determined. Further, due to the relatively noninvasive nature and specificity of the disclosed methods, the methods described herein may decrease the risk of associated errors in disease diagnosis or prognosis (e.g., sample-error), decrease the need for invasive procedures, and improve both pre-clinical testing and in-treatment options for patients… a progression state of a patient may be used to either provide a determination of a stage or extent of an identified disease state and/or may be used to recommend a course of treatment (e.g., to a medical practitioner). For example, a controller of a device may make the comparison between the detected autofluorescence signals to the stored autofluorescence intensity thresholds and/or area thresholds to determine both a particular disease state and progression state. The controller may then output the identified disease state and/or progression state along with a recommended course of treatment… depending on the particular disease state and progression state, recommended courses of treatment may include treatment options, recommending biopsy or other diagnostic procedures, frequency of monitoring (e.g. monitor every 3 months, 6 months, etc.), and/or any other appropriate treatment option - detection of lipopigments by NIR/SWIR autofluorescence in stained and unstained tissue. Most healthy tissue has very little autofluorescence in the NIR and SWIR wavelength ranges. Lipopigments (e.g., lipofuscin and/or ceroid), however, can emit NIR- and SWIR-light, resulting in elevated NIR/SWIR autofluorescence signals under particular disease conditions, providing disease-correlated contrasted images. For example, FIGS. 6A and 6B show spatially-resolved emission detection via microscopy of cirrhotic liver tissue for wavelengths corresponding to the Cy5 channel and NIR/SWIR channel shown in FIG. 8 which shows a diagram of the excitation and emission wavelengths for each microscope filter cube setting. In FIG. 8, for each channel, the excitation wavelengths are represented by the band on the left and the emission wavelengths are represented by the band on the right. Comparatively, FIGS. 7A and 7B show spatially-resolved emission detection via microscopy of formaldehyde-fixed, paraffin-embedded cirrhotic liver tissue with a Sudan Black B stain, which quenched visible wavelength emission of lipofuscin/ceroid through absorption” in Par. [0003-105], for example.
However, due to the inability to determine a reasonable interpretation of the claims, as indicated above, no prior art rejection or determination of allowability over the prior art was possible during examination.
THIS ACTION IS MADE FINAL.
Applicant is reminded of the extension of time policy as set forth in 37 CFR 1.136(a).
A shortened statutory period for reply to this final action is set to expire THREE MONTHS from the mailing date of this action. In the event a first reply is filed within TWO MONTHS of the mailing date of this final action and the advisory action is not mailed until after the end of the THREE-MONTH shortened statutory period, then the shortened statutory period will expire on the date the advisory action is mailed, and any extension fee pursuant to 37 CFR 1.136(a) will be calculated from the mailing date of the advisory action. In no event, however, will the statutory period for reply expire later than SIX MONTHS from the mailing date of this final action.
Contact
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to GUILLERMO RIVERA-MARTINEZ whose telephone number is 571-272-4979. The examiner can normally be reached on Monday-Friday (8am - 5pm Eastern Time). If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner’s supervisor, Andrew Bee can be reached on 571-270-5183. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300.
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/GUILLERMO M RIVERA-MARTINEZ/ Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2677
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