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
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.
(a)(2) the claimed invention was described in a patent issued under section 151, or in an application for patent published or deemed published under section 122(b), in which the patent or application, as the case may be, names another inventor and was effectively filed before the effective filing date of the claimed invention.
Claim(s) 1-5, 9-11, and 14-16 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(1) as being anticipated by Yang (US 11400317 B2).
Regarding Claim 1: Yang discloses a computer-implemented method for use in aligning pieces of equipment of a medical system (abstract), the method comprising:
determining, for a piece of equipment of a medical system, a viewing direction of the piece of equipment, the viewing direction being a normal to a predetermined portion of the surface of the piece of equipment (orthogonal axes x, y, and z of fig. 7C; Fig. 5, 510);
determining whether the viewing direction is within a predetermined interval around a target viewing direction of the piece of equipment (Fig. 5, 520); and
upon determining that the viewing direction is outside of the predetermined interval around the target viewing direction of the piece of equipment, initiating an adjusting of the alignment of the piece of equipment (Fig. 5, 540).
Regarding Claim 2: Yang discloses the method of claim 1, further comprising tracking the alignment of the piece of equipment, the tracking comprising repeatedly determining, at predetermined times and/or time intervals or continuously, whether the viewing direction is within the predetermined interval around the target viewing direction of the piece of equipment (Fig. 5, 520).
Regarding Claim 3: Yang discloses the method of claim 1, wherein the step of determining whether the viewing direction is within the predetermined interval, comprises:
determining whether a line extending in the viewing direction through a predetermined point on the portion of the surface of the piece of equipment also extends through at least one other predetermined point, wherein the other predetermined point may be a predetermined point on a surface of another piece of equipment; and/or a room isocenter and/or an isocenter of another piece of equipment; and/or
determining whether a/the line extending in the viewing direction through a/the predetermined point on the portion of the surface of the piece of equipment also extends through at least one predetermined region, wherein the predetermined region may be a predetermined portion of a surface of another piece of equipment and/or a predetermined region in which a/the room isocenter and/or an/the isocenter of another piece of equipment is located (Col. 15, lines 25-38: “As shown in FIG. 8A, the one or more surface indicators (e.g., 840a, 840b, and 840c) are on the side wall of the phantom 850. The first coordinate system of the phantom overlaps with the second coordinate system of the medical system. In the updated state, a line connecting the first surface indicator 840a and the calibration point o 830 (the z-axis of the first coordinate system) overlaps with the z.sub.f-axis of the second coordinate system, and a line connecting the second surface indicator 840b (or the third surface indicator 840c) and the calibration point o 830 (the x-axis of the first coordinate system) overlaps with the x.sub.f-axis of the second coordinate system. The alignment device adjustment module 440 may adjust the alignment device based on the surface indicators in the updated state.”).
Regarding Claim 4: Yang discloses the method of claim 3, wherein the predetermined point and/or the predetermined region is arranged in a predetermined arrangement relative to at least one marker and determining whether the line extends through the predetermined point and/or the predetermined region comprises:
determining the relative arrangement of the line relative to the marker; and
deriving the arrangement of the predetermined point and/or the predetermined region relative to the line from the relative arrangement of the line relative to the marker and from the predetermined arrangement of the predetermined point and/or the predetermined region relative to the marker (Col. 15, lines 25-38: “As shown in FIG. 8A, the one or more surface indicators (e.g., 840a, 840b, and 840c) are on the side wall of the phantom 850. The first coordinate system of the phantom overlaps with the second coordinate system of the medical system. In the updated state, a line connecting the first surface indicator 840a and the calibration point o 830 (the z-axis of the first coordinate system) overlaps with the z.sub.f-axis of the second coordinate system, and a line connecting the second surface indicator 840b (or the third surface indicator 840c) and the calibration point o 830 (the x-axis of the first coordinate system) overlaps with the x.sub.f-axis of the second coordinate system. The alignment device adjustment module 440 may adjust the alignment device based on the surface indicators in the updated state.”).
Regarding Claim 5: Yang discloses the method of claim 1, further comprising
determining a pivot point of a/the piece of equipment of the medical system (Col. 13, lines 52-55: “The radiation isocenter of the medical system may be determined based on the difference between the first coordinate system and the second coordinate system and the origin of the first coordinate system of the phantom.”); and wherein determining the pivot point comprises:
determining a first viewing direction of the piece of equipment when the piece of equipment is in a first arrangement and a second viewing direction of the piece of equipment when the piece of equipment has been pivoted so as to be in a second arrangement (orthogonal axes x, y, and z of fig. 7C; Fig. 5, 510);
determining a crossing point of a first line extending in the first viewing direction through a predetermined point on the portion of the surface of the piece of equipment and a second line extending in the second viewing direction through the predetermined point on the portion of the surface of the piece of equipment; and
identifying the crossing point to be the pivot point (Col. 12, lines 13-24: “The alignment device adjustment module 440 may be configured to adjust an alignment device according to the one or more surface indicators of the phantom in the updated state. The alignment device may include one or more lasers. The one or more lasers may emit laser beams. In some embodiments, each of the one or more lasers may correspond to one of the one or more surface indicators of the phantom. The alignment device adjustment module 440 may adjust the one or more lasers to make the laser beams align with the corresponding surface indicators of the phantom. Thus, the laser beams emitted by the alignment device may intersect at the radiation isocenter of the medical system.”).
Regarding Claim 9: Yang discloses the method of claim 1, comprising determining, for each of a plurality of pieces of equipment, the isocenter and/or the pivot point and aligning the pieces of equipment in such a manner that the isocenter and/or the pivot point of one of the pieces of equipment aligns with the isocenter and/or the pivot point of another of the pieces of equipment (Col. 13, lines 45-55: “In 520, the difference determination module 420 may determine a difference between the first coordinate system and the second coordinate system based on the one or more projection images. The second coordinate system may relate to the medical system. The origin, o.sub.f, of the second coordinate system may be an intersection of the rotation planed and the rotation axis, i.e., the radiation isocenter of medical system. The radiation isocenter of the medical system may be determined based on the difference between the first coordinate system and the second coordinate system and the origin of the first coordinate system of the phantom.”).
Regarding Claim 10: Yang discloses the method of claim 1,
wherein adjusting the alignment of the piece of equipment comprises changing the arrangement of the piece of equipment in such a manner that an improvement of the alignment is expected (Fig. 5, 540); and/or
wherein the method comprises, after an arrangement of the piece of equipment has been changed, in the course of adjusting the alignment of the piece of equipment, determining whether the alignment has improved, in particular, wherein determining whether the alignment has improved comprises determining the viewing direction of the piece of equipment and determining whether the viewing direction is within the predetermined interval around the target viewing direction of the piece of equipment and/or verifying the alignment by an alignment method that does not rely on determining the viewing direction.
Regarding Claim 11: Yang discloses the method of claim 1, wherein determining the viewing direction of the piece of equipment comprises analyzing data obtained by a surface camera observing the portion of the surface of the piece of equipment so as to determine the normal vectors of the surface, by means of segmentation of a pointcloud detected by the surface camera, and/or wherein determining the viewing direction of the piece of equipment comprises analyzing data obtained by a camera observing a marker, arranged on the surface of the piece of equipment in a predetermined arrangement relative to the portion of the surface of the piece of equipment (Fig. 6B).
Regarding Claim 14: Yang discloses a medical system comprising:
at least one piece of equipment (Fig. 7A-7F, 710); and
a computing system having at least one processor (Fig. 2, 210) configured to:
determine, for a piece of equipment of the medical system, a viewing direction of the piece of equipment, the viewing direction being a normal to a predetermined portion of the surface of the piece of equipment (orthogonal axes x, y, and z of fig. 7C; Fig. 5, 510);
determine whether the viewing direction is within a predetermined interval around a target viewing direction of the piece of equipment (Fig. 5, 520); and
upon determining that the viewing direction is outside of the predetermined interval around the target viewing direction of the piece of equipment, initiate an adjustment of the alignment of the piece of equipment (Fig. 5, 540).
Regarding Claim 15: Yang discloses the medical system of claim 14, further comprising one or more imaging devices, in particular a surface camera, configured to obtain image data of the piece of equipment, in particular of the portion of the surface of the piece of equipment and/or of a/the marker and provide the image data to the computing system, wherein the computing system is configured to determine the viewing direction of the piece of equipment based on the image data; and/or
further comprising a drive system configured to, in response to receiving a/the control signal to drive the piece of equipment so as to traverse a/the target path, drive the piece of equipment; and/or
further comprising an augmented reality device, in particular, wherein at least one of the one or more imaging devices of claim 14 is comprised in or connected to the augmented reality device; and/or
wherein the at least one piece of equipment comprises at least one of: a linear accelerator for creating a beam, one or more panels for detecting X-ray radiation, one or more cameras, a support unit for supporting a subject, in particular, a subject to be placed into a/the beam of a/the linear accelerator; and/or
wherein the computing system is configured to issue control signals to one or more pieces of equipment of the medical system and/or to the drive system and/or the augmented reality device, in particular control signals to prompt the one or more imaging devices to obtain data and/or to prompt the augmented reality device to perform the overlaying of the indication of the viewing direction and/or to prompt the drive system to drive a piece of equipment (Fig. 5, 530; Col. 14, lines 18-22: (In 530, the phantom adjustment module 430 may adjust the phantom to an updated state according to the difference between the first coordinate system and the second coordinate system such that the first coordinate system overlaps with the second coordinate system.”); and/or
wherein the medical system further comprises a radiation treatment apparatus comprising a treatment beam source and a patient support unit, and wherein the computing system is operably coupled to the radiation treatment apparatus for issuing a control signal to the radiation treatment apparatus for controlling the operation of the treatment beam source and/or the position of the patient support unit.
Regarding Claim 16: Yang discloses a non-transient computer readable medium comprising instructions which, when executed by at least one processor (Fig. 2, 210), causes the at least one processor to:
determine, for a piece of equipment of a medical system, a viewing direction of the piece of equipment, the viewing direction being a normal to a predetermined portion of the surface of the piece of equipment (orthogonal axes x, y, and z of fig. 7C; Fig. 5, 510);
determine whether the viewing direction is within a predetermined interval around a target viewing direction of the piece of equipment (Fig. 5, 520); and
upon determining that the viewing direction is outside of the predetermined interval around the target viewing direction of the piece of equipment, initiate an adjustment of the alignment of the piece of equipment (Fig. 5, 540).
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) 12 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Yang in view of Flexman (US 11551380 B2).
Regarding Claim 12: Yang discloses the method of claim 1, further comprising an augmented reality device with a display (Col. 7, lines 53-58: “The terminal 130 include a mobile device 130-1, a tablet computer 130-2, a laptop computer 130-3, or the like, or any combination thereof. In some embodiments, the mobile device 130-1 may include… a virtual reality device, an augmented reality device…”; Fig. 3), but Yang fails to teach the specifics of:
further comprising overlaying an indication of the viewing direction, in particular one or more of the lines of claim 1, as part of a virtual image onto the field of view of an augmented reality device, in case the field of view comprises the piece of equipment; and/or
further comprising the step of overlaying an indication of a target viewing direction, in particular one or more target lines, as virtual image onto the field of view of the augmented reality device, in particular at the same time as the indication of the viewing direction; and/or
further comprising providing an indication to a user of an/the augmented reality device when the viewing direction approaches and/or diverges from a/the target viewing direction in particular, prompting the user to initiate verifying and/or adjusting the alignment.
However, Flexman teaches an augmented reality system for positioning a medical system, further comprising overlaying an indication of the viewing direction, in particular one or more of the lines of claim 1, as part of a virtual image onto the field of view of an augmented reality device, in case the field of view comprises the piece of equipment (Fig. 6; Fig. 4).
Flexman and Yang are both considered to be analogous to the claimed invention because they are both in the field of medical system positioning with augmented reality. Therefore, it would have been obvious to someone of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to have modified Yang to incorporate the teachings of Flexman and overlay a virtual image onto the view of an AR device. One would be motivated to make such a modification to allow for real-time adjustment with visual representation of the target position.
Allowable Subject Matter
Claims 6-8 and 13 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.
The following is a statement of reasons for the indication of allowable subject matter:
Regarding Claim 6: Yang discloses the method of claim 1, but Yang fails to teach further comprising
determining whether an actual path traversed by a/the piece of equipment of the medical system corresponds to a target path to be traversed by the piece of equipment;
wherein determining whether the actual path corresponds to the target path comprises:
sending a control signal to a drive system, the control signal instructing the drive system to drive the piece of equipment so as to traverse the target path;
determining the viewing directions of the piece of equipment at multiple arrangements of the piece of equipment along an actual path, which the piece of equipment, driven by the drive system in response to receiving the control signal, traverses;
determining, for each of the multiple arrangements, whether a line extending along the viewing direction through a predetermined point on the surface of the piece of equipment also extends through a predetermined point and/or region, in particular, whether it intersects with a line extending along the viewing direction through the predetermined point on the surface of the piece of equipment of one or more other arrangements;
if this is the case, determining that the actual path traversed by the piece of equipment corresponds to the target path to be traversed by the piece of equipment; and
otherwise, determining that there is a deviation between the actual path traversed by the piece of equipment and the target path to be traversed by the piece of equipment.
Since the prior art of record fails to teach the details above, nor is there any reason to modify or combine prior art elements outside of Applicant’s disclosure, the claim is deemed patentable over the prior art of record. Claim 7 is allowable by virtue of its dependency on claim 6.
Regarding Claim 8: Yang discloses the method of claim 1, further comprising
determining, for a/the piece of equipment of the medical system, an isocenter of the piece of equipment (Col. 13, lines 45-55: “In 520, the difference determination module 420 may determine a difference between the first coordinate system and the second coordinate system based on the one or more projection images. The second coordinate system may relate to the medical system. The origin, o.sub.f, of the second coordinate system may be an intersection of the rotation planed and the rotation axis, i.e., the radiation isocenter of medical system. The radiation isocenter of the medical system may be determined based on the difference between the first coordinate system and the second coordinate system and the origin of the first coordinate system of the phantom.”).
Yang fails to teach
wherein determining the isocenter comprises:
determining a third viewing direction of the piece of equipment when the piece of equipment is in a third arrangement and a fourth viewing direction of the piece of equipment when the piece of equipment is in a fourth arrangement, wherein each arrangement is one of a plurality of working positions of the piece of equipment; and
determining a crossing of a third line that extends in the third viewing direction through a predetermined point on the portion of the surface of the piece of equipment and a fourth line that extends in the fourth viewing direction through the predetermined point on the portion of the surface of the piece of equipment.
Since the prior art of record fails to teach the details above, nor is there any reason to modify or combine prior art elements outside of Applicant’s disclosure, the claim is deemed patentable over the prior art of record.
Regarding Claim 13: Yang discloses the method of claim 1, but Yang fails to teach further comprising:
accessing alignment data from an alignment and/or an adjustment of the alignment of the piece of equipment, the alignment and/or adjustment of an alignment making use of a method not relying on determining the viewing direction,
subsequently, determining the viewing direction of the piece of equipment,
determining whether there is a discrepancy between the alignment performed prior to determining the viewing direction and an alignment derived from the viewing direction;
if it is determined that there is a discrepancy, performing a calibration of the method used for determining the viewing direction of the piece of equipment so as to reduce the discrepancy, in particular such that there is no discrepancy; and
only after determining that there is no discrepancy, performing the step of, upon determining that the viewing direction is outside of the predetermined interval around the target viewing direction of the piece of equipment, initiating the adjusting of the alignment of the piece of equipment.
Conclusion
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to MIYA DOWNING whose telephone number is (703)756-1840. The examiner can normally be reached Monday - Friday 8:00 AM - 5:00 PM ET.
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, David Makiya can be reached at (571) 272-2273. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300.
Information regarding the status of published or unpublished applications may be obtained from Patent Center. Unpublished application information in Patent Center is available to registered users. To file and manage patent submissions in Patent Center, visit: https://patentcenter.uspto.gov. Visit https://www.uspto.gov/patents/apply/patent-center for more information about Patent Center and https://www.uspto.gov/patents/docx for information about filing in DOCX format. For additional questions, contact the Electronic Business Center (EBC) at 866-217-9197 (toll-free). If you would like assistance from a USPTO Customer Service Representative, call 800-786-9199 (IN USA OR CANADA) or 571-272-1000.
/MIYA DOWNING/Examiner, Art Unit 2884
/DAVID J MAKIYA/Supervisory Patent Examiner, Art Unit 2884