DETAILED ACTION
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.
Claims 1, 5, 7 and 11 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(1) as being anticipated by Lee KR 20190081712A.
In regards to Independent Claim 1, Lee teaches an electrical fire prevention and detection system (system of figure 5), comprising: an image acquisition device (plurality of devices 600 shown in figure 5, page 11, paragraph [0041]), configured to acquire a plurality of images of an electrical device in operation (thermal image generated each time a potential fire occurs, pages 10-11, paragraph [0035]), wherein the electrical device in operation comprises a plurality of operation blocks (plurality of switchboards 600B_1a to 600B_na shown in figure 5), and each of the operation blocks comprises a plurality of electrical components (switchboards of figure 5 shown with a plurality of components); and a cloud server (main system 300 receives signals from each component 600 through LTE signals 210 in figure 5, such that main system acts as a cloud server remote from the switchboards), coupled to the image acquisition device (through LTE signals 210) and configured to identify an abnormal electrical component and a position thereof in the images and provide an assessment report of the abnormal electrical component (step S300 infrared image is taken, transmitted to system 300, and colored on a display to indicate presence of a fire, and further an alarm is issued, page 14, paragraphs [0067-0068]).
Regarding Dependent Claim 5, Lee teaches the cloud server (300) analyzes a cause of abnormality and the position of the abnormal electrical component (measures and compares voltages of switchboard and distribution panel to switchboard, page 14, paragraph [0067]) and performs a risk assessment based on a component abnormality determination criteria to generate the assessment report of the abnormal electrical component (issues alarm when voltage or current differential is greater than a predetermined value (page 14, paragraph [0068]).
In regards to Independent Claim 7, Lee teaches an electrical fire prevention and detection method (method of operating the system as shown in figure 5), applied to an electrical fire prevention and detection system (system of figure 5) comprising an image acquisition device (plurality of devices 600 shown in figure 5, page 11, paragraph [0041]) and a cloud server coupled to the image acquisition device (main system 300 receives signals from each component 600 through LTE signals 210 in figure 5, such that main system acts as a cloud server remote from the switchboards), the electrical fire prevention and detection method comprising: acquiring, by the image acquisition device, a plurality of images of an electrical device in operation (thermal image generated each time a potential fire occurs, pages 10-11, paragraph [0035]), wherein the electrical device in operation comprises a plurality of operation blocks (plurality of switchboards 600B_1a to 600B_na shown in figure 5), and each of the operation blocks comprises a plurality of electrical components (switchboards of figure 5 shown with a plurality of components); and identifying, by the cloud server, an abnormal electrical component and a position thereof in the images and providing an assessment report of the abnormal electrical component (step S300 infrared image is taken, transmitted to system 300, and colored on a display to indicate presence of a fire, and further an alarm is issued, page 14, paragraphs [0067-0068]).
Regarding Dependent Claim 11, Lee teaches the cloud server (300) analyzes a cause of abnormality and the position of the abnormal electrical component (measures and compares voltages of switchboard and distribution panel to switchboard, page 14, paragraph [0067]) and performs a risk assessment based on a component abnormality determination criteria to generate the assessment report of the abnormal electrical component (issues alarm when voltage or current differential is greater than a predetermined value (page 14, paragraph [0068]).
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.
Claims 2 and 8 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Lee as applied to claims 1 and 7 above, and further in view of Lu CN 108335454 A.
Regarding Dependent Claims 2 and 8, Lee teaches the invention as claimed and discussed above. However, Lee does not teach the image acquisition device comprises an imaging module and an infrared thermal imaging module, the image acquisition device acquires a first image by the imaging module and a second image by the infrared thermal imaging module, and the images comprise the first image and the second image. Lu teaches an image acquisition device comprises an imaging module and an infrared thermal imaging module, the image acquisition device acquires a first image by the imaging module and a second image by the infrared thermal imaging module, and the images comprise the first image and the second image (infrared imager and optical imaging of objective to determine presence of a fire, paragraph [0003]). It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art prior to the filing date of the invention to use both an infrared and optical sensor to measure a component to determine the presence of a fire as taught by Lu, in the system and method of Lee, in order to generate a visible thermal image overlaid upon the surface of the object being measured (paragraph [0003]).
Claims 6 and 12 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Lee as applied to claims 5 and 11 above, and further in view of Bergstrom 2013/0050453.
Regarding Dependent Claim 6 and 12, Lee teaches the invention as claimed and discussed above. However, Lee does not teach that the assessment report includes an improvement level scheme and an improvement scheme. Bergstrom teaches repairing or replacing electrical components (paragraph [0002]) when thermal inspection from a thermal imaging camera (10) detect hot spots (paragraph [0002]). It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art prior to the filing date of the invention to include the component replacement step of Bergstrom in the system and method of Lee, in order to correct overheating equipment before more significant problems develop (paragraph [0002]).
Allowable Subject Matter
Claims 3-4 and 9-10 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: prior art fails to teach, in combination with the other limitations of dependent claims 3 and 9, that the image acquisition device identifies the electrical components in the first image by image identification, acquires temperature values of the electrical components in the second image by image identification and identifies the abnormal electrical component according to the operation blocks, the electrical components, and the temperature values of the electrical components.
Conclusion
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/STEVEN M SUTHERLAND/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 3752