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 .
Information Disclosure Statement
The npl entries: 4, 18, and 25 of the ids filed on 7/1/24 are missing dates (at least the year is needed to be considered), and have been lined through and not considered by the examiner.
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 1-9 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 101 because the claimed invention is directed to non-statutory subject matter. The claim(s) does/do not fall within at least one of the four categories of patent eligible subject matter because claim 1, is directed to a method performed by a client comprising the steps of: obtaining, receiving and applying which are nothing more than software instructions. Software instructions are non-statutory under 35 U.S.C. 101.
Claims 2-9 comprise more steps, for example in claim 3, the step of applying changes, therefore claims 2-9 have the same problem as claim 1, and are rejected under the same rationale.
Double Patenting
The nonstatutory double patenting rejection is based on a judicially created doctrine grounded in public policy (a policy reflected in the statute) so as to prevent the unjustified or improper timewise extension of the “right to exclude” granted by a patent and to prevent possible harassment by multiple assignees. A nonstatutory double patenting rejection is appropriate where the conflicting claims are not identical, but at least one examined application claim is not patentably distinct from the reference claim(s) because the examined application claim is either anticipated by, or would have been obvious over, the reference claim(s). See, e.g., In re Berg, 140 F.3d 1428, 46 USPQ2d 1226 (Fed. Cir. 1998); In re Goodman, 11 F.3d 1046, 29 USPQ2d 2010 (Fed. Cir. 1993); In re Longi, 759 F.2d 887, 225 USPQ 645 (Fed. Cir. 1985); In re Van Ornum, 686 F.2d 937, 214 USPQ 761 (CCPA 1982); In re Vogel, 422 F.2d 438, 164 USPQ 619 (CCPA 1970); In re Thorington, 418 F.2d 528, 163 USPQ 644 (CCPA 1969).
A timely filed terminal disclaimer in compliance with 37 CFR 1.321(c) or 1.321(d) may be used to overcome an actual or provisional rejection based on nonstatutory double patenting provided the reference application or patent either is shown to be commonly owned with the examined application, or claims an invention made as a result of activities undertaken within the scope of a joint research agreement. See MPEP § 717.02 for applications subject to examination under the first inventor to file provisions of the AIA as explained in MPEP § 2159. See MPEP § 2146 et seq. for applications not subject to examination under the first inventor to file provisions of the AIA . A terminal disclaimer must be signed in compliance with 37 CFR 1.321(b).
The filing of a terminal disclaimer by itself is not a complete reply to a nonstatutory double patenting (NSDP) rejection. A complete reply requires that the terminal disclaimer be accompanied by a reply requesting reconsideration of the prior Office action. Even where the NSDP rejection is provisional the reply must be complete. See MPEP § 804, subsection I.B.1. For a reply to a non-final Office action, see 37 CFR 1.111(a). For a reply to final Office action, see 37 CFR 1.113(c). A request for reconsideration while not provided for in 37 CFR 1.113(c) may be filed after final for consideration. See MPEP §§ 706.07(e) and 714.13.
The USPTO Internet website contains terminal disclaimer forms which may be used. Please visit www.uspto.gov/patent/patents-forms. The actual filing date of the application in which the form is filed determines what form (e.g., PTO/SB/25, PTO/SB/26, PTO/AIA /25, or PTO/AIA /26) should be used. A web-based eTerminal Disclaimer may be filled out completely online using web-screens. An eTerminal Disclaimer that meets all requirements is auto-processed and approved immediately upon submission. For more information about eTerminal Disclaimers, refer to www.uspto.gov/patents/apply/applying-online/eterminal-disclaimer.
Claims 1, 4-5, 10, 13-14, 18 and 20 are rejected on the ground of nonstatutory double patenting as being unpatentable over claims 10-14 and 23-26 of U.S. Patent No. 12,062,195. Although the claims at issue are not identical, they are not patentably distinct from each other because they are a broader version of the patent claims.
Instant Clms. (18/760,359) Patent Clms. (12,062,195)
1. A method performed by a client, comprising:
obtaining a reference point cloud representing a first point cloud in a time sequence of point clouds;
receiving, from a server, a series of representations of changes to the reference point cloud, wherein each representation specifies an area of the reference point cloud and a change to be applied to the specified area, each such change
comprises at least one of a 3D transformation, a set of points to be added to the reference point cloud, and a set of points to be removed from the reference point cloud; and
successively applying the representations to the reference point cloud to generate a point cloud representing a second point cloud in the time sequence of point clouds.
4. The method of claim 1, wherein a first representation and a second representation, of the series of representations, capture a first change and a second change, respectively, to an area of the reference point cloud, wherein the first change comprises a
coarse deviation and the
second change comprises a finer residual deviation.
5. The method of claim 1, wherein a 3D transformation, of a presentation of the series of representations,
comprises a
rotation and a translation of points in the area specified by the representation.
10. An apparatus employed by a client, comprising:
at least one processor; and
memory storing instructions that, when executed by the at least one processor, cause the apparatus to:
obtain a reference point cloud representing a first point cloud in a time sequence of point clouds,
receive, from a server, a series of representations of changes to the reference point cloud, wherein each representation specifies an area of the reference point cloud and a change to be applied to the specified area, each such change comprises at least one of a 3D transformation, a set of points to be added to the reference point cloud, and a set of points to be removed from the reference point cloud, and
successively apply the representations to the reference point cloud to generate a point cloud representing a second point cloud in the time sequence of point clouds.
13. The apparatus of claim 10, wherein a first representation and a second representation, of the series of representations, capture a first change and a second change, respectively, to an area of the reference point cloud, wherein the first change comprises a coarse deviation and the second change comprises a finer residual deviation.
14. The apparatus of claim 10, wherein
a 3D transformation, of a presentation of the series of representations, comprises a rotation and a translation of points in the area specified by the representation.
18. The apparatus of claim 17, wherein the information about the processing budget comprises at least one of an amount of time and an amount of bandwidth.
20. A non-transitory computer-readable medium comprising instructions executable by at least one processor to perform a method by a client, the method comprising:
obtaining a reference point cloud representing a first point cloud in a time sequence of point clouds;
receiving, from a server, a series of representations of changes to the reference point cloud, wherein each representation specifies an area of the reference point cloud and a change to be applied to the specified area, each such change comprises at least one of a 3D transformation, a set of points to be added to the reference point cloud, and a set of points to be removed from the reference point cloud; and
successively applying the representations to the reference point cloud to generate a point cloud representing a second point cloud in the time sequence of point clouds.
11. A method,
comprising:
obtaining a first point cloud in a time sequence of point clouds, the first point cloud corresponding to a first time in the time sequence of point clouds;
12. The method of claim 11, wherein obtaining the first point cloud comprises receiving a version of the first point cloud from the server.
11. receiving from a server a series of representations of changes to the first point cloud, wherein each representation of the series of representations is
applicable to an
area of deviation between the first point cloud and a second point cloud corresponding to a later time in the time sequence of point clouds, wherein each area of deviation is selected by the server from among areas of deviations between the first and the second point clouds based on respective importance scores, and wherein each representation of the series comprises at least one of a 3D transformation, a set of points to be added, and
a set of points to be
removed; and
12. The method of claim 11, wherein obtaining the first point cloud comprises receiving a version of the first point cloud from the server.
11. updating the first point cloud by sequentially applying the representations of the series of representations to the first point cloud to obtain a version of the second point cloud.
12. The method of claim 11, wherein obtaining the first point cloud comprises receiving a version of the first point cloud from the server.
14. The method of claim 11, wherein a first representation and a second representation, of the series of representations, capture first changes and second changes, respectively, to an area of the first point cloud,
wherein the first changes comprise coarse changes to the area and the second changes comprise finer residual changes to the area.
12. The method of claim 11, wherein obtaining the first point cloud comprises receiving a version of the first point cloud from the server.
11. each representation of the series comprises at least one of a 3D transformation.
13. The method of claim 11, wherein the 3D transformations comprises rotation and translation.
23. An apparatus comprising:
a processor; and
a non-transitory computer-readable medium storing instructions operative, when executed by the processor, to cause the apparatus to:
obtain a first point cloud in a time sequence of point clouds, the first point cloud corresponding to a first time in the time sequence of point clouds,
24. The apparatus of claim 23, wherein obtaining the first point cloud comprises receiving a version of the first point cloud from the server.
23. receive from a server a series of representations of changes to the first point cloud, wherein each representation of the series of representations is applicable to an area of deviation between the first point cloud and a second point cloud corresponding to a later time in the time sequence of point clouds, wherein each area of deviation is selected by the server from among areas of deviations between the first and the second point clouds based on respective importance scores, and wherein each representation of the series comprises at least one of a 3D transformation, a set of points to be added, and a set of points to be removed, and
24. The apparatus of claim 23, wherein obtaining the first point cloud comprises receiving a version of the first point cloud from the server.
23. update the first point cloud by sequentially applying the representations of the series of representations to the first point cloud to obtain a version of the second point cloud.
24. The apparatus of claim 23, wherein obtaining the first point cloud comprises receiving a version of the first point cloud from the server.
26. The apparatus of claim 23, wherein a first representation and a second representation, of the series of representations, capture first changes and second changes, respectively, to an area of the first point cloud, wherein the first changes comprise coarse changes to the area and the second changes comprise finer residual changes to the area.
24. The apparatus of claim 23, wherein obtaining the first point cloud comprises receiving a version of the first point cloud from the server.
23. wherein each representation of the series comprises at least one of a 3D transformation, a set of points to be added, and a set of points to be removed, and
25. The apparatus of claim 23, wherein the 3D transformation comprises rotation and translation.
10. The method of claim 9, wherein the budget comprises at least one of an amount of time, an amount of processing, or an amount of bandwidth available to update the first point cloud based on the changes.
23. a non-transitory computer-readable medium storing
instructions operative, when executed by the processor, to cause the apparatus to:
obtain a first point cloud in a time sequence of point clouds, the first point cloud corresponding to a first time in the time sequence of point clouds,
24. The apparatus of claim 23, wherein obtaining the first point cloud comprises receiving a version of the first point cloud from the server.
23. receive from a server a series of representations of changes to the first point cloud, wherein each representation of the series of representations is applicable to an area of deviation between the first point cloud and a second point cloud corresponding to a later time in the time sequence of point clouds, wherein each area of deviation is selected by the server from among areas of deviations between the first and the second point clouds based on respective importance scores, and wherein each representation of the series comprises at least one of a 3D transformation, a set of points to be added, and a set of points to be removed, and
24. The apparatus of claim 23, wherein obtaining the first point cloud comprises receiving a version of the first point cloud from the server.
23. update the first point cloud by sequentially applying the representations of the series of representations to the first point cloud to obtain a version of the second point cloud.
24. The apparatus of claim 23, wherein obtaining the first point cloud comprises receiving a version of the first point cloud from the server.
Allowable Subject Matter
Claims 2-3 and 6-9 would be objected to (except for the double patenting and or 101 rejections) 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.
Claims 11-12, 15-17 and 19 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 claims 2-3, 6-9, 11-12, 15-17 and 19 the prior art doesn’t teach:
2. The method of claim 1, wherein an area specified by a presentation of the series of representations comprises coordinates of a bounding volume that encapsulate the area.
3. The method of claim 1, wherein a first representation and a second representation, of the series of representations, successively apply changes to respective first and second specified areas that overlap.
6. The method of claim 1, wherein the series of representations comprises respective hierarchical 3D transformations.
7. The method of claim 1, wherein the series of representations approximate changes overtime between the first point cloud to the second point cloud.
8. The method of claim 1, further comprising:
sending, to the server, information about a processing budget available to generate the point cloud representing the second point cloud.
9. The method of claim 1, further comprising:
sending, to the server, information about a viewpoint location relative to the second point cloud to facilitate prioritization of transmission to the client of the series of representations.
11. The apparatus of claim 10, wherein an area specified by a presentation of the series of representations comprises coordinates of a bounding volume that encapsulate the area.
12. The apparatus of claim 10, wherein a first representation and a second representation, of the series of representations, successively apply changes to respective first and second specified areas that overlap.
15. The apparatus of claim 10, wherein the series of representations comprises respective hierarchical 3D transformations.
16. The apparatus of claim 10, wherein the series of representations approximate changes overtime between the first point cloud to the second point cloud.
17. The apparatus of claim 10, wherein the instructions further cause the apparatus to:
send, to the server, information about a processing budget available to generate the point cloud representing the second point cloud.
19. The apparatus of claim 10, wherein the instructions further cause the apparatus to:
send, to the server, information about a viewpoint location relative to the second point cloud to facilitate prioritization of transmission to the client of the series of representations.
Conclusion
The prior art made of record and not relied upon is considered pertinent to applicant's disclosure.
PALMA et al. “Detection of Geometric Temporal Changes in Point Clouds”, COMPUTER GRAPHICS forum Volume 35 (2016), number 6 pp. 33–45.
BERGSJO, “Photogrammetric point cloud generation and surface interpolation for change detection”, DEGREE PROJECT IN THE BUILT ENVIRONMENT,
SECOND CYCLE, 30 CREDITS, STOCKHOLM, SWEDEN 2016
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/MAURICE L. MCDOWELL, JR/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2612