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.
1. Claims 36-40 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 101 because the claimed invention is directed to non-statutory subject matter.
Under Step 1 of the analysis, it is noted that the claims are directed towards eligible categories of subject matter
3. Step 2A:
4. Under Step 2A, the claimed invention is directed to a judicial exception (i.e., a law of nature, a natural phenomenon, or an abstract idea). The claims are directed to the abstract idea of a mental processes.
5. The claim language recites a system where an imaging device, i.e. a camera is aimed at a particular area to capture a plurality of frames in a time period, wherein a processor performs a frequency analysis to determine a frequency of rotation of the captured object. However, such represents the abstract idea of a mental process as stated in Electric Power Grid and MPEP 2106. In Electric Power Grid, the Court held that “a claim to “collecting information, analyzing it, and displaying certain results of the collection and analysis,” where the data analysis steps are recited at a high level of generality such that they could practically be performed in the human mind, Electric Power Group v. Alstom, S.A., 830 F.3d 1350, 1353-54, 119 USPQ2d 1739, 1741-42 (Fed. Cir. 2016).” Using claims 36, 38, 39, and 40 as exemplary, the collecting information step is provided through gathering of object image data using the imaging device; and the analysis step is encompassed by locating the object in each frame, determining a size of a portion of the image representing the object, determining the number of pixels in the portion of the image, performing a Fourier transform, determining the frequency of rotation of the object about the axis, and determining periodic modulation. An analyst can use image data and calculations to complete each of the determination steps. While no, output is provided by claim language, such is not necessary as the other Electric Power Grid steps are presented in the claims. Thus, the claims represent a mental process under the guidance of Electric Power Group and the MPEP.
The second prong of Step 2A, ask whether the claims recite additional elements that would integrate the abstract idea into a practical application. Here, no such practical application exists. There is no improvement made to computer technology since the claims are only directed to determining the frequency of an object around a non-symmetry-based axis, and the imaging device is functioning as intended. Additionally, there is no practical application as there is no particular machine that is used to implement the claim language, but instead and as will be discussed below only generic computers are used to perform the invention. Also, there is no transformation of the machine used in the application into a different state or thing. Lastly, the claims do not attempt to apply the abstract idea in a meaningful way beyond simply using the claimed machine.
7. Step 2B asks whether a claimed invention which fails Step 2A contains an inventive concepts, i.e. significantly more. Here the invention does not recite significantly more than a generic computer and an imaging device. However, a camera is well understood and routine for object tracking as such is the very purpose of using a camera. For those reasons the claims are rejected as non-patent eligible subject matter.
Allowable Subject Matter
Claims 17-19, 21-23,29-31, 33-35, and 41 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.
Response to Arguments
Applicant’s arguments with respect to claim(s) 36-40 have been considered but are moot because the new ground of rejection does not rely on any reference applied in the prior rejection of record for any teaching or matter specifically challenged in the argument. Applicant has introduced claims 36-40 which are considered an abstract idea as the imaging device performs in the manner in which is designed and that is to capture information. Capturing or collecting information and then analyzing said information has been deemed to be an abstract idea but the Court in Electric Power Group. For those reasons the claims are rejected.
Conclusion
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to REGINALD A RENWICK whose telephone number is (571)270-1913. The examiner can normally be reached Monday-Friday 11am-7pm.
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REGINALD A. RENWICK
Primary Examiner
Art Unit 3714
/REGINALD A RENWICK/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 3715
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