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
In the event the determination of the status of the application as subject to AIA 35 U.S.C. 102 and 103 (or as subject to pre-AIA 35 U.S.C. 102 and 103) is incorrect, any correction of the statutory basis (i.e., changing from AIA to pre-AIA ) for the rejection will not be considered a new ground of rejection if the prior art relied upon, and the rationale supporting the rejection, would be the same under either status.
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)(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, 11-12, 15 and 18 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(2) as being anticipated by Tsumaki (US 2025/0213188 A1), referred to hereafter as Tsumaki188.
Regarding claim 1, 15 and 18, Tsumaki188 teaches an emitter (20, figure 1) configured to emit infrared light toward a body part of a guest (paragraph 0043);
A receiver (18, figure 1) configured to receive the infrared light from the body pat of the guest; and
Generate a signal indicative of the received infrared light (paragraph 0044);
A projector (22, figure 1) configured to project images onto the body part of the guest;
A processing circuitry (28, 30, 32, 26, figure 1); and
Memory (32, figure 1) accessible by the processing circuitry (paragraph 0047), the memory storing:
A portion of code representing a sprite (22 communicates with 26 and 32; paragraph 0047; the code for the highlighting feature of 44 can be the portion of code representing the sprite; paragraph 0092); and
Instructions that, when executed by the processing circuitry, are configured to cause the processing circuitry to perform operation comprising:
A receiving, from the receiver, the signal indicative of the received infrared light (paragraph 0047 and 0049);
Generating, based on the signal indicative of the received infrared light, a set of coordinates corresponding to a vascular structure of the body part of the guest (42, paragraph 0047 and paragraph 0050; paragraph 0065);
Retrieving from the memory the portion of code representing the sprite (paragraph 0076-0079);
Generating, based on the portion of code, an image comprising the vascular structure of the body part and the sprite (0076-0079); and
Projecting, via the projector (22, figure 1), the image comprising the vascular structure and the sprite onto the body part of the guest (paragraph 0076).
Regarding claim 11, Tsumaki188 teaches mapping the vascular structure to an area of the body part of the guest (see figure 1, wherein the image is displayed on the forearm and wrist).
Regarding claim 12, Tsumaki188 teaches mapping the vascular structure to the area of the body part of the guest comprises executing a projection mapping routine stored in the memory (S3 and S4, figure 6)
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 103
In the event the determination of the status of the application as subject to AIA 35 U.S.C. 102 and 103 (or as subject to pre-AIA 35 U.S.C. 102 and 103) is incorrect, any correction of the statutory basis (i.e., changing from AIA to pre-AIA ) for the rejection will not be considered a new ground of rejection if the prior art relied upon, and the rationale supporting the rejection, would be the same under either status.
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) 3 and 13 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over by Tsumaki (US 2025/0213188 A1), referred to hereafter as Tsumaki188, in view of Goldman et al. (US 2014/0350408 A1).
Regarding claim 3, Tsumaki188 does not specify the emitter comprises an LED.
Goldman teaches the light emitter comprises an LED (paragraph 0004).
It would have been obvious to a person having ordinary skill in the art at the time the invention was made to modify the system of Tsumaki188 to use an LED emitter such as taught in Goldman in order to reduce cost and make the emitter more compact.
Regarding claim 13, Tsumaki188 does not teach the vascular effects system comprises a handheld device configured to be held over the body part of the guest.
Goldman teaches the vascular effects system comprises a handheld device configured to be held over the body part of the guest (figure 1).
It would have been obvious to a person having ordinary skill in the art at the time the invention was made to modify the system of Tsumaki188 to use the handheld device of Goldman in order to make the vascular display system more convenient for the users.
Claim(s) 14 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over by Tsumaki (US 2025/0213188 A1), referred to hereafter as Tsumaki188, in view of Tsumaki (US 2026/0000845 A1), referred to hereafter as Tsumaki845.
Regarding claim 14, Tsumaki188 does not specify that the vascular effects system is configured to be installed in a fixed position, wherein the body part of the guest is placed in the infrared light emitted by the emitter.
Tsumaki845 teaches the vascular effects system is configured to be installed in a fixed position, wherein the body part of the guest is placed in the infrared light emitted by the emitter (figure 1).
It would have been obvious to a person having ordinary skill in the art at the time the invention was made to modify the vascular effects system of Tsumaki188 to use the vascular station of Tsumaki845 in order to better align the patient with the optical elements to ensure better accuracy during the operations.
Allowable Subject Matter
Claims 2, 4-10, 16-17 and 19-20 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, 16 and 20, prior art does not specify that the oxygen rich regions within the vascular structure are detect based on the sensed infrared light.
Regarding claims 4-10, prior art does not specify the sprite as claimed.
Regarding claim 17, prior art does not teach the haptic system of claim 17.
Regarding claim 19, prior art does not teach the sprite moving along the vascular structure of the area of the body part of the guest, and the moving sprite would defeat the purpose of the sprite in the prior art, inasmuch as the sprite in the prior art is stationary to illustrate where to puncture the patient.
Conclusion
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to RYAN D HOWARD whose telephone number is (571)270-5358. The examiner can normally be reached M-F 8-5:00.
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If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner’s supervisor, Minh-Toan Ton can be reached at 5712722303. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300.
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/RYAN D HOWARD/ Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2882 7/10/2026
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