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 .
Continued Examination Under 37 CFR 1.114
A request for continued examination under 37 CFR 1.114, including the fee set forth in 37 CFR 1.17(e), was filed in this application after final rejection. Since this application is eligible for continued examination under 37 CFR 1.114, and the fee set forth in 37 CFR 1.17(e) has been timely paid, the finality of the previous Office action has been withdrawn pursuant to 37 CFR 1.114. Applicant's submission filed on 12/08/2025 has been entered.
Response to Arguments
Applicant’s arguments filed 12/08/2025 have been considered but they are not persuasive.
On pages 8-9, Applicant argues that,
Claim 1, as amended, recites that the processor is configured to acquire, in a case in which the voice includes a predetermined specific term indicating a level of an examination, information regarding the level of the examination indicated by the term as relevant information. Applicant submits that the cited references do not disclose this feature.
For at least the foregoing reasons, Applicant respectfully submits that claim 1 is allowable, and that claims 10-11 are allowable for similar reasons. Claims 2-7 and 12 are allowable at least by virtue of incorporating the elements of claim 1.
In response, Examiner respectfully disagrees and submits that, at least in [0075] and [0083], Liao clearly teaches “… the user to give oral description to the displayed image, such as the pathological condition of the lesion including the size, color, appearance, inflammation status …” and the user can issue voice command as a text command (see [0082]) indicating “… the name or the type of a disease; morphology; size; color; treatment; type of surgery; equipment or medicine that has been used; a descriptive information provided by the user; and a combination thereof…”
Examiner respectfully submits that “a level of examination” can be reasonably interpreted as “some details of examination”. As such, any of oral description, such as the pathological condition of the lesion including the size, color, appearance, inflammation status and the name or the type of a disease; morphology; size; color; time; treatment; type of surgery; equipment or medicine that has been used taught by Liao can corresponds to the recited “predetermined specific term indicating a level of examination”.
Applicant’s arguments are not persuasive.
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 1-5 and 10-11 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Liao et al. (US 2020/0371744 A1 – hereinafter Liao), Jhawar et al. (US 2019/0205340 A1 – hereinafter Jhawar), and Wada et al. (US 2005/0033147 A1 – hereinafter Wada).
Regarding claim 1, Liao discloses an information processing apparatus (Fig. 1; [0071] – system 100) comprising at least one processor ([0076]; Fig. 1 – controller 120), wherein the processor is configured to: acquire a series of radiation images captured by performing continuous irradiation with radiation ([0068]-[0069]; [0071]; [0074] – acquiring video images using a radiographic imaging device, thus implying, the images are captured by performing continuous irradiation with radiation); generate, in a case in which a voice uttered during an imaging period of the series of radiation images is a specific voice, image specification information for specifying a radiation image selected from among the series of radiation images according to a timing of occurrence of the voice ([0075] – generating, based on an oral description to a displayed image in real-time during examination, information to specify a target image from the video images); extract a plurality of radiation images from the series of radiation images with the radiation image specified by the image specification information as a starting point or an ending point ([0077] – extracting images according to a first voice command and a last voice command); generate a data file including the extracted some radiation images ([0077] – generating a data file including the extracted images as medical records to be stored in the storage); acquire, in a case in which the voice includes a predetermined specific term indicating a level of an examination, information regarding the level of the examination indicated by the term as relevant information related to imaging content of the series of radiation images ([0075]; [0083];[0101] – acquiring, in a case in which the voice includes a text command with terms indicating the name or the type of a disease, morphology, size, color, treatment, type of surgery, equipment or medicine that has been used, a descriptive information and a combination thereof, or oral description to the displayed image, such as the pathological condition of the lesion including the size, color, appearance, inflammation status, any of which can be interpreted as indicating a level of an examination, or provided by the user); and generate a data file in which the relevant information and the some radiation images are associated with each other ([0075]; [0077] – generating a data file including the extracted images and relevant information).
However, Liao does not disclose the voice is uttered by an examinee; and the processor configured to associate the image specification information with the series of radiation images.
Jhawar discloses a processor configured to associate image specification information with a series of images ([0065]; Fig. 6 – a processor associates an image descriptive information to a series of images in the video using a timestamp).
One of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention would have been motivated to incorporate the teachings of Jhawar into the apparatus taught by Liao to allow the user to quickly navigate to the point of interest of the video if a review of the video is needed.
Liao and Jhawar do not disclose the voice is uttered by an examinee.
Wada discloses a processor configured to generate, in a case in which a voice uttered by an examinee during an imaging period is a specific voice, image specification information for specifying a radiation image according to a timing of occurrence of the voice ([0049]; [0061]; [0065]-[0066] – generating, based on a patient uttering a specific biological sound, information to specify a source of the biological sound and superimposing the information on a target image).
One of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention would have been motivated to incorporate the teachings of Wada into the series of images in the apparatus taught by Liao and Jhawar to provide useful diagnosis information to the series of images (Wada: [0004]; [0008]).
Regarding claim 2, Liao also discloses the information processing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the specific voice is an uttered voice including a specific word ([0083] – thus in view of Wada teaching the voice uttered by a patient).
Regarding claim 3, Liao and Wada also discloses the information processing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the specific voice is a specific biological sound (Liao: [0083] – Examiner interprets “biological sound” as sound produced by a living organism. Wada: [0061]).
Regarding claim 4, Liao in view of Jhawar and Wada as discussed in claim 1 above also discloses the processor is configured to: generate a plurality of pieces of the image specification information based on a plurality of voices uttered intermittently during the imaging period of the series of radiation images (Liao: [0103]; Fig. 6A); and associate the plurality of pieces of image specification information with the series of radiation images (Jhawar: [0065]; Fig. 6).
The motivation for incorporating the teachings of Jhawar into the apparatus has been discussed in claim 1 above.
Regarding claim 5, Liao also discloses the information processing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the processor is configured to display a time position of the radiation image specified by the image specification information in a video composed of the series of radiation images (Figs. 8-9).
The motivation for incorporating the teachings of Jhawar into the apparatus has been discussed in claim 1 above.
Claim 10 is rejected for the same reason as discussed in claim 1 above.
Claim 11 is rejected for the same reason as discussed in claim 1 above in view of Liao also disclosing a non-transitory computer-readable storage medium storing a program for causing at least one processor included in an information processing apparatus to execute the recited steps (Fig. 1; [0076]; [0084] – storage means 122 storing programs for causing controller 124 included in apparatus 100 to execute the recited steps).
Claim 6 is rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Liao, Jhawar, and Wada as applied to claims 1-5 and 10-11 above, and further in view of Barral et al. (US 2019/0110856 A1 – hereinafter Barral).
Regarding claim 6, see the teachings of Liao, Jhawar, and Wada as discussed in claim 1 above. However, Liao, Jhawar, and Wada do not disclose the processor is configured to change the image specification information based on a change operation of a time position of the radiation image specified by the image specification information in a video composed of the series of radiation images.
Barral discloses a processor is configured to change image specification information based on a change operation of a time position of an image specified by the image specification information in a video composed of the series of images ([0059]; Fig. 5 – a processor edits the position of a bookmark by selecting and dragging the bookmark to a new location along a timeline of a moving image).
One of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention would have been motivated to incorporate the teachings of Barral into the apparatus taught by Liao, Jhawar, and Wada to correct the position of the tags if desired, thus enhancing the user interface of the apparatus.
Claim 7 is rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Liao, Jhawar, and Wada as applied to claims 1-5 and 10-11 above, and further in view of Scheib et al. (US 2022/0375620 A1 – hereinafter Scheib).
Regarding claim 7, see the teachings of Liao, Jhawar, and Wada as discussed in claim 1 above. However, Liao, Jhawar, and Wada do not disclose the processor is configured to: acquire a series of optical images; and play back each of a radiation video composed of the series of radiation images and an optical video composed of the series of optical images such that images at the same time point are displayed.
Scheib discloses a processor is configured to: acquire a series of optical images that are continuously captured in parallel with the capturing of the series of radiation images (Fig. 2; [0044]; [0047]-[0048]) that are continuously captured in parallel with the capturing of the series of radiation images ([0159]; [0161] – primary imaging using a color camera is performed continuously in parallel with capturing of x-ray images using supplemental imaging); and play back each of a radiation video composed of the series of radiation images and an optical video composed of the series of optical images such that images at the same time point are displayed (Figs. 12-13; [0019]-[0020]; [0161]; [0174]).
One of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention would have been motivated to incorporate the teachings of Scheib into the apparatus taught by Liao, Jhawar, and Wada to provide the user with different perspectives of viewing thus facilitating manipulation of examining tools during examination.
Claim 12 is rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Liao, Jhawar, and Wada as applied to claims 1-5 and 10-11 above, and further in view of Freed et al. (US 2004/0034396 A1 – hereinafter Freed).
Regarding claim 12, see the teachings of Liao, Jhawar, and Wada as discussed in claim 3 above.
However, Liao, Jhawar, and Wada do not disclose the specific biological sound includes a swallowing sound uttered by the examinee swallowing a sample.
Freed discloses a specific biological sound includes a swallowing sound uttered by the examinee swallowing a sample ([0053]).
One of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention would have been motivated to incorporate the teachings of Freed into the apparatus taught by Liao, Jhawa, and Wada in order to successfully detect and process more types of biological sounds.
Conclusion
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to HUNG Q DANG whose telephone number is (571)270-1116. The examiner can normally be reached IFT.
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If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner’s supervisor, Thai Q Tran can be reached at 571-272-7382. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300.
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/HUNG Q DANG/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2484
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