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 § 112
The following is a quotation of 35 U.S.C. 112(b):
(b) CONCLUSION.—The specification shall conclude with one or more claims particularly pointing out and distinctly claiming the subject matter which the inventor or a joint inventor regards as the invention.
The following is a quotation of 35 U.S.C. 112 (pre-AIA ), second paragraph:
The specification shall conclude with one or more claims particularly pointing out and distinctly claiming the subject matter which the applicant regards as his invention.
Claim 1 is rejected under 35 U.S.C. 112(b) or 35 U.S.C. 112 (pre-AIA ), second paragraph, as being indefinite for failing to particularly point out and distinctly claim the subject matter which the inventor or a joint inventor (or for applications subject to pre-AIA 35 U.S.C. 112, the applicant), regards as the invention.
Claim 1 is directed to a “first affine function” and a “second affine function”. It is not clear how the affine function are defined to obtain the desired composition and the first and second distortion signals. Claim 1 is also directed to estimation of the speed of sound from the comparison of the first and second distorted signals. It is not clear from the claim language how the first and second distorted signals are compared to determine the speed of sound in the region of interest. Claim 1 language with respect to the affine functions and the estimation of the speed of sound from the comparison of the first and second distortion signals is unclear and therefore indefinite. It is suggested these steps provide further clarity on the relationship between the various parameters to estimate the speed of sound from the comparison of the first and second distorted signals obtained by the first and second affine functions.
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 1-11 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 101 because the claimed invention is directed to a judicial exception in the form of an abstract idea, specifically a mental process, without significantly more. The claim(s) recite(s) “affine function…to obtain a first distorted signal…and a second distorted signal…estimation of speed of sound from the comparison of first and second distorted signals”. The limitations, under broadest reasonable interpretation, cover mathematical concepts or mathematical relationship (See MPEP 2106.-04(a)(2)).
Following step 2A of the two-prong analysis, these judicial exceptions are not integrated into a practical application because the claim merely provides instructions to implement an abstract idea and makes no mention of whether a generic computer (i.e. “using a computer processor”) is used to do so (See MPEP 2106.05(f)). Furthermore, the claims as written do not include elements to 1) improve the functioning of a computer (See MPEP 2105.05(a)); 2) effect a particular treatment or prophylaxis (See MPEP 2106.04(d)(2)); 3) use a particular machine (See MPEP 2106.05(b)); or 4) use the judicial exceptions in a meaningful way beyond generally linking the use to a particular technological environment (See MPEP 2106.05(h)).
Following step 2B of the two-prong analysis, the additional element(s) (i.e. acquisition of the two reception signals associated with emitted and received waves) do not amount to significantly more than the judicial exception (See MPEP 2106.05(f)).
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.
Claim(s) 1 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Tashiro (2012/0259225) in view of Renaud et al. (2025/0152124) and further in view of Ebisawa (2014/0288426).
Tashiro teaches of an method for analyzing a medium from an array of transducer 1 [0035-0037, 0039] with said method comprising the acquisition of two reception signals each associated with a respective pair of emitted waves and received waves [0037] said reception signals comprising a first reception signal associated with a first pair of emitted and received waved along first emission and reception directions and second reception signal associated with second pair of emitted and received waves along second emission and reception direction [0040]. Tashiro teaches of each vibrator expanding and contracting to produce an electric signal which is then outputted as reception signal of the ultrasound waves upon reception of propagating ultrasonic waves [0038]. Tashiro teaches of an ultrasound diagnostic apparatus comprising a transducer array connected to a transmission and reception circuit with a sound speed map producer connected to the reception circuit [0035, 0036]. The reference teaches of “performing reception focusing processing by providing the reception signals with respective delays according to the sound speed or the sound speed distribution that is set based on a reception delay pattern selected according to the control signal from the controller 14 and adding them up. This reception focusing processing yields reception data (sound ray signals) having the ultrasonic echoes well focused” [0040]. Tashiro teaches of generating, by the transducer of the array, an emitted wave having a desired emission depth of the direction of the emitted wave and receiving a time reception signal representative of the received wave along a desired depth of the reception direction and correcting attenuation of the reception data according to the distance or depth at which the ultrasonic waves are reflected [0041, 0048, 0086].
Tashiro does not explicitly teach of the first emission and reception directions being different from the second emission and reception directions. In a related field of endeavor Renaud et al. teach of a method for estimating movement of particles in a bone with the first emission and reception direction of ultrasonic waves/echoes is different from the second emission/reception direction of ultrasound waves/echoes [0058-0060]. Renaud et al. therefore teach of two pairs of wavefront directions located inside the bone with these pairs of different directions characterizing different trajectories of emitted ultrasound waves and received ultrasound echoes [0061, 0062]. It would have therefore been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art to use the teaching by Renaud et al. to modify Tashiro to effectively evaluate the composition of the tissue structure and allow more precise movement estimate [Renaud, 0010].
Tashiro and Renaud et al. do not explicitly teach of distortion of the reception signals with a affine function. In a related field of endeavor Ebisawa teaches of irradiating ultrasound waves to an object, receiving the ultrasonic echoes obtained when the object reflects the waves and convert the echoes into electric signals where the ultrasonic control unit employs different method for irradiating ultrasonic waves to the object in the forward and backward paths and the combining unit combines the plurality of images based on the waves irradiated in the different irradiation methods [0063]. Ebisawa teaches of undergoing affine deformation processes to correct distortion of image data items before the image data items are combined with one another [0064]. Tashiro teaches teach of estimating the speed of sound in a region of interest based on the reception data from the comparison of the distorted signals [0036, 0040, 0049, 0061, 0062]. Under broadest reasonable interpretation of the claim, the combination of the references teaches of the application of the affine function to obtain the distorted signal and the estimation of the speed of sound in a region of interest of the medium from the distorted signals. It would have therefore been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art to use the teaching by Ebisawa to modify Tashiro to effectively correct distortion of image data before the image data are combined with one another [Ebisawa, 0064].
Conclusion
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BR
/BAISAKHI ROY/ Primary Examiner, Art Unit 3797
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