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
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)(1) the claimed invention was patented, described in a printed publication, or in public use, on sale, or otherwise available to the public before the effective filing date of the claimed invention.
Claim(s) 1, 2, 6, 7, 10-13, 15-19, and 21-22 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(2) as being anticipated by Mikawa (2023/0196511).
Regarding claim 1, Mikawa discloses a standard-imaging assistance device which includes an imaging mode of standard imaging to image an inside of an oral cavity of an examination subject and which assists the standard imaging conducted by a user, comprising: an operating part (403-407) which receives a setting operation of an imaging mode from the user; and a controller (201, 301) which captures images of a plurality of image-capture sites (410, 414-417) specified in the oral cavity of the same examination subject by using an image capturer (300) in accordance with the setting operation received in the operating part and executes a standard-imaging mode which associates the captured images thus captured with one another.
Regarding claim 2, Mikawa discloses the operating part has a standard-imaging mode button with which it is possible to input a standard-imaging mode execution instruction for executing the standard-imaging mode (note 403-407).
Regarding claim 6, Mikawa discloses the operating part has a specific site setter (button 407) with which it is possible to input which image-capture site of the plurality of image-capture sites (410, 414-417), an image-capture site of a captured image to be acquired by the standard-imaging assistance device is.
Regarding claim 7, Mikawa discloses the controller includes: an image-capture controller which conducts control of causing the image capturer to capture an image of an image-capture subject through an operation of the user; and an image magnification factor adjuster which adjusts, in response to information indicating an image-capture site inputted to the specific site setter through an operation of the user, a magnification factor of a captured image to be acquired with respect to the image-capture site. That is, the commercially available digital camera 108 (note par. 45 and Fig. 4) inherently includes a zoom adjuster or the magnification adjuster as claimed.
Regarding claim 10, Mikawa discloses a distance measurer which measures a distance between the standard-imaging assistance device and an image-capture subject, wherein the image magnification factor adjuster has a magnification factor setter which sets a magnification factor of a captured image to be acquired with respect to the image-capture subject based on a result of measurement of the distance measurer. That is, the commercially available digital camera 108 inherently includes a distance measurer for adjust the focus of the camera.
Regarding claim 11, Mikawa discloses the image magnification factor adjuster performs a trimming process on a captured image which is captured by the image capturer with an image pickup range made wider than an image pickup range of a captured image used in standard imaging in advance. That is, the commercially available digital camera 108 inherently includes digital zoom for performing the trimming process as claimed, such as the image processing unit 311.
Regarding claim 12, Mikawa discloses the image capturer; and a captured image generator (311) which generates a captured image based on an image signal outputted from the image capturer, wherein the captured image generator adjusts a magnification factor of a captured image to be acquired with respect to the image-capture subject by using a magnification factor set by the magnification factor setter. That is, the image processing unit 311 in Mikawa inherently performs the magnification factor adjusting function as claimed.
Regarding claim 13, Mikawa discloses a display operating part (403-407) which is configured by integrating the operating part and a display part (411) which displays a captured image to be acquired by the standard-imaging assistance device or a captured image acquired by the standard-imaging assistance device on a screen, wherein each of buttons included in the specific site setter is specific site correspondence image information displayed on the screen of the display operating part (410, 414-417; par. 59, 72).
Regarding claim 15, Mikawa discloses the controller includes a display content controller which controls a content of display on the screen of the display operating part (410, 414-417), and the display content controller replaces a captured image with respect to a specific image-capture site acquired by the image capturer with the specific site correspondence image information corresponding to the image-capture site and causes the display operating part to display the specific site correspondence image information (selection one of 410, 414-417).
Regarding claim 16, Mikawa discloses the controller includes a display content controller which controls a content of display on a screen of a connected external monitor, and the display content controller replaces a captured image with respect to a specific image-capture site acquired by the image capturer with the specific site correspondence image information corresponding to the image-capture site and causes the screen of the external monitor to display the specific site correspondence image information (note display 103 as described in par. 48).
Regarding claim 17, Mikawa discloses the display content controller replaces a captured image on which a reverse process corresponding to a specific image-capture site has been performed with the specific site correspondence image information (note par. 93).
Regarding claim 18, Mikawa discloses the magnification factor setter corrects a reference magnification factor set in advance through an operation of the user such that even when a distance between the standard-imaging assistance device and the image-capture subject varies, a magnification factor of a captured image to be acquired with respect to the image-capture subject becomes the same based on a result of measurement of the distance measurer and sets the magnification factor of the captured image to be acquired with respect to the image-capture subject. That is, the commercially available digital camera (par. 45) inherently includes user settable zooming factors. The zooming adjustment can be performed by image processing unit 311.
Regarding claim 19, Mikawa discloses a reverse pattern determiner which determines, in response to an image-capture site inputted to the specific site setter through an operation of the user, which of a plurality of reverse processes prepared in advance, a reverse process to be performed on a captured image acquired from the image-capture site as an image-capture subject is (s603); and a captured image outputter which performs the reverse process on the acquired captured image based on a result of the determination of the reverse pattern determiner and outputs the captured image on which the reverse process has been performed (s604).
Regarding claim 21, Mikawa discloses a storage device which stores data of the outputted captured image (303, 306, 205).
Regarding claim 22, Mikawa discloses the distance measurer is a distance measurement sensor, and the distance measurement sensor has a function of irradiating the image-capture subject with color light. That is as set forth for claim 10, the commercially available digital camera inherently includes a distance measurement sensor, which inherently using a color light beam to measure the distance.
Allowable Subject Matter
Claims 3-5, 8-9, 14 and 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.
Conclusion
The prior art made of record and not relied upon is considered pertinent to applicant's disclosure.
Carrier, JR. et al. (2018/0125610) shows a camera 101 for capturing teeth images.
Tsujita et al. (WO2016108276A1) discloses a dental optical imaging apparatus.
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to MICHAEL LEE whose telephone number 571-272-7349. The examiner can normally be reached on Monday through Thursday from 9:00 am to 6:00 pm.
If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner's supervisor, John Miller, can be reached on 571-272-7353. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300.
Information regarding the status of an application may be obtained from the Patent Application Information Retrieval (PAIR) system. Status information for published applications may be obtained from either Private PAIR or Public PAIR. Status information for unpublished applications is available through Private PAIR only. For more information about the PAIR system, see http://pair-direct.uspto.gov. Should you have questions on access to the Private PAIR system, contact the Electronic Business Center (EBC) at 866-217-9197 (toll-free).
/MICHAEL LEE/ Primary Examiner,
Art Unit 2422
Prosecution Insights