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 .
Response to Arguments
Applicant’s arguments, see Response to Office Action mailed 5 August 2026, filed 29 September 2026, with respect to Claim Rejections under 35 USC §102 and §103 have been fully considered and are persuasive. The Claim Rejections under 35 USC §102 and §103 of claims 1, 3-7, 9-10, 12-13, 15-16, 19, 21-22, and 25-26 has been withdrawn.
Applicant’s arguments, see Response to Office Action mailed 5 August 2026, filed 29 September 2026, with respect to the rejection(s) of claim(s) 11 under 35 USC §103 have been fully considered and are persuasive. Therefore, the rejection has been withdrawn. However, upon further consideration, a new ground(s) of rejection is made in view of Wissam in view of Bigos (US 2020/0234486 A1).
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 103
The text of those sections of Title 35, U.S. Code not included in this action can be found in a prior Office action.
Claim(s) 11 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over El Hakimi Wissam (Accurate 3D-reconstruction and navigation for high-precision minimal-invasive interventions; 3 February 2016) in view of Bigos (US 2020/0234486 A1).
Regarding Claim 11, Wissam discloses a three-dimensional structure reconstruction system comprising: at least one processor [Wissam: p. 156, Intel Core i5] configured to: receive a plurality of X-ray images of an object [Wissam: FIG. 3.29: X-ray images], wherein the plurality of X-ray images of the object are captured from different poses [Wissam: FIG. 3.30: X-ray images; and p. 86: step 3: vary the pose parameters]; determine a loss function [Wissam: p. 86: Step 2: compute the similarity score] based on: an estimated tree-dimensional structure [Wissam: p. 86: step 1: create a DRR for each of the X-ray image based on the current CT volume], and the plurality of X-ray images of the object [Wissam: p. 86: step 2: between each DRR and the corresponding X-ray image]; and determine a reconstructed tree-dimensional structure by minimizing the loss function [Wissam: p. 86: step 3: maximize the similarity score; and FIG. 3.29: reconstructed 3D image].
Wissam may not explicitly disclose wherein the estimated three-dimensional structure initially comprises voxels having random or zero intensity.
However, Bigos discloses wherein the estimated three-dimensional structure initially comprises voxels having random or zero intensity [Bigos: ¶ [0083]: Hence referring now to FIG. 6, a table 610 of all recorded points in the cloud is assembled, together with a so-called point map 620, being a list of counters or flags, one for each point in the table. Initially this point map is empty (i.e. all flags are false, or all counters are zero)].
It would have been obvious to one having ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date to combine the process of Wissam with the initialization protocol of Bigos in order to reduce computational errors.
Allowable Subject Matter
Claims 1, 3-7, 9-10, 12-13, 15-16, 19, 21-22, and 25-26 are allowed.
The following is an examiner’s statement of reasons for allowance: While determination of object location via 3D structure processing via an image is well-known, the specific equations required along with the determined characteristics used have not been found in the prior art.
Any comments considered necessary by applicant must be submitted no later than the payment of the issue fee and, to avoid processing delays, should preferably accompany the issue fee. Such submissions should be clearly labeled “Comments on Statement of Reasons for Allowance.”
Conclusion
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to JONATHAN R MESSMORE whose telephone number is (571)272-2773. The examiner can normally be reached Monday-Friday 9-5 EST/EDT.
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/JONATHAN R MESSMORE/ Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2482
