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 § 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.
The factual inquiries for establishing a background for determining obviousness under 35 U.S.C. 103 are summarized as follows:
1. Determining the scope and contents of the prior art.
2. Ascertaining the differences between the prior art and the claims at issue.
3. Resolving the level of ordinary skill in the pertinent art.
4. Considering objective evidence present in the application indicating obviousness or nonobviousness.
Claim(s) 1, 3, 4, 6, and 7 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Bae (U.S. PG-PUB NO. 2006/0274327) in view of Akasaka (JP2005201876A).
-Regarding claim 1, Bae discloses a component inspection method for performing inspection related to a spatial arrangement state of at least one component as a target in an assembly formed by assembling a plurality of components (see abstract), the method comprising: gradually obtaining a measurement data including a part of an outer surface of the target component by scanning a region including the target component from outside by a three-dimensional sensor (step S140, FIG. 4); obtaining a design data including an outer shape of the target component and a positional relationship of the target component in the assembly (inspection guide information is design data modeled by a computer-aided design (CAD) program, paragraph 40); aligning the region including the target component in the design data with the region including the target component in the measurement data (the control unit (500) may superpose the shape information of the object measured from the 3D scanner (100) on the shape information stored in the data storage unit (300), paragraph 56); calculating a progress degree which indicates a degree to which the scanning has progressed, based on the alignment (Step S150, FIG. 4); comparing the progress degree to a predetermined threshold value (Step S160, S170, FIG. 4).
Bae further discloses outputs the set information and the set scanning region to the display unit in step S120. Although Bae is silent to teaching that presenting an information that the progress degree exceeds the threshold value, when the progress degree exceeds the threshold value, the claimed limitation is well known in the art as evidenced by Akasaka.
In the same field of endeavor, Akasaka teaches presenting an information that the progress degree exceeds the threshold value, when the progress degree exceeds the threshold value (The result of the evaluation in S27 is displayed on the monitor (S28), FIG. 2).
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skills in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to combine the teaching of Bae with the teaching of Akasaka in order to provide the display means of Bae for displaying an evaluation result.
-Regarding claim 3, the combination further discloses wherein the calculation of the progress degree includes calculating the progress degree based on a distance scanned by the three-dimensional sensor (Bae, the control unit (500) compares the number of effective data calculated from the measurement information of the 3D scanner (100) with the first reference value for judging the validity of the calculated number of effective data in step S160, paragraph 58).
-Regarding claim 4, the combination further discloses wherein the calculation of the progress degree includes calculating the progress degree based on a number of viewpoints where the three-dimensional sensor has passed (Bae, the control unit (500) compares the number of effective data calculated from the measurement information of the 3D scanner (100) with the first reference value for judging the validity of the calculated number of effective data in step S160, paragraph 58).
-Regarding claim 6, the combination further discloses aligning the design data of the target component with a position of the measurement data of the target component, after the progress degree exceeds the threshold value (Bae, S130-S170, FIG. 4).
-Regarding claim 7, Bae discloses a component inspection device for performing inspection related to a spatial arrangement state of at least one component as a target in an assembly formed by assembling a plurality of components (FIG. 1), comprising: a three-dimensional sensor configured to gradually obtain a measurement data by scanning a region including the target component from outside (3D scanner (100), FIG. 1); a database configured to store a design data including an outer shape of the target component and a positional relationship of the target component in the assembly (data storage unit (300), FIG. 1); an aligning section configured to align the design data of the target component with a position of the measurement data of the target component (the control unit (500) may superpose the shape information of the object measured from the 3D scanner (100) on the shape information stored in the data storage unit (300), paragraph 56); a progress degree calculation section configured to calculate a progress degree which indicates a degree to which the scanning has progressed, based on the alignment by the aligning section (Step S150, FIG. 4).
Bae further discloses outputs the set information and the set scanning region to the display unit in step S120. Although Bae is silent to teaching that a device configured to present an information that the progress degree exceeds a predetermined threshold value, when the progress degree exceeds the threshold value, the claimed limitation is well known in the art as evidenced by Akasaka.
In the same field of endeavor, Akasaka teaches a device configured to present an information that the progress degree exceeds a predetermined threshold value, when the progress degree exceeds the threshold value (The result of the evaluation in S27 is displayed on the monitor (S28), FIG. 2).
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skills in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to combine the teaching of Bae with the teaching of Akasaka in order to provide the display means of Bae for displaying an evaluation result.
Allowable Subject Matter
Claims 2 and 5 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
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to PING Y HSIEH whose telephone number is (571)270-3011. The examiner can normally be reached Monday-Friday, 9am-4pm.
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If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner’s supervisor, Jennifer Mehmood can be reached at (571) 272-2976. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300.
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/PING Y HSIEH/ Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2664
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