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 Amendment
Receipt is acknowledged of the Preliminary Amendment filed on December 16, 2024. Accordingly, claims 1-20 are currently pending in the application.
Information Disclosure Statement
The information disclosure statement (IDS) submitted on March 18, 2025 is being considered by the examiner.
Claim Objections
Claim 1 is objected to because of the following informalities: -- one -- should be inserted after “least”. Appropriate correction is required.
Claim Interpretation
According to MPEP 2112.02: Process Claims, it is noted that “Under the principles of inherency, if a prior art device, in its normal and usual operation, would necessarily perform the method claimed, then the method claimed will be considered to be anticipated by the prior art device” (emphasis added). It is also noted in that same MPEP section that “The Federal Circuit upheld the Board’s finding that "Donley inherently performs the function disclosed in the method claims on appeal when that device is used in ‘normal and usual operation’" and found that a prima facie case of anticipation was made out” (emphasis added). Id. at 138, 801 F.2d at 1326. It was up to applicant to prove that Donley's structure would not perform the claimed method when placed in ambient light.).”
With regard to claims 12-20, these claims present a method for de-embedding a measurement system and imaging commodity in a container of claims 1-11. Therefore, the argument made against claims 1-11 also applies, mutatis mutandis, to claims 12-20. In addition, it is clearly seen that claims 12-20 are process claims which present a process of using the system as claimed in claims 1-11, respectively.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 102
In the event the determination of the status of the application as subject to AIA 35 U.S.C. 102 and 103 (or as subject to pre-AIA 35 U.S.C. 102 and 103) is incorrect, any correction of the statutory basis (i.e., changing from AIA to pre-AIA ) for the rejection will not be considered a new ground of rejection if the prior art relied upon, and the rationale supporting the rejection, would be the same under either status.
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.
Claims 1-3 and 11-13 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(1) as being anticipated by Gilmore et al. (US 11,125,796 B2).
Gilmore et al. teaches an electromagnetic imaging and inversion of simple parameters in storage bins comprising:
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With regard to claims 1 and 12, a system (FIG. 1, environment 10) comprises a container (FIG. 1, container 18) configured to store a commodity (object of interest, e.g. contents or grain); a measurement system (FIG. 3 in view of FIG. 1, computing device 52, e.g., servers 26 or one of the devices 20) comprising a vector network analyzer VNA (FIG. 1, antenna acquisition circuit 16, (e.g., vector network analyzer or VNA), a switch module (FIG. 1, radio frequency (RF) switch matrix or RF multiplexor (MUX) of the antenna acquisition circuit 16), a plurality of cables (FIG. 1, cablings connected antenna probes 14 to the radio frequency (RF) switch matrix or RF multiplexor (MUX) of the antenna acquisition circuit 16), and a plurality of antennas (FIG. 1, antenna array 12) coupled to an interior wall of the container (FIG. 1, container 18), the switch module (FIG. 1, radio frequency (RF) switch matrix or RF multiplexor (MUX) of the antenna acquisition circuit 16) configured to switch signals transmitted to and received from the plurality of antennas (FIG. 1, antenna array 12) via a plurality of channels (transmitter/receiver pairs), the VNA (FIG. 1, antenna acquisition circuit 16, (e.g., vector network analyzer or VNA) configured to measure scattering parameters (S-parameters) of all of the plurality of channels (transmitter/receiver pairs); at least processor (FIG. 3 in view of FIG. 1, processor 54 of the computing device 52, e.g., servers 26 or one of the devices 20); and at least one non-transitory computer-readable storage medium (FIG. 3 in view of FIG. 1, memory 60) storing instructions (one or more native applications, phaseless, parametric inversion (PPI) software 66, pixel-based inversion software 68, or certain functionality) thereon that, when executed by the at least one processor (FIG. 3 in view of FIG. 1, processor 54 of the computing device 52, e.g., servers 26 or one of the devices 20), cause the measurement system (FIG. 3 in view of FIG. 1, computing device 52, e.g., servers 26 or one of the devices 20) to: de-embed a combined effect (uncalibrated first data) of the measurement system (FIG. 3 in view of FIG. 1, computing device 52, e.g., servers 26 or one of the devices 20) based on a 2-port network de-embedding technique (second data based on a computer model and simulation of signals of a second plurality of different frequencies) using only a subset of the S-parameters (second data based on a computer model and simulation of signals of a second plurality of different frequencies including a subset of the first plurality of different frequencies); and provide an image of the commodity (object of interest, e.g. contents or grain) (information about the contents within the container) using an inversion algorithm (phaseless, parametric inversion (PPI) ) based on input of a calibrated S-parameter (updated second data) after the de-embedding (For more details, please read: Abstract; from column 1, line 55 to column 2, line 3; from column 3, line 64 to column 8, line 57; from column 11, line 30 to column 13, line 16; and claims 1-14).
With regard to claims 2, instructions (one or more native applications, phaseless, parametric inversion (PPI) software 66, pixel-based inversion software 68, or certain functionality) that, when executed by the at least one processor (FIG. 3 in view of FIG. 1, processor 54 of the computing device 52, e.g., servers 26 or one of the devices 20), cause the measurement system (FIG. 3 in view of FIG. 1, computing device 52, e.g., servers 26 or one of the devices 20) to de-embed based on a model of the measurement system (FIG. 3 in view of FIG. 1, computing device 52, e.g., servers 26 or one of the devices 20) (FIGS. 4 and 5; and column 3, lines 6-39) (For more details, please read: Abstract; from column 1, line 55 to column 2, line 3; from column 3, line 64 to column 8, line 57; from column 11, line 30 to column 13, line 16; and claims 1-14).
With regard to claims 3 and 13, the model of the measurement system (FIG. 3 in view of FIG. 1, computing device 52, e.g., servers 26 or one of the devices 20) comprises a series of cascaded 2-port sub-networks (FIG. 1, cablings connected antenna probes 14 to the radio frequency (RF) switch matrix or RF multiplexor (MUX) of the antenna acquisition circuit 16) for each antenna pair (transmitter/receiver pairs), including a transmission switch channel (FIG. 1, radio frequency (RF) switch matrix or RF multiplexor (MUX) of the antenna acquisition circuit 16), a first cable (FIG. 1, cablings connected antenna probes 14 to the radio frequency (RF) switch matrix or RF multiplexor (MUX) of the antenna acquisition circuit 16), a device under test (DUT) comprising the container (FIG. 1, container 18) with the plurality of antennas (FIG. 1, antenna probes 14 to the radio frequency (RF) switch matrix or RF multiplexor (MUX) of the antenna acquisition circuit 16), a second cable (FIG. 1, cables connecting the antenna probes 14 to the antenna acquisition circuit 16), and a receiving switch channel (FIG. 1, link or channel from antenna probes 14 to the radio frequency (RF) switch matrix or RF multiplexor (MUX) of the antenna acquisition circuit 16) (For more details, please read: Abstract; from column 1, line 55 to column 2, line 3; from column 3, line 64 to column 8, line 57; from column 11, line 30 to column 13, line 16; and claims 1-14).
With regard to claims 11, the 2-port network de-embedding technique (second data based on a computer model and simulation of signals of a second plurality of different frequencies) uses ABCD matrices (FIG. 2A in view of FIG.1) (For more details, please read: Abstract; from column 1, line 55 to column 2, line 3; from column 3, line 64 to column 8, line 57; from column 11, line 30 to column 13, line 16; and claims 1-14).
Allowable Subject Matter
Claims 4-10 and 14-20 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. Applicants’ attention is invited to the followings whose inventions disclose similar devices.
Abbosh et al. (US 2024/0402099 A1) teaches an electromagnetic medical imaging calibration module and method.
Shao et al. (US 2024/0402265 A1) teaches an asymmetric compensation method and apparatus for a two-port near field probe.
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