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 .
Information Disclosure Statement
The information disclosure statement (IDS) submitted on 12/17/2024 is in compliance with the provisions of 37 CFR 1.97. Accordingly, the information disclosure statement is being considered by the examiner.
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, 2, 8 and 10-19 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(1) as being anticipated by Tomoyuki (JP 2005156651-A; the prior art is provided by applicant).
With respect to claim 1, Tomoyuki teaches a biological sample material observation system comprising (see abstract; Figs. 1-8; paragraphs 0008-0068):
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a control unit (102) that determines, based on a relationship between information related to a luminance distribution of first image data acquired by imaging a sample by a first imaging system and information related to a luminance distribution of second image data acquired by imaging the sample by a second imaging system, and based on information related to a luminance distribution of third image data acquired by imaging a biological sample material different from the sample by the first imaging system, an imaging condition to be used at a time of imaging the biological sample material by the second imaging system
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(see abstract; Figs. 1-8; paragraphs 0008-0068).
With respect to claim 2, Tomoyuki teaches the biological sample material observation system according to claim 1 (see abstract; Figs. 1-8; paragraphs 0008-0068), wherein the control unit further estimates information related to a luminance distribution of fourth image data to be acquired in a case where the biological sample material is imaged by the second imaging system
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from the information related to the luminance distribution of the third image data based on the relationship, and determines the imaging condition based on the estimated information related to the luminance distribution of the fourth image data (see abstract; Figs. 1-8; paragraphs 0008-0068).
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With respect to claim 8, Tomoyuki teaches the biological sample material observation system according to claim 5 (see abstract; Figs. 1-8; paragraphs 0008-0068), wherein the plurality of samples is of a same type in at least one of a type of a tissue specimen, a type of a fluorescent dye used for staining, and a staining condition at a time of staining (see abstract; Figs. 1-8; paragraphs 0008-0068).
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With respect to claim 8, Tomoyuki teaches the biological sample material observation system according to claim 2 (see abstract; Figs. 1-8; paragraphs 0008-0068), wherein the control unit determines a reference luminance value from the estimated fourth image data, and determines the imaging condition based on the reference luminance value (see abstract; Figs. 1-8; paragraphs 0008-0068).
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With respect to claim 10, Tomoyuki teaches the biological sample material observation system according to claim 8 (see abstract; Figs. 1-8; paragraphs 0008-0068), wherein the control unit determines the imaging condition such that the reference luminance value approaches a predetermined appropriate luminance value (see abstract; Figs. 1-8; paragraphs 0008-0068).
With respect to claim 11, Tomoyuki teaches the biological sample material observation system according to claim 2 (see abstract; Figs. 1-8; paragraphs 0008-0068), wherein the control unit further causes a user to adjust the imaging condition, and determines the imaging condition to be set in the second imaging system based on the adjusted imaging condition (see abstract; Figs. 1-8; paragraphs 0008-0068).
With respect to claim 12, Tomoyuki teaches the biological sample material observation system according to claim 11 (see abstract; Figs. 1-8; paragraphs 0008-0068), wherein the control unit further performs control to generate, based on the third image data, fifth image data predicted to be acquired in a case where the biological sample material is imaged by the second imaging system, and control to display the fifth image data to the user (see abstract; Figs. 1-8; paragraphs 0008-0068).
With respect to claim 13, Tomoyuki teaches the biological sample material observation system according to claim 1 (see abstract; Figs. 1-8; paragraphs 0008-0068), wherein the imaging condition includes at least one of an exposure time, a signal gain, and a diaphragm in the second imaging system, and intensity of excitation light to be applied to the biological sample material at the time of imaging of the biological sample material (see abstract; Figs. 1-8; paragraphs 0008-0068).
With respect to claim 14, Tomoyuki teaches the biological sample material observation system according to claim 13 (see abstract; Figs. 1-8; paragraphs 0008-0068), wherein the control unit determines, as the imaging condition for setting the second imaging system, an imaging condition in which at least one of the signal gain and the diaphragm has been adjusted in preference to the exposure time and the intensity of the excitation light, among the exposure time, the signal gain, the diaphragm, and the intensity of the excitation light (see abstract; Figs. 1-8; paragraphs 0008-0068).
With respect to claim 15, Tomoyuki teaches the biological sample material observation system according to claim 1 (see abstract; Figs. 1-8; paragraphs 0008-0068), further comprising the first imaging system and the second imaging system (see abstract; Figs. 1-8; paragraphs 0008-0068).
With respect to claim 16, Tomoyuki teaches the biological sample material observation system according to claim 1 (see abstract; Figs. 1-8; paragraphs 0008-0068), wherein the biological sample material has undergone fluorescent labeling, and the first imaging system and the second imaging system include an excitation light source that excites the biological sample material (see abstract; Figs. 1-8; paragraphs 0008-0068).
With respect to claim 17, Tomoyuki teaches the biological sample material observation system according to claim 2 (see abstract; Figs. 1-8; paragraphs 0008-0068), further comprising an analysis unit that analyzes the fourth image data acquired by imaging the biological sample material using the second imaging system in which the imaging condition is set (see abstract; Figs. 1-8; paragraphs 0008-0068).
With respect to claim 18, Tomoyuki teaches the biological sample material observation system according to claim 1 (see abstract; Figs. 1-8; paragraphs 0008-0068), wherein the biological sample material imaged by the first imaging system and the biological sample material imaged by the second imaging system are identical or similar tissue sections (see abstract; Figs. 1-8; paragraphs 0008-0068).
With respect to claim 19, Tomoyuki teaches a biological sample material observation method comprising (see abstract; Figs. 1-8; paragraphs 0008-0068): determining, based on a relationship between information related to a luminance distribution of first image data acquired by imaging a sample by a first imaging system and information related to a luminance distribution of second image data acquired by imaging the sample by a second imaging system, and based on information related to a luminance distribution of third image data acquired by imaging a biological sample material different from the sample by the first imaging system, an imaging condition to be used at a time of imaging the biological sample material by the second imaging system (see abstract; Figs. 1-8; paragraphs 0008-0068).
Allowable Subject Matter
Claim 20 is allowed.
Claims 3-7 and 9 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.
The following is a statement of reasons for the indication of allowable subject matter:
With respect to claims 3-6, the most relevant prior art, Tomoyuki (JP 2005156651-A) teaches the biological sample material observation system according to claim 2 (see abstract; Figs. 1-8; paragraphs 0008-0068) but fails to explicitly teaches or make obvious that the control unit further creates a two-dimensional histogram having a luminance value of the first image data as a first axis and a luminance value of the second image data as a second axis, and normalizes information related to a luminance distribution of the first axis in the two-dimensional histogram, so as to create, as the relationship, a first transformation matrix, the first transformation matrix being a matrix to transform the information related to the luminance distribution of the third image data into the information related to the luminance distribution of the fourth image data as claimed in combination with all of the remaining limitations of the base claim and any intervening claims.
With respect to claim 9, the most relevant prior art, Tomoyuki (JP 2005156651-A) teaches the biological sample material observation system according to claim 8 (see abstract; Figs. 1-8; paragraphs 0008-0068) but fails to explicitly teach or make obvious that the reference luminance value is any of luminance values including: a luminance value of a predetermined percentile value or an integer multiple of the percentile value, on a one- dimensional histogram representing information related to the luminance distribution of the fourth image data; a luminance value exhibited on an X-intercept of a straight line representing a gradient of the one-dimensional histogram at a predetermined luminance value; and a luminance value determined based on a luminance value representing information related to a peak of a luminance distribution on the one-dimensional histogram as claimed in combination with all of the remaining limitations of the base claim and any intervening claims.
With respect to claim 20, the most relevant prior art, Tomoyuki (JP 2005156651-A; the prior art is provided by applicant) teaches data set creation method, comprising: imaging each of a plurality of samples individually by a first imaging system and a second imaging system so as to create a plurality of image pairs of first image data acquired by the first imaging system and second image data acquired by the second imaging system; grouping the plurality of image pairs into libraries for each type of the sample (see abstract; Figs. 1-8; paragraphs 0008-0068) but fails to explicitly teach or make obvious creating a two-dimensional histogram for each of the image pairs included in the library, the two-dimensional histogram having a luminance value of the first image data as a first axis and a luminance value of the second image data as a second axis; and normalizing the information related to the luminance distribution of the first axis in the two-dimensional histogram to create a transformation matrix based on a relationship between the information related to the luminance distribution of the image data acquired by the first imaging system and the information related to the luminance distribution of the image data acquired by the second imaging system as claimed in combination with all of the remaining limitations of the claim.
Conclusion
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to IRAKLI KIKNADZE whose telephone number is (571)272-6494. The examiner can normally be reached 9:00 AM - 6:00 PM.
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If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner’s supervisor, David J. Makiya can be reached at 571-272-2273. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300.
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Irakli Kiknadze
/IRAKLI KIKNADZE/
Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2884
/I.K./ August 18, 2026
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