Response to Amendment
This action is responsive to applicant’s amendment and remarks received on 05/05/2026. Claims 1-20 have been presented for examination. Claims 1-20 have been examined.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 103
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 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.
Claims 1-4, 7-18 and 20 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Gao (Pub. No.: 2020/0123456 A1) in view of Cunningham (Pub. No.: 2013/0278425 A1).
1) In regard to claim 1, Gao discloses the claimed product scanner (fig. 1: 102), comprising:
a housing (its inherent the self-checkout vehicle has a housing);
an indicia scanner (fig. 1: 106) comprising a light source, a lens, and an optical sensor (¶0049), wherein the indicia scanner is configured to:
capture indicia data from a product indicia disposed within an indicia scan region defined by an optical field-of-view of the optical sensor (¶0081 discloses the barcode scanner is used to scan a barcode on the object); and
a radar system (¶0049 discloses a radar may be installed on the self-checkout vehicle) comprising a radar chip and an antenna (¶0049 discloses the radar determines a shape related to the object; hence, it is inherent the radar has a chip to do the determination and an antenna for transmit a signal in order to make a determination of the shape).
Gao does not explicitly disclose the radar system is configured to capture three-dimensional layer data from a radar field-of-view.
However, Cunningham discloses it is known for a POS to be configured to capture three-dimensional layer data from a field-of-view (¶0113).
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art at the time the claimed invention was filed to allow the scanner of Gao to utilize the radar to capture a three-dimensional data from the field-of-view of the radar, as taught by Cunningham.
One skilled in the art would be motivated to modify Gao as described above in order to use a known technique for determining the shape of an object.
2) In regard to claim 2 (dependent on claim 1), Gao and Cunningham further disclose the product scanner of claim 1, wherein the radar system is configured to: capture first three-dimensional layer data representative of an exterior feature of a product disposed within a radar field-of-view, and capture second three-dimensional layer data representative of an interior feature of the product disposed within the radar field-of-view (Cunningham ¶0113).
3) In regard to claim 3 (dependent on claim 2), Gao and Cunningham further disclose the product scanner of claim 2, wherein the radar system further comprises: a radar-product database comprising radar-product training data, wherein the radar-product training data associates known three-dimensional layer data with one or more known products; and a radar-product model configured to: compare, at least in part, the first three-dimensional layer data and the second three-dimensional layer data to the radar-product training data; and determine, to within a decision threshold, whether at least one of the first three-dimensional layer data or the second three-dimensional layer data represent a known product (Gao ¶0081 and ¶0086).
4) In regard to claim 4 (dependent on claim 3), Gao and Cunningham further disclose the product scanner of claim 3, wherein the radar system further comprises: a product model comprising one or more of the radar-product model and image data (Gao ¶0086).
5) In regard to claim 7 (dependent on claim 6), Gao and Cunningham further disclose the product scanner of claim 6.
Gao and Cunningham do not explicitly disclose the first three-dimensional layer data and the second three-dimensional layer data each further comprise doppler shift data indicating a velocity vector associated with one or more reflective surfaces of an object.
However, official notice is taken by the examiner that both the concept and advantage is known for a monitoring system to have the first three-dimensional layer data and the second three-dimensional layer data each further comprise doppler shift data indicating a velocity vector associated with one or more reflective surfaces of an object.
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art at the time the claimed invention was filed to allow the scanner of Gao to utilize a doppler shift for the detection used by the radar.
One skilled in the art would be motivated to modify Gao as described above in order to use a known technique for determining an object.
6) In regard to claim 8 (dependent on claim 1), Gao and Cunningham further disclose the product scanner of claim 1, wherein the radar field-of-view comprises one or more of a power-on zone, a wake-up zone, a vision capture region, and a scan region (¶0049 discloses a light curtain); and wherein the scan region of the radar field-of-view comprises, at least in part, the indicia scan region defined by the optical field-of-view of the optical sensor (Gao ¶0049 discloses an infrared/laser sensor).
7) In regard to claim 9 (dependent on claim 8), Gao and Cunningham further disclose the product scanner of claim 8, wherein the radar system is further configured to: detect a person within the power-on zone; and cause activation of one or more of the indicia scanner or a vision system (Gao ¶0049 discloses a camera is triggered upon detection of a shopper’s hand and an object).
8) In regard to claim 10 (dependent on claim 8), Gao and Cunningham further disclose the product scanner of claim 8, wherein the radar system is further configured to: detect an object within the wake-up zone; and cause one or more of the indicia scanner or a vision system to exit a power-saving mode (Gao ¶0049 discloses a camera is triggered upon detection of a shopper’s hand and an object).
9) In regard to claim 11 (dependent on claim 8), Gao and Cunningham further disclose the product scanner of claim 8, wherein the radar system is further configured to: detect an object within the scan region; and allow the indicia scanner to capture the indicia data (Gao ¶0049).
10) In regard to claim 12 (dependent on claim 8), Gao and Cunningham further disclose the product scanner of claim 8, wherein the radar system is further configured to: detect an object within the vision capture region; and cause a vision system to capture image data (Gao ¶0049).
11) In regard to claim 13 (dependent on claim 2), Gao and Cunningham further disclose the product scanner of claim 2, further comprising: a vision system comprising a camera, wherein the vision system is configured to capture image data representative of the product (Gao ¶0049).
12) In regard to claim 14, claims 14 is rejected and analyzed with respect to claim 2 and the references applied.
13) In regard to claim 15 (dependent on claim 14), claims 15 is rejected and analyzed with respect to claim 2 and the references applied.
14) In regard to claim 16 (dependent on claim 15), claims 16 is rejected and analyzed with respect to claim 3 and the references applied.
15) In regard to claim 17 (dependent on claim 14), claims 17 is rejected and analyzed with respect to claim 8 and the references applied.
16) In regard to claim 18 (dependent on claim 17), claims 18 is rejected and analyzed with respect to claim 9 and the references applied.
17) In regard to claim 20, claims 20 is rejected and analyzed with respect to claim 2 and the references applied.
Allowable Subject Matter
Claims 5, 6 and 19 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.
Response to Amendment
Applicant's arguments with respect to claims 1-20 have been considered and are persuasive e, but are moot in view of the new ground(s) of rejection. See above rejection for detail.
Conclusion
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to CURTIS J KING whose telephone number is (571)270-5160. The examiner can normally be reached Mon-Fri 6:00 - 2:00 EST.
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/CURTIS J KING/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2685
