DETAILED ACTION
Notice of Pre-AIA or AIA Status
1. The present application, filed on or after March 16, 2013, is being examined under the first inventor to file provisions of the AIA .
Amendment
2. Receipt is acknowledged of the Amendment filed September 24, 2025.
Terminal Disclaimer
3. The terminal disclaimer filed on September 24, 2025 has been reviewed and is accepted. The terminal disclaimer has been recorded.
Remarks
4. The previous Office action included a rejection of the pending claims under nonstatutory double patenting without any additional prior art rejection. Upon further review, there are claims which require a rejection under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(1). The delay in citation of the art rejection is regretted. This Office action is not made Final.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 102
5. 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.
6. Claims 1, 2, 6, 7, 10-20, 22-24, 30-39, and 41 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(1) as being anticipated by Castro-Gonzalez et al (2019/0139221), hereinafter Gonzalez.
With respect to claims 1, 20, 23, and 39, Gonzalez teaches in the abstract, a system and method for non-invasive hematological measurements which includes a platform to receive a body portion of a user and an imaging device to acquire a set of images of a capillary bed in the body portion. Paragraphs 0166 and 0208 disclose a platform 2310 for receiving a body portion of a subject; an imaging subsystem 2320/2340/2300 having a repositionable field of view and coupled to the platform to acquire images of at least a capillary bed of the body portion; and a controller communicably coupled to the imaging subsystem to: automatically reposition the field of view of the imaging subsystem to different areas of the capillary bed, and at each field of view within the capillary bed, activate the imaging subsystem to acquire images of one or more capillaries in the capillary bed (paragraph 0267).
With respect to claims 2 and 24, Gonzalez discloses in paragraphs 0183-0184, the system in which the controller is configured to process the images of each said area and assign a location and confidence of one or more high-quality capillaries in each said area.
With respect to claims 6 and 7, Gonzalez illustrates in figures 3, 11A, and 15A-15J (and others), the system in which the body portion of the subject includes one of: a finger, a toe, a tongue, a lip, a gum, or an earlobe of the subject, and further includes the nailfold of the finger or the toe (also see paragraphs 0077, 0096, and 0144).
With respect to claims 10 and 30, Gonzalez discloses in paragraph 0191, the system in which the controller is configured to automatically adjust the exposure time of the imaging subsystem.
With respect to claims 11, 12, 31, and 32, Gonzalez discloses in paragraph 0151, the system in which the controller is configured to automatically adjust the focus of the imaging subsystem and further adjust a gain of the imaging subsystem.
With respect to claims 13 and 33, Gonzalez disclose in paragraph 0170, the system in which the controller is configured to automatically ensure the imaging subsystem is operating at a desired rate.
With respect to claims 14-16 and 34-36, Gonzalez discloses in paragraphs 0093, 0236, and 0254, the system in which the controller is configured to automatically ensure illumination of at least capillary bed is within a predetermined illumination range and configured to automatically ensure the exposure time is within a predetermined exposure time range, and wherein the controller is configured to automatically ensure the imaging system gain is within a predetermined range.
With respect to claims 17, 20, and 39, Gonzalez discloses in paragraphs 0235 and 0246, the controller being configured to automatically ensure the focusing is within a predetermined focusing range.
With respect to claims 18, 19, 37, and 38, Gonzalez discloses in paragraph 0093 and 0269, the system in which the controller is configured to control one or more light sources of the imaging system to emit light at one or more selected wavelengths or wavelength ranges.
With respect to claims 22 and 41, Gonzalez discloses in paragraphs 0079, 0101, and 0176, the system in which the controller communicably coupled to the imaging subsystem is configured to detect finger movement in the platform by the imaging subsystem.
Allowable Subject Matter
7. Claims 3-5, 8, 9, 20, 21, 25-29, and 40 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.
The following is an examiner’s reason for allowance: Although Gonzalez a non-invasive hematological measurement system which includes a platform to receive a body portion of a user and an imaging device to acquire a set of images of a capillary bed in the body portion, the above identified prior art of record, taken alone, or in combination with any other prior art, fails to teach or fairly suggest the specific features of claims 3-5, 8, 9, 21, 25-29, and 40 of the present claimed invention. Specifically, prior art fails to teach the claimed system in which information from each field of view is stitched together by the controller to produce a distribution of capillary locations, capillary sizes, and confidence levels of capillary existence across a super field of view and wherein the images are stitched together by the controller across a super field of view to produce a single image and the controller detects the capillary locations, sizes and confidence levels in that single image. Prior art further fails to teach the claimed system in which the controller is configured to automatically calibrate the imaging subsystem by setting the imaging subsystem to a predetermined start location and which the controller activates the imaging system to acquire the images including one or more capillaries in the capillary bed for a period of time based on the number of optical adsorption gaps (OAGs) detected in one or more capillaries. Prior art fails to teach the claimed method in which information from each field of view is stitched together to produce a distribution of capillary locations, capillary sizes, and confidence levels of capillary existence across a super field of view and wherein the images are stitched together by the controller across a super field of view to produce a single image and detecting capillary locations, sizes, and confidence levels in that single image. Prior art fails to teach the claimed method in which the super field of view capillary distribution plot is acquired from a middle bottom location of a nailfold and wherein the method further includes automatically calibrating the imaging to a predetermined start location. Lastly, prior art fails to teach the claimed method including acquiring the images of one or more capillaries in the capillary bed for a period of time based on the number of optical absorption gaps detected in the one or more capillaries. The above limitations are not disclosed in prior art and moreover, one of ordinary skill in the art would not have been motivated to come to the claimed invention.
Conclusion
8. Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to Allyson N. Trail whose telephone number is (571) 272-2406. The examiner can normally be reached between the hours of 7:30AM to 4:00PM Monday thru Friday.
If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner’s supervisor, Michael G. Lee, can be reached on (571) 272-2398. The fax phone number for this Group is (571) 273-8300.
Communications via Internet e-mail regarding this application, other than those under 35 U.S.C. 132 or which otherwise require a signature, may be used by the applicant and should be addressed to [allyson.trail@uspto.gov].
All Internet e-mail communications will be made of record in the application file. PTO employees do not engage in Internet communications where there exists a possibility that sensitive information could be identified or exchanged unless the record includes a properly signed express waiver of the confidentiality requirements of 35 U.S.C. 122. This is more clearly set forth in the Interim Internet Usage Policy published in the Official Gazette of the Patent and Trademark on February 25, 1997 at 1195 OG 89.
/ALLYSON N TRAIL/ Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2876
November 18, 2025
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