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 .
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.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 102
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)(2) the claimed invention was described in a patent issued under section 151, or in an application for patent published or deemed published under section 122(b), in which the patent or application, as the case may be, names another inventor and was effectively filed before the effective filing date of the claimed invention.
Claims 1-2, 4-7 and 9-10 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(2) as being anticipated by Soomro et al (10,325,182).
Regarding claims 1 and 6 Soomro discloses,
ion device comprising a chamber, a tray, and an actuator, wherein the control method comprises: by a
camera circuit disposed above the tray (note col. 2 lines 43-44, camera system mounted above entrance area), photographing a plurality of sample bottles on the tray to generate a top-view image (note col. 2 lines 47-48, sample tube is captured in multiple images with varying perspectives from top view images)
Performing an object detection process on the top-view image to identify a type of a label on a cap of each of the sample bottles and a center point of a label object corresponding to each of the labels in the top-view image (note col. 3 lines 59-67, sample tubes may be arranged for the classification of barcode tag conditions on sample tubes from top view images) and converting a position of each of the center points in the top-view image into a placement position of each of the sample bottles in the chamber (note col. 3 lines 20-29 moved into a center position or a position substantially centered under the one or more cameras);
dividing the plurality of sample bottles into a plurality of groups based on respective type of the plurality of labels (note col. 4 lines 10-14, barcode tag conditions are grouped into three main categories: good, warning, and error)
and sorting the plurality of groups to generate a sampling order, wherein the plurality of groups respectively correspond to different testing manners and different sample types (note col. 4 lines 10-14, subcategories are derived);
controlling the actuator to drive a detector bar on a lift arm in the actuator to sequentially collect samples in the sample bottles comprised in each of the plurality of groups based on the sampling order and the plurality of placement positions (note col. 5 lines 51-60, a sample handler that is used in an in vitro diagnostics (IVD) environment to handle and move the tube trays and the tubes)
Regarding claims 2 and 7 Soomro discloses,
Wherein the plurality of labels is a plurality of color labels, a plurality of shape labels, a plurality of barcode labels, a plurality of text labels, or a plurality of symbol labels (note col. 2 lines 61-62, images are analyzed to classify the barcode tag conditions).
Regarding claims 4 and 9 Soomro discloses,
Wherein the step of dividing the plurality of sample bottles into the plurality of groups based on the respective types of the plurality of labels (note col. 4 lines 10-14, barcode tag conditions are grouped into three main categories: good, warning, and error), and sorting the plurality of groups to generate the sampling order (note col. 4 lines 10-14, subcategories are derived);
comprises: by the processor, dividing the sampling bottles having the labels of same type into the same groups to sort the plurality of groups (note col. 5 lines 4-20 and fig. 4, SVM divides into three types of categories).
Regarding claims 5 and 10 Soomro discloses,
Controlling the actuator to drive the detector bar on the lift arm in the actuator to sequentially collect the samples in the sample bottles comprised in each of the plurality of groups based on the sampling order and the plurality of placement positions comprises: by the processor, controlling the actuator to drive the detector bar on the lift arm in the actuator to move to the placement positions of all of the sample bottles comprised in each of the plurality of groups based on the sampling order to perform sampling (note col. 5 lines 51-60, controller, a sample handler that is used in an in vitro diagnostics (IVD) environment to handle and move the tube trays and the tubes)
Allowable Subject Matter
Claims 3 and 8 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 a statement of reasons for the indication of allowable subject matter for dependent claims 3 and 8. Prior art could not be found for the features converting a coordinate of each of the center points in a pixel coordinate system into a horizontal coordinate of each of the center points in a user coordinate system by utilizing a pre-stored transformation matrix; by the processor, setting a vertical coordinate of each of the center points in the user coordinate system as a cap height; and by the processor, setting the horizontal coordinate of each of the center points in the user coordinate system and the vertical coordinate of each of the center points in the user coordinate system as the placement position of each of the sample bottles in the chamber. These feature in combination with other features could not be found in the prior art.
Related Prior Art
Vivet et al (10,395,357) photographing a plurality of sample bottles on the tray to generate a top-view image (note fig. 31, block 910, imaging the container).
Porter et al (12,125,074) dividing the plurality of sample bottles into a plurality of groups based on respective type of the plurality of labels, and sorting the plurality of groups to generate a sampling order, wherein the plurality of groups respectively correspond to different testing manners and different sample types (note col. 4 lines 1-11 and 13-37, high level classification of objects).
Conclusion
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to GREGORY M DESIRE whose telephone number is (571)272-7449. The examiner can normally be reached Monday-Friday 6:30am-3:00pm.
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G.D.
June 12, 2026
/GREGORY M DESIRE/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2676
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