Prosecution Insights
Last updated: October 04, 2026
Application No. 18/931,482

METHOD FOR CHANGING TARGET SHOOTING CYCLE FOR RECONNAISSANCE OF TARGET AND APPARATUS FOR THE SAME

Non-Final OA §103
Filed
Oct 30, 2024
Priority
Oct 31, 2023 — RE 10-2023-0148554
Examiner
TSAI, TSUNG YIN
Art Unit
Tech Center
Assignee
Agency for Defense Development
OA Round
1 (Non-Final)
81%
Grant Probability
Favorable
1-2
OA Rounds
11m
Est. Remaining
93%
With Interview

Examiner Intelligence

Grants 81% — above average
81%
Career Allowance Rate
821 granted / 1008 resolved
+21.4% vs TC avg
Moderate +12% lift
Without
With
+11.7%
Interview Lift
resolved cases with interview
Typical timeline
2y 10m
Avg Prosecution
33 currently pending
Career history
1023
Total Applications
across all art units

Statute-Specific Performance

§101
8.8%
-31.2% vs TC avg
§103
49.4%
+9.4% vs TC avg
§102
29.5%
-10.5% vs TC avg
§112
5.6%
-34.4% vs TC avg
Black line = Tech Center average estimate • Based on career data from 1008 resolved cases

Office Action

§103
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 . Status of claims: claims 1-10 are pending below. Information Disclosure Statement The information disclosure statement (IDS) submitted on 10/24/2024, 11/5/2025 and 4/24/2026 was filed and considered. The submission 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 § 103 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, 7-8 and 9-10 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Sharma et al (US 2020/0065617) in view of Zhao et al (US 2017/0006148). Claim 1, similarly claim 9-10: Sharma et al (US 2020/0065617) teaches the following subject matter: A method of changing a target shooting cycle performed by an electronic apparatus, the method comprising: obtaining a first target video and detecting a target included in the first target video through coordinate correction to the first target video (figure 4 and 0044-0048 detail part 491 with target videos with feature extractor 401 with transformation predictor, temporal and domain (coordinate correction)); determining whether the target is a previously identified target (0004 detail original features extracted from the plurality of target video clips to obtain transformed features for the plurality of target video clips; figure 2 and 0021-0031; figure 3 and 0034-0039); when it is determined that the target is the previously identified target, extracting change degrees between the first target video and target videos obtained before obtaining the first target video (figure 4 part 402-403 and 0048 detail how target videos/clips 491 are processed for target/feature extraction and process for change degree in 402 and 403). Sharma et al teaches all the subject matter above but not the following: changing a shooting cycle of the target from a first shooting cycle to a second shooting cycle based on the change degrees. Zhao et al (US 2017/0006148) teaches the following subject matter: changing a shooting cycle of the target from a first shooting cycle to a second shooting cycle based on the change degrees (0050 detail plan new path (camera shooting) with adjustment angle of the camera to improve the degree of stability for detecting and avoid objects; 0022 and 0052 teach such application used for target tracking with videos capture and control angle of camera in real-time for aiming at target). Sharma et al and Zhao et al are both in the field of image analysis, especially the use of video data to target and thus adjust shooting solutions to track/monitor the target in sequence videos such that the combine outcome is predictable. Therefore it would have been obvious to one having ordinary skill before the effective filing date to modify Sharma et al and Zhao et al where changes in degree for another shooting provides stability for detecting and avoid objects as disclosed by Zhao et al in 0050. Regarding claim 9, Sharma et al detail memory and processor in figure 1 and 0016-0018. Regarding claim 10, Sharma et al detail computer-readable recording medium in paragraph 0055-0057 Claim 7: Zhao et al teach: The method of claim 1, wherein the changing the shooting cycle of the target includes: determining whether at least one of the change degrees exceeds a change degree threshold; and when it is determined that at least one of the change degrees exceeds the change degree threshold, changing the shooting cycle of the target from the first shooting cycle to a third shooting cycle (0050 detail plan new path (camera shooting) with adjustment angle of the camera to improve the degree of stability for detecting and avoid objects; 0022 and 0052 teach such application used for target tracking with videos capture and control angle of camera in real-time for aiming at target, where real-time address the changing to different cycle bases on degrees). Claim 8: Sharma et al teach: The method of claim 1, further comprising, when it is determined that the target is a new target, extracting a characteristic of the new target, determining a maximum shooting cycle related to the new target, registering target information of the new target, and determining a shooting cycle of the new target as a third shooting cycle (0015 detail new target domain with classification, where above detail the same adjustment by degree for new targets). Claim 2 is rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Sharma et al (US 2020/0065617) in view of Zhao et al (US 2017/0006148) as applied to claim 1 above, and further in view of LI et al (US 2023/0353844). Claim 2: Sharma et al and Zhao et al teach all the subject matter above, but not the following which is taught by LI et al (US 2023/0353844) teaches: The method of claim 1, wherein the target videos obtained before obtaining the first target video includes a second target video obtained before obtaining the first target video and a third target video obtained before obtaining the second target video, and wherein the extracting change degrees includes extracting a first change degree between the first target video and the second target video, a second change degree between the first target video and the third target video, and a third change degree between the second target video and the third target video (0103 teaches degree of differences between sequence of target scenes: video frame, previous video, two adjacent scene videos). Sharma et al and Zhao et al and LI et al are both in the field of image analysis, especially the use of video data to target and thus adjust shooting solutions to track/monitor the target in sequence videos such that the combine outcome is predictable. Therefore it would have been obvious to one having ordinary skill before the effective filing date to modify Sharma et al and Zhao et al by LI et al such adjustment by degree to synthesized target video better meets the user's wishes, the visual effect of the synthesized target video can be improved, and an excessively abrupt transition is avoided as disclosed by LI et al in paragraph 0119. Allowable Subject Matter Claim 3, and dependent claim 4, 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. At the time for examination unable to find teaching regarding “…wherein the changing includes: determining whether at least one of the change degrees exceeds a change degree threshold; and when it is determined that all of the change degrees do not exceed the change degree threshold, changing the shooting cycle of the target from the first shooting cycle to the second shooting cycle, and wherein the second shooting cycle has a greater value than the first shooting cycle.” Claim 5, and dependent claim 6, 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. At the time for examination unable to find teaching regarding “…determining whether to shoot the target at a second mission time point that is a mission time point after a first mission time point of obtaining the first target video, wherein the determining includes determining whether to shoot the target at the second mission time point based on a number difference of days between the first mission time point and the second mission time point and the second shooting cycle.” Conclusion The prior art made of record and not relied upon is considered pertinent to applicant's disclosure. ZHANG et al (US 2018/0374219) teaches - VIDEO TRACKING METHOD AND DEVICE, AND OBJECT RECOGNITION METHOD AND DEVICE - tracking target determination module 41 may be further configured to create a second tracking target based on the extracted feature points in the current image if the number of the matched feature points among the extracted feature points in the current image is less than a preset number; wherein the tracking execution module 42 is further configured to perform video tracking on the second tracking target based on the video. Therefore, the video tracking process on the second tracking target is started, and the video tracking process on the second tracking target can be maintained by the tracking execution module 42, the first extraction module 44, the area overlap degree calculation module 43 and the first matching module 45, which are not described redundantly herein (paragraph 0087). BAO et al (US 2022/0148302) teaches METHOD FOR VISUAL LOCALIZATION AND RELATED APPARATUS - a camera, configured to collect a target image; a transceiver, configured to send target information to a server, the target information comprising the target image or a feature sequence extracted from the target image, and internal parameters of the camera; receive position information, wherein the position information is configured to indicate a position and a direction of the camera; the position information is information of a position, determined by the server according to a second candidate image sequence, of the camera when the target image is collected; and the second candidate image sequence is obtained by the server through adjusting an order of image frame (paragraph 0067) Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to TSUNG-YIN TSAI whose telephone number is (571)270-1671. The examiner can normally be reached 7am-4pm. Examiner interviews are available via telephone, in-person, and video conferencing using a USPTO supplied web-based collaboration tool. To schedule an interview, applicant is encouraged to use the USPTO Automated Interview Request (AIR) at http://www.uspto.gov/interviewpractice. If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner’s supervisor, Bhavesh Mehta can be reached at (571) 272-7453. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300. Information regarding the status of published or unpublished applications may be obtained from Patent Center. Unpublished application information in Patent Center is available to registered users. To file and manage patent submissions in Patent Center, visit: https://patentcenter.uspto.gov. Visit https://www.uspto.gov/patents/apply/patent-center for more information about Patent Center and https://www.uspto.gov/patents/docx for information about filing in DOCX format. For additional questions, contact the Electronic Business Center (EBC) at 866-217-9197 (toll-free). If you would like assistance from a USPTO Customer Service Representative, call 800-786-9199 (IN USA OR CANADA) or 571-272-1000. /TSUNG YIN TSAI/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2656
Read full office action

Prosecution Timeline

Oct 30, 2024
Application Filed
Sep 14, 2026
Non-Final Rejection mailed — §103 (current)

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Study what changed to get past this examiner. Based on 5 most recent grants.

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Prosecution Projections

1-2
Expected OA Rounds
81%
Grant Probability
93%
With Interview (+11.7%)
2y 10m (~11m remaining)
Median Time to Grant
Low
PTA Risk
Based on 1008 resolved cases by this examiner. Grant probability derived from career allowance rate.

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