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 .
Priority
Receipt is acknowledged of certified copies of papers required by 37 CFR 1.55.
Information Disclosure Statement
The information disclosure statements (IDS) submitted on 11/4/2024 and 12/31/2024 were 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, 5, 17, 18, 19, and 20 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(1) as being anticipated by Iwase (US 2015/0366452).
Regarding Claim 1, Iwase discloses an information processing apparatus comprising:
a tomographic image acquisition unit (Fig. 1, image processing system 100, image processing apparatus 300, Paragraph 0030-0038) configured to acquire a tomographic image of a fundus of an eye to be inspected;
a shape abnormality information acquisition unit configured to acquire, based on the tomographic image (Fig. 1, determination portion 335), shape abnormality information which is information about a part having an abnormal shape in a retinal layer of the eye to be inspected (Paragraph 0065, determination portion 335 determines position of an anomaly on the fundus of an eye based on shape);
a tomographic abnormality information acquisition unit configured to acquire, based on a tomographic abnormality region which is an abnormal region in the tomographic image (Paragraph 0066, determination portion 335 determines position of an anomaly on the fundus of an eye based on shape), tomographic abnormality information which is information about a part having the tomographic abnormality region in the retinal layer of the eye to be inspected (Paragraph 0066, determination portion 335 compares shape of the anomaly to a normative database, the normative database in external storage portion 500, Paragraph 0067); and
a display control unit (Fig. 1, display controller 305, Paragraph 0069) configured to perform control of displaying at least part of the shape abnormality information and at least part of the tomographic abnormality information such that the at least part of the shape abnormality information (Fig. 7A and Fig. 7B, Paragraph 0071, lines 9-15, data displayed where normative database are optional) and the at least part of the tomographic abnormality information (Fig. 5A and Fig. 5B, Paragraph 0071, lines 7-9, data displayed where comparison normative database is conducted) are distinguishable from each other.
Regarding Claim 2, Iwase discloses as is set forth above and further discloses comprising an abnormality map acquisition unit configured to acquire an abnormality map representing at least part of the shape abnormality information (Fig. 7A and Fig. 7B) and at least part of the tomographic abnormality information (Fig. 5A and Fig. 5B) on at least one of a surface along the fundus and a surface in a direction intersecting perpendicularly with the fundus (Paragraph 0062, lines 29-41, Fig. 3A and Fig. 3B, tomographic images in the depth direction),
wherein the display control unit is configured to perform control of displaying the abnormality map (Fig. 1, display controller 305, Paragraph 0069).
Regarding Claim 5, Iwase discloses an information processing apparatus (Fig. 1, image processing system 100, image processing apparatus 300, Paragraph 0030-0038) comprising:
a tomographic abnormality region acquisition unit configured to acquire a tomographic abnormality region (Paragraph 0066, determination portion 335 compares shape of the anomaly to a normative database, the normative database in external storage portion 500, Paragraph 0067) which is an abnormal region in a tomographic image of a fundus of an eye to be inspected;
a determination unit configured to determine a target retinal layer that is a processing target (Paragraph 0065, determination portion 335 determines position of an anomaly on the fundus of an eye based on shape) based on the tomographic abnormality region;
a shape abnormality map acquisition unit configured to acquire, based on the tomographic image, a shape abnormality map (Fig. 7A and Fig. 7B, Paragraph 0071, lines 9-15, data displayed where normative database are optional) representing information about a part having an abnormal shape in the target retinal layer on a surface along the fundus; and
a display control unit (Fig. 1, display controller 305, Paragraph 0069) configured to perform control of displaying the shape abnormality map.
Regarding Claim 17, Iwase discloses as is set forth above and further discloses wherein the shape abnormality map acquisition unit is configured to acquire the shape abnormality map based on a difference between information on a shape of a retinal layer of a healthy eye and information on a shape of a retinal layer acquired from the tomographic image of the fundus of the eye to be inspected (Fig. 5A and Fig. 5B, Paragraph 0071, lines 7-9, data displayed where comparison normative database is conducted), the information on the shape of the retinal layer of the healthy eye being obtained by inputting the information on the shape of the retinal layer acquired from the tomographic image of the fundus of the eye to be inspected to a trained model (Paragraph 0079, lines 1-12, using a probability model such as a Bayesian network), and
wherein the trained model is a trained model configured to receive the information on the shape of the retinal layer acquired from the tomographic image of the fundus as input (Fig. 1, determination portion 335, Paragraphs 0065-0066), and output the information on the shape of the retinal layer of the healthy eye for the retinal layer corresponding to the input (Paragraph 0079, lines 1-12, using a probability model such as a Bayesian network, determination portion 335, Fig. 1).
Regarding Claim 18, Iwase discloses as is set forth above and further discloses comprising wherein the information on the shape of the retinal layer is one of a layer thickness (Paragraph 0062, lines 29-41, Fig. 3A and Fig. 3B, tomographic images in the depth direction) or a curvature.
Regarding Claim 19, Iwase discloses an information processing method comprising:
a tomographic image acquisition step of acquiring a tomographic image of a fundus of an eye to be inspected (Fig. 1, image processing system 100, image processing apparatus 300, Paragraph 0030-0038);
a shape abnormality information acquisition step of acquiring, based on the tomographic image (Fig. 1, determination portion 335), shape abnormality information which is information about a part having an abnormal shape in a retinal layer of the eye to be inspected (Paragraph 0065, determination portion 335 determines position of an anomaly on the fundus of an eye based on shape);
a tomographic abnormality information acquisition step of acquiring (Paragraph 0066, determination portion 335 determines position of an anomaly on the fundus of an eye based on shape), based on a tomographic abnormality region which is an abnormal region in the tomographic image, tomographic abnormality information which is information about a part having the tomographic abnormality region in the retinal layer of the eye to be inspected (Paragraph 0066, determination portion 335 compares shape of the anomaly to a normative database, the normative database in external storage portion 500, Paragraph 0067); and a
display control unit (Fig. 1, display controller 305, Paragraph 0069) step of performing control of displaying at least part of the shape abnormality information (Fig. 7A and Fig. 7B, Paragraph 0071, lines 9-15, data displayed where normative database are optional) and at least part of the tomographic abnormality information such that the at least part of the shape abnormality information and the at least part of the tomographic abnormality information (Fig. 5A and Fig. 5B, Paragraph 0071, lines 7-9, data displayed where comparison normative database is conducted) are distinguishable from each other.
Regarding Claim 20, Iwase discloses as is set forth above and further discloses a non-transitory storage medium having stored thereon a program for causing a computer to execute the information processing method of claim 19 (Paragraphs 0082-0083).
Allowable Subject Matter
Claims 3, 6-8, 10, 13, 14, 4, 9, 11, 12, 15, and 16 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: with respect to the allowable subject matter, none of the prior art either alone or in combination disclose or teach of the claimed combination of limitations to warrant a rejection under 35 USC 102 or 103.
Specifically, with respect to claim 3, none of the prior art either alone or in combination disclose or teach an information processing apparatus including, as the distinguishing feature(s) in combination with the other limitations, wherein the abnormality map acquisition unit includes a shape abnormality map acquisition unit and a tomographic abnormality map acquisition unit, wherein the shape abnormality map acquisition unit is configured to acquire a shape abnormality map which is a map representing the shape abnormality information about a first predetermined retinal layer on the surface along the fundus, wherein the tomographic abnormality map acquisition unit is configured to acquire a tomographic abnormality map which is a map obtained by projecting the tomographic abnormality information about a second predetermined retinal layer onto the surface along the fundus, and wherein the display control unit is configured to perform control of displaying the shape abnormality map and the tomographic abnormality map. Claims 6-8, 10, 13, and 14 are allowable due to pendency on claim 3.
Specifically, with respect to claim 4, none of the prior art either alone or in combination disclose or teach an information processing apparatus including, as the distinguishing feature(s) in combination with the other limitations, wherein the abnormality map acquisition unit includes a shape abnormality map acquisition unit and a shape abnormality back-projection region acquisition unit, wherein the shape abnormality map acquisition unit is configured to acquire a shape abnormality map which is a map representing the shape abnormality information about a first predetermined retinal layer on the surface along the fundus, wherein the shape abnormality back-projection region acquisition unit is configured to acquire a shape abnormality back-projection region indicating a region corresponding to the shape abnormality map in the tomographic image, and wherein the display control unit is configured to perform control of displaying the shape abnormality back-projection region and the tomographic abnormality region. Claims 9, 11, 12, 15, and 16 are allowable due to pendency on claim 4.
Conclusion
The prior art made of record and not relied upon is considered pertinent to applicant's disclosure. Iwase (US 9,585,560), Iwase (US 2010/0220914), Iwase (US 9,700,210), Saika et al. (US 2020/0093363), Sadda et al. (US 2016/0183783), and Sadda et al. (US 10,076,242) are cited to show similar apparatuses and methods but do not disclose the allowable subject matter as detailed above.
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to WILLIAM R ALEXANDER whose telephone number is (571)270-7656. The examiner can normally be reached M-F 8:30 AM- 4:00 PM.
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If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner’s supervisor, Pinping Sun can be reached on (571) 270-1284. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300.
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/WILLIAM R ALEXANDER/ Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2872
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