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 .
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 6-9, 11, 13 and 16-17 and 19 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(1) as being anticipated by Shino et. al. [2009/0067313].
Regarding claim 1, Shino teaches:
A method of reading data from an optical data storage medium, the method comprising: capturing an image of a plurality of voxels embedded in a transparent substrate using a refractive-index-sensitive microscope [fig. 1, note three-dimensional pits formed on recording layers 1a-1f, also note §0038 wherein the refractive index is altered depending upon the layer to be read];
and processing the image to recover data stored in the transparent substrate, wherein portions of the image have different signal intensities encoding different data symbols [§0039, note reproducing of pits for determining the data]
Regarding claim 2, Shino further teaches:
wherein capturing the image of the plurality of voxels comprises capturing a first image using first focusing parameters and capturing a second image using second focusing parameters being different from the first focusing parameters [fig. 1, note three-dimensional pits formed on recording layers 1a-1f, also note §0038 wherein the refractive index is altered depending upon the layer to be read];
Regarding claim 11, Shino teaches:
A system for reading a plurality of voxels embedded in a transparent substrate, the system comprising: a refractive-index-sensitive microscope; and a controller configured to capture an image of the plurality of voxels embedded in the transparent substrate using the refractive-index-sensitive microscope [fig. 1, note three-dimensional pits formed on recording layers 1a-1f, also note §0038 wherein the refractive index is altered depending upon the layer to be read],
and process the image to recover data stored in the transparent substrate, wherein portions of the image have different signal intensities encoding different data symbols [§0039, note reproducing of pits for determining the data]
Regarding claim 13, Shino further teaches:
wherein the controller is configured to capture the image of the plurality of voxels by capturing a first image using first focusing parameters and capturing a second image using second focusing parameters being different from the first focusing parameters [fig. 1, note three-dimensional pits formed on recording layers 1a-1f, also note §0038 wherein the refractive index is altered depending upon the layer to be read];.
Regarding claim 17, Shino teaches:
A method comprising: obtaining an image of a plurality of voxels embedded in a transparent substrate captured by a refractive-index-sensitive microscope [fig. 1, note three-dimensional pits formed on recording layers 1a-1f, also note §0038 wherein the refractive index is altered depending upon the layer to be read];
and processing the image to recover data stored in the transparent substrate, wherein portions of the image have different signal intensities encoding different data symbols [§0039, note reproducing of pits for determining the data]
Claims 6-9, 16 and 19 all recite that the voxels are arranged as a fiduciary mark. This claim element is simply a statement of intended use of the method/system, and as such does not contain any additional patentably distinct subject matter.
Allowable Subject Matter
Claims 3-5, 10, 12, 14-15, 18 and 20 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:
Regarding claim 3, the prior art does not teach “…wherein the plurality of voxels comprises inhomogeneous voxels each comprising a positive sublayer and a negative sublayer, and wherein capturing the first image comprises capturing an image of the positive sublayer, and capturing the second image comprises capturing an image of the negative sublayer.”
Regarding claim 4, the prior art does not teach “…wherein processing the image to recover the data stored in the transparent substrate comprises subtracting the first image from the second image.”
Regarding claim 5, the prior art of record does not teach “…wherein processing the image comprises processing the image using a machine learning model, the machine learning model having been trained using images of voxels having labels representing data symbols encoded by the voxels.”
Regarding claim 12, the prior art does not teach “…wherein the refractive-index-sensitive microscope includes a phase-contrast microscope or a differential-interference-contrast microscope.”
Regarding claim 14, the prior art of record does not teach “…wherein the plurality of voxels comprises inhomogeneous voxels each comprising a positive sublayer and a negative sublayer, and wherein the controller is configured to capture the first image by capturing an image of the positive sublayer, and to capture the second image by capturing an image of the negative sublayer.”
Regarding claim 15, the prior art does not teach “…wherein the controller comprises a machine learning model that has been trained using images of voxels having labels representing data symbols encoded by the voxels, and wherein the controller is configured to process the image by using the machine learning model.”
Regarding claim 18, the prior art of record does not teach “…wherein the plurality of voxels comprises inhomogeneous voxels each comprising a positive sublayer and a negative sublayer, the image is a first image of the positive sublayer, the method further comprises obtaining a second image of the negative sublayer, and wherein processing the image to recover the data stored in the transparent substrate comprises subtracting the first image from the second image.”
Regarding claims 10 and 20, the prior art of record does not teach “…wherein a subset of the plurality of voxels comprises shingled voxels, and processing the image comprises detecting changes in intensity of a phase shift as a function of position to resolve the shingled voxels.”
Conclusion
The prior art made of record and not relied upon is considered pertinent to applicant's disclosure: Black [10,672,428], Georgiou [10,181,336], Travis [2015/0277551] and Georgiou [10,236,027].
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/ANDREW SASINOWSKI/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2625