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 Objections
Claim 14 objected to because of the following informalities: the excerpt “wherein the processor is structured and/or arranged to determine at the end of the scanning procedure control data based on the oral health sensor data” should have two commas added to instead read “wherein the processor is structured and/or arranged to determine, at the end of the scanning procedure, control data based on the oral health sensor data”. Appropriate correction is required.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 112
The following is a quotation of 35 U.S.C. 112(b):
(b) CONCLUSION.—The specification shall conclude with one or more claims particularly pointing out and distinctly claiming the subject matter which the inventor or a joint inventor regards as the invention.
The following is a quotation of 35 U.S.C. 112 (pre-AIA ), second paragraph:
The specification shall conclude with one or more claims particularly pointing out and distinctly claiming the subject matter which the applicant regards as his invention.
Claims 1, 2, 3, 5, 6, 8, 9, 11, 13, and 15 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 112(b) or 35 U.S.C. 112 (pre-AIA ), second paragraph, as being indefinite for failing to particularly point out and distinctly claim the subject matter which the inventor or a joint inventor (or for applications subject to pre-AIA 35 U.S.C. 112, the applicant), regards as the invention.
Regarding claims 1, 2, 3, 5, 6, 8, 9, 11, 13, and 15, the phrase "preferably" renders these claims indefinite because it is unclear whether the limitations following the phrase are part of the claimed invention. The term “preferably” indicates the possibility for the following limitations to be included within the invention, but also allows for said limitations to not be present within the invention. See MPEP § 2173.05(d).
Regarding claim 9, the phrase "such as" renders this claim indefinite because it is unclear whether the limitations following the phrase are part of the claimed invention. The term “such as” indicates the possibility for the following limitations to be included within the invention, but also allows for the inclusion of other unsaid limitations to be present within the invention instead. See MPEP § 2173.05(d).
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.
(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 1-15 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(1) and (a)(2) as being anticipated by Yancey et al (U.S. Patent Application Publication 2020/0352686, hereinafter “Yancey”). Regarding claim 1, Yancey teaches an oral scanner system (fig 1a element 100) comprising:
an oral scanner (figure 1a element 102) having at least one oral health sensor (paragraph 60 “scanning circuit 110 can include a wide variety of sensors including, but not limited to, gyroscopes, accelerometers, magnetometers, inertial measurement units (“IMU”), depth sensors, and color sensors.”) structured and/or arranged for outputting oral health sensor data relating to at least one oral health condition, the oral scanner being structured and/or arranged for performing a scanning procedure of at least a portion of an oral cavity of a subject using the oral health sensor for acquiring the oral health sensor data (paragraph 143 “the scanning device 102 can be used to provide images to determine the oral health of a patient”)
a processor structured and/or arranged to receive the oral health sensor data (paragraph 60 “The scanning circuit 110 is communicably coupled to the processor 106 and is configured to conduct a scan of one or more objects”)
to either process the oral health sensor data to determine oral health data relating to the at least one oral health condition, and after a completion of the scanning procedure to classify the oral health data with respect to at least two condition classes relating to the at least one oral health condition and to determine one condition class from the at least two condition classes to which the oral health data belongs (paragraph 134 “For example, the scanning device 102 may find that the user 902 has a cavity 910 on the upper teeth 906” with the condition being a cavity and the two condition classes being the presence or absence of a cavity), or to classify, preferably after a completion of the scanning procedure, the oral health sensor data with respect to at least two condition classes relating to the at least one oral health condition and to determine one condition class from the at least two condition classes to which the oral health sensor data belongs
a feedback unit structured and/or arranged to provide feedback about the determined condition class (paragraph 112 “the scanning device 102 may provide the mobile application 600 with data in real time related to the appearance of the teeth being scanned by the patient 302”)
Regarding claim 2, Yancey teaches an oral scanner system further comprising:
a position detector structured and/or arranged for acquiring and outputting position sensor data relating to a position or location at which the oral scanner currently performs the scanning procedure or at which the oral scanner has performed the scanning procedure at a given time instant and wherein the processor is structured and/or arranged to receive the position sensor data (paragraph 60 “scanning circuit 110 can include a wide variety of sensors including, but not limited to, gyroscopes, accelerometers, magnetometers, inertial measurement units (“IMU”), depth sensors, and color sensors.” And “the scanning circuit 110 is communicably coupled to the processor 106”)
to process the position sensor data to determine at least one discrete position or location from at least two discrete positions or locations of the at least portion of the oral cavity at which the oral scanner is currently performing the scanning procedure or at which the oral scanner has performed the scanning procedure at a given time instant (paragraph 122 “the image recognition circuit 168 determines and/or verifies the images from the scan correspond to the correct portions of the mouth (e.g., the image of the upper right quadrant of the mouth is actually the upper right quadrant of the mouth)”)
to assign the oral health sensor data and/or the oral health data to the determined discrete position or location to create discretely position-resolved or location-resolved oral health sensor data and/or discretely position-resolved or location-resolved oral health data (paragraph 134 “For example, the scanning device 102 may find that the user 902 has a cavity 910 on the upper teeth 906”)
to determine, preferably after a completion of the scanning procedure, one condition class from the at least two condition classes to which the discretely position-resolved or location- resolved oral health sensor data and/or the discretely position-resolved or location-resolved oral health data belongs for each of the at least two different discrete positions or locations (paragraph 134 “For example, the scanning device 102 may find that the user 902 has a cavity 910 on the upper teeth 906” with the condition being a cavity and the two condition classes being the presence or absence of a cavity)
the feedback unit being structured and/or arranged to provide feedback about the determined condition classes for each of the at least two different discrete positions or locations (figure 24 showing the presence and location of a cavity)
Regarding claim 3, Yancey teaches an oral scanner system wherein the processor is structured and/or arranged to perform the classification by comparing at least one oral health datum from the oral health sensor data and/or the oral health data with at least one threshold (paragraph 134 “For example, the scanning device 102 may find that the user 902 has a cavity 910 on the upper teeth 906” with the threshold being “cavity” or “no cavity”), preferably with at least two different thresholds.
Regarding claim 4, Yancey teaches an oral scanner system wherein the processor is structured and/or arranged to perform the classification by comparing at least one oral health datum from the discretely position-resolved or location-resolved oral health sensor data and/or the discretely position-resolved or location-resolved oral health data with at least one threshold for each of the at least two different discrete positions or locations (paragraph 134 “For example, the scanning device 102 may find that the user 902 has a cavity 910 on the upper teeth 906” with the threshold being “cavity” or “no cavity”).
Regarding claim 5, Yancey teaches an oral scanner system in accordance with claim 4, wherein the processor is structured and/or arranged to modify the at least one threshold in dependence on a temporal evolvement of the determined condition class (paragraph 131 “compares the scanned images to images of an ideal smile and determines the number of aligners required to move the teeth of the patient 302 to match the ideal smile” modifies the necessary alignment of each tooth to create a plan that transforms the patient’s teeth to the ideal smile), preferably in dependence on a temporal evolvement of the determined condition class for each of the at least two discrete positions or locations.
Regarding claim 6, Yancey teaches an oral scanner system wherein the processor is structured and/or arranged to differently classify the oral health data in the at least two different discrete positions or locations (paragraph 134 ” In addition to finding the cavity 910, the scanning device 102 is capable of finding and diagnosing other dental conditions including, but not limited to, cracked teeth, broken crowns, gingivitis, and other dental issues that may require intervention or additional care.”), preferably wherein at least one threshold or one parameter used in the classification is different in the two different discrete positions or locations.
Regarding claim 7, Yancey teaches an oral scanner system wherein the processor is structured and/or arranged to use, after a completion of the scanning procedure, a classifier for classifying the oral health sensor data and/or the oral health data, which classifier implements at least one 2 classification algorithm from a list comprising linear classifiers, support vector machines, quadratic classifiers, kernel estimation, boosting, transformers, decision trees, neural networks, genetic programming and learning vector quantization (figure 1a element 114, neural networks are a type of machine learning algorithm).
Regarding claim 8, Yancey teaches an oral scanner system wherein the position sensor comprises at least one of an accelerometer or gyroscope (paragraph 60 “scanning circuit 110 can include a wide variety of sensors including, but not limited to, gyroscopes, accelerometers”), preferably wherein the accelerometer or gyroscope is realized as a MEMS sensor.
Regarding claim 9, Yancey teaches an oral scanner system wherein the oral health sensor is an optical sensor (paragraph 86 “The scanning device 102 includes a body 202, a front portion 204, a first camera 206, a second camera 208”) such as an M times N array of light sensitive sensor elements, preferably wherein the oral health sensor is a camera.
Regarding claim 10, Yancey teaches an oral scanner system wherein the feedback unit comprises at least one visual feedback element for each of the at least two discrete positions or locations and/or wherein the feedback unit comprises a display unit (figure 16 shows different areas that were not scanned successfully on a smartphone display).
Regarding claim 11, Yancey teaches an oral scanner system wherein the feedback unit is realized as or by a separate device, preferably wherein the separate device is a computer, a notebook, a laptop, a tablet, a smartphone (see figures 9-20 detailing the usage of a smart phone display), or a smart watch, preferably wherein the processor is at least partially located at or within the separate device.
Regarding claim 12, Yancey teaches an oral scanner system wherein the oral scanner comprises a scanner communicator and the separate device comprises a separate device communicator and the scanner communicator and the separate device communicator are structured and/or arranged for a wireless communication (paragraph 133 “provide the data to a dental practitioner using the mobile device 122 wirelessly coupled to the scanning device 102”).
Regarding claim 13, Yancey teaches an oral scanner system wherein the feedback unit is structured and arranged to visualize a depiction of the at least portion of the oral cavity, preferably comprising at least a visualization of the dentition, and wherein the feedback about the least one oral health condition for the at least two positions or locations is additionally visualized, preferably wherein the feedback about the least one oral health condition for the at least two positions or locations is visually overlaid onto the depiction of the dentition or the depiction of the dentition is visually amended to reflect the feedback (figure 24 shows the feedback unit showing the user which teeth have cavities (element 1006)).
Regarding claim 14, Yancey teaches an oral scanner system comprising an oral care device having a device communicator and wherein the processor is structured and/or arranged to determine at the end of the scanning procedure control data based on the oral health sensor data acquired during the scanning procedure (data is sent to element 162 in figure 1A to control the aligner fabrication process), and preferably to send the control data to the oral care device, and wherein the oral care device is structured and/or arranged to select at least one operational setting from at least two operational settings of the oral care device in dependance on the control data.
Regarding claim 15, Yancey teaches oral scanner system comprising an oral scanner comprising:
an oral health sensor having a camera structured and/or arranged for acquiring image data from at least a portion of a dentition of a subject during an optical scanning procedure (paragraph 86 “The scanning device 102 includes a body 202, a front portion 204, a first camera 206, a second camera 208”) and a position detector structured and/or arranged for acquiring position sensor data during the optical scanning procedure, wherein the position sensor comprises at least one from the list comprising an accelerometer and a gyroscope (paragraph 60 “scanning circuit 110 can include a wide variety of sensors including, but not limited to, gyroscopes, accelerometers, magnetometers, inertial measurement units (“IMU”), depth sensors, and color sensors.”)
a processor structured and arranged to receive the image data and the position sensor data (paragraph 60 “The scanning circuit 110 is communicably coupled to the processor 106 and is configured to conduct a scan of one or more objects”)
to process the position sensor data to determine at least one discrete position or location from at least two discrete positions or locations of the at least portion of the oral cavity at which the oral scanner is currently performing the scanning procedure or has performed the scanning procedure at a given time instant (paragraph 112 “Additionally, the image 640 can include a highlighted section 642 that can indicate, in real time, whether the scan of a particular section of the teeth was successful. For example, in some embodiments the highlighted section 642 can be green, indicating a successful scan. In some embodiments, the highlighted section 642 can be red, indicating an unsuccessful scan. In some embodiments, the highlighted section 642 can include a combination of red and green, indicating that some portions of the scan are acceptable, and some portions of the scan are unacceptable”)
and either to process the image data to determine oral health data relating to the at least one oral health condition for each of the at least two discrete positions or locations, and after a completion of the scanning procedure to classify the oral health data with respect to at least two condition classes relating to the at least one oral health condition and to determine one condition class from the at least two condition classes to which the oral health data belongs for each of the at least two discrete positions or locations (paragraph 134 “For example, the scanning device 102 may find that the user 902 has a cavity 910 on the upper teeth 906” with the condition being a cavity and the two condition classes being the presence or absence of a cavity)
or to classify, preferably after a completion of the scanning procedure, the image data with respect to at least two condition classes relating to the at least one oral health condition and to determine one condition class from the at least two condition classes to which the image data belongs for each of the at least two discrete positions or locations
and a display unit (shown in figure 24, telling the user where cavities are located) structured and/or arranged to provide feedback about the determined condition classes for each of the at least two discrete positions or locations.
Conclusion
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to DAYTON BARKER whose telephone number is (571)272-0912. The examiner can normally be reached between 9:00 and 5:00 PM Monday-Friday.
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/DAYTON HYUN JIN BARKER/Patent Examiner, Art Unit 3795
/MICHAEL J CAREY/Supervisory Patent Examiner, Art Unit 3795
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