DETAILED ACTION
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)(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.
Claim(s) 1-6, 8-12,13-20 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(1) as being anticipated by Sachdeva (US 20120015316).
Regarding claim 1, Sachdeva teaches an intraoral scanner system comprising:
an intraoral scanner comprising an imaging device and a sensing face, the intraoral scanner configured to perform first operations comprising:
generating a first plurality of intraoral images of a three-dimensional (3D) intraoral object of a patient generated using a first modality based on an intraoral scan of a current patient visit(Xray, MRI, CBCT in 36 in Fig. 1); and
a computing device( 12 in Fig. 1), communicatively coupled to the intraoral scanner, configured to perform second operations comprising:
receiving the first plurality of intraoral images of the 3D intraoral object of the patient generated using the first modality of a plurality of modalities(Xray, MRI, CBCT in 36 in Fig. 1);
receiving a second plurality of intraoral images of the 3D intraoral object of the patient generated using a second modality of the plurality of modalities( SCANNING DEVICE in 36 in Fig. 1; [0157] white light and laser based surface scanners); and
registering the first plurality of intraoral images generated using the first modality relative to the second plurality of intraoral images generated using the second modality([0081], registering the mesh data from the surface scan with the mesh data from the volume scan of the dentition of a patient).
Regarding claim 2, Sachdeva teaches the intraoral scanner system of claim 1,wherein registering the first plurality of intraoral images generated using the first modality relative to the second plurality of intraoral images generated using the second modality, comprises:
registering the first plurality of intraoral images generated using the first modality relative to the second plurality of intraoral images generated using the second modality using a model of the 3D intraoral object generated using reference data existing prior to the current patient visit([150], composite image of craniofacial complex by combining craniofacial bones, tooth crown and roots from CBCT, gingival tissue from surface scanning, and facial soft tissue from 2-D photographs and tooth with roots; and the lower jaw and its teeth registered to the upper jaw and teeth using an intraoral bite registration scan).
Regarding claim 3, Sachdeva teaches the intraoral scanner system of claim 2, the second operations further comprising:
generating a virtual model of the 3D intraoral object based on the registering of the first plurality of intraoral images relative to the second plurality of intraoral images using the model of the 3D intraoral object( [0012], generating a three dimensional unified virtual model of the craniofacial and dentition of a patient from volume scan and surface scan digital data).
Regarding claim 4, Sachdeva teaches the intraoral scanner system of claim 3, the first operations comprising:
generating the first plurality of intraoral images of the 3D intraoral object of the patient generated using the second modality based on the intraoral scan of the current patient visit( [0012], generating a three dimensional unified virtual model of the craniofacial and dentition of a patient from volume scan and surface scan digital data).
Regarding claim 5, Sachdeva teaches the intraoral scanner system of claim 3, wherein the second plurality of intraoral images of the 3D intraoral object of the patient generated using the second modality are generated by a separate device(Xray, MRI, CBCT in 36 in Fig. 1, SCANNING DEVICE in 36 in Fig. 1) .
Regarding claim 6, Sachdeva teaches the intraoral scanner system of claim 3, wherein the first plurality of intraoral images comprise optical images of the 3D intraoral object(SCANNING DEVICE in 36 in Fig. 1), and wherein the second plurality of intraoral images comprise ultrasound images of the 3D intraoral object ( [0169], ultrasound images).
Claims 8-12, 14-15 recite similar subject matter as in claims 1-6, thus also rejected.
Claims 16-20 recite the medium for the system in claims 1-6. Since Sachdeva also teaches medium( [0034]), those claims are also rejected.
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.
Claim(s) 7, 13 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Sachdeva in view of Kriveshko ( US 20130329020 ).
Regarding claims 7 and 13, Sachdeva teaches the intraoral scanner system of claims 1 and 8.
Sachdeva does not expressly teach wherein the first plurality of intraoral images and the second plurality of intraoral images are captured concurrently using the intraoral scanner.
However Kriveshko teaches the first plurality of intraoral images and the second plurality of intraoral images are captured concurrently using the intraoral scanner ([0080],infer camera path from the resulting three-dimensional measurements at each camera position and orientation, the camera path may also, or instead be obtained using a hardware-based positioning system based upon, for example, accelerometers, a geopositioning system, external position sensors, transducers).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to combine the teaching of Sachdeva and Kriveshko, by substituting surface scanner and volume scanner in Sachdeva with camera and transducers taught by Kriveshko, with motivation to “form a single virtual stitch graph for the combined model, upon which an integrated global path optimization can be performed”( Kriveshko, Abstract).
Conclusion
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JIANGENG SUN
Examiner
Art Unit 2661
/Jiangeng Sun/Examiner, Art Unit 2671
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