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 § 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 2-6, 8-12, 14-18 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.
Claim 2 recites “a window staggered area” on line 2 and claim 1 that claim 2 depends on recites “window staggered area” on lines 3, 6, and 9. It is not clear whether “window staggered area” on line 2 of claim 2 is the same or different from “window staggered area” on lines 3, 6, and 9 of claim 1. If the same it should refer to them and if it is not, it should be labeled so. Therefore, the metes bounds and scope of the claim are not clear and the claim is indefinite.
As to claims 3-6, 8-12, 14-18 refer to claim 2 rejection.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 103
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 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) 1, 7, 11 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over the combination of Feng Haiying et al., “A new method for evaluating the ecological service value of forest temperature regulation in Shandong Province based on MODIS LST products”, Forest Science, Vol. 24, No 2 , PP 10-17, 2018.2 and LI, QIONG et al. (CN 116843193 B).
AS to claim 1, Haiying discloses a method for evaluating a climate regulation value of vegetation [a new method for evaluating the ecological service value of forest temperature regulation (Abstract)], comprising:
obtaining surface net radiations and latent heat fluxes of the vegetation and bare land [using remote sensing technology to classify surface land use types starting from the balance of earth-air energy radiation. Starting from the balance of earth-atmosphere energy radiation, this study analyzes temperature differences between forests (vegetation) and other surface types (bare land) based on temperature data derived from thermal infrared remote sensing, performs temperature conversion, and proposes a new method for evaluating the ecological service value of forest temperature regulation. the study focuses on forest cover areas and urban areas (towns are currently the main land use type, with high population density and significant economic benefits, and with urbanization, towns are becoming increasingly important types, Therefore, the towns are chosen as references) The near-surface temperature difference represents the forest's effect on temperature regulation, calculates the energy difference between the two near-surface atmospheres over a period of time, performs temperature difference conversion, and from this is used to derive the ecological service value of forest temperature regulation (section 2)] ;
calculating a difference between sensible heat fluxes of the vegetation and the bare land in the window staggered area according to the surface net radiations and the latent heat fluxes of the vegetation and the bare land [When the study area is not large, it can be considered that at the same time, the downward solar radiation flux R per unit area of forests (vegetation) and other surface types (bar land) is equal. Differences in surface albedo, surface temperature, and sensible heat flux can all be attributed to the presence of forests. Therefore, the effect of forest temperature regulation can be considered as follows: due to the presence of forests. This causes energy differences between the atmosphere above forests (vegetation) per unit area and those above other types of underlying surfaces (bare land), including surface longwave radiation flux (Rle), atmospheric upstream radiation flux (Ru), surface sensible heat flux (Hs), and sensible heat flux (H). 1) is reflected in the temperature difference (ΔT) between the atmosphere above the forest and the atmosphere above the underlying surface area per unit area. According to the energy balance formula, at any given moment, the energy difference between forests and other surface types per unit area (ΔE) can be expressed by formula (3) (section 2.3.1)]; and
obtaining the climate regulation value of the vegetation by combining a replacement cost method of cooling by an air conditioner based on the difference between sensible heat fluxes of the vegetation and the bare land [According to equation (4), calculate the energy difference between forests and other surface types near the surface atmosphere over a period (from t0 to t1) (section 2.3.1). To convert energy into assessable value, using electricity prices (replacement cost method of cooling) to measure the energy of forest temperature (vegetation climate) regulation, the ecological service value (C) of forest temperature regulation can be expressed by formula (6) (section 2.3.2 and section 4)].
Haiying is using vector maps converted from forest distribution maps and does not use a window staggered area and a window analysis method.
Li discloses an artificial heat flux estimation method and system based on flux observation data (abstract). Dividing selected area into grids and setting a vortex degree correlation to observe the selected area, the flux observation arrangement of the selected area. The vegetation, the water body and the water-tight under-cushion surface type of the selected area are respectively provided with the vortex degree correlation(Page 10, Specific implementation examples, par. 3-5). According to the sensible heat flux, the latent heat flux, the soil heat flux and the net radiation flux corresponding to each grid in the large aperture scintillator flux source area, calculating the space-time distribution of the artificial heat flux of each grid (page 16, S 403). A sensible heat and latent heat flux calculation module of the surface type, for determining the flux source area of the vortex degree correlation according to the observed data of the vortex degree correlation instrument, in combination with the building vector data, land use data and observation data, obtaining the sensible heat flux correction value and latent heat flux correction value of each surface type in the vortex degree related flux source area (Page 17, par. 7). Specifically, based on the sensible heat flux and the latent heat flux observation value, the calculated values of the sensible heat flux and the latent heat flux are corrected, which can effectively compensate the deviation between the calculated values of the sensible heat flux and the latent heat flux and the actual values of the sensible heat flux and the latent heat flux; according to the area ratio of each surface type as the correction coefficient, the invention can effectively improve the precision of the calculation result of the sensible heat flux and the latent heat flux of each surface type; at the same time, the correction value is averaged by using the sliding average method (window analysis method), which can reduce the influence of the abnormal value to the result, and increase the robustness of the subsequently constructed artificial thermal estimation model from the layer of the training set (page 6, par. 5). As shown in Fig. 7 successive windows of different sizes are shifted ,i.e., a window staggered.
It would have been obvious to one having ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention was made to use the teachings of Li to modify the method of Haiying by using a staggered window to obtain surface net radiations and latent heat fluxes of the vegetation and bare land and calculating a difference between sensible heat fluxes of the vegetation and the bare land in the window staggered area according to the surface net radiations and the latent heat fluxes of the vegetation and the bare land in order to effectively improve the precision of the calculation result of the sensible heat flux and the latent heat flux of each surface type.
Claim 7 is a non-transitory computer readable medium analogous to method claim 1, grounds of rejection analogous to those applied to claim 1 are applicable to claim 7. Furthermore, Li discloses processor in the computer device or can be stored in software form in the memory in the computer device (page 17, par. 2).
Claim 13 is a computer device to method claim 1, grounds of rejection analogous to those applied to claim 1 are applicable to claim 7. Furthermore, Li discloses processor in the computer device or can be stored in software form in the memory in the computer device (page 17, par. 2).
Allowable Subject Matter
Claims 2, 8, and 14 would be allowable if amended to overcome the above rejections and 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: The prior art of record does not teach or fairly suggest the steps in claims 2, 8 and 14. Claims 2, 8 and 14 are mathematical relationships and recite the necessary mathematical calculations and relationships for a novel method to evaluate a climate regulation value of vegetation that amount to significantly more than a mathematical abstract idea because it shows an improvement to a technology/technical field and exhibits an improvement to improving the accuracy of the evaluation of a climate regulation value of vegetation. (Research Corporation Technologies Inc. V. Microsoft Corp., 627 F.3d 859 (Fed. Cir. 2010) (RCT)).
Conclusion
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/SAMIR A AHMED/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2665
