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
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.
Claim(s) 1-14 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102a1 as being anticipated by Chen et al. (“Compensating the intensity fall-off effect in cone-beam tomography by an empirical weighted formula”, applied optics, society of America, Washington, DC, US, vol. 47, no 32, 10 November 2008, pages 6033-6039, XP001519511, ISSN: 0003-6935, DOI: 10.1364/AO.47.006033).
Regarding claim 1, Chen teaches a method for cone beam CT intensity correction, comprising:
determining an intensity compensation for a selected scanning configuration by forward projecting using the selected scanning configuration (section 2.B Longitudinal Fall-Off effect in Cone-beam tomography and figure 2);
performing a reconstruction of forward projected data and using reconstructed data to generate the intensity compensation (section 2.B Longitudinal Fall-Off effect in Cone-beam tomography and figure 2); and
applying the intensity compensation to a reconstructed volume of interest to produce an intensity compensated volume (section 2. C volume reconstruction by weighted backproejction, see PCT written opinion).
Regarding claim 2, Chen teaches the selected scanning configuration is a circular or other suitable scanning configuration (circle and line, ellipse, sine wave, double circle, etc.) (section 1, intoruction).
Regarding claim 3, Chen teaches the forward projection has the same dimensions and voxel size as the reconstructed volume of interest (implicit).
Regarding claim 4, Chen teaches the forward projection is performed of a volume that is instantiated with each voxel being filled with a constant (figure 2).
Regarding claim 5, Chen teaches a voxel-by-voxel intensity compensation is generated by inverting the reconstructed forward projected data (section 2.C. column reconstruction by weighted backprojection).
Regarding claim 6, Chen teaches the reconstructed volume of interest and the reconstruction of forward projected data are performed using FDK (section 2.C. column reconstruction by weighted backprojection).
Regarding claim 7, Chen teaches a computer software product for cone beam CT intensity correction implementing the method of claim 1 (section 2.C. column reconstruction by weighted backprojection).
Regarding claim 8, Chen teaches a computer software product of claim 7, stored in a non-transitory storage medium such as an electronic or magnetic storage medium (implicit).
Regarding claim 9, Chen teaches an x-ray tomography system, comprising: an x-ray system including an x-ray source system for generating an x-ray beam and a detector system for detecting the x-ray beam after transmission through a sample to generate projection data; and a computer system for determining an intensity compensation for a selected scanning configuration by forward projecting using the selected scanning configuration, performing a reconstruction of forward projected data and using reconstructed data to generate the intensity compensation, and applying the intensity compensation to a reconstructed volume of interest to produce an intensity compensated volume.
Regarding claim 10, Chen teaches the selected scanning configuration is a circular or other suitable scanning configuration (circle and line, ellipse, sine wave, double circle, etc.) (section 1, intoruction).
Regarding claim 11, Chen teaches the forward projection has the same dimensions and voxel size as the reconstructed volume of interest (implicit).
Regarding claim 12, Chen teaches the forward projection is performed of a volume that is instantiated with each voxel being filled with a constant (figure 2).
Regarding claim 13, Chen teaches a voxel-by-voxel intensity compensation is generated by the computer system by inverting the reconstructed forward projected data (section 2.C. column reconstruction by weighted backprojection).
Regarding claim 14, Chen teaches the reconstructed volume of interest and the reconstruction of forward projected data are performed using FDK (section 2.C. column reconstruction by weighted backprojection).
Conclusion
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to HOON K SONG whose telephone number is (571)272-2494. The examiner can normally be reached M to Th 10am to 7pm.
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/HOON K SONG/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2884
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