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 .
Information Disclosure Statement
This office acknowledges receipt of the following item(s) from the applicant:
Information Disclosure Statement(s) (IDS) filed on 05 March 2025 and 27 August 2025. The references have been considered.
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, 7, 9 and 12-14 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(1) as being anticipated by Sgarz et al. (Sgarz, US PGPub 2023/0243996).
Referring to Claim 1, Sgarz teaches receiving radar data ([0040] teaches transmitting and receiving electromagnetic waves, in particular microwaves and/or radio waves) of a radar sensor unit (Fig. 1 #65; [0040]) of the measuring device (Fig. 1 #12; [0040]), wherein the radar data depicts a wall on which diagnostics are to be performed ([0040] and [0042]); and performing wall diagnostics by performing an analysis of the radar data and providing diagnostic results by a diagnostic module of the measuring device (Fig. 3 and [0042]), wherein the performing wall diagnostics comprises: performing a wall type classification and determining a wall type of the wall by way of the diagnostic module, wherein the diagnostic results comprise at least the wall type of the wall (Fig. 3, [0004] and [0042] teach material type of the wall); providing the diagnostic results by the diagnostic module to a display unit (Fig. 1 and 3 #34; [0042]) of the measuring device; and displaying the diagnostic results in the display unit; Fig. 2 and 3 #70; [0042].
Referring to Claim 7, Sgarz teaches wherein the performing wall diagnostics further comprises: performing an object recognition of an object located in the wall using the diagnostic module, wherein the object recognition comprises an object detection and an object classification, and wherein the diagnostic results comprise at least one object position in the wall and/or one object type of the object; and/or performing an object depth determination and determining an object depth of the object in the wall using the diagnostic module, wherein the object depth is defined as a distance of the object to a surface of the wall; and/or performing, by way of the diagnostic module, an object extension determination and determining an object extension of the object along a predefined direction, wherein the diagnostic results further comprise the object position in the wall and/or the object type and/or the object depth and/or the object extension of the object, and wherein the uncertainty values further comprise at least one probability value of the object position and/or a probability value of the object type and/or a probability value of the object depth and/or a probability value of the object extension of the object; [0042] and [0044-0046].
Referring to Claim 9, Sgarz teaches wherein object classes of the object type of the object comprise: metallic/non-metallic object, low voltage cable, single phase AC signal cable, multiphase AC signal cable, wood beam, metal beam, plastic pipe, water filled plastic pipe, non- water filled plastic pipe, and/or wherein the wall type classes of the wall type of the wall comprise: concrete wall, plasterboard/drywall wall, brick wall and/or bricks of the wall, underfloor heating, wall heating; Fig. 3 and 6; [0004] and [0013].
Referring to Claim 12, Sgarz teaches computing unit configured to perform the method for operating a measuring device according to claim 1; see claim 1 citations.
Referring to Claim 13, Sgarz teaches a computer program product comprising instructions which, when the program is executed by a data processing unit, cause the data processing unit to perform the steps of the method for operating a measuring device according to claim 1; see citations of Claim 1 and [0005-0006].
Referring to Claim 14, Sgarz teaches wherein the measuring device is a wall diagnostic device; [0040].
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) 2 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Sgarz in view of Burchett et al. (Burchett, WO 2008/001092).
Referring to Claim 2, Sgarz teaches performing wall diagnostics, but does not explicitly disclose nor limit further comprises determining uncertainty values of the diagnostic results by the diagnostic module, the uncertainty values of the diagnostic results describe probability values that the diagnostic results match an actual state of the wall on which diagnostics are performed, and comprise at least one probability value of the wall type of the wall, and wherein the method further comprises (i) providing the uncertainty values together with the diagnostic results by the diagnostic module to the display unit, and (ii) displaying the uncertainty values along with the diagnostic results in the display unit.
However, Burchett teaches performing wall diagnostics further comprises determining uncertainty values of the diagnostic results by the diagnostic module, the uncertainty values of the diagnostic results describe probability values that the diagnostic results match an actual state of the wall on which diagnostics are performed, and comprise at least one probability value of the wall type of the wall, and wherein the method further comprises (i) providing the uncertainty values together with the diagnostic results by the diagnostic module to the display unit, and (ii) displaying the uncertainty values along with the diagnostic results in the display unit; page 6.
Therefore it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the invention to modify Sgarz with confidence value display as taught by Burchett so as to provide a predictable visual representation confirming the detection of objects behind the wall.
Claim(s) 10 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Sgarz in view of Skultety-Betz et al. (Skultety-Betz, US PGPub 2007/0296955).
Referring to Claim 10, Sgarz teaches the measuring device, but does not explicitly disclose nor limit it further comprises at least one of an induction sensor and/or an eddy current sensor and/or a capacitance sensor and/or an AC current sensor and/or an NMR sensor and/or an ultrasonic sensor for providing additional sensor data, and the diagnostic module is configured to perform the wall diagnostics by taking into account the additional sensor data.
However, Skultety-Betz teaches the measuring device further comprises at least one of an induction sensor and/or an eddy current sensor and/or a capacitance sensor and/or an AC current sensor and/or an NMR sensor and/or an ultrasonic sensor for providing additional sensor data, and the diagnostic module is configured to perform the wall diagnostics by taking into account the additional sensor data; [0040].
Therefore it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the invention to modify Sgarz with the additional sensors as taught by Skultety-Betz so as to predictably allow for sensing in multiple environments or with different type of wall materials.
Claim(s) 11 and 15 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Sgarz in view of Wang et al. (Wang, Through-Wall Object Recognition and Pose Estimation).
Referring to Claim 11, Sgarz teaches the diagnostic module, but does not explicitly disclose nor limit it comprises at least one correspondingly trained artificial intelligence configured to perform object detection and/or a wall classification and/or an object depth determination and/or an object extension determination based on the radar data and/or the additional sensor data.
However, Wang teaches the diagnostic module comprises at least one correspondingly trained artificial intelligence configured to perform object detection and/or a wall classification and/or an object depth determination and/or an object extension determination based on the radar data and/or the additional sensor data; see page 1177 Related Work-1179/1180 Baseline and Proposed methods.
Therefore it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the invention to modify Sgarz with the AI as taught by Wang so as to predictably increase the accuracy of the classification.
Referring to Claim 15, Sgarz as modified by Wang teach the water filled plastic pipe includes a fresh water pipe, and the non-water filled plastic pipe includes a waste water pipe; this would be obvious to one of ordinary skill as it is common building code requirements. As both reference teach detecting water pipes this is a feature that would could obviously be trained into the AI as well.
Allowable Subject Matter
Claims 3-6 and 8 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.
Conclusion
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/WHITNEY MOORE/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 3646
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