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 .
In the response to this Office Action, the Examiner respectfully requests that support be shown for language added to any original claims on amendment and any new claims. That is, indicate support for newly added claim language by specifically pointing to page(s) and line numbers in the specification and/or drawing figure(s). This will assist the Examiner in prosecuting this application.
Information Disclosure Statement (IDS)
No IDS has been filed for this application. Applicant is reminded of the duty to
disclose from section 2100 of the MPEP:
37 C.F.R. 1.56; Duty to disclose information material to patentability.
A patent by its very nature is affected with a public interest. The public interest is best served, and the most effective patent examination occurs when, at the time an application is being examined, the Office is aware of and evaluates the teachings of all information material to patentability. Each individual associated with the filing and prosecution of a patent application has a duty of candor and good faith in dealing with the Office, which includes a duty to disclose to the Office all information known to that individual to be material to patentability as defined in this section.
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.
Claim 20 is rejected under 35 U.S.C. 112 (b), as being indefinite for failing to particularly point out and distinctly claim the subject matter which the inventor or a joint inventor, or for pre-AIA the applicant regards as the invention.
Claim 20 recites the limitation “The computer program product of claim 19”. There is insufficient antecedent basis for this limitation in the claim. Examiner suggests that the phrase “The computer program product of claim 19” should be changed to “The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 19”, to obviate the afore-mentioned rejection.
Allowable Subject Matter
Claims 1-19 are allowed.
The following is an Examiner’s statement of reasons for allowance:
Applicant’s claims presented on 03/13/2025 constitute the basis for the reasons of allowance as the current prior art of record, considered individually or in combination, fails to teach or reasonably suggest the claimed features of claims 1, 10, and 19 structurally and functionally interconnected with other limitations in the manner as cited in the claims and dependent claims. Examiner notes that the current invention as disclosed in the independent claims is allowed in its entirety. Each and every limitation working together in concert realizes the current claimed invention’s novelty. No single limitation alone accomplishes the allowability of the inventive independent claim(s), rather each and every limitation of the claim(s) and their disclosed relationships are integral.
None of the references, either singularly or in combination, teach or fairly suggest a system for class-agnostic counting of one or more items in a container comprising: one or more detection devices; one or more processors, wherein the one or more processors are in communication with the one or more detection devices, and the one or more processors are in communication with a memory, the memory having stored thereon computer-executable code sections that cause the processor to:(a) receive, from the one or more detection devices, image data of one or more items of interest placed in a container and a background, the image data comprising a three- dimensional (3-D) image data and a two-dimensional (2-D) image data of one or more items of interest placed in the container, and the background;(b) obtain depth information for each pixel of the 3D image data;(c) generate, using the depth information, one or more depth masks corresponding to each of one or more items of interest;(d) extract, using the one or more depth masks and the 2-D image data, the one or more items of interest from the background to individually segment each of the one or more items of interest;(e) perform a count of the individually segmented one or more items of interest; (f) perform object tracking by tracking a location of the container and/or the one or more items of interest in an area;(g) detect, using motion detection, if one or more of the items of interest in the container have been removed and/or if additional items of interest have been added to the container; and(h) repeat steps a.-g. until the one or more items of interest and the container reach an exit point in the area, wherein a last count of the one or more items of interest in the container is set as a final count of the one or more items of interest in the container.
U.S. Patent Application Publication 2018/0247420 A1 to Tsuji discloses an object tracking device that obtains image data, detects an object, and tracks a target object, a matching unit collates image data of a characteristic model that represents a tracking object, which is a tracking target, with input image data, and outputs a candidate region of the tracking object. An object region determination unit determines an object region from the candidate region that is output by the matching unit. A depth map calculation unit calculates depth information relating to the input image. An object depth setting unit obtains the object region that has been determined by the object region determination unit in the past and the depth information that has been calculated by the depth map calculation unit, and sets a predetermined depth range where the object can exist. The object region determination unit determines an object region relating to the tracking object based on a region corresponding to the depth in a predetermined range set by the object depth setting unit and the candidate region that is extracted by the matching unit.
U.S. Patent 9,996,818 B1 to Ren et al. discloses a system for counting stacked items using image analysis. In one implementation, an image of an inventory location with stacked items is obtained and processed to determine the number of items stacked at the inventory location. In some instances, the item closest to the camera that obtains the image may be the only item viewable in the image. Using image analysis, such as depth mapping or Histogram of Oriented Gradients (HOG) algorithms, the distance of the item from the camera and the shelf of the inventory location can be determined. Using this information, and known dimension information for the item, a count of the number of items stacked at an inventory location may be determined.
However, none of the above teach or fairly suggest the system for class-agnostic counting and associated with it the method as claimed.
Any comments considered necessary by applicant must be submitted no later than the payment of the issue fee and, to avoid processing delays, should preferably accompany the issue fee. Such submissions should be clearly labeled “Comments on Statement of Reasons for Allowance.”
Conclusion
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to ABHISHEK SARMA whose telephone number is (571)272-9887. The examiner can normally be reached on Mon - Fri 8:00-5:00.
If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner’s supervisor, Amr Awad can be reached on 571-272-7764. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300.
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/ABHISHEK SARMA/
Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2621
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