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.
(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) is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(1) as being anticipated by Manish, Raja, et al. "Image-aided LiDAR mapping platform and data processing strategy for stockpile volume estimation." Remote Sensing 14.1 (2022): 231.
Referring to claims 1 and 7, Manish shows a volume measurement system using LiDAR (see abstract), comprising:
a plurality of LiDAR sensors (see figures 1 and 2 Ref B) configured to acquire data of volume measurement targets (see section 4.5 note the coarse registration of point clouds from the multiple stations); and
a volume data integration calculator (see the processing computer shown in section 3.1 page 7) configured to calculate the volume of the volume measurement targets by integrating the data acquired by the plurality of LiDAR sensors (see section 4 note the volume estimation, also see section 4.6).
Referring to claims 2 and 8, Manish shows a LiDAR sensor controller configured to control the plurality of LiDAR sensors (see figure 3 note the trigger inputs to the system that initiate the scan); and
a data acquirer configured to acquire the data measured by the plurality of LiDAR sensors (see the computer shown in figure 3 note the storage of data from the LIDAR devices shown under section 3 on page 5).
Referring to claims 3 and 9, Manish shows the volume data integration calculation further includes a coordinate synchronizer configured to create a three-dimensional point cloud by arranging the respective data measured by the plurality of LiDAR sensors based on a single reference point (see figure 6 note the point cloud data from each sensor and generating coarse and fine registration of the scans at each station that is then passed to the multi-station registration also see paragraph above 4.2 on page 11).
Referring to claims 4 and 10, Manish shows a noise filter configured to remove noise by optimizing the data of the three-dimensional point cloud (see the outlier threshold selection as shown in the last paragraph on page 12); and
a target area setter configured to set an area that is an object for calculating the volume of the volume measurement targets in the three-dimensional point cloud (see the identification of the digital surface model using the levelled point cloud for the scanned stockpile relative to the boundaries of the facility also see showing a 2D schematic of the boundary of the stockpile).
Referring to claims 5 and 11, Manish shows the volume data integration calculator further includes a volume calculator configured to calculate the volume of the volume measurement targets using the three-dimensional point cloud with the set area (see section 4.6 note the set area as shown in figure 20 that is used to calculate volume relative to the scanned surface and interpolated surfaces).
Referring to claims 6 and 12, Manish shows the volume data integration calculator further includes a volume information provider configured to display the calculated volume of the volume measurement targets as a three-dimensional point cloud, with different colors assigned to respective three-dimensional areas (see figure 27 note the stockpile surfaces are assigned color based on the respective three dimensional areas also see figure 28).
Conclusion
The prior art made of record and not relied upon is considered pertinent to applicant's disclosure. Alsayed, Ahmad, and Mostafa RA Nabawy. "Stockpile volume estimation in open and confined environments: A review." Drones 7.8 (2023): 537 shows a similar device that estimates the volume of a stockpile with 3D point cloud data captured by LIDAR devices.
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to LUKE D RATCLIFFE whose telephone number is (571)272-3110. The examiner can normally be reached M-F 9:00AM-5:00PM EST.
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/LUKE D RATCLIFFE/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 3645
