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 § 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.
This application currently names joint inventors. In considering patentability of the claims the examiner presumes that the subject matter of the various claims was commonly owned as of the effective filing date of the claimed invention(s) absent any evidence to the contrary. Applicant is advised of the obligation under 37 CFR 1.56 to point out the inventor and effective filing dates of each claim that was not commonly owned as of the effective filing date of the later invention in order for the examiner to consider the applicability of 35 U.S.C. 102(b)(2)(C) for any potential 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(2) prior art against the later invention.
Claims 1-6 and 8-10 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Wei (US 2023/0412905) in view of Besseling (US 2020/0386662).
As to claims 1 and 6, Wei discloses the claimed subject matter, including a sample holder with an adjustable stage configured to position and maintain a sample containing particles in suspension (paragraph 0010-Access to a sample is provided by 1) a sample holder disposed within at least one of the interchangeable imaging heads and positioned in an optical path between the excitation light and the camera element, wherein the sample holder is configured to accept a sample; paragraph 0044; paragraph 0053-interchangeable imaging heads operates in the brightfield microscopy modality and comprises a) a light source configured to provide an excitation light; b) a sample holder configured to accept a sample and be movable in a Z direction; c) a focusing stage, configured to move the sample holder in the Z direction); an objective lens positioned to collect light scattered by the particles in the sample (paragraph 0010- the reflective optical path of the excitation light of at least one of the interchangeable imaging heads is configured to exit the interchangeable imaging head through a port, strike an external sample, and reflect back into the interchangeable imaging head through the port; paragraph 0050- each of the unique optical signals passes from at least one independently selected objective lens disposed in each of the interchangeable imaging heads to the camera element; paragraph 0053- e) at least one lens disposed between the sample holder and the camera element. The light source and the camera element are the distal points of a transmissive optical path and the diffuser, the sample holder, and the at least one lens are aligned along the transmissive optical path); a lens-to-camera adapter configured to couple the objective lens to a high-speed imaging device (paragraph 0009- a portable imaging platform comprises a) a portable electronic device, b) a base attachment, and c) at least two interchangeable imaging heads; paragraph 0010- 2) aiming the portable imaging platform at a sample, whereby the port and the sample are in optical communication, if the attached interchangeable imaging head has a port; c) illuminating the sample with the excitation light; and sending the unique optical signal to the camera element; paragraph 0040- Nonlimiting examples of elements that may be included in an "imaging head" are lenses, diffusers, a light source, a sample holder, a focusing stage, mirrors, and filters; paragraph 0046; paragraph 0066- A lens module (f2=2.6 mm, UCTronics) was placed right in front of the smartphone camera as the objective. The smartphone carries a 2/3-inch, 38 megapixels (5360 X 7152) complementary metal-oxide semiconductor (CMOS) image sensor. The lens on the smartphone camera has a focal length of f1=6.86 mm); a high-speed camera operatively connected to the lens-to-camera adapter, wherein the camera is configured to capture sequential images at a frame rate sufficient to resolve characteristic time scales of particle dynamics in the sample (paragraph 0009- The portable electronic device has a camera element… The interchangeable imaging head secured to the base attachment is optically coupled to the camera element. Each of the interchangeable imaging heads is configured to send a unique optical signal to the camera element); a processing unit comprising at least one processor (paragraph 0049- the portable electronic device further comprises data processing capability to analyze each of the unique optical signals from each of the interchangeable imaging heads), wherein the processing unit is either: connected to the high-speed camera via wired or wireless connection, or integrated with the high-speed camera as a single unit (including smartphone implementations) (paragraph 0064- FIGS. 3d and 3e show different views of an embodiment of an assembled portable imaging platform 60 with a fluorescence imaging head 50 secured to a base attachment 10 which is also mounted on a smartphone 14. FIG. 3e shows the internal components of an embodiment of the fluorescence imaging head 50 and base attachment A dichroic mirror 62 placed 45 degrees to the excitation light 64 functions as a beam splitter to deflect excitation light 64 from a compact laser diode 66 and to allow emission light 68 from the sample to pass through to the smartphone camera lens (not shown); paragraph 0065- the portable imaging platform comprises a monochromic camera-embedded smartphone); and a computer readable memory containing computer readable instructions, which when executed by the processor perform the following operations (paragraph 0049- the portable electronic device further comprises data processing capability to analyze each of the unique optical signals from each of the interchangeable imaging heads, and output capabilities to characterize each of the unique optical signals): control the high-speed camera to acquire a series of images of the sample (paragraph 0069- Digital images were acquired in Cy3 channel with an integration time of is by using a scientific CMOS camera; paragraph 0073- The brightfield imaging was performed on the inventive portable imaging platform to capture the images of both FNA and HER2-IHC slides. To do so, a sample slide was inserted to the sample holder of the brightfield imaging head, followed by turning on LED and focusing. The built-in smartphone camera app (Nokia Camera Pro) was used for digital image acquisition. An integration time of 0.4 seconds and an ISO value of 200 was used for both FNA slides and HER2-IHC slides); and determine dynamic properties of particles in the sample from the power spectrum variation data (Fig 6; Fig 7). Wei fails to explicitly disclose “control the high-speed camera to acquire a time series of images of the sample at predetermined time intervals; perform image subtraction between pairs of images separated by different time lag intervals; convert the subtracted images to Fourier domain representations; calculate power spectrum variations as a function of different lag times from the Fourier domain representations; and determine dynamic properties of particles in the sample from the power spectrum variation data. Besseling is also in the field of microscopic imagery (Abstract) and teaches control the high-speed camera to acquire a time series of images of the sample at predetermined time intervals (paragraph 0011- non-invasively monitoring at least one of a size and a size distribution of colloidal particles of the flowing suspension using Fourier domain low-coherence interferometry, FDLCI, wherein the monitoring comprises deriving a time and optical path length resolved LCI light scattering signal I(t,z) from a time resolved LCI wavelength spectrum of interference; paragraph 0060- to monitor the time-dependent properties of the colloidal suspensions); perform image subtraction between pairs of images separated by different time lag intervals (paragraph 0013- Information indicative of the size distribution of the colloidal particles may be obtained from at least one optical path length (z) resolved temporal autocorrelation function G(τ,z), wherein τ represents a lag time, of the time and optical path length resolved LCI scattering signal I(t,z), or, equivalently, at least one power spectrum G(ω,z), wherein a represents a frequency, of the time and optical path length resolved LCI scattering signal I(t,z); paragraph 0030- involving de-background subtraction and standard processing steps including inverse Fourier Transformation); convert the subtracted images to Fourier domain representations (paragraph 0030- Data processing may comprise primary processing in which each raw LCI interference spectrum (i.e. the LCI signal strength for each wavelength at time t) is transformed into the corresponding optical path length resolved complex LCI signal I(t,z) involving de-background subtraction and standard processing steps including inverse Fourier Transformation); calculate power spectrum variations as a function of different lag times from the Fourier domain representations (paragraph 0013- Information indicative of the size distribution of the colloidal particles may be obtained from at least one optical path length (z) resolved temporal autocorrelation function G(τ,z), wherein τ represents a lag time, of the time and optical path length resolved LCI scattering signal I(t,z), or, equivalently, at least one power spectrum G(ω,z), wherein ω represents a frequency, of the time and optical path length resolved LCI scattering signal I(t,z); paragraph 0046- The actual optical path length resolved signal I(t,z) in FDLCI is the complex Fourier transform of I(t,k), with k=2π/λ), k being the wavenumber. For single scattering, a specific optical path length 7. represents a specific depth in the suspension and temporal fluctuations of I(t,z) reflect NP motion in a coherence volume at that depth. In this case one can show that, for a suspension of NPs with a distribution of sizes, the correlation function G(τ,z)=<|(0,Z|*(τ,z)>, (τ represents a lagtime)); and determine dynamic properties of particles in the sample from the power spectrum variation data (paragraph 0011- deriving information indicative of the at least one of the size and the size distribution of the colloidal particles in the sample from at least one of an optical path length, z, resolved temporal autocorrelation function G(τ,z) of the time and optical path length resolved LCI light scattering signal I(t, z) and an optical path length resolved frequency power spectrum G(ω,z) of the time and optical path length resolved LCI light scattering signal I(t,z); paragraph 0012- The time and optical path length resolved signal I(t,z) resulting from FDLCI allows to take into account differences in the temporal fluctuations of the LCI signal resolved effectively simultaneously at different optical path lengths in the suspension). It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify Wei with the time series of images of the sample at predetermined time intervals; image subtraction between pairs of images separated by different time lag intervals; Fourier domain representations; power spectrum variations and dynamic properties of particles in the sample from the power spectrum variation data techniques taught in Besseling, the motivation being non-invasive real-time in-process measurement of particle size distribution, flow and physical properties of flowing colloidal suspensions by optical path length resolved photon correlation spectroscopy (Besseling paragraph 0001).
As to claim 2, modified Wei discloses the claimed limitation (paragraphs 0006; 0008; 0041; 0040; 0045; 0059).
As to claim 3, modified Wei discloses the claimed limitation (Fig 1A; paragraph 0006).
As to claim 4, modified Wei discloses the claimed limitation (paragraph 0004; Fig 7).
As to claim 5, modified Wei discloses the claimed limitations (paragraph 0049; Fig 6).
As to claim 8, modified Wei fails to explicitly disclose the processing adapts to available computational resources by: automatically selecting between CPU and GPU acceleration based on hardware availability; optimizing memory usage for processing large image datasets; and implementing parallel processing techniques to reduce analysis time. Besseling teaches the processing adapts to available computational resources by: automatically selecting between CPU and GPU acceleration based on hardware availability (paragraph 0031- Both primary and secondary processing steps may be performed using CPU, GPU or FPGA based computing to provide measured properties at shorter time scales (depending on implementation and hardware, for example in the range of about 5 to 60 seconds)); optimizing memory usage for processing large image datasets (paragraph 0031- Both primary and secondary processing steps may be performed using CPU, GPU or FPGA based computing to provide measured properties at shorter time scales); and implementing parallel processing techniques to reduce analysis time (paragraph 0031- Parallel computing and/or multithreading may be used to further reduce these time scales; paragraph 0044- The different realizations of the apparatus may be used to realize direct integration in suspension synthesis/processing setups, and together with data analysis performed using, for example, parallel computing methods). It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify Wei with the processing adapts to available computational resources techniques taught in Besseling, the motivation being continuously real-time information regarding particle size and distribution, using the measurements and computations (Besseling paragraph 0062).
As to claim 9, modified Wei discloses the claimed limitations: executing the image processing algorithms through a mobile application (Fig 6); utilizing the smartphone's built-in camera as the high-speed imaging device (Fig 6; Fig 7); and storing and displaying results on the smartphone's memory and display systems (Fig 6; Fig 7).
As to claim 10, modified Wei discloses the claimed limitations: monitoring image quality metrics during acquisition (paragraph 0004- Some of the smartphone-based microscopy platforms are capable of acquiring high-definition images with quality comparable to a benchtop optical microscope; Fig 7); automatically adjusting imaging parameters based on sample characteristics (paragraph 0054- 2) it brings better illumination uniformity and adjustable illumination arca by incorporating a miniature beam expander); implementing error detection and correction algorithms to ensure measurement reliability (paragraph 0054- an epifluorescence illumination configuration is implemented. This design has several advantages over the previous tilted illumination design: (1) it provides a vertical illumination and epi-detection, which allows maximizing the performance of emission filter, improves background noise rejection, and therefore enhances the signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) and detection sensitivity); and providing user feedback on measurement quality and suggested improvements (paragraph 0070- Our new portable imaging platform demonstrates a comparable detection sensitivity but significantly improves the device robustness and stability).
Allowable Subject Matter
Claim 7 is 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
The prior art made of record and not relied upon is considered pertinent to applicant's disclosure.
Lu (US 20230082223 A1) discloses systems and methods for structured illumination microscopy.
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/SHERRIE HSIA/Primary Examiner
Art Unit 2422
SH
June 25, 2026
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