Adapting Functional OCT for Non-Medical Applications

This inventive concept expands the core technology of functional OCT data processing to novel applications in crop health monitoring, livestock disease detection, fruit and vegetable quality evaluation, water quality monitoring, and food product contamination detection.

The original patent, 'Functional Oct Data Processing', primarily focused on processing functional OCT image data for medical applications. However, the limitations of this patent lie in its restricted scope, neglecting the potential of this technology in other industries. This inventive concept addresses this limitation by applying the core technology to entirely new fields, thereby increasing its versatility and impact.

The new inventive concept leverages the functional OCT data processing technology to analyze the responses of various non-medical subjects (e.g., plants, animals, fruits, vegetables, and water samples) to light stimuli. This is achieved by adapting the original apparatus and method to accommodate the specific requirements of each new application. For instance, in crop health monitoring, the OCT imaging device is configured to repeatedly scan a region of the plant while the plant is being stimulated by a light stimulus, and the correlation calculator module calculates the rolling window correlation between the OCT image data and stimulus indicators to generate an indication of the plant's response to the light stimulus.

The new claims introduce a significant inventive step by applying the functional OCT data processing technology to non-medical applications, which was not originally considered in the patent. This expansion into new industries and use cases is a substantial departure from the original patent's medical focus, thereby providing a novel and non-obvious solution.

Alternative embodiments of this inventive concept could include using different types of stimuli, such as temperature or chemical stimuli, or integrating the functional OCT technology with other sensing modalities to enhance the accuracy of the responses. Additionally, the inventive concept could be adapted for use in other industries, such as environmental monitoring or materials science.

The potential commercial applications of this inventive concept are vast, with opportunities in agriculture, livestock, food production, and environmental monitoring. The market for these applications is significant, with the global agricultural technology market alone projected to reach USD 22.5 billion by 2025. By expanding the functional OCT technology into these new industries, this inventive concept has the potential to generate substantial revenue and drive innovation.