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 .
Response to Arguments
Applicant's arguments, in the amendment filed 9/12/2025, with respect to the rejections of claims 1-13 under 35 U.S.C. 103(a). have been fully considered but are moot in view of the new ground(s) of rejection necessitated by the amendments. Therefore, the rejection has been withdrawn. However, upon further consideration, a new ground(s) of rejection is made in view of Yimeng et al ( CN112785572 A)
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.
The following is a quotation of 35 U.S.C. 112 (pre-AIA ), second paragraph:
The specification shall conclude with one or more claims particularly pointing out and distinctly claiming the subject matter which the applicant regards as his invention.
Claims 1 and 13 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 112(b) or 35 U.S.C. 112 (pre-AIA ), second paragraph, as being indefinite for failing to particularly point out and distinctly claim the subject matter which the inventor or a joint inventor (or for applications subject to pre-AIA 35 U.S.C. 112, the applicant), regards as the invention. Claim 1 recites “includes a part or an entirety of an inner region of the predetermined object” it is unclear and confusing and not explained well in the specification to show what applicant means by “entirety of an inner region” of the predetermined region. Examiner will interpret that the partial region includes the predetermined object. Appropriate correction is required.
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.
Claim(s) 1-13 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Chen et al (US 20190215419) in view of Yimeng et al (CN 112785572)
As to claim 1, Chen et al teaches an image display device comprising:
an image acquirer that acquires an input image ( S1: the image optimization device acquires a structure element and a total number T of times of expansion, paragraph [0039]);
an object detector that detects a predetermined object from the input image( detecting an image and determining a skin color region and a non-skin color region of the image; part [0059]);
a size acquirer that acquires a size of the predetermined object(The image optimization device via the binary mask image defines the region consisting of pixels whose gray level value is 255 as the skin color region, and the region consisting of pixels whose gray level value is 0 as the non-skin color region. Wherein, the skin color detection algorithm includes a simple threshold color recognition algorithm based on RGB color space, a simple threshold color recognition algorithm based on RG color space, and a simple threshold color recognition algorithm based on Ycbcr color space, paragraph [0032]); a determiner that determines whether to adjust an image quality for a specific color of the predetermined object based on the size of the predetermined object(the image optimization device adjusts the saturation of the expansion region to a saturation corresponding to a weight r.sub.i, wherein the weight r.sub.i is the weight corresponding to the expansion operation of this time, and the weight r.sub.i is in direct proportion to the saturation corresponding to the weight r.sub.i; and S5: the image optimization device cycles the steps S3-S4 until the number of times of expansion is T, paragraph [0039] ; note that the weight can include the dimension and size of the object); and a display controller that controls a display panel to display the input image having the image quality adjusted( a display panel, wherein when the image is optimized on the display panel, paragraph [0073]) . While Takayuki et al. meets a number of the limitations of the claimed invention, as pointed out more fully above, Takayuki et al. fails to specifically teach “an image quality adjuster that adjusts, when the determiner determines that the image quality is to be adjusted, the image quality of at least a partial region of the input image for the specific color; and a display controller that controls a display panel to display the input image having the image quality adjusted wherein the at least one partial region of the of the input image includes a part or an entirety of an inner region of the predetermined size”
Specifically, Yimeng et al. teaches the pixel characteristics of each pixel in the image to be evaluated can be obtained, and the first image quality evaluation index value of the image to be evaluated is obtained according to the pixel characteristics; dividing an image to be evaluated into a plurality of image blocks, and respectively carrying out image quality analysis on each image block by adopting a preset image quality evaluation model so as to obtain a second image quality evaluation index value of the image to be evaluated; acquiring a final image quality evaluation index value according to the first image quality evaluation index value and the second image quality evaluation index value; and carrying out image quality evaluation on the image to be evaluated according to the final image quality evaluation index value. Yimeng et al clearly teaches the judgment result if scorehosa≤scorepixelDirectly taking the first image quality evaluation index value as the final image quality evaluation index value, wherein the scorepixelAnd the scorehosaRespectively representing a first image quality evaluation index value and a second image quality evaluation index value;
if scorehosa＞scorepixelThen judge scorepixelWhether the index value is less than or equal to a preset first index threshold value or not, and adopting a corresponding evaluation index value calculation function to score according to the judgment resultpixelAnd scorehosaCalculating to obtain the final image quality evaluation index value;wherein,the evaluation index value calculation function takes the image quality label value of each image sample as a dependent variable and takes the third image quality evaluation index value score of each image samplepixel_sample . It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to change the image quality with respect o the judgment score in Takayuki et al. in order to improve the accuracy of image quality assessment.. Therefore, the claimed invention would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art at the time of the invention by applicant.
As to claim 2, Chen et al teaches the image display device according to claim 1, wherein the determiner determines that the image quality for the specified color is to be adjusted when the size of the predetermined object is larger than a predetermined size (the saturation of the target region is adjusted to be greater than or equal to the maximum saturation of the T expansion regions, and the difference between the saturation of the target region and the maximum saturation of the T expansion regions is a small value, So that the saturation of the expansion region corresponding to the total number of expansions T can be substantially the same as the saturation of the target region, thereby further smoothing the image enhancement effect, paragraph [0056]).
As to claim 3, Chen et al teaches the image display device according to claim 1, wherein the determiner obtains an index value based on the size of the predetermined object and determines whether to adjust the image quality for the specific color based on the index value and a predetermined threshold (The image optimization device via the binary mask image defines the region consisting of pixels whose gray level value is 255 as the skin color region, and the region consisting of pixels whose gray level value is 0 as the non-skin color region. Wherein, the skin color detection algorithm includes a simple threshold color recognition algorithm based on RGB color space, a simple threshold color recognition algorithm based on RG color space, and a simple threshold color recognition algorithm based on Ycbcr color space, paragraph [0032).
As to claim 4, Yimeng et al teaches the image display device according to claim 3, wherein when the predetermined object includes a plurality of predetermined objects detected from the input image the determiner obtains the index value based on the size of at least one of a plurality of the predetermined objects (the overall characteristics of each image block can be well obtained, and the influence of a complex and messy background on image characteristic extraction can be reduced, so that the quality of images with blur, distortion, background information and the like can be well evaluated, and the accuracy of image quality evaluation is improved; the first image quality evaluation index value and the second image quality evaluation index value are fused to obtain a final image quality evaluation index value, so that the quality of images with different sizes can be well evaluated when the image quality of the image to be evaluated is evaluated according to the final image quality evaluation index value, the quality of images with blur, distortion, background information and the like can be well evaluated, and the accuracy of image quality evaluation is further improved, abstract)
As to claim 5, Yimeng et al teaches the image display device according to claim 4, wherein the determiner obtains the index value based on a position of the predetermined object detected from the input image ( step 21-22 figure 1; the second pixel-level evaluation index value of the image, the detailed features (such as contours and the like) of the human body in the image can be well acquired, and evaluation is performed according to each detailed feature, even if the image is fuzzy, the image cannot be evaluated as a low-quality image, so that the accuracy of image quality evaluation is further improved, and the image quality evaluation result is more in line with the subjective feeling of human eyes, figure 4]).
As to claim 6, Yimeng et al teaches the image display device according to claim 3, further comprising a scene acquirer that determines a scene of the input image and acquires a scene determination result, wherein the determiner acquires a size index value based on the size and a scene index value based on the scene determination result and obtains the index value based on the size index value and the scene index value ( wherein the evaluation index value calculation function takes the image quality label value of each image sample as a dependent variable and takes the third image quality evaluation index value score of each image samplepixel_sampleAnd a fourth image quality evaluation index value scorehosa_sampleFitting a polynomial to the independent variable;score of each image samplepixel_sampleBy obtaining a first image quality evaluation index value scorepixelThe method is respectively obtained according to the pixel characteristics of each image sample; score of each image samplehosa_sampleBy obtaining a second image quality evaluation index value scorehosaRespectively analyzing the image quality of each image sample to obtain the image quality, the quality assessment module 13; formula 8 and 9 )
As to claim 7, Takayuki et al teaches the image display device according to claim 6, wherein the scene acquirer acquires a possibility that the input image is a scene corresponding to the predetermined object as the scene determination result( paragraph [0058-0060]).
As to claim 8, Yimeng et al teaches the image display device according to claim 6, wherein the determiner applies a first weight to the size index value, applies a second weight to the scene index value, and obtains the index value based on the weighted size index value and the weighted scene index value( step S101; the higher the gradient value is in the same scene, the sharper the outline of the image is; therefore, the first pixel-level evaluation index value of the image to be evaluated based on the gradient value and the second pixel-level evaluation index value based on the contrast are obtained by respectively calculating and fusing the first pixel-level evaluation index value and the second pixel-level evaluation index value through the steps 1 to 3, so that the accuracy of the pixel dimension can be improved when the quality of the image is evaluated by using the first image quality evaluation index value; step 3)
As to claim 9, Yimeng teaches the image display device according to claim 6, wherein the scene acquirer acquires the scene determination result indicating a possibility that the input image is an animation, and the determiner performs a weighting process on at least one of the size index value and the scene index value based on the possibility that the input image is an animation ( the step of "calculating the first image quality assessment index value and the second image quality assessment index value by using the corresponding assessment index value calculation function according to the determination result" in the step S103 specifically includes: if scorepixelIf the value is less than or equal to thresh _1, calculating a final image quality evaluation index value score by adopting a second evaluation index value calculation function shown in formula (7), wherein thresh _1 represents a preset first index threshold value; score＝weight×scorehosa+(1-weight)×score pixel (7)wherein weight represents a weight; step S103)
As to claim 10, Yimeng teaches the image display device according to claim 3, wherein the determiner performs a filtering process on the index value to suppress time-series variations, and the image quality adjuster adjusts the image quality based on the index value having undergone the filtering process ( figure 5]).
As to claim 11, Chen et al teaches the image display device according to claim 1, wherein the image quality adjuster adjusts the image quality of a region of the input image corresponding to the predetermined object detected by the object detector and does not adjust the image quality of the other regions of the input image ( paragraph [0068-0069]).
As to claim 12, Chen et al teaches the image display device according to claim 1, wherein the image quality adjuster adjusts the image quality of a region of the input image including a region corresponding to the predetermined object detected by the object detector and a region not corresponding to the predetermined object ( detecting an image and determining a skin color region and a non-skin color region of the image; and determining a number T of expansion regions according to the skin color region, and performing a saturation optimization process on the T expansion regions, wherein the non-skin color region includes the T expansion regions, the number T is a positive integer, a saturation of a first pixel in the expansion region after the saturation optimization process is a first saturation, a saturation of a second pixel in the expansion region after the saturation optimization process is a second saturation, the first saturation is greater than or equal to the second saturation if a distance of the first pixel from the skin color region is greater than a distance of the second pixel from the skin color region, abstract).
The limitation of claim 13 has been addressed above.
Conclusion
Applicant's amendment necessitated the new ground(s) of rejection presented in this Office action. Accordingly, THIS ACTION IS MADE FINAL. See MPEP § 706.07(a). Applicant is reminded of the extension of time policy as set forth in 37 CFR 1.136(a).
A shortened statutory period for reply to this final action is set to expire THREE MONTHS from the mailing date of this action. In the event a first reply is filed within TWO MONTHS of the mailing date of this final action and the advisory action is not mailed until after the end of the THREE-MONTH shortened statutory period, then the shortened statutory period will expire on the date the advisory action is mailed, and any nonprovisional extension fee (37 CFR 1.17(a)) pursuant to 37 CFR 1.136(a) will be calculated from the mailing date of the advisory action. In no event, however, will the statutory period for reply expire later than SIX MONTHS from the mailing date of this final action.
Contact Information
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to NANCY BITAR whose telephone number is (571)270-1041. The examiner can normally be reached Mon-Friday from 8:00 am to 5:00 p.m..
Examiner interviews are available via telephone, in-person, and video conferencing using a USPTO supplied web-based collaboration tool. To schedule an interview, applicant is encouraged to use the USPTO Automated Interview Request (AIR) at http://www.uspto.gov/interviewpractice.
If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner’s supervisor, Mrs. Jennifer Mahmood can be reached at 571-272-2976. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300.
Information regarding the status of published or unpublished applications may be obtained from Patent Center. Unpublished application information in Patent Center is available to registered users. To file and manage patent submissions in Patent Center, visit: https://patentcenter.uspto.gov. Visit https://www.uspto.gov/patents/apply/patent-center for more information about Patent Center and https://www.uspto.gov/patents/docx for information about filing in DOCX format. For additional questions, contact the Electronic Business Center (EBC) at 866-217-9197 (toll-free). If you would like assistance from a USPTO Customer Service Representative, call 800-786-9199 (IN USA OR CANADA) or 571-272-1000.
NANCY . BITAR
Examiner
Art Unit 2664
/NANCY BITAR/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2664