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 .
Application Status
This office action is responsive to the response filed on 12/02/2025.
This action has been made NON-FINAL.
Continued Examination Under 37 CFR 1.114
A request for continued examination under 37 CFR 1.114, including the fee set forth in 37 CFR 1.17(e), was filed in this application after final rejection. Since this application is eligible for continued examination under 37 CFR 1.114, and the fee set forth in 37 CFR 1.17(e) has been timely paid, the finality of the previous Office action has been withdrawn pursuant to 37 CFR 1.114. Applicant's submission filed on 12/02/2025 has been entered.
Priority
Receipt is acknowledged of certified copies of papers required by 37 CFR 1.55.
Response to Arguments
Applicant's arguments filed 12/02/2025 have been fully considered but they are not persuasive.
The Applicant alleges the following: “Neither Pan, Alacoque, the remaining references, nor any combination thereof discloses, teaches, or suggests each and every claimed feature of independent claim 1. For example, neither Pan, Alacoque, the remaining references, nor any combination thereof discloses, teaches, or suggests "obtaining a reference patch corresponding to a specific region of an input image in a reference image, based on features extracted from the input image and features extracted from the reference image," as recited in independent claim 1.”. The examiner is not persuaded. The examiner asserts that the combination of PAN and Alacoque discloses the Applicant’s claim language. More specifically, Alacoque teachings in Paragraphs 0058; 0061; 0064-00651 of “The number of patches compared to the reference patch is determined by the size of the search window S from which the patches are extracted” explicitly discloses the Applicant’s claim language of “obtaining a reference patch”. In addition, Alacoque’s discloses the Applicant’s claim language of “corresponding to a specific region of an input image in a reference image” in Paragraphs 0058; 0061; 0064-00652. Specifically, Alacoque Paragraph 0061 explicitly recites “the number of patches compared to the reference patch is determined by the size of the search window S from which the patches are extracted. The search window S in the low resolution image 308 for example corresponds to candidate pixels falling within a radius R.sub.s from the central pixel.”. Alacoque’s teachings of “radius” is the same as the Applicant’s claim language of “specific region”. Alacoque goes on to disclose the Applicant’s claim lanague of “based on features extracted from the input image and features extracted from the reference image” in Alacoque’s Paragraphs 0058; 0061; 0064-00653. MPEP § 2106 states Office personnel are to give claims their broadest reasonable interpretation in light of the supporting disclosure. In re Morris, 127 F.3d 1048, 1054-55, 44 USPQ2d 1023, 1027-28 (Fed Cir. 1997). Accordingly, the examiner maintains the rejection.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 103
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) 1-20 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over PAN, US 20230245275 in view of Alacoque, US 20150213579.
Claim 1:
PAN discloses a processor-implemented method (See PAN Abstract). PAN failed to disclose a reference patch, however, Alacoque discloses this feature in Paragraphs 0058; 0061; 0064-0065. It would have been obvious to a person having ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to have further modified the super resolution (SR) method of PAN by the teachings of obtaining a reference patch, as taught by Alacoque, thereby improving the image quality more effectively (See Alacoque Field of Invention). In addition, both of the references teach features that are directed to analogous art and they are directed to the same field of endeavor such as image processing of low-resolution and high-resolution images. This close relation between both of the references highly suggests an expectation of success.
As modified:
The combination of PAN and Alacoque discloses the following:
obtaining a reference patch (See Alacoque Paragraphs 0058; 0061; 0064-00654) corresponding to a specific region of an input image in a reference image (See Alacoque Paragraphs 0058; 0061; 0064-00655), based on features extracted from the input image and features extracted from the reference image (See Alacoque Paragraphs 0058; 0061; 0064-00656);
generating an adjusted reference patch by adjusting a position of the reference patch (See Alacoque Paragraphs 0058; 0061; 0064-0065) in the reference image based on a pixel value of a ground truth (GT) patch of a GT image (See PAN Paragraphs 0024; 0032) and a pixel value of the reference patch (See Alacoque Paragraphs 0058; 0061; 0064-0065), wherein the GT patch (See PAN Paragraph 0024) corresponds to the specific region of the input image (“a certain distance from the pixel y.sub.j located at a location corresponding to that of the pixel xi” See Alacoque Paragraphs 0044; 0060-0066; 0085);
generating a super-resolution (SR) image of the input image using a SR model (See PAN Paragraphs 0002; 0024; 0026) provided an input that is based on the generated adjusted reference patch (See Alacoque Paragraphs 0058; 0061; 0064-0065);
and training the SR model based on the SR image and the GT image (See PAN Paragraphs 0002; 0024; 0026).
Claim 2:
The combination of PAN and Alacoque discloses wherein the specific region of the input image comprises a partial region in the input image with a preset number of first pixels (“a certain distance from the pixel y.sub.j located at a location corresponding to that of the pixel xi” See Alacoque Paragraphs 0044; 0060-0066; 0085),
the reference patch (See Alacoque Paragraphs 0058; 0061; 0064-0065) comprises a partial region in the reference image with second pixels corresponding to the first pixels in the specific region of the input image (“a certain distance from the pixel y.sub.j located at a location corresponding to that of the pixel xi” See Alacoque Paragraphs 0044; 0060-0066; 0085), wherein the reference image corresponds to at least one of image having content different from the input image (“different images” See PAN Paragraph 0057), and the GT image, and having a higher resolution than the input image (“Image super-resolution (SR) processing involves recovering high-resolution (HR) images from low-resolution (LR) inputs.” See PAN Paragraph 0024),
and the GT patch comprises a partial region in the GT image (See PAN Paragraphs 0024; 0032) with third pixels corresponding to the first pixels in the specific region of the input image (“a certain distance from the pixel y.sub.j located at a location corresponding to that of the pixel xi” See Alacoque Paragraphs 0044; 0060-0066; 0085) wherein the GT image corresponds to a high-resolution version of the input image (“Image super-resolution (SR) processing involves recovering high-resolution (HR) images from low-resolution (LR) inputs.” See PAN Paragraph 0024).
Claim 3:
The combination of PAN and Alacoque discloses wherein the obtaining of the reference patch (See Alacoque Paragraphs 0058; 0061; 0064-0065) comprises: performing the extraction of the features from the input image by extracting a non-flat region from the input image (See Alacoque Paragraph 0085); and performing the obtaining of the reference patch (See Alacoque Paragraphs 0058; 0061; 0064-0065) corresponding to the specific region of the input image that belongs to the non-flat region of the input image (See Alacoque Paragraph 0085), based on the features extracted from the input image and the features extracted from the reference image (“The number of patches compared to the reference patch is determined by the size of the search window S from which the patches are extracted” See Alacoque Paragraphs 0058; 0061; 0064-0065).
Claim 4:
The combination of PAN and Alacoque discloses wherein the adjusting of the position of the reference patch (See Alacoque Paragraphs 0058; 0061; 0064-0065) comprises: adjusting the position of the reference patch (See Alacoque Paragraphs 0058; 0061; 0064-0065) such that a search space determined based on the reference patch (See Alacoque Paragraphs 0058; 0061; 0064-0065) comprises search pixels having an intuited, by the SR model (See PAN Paragraphs 0002; 0024; 0026), small difference from pixel values (See PAN Paragraph 0032) of the third pixels in the GT patch (See PAN Paragraphs 0024; 0032).
Claim 5:
The combination of PAN and Alacoque discloses wherein the search space comprises a region of a preset size in the reference image determined based on the position of the reference patch in the reference image (“The number of patches compared to the reference patch is determined by the size of the search window S from which the patches are extracted” See Alacoque Paragraphs 0058; 0061; 0064-0065).
Claim 6:
The combination of PAN and Alacoque discloses wherein the adjusting of the position of the reference patch (See Alacoque Paragraphs 0058; 0061; 0064-0065) comprises: standardizing a pixel value of the GT patch and a pixel value of the reference patch (See PAN Paragraphs 0024; 0032); and adjusting the position of the reference patch in the reference image based on a result of a comparison between the standardized pixel value of the GT patch (See PAN Paragraphs 0024; 0032) and the standardized pixel value of the reference patch (See Alacoque Paragraphs 0058; 0061; 0064-0065).
Claim 7:
The combination of PAN and Alacoque discloses wherein the standardizing comprises: standardizing pixel values of the third pixels in the GT patch based on a mean and a standard deviation of the pixel values of the GT patch (See Alacoque Paragraph 0109); and standardizing pixel values of the second pixels in the reference patch (See Alacoque Paragraphs 0058; 0061; 0064-0065) based on a mean and a standard deviation (See Alacoque Paragraph 0109) of the pixel values of the reference patch (See Alacoque Paragraphs 0058; 0061; 0064-0065).
Claim 8:
The combination of PAN and Alacoque discloses wherein the training of the SR model comprises: training the SR model based on a loss that is based on a difference between the SR image and the GT image (“loss between the restored SR image(s) and the ground truth (GT) image(s)” See PAN Paragraph 0024).
Claim 9:
The combination of PAN and Alacoque discloses wherein the reference image comprises a plurality of reference images captured (“a reference low-resolution image” See PAN Paragraph 0045) with different resolutions (“Image super-resolution (SR) processing involves recovering high-resolution (HR) images from low-resolution (LR) inputs.” See PAN Paragraph 0024).
Claims 10-15:
Claims 10-15 are rejected on the same basis as claims 1-7.
Claim 16:
PAN discloses processor-implemented super-resolution (SR) method (See PAN Abstract; Figure 10). PAN failed to disclose a reference patch, however, Alacoque discloses this feature in Paragraphs 0058; 0061; 0064-0065. It would have been obvious to a person having ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to have further modified the super resolution (SR) method of PAN by the teachings of obtaining a reference patch, as taught by Alacoque, thereby improving the image quality more effectively (See Alacoque Field of Invention). In addition, both of the references teach features that are directed to analogous art and they are directed to the same field of endeavor such as image processing of low-resolution and high-resolution images. This close relation between both of the references highly suggests an expectation of success.
As modified:
The combination of PAN and Alacoque discloses the following:
obtaining a reference patch (See Alacoque Paragraphs 0058; 0061; 0064-00657) corresponding to a specific region of an input image in a reference image (See Alacoque Paragraphs 0058; 0061; 0064-00658), based on features extracted from the input image and features extracted from the reference image (See Alacoque Paragraphs 0058; 0061; 0064-00659);
generating an SR image of the input image output (See PAN Paragraphs 0002; 0024; 0026) from a neural network-based (See PAN Figure 1A; Paragraph 0005; 0030; 0033; 0064) SR model (See PAN Paragraphs 0002; 0024; 0026) based on the reference patch in the reference image (See Alacoque Paragraphs 0058; 0061; 0064-0065),
wherein the SR model (See PAN Paragraphs 0002; 0024; 0026) is a neural network (See PAN Figure 1A; Paragraph 0005; 0030; 0033; 0064) having been trained to output a training SR image of training data using the training data (See PAN Paragraphs 0002; 0024; 0026) and a training reference patch (See Alacoque Paragraphs 0058; 0061; 0064-0065) in a training reference image extracted based on a pixel value (See PAN Paragraph 0032) of a specific region of the training data (See PAN Paragraphs 0002; 0024; 0026).
Claim 17:
The combination of PAN and Alacoque discloses performing the training of the neural network (See PAN Figure 1A; Paragraph 0005; 0030; 0033; 0064), including: based on features extracted from the training data and features extracted from the training reference image by an in-training SR model (See PAN Paragraphs 0002; 0024; 0026), obtaining the training reference patch (See Alacoque Paragraphs 0058; 0061; 0064-0065) corresponding to the specific region of the training data in the reference image; generating an adjusted reference patch (See Alacoque Paragraphs 0058; 0061; 0064-0065) by adjusting a position of the training reference patch in the training reference image (See PAN Paragraphs 0002; 0024; 0026) based on a pixel value of a ground truth (GT) patch of a GT image (See PAN Paragraphs 0024; 0032) and a pixel value of the training reference patch (See Alacoque Paragraphs 0058; 0061; 0064-0065), the GT patch corresponding to the specific region of the training data; obtaining a training SR image of the training data (See PAN Paragraphs 0002; 0024; 0026) output from the in-training SR model based on the generated adjusted reference patch (See Alacoque Paragraphs 0058; 0061; 0064-0065) with the adjusted position (See PAN Paragraphs 0002; 0024; 0026); and generating the SR model by training the in-training SR model based on the training SR image and the GT image (See PAN Paragraphs 0002; 0024; 0026).
Claim 18:
PAN discloses a non-transitory computer-readable storage medium storing instructions that, when executed by a processor, configure the processor to perform the method of claim 1 (“may be implemented in a variety of ways, such as a process, an apparatus, a system, a device, or a method on a tangible computer-readable medium.” See PAN Paragraph 0014; 0095; 0097-0098).
Claim 19:
PAN discloses an electronic device comprising: a processor configured to execute instructions; and a memory storing the instructions, which when executed by the processor configure the processor to (See PAN Abstract; Figure 10). PAN failed to disclose a reference patch, however, Alacoque discloses this feature in Paragraphs 0058; 0061; 0064-0065. It would have been obvious to a person having ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to have further modified the super resolution (SR) method of PAN by the teachings of obtaining a reference patch, as taught by Alacoque, thereby improving the image quality more effectively (See Alacoque Field of Invention). In addition, both of the references teach features that are directed to analogous art and they are directed to the same field of endeavor such as image processing of low-resolution and high-resolution images. This close relation between both of the references highly suggests an expectation of success.
As modified:
The combination of PAN and Alacoque discloses the following:
based on features extracted from an input image and features extracted from a reference image, obtain a reference patch (See Alacoque Paragraphs 0058; 0061; 0064-0065) corresponding to a specific region of the input image in the reference image (“a certain distance from the pixel y.sub.j located at a location corresponding to that of the pixel xi” See Alacoque Paragraphs 0044; 0060-0066; 0085);
adjust a position of the reference patch (See Alacoque Paragraphs 0058; 0061; 0064-0065) in the reference image based on a pixel value of the specific region of the input image (See PAN Paragraphs 0024; 0032) and a pixel value of the reference patch (See Alacoque Paragraphs 0058; 0061; 0064-0065);
and generate a super-resolution (SR) image (See PAN Paragraphs 0002; 0024; 0026) of the input image based on an adjusted reference patch with an adjusted position (See Alacoque Paragraphs 0058; 0061; 0064-0065).
Claim 20:
PAN discloses an electronic device comprising: a processor configured to execute instructions; and a memory storing the instructions, which when executed by the processor configure the processor to (See PAN Abstract; Figure 10). PAN failed to disclose a reference patch, however, Alacoque discloses this feature in Paragraphs 0058; 0061; 0064-0065. It would have been obvious to a person having ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to have further modified the super resolution (SR) method of PAN by the teachings of obtaining a reference patch, as taught by Alacoque, thereby improving the image quality more effectively (See Alacoque Field of Invention). In addition, both of the references teach features that are directed to analogous art and they are directed to the same field of endeavor such as image processing of low-resolution and high-resolution images. This close relation between both of the references highly suggests an expectation of success.
As modified:
The combination of PAN and Alacoque discloses the following:
generate a reference patch (See Alacoque Paragraphs 0058; 0061; 0064-0065) corresponding to a specific region of an input image in a reference image using a super-resolution (SR) model (See PAN Paragraphs 0002; 0024; 0026) provided an input that is based on features extracted from the input image and features extracted from the reference image provided an input that is (See Alacoque Paragraphs 0045; and 0055-0058);
and generate an SR image of the input image output from the SR model (See PAN Paragraphs 0002; 0024; 0026) based on the reference patch (See Alacoque Paragraphs 0058; 0061; 0064-0065),
wherein the SR model (See PAN Paragraphs 0002; 0024; 0026) comprises a neural network (See PAN Figure 1A; Paragraph 0005; 0030; 0033; 0064) having inference implementation characteristics representing that the neural network (See PAN Figure 1A; Paragraph 0005; 0030; 0033; 0064) has been trained to output a training SR image of training data from the training data (See PAN Paragraphs 0002; 0024; 0026) and a training reference patch (See Alacoque Paragraphs 0058; 0061; 0064-0065) of a training reference image extracted based on a pixel value of a specific region (“a certain distance from the pixel y.sub.j located at a location corresponding to that of the pixel xi” See Alacoque Paragraphs 0044; 0060-0066; 0085) of the training data (See PAN Paragraphs 0024; 0032).
Pertinent Art
The prior art made of record and not relied upon is considered pertinent to applicant's disclosure.
US PATENT APPLICATION PUBLICATION NO.: 20150093041 discloses a method involving setting multiple pixels in an image as a reference patch.
Contact Information
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to SHEREE N BROWN whose telephone number is (571)272-4229. The examiner can normally be reached M-F 5:30-2:00 PM EST.
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, SAID BROOME can be reached at (571) 272-2931. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300.
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/SHEREE N BROWN/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2612 January 7, 2026
1 Alacoque Paragraph 0061 recites “The number of patches compared to the reference patch is determined by the size of the search window S from which the patches are extracted”.
2 Alacoque Paragraph 0061 recites “The number of patches compared to the reference patch is determined by the size of the search window S from which the patches are extracted. The search window S in the low resolution image 308 for example corresponds to candidate pixels falling within a radius R.sub.s from the central pixel.”. Alacoque’s teachings of “radius” is the same as the Applicant’s claim language of “specific region”.
3 Alacoque Paragraphs 0058; 0061; 0064-0065 recites “The number of patches compared to the reference patch is determined by the size of the search window S from which the patches are extracted”.
4 Alacoque Paragraph 0061 recites “The number of patches compared to the reference patch is determined by the size of the search window S from which the patches are extracted”.
5 Alacoque Paragraph 0061 recites “The number of patches compared to the reference patch is determined by the size of the search window S from which the patches are extracted. The search window S in the low resolution image 308 for example corresponds to candidate pixels falling within a radius R.sub.s from the central pixel.”. Alacoque’s teachings of “radius” is the same as the Applicant’s claim language of “specific region”.
6 Alacoque Paragraphs 0058; 0061; 0064-0065 recites “The number of patches compared to the reference patch is determined by the size of the search window S from which the patches are extracted”.
7 Alacoque Paragraph 0061 recites “The number of patches compared to the reference patch is determined by the size of the search window S from which the patches are extracted”.
8 Alacoque Paragraph 0061 recites “The number of patches compared to the reference patch is determined by the size of the search window S from which the patches are extracted. The search window S in the low resolution image 308 for example corresponds to candidate pixels falling within a radius R.sub.s from the central pixel.”. Alacoque’s teachings of “radius” is the same as the Applicant’s claim language of “specific region”.
9 Alacoque Paragraphs 0058; 0061; 0064-0065 recites “The number of patches compared to the reference patch is determined by the size of the search window S from which the patches are extracted”.