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 .
Status of claims: claims 1 and 7-14. Claims 2-6 are cancelled.
Response to Arguments
Applicant's arguments filed 5/20/2026 have been fully considered but they are not persuasive.
Applicant remarks – (pages 5-6) Applicant argued the lack of teaching regarding new claim elements amendment. Please see Claim and Remarks for further details.
Examiner response – Examiner respectfully disagree. An update search, where Wang et al (US 2014/0029073) address the new claim elements in 0007-0009 and 0021. Please see the Office Action below for more detail.
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.
Claims, 1, 7-8 and 13-14 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Yoshida (US 2018/0084152) in view of Wang et al (US 2014/0029073).
Claim 1, similarly claim 7-8:
Yoshida (US 2018/0084152) teaches the following subject matter:
An image processing apparatus configured (figure 2 and 0048-0049 teaches use of processor or MPU) to process a scan image read from a document including a chip or a torn portion, the image processing apparatus comprising:
processing circuitry configured (figure 2 and 0048-0049 teaches use of processor or MPU) to generate an output image in which a region outside identify an outer edge of a document in the scan image is made black (0028 and 0030 detail the use of optical system 113 and image sensor 114 to image document sheet, where 0054 further detail identify document sheet area with calculating edge detection of detecting boundary position between document sheet and outside-document-sheet area (edge and background)).
Yoshida teaches all the subject matter above, but not the following: wherein the region outside the outer edge made black by the processing circuitry includes a region corresponding to the chip or the torn portion.
Wang et al (US 2014/0029073) teaches the following subject matter:
wherein the region outside the outer edge made black by the processing circuitry includes a region corresponding to the chip or the torn portion (0007-0009, specifically 0009 detail filling in portion using with gray level around or near the region, which would include the background it is scanned on; 0021 detail where the scanned torn document is filled to corner and edges using coarse alignment and global features).
Yoshida and Wang et al are both in the field of image analysis, especially on scanned document with missing/torn/folded edges processing that the combine outcome is predictable.
Therefore it would have been obvious to one having ordinary skill before the effective filing date to modify Yoshida by Wang et al regarding filling in missing/torn/folded edges where such restoration optimizing phase transitions between document segments across different alignment candidates as disclosed by Wang et al in 0042.
Regarding method of claim 7, 0009 detail carryout method as well as image reading device and apparatus.
Regarding non-transitory computer media of claim 8, figure 2 and 0048-0050 detail storage portion of the system.
Claim 13:
Yoshida (US 2018/0084152) teaches the following subject matter:
A non-transitory computer-executable medium storing a plurality of instructions which, when executed by a processor (figure 2 and 0048-0050 detail storage portion of the system), causes the processor to perform:
processing a scan image read from a document including a chip or a torn portion to generate an output image in which a region outside an outer edge of a region of the document in the scan image is made a color different from a background color of the document (0028 and 0030 detail the use of optical system 113 and image sensor 114 to image document sheet, where 0054 further detail identify document sheet area with calculating edge detection of detecting boundary position between document sheet and outside-document-sheet area (edge and background).
Yoshida teaches all the subject matter above, but not the following:
wherein the region outside the outer edge made the color different from the background color of the document in the processing includes a region corresponding to the chip or the torn portion.
Wang et al (US 2014/0029073) teaches the following subject matter:
wherein the region outside the outer edge made the color different from the background color of the document in the processing includes a region corresponding to the chip or the torn portion portion (0007-0009, specifically 0009 detail filling in portion using with gray level around or near the region, which would include the background it is scanned on; 0021 detail where the scanned torn document is filled to corner and edges using coarse alignment and global features).
Yoshida and Wang et al are both in the field of image analysis, especially on scanned document with missing/torn/folded edges processing that the combine outcome is predictable.
Therefore it would have been obvious to one having ordinary skill before the effective filing date to modify Yoshida by Wang et al regarding filling in missing/torn/folded edges where such restoration optimizing phase transitions between document segments across different alignment candidates as disclosed by Wang et al in 0042.
Claim 14:
Yoshida teach:
The non-transitory computer-executable medium according to The non-transitory computer-executable medium according to wherein the color different from the background color is a color selected depending on image processing software with which the output image is processed (0085 detail image reading device 1 has a function to read a color image, the image scanning portion 11 includes a plurality of image sensors 114 that detect respectively different colors. In this case, the image processing portion 85 includes a plurality of pre-processing portions 851, a plurality of line buffers 852, a plurality of subtraction portions 853, a plurality of sampling portions 855, and a plurality of post-processing portions 856 that respectively correspond to image data of different colors).
Claims 9-11 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Yoshida (US 2018/0084152) in view of Wang et al (US 2014/0029073) as applied to claim 8 above, and further in view of by Iwayama et al (US 2013/0063789).
Claim 9:
Yoshida and Wang et al teaches the following subject matter, specifically Wang et al:
The non-transitory computer-executable medium according to claim 8, wherein the plurality of instructions, when executed by the processor, causes the processor to further perform identifying the outer edge of the document, the identifying the outer edge includes:
identifying positions of end points constituting the document; and determining the outer edge of the document by connecting a plurality of end points identified in identifying the end points, the identifying the positions of the end points including identifying an approximation line from a plurality of end points (0021 detail using of global feature for page corners and edges for alignments, where 0042 detail the locations in X,Y points to be accurate calculated).
Yoshida and Wang et al do not teach the following subject matter, but is taught by Iwayama et al (US 2013/0063789):
the determining the outer edge includes taking a line connecting the end points as the outer edge in a region where the end points deviate from the approximation line by an amount equal to or lager than a threshold value (figure 1a-b and 0006-0008 detail edge points and boundary line 108; figure 1b and 0008-0010 detail boundary line 205 with consideration of threshold by means of brightness difference around the boundary points).
Yoshida and Wang et al and Iwayama et al are all in the field of image analysis, especially on scanned document with missing/torn/folded edges processing that the combine outcome is predictable.
Therefore it would have been obvious to one having ordinary skill before the effective filing date to modify Yoshida and Wang et al by Iwayama et al the use of boundary line generated such the boundary line of the side of the document region includes in the image data as disclosed by Iwayama et al in 0010.
Claim 10:
Wang et al teach:
The non-transitory computer-executable medium according to The non-transitory computer-executable medium according to wherein the processing includes combining an image of the document cut out along the outer edge from the scan image with a black image to generate the output image (figure 6 and 0043 detail black along the gap; figure 1 and 7 and 0044-0045 detail image filled with black gap).
Claim 11:
Iwayama et al teach:
The non-transitory computer-executable medium according to claim 10, wherein the identifying the outer edge further includes correcting, based on other end points in a vicinity of an end point identified in identifying the end points, a position of the end point, and the determining the outer edge includes determining the outer edge based on the position of the end point corrected in the correcting (0003 detail calculates a straight line corresponding to an edge based on the calculated tilting of the document region and the extracted coordinate values of edge end candidate pixels, and corrects the tilting of the document region on the basis of the calculated straight line corresponding to the edge, and crops the document region from the image based on the relevant straight line; 0157-0158).
Claim 12 is rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Yoshida (US 2018/0084152) and Wang et al (US 2014/0029073) and Iwayama et al (US 2013/0063789) as applied to claim 11 above, and further in view of by SONG et al (US 2014/0177004).
Claim 12:
Yoshida, Wang et al and Iwayama et al teaches all the subject matter above, but not the following which is taught by SONG et al:
The non-transitory computer-executable medium according to The non-transitory computer-executable medium according to wherein the correcting includes determining whether to delete the end point based on other end points in the vicinity of the end point identified in the identifying the positions of the end points (0132 detail delete error points in the plurality of boundary candidate points; figure 7 and 0097-0098 detail candidate points 321, 322 that are errors, where 0132 detail error points).
Yoshida and Wang et al and Iwayama et al and SONG et al are all in the field of image analysis, especially on scanned document with missing/torn/folded edges processing that the combine outcome is predictable.
Therefore it would have been obvious to one having ordinary skill before the effective filing date to modify Yoshida and Wang et al and Iwayama et al by SONG et al regarding deleting the error points regarding boundary would compensating of a distortion based on a direction of a text or a perceived text as disclosed by SONG et al in 0010.
Conclusion
The prior art made of record and not relied upon is considered pertinent to applicant's disclosure.
Tayal et al (US 2011/0081051) teaches AUTOMATED QUALITY AND USABILITY ASSESSMENT OF SCANNED DOCUMENTS – 0062 detail identify errors arising due to the physical state of the paper document being scanned such as punch holes in the document, torn or folded edges of the document or font size of the document. These errors are illustrated below: [0063] Folded or Torn Document Edges: This defect occurs due to the edge of the source document being either missing and/or folded during the document image acquisition. (Example of the same has been illustrated in FIG. 17a) [0064] Punch Holes/Stapler Marks: Some documents either have punch holes or stapler marks present on them and are thus scanned with them. Our system successfully removes these and restores the original document.
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.
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/TSUNG YIN TSAI/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2656
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