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 § 102
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 the appropriate paragraphs of 35 U.S.C. 102 that form the basis for the rejections under this section made in this Office action:
A person shall be entitled to a patent unless –
(a)(1) the claimed invention was patented, described in a printed publication, or in public use, on sale, or otherwise available to the public before the effective filing date of the claimed invention.
Claim(s) 1, 4-8, 17 and 19-20 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(1) as being anticipated by US 2020/0068112 to Zhang (hereinafter Zhang).
Regarding independent claim 1, xxx teaches a camera control device (electronic device 200, see Fig. 5) comprising:
at least one processor (processor 60, see Fig. 5); and
a memory coupled to the at least one processor, the memory storing instructions that, when executed by the at least one processor, cause the at least one processor to (memory 50, see Fig. 5):
estimate a deterioration degree indicating a degree of deterioration in an image capturing element converting an image of a subject into an electrical signal (the photo-sensibility of the imaging device determines the deterioration degree when images are captured, see pars. [0031-0035]), and
control parameters related to an amount of exposure to the image capturing element such that the amount of exposure to the image capturing element becomes equal to or smaller than a predetermined amount of exposure when the deterioration degree satisfies a predetermined condition (in order to reduce the exposure time, a relatively high photo-sensibility may cause much noises, thereby decreasing the image quality, therefore the photo-sensibility is set at a high level that does not cause much noise as the predetermined condition, see pars. [0031-0035]).
Regarding claim 4, Zhang teaches the camera control device according to claim 1,
wherein in the deterioration degree estimation, luminance measuring processing of measuring luminance of an image converted into an electrical signal by the image capturing element or luminance integrating processing of integrating luminance of an image converted into an electrical signal by the image capturing element over a predetermined period of time is executed (in block 101 of Fig. 2 light luminance is determined, see par. [0029]), and
the deterioration degree is estimated on the basis of the luminance measured through the luminance measuring processing or the luminance integrated through the luminance integrating processing (in order to reduce the exposure time, a relatively high photo-sensibility may cause much noises, thereby decreasing the image quality, therefore the photo-sensibility is set at a high level that does not cause much noise as the predetermined condition, see pars. [0031-0035]).
Regarding claim 5, Zhang teaches the camera control device according to claim 4,
wherein in the deterioration degree estimation, the luminance measuring processing or the luminance integrating processing is executed for each of regions set on a light reception surface of the image capturing element, and the deterioration degree is estimated for each of the regions (bright and dark regions are considered for proper integration, see par. [0058]).
Regarding claim 6, Zhang teaches the camera control device according to claim 1,
wherein in the deterioration degree estimation, evaluation value calculating processing of calculating an evaluation value related to brightness of an image converted into an electrical signal by the image capturing element or evaluation value integrating processing of integrating the evaluation value over a predetermined period of time is executed (appropriate EV are set and calculated, see par. [0036-0038]), and
the deterioration degree is estimated on the basis of the evaluation value calculated through the evaluation value calculating processing or the evaluation value integrated through the evaluation value integrating processing (photo-sensibility is determined with the EV calculations, see par. [0035-0036]).
Regarding claim 7, Zhang teaches the camera control device according to claim 6,
wherein in the deterioration degree estimation, the evaluation value calculating processing or the evaluation value integrating processing is executed for each of regions set on a light reception surface of the image capturing element, and the deterioration degree is estimated for each of the regions (bright and dark regions are considered for proper integration, see par. [0058]).
Regarding claim 8, Zhang teaches the camera control device according to claim 7,
wherein in the exposure control, the parameters related to the amount of exposure to the image capturing element are controlled on the basis of the brightness of the regions in which the deterioration degree is equal to or higher than a predetermined deterioration degree (At block 104, exposure control is performed based on the exposure time for each image to be captured and the photo-sensibility for each image to be captured, see Fig. 2 and par. [0059]).
Regarding claim 17, Zhang teaches the camera control device according to claim 1,
wherein the memory storing further instructions that, when executed by the at least one processor, cause the at least one processor to:
perform brightness adjustment of increasing a brightness of an image generated after parameters related to the amount of exposure to the image capturing element are controlled through the exposure control (by updating the exposure time of the image to be captured, the image brightness may be increased while ensuring required exposure, thereby avoiding an image distortion caused by overexposure when the exposure time is long, see par. [0056]).
Regarding independent claim(s) 19, claim(s) is/are drawn to the non-transitory computer-readable storage medium used by the corresponding apparatus in claim(s) 1 and is/are rejected for the same reasons used above.
Regarding independent claim(s) 20, claim(s) is/are drawn to the method used by the corresponding apparatus in claim(s) 1 and is/are rejected for the same reasons used above.
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) 18 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Zhang in view of US 2014/0267828 to Kasai et al. (hereinafter Kasai).
Regarding claim 18, Zhang teaches the camera control device according to claim 1,
wherein the memory storing further instructions that, when executed by the at least one processor, cause the at least one processor to (memory 50, see Fig. 5).
But Zhang fails to clearly specify
However, Kasai teaches an apparatus and a method that can efficiently generate a wide dynamic range image to which each piece of pixel information of a high sensitivity pixel and a low sensitivity pixel is applied are realized (see abstract), and “perform gradation adjustment of adjusting a gradation of an image generated after parameters related to the amount of exposure to the image capturing element are controlled through the exposure control ( an exact gradation expression can be obtained by a gradation level of a pixel determined by using an electric signal obtained on the basis of a charge accumulation amount, see par. [0008] )”.
References are analogous art because they are from the same field of endeavor and/or are reasonably pertinent to the particular problem with which the applicant was concerned because they relate to digital camera control.
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify the above electronic device as taught by Zhang, by incorporating the teachings as taught by Kasai.
One of ordinary skill in the art would have been motivated to do this modification in order to efficiently generate a wide dynamic range image as suggested by Kasai (see abstract).
Allowable Subject Matter
Claim(s) 2-3 and 9-16 are 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.
The following is a statement of reasons for the indication of allowable subject matter:
Regarding claim 2, none of the prior art cited alone or in combination provides the motivation to teach the following claimed limitations, with emphasize that it is each claim, taken as a whole, including the interrelationships and interconnections between various claimed elements make them allowable over the prior art of record, the camera control device according to claim 1, wherein the memory storing further instructions that, when executed by the at least one processor, cause the at least one processor to:
execute photon number counting processing of counting the number of photons incident on the image capturing element or photon number integrating processing of integrating the number of photons incident on the image capturing element over a predetermined period of time, and
in the deterioration degree estimation, the deterioration degree is estimated on the basis of the number of photons counted through the photon number counting processing or the number of photons integrated through the photon number integrating processing.
Regarding claim(s) 3, claim(s) depend from claim 2 and is/are allowable for the same reasons stated above.
Regarding claim 9, none of the prior art cited alone or in combination provides the motivation to teach the following claimed limitations, with emphasize that it is each claim, taken as a whole, including the interrelationships and interconnections between various claimed elements make them allowable over the prior art of record, the camera control device according to claim 1,
wherein in the exposure control, the parameters related to the amount of exposure to the image capturing element are controlled on the basis of a program diagram related to the amount of exposure to the image capturing element, the program diagram being selected on the basis of the deterioration degree.
Regarding claim(s) 10-16, claim(s) depend from claim 9 and is/are allowable for the same reasons stated above.
Conclusion
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to ANGEL L GARCES-RIVERA whose telephone number is (571)270-7268. The examiner can normally be reached Mon-Fri 9AM-5PM ET.
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/ANGEL L GARCES-RIVERA/ Examiner, Art Unit 2637
/SINH TRAN/ Supervisory Patent Examiner, Art Unit 2637