DETAILED ACTION
Claim Interpretations - 35 USC § 112(f)
The following is a quotation of 35 U.S.C. 112(f):
(f) Element in Claim for a Combination. – An element in a claim for a combination may be expressed as a means or step for performing a specified function without the recital of structure, material, or acts in support thereof, and such claim shall be construed to cover the corresponding structure, material, or acts described in the specification and equivalents thereof.
The following is a quotation of pre-AIA 35 U.S.C. 112, sixth paragraph:
An element in a claim for a combination may be expressed as a means or step for performing a specified function without the recital of structure, material, or acts in support thereof, and such claim shall be construed to cover the corresponding structure, material, or acts described in the specification and equivalents thereof.
The claims in this application are given their broadest reasonable interpretation using the plain meaning of the claim language in light of the specification as it would be understood by one of ordinary skill in the art. The broadest reasonable interpretation of a claim element (also commonly referred to as a claim limitation) is limited by the description in the specification when 35 U.S.C. 112(f) or pre-AIA 35 U.S.C. 112, sixth paragraph, is invoked.
As explained in MPEP § 2181, subsection I, claim limitations that meet the following three-prong test will be interpreted under 35 U.S.C. 112(f) or pre-AIA 35 U.S.C. 112, sixth paragraph:
(A) the claim limitation uses the term “means” or “step” or a term used as a substitute for “means” that is a generic placeholder (also called a nonce term or a non-structural term having no specific structural meaning) for performing the claimed function;
(B) the term “means” or “step” or the generic placeholder is modified by functional language, typically, but not always linked by the transition word “for” (e.g., “means for”) or another linking word or phrase, such as "configured to" or "so that"; and
(C) the term “means” or “step” or the generic placeholder is not modified by sufficient structure, material, or acts for performing the claimed function.
Use of the word “means” (or “step”) in a claim with functional language creates a rebuttable presumption that the claim limitation is to be treated in accordance with 35 U.S.C. 112(f) or pre-AIA 35 U.S.C. 112, sixth paragraph. The presumption that the claim limitation is interpreted under 35 U.S.C. 112(f) or pre-AIA 35 U.S.C. 112, sixth paragraph, is rebutted when the claim limitation recites sufficient structure, material, or acts to entirely perform the recited function.
Absence of the word “means” (or “step”) in a claim creates a rebuttable presumption that the claim limitation is not to be treated in accordance with 35 U.S.C. 112(f) or pre-AIA 35 U.S.C. 112, sixth paragraph. The presumption that the claim limitation is not interpreted under 35 U.S.C. 112(f) or pre-AIA 35 U.S.C. 112, sixth paragraph, is rebutted when the claim limitation recites function without reciting sufficient structure, material or acts to entirely perform the recited function.
This application includes one or more claim limitations that do not use the word “means,” but are nonetheless being interpreted under 35 U.S.C. 112(f) or pre-AIA 35 U.S.C. 112, sixth paragraph, because the claim limitation(s) uses a generic placeholder that is coupled with functional language without reciting sufficient structure to perform the recited function and the generic placeholder is not preceded by a structural modifier. Such claim limitation(s) is/are:
a communication unit, a control unit, a pre-processing unit in claims 1-9.
Because this/these claim limitation(s) is/are being interpreted under 35 U.S.C. 112(f) or pre-AIA 35 U.S.C. 112, sixth paragraph, it/they is/are being interpreted to cover the corresponding structure described in the specification as performing the claimed function, and equivalents thereof.
If applicant does not intend to have this/these limitation(s) interpreted under 35 U.S.C. 112(f) or pre-AIA 35 U.S.C. 112, sixth paragraph, applicant may: (1) amend the claim limitation(s) to avoid it/them being interpreted under 35 U.S.C. 112(f) or pre-AIA 35 U.S.C. 112, sixth paragraph (e.g., by reciting sufficient structure to perform the claimed function); or (2) present a sufficient showing that the claim limitation(s) recite(s) sufficient structure to perform the claimed function so as to avoid it/them being interpreted under 35 U.S.C. 112(f) or pre-AIA 35 U.S.C. 112, sixth para.
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 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Beckman (US 20180017791) in view of LIU(CN-114120212).
Regarding claim 1, Beckman teaches an electronic device for image processing using an image conversion network, the device comprising:
a communication unit communicating with a user terminal ( 513 in Fig. 5) to receive a nighttime image having an illuminance lower than a threshold level([0049], system determines that average overall brightness levels, or differences based on regional comparisons, do not exceed a threshold amount for entering the daytime mode, the system instead may enter a dusk mode or nighttime mode), from the user terminal and a daytime image captured by a camera of the user terminal.
BECKMAN does not expressly teach
a control unit for inputting the nighttime image into an image conversion network to generate a daytime image having an illuminance equal to or higher than the threshold level, wherein the image conversion network includes:
a pre-processing unit for generating an input image by reducing a size of the nighttime image at a predetermined ratio;
a day/night conversion network for generating a first daytime image by converting an illuminance on the basis of the input image; and
a resolution conversion network for generating a final image by converting a resolution on the basis of the first daytime image.
However, LIU teaches an image conversion network to generate a daytime image( Abstract, conversion of the night image to the day image), wherein the image conversion network includes:
a pre-processing unit for generating an input image by reducing a size of the nighttime image at a predetermined ratio( page 3, in the step 14), the image data set is cut into 512 * 512 image, and then the resolution is adjusted to 256 * 256; page 6, paragraph 4, the input resolution is 256 * 256 of the image sampling for 4 times, obtaining 16 * 16 * 1024 of the feature map, then correspondingly sampling for 4 times to the feature map, obtaining the converted 256 * 256 image);
a day/night conversion network for generating a first daytime image by converting an illuminance on the basis of the input image(page 6, lossCGAN (G, D) = ENight-data, Day-data [logD (Night-data, Day-data)] + ENight-data [log (1-D (Night-data, G (Night-data))] or
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media_image1.png
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); and
a resolution conversion network for generating a final image by converting a resolution on the basis of the first daytime image(page 6, the optimization target of the discriminator D is that the value of the loss is as large as possible, the optimization target of the generator G is that the loss is as small as possible) .
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to combine the teaching of BECKMAN and LIU, by processing the nighttime images of different brightness levels in BECKMAN with the GAN network taught by LIU, with motivation “to provide a night structure surface crack detection method based on image translation technology”( LIU, page 2, paragraph 4).
Allowable Subject Matter
Claims 2, 7-9 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.
Claims 3-6 are also objected to since they recite the limitations in claim 2.
Claim 10 is allowed because it recites similar subject matter of claim 1 combined with that in the objected claim 7.
Claims 11-13 are also allowed since they recite the subject matter in allowed claim 10.
Conclusion
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to JIANGENG SUN whose telephone number is (571)272-3712. The examiner can normally be reached 8am to 5pm, EST, M-F.
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JIANGENG SUN
Examiner
Art Unit 2661
/Jiangeng Sun/Examiner, Art Unit 2671