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 .
Information Disclosure Statement
The IDS submitted on 12/18/23 has a single NPL entry that is missing the publication date and hasn’t been considered; the retrieved date doesn’t count as the publication date.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 101
35 U.S.C. 101 reads as follows:
Whoever invents or discovers any new and useful process, machine, manufacture, or composition of matter, or any new and useful improvement thereof, may obtain a patent therefor, subject to the conditions and requirements of this title.
Claims 16-20 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 101 because the claimed invention is directed to non-statutory subject matter.
The claim(s) does/do not fall within at least one of the four categories of patent eligible subject matter because claim 16 is directed to a method comprising the steps of identifying, defining and determining which are nothing more than software instructions. Software instructions are non-statutory under 35 U.S.C. 101.
Claims 17-20 depend from claim 16 and comprise additional steps, for example claim 17 comprises the step of determining therefore claims 17-20 have the same problem as claim 16 and are rejected under the same rationale.
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 factual inquiries for establishing a background for determining obviousness under 35 U.S.C. 103 are summarized as follows:
1. Determining the scope and contents of the prior art.
2. Ascertaining the differences between the prior art and the claims at issue.
3. Resolving the level of ordinary skill in the pertinent art.
4. Considering objective evidence present in the application indicating obviousness or nonobviousness.
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) 1-4, 10-11 and 16 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over WEI (CN104376573B) in view of ZHANG (US2016/0284315A1) in view of GHOSH (US2005/0203708A1).
Regarding claim 1, WEI teaches:
1. An apparatus comprising (WEI: see Abstract lines 1-2; POSITA would recognize that an image stain detection system comprises an apparatus):
interface circuitry (WEI: see Abstract lines 1-2; POSITA would recognize that an image stain detection system comprises an interface circuitry);
machine readable instructions (WEI: see Abstract lines 1-2; POSITA would recognize that an image stain detection system comprises machine readable instructions); and
programmable circuitry to at least one of instantiate or execute the machine readable instructions to (WEI: see Abstract lines 1-2; POSITA would recognize that an image stain detection system comprises programmable circuitry):
identify a region in an image that satisfies a brightness threshold (WEI: abstract see lines 1-4).
WEI doesn’t teach however the analogous prior art ZHANG teaches:
determine the region corresponds to a gradient based on an analysis of pixels along different ones of the plurality of lines (ZHANG: pars. 28-30 and 34).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to combine determine the region corresponds to a gradient based on an analysis of pixels along different ones of the plurality of lines as shown in ZHANG with WEI for the benefit of providing additional information for better power and image fidelity decisions [par. 34 lines 3-5].
The previous combination of WEI and ZHANG doesn’t teach however the analogous prior art GHOSH teaches:
define a plurality of lines in the image that extend away from the region (GHOSH: fig. 12 see par. 40 lines 1-10).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to combine define a plurality of lines in the image that extend away from the region as shown in GHOSH with the previous combination for the benefit of providing improved and computationally efficient methods for detecting defects and damage reflected in background intensity gradients in images of microarrays [par. 11 lines 23-27].
Regarding claim 2, WEI in view of ZHANG as modified by GHOSH (with the same motivation from claim 1) further teaches:
2. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the region is circular or oval, and the plurality of lines extend away from a center of the region and extend to sides of the image (GHOSH: fig. 12 see par. 40 lines 1-10).
Regarding claim 3, WEI in view of ZHANG as modified by GHOSH (with the same motivation from claim 1) further teaches:
3. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the plurality of lines includes (a) a plurality of radial lines extending away from a center of the region and (b) multiple sets of parallel lines, lines in different ones of the sets of parallel lines to be parallel to different ones of the radial lines (GHOSH: fig. 12 see par. 40 lines 1-10).
Regarding claim 4, WEI in view of ZHANG in view of GHOSH as modified by ZHANG (with the same motivation from claim 1) further teaches:
4. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the analysis of pixels along the plurality of lines corresponds to an analysis of a smoothness of change in intensity of the pixels along the different ones of the plurality of lines (ZHANG: pars. 28-29).
Claim 10 is analogous to claim 1 and is therefore rejected using the same rationale.
Claim 10 further requires a different preamble also taught by WEI:
10. A non-transitory machine readable storage medium comprising instructions to cause programmable circuitry to at least (WEI: see Abstract lines 1-2; POSITA would recognize that an image stain detection system comprises a non-transitory machine readable storage medium comprising instructions to cause programmable circuitry to at least).
Claim 11 is analogous to claim 4 and is therefore rejected using the same rationale.
Claim 16 is analogous to claim 1 and is therefore rejected using the same rationale.
Claim 16 further requires a different preamble also taught by WEI.
16. A method comprising (WEI: see Abstract lines 1-2).
Allowable Subject Matter
Claims 5-9 and 12-15 are objected to (claims 17-20 would be objected to except for the 101 rejection) 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 claims 5-9, 12-15 and 17-20 the prior art doesn’t teach:
5. The apparatus of claim 4, wherein the analysis of the smoothness of change in the intensity of the pixels along a first line of the plurality of lines includes: determining different intensity deltas between pixels in different pairs of pixels along the first line;
determining differences between the different intensity deltas associated with adjacent ones of the pairs of pixels; and
comparing the differences to a threshold difference.
6. The apparatus of claim 5, wherein the programmable circuitry is to determine the first line is smooth when a threshold number of the differences are less than or equal to the threshold difference.
7. The apparatus of claim 6, wherein the programmable circuitry is to determine the region corresponds to the gradient when a threshold number of the plurality of lines are determined to be smooth.
8. The apparatus of claim 4, wherein the programmable circuitry is to: determine an intensity variability for a first line of the plurality of lines, the intensity variability corresponding to a difference between a maximum pixel intensity and a minimum pixel intensity along the first line;
and exclude the first line from the analysis of the smoothness of change in the intensity of the pixels along the different ones of the plurality of lines when the intensity variability is less than an intensity variability threshold.
9. The apparatus of claim 1, where the programmable circuitry is to:
adjust a contrast of successive ones of a series of frames to be presented on a display to reduce power consumption of the display; and
stop the adjustment to the contrast of the series of frames for ones of the frames that include the image.
12. The non-transitory machine readable storage medium of claim 11, wherein the analysis of the smoothness of change in the intensity of the pixels along a first line of the plurality of lines includes: determining different intensity deltas between pixels in different pairs of pixels along the first line;
determining differences between the different intensity deltas associated with adjacent ones of the pairs of pixels; and
comparing the differences to a threshold difference.
13. The non-transitory machine readable storage medium of claim 12, wherein the instructions is to cause the programmable circuitry to determine the first line is smooth when a threshold number of the differences are less than or equal to the threshold difference.
14. The non-transitory machine readable storage medium of claim 13, wherein the instructions is to cause the programmable circuitry to determine the region corresponds to the gradient when a threshold number of the plurality of lines are determined to be smooth.
15. The non-transitory machine readable storage medium of claim 10, wherein the instructions is to cause the programmable circuitry to: adjust a contrast of successive ones of a series of frames to be presented on a display to reduce power consumption of the display; and
stop the adjustment to the contrast of the series of frames for ones of the frames that include the image.
17. The method of claim 16, further including determining a first line is smooth when a threshold number of intensity deltas associated with adjacent pairs of pixels are less than or equal to a threshold difference.
18. The method of claim 17, wherein further including determining the region corresponds to the gradient when a threshold number of the plurality of lines are determined to be smooth.
19. The method of claim 16, further including: determining an intensity variability for a first line of the plurality of lines, the intensity variability corresponding to a difference between a maximum pixel intensity and a minimum pixel intensity along the first line;
and excluding the first line from the analysis of a smoothness of change in the intensity of the pixels along the different ones of the plurality of lines when the intensity variability is less than an intensity variability threshold.
20. The method of claim 16, further including: adjusting a contrast of successive ones of a series of frames to be presented on a display to reduce power consumption of the display; and
stopping the adjustment to the contrast of the series of frames for ones of the frames that include the image.
Conclusion
The prior art made of record and not relied upon is considered pertinent to applicant's disclosure.
NOMURA (CN101661622A) discloses:
Abstract
The invention claims an image processing device, image processing method and program. the image processing device comprises a first distribution calculating unit for calculating comprises a brightness gradient vector image is a characteristic point of the first partial region in the distribution, the second distribution calculating unit. the distribution of the brightness gradient vector in the second local area near the feature point calculation on the image of a selection unit, the first local area distribution of the brightness gradient vector in the second local area distribution of the brightness gradient vector, so as to from the second brightness gradient vector of the local region selecting distribution of the most different brightness gradient vector; and a characteristic description information calculating unit, based on the first local area distribution of the brightness gradient vector and second local area selected by the selection unit of the distribution of the brightness gradient vector, to calculate the feature description information at the characteristic point.
QIU (US2020/0126471A1) discloses:
Abstract
The present disclosure is directed to systems and methods of reducing display image power consumption while maintaining image quality on display devices having a plurality of display power modes. Each display power mode has associated therewith a defined baseline value (K.sub.1,BASELINE) first relationship. A display image includes a baseline percentage under-boosted pixels (X.sub.i,BASELINE). Using the first relationship value (K.sub.1,BASELINE) and the pixel percentage (X.sub.i,BASELINE), a baseline second relationship value is determined (K.sub.0,BASELINE). The value associated with the second relationship is adjusted to a first plurality of values. At each value, the value associated with the pixel percentage is adjusted to each of a second plurality of values. At each combination of second relationship value and pixel percentage, a respective first relationship value is determined. A first relationship value, second relationship value are selected to provide a reduced power consumption while maintaining image quality.
SABER (US2016/0335744A1) discloses:
Abstract
An example involves identifying a first artifact in an image on a display, the first artifact caused by a first subpixel of a first pixel, determining a type of the first artifact based on a location of the first artifact relative to content of the image, and correcting the first artifact to remove the appearance of the first artifact from the display based on the type of the first artifact.
HUANG (US2018/0033397A1) discloses:
Abstract
Techniques are described in which pixel intensity values of a display of a computing device may be nonlinearly scaled down to reduce the power consumption of the display. The computing device may determine a compressed pixel brightness range for the display. The computing device may determine a set of initial scaled pixel intensity levels based at least in part on the compressed pixel intensity range. The computing device may determine a set of scaled pixel intensity values based at least in part on an estimated power consumption value associated with the set of initial scaled pixel intensity levels. The computing device may scale the pixel brightness of pixels of the display from one of a plurality of pixel intensity levels to a corresponding scaled pixel intensity level of the set of scaled pixel intensity levels.
AN B (CN 100401352 C) discloses:
Abstract
The invention claims a contrast compensating apparatus for a PDP module and method thereof, which can be adjusted according to APL because sustain pulse number to compensate for reduced contrast caused by deterioration. the device comprises the APL calculating unit, a brightness maximum value M sustain pulse generating unit, for the maximum value M of brightness repeating number calculating video signal, comprising repetition times of brightness repetition distribution area of the minimum brightness value W1 and the maximum brightness value W2 of the histogram analyzing unit. comparing unit, the maximum value of the brightness repeating times for comparison output of the comparison unit and the first set value, comparing the histogram analyzing unit and a second setting value, and calculating a contrast compensation value using the minimum brightness value W1 and the maximum brightness value W2 according to the result of the comparison of the contrast compensating unit. and means for feeding back the output of the contrast compensating unit frequency input end of the video signal.
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to MAURICE L MCDOWELL, JR whose telephone number is (571)270-3707. The examiner can normally be reached Mon-Fri: 2pm-10pm.
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If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner’s supervisor, Said A. 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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/MAURICE L. MCDOWELL, JR/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2612
