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 § 112
The following is a quotation of 35 U.S.C. 112(b):
(b) CONCLUSION.—The specification shall conclude with one or more claims particularly pointing out and distinctly claiming the subject matter which the inventor or a joint inventor regards as the invention.
The following is a quotation of 35 U.S.C. 112 (pre-AIA ), second paragraph:
The specification shall conclude with one or more claims particularly pointing out and distinctly claiming the subject matter which the applicant regards as his invention.
Claims 5-7 and 15-17 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 112(b) or 35 U.S.C. 112 (pre-AIA ), second paragraph, as being indefinite for failing to particularly point out and distinctly claim the subject matter which the inventor or a joint inventor (or for applications subject to pre-AIA 35 U.S.C. 112, the applicant), regards as the invention. Claims 5-7 and 15-17 recites “or any mathematical equivalent thereof” in lines 3 and 4 respectively. The recital of “or any mathematical equivalent thereof” in the claims renders the claims indefinite. It is unclear as to what is the scope of “any mathematical equivalent thereof” is?.
Specification as filed page 19 para 0078 recites “Regarding the equations included in this patent application, they serve to demonstrate the mathematical principles related to the disclosed subject matter, and are offered as examples, without limiting the scope to the specific forms described. Recognizing that identical mathematical principles can be represented by different equations, which may vary in form, but share the same meaning, the inclusion of particular equations is solely for illustrative purposes. Consequently, this application contemplates all equivalent formulations of these principles, ensuring that patent protection is not restricted to the examples provided, but extends to any mathematical expressions that embody the underlying concepts. The term "equivalent thereof" or "any mathematical equivalent thereof" is used in the specification and claims to express the above principle.”. The specification recites the equations as mere exemplary, non-limiting and extending to any mathematical expressions (i.e indefiniteness) therefore does not define the scope of “any mathematical equivalent thereof” as recited in the claims rendering the claims indefinite. Applicant is advised to delete the phrase in order to make the claim definite and overcome the 35 U.S.C 112(b) rejections. Claims 9-10 and 19 depends directly or indirectly on claims 5-7 and 15, therefore they are rejected.
Regarding claim 5, the phrase "(e.g., multiplying)" in line 9 renders the claim indefinite because it is unclear whether the limitation(s) following the phrase are part of the claimed invention. See MPEP § 2173.05(d).
Allowable Subject Matter
Independent Claims 1, 11 and 20 are allowed.
Regarding independent claims 1, 11 and 20, Lin et al., (US20170287137) hereafter Lin discloses “applying a shape-based analysis to a region of interest (ROI) in a grey level image, to thereby obtain a transformed ROI comprising pixels transformed by the shape-based analysis; wherein the ROI comprises the entire image or part thereof;” in fig 1 paras 0036-0048.
Regarding independent claims 1, 11 and 20, Sutton et al. (US5978505) hereafter Sutton discloses forming a regularized image (fig 4 element 118) of the input image (fig 4 element 102).
Regarding independent claims 1, 11 and 20, Lin and Sutton alone or in combination and other cited arts in PTO 892, however do not disclose “calculating for each transformed pixel i,j in the transformed ROI a respective regularized pixel value
A
r
i
,
j
, based on a ratio between a respective transformed pixel value Ai,j or a functional variation thereof and a difference between the original grey level pixel value Pi,j before transformation and a target grey level pixel value Pt or a functional variation of the difference; wherein the target grey level pixel value Pt represents a grey level value of at least one sought-after edge in the grey level image; and generating an output image, composed of the regularized pixel values, in which visibility of the at least one sought-after edge in the grey level image is emphasized, while visibility of other edges in the grey level image is diminished.”. The combination of these features as recited in the claims in combination with other limitations in the claims are neither disclosed nor suggested by the prior arts of record therefore claims 1, 11 and 20 are allowed. Dependent claims 2-4, 8, 12-14 and 18 depends directly or indirectly on claims 1, 11 and 20, therefore they are allowed.
Claims 5-7, 9-10, 15-17 and 19 would be allowable if rewritten to overcome the rejection(s) under 35 U.S.C. 112(b) or 35 U.S.C. 112 (pre-AIA ), 2nd paragraph, set forth in this Office action and to include all of the limitations of the base claim and any intervening claims.
Conclusion
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JAYESH PATEL
Primary Examiner
Art Unit 2677
/JAYESH A PATEL/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2677