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 .
Response to Arguments
Applicant’s arguments with respect to claim(s) 1 have been considered but are moot because the new ground of rejection does not rely on any reference applied in the prior rejection of record for any teaching or matter specifically challenged in the argument.
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 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.
1: Claim(s) 1 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over USPN 6,965,410 B1 Yamagishi in view of US 2009/0262224 A1 Sambongi.
2: As for Claim 1, Yamagishi teaches and depicts an imaging apparatus capable of performing a normal imaging operation (image sensing step S183 depicted in Figure 5) of capturing a subject image to generate image data (Three images are captured corresponding to exposure settings S182-S184 as depicted in Figure 5 and discussed on Column 13, Lines 32-40) and a dark subtraction operation of performing a dark subtraction on the image data to generate repaired image data (Column 14, Lines 30-35 teaches the system control circuit 50 also executes a dark correction computation process for canceling dark current noise and the like of the image sensing element 14 by executing a subtraction process using the dark image data captured in the dark capture process.), the imaging apparatus comprising: an image sensor (image sensing element 14 depicted in Figure 1) configured to generate image data during the normal imaging operation when a shutter (element 12 depicted in Figure 1) is opened under a predetermined photographing condition (Three images are captured corresponding to exposure settings S182-S184 as depicted in Figure 5 and discussed on Column 13, Lines 32-40); a recorder configured to record the image data and photographing condition data indicating the photographing condition in a recording medium (The image data and exposure setting information are stored in memory see Columns 10, Lines 22-24 and 51-59 and Column 13, Lines 5-11); and a controller (viewed as the system control unit 50) configured to control the image sensor (14), wherein the controller (system controller 50) performs the normal imaging operation a plurality of times (Three images are captured corresponding to exposure settings S182-S184 as depicted in Figure 5 and discussed on Column 13, Lines 32-40), and then performs the dark subtraction operation on each piece of image data using a dark image corresponding to each photographing condition (Column 14, Lines 30-35 teaches the system control circuit 50 also executes a dark correction computation process for canceling dark current noise and the like of the image sensing element 14 by executing a subtraction process using the dark image data captured in the dark capture process at S167). However, the prior art does not teach the dark image corresponding to each photographing condition being acquired subsequent to a completion of the normal imaging operation of the plurality of times.
Sambongi teaches in Paragraph [0012] an imaging system that captures both normal images and dark images and teaches it was common practice to capture the dark images subsequent to the normal images.
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to capture the dark images subsequent to the normal images as taught by Sambongi in the imaging system of Yamagishi since it was common practice to do so in order to subtract the dark image from the normal image and therefore, improve image quality.
3: Claim(s) 14 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over USPN 6,965,410 B1 Yamagishi in view of US 2009/0262224 A1 Sambongi in view of JP 2007300189 A Negishi.
4: As for Claim 14, Yamagishi in view of Sambongi teaches an imaging system that corrects for noise by subtracting a dark image from a normal image and recording the image along with photographing conditions. However, does not teach wherein the photographing condition includes a temperature measured by a temperature sensor.
Negishi teaches in the abstract a camera system that corrects for noise and teaches including a temperature sensor to record the temperature to better enable the camera system to correct for noise since noise is dependent on temperature.
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to include a temperature sensor to record the temperature as taught by Negishi in the camera system of Yamagishi in view of Sambongi in order to better enable the camera system to correct for noise since noise is dependent on temperature.
Allowable Subject Matter
Claims 12 and 13 are allowed.
Claims 2-11 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: The prior art does not teach a user interface configured to receive, from a user, a designation to perform dark subtraction operation in cooperation with the server device; and a first communication circuit configured to transmit the photographing condition and the designation, and the server device including: a second communication circuit configured to receive the photographing condition and the designation; and a server controller configured to determine a dark image to be used for the image data based on the photographing condition, wherein the server controller determines the dark image based on the photographing condition from the imaging apparatus, and wherein one of the imaging apparatus and the server device performs a dark subtraction operation of performing a dark subtraction on the image data to generate repaired image data when taken in combination with all the limitations of the independent claim.
Conclusion
THIS ACTION IS MADE FINAL. 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.
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to JAMES M HANNETT whose telephone number is (571)272-7309. The examiner can normally be reached 8:00 AM-5:00 PM Monday thru Thursday.
If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner’s supervisor, Twyler Haskins can be reached at 571-272-7406 The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300.
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/JAMES M HANNETT/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2639
JMH
March 9, 2026