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 .
DETAILED ACTION
INFORMATION DISCLOSURE STATEMENT
The information disclosure statement (IDS) submitted on 5/14/2024 is in compliance with the provisions of 37 CFR 1.97. Accordingly, the information disclosure statement is being considered by the examiner.
FOREIGN PRIORITY
A claim for foreign priority under 35 U.S.C § 119 (a) - (d), which was contained in the Declaration and Power of Attorney filed on 5/14/2024 has been acknowledged. Acknowledgement of claimed foreign priority and receipt of priority documents is reflected in form PTO-326 Office Action Summary.
ALLOWABLE SUBJECT MATTER
Claims 4-8 & 15-19 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.
CLAIM REJECTIONS - 35 USC § 112
The following is a quotation of the second paragraph of 35 U.S.C. 112:
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 1 & 12 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 pre-AIA the applicant regards as the invention.
Claims 1 & 12 recites the limitation “a value relating to a difference”. The phrase “a value relating to a difference between pixel values” is indefinite because “relating to” is open-ended and does not objectively specify whether the “value” is the signed difference, absolute value, filtered gradient, thresholded edge strength etc…
Claims 1 & 12 recites the limitation “edge of darkening change” “edge of a brightening change”. The claim does not define what constitutes an “edge” for a “darkening change” or “brightening change” (e.g. first derivative sign change, threshold crossing, start/end of a continuous run, peak of a filter output). The subsequent “firstly detects”/ “before detecting” logic depends on that undefined classification.
Claims 1 & 12 recites the limitation “search for a pixel in the direction”. The claim recites “search in the direction” but does not define the “direction” operationally (scanline direction? Sub-scan? Main-Scan?) or how the background to document direction is established for the search.
As to claims 2-11 & 13-20, these claims are rejected for their dependencies on rejected claims 1 & 12.
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 of this title, 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.
Claims 1-3, 9-14 & 20 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Ono et al. (U.S. Publication 2020/0336615) in view of Hashimoto et al. (U.S. Publication 2020/0296255)
As to claims 1 & 12, Ono discloses a processing circuit configured to obtain, from image data of a document read by a reading device, a value relating to a difference between pixel values of adjacent pixels in a direction from a background portion to a document portion in the image data (Fig. 7 & [0081] discloses image data includes a document region and background region outside the document region. Figs. 10A/10B & [0100] discloses obtaining a per pixel change value. See [0100] wherein examining the amount of change in the pixel value of a target pixel from a pixel adjacent to the target pixel.); a detection circuit configured to search for a pixel in the direction and detect a boundary between the background portion and the document portion (Fig. 10A & [0100] discloses detects a point where the change amount becomes positive as a boundary point. Also See [0103] wherein detecting a point where the change amount becomes negative as a boundary point. Also, [0105] discloses estimating coordinate X of a point (boundary point between the background region and the document region); and a decision circuit configured to decide as a document edge of the document. ([0107] discloses estimating a boundary line as an edge of the document).
Ono is silent to when the detection circuit firstly detects a darkening edge, set it as a first edge. If a brightening edge is detected before detecting the first edge, set is as a second edge; after detecting the first edge, set the next detected edge (darkening or brightening) as the second edge; and decide the second edge specifically as the document edge.
However, Hashimoto discloses when the detection circuit firstly detects a darkening edge, set it as a first edge. If a brightening edge is detected before detecting the first edge, set is as a second edge; after detecting the first edge, set the next detected edge (darkening or brightening) as the second edge; and decide the second edge specifically as the document edge. ([0081-0082] discloses background/document areas and edge detection using pixel value change using a differential filter. [0081] discloses reading image includes a document area and background area. [0082] discloses the edge detector detects the document edge by detecting a change in pixel value using a primary differential filter. [0085] discloses samples edge detection results to extract a first boundary point group. [0086] discloses samples edge detection results to extract a secondary boundary.)
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art at the time of effective filing to modify Ono’s disclosure to include the above limitations in order to reduce erroneous document edge selection when multiple edge candidate arise from shadow/noise while still relying on adjacent pixel changed based detection.
As to claims 2 & 13, Ono in view of Hashimoto discloses everything as disclosed in claims 1 & 12 but is silent to wherein the processing circuit is configured to perform, using a differential filter, a filter process on pixel values of pixels in the direction to obtain a differential amount of each of the pixel values as the value relating to the difference.
However, Hashimoto discloses wherein the processing circuit is configured to perform, using a differential filter, a filter process on pixel values of pixels in the direction to obtain a differential amount of each of the pixel values as the value relating to the difference. ([0082] discloses detecting change using a differential filter. )
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art at the time of effective filing to modify Ono’s disclosure to include the above limitations in order to compute a stable, noise robust change metric suitable for edge detection.
As to claims 3 & 14, Ono in view of Hashimoto discloses everything as disclosed in claims 2 & 13. In addition, Ono discloses wherein the detection circuit is configured to: when the differential amount corresponding to a pixel value of a target pixel is equal to or less than a first threshold value, detect the target pixel as the edge of the darkening change; and when the differential amount corresponding to the pixel value of the target pixel is equal to or greater than a second threshold value greater than the first threshold value, detect the target pixel as the edge of the brightening change. ([0113] discloses increasing and decreasing thresholds).
As to claims 9 & 20, Ono in view of Hashimoto discloses everything as disclosed in claims 1 & 12. In addition, Ono discloses a correction circuit configured to correct a skew of the document based on the document edge decided by the decision circuit. ([0006] discloses performing tilt correction based on detected boundary. [0109] discloses calculating tilt angle from boundary line. [0110] discloses performing a rotation process to correct tilt. )
As to claim 10, Ono in view of Hashimoto discloses everything as disclosed in claim 1. In addition, Ono discloses the image processing device according to claim 1; and the reading device to read the document as the image data. ([0007] discloses a reading device includes an image pickup device and the edge detecting device.)
As to claim 11, Ono in view of Hashimoto discloses everything as disclosed in claim 10. In addition, Ono discloses a printer to print the image data subjected to image processing by the image processing device. ([0008] discloses an image processing apparatus includes the reading device and an image forming device.)
CONCLUSION
No prior art has been found for claims 4-8 & 15-19 in their current form.
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to Stephen P Coleman whose telephone number is (571)270-5931. The examiner can normally be reached Monday-Thursday 8AM-5PM.
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If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner’s supervisor, Andrew Moyer can be reached at (571) 272-9523. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300.
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Stephen P. Coleman
Primary Examiner
Art Unit 2675
/STEPHEN P COLEMAN/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2675