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 .
Preliminary Amendment
The preliminary amendment to the claims and specification filed on 03/13/2024 have been acknowledged by the examiner.
Drawings
Figure [10] should be designated by a legend such as --Prior Art-- because only that which is old is illustrated. See MPEP § 608.02(g). Corrected drawings in compliance with 37 CFR 1.121(d) are required in reply to the Office action to avoid abandonment of the application. The replacement sheet(s) should be labeled “Replacement Sheet” in the page header (as per 37 CFR 1.84(c)) so as not to obstruct any portion of the drawing figures. If the changes are not accepted by the examiner, the applicant will be notified and informed of any required corrective action in the next Office action. The objection to the drawings will not be held in abeyance.
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.
Claim [6] is rejected under 35 U.S.C. 101 because the claimed invention is directed to non-statutory subject matter as follows. Claim [6] defines " A program for causing a computer to function as the image presentation device according to claim 1" embodying functional descriptive material. However, the claim does not define a non –transitory computer- readable medium and is thus non-statutory for that reason (i.e., "When functional descriptive material is recorded on some computer-readable medium it becomes structurally and functionally interrelated to the medium and will be statutory in most cases since use of technology permits the function of the descriptive material to be realized"- Guidelines Annex IV). That is, the scope of the presently claimed program can range from paper on which the program is written, to a program simply contemplated and memorized by a person.
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.
Claim(s) [1-8] is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Toyoda (US. 2014/0092308) in view of Taguchi (US. 2005/0046729).
Reclaim [1], Toyoda discloses an image presentation device (see fig. 1) for presenting an image of a user (see ¶ 0041, In the Image processing apparatus according to this embodiment, live view images (also known as through images) subjected to a plurality of types of special effect processing are displayed on the back surface liquid crystal monitor 8) , the device (see fig. 1) comprising: image capturing circuitry configured to capture images of a plurality of users (see fig. 1, ¶0020, The digital camera comprises an imaging unit 1 [the imaging unit can capture a number of images without being structurally modified]); image processing circuitry configured to process the captured images with an effect (see¶0023, The microcomputer 3 also implements various types of special effect processing on the image data)
Toyoda discloses an image synthesizing unit (34 fig.2, which equated the image combining unit by the virtue of combining images as described in the text of ¶0048). However Toyoda doesn’t seem to explicitly disclose image combining circuitry configured to alternately switch and output the captured images of the plurality of users and the processed images.
Nonetheless in the same field of endeavor Taguchi discloses an image processing system as Toyoda (see Taguchi fig. fig. 1). Taguchi further discloses image combining circuitry configured to alternately switch and output the captured images of the plurality of users and the processed images (see 4, 11 fig. 1, ¶¶0048-0050 and the combining unit 5 superimposes a partially-transparent image represented by the partially-transparent image signal 9 over a subject image to be combined as represented by the subject image signal 2. This provides a composite image to be sent as a composite image signal 10 to the display/control unit 3.)
Hence it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art to have been motivated to modify Toyoda before the effective filling date of the claimed invention for example by integrating the system of Taguchi in the system of Toyoda since this would allow to selects any one of the subject image signal and the composite image signal, and sends a selected signal as a display image signal to a display device, and thereby enhance usability.
Reclaim[2] Toyoda as modified further discloses, further comprising: image composition circuitry (see Taguchi 5, 11 fig. 1,) configured to generate and output a composite image in which the captured image of the user and the processed image are alternately switched, wherein the image combining circuitry is configured to combine the composite image for the plurality of users (see Toyoda ¶¶0048 and 0079-0080, FIG. 8 and Taguchi fig. 1 and ¶¶0048-0050, selects any one of the subject image signal 2 and the composite image signal 10, and sends a selected signal as a display image signal 12 to a display device 13) .
Reclaim[3] Toyoda as modified further discloses, further comprising: effect selection circuitry configured to allow the user to select the effect to be used for image processing.
(see Toyoda ¶¶0061 and 0071, As regards the sequence pattern in which the special effect processing is to be implemented, one of Patterns (1) to (3) may be set in advance, or the user may be prompted to select a desired pattern from Patterns (1) to (3), [the back of the monitor is equated to the claimed effect selection circuitry, by the of prompting a user to select a desired special effect as exploit recited in ¶ ¶ 0061 and 0071).
Reclaim[4] Toyoda as modified further discloses, wherein the effect selection circuitry is configured to generate a plurality of effect images indicating effects, and to output an effect indicated by an effect image selected by the user to the image processing circuitry (see Toyoda ¶¶0061 and 0071, When a live view function is switched ON, the processing of a step S10 begins. As regards the sequence pattern in which the special effect processing is to be implemented, one of Patterns (1) to (3) may be set in advance, or the user may be prompted to select a desired pattern from Patterns (1) to (3). [by the virtue of allowing the user among different patterns of special effect])) .
Reclaim [5] Toyoda discloses an image presentation method for presenting an image of a user (see figs. 8, 1nd 12), the method comprising: by an image presentation device (see fig.1), capturing images of a plurality of users (see fig. 1, ¶0020, The digital camera comprises an imaging unit 1 [the imaging unit can capture a number of images without being structurally modified]); processing the captured images with an effect (see see¶0023, The microcomputer 3 also implements various types of special effect processing on the image data); see 0048, ¶¶0061, 0071, 0079, Images resulting from the various types of special effect processing are displayed one by one on the back surface liquid crystal monitor 8, When display switching is performed in Pattern (3), the normal image data not subjected to special effect processing are displayed for a predetermined amount of time before switching to the next set of special effect image data [as disclosed in paragraph 0079]).
Toyoda discloses displaying the captured images of the plurality of users and the processed images on a display device (see 0048, ¶¶0061, 0071, 0079, Images resulting from the various types of special effect processing are displayed one by one on the back surface liquid crystal monitor 8, When display switching is performed in Pattern (3), the normal image data not subjected to special effect processing are displayed for a predetermined amount of time before switching to the next set of special effect image data [as disclosed in paragraph 0079]). However Toyoda doesn’t seem to explicitly disclose alternately switching the captured images of the plurality of users and the processed images.
Nonetheless in the same field of endeavor Taguchi discloses an image processing system as Toyoda (see Taguchi fig. fig. 1). Taguchi further discloses alternately switching the captured images of the plurality of users and the processed images (see 4, 11 fig. 1, ¶¶0048-0050 and The switching unit 11 selects any one of the subject image signal 2 and the composite image signal 10, and sends a selected signal as a display image signal 12 to a display device 13.)
Hence it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art to have been motivated to modify Toyoda before the effective filling date of the claimed invention for example by integrating the system of Taguchi in the system of Toyoda since this would allow to selects any one of the subject image signal and the composite image signal, and sends a selected signal as a display image signal to a display device, and thereby enhance usability.
Reclaim [6] is a program for performing the function of claim [1], and thus anyzed and rejected by the same reasoning as claim [1].
Reclaim [7], Toyoda as modified further discloses comprising: an image presentation device wherein the image presentation device alternatively displays the captured image of the user and the processed image (see Taguchi 5, 11 fig. 1and ¶¶0048-0050, The switching unit 11 selects any one of the subject image signal 2 and the composite image signal 10, and sends a selected signal as a display image signal 12 to a display device 13).
Reclaim [8], Toyoda as modified further discloses further comprising: image synthesizing circuitry generates a synthesized image presented by alternately switching the captured image and the processed image and sequentially outputs the synthesized image of each of the plurality of users to the image combining circuitry (see Toyoda 6, 34 fig. 2, ¶ 0048, and Taguchi 5, 11 fig. 1and ¶¶0048-0050, The switching unit 11 selects any one of the subject image signal 2 and the composite image signal 10, and sends a selected signal as a display image signal 12 to a display device 13) .
Conclusion
The prior art made of record and not relied upon is considered pertinent to applicant's disclosure. Kunishige (US. 2012/0307112) discloses an image processing unit that generates processed image data by performing special effect processing of generating a visual effect by combining a plurality of image processing operations with respect to the image data. In paragraph 0007.
Iijima (US. PAT. No. 6,621,524) discloses: An imaging apparatus according to the present invention is provided with a such auxiliary function of processing an image that a part of a taken image is combined with another image to synthesize a new image. In col2. Lines 15-18.
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to AHMED A BERHAN whose telephone number is (571)270-5094. The examiner can normally be reached 9:00Am-5:00pm (MAX- Flex).
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/AHMED A BERHAN/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2639