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 .
Continued Examination Under 37 CFR 1.114
A request for continued examination under 37 CFR 1.114, including the fee set forth in 37 CFR 1.17(e), was filed in this application after final rejection. Since this application is eligible for continued examination under 37 CFR 1.114, and the fee set forth in 37 CFR 1.17(e) has been timely paid, the finality of the previous Office action has been withdrawn pursuant to 37 CFR 1.114. Applicant's submission filed on 07/08/2026 has been entered.
Response to Amendment
Applicant previously filed claims 1-16, 18-19 and 21. Claims 10-12 have been cancelled. Claims 1 and 18 have been amended. Accordingly, claims 1-9, 13-16, 18-19 and 21 are pending in the current application.
Response to Arguments
Applicant's arguments filed 07/08/2026 have been fully considered but they are not persuasive.
Applicant’s arguments with respect to the claim(s) 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.
Applicant is reminded that although the claims are interpreted in light of the specification, limitations from the specification are not read into the claims. See In re Van Geuns, 988 F.2d 1181, 26 USPQ2d 1057 (Fed. Cir. 1993).
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 112
The following is a quotation of the first paragraph of 35 U.S.C. 112(a):
(a) IN GENERAL.—The specification shall contain a written description of the invention, and of the manner and process of making and using it, in such full, clear, concise, and exact terms as to enable any person skilled in the art to which it pertains, or with which it is most nearly connected, to make and use the same, and shall set forth the best mode contemplated by the inventor or joint inventor of carrying out the invention.
The following is a quotation of the first paragraph of pre-AIA 35 U.S.C. 112:
The specification shall contain a written description of the invention, and of the manner and process of making and using it, in such full, clear, concise, and exact terms as to enable any person skilled in the art to which it pertains, or with which it is most nearly connected, to make and use the same, and shall set forth the best mode contemplated by the inventor of carrying out his invention.
Claim 1-9, 13-16, 18-19 and 21 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 112(a) or 35 U.S.C. 112 (pre-AIA ), first paragraph, as failing to comply with the enablement requirement. The claim(s) contains subject matter which was not described in the specification in such a way as to enable one skilled in the art to which it pertains, or with which it is most nearly connected, to make and/or use the invention. The claims recite “wherein in the driving method for the display device, no virtual images respectively corresponding to multiple viewpoints are generated by utilizing the source image, and no multiple-viewpoint image is generated by fusion.” The current application in Paragraph 105 for instance recites “Wherein the multi-viewpoint image may be a multi-viewpoint naked-eye 3D image converted from the source image for allowing an observer to observe a stereoscopic picture on the display device. For example, the multi-viewpoint image may be a 9-viewpoint naked-eye 3D image.” Which clearly suggests converting a source image into a multi-viewpoint image. It is unclear how this is different from generating virtual viewpoints from a source image.
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 1-9, 13-16, 18-19 and 21 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 1-9, 13-16, 18-19 and 21 rejected as failing to define the invention in the manner required by 35 U.S.C. 112(b) or pre-AIA 35 U.S.C. 112, second paragraph.
The claim(s) are narrative in form and replete with indefinite language. The structure which goes to make up the device must be clearly and positively specified. The structure must be organized and correlated in such a manner as to present a complete operative device. The claim(s) must be in one sentence form only. Note the format of the claims in the patent(s) cited. Examiner particularly notes that the new negative recitations in the claim amendments are unclear and make the claims indefinite as well.
The claims are generally narrative and indefinite, failing to conform with current U.S. practice. They appear to be a literal translation into English from a foreign document and are replete with grammatical and idiomatic errors.
Claim 1-9, 13-16, 18-19 and 21 rejected under 35 U.S.C. 112(b) or 35 U.S.C. 112 (pre-AIA ), second paragraph, as being incomplete for omitting essential elements, such omission amounting to a gap between the elements. See MPEP § 2172.01. The omitted elements are: The claims recite “wherein in the driving method for the display device, no virtual images respectively corresponding to multiple viewpoints are generated by utilizing the source image, and no multiple-viewpoint image is generated by fusion.” The current application in Paragraph 105 for instance recites “Wherein the multi-viewpoint image may be a multi-viewpoint naked-eye 3D image converted from the source image for allowing an observer to observe a stereoscopic picture on the display device. For example, the multi-viewpoint image may be a 9-viewpoint naked-eye 3D image.” Which clearly suggests converting a source image into a multi-viewpoint image. It is unclear how this is different from generating virtual viewpoints from a source image.
Appropriate correction is required.
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, 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) 1-9, 13-16, 18-19 and 21 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over by Sun et al. (US 20230162338 A1) in view of Tomita (US 20060203085 A1).
Regarding Claim 1, Sun et al. teaches a driving method for a display device (Paragraph 110; Paragraph 132), comprising:
inputting a source image, wherein the source image comprises depth information (Paragraphs 57-60; Paragraph 61, “the depth image may be calculated by software based on rendering of the original image, or may be directly captured by an image capture device with a depth image capturing and generating function, such as a depth camera, where the reference viewpoint corresponds to the image capture device that is used as a reference or is at a reference position during the capture” Paragraphs 62-73);
searching in the source image by utilizing the depth information to determine first image pixel points matched with light-emitting sub-pixels of the display device (Paragraphs 62-73; Paragraph 110);
assigning pixel gray values of the first image pixel points to the light-emitting sub-pixels of the display device (Paragraphs 60-73); and
controlling the light-emitting sub-pixels to emit light according to assigned pixel gray values, so that the display device displays a multi-viewpoint image corresponding to the source image (Paragraphs 60-73; Paragraph 132).
However, Sun et al. does not explicitly teach wherein in the driving method for the display device, no virtual images respectively corresponding to multiple viewpoints are generated by utilizing the source image, and no multiple-viewpoint image is generated by fusion.
Tomita, however, teaches wherein in the driving method for the display device, no virtual images respectively corresponding to multiple viewpoints are generated by utilizing the source image, and no multiple-viewpoint image is generated by fusion (Paragraphs 11-30).
It would have been obvious to a person having ordinary skill in the art at the time of filing of the invention to have modified the driving method of Sun et al. to include a multi-viewpoint image without generating virtual viewpoints or utilizing fusion as in Tomita, in order to provide a stereoscopic video signal generation circuit that can produce a 3D image with a natural stereoscopic depth (See Tomita Paragraph 10).
Regarding Claim 2, Sun et al. and Tomita teach the driving method for the display device according to claim 1, Sun et al. further teaches wherein the step of searching in the source image by utilizing the depth information to determine first image pixel points matched with light-emitting sub-pixels of the display device comprises: searching in the source image according to viewpoint numbers of the light-emitting sub-pixels and the depth information to determine the first image pixel point matched with each of the light-emitting sub-pixels; wherein the viewpoint numbers are preset according to a quantity of viewpoints to be rendered, pixel coordinates of the light-emitting sub-pixels, and apparatus parameters of the display device (Paragraphs 57-73; Paragraph 132).
Regarding Claim 3, Sun et al. and Tomita teach the driving method for the display device according to claim 2, Sun et al. further teaches wherein the step of searching in the source image according to viewpoint numbers of the light-emitting sub-pixels and the depth information to determine the first image pixel point matched with each of the light-emitting sub-pixels comprises: obtaining a parallax of second image pixel points corresponding to current light-emitting sub-pixels in the source image according to the viewpoint numbers of the current light-emitting sub-pixels; wherein the pixel coordinates of the current light-emitting sub-pixels and pixel coordinates of the second image pixel points are mapped on a one-to-one basis; and searching in a preset parallax range in the source image according to the parallax of the second image pixel points to determine first image pixel points matched with the current light-emitting sub-pixels (Paragraphs 57-73; Paragraph 81; Paragraph 91; Paragraph 99; Paragraphs 104-107).
Regarding Claim 4, Sun et al. and Tomita teach the driving method for the display device according to claim 3, Sun et al. further teaches wherein the step of obtaining a parallax of second image pixel points corresponding to current light-emitting sub-pixels in the source image according to the viewpoint numbers of the current light-emitting sub-pixels comprises: obtaining an actual shooting distance of the second image pixel points according to depth information of the second image pixel points; and obtaining the parallax of the second image pixel points according to the viewpoint numbers of the current light-emitting sub-pixels and the actual shooting distance of the second image pixel points (Paragraphs 57-73; Paragraph 81; Paragraph 91; Paragraph 99; Paragraphs 104-107; Paragraphs 108-120).
Regarding Claim 5, Sun et al. and Tomita teach the driving method for the display device according to claim 4, Sun et al. further teaches wherein the depth information comprises a depth image; wherein image pixel points in the depth image and depth image pixel points in the source image are mapped on a one-to-one basis; and pixel gray values of the depth image pixel points mapped by the second image pixel points in the depth image are used for representing depth information of the second image pixel points; and the step of obtaining an actual shooting distance of the second image pixel points according to depth information of the second image pixel points comprises: obtaining the actual shooting distance of the second image pixel points according to the pixel gray values of the depth image pixel points mapped by the second image pixel points in the depth image in a linear conversion manner and/or non-linear conversion manner (Paragraphs 57-73; Paragraph 81; Paragraph 91; Paragraph 99; Paragraphs 104-107; Paragraphs 108-120).
Regarding Claim 6, Sun et al. and Tomita teach the driving method for the display device according to claim 4, Sun et al. further teaches wherein the step of obtaining the parallax of the second image pixel points according to the viewpoint numbers of the current light-emitting sub-pixels and the actual shooting distance of the second image pixel points comprises: obtaining a baseline width according to the quantity of the viewpoints to be rendered and the viewpoint numbers of the current light-emitting sub-pixels; obtaining the parallax of the second image pixel points according to the baseline width, a shooting focal length of the source image, and a distance parameter difference value between the second image pixel points and a zero parallax plane; wherein the distance parameter difference value between the second image pixel points and the zero parallax plane is obtained according to the actual shooting distance of the second image pixel points and an actual distance of the zero parallax plane (Paragraphs 57-73; Paragraph 81; Paragraph 91; Paragraph 99; Paragraphs 104-107; Paragraphs 108-120).
Regarding Claim 7, Sun et al. and Tomita teach the driving method for the display device according to claim 3, Sun et al. further teaches wherein the step of searching in a preset parallax range in the source image according to the parallax of the second image pixel points to determine first image pixel points matched with the current light-emitting sub-pixels comprises: traversing and searching the first image pixel points in the source image in the preset parallax range based on the second image pixel points; wherein in the case where a parallax position of current image pixel points satisfies a preset parallax condition, it is determined that the current image pixel points are the first image pixel points; wherein the preset parallax range comprises: traversing a position range of a preset quantity of image pixel points along an image pixel line where the second image pixel points are located based on a position of the second image pixel points (Paragraphs 57-73; Paragraph 81; Paragraphs 88-91; Paragraph 99; Paragraphs 104-107; Paragraphs 108-120).
Regarding Claim 8, Sun et al. and Tomita teach the driving method for the display device according to claim 7, Sun et al. further teaches wherein the preset parallax condition comprises: a sum of a pixel coordinate difference between the current image pixel points and the second image pixel points and the parallax of the second image pixel points being less than 1; and wherein the pixel coordinate difference between the current image pixel points and the second image pixel points comprises: a difference between a column pixel coordinate of the current image pixel points and a column pixel coordinate of the second image pixel points (Paragraphs 57-73; Paragraphs 75-81; Paragraphs 88-94; Paragraphs 96-99; Paragraphs 100-107; Paragraphs 108-120).
Regarding Claim 9, Sun et al. and Tomita teach the driving method for the display device according to claim 8, Sun et al. further teaches wherein the method further comprises: after traversing and searching all the image pixel points in the preset parallax range, under the condition that there is no image pixel point satisfying the preset parallax condition, determining that the current light-emitting sub-pixels are voids; after determining that the current light-emitting sub-pixels are voids, obtaining a pixel gray value of an image pixel point with a minimum depth in the preset parallax range based on the second image pixel points; and assigning the pixel gray value of the image pixel point with the minimum depth to the current light-emitting sub-pixels (Paragraphs 57-73; Paragraphs 75-81; Paragraphs 88-94; Paragraphs 96-99; Paragraphs 100-107; Paragraphs 108-120).
Regarding Claim 13, Sun et al. and Tomita teach the driving method for the display device according to claim 1, Sun et al. further teaches wherein before the step of searching in the source image by utilizing the depth information to determine first image pixel points matched with light-emitting sub-pixels of the display device, the method further comprises: obtaining an original image; and initializing the original image to enable a horizontal resolution and/or longitudinal pixel resolution of the original image to be consistent with that of the display device to obtain the source image (Paragraphs 57-73; Paragraphs 75-81; Paragraphs 88-94; Paragraphs 96-99; Paragraphs 100-107; Paragraphs 108-120).
Regarding Claim 14, Sun et al. and Tomita teach the driving method for the display device according to claim 3, wherein a calculation formula of the parallax of the second image pixel points is as follows:
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wherein Vi,j is the viewpoint numbers of the current light-emitting sub-pixels, V is the quantity of the viewpoints to be rendered, Dis(i,j) is the parallax of the second image pixel points, Z(i,j) is the actual shooting distance of the second image pixel points, F is the shooting focal length of the source image, B is the baseline width, and Zzero is a zero parallax distance; wherein the zero parallax distance is a distance between the zero parallax plane and a shooting lens, and the zero parallax plane refers to a plane coinciding with a naked-eye 3D screen after a three-dimensional scene is reconstructed (Paragraphs 108-120).
Regarding Claim 15, Sun et al. and Tomita teach the driving method for the display device according to claim 5, Sun et al. further teaches wherein a calculation formula for obtaining the actual shooting distance of the second image pixel points according to the pixel gray values of the depth image pixel points mapped by the second image pixel points in the depth image in a linear conversion manner is as follows:
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wherein Zfar is a farthest actual shooting distance, Znear is a nearest actual shooting distance, and D(i,j) is a pixel gray value of the second image pixel points corresponding to the current light-emitting sub-pixels in the source image on the depth image, and Z(i,j) is the actual shooting distance of the second image pixel points corresponding to the current light-emitting sub-pixels in the source image; wherein the nearest actual shooting distance is a distance between the shooting lens and a position on a target object nearest the shooting lens, and the farthest actual shooting distance is a distance between the shooting lens and a position on the target object farthest from the shooting lens (Paragraphs 108-120).
Regarding Claim 16, Sun et al. and Tomita teach the driving method for the display device according to claim 5, Sun et al. further teaches wherein a calculation formula for obtaining the actual shooting distance of the second image pixel points according to the pixel gray values of the depth image pixel points mapped by the second image pixel points in the depth image in a non-linear conversion manner is as follows:
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wherein Zfar is a farthest actual shooting distance, Znear is a nearest actual shooting distance, D(i,j) is a pixel gray value of the second image pixel points corresponding to the current light-emitting sub-pixels in the source image on the depth image, and Z(i,j) is the actual shooting distance of the second image pixel points corresponding to the current light-emitting sub-pixels in the source image; wherein the nearest actual shooting distance is the distance between the shooting lens and the position on the target object nearest the shooting lens, and the farthest actual shooting distance is the distance between the shooting lens and the position on the target object farthest from the shooting lens (Paragraphs 100-107; Paragraphs 108-120).
Claims 18-19 are drawn to the apparatus, computing and processing apparatus, and non-transitory computer-readable medium corresponding to the method of using apparatus as claimed above in claim 1. These claims have limitations that are substantially similar and are rejected as discussed above. Sun et al. further teaches a driving device for a display device; a display unit configured to control the light-emitting sub-pixels to emit light; a display apparatus, comprising a display device and the driving device for the display device; and a computing and processing apparatus; a memory, wherein a computer-readable code is stored in the memory; one or more processors, wherein when the computer-readable code is executed by the one or more processors, the computing and processing apparatus executes the driving method for the display (Paragraph 126-134).
Regarding claim 21, claim 21 claims a product by process claim limitation where the product is the computer-readable code and the process is the method steps to generate the computer-readable code. MPEP §2113 recites “Product-by-Process claims are not limited to the manipulations of the recited steps, only the structure implied by the steps”. Thus, the scope of the claim is the storage medium storing the computer-readable code (with the structure implied by the method steps). The structure includes the information and samples manipulated by the steps.
“To be given patentable weight, the printed matter and associated product must be in a functional relationship. A functional relationship can be found where the printed matter performs some function with respect to the product to which it is associated”. MPEP §2111.05(I)(A). When a claimed “computer-readable medium merely serves as a support for information or data, no functional relationship exists. MPEP §2111.05(III).
The memory storing the claimed computer-readable code in claim 21 merely services as a support for the storage of the code and provides no functional relationship between the stored code and storage medium. Therefore the computer-readable code, whose scope is implied by the method steps, is non-functional descriptive material and given no patentable weight. MPEP §2111.05(III). Thus, the claim scope is just a storage medium storing data and is anticipated by Wang which recites a storage medium storing a computer-readable code.
Sun et al. discloses a non-transitory computer-readable medium, wherein the computer-readable medium stores a computer-readable code (Paragraph 126-134).
Conclusion
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to FARHAN MAHMUD whose telephone number is (571)272-7712. The examiner can normally be reached 10-7.
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/FARHAN MAHMUD/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2483
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