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 .
Priority
Receipt is acknowledged of certified copies of papers required by 37 CFR 1.55.
Information Disclosure Statement
The information disclosure statement (lDS) submitted are in compliance with the provisions of 37 CFR 1.97 and have been considered by the Examiner.
Statement of Statutory Basis, 35 U.S.C. §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 20 is rejected under 35 U.S.C. § 101, because the claimed invention is directed to nonstatutory subject matter. The claim does not fall within at least one of the four categories of patent eligible subject matter because claim 6 is directed to a program per se.
Claim 20 explicitly recites “A program for causing an image processing device to execute image processing…”
Thus, only a “program” per se is actually claimed with the “image processing device” being intended use.
Since a computer program per se “has no physical or tangible form, and thus does not fall within any statutory category” (MPEP 2106.03), claim 12 is nonstatutory under 35 U.S.C. §101.
No claim depends on claim 20.
Allowable Subject Matter
Claims 1-19 are allowed.
The following is an examiner’s statement of reasons for allowance:
Regarding claim 1, US 20180308217 A1 (KURITA et al.) discloses a white balance adjustment unit configured to adjust white balance of the color polarized image, wherein the demosaicing unit uses the color polarized image subjected to the white balance adjustment to calculate the pixel signal for each of the plurality of polarization components for each color component, and the normal information acquisition unit calculates color difference for each polarization component by using the pixel signal for each color component that is calculated by the demosaicing unit for each polarization component to acquire the normal information on a basis of the calculated color difference for each polarization component (Fig.22, [0105]-[0109]).
US 20200350353 A1 (KURITA et al.) discloses detection of the polarization properties of each color even in the case where the degree of polarization varies from one color to another. Also, the polarized pixels of the non-specific colors are allowed to have fewer polarization directions than the polarized pixels of the specific color, so that the deterioration of image quality due to the polarized pixels being configured is reduced (Figs.19-20, [0140]-[0150]).
However, the prior art of record taken alone or in combination, fails to disclose or render obvious the white balance gain calculation unit calculates a white balance gain by using color- corresponding polarization information of a pixel position where polarization degrees of two colors coincide with each other, in combination with all the limitations recited on claim 1.
Regarding claims 2-18, are allowable because they are dependent on claim 1.
Regarding claim 19, the prior art of record taken alone or in combination, fails to disclose or render obvious the white balance gain calculation step calculates a white balance gain by using color- corresponding polarization information of a pixel position where polarization degrees of two colors coincide with each other, in combination with all the limitations recited on claim 19.
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/ABDELAAZIZ TISSIRE/ Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2638