DETAILED ACTION
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 Amendment
The Amendment filed on 6/5/2026 has been entered. Claims 11 has been canceled, claim 16-18 have been added. Claims 1-10 and 12-18 remain pending in the application. Applicant’s amendments to the claims have overcome previous claim objection and 112(f) claim interpretation.
Priority
Receipt is acknowledged of certified copies of papers submitted under 35 U.S.C. 119(a)-(d), which papers have been placed of record in the file.
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.
Claim 1-3, 6-10 and 14-18 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Ichikawa U.S. Patent Application 20060070000 in view of Nishiguchi U.S. Patent Application 20190199904.
Regarding claim 1, Ichikawa discloses a display control apparatus comprising:
one or more processors (CPU 20) and at least one memory (RAM 22) coupled to the one or more processors, the at least one memory storing instructions that, when executed by the one or more processors, cause the one or more processors to (paragraph [0106]: the aforementioned embodiments can be realized by making the image display device 10 read and execute the program recorded on the recording medium),
select reproduction target content from a plurality of content (paragraph [0055]: FIG. 4, the image display device 10 judges whether a folder in which image data to be displayed in the slide show are stored is selected by the user (step S10). Namely, the user operates the menu button B10, the OK button B12, the cancel button B14, and the movement buttons B20, B22, B24, and B26 to specify the folder in which the image data to be displayed in the slide show are stored);
an output unit (display controller 52) that outputs, to a display unit (display screen 54), the target content selected by the selecting (paragraph [0057]: when the instruction to start the slide show is inputted by the user (step S12: YES), display of the image data in the slide show is started (step S14)); and
a control unit (CPU 20) that controls setting information concerning a display characteristic set in the output unit and the display unit (paragraph [0047]: the CPU 20 transmits image data to be displayed to the display controller 52 via the dedicated bus 50, the display controller 52 controls the display screen 54 based on the image data, and displays the image data on the display screen 54; paragraph [0006]: Various settings of the slide show such as these image switching time interval, effect, and BGM can be set from a setting screen by the user at the user's discretion),
wherein in accordance with the selecting not continuously changing the reproduction target content, the control unit changes the setting information based on the reproduction target content (paragraph [0064] On the other hand, when all the image data under the folder selected by the user are displayed (step S18: YES) (not continue display target content), the image display device 10 ends the slide show (step S24); paragraph [0116]: The menu screen displayer 110 may display a menu screen to allow the user to change a setting of the slide show setting information after the temporary stopper 104 temporarily stops the slide show display),
wherein in accordance with (a) the selecting continuously changing the reproduction target content and (b) a display characteristic of the reproduction target content not matching the setting information set in the output unit and the display unit, the control unit controls the output unit to output the reproduction target content converted in accordance with the setting information, wherein in accordance with (a) the selecting continuously changing the reproduction target content and (b) a display characteristic of the reproduction target content matching the setting information set in the output unit and the display unit, the control unit controls the output unit to output the reproduction target content without converting the reproduction target content in accordance with the setting information (these 2 scenarios are not considered; See MPEP 2111.04, "The broadest reasonable interpretation of a method (or process) claim having contingent limitations requires only those steps that must be performed and does not include steps that are not required to be performed because the condition(s) precedent are not met". Please also see interview summary dated 6/4/2026).
Ichikawa discloses all the features with respect to claim 1 as outlined above. However, Ichikawa fails to disclose the display characteristic of the content comprises a color characteristic, a gamma characteristic, or both a color characteristic and a gamma characteristic.
Nishiguchi discloses if not continuously changing the reproduction target content, the control unit changes the setting information based on the reproduction target content (paragraph [0231]: In S1617, the system control unit 50 determines whether the slide show processing is ended. The system control unit 50 determines to end the slide show processing if the user instructed to end the slide show, or if display of all the images to be reproduced in the slide show processing completed... The slide show processing ends if it is determined that the slide show processing is ended);
the display characteristic of the content comprises a color characteristic, a gamma characteristic, or both a color characteristic and a gamma characteristic (paragraph [0199]: If the gradation resolution of the image is increased from the gradation resolution specified in BT. 601 to the gradation resolution specified in BT. 2020, the color gamut (range of colors that can be expressed) expands; paragraph [0208]: A pseudo-HDR image having a gradation characteristic referred to as a hybrid log gamma (HLG) may be acquired).
Therefore, it would have been obvious before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to combine Ichikawa’s to consider color and gamma characteristic as taught by Nishiguchi, to appropriately display various images.
Regarding claim 2, Ichikawa as modified by Nishiguchi discloses the apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the instructions, when executed by the one or more processors, cause the one or more processors to decodes the selected content and to resize the decoded content in accordance with a resolution of the display unit (Nishiguchi’s paragraph [0228]: the system control unit 50 decodes and resizes the format size of the developed image to a format size that can be displayed on the display unit 28 and the external display unit 301).
Therefore, it would have been obvious before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to combine Ichikawa’s to consider color and gamma characteristic as taught by Nishiguchi, to appropriately display various images.
Regarding claim 3, Ichikawa as modified by Nishiguchi discloses the apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the control unit sets a standby time in a case where the reproduction target content is not continuously changed (Nishiguchi’s paragraph [0240]: In S1710, the system control unit 50 determines whether a predetermined time (time longer than the time estimated required for the SDR connection processing; at least 5 seconds) has elapsed since output of the first frame... S1710 (standby for a predetermined time)), and
changes the setting information in accordance with the content selected by the selecting when the standby time elapses after the continuous change of the reproduction target content is stopped (Ichikawa’s paragraph [0116]: The menu screen displayer 110 may display a menu screen to allow the user to change a setting of the slide show setting information after the temporary stopper 104 temporarily stops the slide show display).
Therefore, it would have been obvious before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to combine Ichikawa’s to consider color and gamma characteristic as taught by Nishiguchi, to appropriately display various images.
Regarding claim 6, Ichikawa as modified by Nishiguchi discloses the apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the content is an image including one of a still image and a moving image, and wherein the display control apparatus is an image capture apparatus that generates the content (Nishiguchi’s paragraph [0062]: The LV button 76 is a button to switch ON/OFF the live-view (LV) in the still image capturing mode. In the moving image capturing mode, the LV button 76 is used to instruct a start or stop of the moving image capturing (recording)).
Therefore, it would have been obvious before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to combine Ichikawa’s to consider color and gamma characteristic as taught by Nishiguchi, to appropriately display various images.
Regarding claim 7, Ichikawa as modified by Nishiguchi discloses the apparatus according to claim 6, wherein the display unit is an external apparatus connected to the image capture apparatus (Nishiguchi’s paragraph [0228]: the system control unit 50 decodes and resizes the format size of the developed image to a format size that can be displayed on the display unit 28 and the external display unit 301), and
wherein the display unit is in a blackout state while the setting information is changed (Nishiguchi’s paragraph [0258]: While performing the SDR connection processing in S1707, the output of the image is stopped so that display during switching of the connection mode is not seen, and the display screen of the external display unit 301 shifts from the screen 1810 to the screen 1820 (see fig. 18A black screen)).
Therefore, it would have been obvious before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to combine Ichikawa’s to consider color and gamma characteristic as taught by Nishiguchi, to appropriately display various images.
Regarding claim 8, Ichikawa as modified by Nishiguchi discloses the apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the display characteristic includes both the color characteristic and gamma characteristic, and wherein the color characteristic includes an expressible color gamut of the content (Nishiguchi’s paragraph [0199]: If the gradation resolution of the image is increased from the gradation resolution specified in BT. 601 to the gradation resolution specified in BT. 2020, the color gamut (range of colors that can be expressed) expands; paragraph [0208]: A pseudo-HDR image having a gradation characteristic referred to as a hybrid log gamma (HLG) may be acquired).
Therefore, it would have been obvious before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to combine Ichikawa’s to consider color and gamma characteristic as taught by Nishiguchi, to appropriately display various images.
Regarding claim 9, Ichikawa as modified by Nishiguchi discloses the apparatus according to claim 8, wherein the content includes High Dynamic Range (HDR) content and Standard Dynamic Range (SDR) content (Nishiguchi’s paragraph [0270]: the display unit 28 is capable of performing the HDR display, and an HDR display mode or an SDR display mode can be selected and set as a display mode for the display unit 28), and
wherein a color gamut and a gamma characteristic of the SDR content are BT601 and sRGB, and a color gamut and a gamma characteristic of the HDR content are BT2020 and PQ (Nishiguchi’s paragraph [0199]: If the gradation resolution of the image is increased from the gradation resolution specified in BT. 601 to the gradation resolution specified in BT. 2020, the color gamut (range of colors that can be expressed) expands; paragraph [0208]: A pseudo-HDR image having a gradation characteristic referred to as a hybrid log gamma (HLG) may be acquired; paragraph [0200]: the image with RGB (linear characteristic, BT 2020) is converted into an image with RGB (ST. 2084, BT. 2020). The gradation characteristic specified in ST. 2084 is called “perceptual quantization” (PQ)).
Therefore, it would have been obvious before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to combine Ichikawa’s to consider color and gamma characteristic as taught by Nishiguchi, to appropriately display various images.
Regarding claim 10, Ichikawa as modified by Nishiguchi discloses the apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the output unit and the display unit are connected by an HDMI cable, and wherein the setting information is an HDMI connection setting (Nishiguchi’s paragraph [0073]: The output I/F 91 of the digital camera 100 and the external apparatus 300 can be connected using an HDMI (registered trademark) cable 302, which is a connection cable; paragraph [0122]: an HDMI connection is used for connection with the external apparatus 30X)).
Therefore, it would have been obvious before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to combine Ichikawa’s to consider color and gamma characteristic as taught by Nishiguchi, to appropriately display various images.
Claim 14 recites the functions of the apparatus recited in claim 1 as method steps. Accordingly, the mapping of the prior art to the corresponding functions of the apparatus in claim 1 applies to the method steps of claim 14.
Claim 15 recites the functions of the apparatus recited in claim 1 as medium steps. Accordingly, the mapping of the prior art to the corresponding functions of the apparatus in claim 1 applies to the medium steps of claim 15.
Regarding claim 16, Ichikawa as modified by Nishiguchi discloses the apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the control unit is implemented using the one or more processors and the at least one memory (Ichikawa’s paragraph [0106]: the aforementioned embodiments can be realized by making the image display device 10 read and execute the program recorded on the recording medium; see fig. 1 CPU 20 and ROM 40).
Therefore, it would have been obvious before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to combine Ichikawa’s to consider color and gamma characteristic as taught by Nishiguchi, to appropriately display various images.
Claim 17 recites the functions of the apparatus recited in claim 8 as method steps. Accordingly, the mapping of the prior art to the corresponding functions of the apparatus in claim 8 applies to the method steps of claim 17.
Claim 18 recites the functions of the apparatus recited in claim 8 as medium steps. Accordingly, the mapping of the prior art to the corresponding functions of the apparatus in claim 8 applies to the medium steps of claim 18.
Claim 4-5 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Ichikawa U.S. Patent Application 20060070000 in view of Nishiguchi U.S. Patent Application 20190199904, and further in view of Iwami U.S. Patent Application 20110249181.
Regarding claim 4, Ichikawa as modified by Nishiguchi discloses a display characteristic of candidate content that may be selected next after the content selected by the selecting (Ichikawa’s paragraph [0047]: the CPU 20 transmits image data to be displayed to the display controller 52 via the dedicated bus 50, the display controller 52 controls the display screen 54 based on the image data, and displays the image data on the display screen 54; paragraph [0006]: Various settings of the slide show such as these image switching time interval, effect, and BGM can be set from a setting screen by the user at the user's discretion). However, Ichikawa as modified by Nishiguchi fails to disclose determining whether a content is the same as current setting information, and wherein the control unit sets the standby time in a case where there is a difference between the content and the current setting information to a time longer than the standby time in a case where the content is the same as the current setting information.
Iwami discloses determining whether a content is the same as current setting information, and wherein the control unit sets the standby time in a case where there is a difference between the content and the current setting information to a time longer than the standby time in a case where the content is the same as the current setting information (paragraph [0261]: when difficult image data is coded, processing is performed which changes the standby times so as to increase the standby time of the buffer used for transmission).
Therefore, it would have been obvious before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to combine Ichikawa and Nishiguchi’s to increase standby time as taught by Iwami, to achieve high image quality and high-precision synchronization.
Regarding claim 5, Ichikawa as modified by Nishiguchi and Iwami discloses the apparatus according to claim 3, wherein the control unit changes the standby time in accordance with a method of changing the reproduction target content (Iwami’s paragraph [0261]: when difficult image data is coded, processing is performed which changes the standby times so as to increase the standby time of the buffer used for transmission).
Therefore, it would have been obvious before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to combine Ichikawa and Nishiguchi’s to increase standby time as taught by Iwami, to achieve high image quality and high-precision synchronization.
Claim 12-13 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Ichikawa U.S. Patent Application 20060070000 in view of Nishiguchi U.S. Patent Application 20190199904, and further in view of Aiba U.S. Patent Application 20200053271.
Regarding claim 13, Ichikawa as modified by Nishiguchi discloses the selecting starts to continuously change the reproduction target content, the control unit changes the setting information to information suitable for a selected one of Standard Dynamic Range (SDR) content or High Dynamic Range (HDR) content (Nishiguchi’s paragraph [0229]: If the display target is a moving image, it is determined in the processing in S1615 whether the moving image was reproduced until the end or whether the image switching operation was performed, instead of determining whether the predetermined time has elapsed. Processing advances to S1616 if either the moving image was reproduced until the end or the image switching operation was performed, or to S1617 if not; paragraph [0195]: in the case of outputting images in the HDR connection mode, if a moving image is selected by the image switching operation, the image converted into a pseudo-HDR image in S618 is outputted as the representative image of the moving image which is displayed first after the image switching operation). However, Ichikawa as modified by Nishiguchi fails to disclose changing the setting information to information suitable for a selected one of Standard Dynamic Range (SDR) content or High Dynamic Range (HDR) content, in accordance with which is larger between (1) a number of SDR candidate content amongst the plurality of candidate content and (2) a number of HDR candidate content amongst the plurality of candidate content.
Aiba discloses changing the setting information to information suitable for a selected one of Standard Dynamic Range (SDR) content or High Dynamic Range (HDR) content, in accordance with which is larger between (1) a number of SDR candidate content amongst the plurality of candidate content and (2) a number of HDR candidate content amongst the plurality of candidate content (claim 9: to display an image using the HDR, in a case where a number of the images having the HDR is larger than a number of the images having the SDR in the plurality of images, and to display an image using the SDR, in a case where a number of the images having the SDR is larger than a number of the images having the HDR in the plurality of images).
Therefore, it would have been obvious before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to combine Ichikawa and Nishiguchi’s to change setting to SDR or HDR as taught by Aiba, to display plurality of images having different dynamic ranges with high viewability.
Regarding claim 12, Ichikawa as modified by Nishiguchi and Aiba discloses the apparatus according to claim 1, wherein
in a case where the selecting starts to continuously change the reproduction target content, the control unit obtains display characteristics of a plurality of candidate content that may be selected next after the content selected by the selecting, wherein in a case where a ratio of content of a specific display characteristic among the display characteristics of the plurality of candidate content is not lower than a predetermined ratio, the control unit changes the setting information in accordance with the specific display characteristic (Nishiguchi’s paragraph [0229]: If the display target is a moving image, it is determined in the processing in S1615 whether the moving image was reproduced until the end or whether the image switching operation was performed, instead of determining whether the predetermined time has elapsed; Aiba’s paragraph [0099]: it may be determined whether the dynamic ranges of the thumbnails are unified into the SDR or the HDR in accordance with the ratio between the number of the SDR images and the number of the HDR images; claim 9: to display an image using the HDR, in a case where a number of the images having the HDR is larger than a number of the images having the SDR in the plurality of images, and to display an image using the SDR, in a case where a number of the images having the SDR is larger than a number of the images having the HDR in the plurality of images), and
wherein the control unit maintains the changed setting information until the continuous change of the reproduction target content ends (Nishiguchi’s paragraph [0229]: Processing advances to S1616 if either the moving image was reproduced until the end or the image switching operation was performed, or to S1617 if not).
Therefore, it would have been obvious before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to combine Ichikawa and Nishiguchi’s to change setting to SDR or HDR as taught by Aiba, to display plurality of images having different dynamic ranges with high viewability.
Response to Arguments
Applicant's arguments filed 6/5/2026, page 2, with respect to the rejection(s) of claim(s) 1 under 103, have been fully considered but they are not persuasive. (FP 7.37)
Applicant argues on page 2 that Applicant has revised the same into a series of "wherein" clauses, which Applicant respectfully submits obviates the grounds of rejection.
In reply, please check MPEP 2111.04, "The broadest reasonable interpretation of a method (or process) claim having contingent limitations requires only those steps that must be performed and does not include steps that are not required to be performed because the condition(s) precedent are not met". Please also see interview summary dated 6/4/2026. The examiner suggests applicant focus on the most important scenario, and consider incorporating claim 5 and 13 into independent claims to further advance the prosecution.
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 extension fee 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 date of this final action.
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to Yi Yang whose telephone number is (571)272-9589. The examiner can normally be reached on Monday-Friday 9:00 AM-6:00 PM EST.
If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner’s supervisor, Daniel Hajnik can be reached on 571-272-7642. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300.
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/YI YANG/
Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2616
Prosecution Insights