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 .
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) 1-4, 13, 14, and 16 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Kamiya (US 2018/0220076, hereinafter Kamiya) in view of World of Tech (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z6FP-loNDB0; GoPro Hero 10: How to Change Screen Orientation (Stuck Upside Down or Side Ways?, hereinafter Tech).
Re claim 1, Kamiya discloses, an image capturing apparatus comprising: an image capturing device (100); a display device (30) attached to an apparatus body (100, figs 1-3) of the image capturing apparatus so as to be movable between a position where a display surface is directed to an object side where an image capturing object to be captured by the image capturing device exists and a position where the display surface is directed in a direction opposite to the object side (figs 1-3); a memory device (54 and/or 55) that stores a set of instructions; and at least one processor (50) that executes the set of instructions to: set a display setting of a captured image captured by the image capturing device on the display surface to any one of a first setting to display the captured image in a first direction of a relative position between the display device and the apparatus body (figs 3-4), a second setting to display the captured image in a second direction opposite to the first direction of the relative position (figs 3 and 4), and a third setting to automatically switch a display direction of the captured image between the first direction and the second direction in accordance with the relative position; and control the display direction of the captured image on the display device according to the display setting (figs 3 and 4, pars [0034]-[0037]).
Kamiya fails to explicitly disclose limitations which are disclosed by Tech as follows: set a display setting of a captured image captured by the image capturing device on the display surface to any one of a first setting to display the captured image in a first direction regardless of a relative position between the display device and the apparatus body (video time 00:12 - 00:21), a second setting to display the captured image in a second direction opposite to the first direction regardless of the relative position (video time 00:23 – 00:32), and a third setting to automatically switch a display direction of the captured image between the first direction and the second direction in accordance with the relative position; and control the display direction of the captured image on the display device according to the display setting (video time 00:33 – 00:46).
One of ordinary skill in the art, before the effective filing date of the claimed invention, would have been motivated to combine set a display setting of a captured image captured by the image capturing device on the display surface to any one of a first setting to display the captured image in a first direction regardless of a relative position between the display device and the apparatus body, a second setting to display the captured image in a second direction opposite to the first direction regardless of the relative position, and a third setting to automatically switch a display direction of the captured image between the first direction and the second direction in accordance with the relative position; and control the display direction of the captured image on the display device according to the display setting of Tech with the apparatus of Kamiya in order to give the user more creative control to capture and display images in a desired orientation.
Re claim 2, the combination of Kamiya and Tech discloses the limitations of claim 1 including, wherein the display device is rotatably connected to the apparatus body with a rotation shaft provided at an upper end or a lower end of a back face side of the apparatus body, and wherein the display surface is directed to the object side in a case where the display device is above the apparatus body or below the apparatus body (Kamiya 24, pars [0026]-[0027]).
Re claim 3, the combination of Kamiya and Tech discloses the limitations of claim 2 including, further comprising a first detector (Kamiya 51 and/or 52) that detects a relative angle of the display device with respect to the apparatus body as the relative position, wherein the at least one processor executes instructions in the memory device to: display the captured image on the display surface in the first direction in a case where the third setting is set and the relative angle is in a first angular range; and display the captured image on the display surface in the second direction in a case where the third setting is set and the relative angle is in a second angular range (Kamiya pars [0034]-[0037]).
Re claim 4, the combination of Kamiya and Tech discloses the limitations of claim 3 including, wherein the relative angle is defined as 0 degrees in a case where the display surface is directed in the direction opposite to the object side and is defined as 180 degrees in a case where the display surface is directed to the object side; wherein the first angular range is 0 degrees or more and less than 90 degrees, and the second angular range is more than 135 degrees and 180 degrees or less, and wherein the first direction is a direction in which the captured image is displayed as a normal image on the display surface in a state where the display surface is directed in the direction opposite to the object side (Kamiya pars [0030]-[0031]).
Claims 13, 14, and 16 are rejected for the reasons stated in claims 1, 4, and 1, respectively. The method steps and medium as claimed would have been obvious and expected by the apparatus of Kamiya and Tech.
Allowable Subject Matter
Claims 5-12 and 15 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.
The following is an examiner’s statement of reasons for allowance:
Re claim 5, the combination of Kamiya and Tech fails to explicitly disclose, “a second detector that detects an absolute angle of the display device that is formed between a gravity direction and a direction from the rotation shaft toward a rotation end of the display device, wherein the at least one processor executes instructions in the memory device to: display the captured image on the display surface in the second direction in a case where the third setting is set, the relative angle is not in the first angular range and the second angular range, and the absolute angle is in a third angular range; and display the captured image on the display surface in the first direction in a case where the third setting is set, the relative angle is not in the first angular range and the second angular range, and the absolute angle is not in a third angular range”.
Claims 6-7 depend on allowable claim 5.
Re claim 8, the combination of Kamiya and Tech fails to explicitly disclose, “wherein the at least one processor executes instructions in the memory device to: set a display direction setting of the captured image on the display surface to any one of a fourth setting to fix in the first direction, a fifth setting to fix in the second direction, and a sixth setting to automatically switch between the first direction and the second direction in a case where the third setting is set and the relative angle is not in the first angular range and the second angular range”.
Claim 15 recites similarly allowed limitations as claim 8.
Claims 9-12 depend on allowable claim 8.
Contact
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to JOEL W FOSSELMAN whose telephone number is (571)270-3728. The examiner can normally be reached 8:00 - 5:00 M-F.
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/JOEL W FOSSELMAN/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2639