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 .
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 102
The following is a quotation of the appropriate paragraphs of 35 U.S.C. 102 that form the basis for the rejections under this section made in this Office action:
A person shall be entitled to a patent unless –
(a)(1) the claimed invention was patented, described in a printed publication, or in public use, on sale, or otherwise available to the public before the effective filing date of the claimed invention.
Claims 1, 4, 8-9, 11, 13, 16, 20 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(1) as being anticipated by U.S. Patent Application Publication No. 2024/0406428 to Dey (“Dey”)
Regarding claim 1, Dey teaches a processor-implemented method of an electronic device, the method comprising:
obtaining an image comprising a target object (image frames are captured by the first camera 103, see paragraph [0058])
generating, from the image, a first channel image comprising first phase detection (PD) pixel values and a second channel image comprising second PD pixel values (from image data, channels of the first PD data are separated into separate data into a first channel comprising left PD and second channel data comprising right PD data, see paragraph [0075]);
determining a position of a lens to focus on the target object based on a focus determination model to which the first channel image and the second channel image are input (determining a focus position based on phase detection data, see for example paragraphs [0055], [0115]); and
controlling a camera according to the position of the lens (the lenses may be controlled by the autofocus algorithm to select the appropriate lens position for focus, see paragraph [0055]),
wherein the first channel image and the second channel image each comprise: PD pixel values for detecting a phase difference in the image; and image pixel values comprising information on the image (the first and second channel images each comprise left or right phase difference pixels, see for example paragraph [0067]; further, paragraph [0010] teaches that the processed data includes both image data and phase detection data corresponding to the image data).
Regarding claim 4, Dey teaches the method of claim 1, wherein the generating of the first channel image comprising the first PD pixel values and the second channel image comprising the second PD pixel values from the image comprises, in response to a column comprising first PD pixels and a column comprising second PD pixels not overlapping each other in the image, generating the first channel image using the column comprising the first PD pixels and generating the second channel image using the column comprising the second PD pixels (with reference to Figure 13, the left and right phase detecting pixels correspond to the first and second channel respectively, and are arranged in first and second columns).
Regarding claim 8, Dey teaches the method of claim 1, wherein the image pixel values comprising the information on the image comprise either one or both of a value of image pixels adjacent to PD pixels in the image and a value of all image pixels included in an image sensor (at block 306, the first PD data is coded to determine second PD data, including information on neighboring PD data of the same channel, see paragraph [0076]).
Regarding claim 9, Dey teaches the method of claim 1, wherein the generating of the first channel image comprises determining a value of a second PD pixel in the first channel image based on values of image pixels adjacent to the second PD pixel (same channel coding may include computing difference between neighboring PD data of the same channel, see paragraph [0076]).
Regarding claim 11, Dey teaches a non-transitory computer-readable storage medium storing instructions that, when executed by one or more processors, configure the one or more processors to perform the method of claim 1 (paragraph [0013] teaches a non-transitory computer-readable medium storing instructions to cause a processor to perform operations).
Claims 13, 16, 20 are rejected similarly to claims 1, 4, 8.
Allowable Subject Matter
Claims 2-3, 5-7, 10, 14-15, 17-19 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.
Claim 12 is allowed.
Conclusion
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to AMY R HSU whose telephone number is (571)270-3012. The examiner can normally be reached 9am-5pm.
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AMY R. HSU
Examiner
Art Unit 2664
/AMY R HSU/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2638
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