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 § 112
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 1-6 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.
Independent claim 1 recites the limitation “the train image” in line 7. There is insufficient antecedent basis for this limitation in the claim. The Examiner suggests replacing “the train image” with –the training image--.
Dependent claims 2-6 are also rejected based on their dependency of the defected parent claim 1 above.
The prior art does not appear to teach or make obvious the subject matter of the claims.
However, the 35 U.S.C. 112(b) rejection for claim 1-6 must be overcome.
Allowable Subject Matter
The following is a statement of reasons for the indication of allowable subject matter:
The prior art made of record and considered pertinent to the applicant's disclosure, taken individually or in combination, does not teach the claimed invention having the following limitations, in combination with the remaining claimed limitations.
Regarding independent claims 1 and 7, the closest prior art does not teach or suggest the claimed invention having “a first CNN processing step of inputting a first input image, in which pixel values in a partial region are changed based on a training image, to a convolutional neural network, and creating a first output image by the convolutional neural network; a first CNN training step of evaluating an error between the first output image and the training image, and training the convolutional neural network based on an error evaluation result; a second CNN processing step of inputting a second input image to the convolutional neural network, and creating a second output image by the convolutional neural network; and a second CNN training step of evaluating an error between the second output image and the target image, and training the convolutional neural network based on an error evaluation result, wherein after respective processes of the first CNN processing step and the first CNN training step are repeatedly performed a plurality of times for each of a plurality of sets of the training image and the first input image, respective processes of the second CNN processing step and the second CNN training step are repeatedly performed a plurality of times, and the second output image is set as the noise reduced image”, and a combination of other limitations thereof as recited in the claims.
Regarding dependent claims 2-6 and 8-12, the claims have been found allowable due to its dependencies to claims 1 and 7 above.
Conclusion
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to VAN D HUYNH whose telephone number is (571)270-1937. The examiner can normally be reached 8AM-6PM.
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/VAN D HUYNH/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2665
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