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
In the event the determination of the status of the application as subject to AIA 35 U.S.C. 102 and 103 (or as subject to pre-AIA 35 U.S.C. 102 and 103) is incorrect, any correction of the statutory basis (i.e., changing from AIA to pre-AIA ) for the rejection will not be considered a new ground of rejection if the prior art relied upon, and the rationale supporting the rejection, would be the same under either status.
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&2 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(2) as being anticipated by Houchin (US 5, 047, 861).
As of Claim 1: Houchin taches a method for determining calibration information for an image sensor comprising a plurality of pixels (Fig. 12 and Col. 4, line 32), the method comprising: obtaining at least two calibration tables associated with the image sensor, each calibration table containing, for each pixel, a piece of calibration information, the calibration information of the calibration table being organized into a series ordered according to a successive order of the pixels (Col. 9, line 43-49) wherein the method further comprises: constructing at least one correction table for the image sensor, each correction table containing the calibration information of at least two calibration tables (Col. 8, line 48-52 and note also there are N different look-up tables, one for each photosite on image sensor 10. During the calibration operation, the look-up tables for each of the N photosites are calculated by the correction look-up table calculation circuitry 35, and loaded into the proper address MSB and LSB locations in look-up table correction RAM 65 via "data in". In the normal image capture operating mode, the image data values d.sub.n provide the address LSBs to look-up table correction RAM 65 via multiplexer 45, while the address counter 50 provides the address MSBs, which value equals the pixel number n. If image sensor 10 is a linear array with 2048 elements and A/D 20 outputs eight bits, RAM 65 must have 512 K addresses.), the calibration information of the correction table is organized into a series ordered according to the successive order of the pixels.
As of Claim 2: Houchin further teaches the construction of each correction table comprises interleaving the calibration information of said at least two calibration tables so that the calibration information of the correction table is organized, for each pixel, according to a successive order of the calibration tables (Fig. 12 and 0 to 55 since it forms the LSBs).
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 103
In the event the determination of the status of the application as subject to AIA 35 U.S.C. 102 and 103 (or as subject to pre-AIA 35 U.S.C. 102 and 103) is incorrect, any correction of the statutory basis (i.e., changing from AIA to pre-AIA ) for the rejection will not be considered a new ground of rejection if the prior art relied upon, and the rationale supporting the rejection, would be the same under either status.
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.
Claims 3&4, 7-9, 15, 20-21 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Houchin (US 5, 047, 861) in view of Kaufman et al. (US 20020166967 A1; hereafter Kaufman).
As of Claim 3:Kaufman is a similar or analogous system to the claimed invention as evidenced Kaufman teaches two point calibration are independent of the ambient temperature that would have prompted a predictable variation of Houchin by applying Kaufman’s known principal of the calibration information of at least one calibration table, so-called calibration table at a specific temperature, comprises non-uniformity correction parameters of the image sensor at the specific temperature (¶¶0042-0044).
In view of the motivations such as accessing using a logic circuit which generates a memory page address from a digitized temperature measurement of the focal plane array thereby further two point calibration are independent of the ambient temperature and one of ordinary skill in the art would have implemented the claimed variation of the prior art system of Houchin.
Therefore, the claimed invention would have been obvious to a person having ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention.
As of Claim 4: Houchin in view of Kaufman further teaches the obtainment comprises obtaining several calibration tables, so-called calibration tables at distinct specific temperatures, and the construction comprises constructing at least one correction table containing the calibration information of at least two calibration tables at distinct specific temperatures (See Kaufman FIG. 5 of the illustrated embodiment. The temperature of focal plane array 20 is coupled via line 60 to an analog-to-digital converter 62, which outputs the digitized temperature to a logic circuit 64, such as a field programmable gate array. There are many equivalent ways in which the logic circuitry used in the invention may be implemented and the illustrated embodiment shows one possible generic approach. Logic circuit 64 converts the temperature into an appropriate memory address which is provided to flash memory 46. Logic circuit 64 then addresses the appropriate data bank and reads out the gain and offset for each pixel location and provides the offset data, Z.sub.j,0(T), to digital-to-analog converter 66).
As of Claim 7: Houchin in view of Kaufman further teaches the calibration information of a calibration table, so-called gain table, comprises calibration gains (Kaufman ¶¶0042-0044).
As of Claim 8: Houchin in view of Kaufman further teaches the construction comprises constructing at least two correction tables, each correction table containing the calibration information of the gain table (Kaufman ¶¶0042-0044).
As of Claim 9: Houchin in view of Kaufman further teaches a method for generating images comprising a plurality of pixels, the method comprising:- recording in at least one memory of an image sensor at least one correction table for the image sensor constructed by the method according to claim 1 (Houchin Col. 8, line 48-52 and note also there are N different look-up tables; successively acquiring, according to a successive order of the pixels, image frame data generated by the image sensor;- accessing said at least one memory comprising reading the calibration information contained in said at least one correction table; and- successively applying, according to the successive order of the pixels, the calibration information contained in said at least one correction table to the image frame data (Houchin Col. 8, line 48-52).
As of Claim 15: Houchin in view of Kaufman further teaches an image sensor comprising a plurality of pixels, the sensor comprising at least one memory containing at least one correction table for the image sensor, wherein said at least one correction table is constructed by the method for determining calibration information according to claim 1 (Houchin Col. 8, line 48-52 and Kaufman ¶¶0042-0044).
As of Claim 20: Houchin in view of Kaufman further teaches a computer program product intended for determining calibration information, comprising instructions which, when executed by an electronic control unit, enable the electronic control unit to perform the steps of the method for determining calibration information according to claim 1 (Kaufman ¶0030).
As of Claim 21: Houchin in view of Kaufman further teaches a computer program product intended for generating images comprising a plurality of pixels, comprising instructions which, when executed by an electronic control unit, enable the electronic control unit to perform the steps of the method for generating images according to claim 9 (Kaufman ¶0030).
Claims 5-6, 10-14, 16-18 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Houchin (US 5, 047, 861) in view of Kaufman et al. (US 20020166967 A1; hereafter Kaufman), and further in view of Rogalski (US 20060209358 A1;hereafter Rogalski).
As of Claim 5: Rogalski is a similar or analogous system to the claimed invention as evidenced Rogalski teaches a real-time temperature profile of the FWA image sensor and temperature dependent factors of at least one calibration equation. The factors may be predetermined, or be determined at factory test, at warm-up or at a specified time that would have prompted a predictable variation of Houchin by applying Rogalski’s known principal of the obtainment comprises obtaining at least three calibration tables, so-called calibration tables at three distinct specific temperatures, and the construction comprises constructing at least one correction table containing the calibration information of said at least three calibration tables at distinct specific temperatures (¶¶0026-0030 and note that the microprocessor 304 may be responsive to program instruction code stored in the non-volatile memory 306 and may control the various functions of the temperature calibration unit 116. The program instruction code may include a comprehensive calibration scheme, which, may be used to calibrate all pixels of the FWA image sensor 202 at factory test, at start-up, or at a predetermined, or user selected time. ).
In view of the motivations such as removing the requirement of mechanical devices to provide relative motion between the sensor and a calibration target thereby further improve image quality during power-on time and one of ordinary skill in the art would have implemented the claimed variation of the prior art system of Houchin.
Therefore, the claimed invention would have been obvious to a person having ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention.
As of Claim 6: Houchin in view of Kaufman in view of Rogalski further teaches the obtainment comprises obtaining at least three calibration tables, so-called calibration tables at three distinct specific temperatures (Kaufman ¶¶0042-0044), and the construction comprises constructing a first correction table containing the calibration information of first and second calibration tables at two successive temperatures according to a first successive order of the calibration tables, and a second correction table containing the calibration information of the second calibration table and a third calibration table at a specific temperature successive to that of the second calibration table according to a second successive order of the calibration tables (Rogalski ¶¶0026-0030 and note that the microprocessor 304 may be responsive to program instruction code stored in the non-volatile memory 306 and may control the various functions of the temperature calibration unit 116. The program instruction code may include a comprehensive calibration scheme, which, may be used to calibrate all pixels of the FWA image sensor 202 at factory test, at start-up, or at a predetermined, or user selected time. ).
As of Claim 10: Houchin in view of Kaufman in view of Rogalski further teaches theRogalski).
As of Claim 11: Houchin in view of Kaufman in view of Rogalski further teaches the reading the calibration information is performed on-the-fly (¶0029,¶0030 of Rogalski and note that during image production, the gain and offset of each pixel output may be calculated using the real-time temperature derived for each pixel and the stored factors. ).
As of Claim 12: Houchin in view of Kaufman in view of Rogalski further teaches the acquisition Rogalski and note that during image production, the gain and offset of each pixel output may be calculated using the real-time temperature derived for each pixel and the stored factors.).
As of Claim 13: Houchin in view of Kaufman in view of Rogalski further teaches said at least one correction table Kaufman ¶¶0042-0044). , a piece of calibration information, the calibration information of the calibration table being organized into a series ordered according to a successive order of the pixels, wherein the method further comprises: - constructing at least one correction table for the image sensor, each correction table containing the calibration information of at least two calibration tables, the calibration information of the correction table is organized into a series ordered according to the successive order of the pixels, and wherein the calibration information of at least one calibration table, so- called calibration table at a specific temperature (Rogalski ¶¶0028,0044 and note that the output of each temperature sensor 204 may be an analog voltage or a digital code, for example, depending on the specific temperature sensor 204 implemented. In an exemplary, non-limiting, embodiment comprising analog temperature sensors 204, the temperature sensor interface 302 may include an analog-to-digital converter, not shown, to convert the analog signal to a digital signal readable by the microprocessor 304. Location of specific components is non-limiting and the components of the calibration unit 116 may be mounted on the image sensor board 110, or in another location within scanner 100, for example.) comprises non-uniformity correction parameters of the image sensor at the specific temperature, and wherein the obtainment comprises obtaining several calibration tables so-called calibration tables at distinct specific temperatures, and the construction comprises constructing at least one correction table (20, 21) containing the calibration information of at least two calibration tables at distinct specific temperatures, and said at least one correction table non-uniformity correction parameters of the image sensor at least at two distinct specific temperatures, the method comprising recording in said at least one memory a list of correspondence between said at least one correction table Rogalski ¶¶0023,0044 and note that as shown in the exemplary schematic diagram in FIG. 2, an FWA image sensor 202 may be mounted on the image sensor board 110. The FWA image sensor 202 may provide a plurality of pixels outputs 208 feeding the video driver and preprocessing unit 114. A plurality of temperature sensors 204 may be mounted at selected intervals along the FWA image sensor 202 and may provide spatially distinct temperature readings 206 of the FWA image sensor 202 to the temperature calibration unit 116. The video driver and preprocessing unit 114 may combine the pixel outputs 208 of the FWA image sensor 202 with the outputs 210 of the calibration unit 116 to create a temperature compensated video output 212.), and wherein the acquisition comprises reading a temperature of the image sensor, and the accessing comprises reading the calibration information contained in the correction table for which the temperature of the image sensor is comprised within the corresponding temperature interval of the correction table (Rogalski ¶¶0026-0030 and note that the microprocessor 304 may be responsive to program instruction code stored in the non-volatile memory 306 and may control the various functions of the temperature calibration unit 116. The program instruction code may include a comprehensive calibration scheme, which, may be used to calibrate all pixels of the FWA image sensor 202 at factory test, at start-up, or at a predetermined, or user selected time. ).
As of Claim 14: Houchin in view of Kaufman in view of Rogalski further teaches after the access and before the application, demultiplexing the calibration information for each pixel (Rogalski ¶¶0023,0025).
As of Claim 16: Houchin in view of Kaufman in view of Rogalski further teaches a first memory comprising at least one correction table Kaufman ¶¶0042-0044).
As of Claim 17: Houchin in view of Kaufman in view of Rogalski further teaches said at least one memory Rogalski ¶¶0026-0030 and note that the microprocessor 304 may be responsive to program instruction code stored in the non-volatile memory 306).
As of Claim 18: Houchin in view of Kaufman in view of Rogalski further teaches an electronic control unitKaufman ¶¶0042-0044), the calibration information of the correction table is organized into a series ordered according to the successive order of the pixels; successively acquiring, according to a successive order of the pixels, image frame data generated by the image sensor; accessing said at least one memory comprising reading the calibration information contained in said at least one correction table; and successively applying, according to the successive order of the pixels, the calibration information contained in said at least one correction table to the image frame data and wherein the electronic control unit comprises an FPGA-type programmable logic circuit (Rogalski ¶¶0026-0030 and note that the microprocessor 304 may be responsive to program instruction code stored in the non-volatile memory 306 and may control the various functions of the temperature calibration unit 116. The program instruction code may include a comprehensive calibration scheme, which, may be used to calibrate all pixels of the FWA image sensor 202 at factory test, at start-up, or at a predetermined, or user selected time. ).
Conclusion
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to MEKONNEN D DAGNEW whose telephone number is (571)270-5092. The examiner can normally be reached on 8:00AM-5:00PM M-Th.
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/MEKONNEN D DAGNEW/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2638
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