DETAILED ACTION
Claim Objections
Claim 1 is objected to because of the following informalities: in step (3), “blackand-white image” is claimed, where there is a hyphen missing between “black” and “and”. Appropriate correction is required.
Claim 1 is further objected to because of the following informalities: the phrase “the aforementioned process” refers to a “process” that has not previously been expressly identified in the claim. Applicant is requested to clarify the phrase by identifying the particular preceding processing to which it refers. Appropriate correction is required.
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 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over CN109658341 et al in view of Adobe Photoshop NPL (https://whsdigitalmedia.weebly.com/uploads/1/3/1/0/13103434/_ps_howto_correct_color.pdf), in further view of Kuniba (US 8103119).
Regarding claim 1, CN109658341 discloses an image processing method (abstract: method for enhancing image contrast), comprising the following steps:
(1) converting an original image to RGB color space (abstract: convert a source image from RGB space)
4) converting the original image to YUV color space, YCbCr color space, or YPbPr color space (pg. 5 s10, converting the source image from the RGB color space to the YCbCr color space;);
(5) replacing the luminance of the red region of the black-and-white image that has been brightened using the red-enhancing filter with a luminance (Y) of the red region of the YUV color space, the YCbCr color space, or the YPbPr color space of the original image (pg. 5 the luminance signal (Y) and the chrominance signals (Cr and Cb) are independent of each other, and when the luminance component Y is enhanced, the chrominance signals are not affected; pg. 6 S11, acquiring a brightness component Y, a blue chrominance component Cb and a red chrominance component Cr of the source image in a YCbCr space; s12, adjusting the brightness component Y to obtain a processed image; fusing the dark-area detail image and the bright-area detail image by adopting a pulse coupling neural network model to obtain a brightness component Y1 with enhanced contrast; the contrast-enhanced luminance component Y1, the blue chrominance component Cb, and the red chrominance component Cr constitute the processed image); and
CN109658341 fails to teach where Adobe Photoshop teaches 2) converting the image converted to RGB color space to grayscale by determining weights for red (R), yellow (Ye), green (G), cyan (C), blue (B), and magenta (M) hues (pg. 5 Converting images to black and white: The Black & White adjustment enables you to convert a color image to grayscale while maintaining full control over how individual colors are converted; Fig. 9 Properties panel with Black & White options, including weights for red, yellow, green, cyan, blue, and magenta);
(3) using a red-enhancing filter to enhance a luminance ratio (Y1) of a red region of a blackand-white image when converting to the grayscale (Fig. 9 Properties panel with Black & White options, including independently adjusting weights for red);
CN109658341 fails to teach where Kuniba teaches (6) equalizing the contrast to return the gradation that has been expanded by the aforementioned process to a natural brightness range ( col 10 lines 27-30 by increasing the luminance of the dark portion and decreasing the luminance of the bright portion in the image, the whole image can be corrected to natural brightness; col 10 lines 40-43 gradation correction of each pixel can be performed such that the input RGB image as a whole is made at natural brightness.).
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one with ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the invention to have implemented the teaching of 2) converting the image converted to RGB color space to grayscale by determining weights for red (R), yellow (Ye), green (G), cyan (C), blue (B), and magenta (M) hues and (3) using a red-enhancing filter to enhance a luminance ratio (Y1) of a red region of a blackand-white image when converting to the grayscale from Adobe Photoshop, and the teaching of equalizing the contrast to return the gradation that has been expanded by the aforementioned process to a natural brightness range from Kuniba, into the image processing method as disclosed by CN109658341. The motivation for doing this is to improve image processing techniques including color quality adjusting in images and gradation correction in images.
Conclusion
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/KEVIN KY/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2671
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