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 .
In the response to this Office Action, the Examiner respectfully requests that support be shown for language added to any original claims on amendment and any new claims. That is, indicate support for newly added claim language by specifically pointing to page(s) and line numbers in the specification and/or drawing figure(s). This will assist the Examiner in prosecuting this application.
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 of this title, 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 1-4, 8-11, and 15-17 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over U.S. Patent Application Publication 2021/0227085 A1 to Fielding et al. (hereinafter "Fielding") in view of U.S. Patent Application Publication 2017/0353623 A1 to Ono (hereinafter "Ono").
Regarding Claims 1, 8, and 15, Fielding teaches a method (Abstract; Claim 13; Figs. 1-2; Para. 54-88 of Fielding), a non-transitory computer-readable medium storing executable instructions (Abstract; Figs. 1-2; Para. 54-88 of Fielding), and a system, comprising: a memory component; and a processing device coupled to the memory component (Abstract; Claim 23; Figs. 1-2; Para. 54-106 of Fielding; controller 202 may comprise a memory configured to store the information from the image capture device 210 and/or one or more algorithms used to process the information… machine readable instructions for executing processing of the information may be stored in the memory. The controller may comprise a processor configured to process the captured images from the capture device), the processing device to perform operations comprising: accessing an image captured of an environment comprising a first object illuminated by a plurality of distinct wavelengths of light, each of the distinct wavelengths of light originating from emanating from respective lighting sources at respective distinct directions from the first object (Figs. 1-2; Para. 54-106 of Fielding; illumination source 210 can comprise four illumination modules 212, 214, 216 and 218. The four illumination modules can positioned over and surround the pedestal 250… each of the plurality of illumination modules can comprise one or more light-emitting diodes (LEDs). The LEDs may be configured to emit light in the visible range… the illumination modules may comprise one or more of bar lights, ring lights, and row of lights); detecting boundaries of the first object in the image (Figs. 1-3E, 10; Para. 54-123, 155-156 of Fielding; captured images can be transmitted from the image capture device to the controller 202 for analysis, for example such that a boundary of a document, and/or one or more features of a fastener can be identified… FIG. 3E shows the first staple 302, third staple 306, paper clip 308, binder clip 310, pair of holes 312 on the document 320, and the inner edges 324 and outer edges 322 of the document, as these features are determined to be three-dimensional features captured in the images… In block 1006, images of the document stack are processed to identify edges of a single sheet of document).
Fielding does not explicitly disclose detecting based on color channel data of the image corresponding to one or more of the plurality of distinct wavelengths of light, boundaries of the first object in the image; and annotating the detected boundaries in the image
However, Ono teaches detecting based on color channel data of an image corresponding to one or more of the plurality of distinct wavelengths of light, boundaries of a first object in the image; and annotating the detected boundaries in the image (Para. 23-48 of Ono; Edge 1 corresponds to the color edge, and may be detected by the color edge detection unit 307. Edge 2 corresponds to the complementary-color edge, and may be detected by the complementary-color edge detection unit 309… upstream end portion of the original 102 is strongly irradiated with green irradiation light of the upstream light source 104, and hence becomes an edge (hereinafter referred to as “Edge 1”) colored in green. For the downstream end portion, the green irradiation light of the upstream light source 104 is partially blocked by thickness of the end portion of the original. Therefore, the downstream end portion has a read green luminance value that is small relatively to the upstream end portion, and becomes an edge (hereinafter referred to as “Edge 2”) colored in magenta, which is a complementary color of green. The image reading apparatus 100 according to the first embodiment detects a particular image pattern (for example, image pattern including Edge 1 on the upstream side and Edge 2 on the downstream side in the sub-scanning direction) based on the particular color (for example, green) and the complementary color of the particular color depending on the light amount ratio).
Therefore, at the time when the invention was filed, it would have been obvious to a person of ordinary skill in the art to include detecting based on color channel data of the image corresponding to one or more of the plurality of distinct wavelengths of light, boundaries of the first object in the image; and annotating the detected boundaries in the image using the teachings of Ono in order to modify the method and system taught by Fielding. The motivation to combine these analogous arts would have been to detect, based on image data of an original, a shadow generated in an end portion of the original with high accuracy (Para. 3-8 of Ono).
Regarding Claims 2 and 9, the combination of Fielding and Ono teaches that the plurality of distinct wavelengths of light comprise a red wavelength, a blue wavelength, and a green wavelength (Para. 98-103 of Fielding; illumination source 210 can comprise four illumination modules 212, 214, 216 and 218. The four illumination modules can positioned over and surround the pedestal 250… each of the plurality of illumination modules can comprise one or more light-emitting diodes (LEDs). The LEDs may be configured to emit light in the visible range… the illumination modules may comprise one or more of bar lights, ring lights, and row of lights… Fig. 1; Para. 18 of Ono; Each of the upstream light source 104 and the downstream light source 105 emits light of colors of red, green, and blue).
Regarding Claims 3 and 10, the combination of Fielding and Ono teaches that each of the respective distinct directions of the lighting sources comprises a perpendicular or opposite direction (Para. 98-103 of Fielding; illumination source 210 can comprise four illumination modules 212, 214, 216 and 218. The four illumination modules can positioned over and surround the pedestal 250… each of the plurality of illumination modules can comprise one or more light-emitting diodes (LEDs). The LEDs may be configured to emit light in the visible range… the illumination modules may comprise one or more of bar lights, ring lights, and row of lights).
Regarding Claims 4, 11, and 17, the combination of Fielding and Ono teaches that the distinct wavelengths of light comprise distinct visible wavelengths of light (Para. 98-103 of Fielding; illumination source 210 can comprise four illumination modules 212, 214, 216 and 218. The four illumination modules can positioned over and surround the pedestal 250… each of the plurality of illumination modules can comprise one or more light-emitting diodes (LEDs). The LEDs may be configured to emit light in the visible range… the illumination modules may comprise one or more of bar lights, ring lights, and row of lights… Fig. 1; Para. 18 of Ono; Each of the upstream light source 104 and the downstream light source 105 emits light of colors of red, green, and blue).
Regarding Claim 16, the combination of Fielding and Ono teaches that the plurality of distinct wavelengths of light comprise a red wavelength, a blue wavelength, and a green wavelength and wherein each of the respective distinct directions of the lighting sources comprises a perpendicular or opposite direction (Para. 98-103 of Fielding; illumination source 210 can comprise four illumination modules 212, 214, 216 and 218. The four illumination modules can positioned over and surround the pedestal 250… each of the plurality of illumination modules can comprise one or more light-emitting diodes (LEDs). The LEDs may be configured to emit light in the visible range… the illumination modules may comprise one or more of bar lights, ring lights, and row of lights… Fig. 1; Para. 18 of Ono; Each of the upstream light source 104 and the downstream light source 105 emits light of colors of red, green, and blue).
Allowable Subject Matter
Claims 5-7, 12-14, and 18-20 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.
None of the references, either singularly or in combination, teach or fairly suggest the system of claim 8, wherein detecting boundaries of the first object in the image comprises:
applying, to color channel data of the image associated with one of the distinct wavelength of lights, an edge detection algorithm to determine at least a portion of the boundaries, wherein the color channel data indicates, for each pixel of the image, an intensity of the one of the distinct wavelengths of light at the pixel.
None of the references, either singularly or in combination, teach or fairly suggest the system of claim 8, wherein detecting boundaries of the first object in the image comprises:
applying, to a combination of first color channel data of the image associated with a first distinct wavelength of light of the distinct wavelength of lights and second color channel data of the image associated with a second distinct wavelength of light of the distinct wavelength of lights different from the first distinct wavelength of light, an edge detection algorithm to determine at least a portion of the boundaries, wherein the first color channel data indicates, for each pixel of the image, an intensity of the first distinct wavelength of light at the pixel, and
wherein the second color channel data indicates, for each pixel of the image, an intensity of the second distinct wavelength of light at the pixel.
Any comments considered necessary by applicant must be submitted no later than the payment of the issue fee and, to avoid processing delays, should preferably accompany the issue fee. Such submissions should be clearly labeled “Comments on Statement of Reasons for Allowance.”
Conclusion
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to ABHISHEK SARMA whose telephone number is (571)272-9887. The examiner can normally be reached on Mon - Fri 8:00-5:00.
If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner’s supervisor, Amr Awad can be reached on 571-272-7764. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300.
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/ABHISHEK SARMA/
Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2621
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