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 .
Prior arts cited in this office action:
Niu et al. (US 20210291737 A1, hereinafter “Niu”)
Zhang et al. (US 20170294001 A1, hereinafter “Zhang”)
Wang et al. (CN 117029790 A, hereinafter “Wang”)
Zhang et al. (CN 116681628 A, hereinafter “Zhang2”)
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.
The factual inquiries for establishing a background for determining obviousness under 35 U.S.C. 103 are summarized as follows:
1. Determining the scope and contents of the prior art.
2. Ascertaining the differences between the prior art and the claims at issue.
3. Resolving the level of ordinary skill in the pertinent art.
4. Considering objective evidence present in the application indicating obviousness or nonobviousness.
Claims 1, 3-7, 15, 17-20 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Niu et al. (US 20210291737 A1, hereinafter “Niu”) and in view of Zhang et al. (US 20170294001 A1, hereinafter “Zhang”).
Regarding claims 1 and 15:
Niu teaches A monitoring system for monitoring an operator of a vehicle, comprising:
an electro-optic element (Niu [0003], [0006], [0035], figs. 3-6 and 8, where Niu teaches in some embodiments, the rearview assembly may further comprise an electro-optic element. The electro-optic element may be disposed in the first direction relative to the light diffuser. Further, the electro-optic element may comprise a first substrate, a second substate, a first electrode, a second electrode, and an electro-optic medium.) comprising:
a first substrate having a first surface and a second surface, the second surface having a first electrode (Niu [0003], [0006], [0035]- [0036], figs. 3-6 and 8, where Niu teaches First substrate 410 comprises a first surface 411 and a second surface 412);
a second substrate having a third surface and a fourth surface, the second substrate disposed in a spaced apart relationship relative to the first substrate such that the second and third surfaces face one another, the third surface having a second electrode (Niu [0003], [0006], [0035]- [0036], figs. 3-6 and 8, where Niu teaches As shown in FIG. 4, electro-optic element 310 may comprise a first substrate 410, a second substrate 220, a first electrode 230, a second electrode 440, a seal 450, a chamber 460, and/or an electro-optic medium 470. Additionally, in embodiments where rearview assembly 100 comprises electro-optic element 310, transflective element 130 may be disposed in the second direction 102 relative electro-optic medium 470); and
an electro-optic medium disposed between the first and second substrates (Niu [0003], [0006], [0035]- [0036], figs. 3-6 and 8, where Niu teaches As shown in FIG. 4, electro-optic element 310 may comprise a first substrate 410, a second substrate 220, a first electrode 230, a second electrode 440, a seal 450, a chamber 460, and/or an electro-optic medium 470. Additionally, in embodiments where rearview assembly 100 comprises electro-optic element 310, transflective element 130 may be disposed in the second direction 102 relative electro-optic medium 470);
an illumination source configured to emit light through the electro-optic element
toward the operator of the vehicle (Niu [0003], [0006], [0030]-[0036], figs. 3-6 and 8, where Niu teaches as shown in FIG. 4,;
an image sensor configured to image a scene through the electro-optic element,
wherein the scene includes the operator of the vehicle (Niu [0003], [0006], [0030]-[0036], [0059]-[0061], figs. 3-6 and 8, where Niu teaches in some such embodiments, the rearview assembly may further comprise an imager operable to image in the second wavelength range. Imaging system 800 may comprise a rearview assembly 810, an imager 820, and a controller 830. Further, imaging system 800 may accordingly be disposed in a vehicle interior. Further, imager 820 has an optical axis 821. Optical axis 821 may be a straight line intersecting a center of a lens of imager 820, and a center of the image sensor. Imager 820 may be disposed such that optical axis 821 and central emission trajectory 811 intersect in an area where driver 840 and/or the driver's head is likely to be located.;
Niu fails to teach a controller configured to:
receive a first image from the image sensor, the first image being
represented in a spatial domain and having artifacts present;
perform a transformation on the first image to create a transformed
image in a domain other than the spatial domain in which the first image was
represented;
apply a mask to the transformed image to remove artifacts as they
appear in the transformed image, wherein the mask is applied at an anticipated
location of the artifacts within the transformed image based, at least in part, on
a cell spacing between the first and second substrates; and
perform an inverse transformation on the masked transformed image to
obtain an output image where the artifacts are not present.
However, Zang teaches A method for reducing ringing artifacts in an X-ray image, comprising: acquiring an X-ray image by scanning an object, wherein the X-ray image comprises grid line artifacts; applying a first bandwidth filter and a second bandwidth filter respectively to the X-ray image so as to obtain a filtered first image and a filtered second image, wherein the first bandwidth filter and the second bandwidth filter have different bandwidths; constructing a weighting map according to the X-ray image; and fusing the filtered first image and the filtered second image with the weighting map so as to obtain an output image.
wherein applying the first bandwidth filter and the second bandwidth filter respectively to the X-ray image comprises: performing a Fourier transform to convert the X-ray image in a spatial domain to an X-ray image in a frequency domain; applying the first bandwidth filter and the second bandwidth filter respectively to the X-ray image in the frequency domain so as to obtain a filtered first image and a filtered second image in the frequency domain; and performing an inverse Fourier transform to convert the filtered first image and the filtered second image in the frequency domain back to the spatial domain (Zang claims 1 and 2).
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the application to convert the image into the frequency domain to remove the noise or the artifact and convert the image back to spatial domain, since it is easier and/or less costly to remove this type of artifact in the frequency domain instead of the spatial domain where the image was capture.
Regarding claims 3 and 17:
Niu in view of Zhang teaches wherein the controller performs the transformation of the first image to create the transformed image in the frequency domain (Zhang claim 2).
Regarding claims 4 and 18:
Niu in view of Zhang teaches wherein the controller performs the transformation of the first image by performing a Fourier Transform on the first image (Zhang claim 2).
Regarding claims 5 and 19:
Niu in view of Zhang teaches wherein the Fourier Transform is a Fast Fourier Transform (Zhang claim 2).
Regarding claims 6 and 20:
Niu in view of Zhang teaches wherein the controller performs the inverse transformation of the masked transformed image by performing an inverse Fourier Transform on the masked transformed image (Zhang claim 2).
Regarding claim 7:
Niu in view of Zhang teaches wherein the electro-optic medium is an electrochromic medium (Niu [0041]).
Claims 2 and 8-13 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Niu et al. (US 20210291737 A1, hereinafter “Niu”) in view of Zang et al. (US 20170294001 A1, hereinafter “Zhang”) and in view of Wang et al. (CN 117029790 A, hereinafter “Wang”).
Regarding claim 8:
Claim 8 contains similar limitations to claim 1 and is therefore rejected on the same ground as claim 1 above.
The combination fails to teach wherein the filter is applied at an anticipated location of the artifacts within the transformed image based, at least in part, on a frequency of the light emitted from the illumination source.
However, Wang teaches the pre-treatment comprises filtering, noise reduction, white balance, distortion treatment and affine transformation. the operation of filtering the frequency of the specific wave band in the signal through filtering is used for inhibiting and preventing interference, noise reduction is used for removing interference factor, white balance to correct colour temperature, reducing the colour of the collecting main body, making the image shot under different light source condition to be similar to the image colour watched by human eyes, the affine transformation is transformed from one two-dimensional coordinate system to another two-dimensional coordinate system, belonging to the linear transformation (Wang [0019], [0047]).
Therefore, taking the teachings of Niu, Zhang and Wang as a whole, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art to applied the filter as a specific location corresponding to the frequency of the light emitted from the illumination source, since location of the noise, the artifact or the reflection in the resulting image is based on the light frequency of the illumination source, therefore performing the artifact/noise/reflection removal where it is expected to occur in the image while other area is not affected by the filtering process
Regarding claims 2 and 9:
Niu in view of Zhang and in view of Wang teaches wherein the anticipated location of the artifacts in the transformed image is also based on a cell spacing between the two substrates of the electro-optic element ((Niu [0003], [0006], [0035]- [0036], figs. 3-6 and 8; Zang claims 1 and 2; Wang [0019], [0047], where both cell spacing and the frequency affect the location of the artifact/noise).
Regarding claim 10:
Niu in view of Zhang and in view of Wang teaches wherein the controller performs the transformation of the first image to create the transformed image in the frequency domain (Zhang claim 2).
Regarding claim 11:
Niu in view of Zhang and in view of Wang teaches wherein the controller performs the transformation of the first image by performing a Fourier Transform on the first image (Zhang claim 2).
Regarding claim 12:
Niu in view of Zhang and in view of Wang teaches wherein the Fourier Transform is a Fast Fourier Transform (Zhang claim 2).
Regarding claim 13:
Niu in view of Zhang and in view of Wang teaches wherein the controller performs the inverse transformation of the filtered transformed image by performing an inverse Fourier Transform on the filtered transformed image (Zhang claim 2).
Claims 14 and 16 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Niu et al. (US 20210291737 A1, hereinafter “Niu”) in view of Zhang et al. (US 20170294001 A1, hereinafter “Zhang”) in view of Wang et al. (CN 117029790 A, hereinafter “Wang”) and in view of Zhang et al. (CN 116681628 A, hereinafter “Zhang2”).
Regarding claims 14 and 16:
Niu in view of Zhang and in view of Wang fails to teach wherein the filter is a mask.
However, Shang2 teaches Specifically, a filter mask is created in the frequency domain according to the position information of the discrete high-frequency noise point, and the frequency domain region corresponding to the discrete high-frequency noise point is set to zero. The filter design methods, such as Butterworth filters, Gaussian filters and the like, can be used to select appropriate filter parameters according to the characteristics of the high frequency noise point. The second high frequency filter is generated according to the filter mask and the filter parameter. The business license image data is converted to a frequency domain, for example using a Fourier transform. applying the second high frequency filter to the frequency domain image data, removing the discrete high frequency noise point component by multiplying or convoluting with the frequency domain image data. The filtered frequency-domain image data is inversely transformed back into the spatial domain, for example, using Fourier inverse transformation to obtain second high-frequency de-noising image data.
Therefore, taking the teachings of Niu, Zang, Wang and Zang2 as a whole, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before ethe effective filing date of the application for the filter used to be a mask, since it is a well-known technique in the art and when applied provided predictable result such as suppressing the noise, the artifact or other undesired element in the image.
Conclusion
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to WEDNEL CADEAU whose telephone number is (571)270-7843. The examiner can normally be reached Mon-Fri 9:00-5:00.
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If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner’s supervisor, Chieh Fan can be reached at 571-272-3042. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300.
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/WEDNEL CADEAU/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2632 September 11, 2026
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