DETAILED ACTION
Notice of Pre-AIA or AIA Status
1. 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
2. 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)(2) the claimed invention was described in a patent issued under section 151, or in an application for patent published or deemed published under section 122(b), in which the patent or application, as the case may be, names another inventor and was effectively filed before the effective filing date of the claimed invention.
Claims 1, 2, and 12 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(2) as being anticipated by Lin et al. (U.S. patent pub. 2019/0362199 A1, will be further referred to as Lin).
Regarding claim 1: Lin discloses a method of image enhancement (abstract and paragraph 0052, deblur=read as enhancement), the method comprising:
generating a blur segmentation map comprising indications of blur characteristics of respective pixels of a blur image, wherein the blur characteristics are in predetermined blur characteristic categories and wherein the generating is performed by classifying the blur characteristic of each pixel of the blur image into one of the predetermined blur characteristic categories (abstract, figs. 1, 2a, 2b, 2d, 2e, 3a, and paragraphs 0023-0027, 0032-0037, 0044, 0048-0052, 0059, and 0065. Blur estimation is done pixel wise/level=each pixel);
converting the blur segmentation map into an image residual error corresponding to a blur component of the blur image (paragraphs 0045-0053, especially paragraph 0048 for loss determination. Loss=residual error); and
generating a deblurred image based on the blur image and the image residual error (paragraph 0052, i.e. Image deblur).
Regarding claim 2: The method of claim 1, wherein the indications are feature representations and each feature representation represents the blur characteristic of a corresponding pixel of the blur image (paragraphs 0029-0032, a feature map is determined) .
Regarding claim 12: Lin et al. discloses an electronic device ( figs. 5a and 5b) comprising:
one or more processors (fig. 5a elements 500 and 504); and
a memory storing instructions configured to cause the one or more processors (fig. 5b) to:
generate a blur segmentation map from a blur image by classifying blur characteristics of pixels of the blur image into predetermined blur characteristic categories and storing, in the blur segmentation map, indications of the determined blur characteristic categories of the respective pixels of the blur image (abstract, figs. 1, 2a, 2b, 2d, 2e, 3a, and paragraphs 0023-0027, 0032-0037, 0044, 0048-0052, 0059, and 0065);
generate an image residual error based on the blur segmentation map, the image residual error corresponding to a blur component of the blur image (paragraphs 0045-0053, especially paragraph 0048 for loss determination. Loss=residual error); and
generate a deblurred image by applying the image residual error to the blur image to remove the blur component of the blur image (paragraph 0052, i.e. Image deblur).
Allowable Subject Matter
3. Claims 3-11 and 13-18 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.
4. Claims 19-20 are allowed.
Contact Information
5. Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to ANAND BHATNAGAR whose telephone number is (571)272-7416. The examiner can normally be reached on M-F 7:30am-4:00pm.
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If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner’s supervisor, Vu Le can be reached on 571-272-4650. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300.
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/ANAND P BHATNAGAR/
Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2668
September 17, 2026
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