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 § 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.
Claim(s) [ 1- 13] are is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Khem (US. 9, 456, 148) in view of Muukki (US. 2015/0015736)
Reclaim [1], Khem discloses an image capturing control method (see fig. 6, all steps) comprising: providing a plurality of candidate capturing algorithms (see 608 fig. 6 and col. 7, lines 42-45, At least a subset of the preliminary images is displayed 608 on a display device, enabling a user to determine which of the preliminary images have satisfactory image quality, [ each displayed preliminary images associated with scene setting as disclosed in steps 602 and 604 in fig. 6]); setting one of the plurality of candidate capturing algorithms as a selected capturing algorithm (see 610 fig. 6 and col. 7 lines 47-49, based upon factors such as algorithm recommendations, previous selection, etc. Upon receiving 610 a selection of at least one of the preliminary images [ by the virtue of by selecting one of the preliminary image setting]); setting a plurality of algorithm parameters of the selected capturing algorithm according to a first input command (see 612 fig. 6 and col. 7 lines 50-56, can be applied 612 to the camera. If more than one image was selected, the device (or software in communication with the device can attempt to determine camera settings that are a blend of the respective scene settings, such as by performing an average, weighted average, or other such combination approach for the values of each of the camera settings used, [ based the selected preliminary imaging parameters, camera setting is applied])); performing an image capturing operation of N image frames to obtain a plurality of captured images according to the plurality of algorithm parameters, wherein N is a positive integer (see steps 614 and 616 fig. 6 and col. 7 lines 56-58, Once these settings are applied, the camera can enable 614 the user to capture one or more images with those setting);
Khem doesn’t seem to explicitly discloses: performing an image processing operation on the plurality of captured images according to the plurality of algorithm parameters to generate an output image.
Nonetheless in the same field of endeavor Muukki discloses an image capturing system as Khem (see Muukki fig. 1). Muukki further discloses performing an image processing operation on the plurality of captured images according to the plurality of algorithm parameters to generate an output image (see ¶¶0093, 0096, the plurality of image processing algorithms selected at block 53 to be performed on the captured images).
Hence it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art to have been motivated to modify Khem before the effective filling date of the claimed invention by the teachings Muukki, for example by reconfiguring the imaging system of Khem as taught in Muukki, since this would allow to perform image processing based a selected image processing algorithm.
Reclaim [2], Khem as modified further discloses, wherein the step of providing the plurality of candidate capturing algorithms comprises: providing a display interface to display the plurality of candidate capturing algorithms (see Khem fig. 3a step 608 fig. 6).
Reclaim [3], Khem as modified further discloses, wherein the step of setting one of the plurality of candidate capturing algorithms as the selected capturing algorithm comprises: receiving a second input command (see Khem col. 7 lines 49-50, the scene settings that were used to capture the image(s) can be applied 612), and selecting one of the plurality of candidate capturing algorithms as the selected capturing algorithm according to the second input command (see Khem step 612 fig. 6).
Reclaim [4], Khem as modified further discloses, wherein before the step of setting the plurality of algorithm parameters of the selected capturing algorithm according to the first input command, the method further comprises: providing a display interface to display the plurality of algorithm parameters (see Khem step 608 fig. 6 and fig. 3a); and providing an input interface to receive the first input command (see Khem fig. 3(a) is a touch screen, user input, see also Khem, col. 4 lines 23-25, such as by touching a corresponding region of a touch screen using a finger 222 ).
Reclaim [5], Khem as modified further discloses, further comprising: performing a preview operation on a capturing scene, and generating the plurality of candidate capturing algorithms according to the capturing scene. (see Khem 606 fig. 6 and fig. 3(a) and col. 5 lines 51-53, For example, FIG. 3(a) illustrates an example situation 300 wherein a user is able to view multiple images 302 that were captured using different scene settings ).
Reclaim [6], Khem doesn’t seem to explicitly discloses wherein the plurality of candidate capturing algorithms comprise at least one of a high dynamic range algorithm and a night capturing algorithm.
Nonetheless in the same field of endeavor Mukki discloses an image capturing system as the combination (see Mukki fig. 1). Mukki further discloses plurality of candidate capturing algorithms comprise at least one of a high dynamic range algorithm and a night capturing algorithm (see ¶¶ 0016, 0063, . high dynamic range (HDR) algorithms, flash-no-flash algorithms, bracketing algorithms such as focus bracketing, multiframe noise filtering, super-resolution, panoramic imaging algorithms, night time imaging algorithms aperture bracketing or any other suitable image processing algorithms).
Hence it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art to have been motivated to modify Khem by the teachings Muukki, for example by reconfiguring the imaging system of the Khem as taught in Muukki since this would allow to capture images for a user desired image processing algorithm.
Reclaim [7], Khem as modified further discloses, wherein when the selected capturing algorithm is the high dynamic range algorithm, the plurality of algorithm parameters comprise the number of the plurality of captured images respectively corresponding to a plurality of exposure values (see Muukki ¶0068, Similarly where the image processing algorithm comprises a HDR algorithm the subset of images may comprise a plurality of images where each of the images has a different exposure value).
Reclaim [8] Khem discloses an electronic device (see fig. 8), comprising: an image capturing device (see 808 fig. 8); and a controller coupled to the image capturing device (see 802 fig. 8), and disposed to: provide a plurality of candidate capturing algorithms (see 608 fig. 6 and col. 7, lines 42-45, At least a subset of the preliminary images is displayed 608 on a display device, enabling a user to determine which of the preliminary images have satisfactory image quality); set one of the plurality of candidate capturing algorithms as a selected capturing algorithm (see 610 fig. 6 and col. 7 lines 47-49, based upon factors such as algorithm recommendations, previous selection, etc. Upon receiving 610 a selection of at least one of the preliminary images); set a plurality of algorithm parameters of the selected capturing algorithm according to a first input command (see 612 fig. 6 and col. 7 lines 50-56, can be applied 612 to the camera. If more than one image was selected, the device (or software in communication with the device) can attempt to determine camera settings that are a blend of the respective scene settings, such as by performing an average, weighted average, or other such combination approach for the values of each of the camera settings used); perform an image capturing operation of N image frames through the image capturing device to obtain a plurality of captured images according to the plurality of algorithm parameters, wherein N is a positive integer (see steps 614 and 616 fig. 6 and col. 7 lines 56-58, Once these settings are applied, the camera can enable 614 the user to capture one or more images with those setting);
Khem doesn’t seem to explicitly discloses: performing an image processing operation on the plurality of captured images according to the plurality of algorithm parameters to generate an output image.
Nonetheless in the same field of endeavor Muukki discloses an image capturing system as Khem (see Muukki fig. 1). Muukki further discloses performing an image processing operation on the plurality of captured images according to the plurality of algorithm parameters to generate an output image (see ¶¶0093, 0096, the plurality of image processing algorithms selected at block 53 to be performed on the captured images).
Hence it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art to have been motivated to modify Khem before the effective filling date of the claimed invention by the teachings Muukki, for example by reconfiguring the imaging system of Khem as taught in Muukki, since this would allow to perform image processing based a selected image processing algorithm.
Reclaim [9] except a few changes in wording has substantially same limitation as claim [2] above, and thus analyzed and rejected by the same reasoning.
Reclaim [10] except a few changes in wording has substantially same limitation as claim [3] above, and thus analyzed and rejected by the same reasoning.
Reclaim [11] except a few changes in wording has substantially same limitation as claim [5] above, and thus analyzed and rejected by the same reasoning.
Reclaim [12] except a few changes in wording has substantially same limitation as claim [6] above, and thus analyzed and rejected by the same reasoning.
Reclaim [13] except a few changes in wording has substantially same limitation as claim [7] above, and thus analyzed and rejected by the same reasoning.
Conclusion
The prior art made of record and not relied upon is considered pertinent to applicant's disclosure. Okamoto (US. PAT. NO. . 7, 508, 438) discloses: The selectable photograph parameters are for determining the conditions when the original image signals of the object image are generated, for example one could be the exposure value. The selectable image process parameters are for determining the conditions when the original image signals undergo image processes so as to obtain photograph images, for example they might be a white balance value, a sharpness value, a saturation value, and a contrast value. In col. 5 lines 2-10
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/AHMED A BERHAN/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2639