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) 1-6 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Yoshino et al. (US 2005/0174457) in view of Jang (US 2010/0289923).
Regarding claims 1, 5, 6, Yoshino et al. figs. 1, 5, discloses an image processing apparatus that causes an image to be displayed, the image processing apparatus comprising: one or more processors; and one or more memories storing instructions that, when executed, cause the one or more processors to perform (the image processor 20, an image display memory 24); causing a plurality of low-resolution images to be displayed; selecting an image from the plurality of low-resolution images based on a user selecting instruction; causing the selected image to be displayed in a predetermined size (When an image (JPEG file) stored in a recording medium is to be displayed, low resolution image data in 640.times.480 pixel size equivalent to the resolution of the display unit and high resolution image data in an original high resolution indicated with the image file are generated. In the initial stage, the low resolution image data is displayed) (FIG. 4, if an image to be reproduced requires rotation, first, 640.times.480 pixel low resolution image data and high resolution image data are generated in the memory 30. Then the low resolution image data is rotate-processed, then further compressed to the 360.times.480 pixel size, then transferred to the image display memory 24 and is displayed); enlarging the selected image being displayed in the predetermined size ([0125] First, at step S20, it is determined whether the request is an enlargement or compression request. If it is determined that the request is an enlargement request, the process proceeds to step S21, at which it is determined whether or not the current enlargement ratio .alpha. is a maximum scaling .alpha.max. If it is determined that the current enlargement ratio is .alpha.max, as further enlargement cannot be made, the request is ignored. The process returns to step S9 (FIG. 5). [0126] Further, if it is determined that the current enlargement ratio .alpha. is lower than the maximum scaling .alpha.max, the process proceeds to step S22, at which the scaling is increased by .DELTA..alpha. (positive value). The value .DELTA..alpha. may be any value. However, as the number of operations to display in the maximum scaling increases if a small value is used, the value is 25% in the present embodiment. As the resolution of the image display unit 28 is 640.times.480 pixels and that of the image sensing device is 2592.times.1944 pixels, the number of enlargement steps is 16. [0127] When the enlargement ratio has been determined, the process proceeds to step S23, at which the cut out size from the high resolution image data is determined with the enlargement central position Q at that time. At step S24, the cut image is resized to 640.times.480 pixels, and at step S25, the resized image data is transferred to the image display memory 24 and is displayed); causing the high-resolution image to be displayed at a position where the selected image is displayed after the acquisition of the high-resolution image is completed (The rotated high resolution image data is overwritten in the memory 24. When the rotation processing has been completed, an area defined with the cut out positions P1 and P2 is cut out, then the image, resized to 640.times.480 pixels corresponding to the display resolution of the image display unit 28, is generated in the memory 30, then transferred to the image display memory 24 and is displayed).
However, Yoshino et al. (US 2005/0174457) is silent about acquiring a high-resolution image associated with the selected image from an external apparatus based on a user enlarging instruction.
It would have been obvious to the skilled in the art before the effective filing date to provide acquiring a high-resolution image associated with the selected image from an external apparatus based on a user enlarging instruction, in Yoshino et al., as suggested Jang (US 2010/0289923), the motivation in order to reproduce images on an external display apparatus connectable to the digital image processing.
Regarding claim 2, the combination Yoshino et al. figs. 1, 5, and Jang (US 2010/0289923), discloses the image processing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the user enlarging instruction is based on at least one operation of a click operation, a pinch-in, a pinch-out, a change in line of sight, and a change in open and close states of eyelids (Yoshino et al. [0056] Among the display contents of the display unit 54, contents displayed on the LCD or the like are single-shot/continuous-shot image sensing, a self-timer, a compression ratio, the number of recording pixels, the number of recorded images, the number of recordable images, a shutter speed, an aperture value, exposure correction, flash, pink-eye effect mitigation, macro image sensing, a buzzer, a timer battery level, a battery level, an error, information by plural digits of numeric characters, an attached/detached status of recording media 200 and 210, an communication I/F operation, date and time, and the like).
Regarding claim 3, the combination Yoshino et al. figs. 1, 3, 5, and Jang (US 2010/0289923), discloses the image processing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the plurality of low-resolution images is sequentially displayed in response to a swipe operation by a user (Further, as shown in FIG. 4, if an image to be reproduced requires rotation, first, 640.times.480 pixel low resolution image data and high resolution image data are generated in the memory 30. Then the low resolution image data is rotate-processed, then further compressed to the 360.times.480 pixel size, then transferred to the image display memory 24 and is displayed….That is, in a case where only the left switch 305 and the right switch 306 of the operation disk 310 are operated to sequentially display images, low resolution image data are utilized as shown in FIGS. 3 and 4. As a result, regarding the frame advance/reverse operation with high frequency of use, image display updating can be performed without user discomfort) pars. 59, 67).
Regarding claim 4, the combination Yoshino et al. figs. 1, 5, and Jang (US 2010/0289923), discloses the image processing apparatus according to claim1, wherein the high-resolution image is acquired from the external apparatus via a network (see Jang pars. 78, 97).
Conclusion
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to Van N Chow whose telephone number is (571)272-7590. The examiner can normally be reached M-F 10-6PM.
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/VAN N CHOW/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2627