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
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.
Claims 1-17 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Kano et al. (Kano) (US 9,172,828 B2) in view of Iguchi et al. (Iguchi) (US 2016/0080648 A1).
Regarding claim 1, Kano discloses a computer-implemented method programmed for execution in a computing environment for recommending a size of substrate to be used in conjunction with a digital image to form a print product (e.g., FIG. 2, the image display apparatus 10 constituting the print system 1 has various drives for reading a removable recording medium provided by a user. Specifically, the image display apparatus has a universal serial bus (USB) flash memory reader 11 for reading image data stored in a storage device using a semiconductor memory such as a flash memory as a storage device, paragraph 16), the method comprising:
a) providing a digital image (e.g., via a USB interface, an optical disc drive 12 for reading image data from an optical disc such as a compact disc (CD) and a digital versatile disk (DVD), paragraph 16);
b) providing a list of available substrates stored in a memory (e.g., When a medium from which image data is read is selected, a print menu screen 51 as shown in FIG. 4 is displayed on the display unit 15a. The print menu screen 51 is used for selecting a print method for read image data. For example, the print menu screen displays print size select icons 51a representative of an L size (127 mm×89 mm), a KG size (152 mm×102 mm), a 2L size (178 mm×127 mm) and an A4 size (297 mm×210 mm), paragraph 35);
c) utilizing a processor, analyzing the digital image to identify at least one image characteristic included in the digital image (e.g., a image memory 16 for temporarily storing image data to be displayed on the touch panel 15, a storage unit 17 for storing log data such as the number of print copies and the number of use times of a template such as a frame to be formed at the periphery of image data when the image is printed, a ROM 18 for storing a control program for the entire operation, a template such as a frame ornamenting image data, a table of characters and symbols to be added to image data, paragraph 17);
d) utilizing the processor, automatically selecting a size of substrate to be used to form a print product based on the identified at least one image characteristic (e.g., The print size select icons 51a are used for deciding a print size. The control unit 21 sets the selected size as a default size, and prints the selected image data at the default size set with the print size select icon 51a unless a user does not perform a size change operation for each image data, paragraph 36);
f) displaying the identified at least one type of substrate corresponding to the selected size of substrate on a display (e.g., The recording paper feeding unit 35 has a transfer roller, a plurality of drive rollers and the like, and feeds recording paper such as roll paper from a paper feed unit to a paper eject unit via the thermal head 31. In order to form an image, it is necessary to sequentially transfer the yellow, cyan, magenta and laminate films on recording paper. Therefore, the recording paper feeding unit 35 first thermally transfer yellow on recording paper by synchronously transferring the recording paper with the ink ribbon, then transfers the recording paper in a reverse direction to align a paper top position to thereafter thermally transfer cyan on yellow, and further transfers the recording paper in a reverse direction to align a paper top position to thereafter thermally transfer magenta on cyan. This operation is repeated so that thermal transfer on the recording paper can be achieved in the order of the yellow, cyan, magenta and laminated films, paragraph 32).
Kano does not specifically disclose automatically identifying at least one type of substrate from the list of available substrates utilizing the processor based on the selected at least one size of substrate.
Iguchi discloses automatically identifying at least one type of substrate from the list of available substrates utilizing the processor based on the selected at least one size of substrate (e.g., the term “print medium” not only includes a paper sheet used in common printing apparatuses, but also broadly includes materials, such as cloth, a plastic film, a metal plate, glass, ceramics, wood, and leather, capable of accepting ink, paragraph 34).
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art at the time of the invention to have modified Kano to include automatically identifying at least one type of substrate from the list of available substrates utilizing the processor based on the selected at least one size of substrate as taught by Iguchi. It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art at the time of the invention to have modified Kano by the teaching of Iguchi to apply for a particular application.
Regarding claim 2, Kano discloses further comprising the step of:
g) allowing for the selection of the identified at least one type of substrate corresponding to the selected at least one size of substrate for fulfillment to produce the print product including the digital image disposed on the selected at least one size and type of substrate (e.g., shown in FIG. 2, the printer apparatus 30 connected to the image display apparatus 10 via the printer I/F 22 has a thermal head 31 for forming a color image on standard paper by sublimating dye in an ink ribbon, a print data generator unit 32 for generating print data to be printed from image data inputted from the printer I/F 22 of the image display apparatus 10, a head control unit 33 for drive controlling the thermal head 31, an ink ribbon transport unit 34 for transporting an ink ribbon, and a recording paper feeding unit 35 for transferring recording paper, paragraph 28).
Regarding claim 3, Kano discloses wherein the step of providing a digital image includes receiving the digital image from a remote computing device over a network (e.g., via a USB interface, an optical disc drive 12 for reading image data from an optical disc such as a compact disc (CD) and a digital versatile disk (DVD), paragraph 16).
Regarding claim 4, Kano discloses wherein the step of providing the digital image includes receiving the digital image from an external memory storage device (e.g., the touch panel 15 displays a plurality of image data stored in a USB flash memory, optical disc, and a memory card and the like in thumbnail form, and allows a user to select one or more displayed thumbnail images. The touch panel 15 also allows a user to select a plurality of frames to be synthesized with image data of a selected thumbnail image, and characters and character colors to be added to each frame, paragraph 20).
Regarding claim 5, Kano discloses wherein the external memory storage device includes a thumb drive, a memory card, or a memory of a mobile computing device, (e.g., paragraph 20).
Regarding claim 6, Kano discloses wherein the at least one image characteristic includes at least one of colors, density, saturation, resolution, hue, tint, shade, tone, chromaticity, intensity, lightness, luminosity, brightness, or greyscale (e.g., The ink ribbon transport unit 34 transports an ink ribbon wound around a supply reel and a winding reel to a ribbon cartridge. For example, the ink ribbon has yellow, cyan, magenta and laminate films disposed in this order, frame sequentially along a transport direction, and one photograph is formed on recording paper by a set of yellow, cyan, magenta and laminate films, paragraph 31).
Regarding claim 7, Iguchi discloses wherein each of the substrates included in the list of available substrates include a plurality of characteristics, wherein the plurality of characteristics includes a substrate material type, thickness, texture, or surface sheen (e.g., the term “print medium” not only includes a paper sheet used in common printing apparatuses, but also broadly includes materials, such as cloth, a plastic film, a metal plate, glass, ceramics, wood, and leather, capable of accepting ink, paragraph 34).
Regarding claim 8, Kano discloses wherein the substrate material type includes a paper based substrate (e.g., the ink ribbon has yellow, cyan, magenta and laminate films disposed in this order, frame sequentially along a transport direction, and one photograph is formed on recording paper by a set of yellow, cyan, magenta and laminate films, paragraph 31).
Regarding claim 9, Kano discloses wherein the paper based substrate includes at least one of plain office paper, wet-processes photo paper, dye diffusion thermal transfer paper, swellable inkjet coated paper, porous inkjet coated paper, or fine art inkjet paper (e.g., The recording paper feeding unit 35 has a transfer roller, a plurality of drive rollers and the like, and feeds recording paper such as roll paper from a paper feed unit to a paper eject unit via the thermal head 31. In order to form an image, it is necessary to sequentially transfer the yellow, cyan, magenta and laminate films on recording paper. Therefore, the recording paper feeding unit 35 first thermally transfer yellow on recording paper by synchronously transferring the recording paper with the ink ribbon, then transfers the recording paper in a reverse direction to align a paper top position to thereafter thermally transfer cyan on yellow, and further transfers the recording paper in a reverse direction to align a paper top position to thereafter thermally transfer magenta on cyan, paragraph 32).
Regarding claim 10, Iguchi discloses wherein the substrate material type includes a non-paper based substrate (e.g., the term “print medium” not only includes a paper sheet used in common printing apparatuses, but also broadly includes materials, such as cloth, a plastic film, a metal plate, glass, ceramics, wood, and leather, capable of accepting ink, paragraph 34).
Regarding claim 11, Iguchi discloses wherein the non-paper based substrate includes at least one of metal, acrylic, or wood (e.g., the term “print medium” not only includes a paper sheet used in common printing apparatuses, but also broadly includes materials, such as cloth, a plastic film, a metal plate, glass, ceramics, wood, and leather, capable of accepting ink, paragraph 34).
Regarding claim 12, Iguchi discloses wherein the substrate size is a length and a width of the at least one substrate (e.g., the term “print medium” not only includes a paper sheet used in common printing apparatuses, but also broadly includes materials, such as cloth, a plastic film, a metal plate, glass, ceramics, wood, and leather, capable of accepting ink, paragraph 34).
Regarding claim 13, Kano discloses further comprising the step of allowing for the selection of a display location for the print product, wherein the step of automatically identifying the at least one substrate is further based on the display location (e.g., The present invention relates to an image display apparatus for displaying an image to be printed, and more particularly to an image display apparatus capable of reading an image from an external storage medium, editing the image, and printing the edited image with a printer apparatus, paragraph 3).
Regarding claim 14, Kano discloses a computer system for recommending a size of substrate to be used in conjunction with a digital image to form a print product (e.g., FIG. 2, the image display apparatus 10 constituting the print system 1 has various drives for reading a removable recording medium provided by a user. Specifically, the image display apparatus has a universal serial bus (USB) flash memory reader 11 for reading image data stored in a storage device using a semiconductor memory such as a flash memory as a storage device, paragraph 16), the system comprising:
a processor configured for being used in conjunction with the substrate recommender module to: (i) analyze a digital image to identify at least one image characteristic included in the digital image (e.g., a image memory 16 for temporarily storing image data to be displayed on the touch panel 15, a storage unit 17 for storing log data such as the number of print copies and the number of use times of a template such as a frame to be formed at the periphery of image data when the image is printed, a ROM 18 for storing a control program for the entire operation, a template such as a frame ornamenting image data, a table of characters and symbols to be added to image data, paragraph 17);
automatically select a size of substrate to be used to form a print product based on the identified at least one image characteristic (e.g., The print size select icons 51a are used for deciding a print size. The control unit 21 sets the selected size as a default size, and prints the selected image data at the default size set with the print size select icon 51a unless a user does not perform a size change operation for each image data, paragraph 36); and
a user interface configured for displaying the identified at least one type of substrate corresponding to the selected size of substrate (e.g., The recording paper feeding unit 35 has a transfer roller, a plurality of drive rollers and the like, and feeds recording paper such as roll paper from a paper feed unit to a paper eject unit via the thermal head 31. In order to form an image, it is necessary to sequentially transfer the yellow, cyan, magenta and laminate films on recording paper. Therefore, the recording paper feeding unit 35 first thermally transfer yellow on recording paper by synchronously transferring the recording paper with the ink ribbon, then transfers the recording paper in a reverse direction to align a paper top position to thereafter thermally transfer cyan on yellow, and further transfers the recording paper in a reverse direction to align a paper top position to thereafter thermally transfer magenta on cyan. This operation is repeated so that thermal transfer on the recording paper can be achieved in the order of the yellow, cyan, magenta and laminated films, paragraph 32).
Kano does not specifically disclose a computer memory having a substrate recommender module and a list of available substrates stored therein; automatically identify at least one type of substrate from the list of available substrates based on the selected at least one size of substrate.
Iguchi discloses a computer memory having a substrate recommender module and a list of available substrates stored therein; automatically identify at least one type of substrate from the list of available substrates based on the selected at least one size of substrate (e.g., the term “print medium” not only includes a paper sheet used in common printing apparatuses, but also broadly includes materials, such as cloth, a plastic film, a metal plate, glass, ceramics, wood, and leather, capable of accepting ink, paragraph 34).
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art at the time of the invention to have modified Kano to include a computer memory having a substrate recommender module and a list of available substrates stored therein; automatically identify at least one type of substrate from the list of available substrates based on the selected at least one size of substrate as taught by Iguchi. It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art at the time of the invention to have modified Kano by the teaching of Iguchi to apply for a particular application.
Regarding claim 15, Kano discloses a computer system in accordance with claim 14, wherein the user interface is configured to allow for the selection of the identified at least one type of substrate corresponding to the selected at least one size of substrate for fulfillment to produce the print product including the digital image disposed on the selected at least one size and type of substrate (e.g., shown in FIG. 2, the printer apparatus 30 connected to the image display apparatus 10 via the printer I/F 22 has a thermal head 31 for forming a color image on standard paper by sublimating dye in an ink ribbon, a print data generator unit 32 for generating print data to be printed from image data inputted from the printer I/F 22 of the image display apparatus 10, a head control unit 33 for drive controlling the thermal head 31, an ink ribbon transport unit 34 for transporting an ink ribbon, and a recording paper feeding unit 35 for transferring recording paper, paragraph 28).
Regarding claim 16, claim 16 is a non-transitory readable medium claim with the same or similar claim limitations or features as recited in claim 1. Therefore, claim 16 is rejected as set forth above as claim 1.
Regarding claim 17, claim 17 is a non-transitory readable medium claim with the same or similar claim limitations or features as recited in claim 2. Therefore, claim 17 is rejected as set forth above as claim 2.
Conclusion
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to QUANG N VO whose telephone number is (571)270-1121. The examiner can normally be reached Monday-Friday, 7AM-4PM, EST.
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If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner’s supervisor, Abderrahim Merouan can be reached at 571-270-5254. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300.
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/QUANG N VO/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2683
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