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.
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.
Claim(s) 21-30 and 33-38 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Tsukioka (U.S. PG-PUB NO. 2003/0231251) in view of Iwane (U.S. PG-PUB NO. 2015/0092034).
-Regarding claim 21, Tsukioka discloses a vision system (FIG. 1), comprising: a digital camera configured to capture image frames at a given frame rate (single-chip color image sensor 102 capable of intermittent readout, [0032]); a processor configured with an integrated software package and at least, a first image frame buffer and a second image frame buffer (intermittence interpolation circuit 105, buffer 111, buffer 103, [0032]-[0034]); the first image frame buffer configured to collect an image frame captured by the digital camera, and on a subsequent cycle of the frame rate, collect a new image frame from the digital camera while sending a previously collected image frame to the second image frame buffer (obtaining the signals of each line into the buffer 103, the signal values read out at (1) and (3) are added and averaged between lines. Such averaging between the lines is performed in the intermittence interpolation circuit 105 and result of the processing is stored to the buffer 111 within the intermittence interpolation circuit 105, [0042]); and a display, configured to output a weighted composite image (display circuit 109, [0032]).
Tsukioka is silent to teaching that the second image frame buffer configured to receive the previously collected image frame, receive subsequently captured image frames, and accumulate pixel information, wherein the accumulated pixel information forms a composite image. However, the claimed limitation is well known in the art as evidenced by Iwane.
In the same field of endeavor, Iwane teaches the second image frame buffer configured to receive the previously collected image frame, receive subsequently captured image frames, and accumulate pixel information, wherein the accumulated pixel information forms a composite image (adder 73 receives image data from the frame memory FM1-FMm selected by the frame selector 72, and adds and averages the pixel signals Q1i and Q2i for each of the pixels to acquire an arithmetic mean, [0109]).
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skills in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to combine the teaching of Tsukioka with the teaching of Iwane in order to increase the number of temporally averaged frames and thereby further suppress image noise.
-Regarding claim 22, the combination further discloses the second buffer is configured to accumulate pixel information by temporally merging pixel information of each received image frame (Iwane, [0109]).
-Regarding claim 23, the combination further discloses the second buffer is configured to accumulate pixel information by averaging pixel information of each received image frame (Iwane, [0109]).
-Regarding claim 24, the combination further discloses the weighted composite image comprises weighted output image portions from the first image buffer and weighted output image portions from the second image buffer (Tsukioka, motion detection, [0049]-[0050]; Iwane, [0109]).
-Regarding claim 25, the combination further discloses the weighted output image portions from the first image buffer contain moving image portions, and the weighted output image portions from the second image buffer contain static image portions (Tsukioka, motion detection, [0049]-[0050]; Iwane, [0109]).
-Regarding claim 26, the combination further discloses a spatially sensitive dynamic filter configured to determine static and moving image portions of the captured image frames (Tsukioka, using G components at common read locations between frames, [0049]).
-Regarding claim 27, the combination further discloses the processor is further configured to assign a first weight to output from the first image buffer and assign a second weight to output from the second buffer based on the determined static and moving image portions (Tsukioka, using G components at common read locations between frames, [0049]).
-Regarding claim 28, the combination further discloses the first weight is higher than the second weight for output pixel information of moving image portions and the second weight is higher than the first weight for output pixel information of static image portions (Tsukioka, If determined as having no motion, then, values at corresponding locations of the preceding frame are used as the values of R or B components that are missing in the image in the internal buffer 111, [0049]).
-Regarding claim 29, the combination further discloses the spatially sensitive dynamic filter is configured to blur a collected image, blur an image of the composite image, and compare the blurred images to determine differences (Tsukioka, As a result of the filtering processing, as shown in FIGS. 10A, 10B, the same advantage as passing the respective color components of the original image through a low-pass filter having the same filter factors as those shown in FIG. 7E can be obtained, [0064]).
-Regarding claim 30, the combination further discloses the processor is configured to weight areas of the determined differences towards the first buffer (Tsukioka, Matching is then performed between the 3X3 pixel range P and all 3X3 vicinity pixel ranges (an example being the meshed range on the upper left corner of search range Q) within the search range Q to compute a vicinity location at which the matching error is smallest, [0065]).
-Regarding claim 33, Tsukioka discloses a method performed in a vision system by a processor with an integrated software package (FIG. 1), the method comprising the steps of: capturing a plurality of image frames at a predetermined frame rate (single-chip color image sensor 102 capable of intermittent readout, [0032]); collecting, by the processor, each image frame in a current frame buffer (buffer 103, [0032]-[0034]); sending each collected image frame, as the frame rate cycles, from the current buffer to an accumulation buffer (buffer 111, [0032]-[0034]); and displaying a weighted composite image based on an image from the current frame buffer and the accumulated image (display circuit 109, [0032]).
Tsukioka is silent to teaching that merging, in the accumulation buffer, pixel-by-pixel information of sent image frames, forming an accumulated image. However, the claimed limitation is well known in the art as evidenced by Iwane.
In the same field of endeavor, Iwane teaches merging, in the accumulation buffer, pixel-by-pixel information of sent image frames, forming an accumulated image (adder 73 receives image data from the frame memory FM1-FMm selected by the frame selector 72, and adds and averages the pixel signals Q1i and Q2i for each of the pixels to acquire an arithmetic mean, [0109]).
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skills in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to combine the teaching of Tsukioka with the teaching of Iwane in order to increase the number of temporally averaged frames and thereby further suppress image noise.
-Regarding claim 34, the combination further discloses displaying the weighted composite image comprises differentially weighting portions of the image from the current frame buffer and portions of the accumulated image (Tsukioka, motion detection, [0049]-[0050]; Iwane, [0109]).
-Regarding claim 35, the combination further discloses the steps of: determining buffered image portions depicting motion and buffered image potions remaining static, wherein buffered image portions remaining static are weighted towards the accumulation buffer, and buffered image portions depicting motion are weighted towards the current buffer (Tsukioka, using G components at common read locations between frames, [0049]).
-Regarding claim 36, the combination further discloses displaying the weighted composite image comprises displaying an image having decreased noise areas and motion depicting areas, wherein the decreased noise is relative to an amount of image noise in the vision system (Tsukioka, motion detection, [0049]-[0050]; Iwane, [0109]).
-Regarding claim 37, the combination further discloses displaying the weighted composite image comprises the steps of: blurring the image from the current frame buffer; blurring the accumulated image; comparing the blurred images to determine image areas of differences; and assigning weight towards the current buffer corresponding to the determined areas of differences (Tsukioka, As a result of the filtering processing, as shown in FIGS. 10A, 10B, the same advantage as passing the respective color components of the original image through a low-pass filter having the same filter factors as those shown in FIG. 7E can be obtained, [0064]).
-Regarding claim 38, the combination further discloses capturing the plurality of images further comprises the step of amplifying the images during capturing (Iwane, gain correction, [0109]).
Claim(s) 32 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Tsukioka (U.S. PG-PUB NO. 2003/0231251) in view of Iwane (U.S. PG-PUB NO. 2015/0092034) and further in view of Jones (U.S. PATENT NO. 10893181).
-Regarding claim 32, the combination is silent to teaching that an image amplification device configured to capture image frames in conjunction with the digital camera. However, the claimed limitation is well known in the art as evidenced by Jones.
In the same field of endeavor, Jones teaches an image amplification device configured to capture image frames in conjunction with the digital camera (image intensifier 607, [col. 6]).
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skills in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to combine the teaching of the combination with the teaching of Jones in order to provide improved low light performance .
Allowable Subject Matter
Claim 31 is 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.
Conclusion
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to PING Y HSIEH whose telephone number is (571)270-3011. The examiner can normally be reached Monday-Friday, 9am-4pm.
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/PING Y HSIEH/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2664
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