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 .
Specification
The title of the invention is not descriptive. A new title is required that is clearly indicative of the invention to which the claims are directed.
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) 1,3, 6, 7, 8 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Honma US 10455124 in view of Sheflin US 20100021189 and Noguchi US 6157790.
Regarding claim 1: Homa teaches a printing system (fig. 1) comprising:
a first printing apparatus (e.g., A of fig. 1) including a first printing unit to print to a print medium (image forming body 10A, column 5, lines 34-36), a first reading device configured to read an image (reader, which is connected to image forming apparatus A, column 16, lines 15-17), and a first controller (image control unit 100A, column 5, lines 34-36); and
a second printing apparatus (B of fig. 1) including a second printing unit (image forming apparatus body 10B, column 7, lines 4-6) to a print medium, a second reading device (image reader 20, column 7, lines 4-5) configured to read an image, and a second controller (control unit 100B, column 7, lines 20-25),
wherein the first controller is configured to execute:
a process of determining a first printing condition (image quality parameter, column 10, lines 35-36) for printing a test image (output a test chart in image forming apparatus A, column 16, lines 11-15) on the print medium based on print data (inherently, printing a test chart requires print data);
a process of printing a first test image (output a test chart in image forming apparatus A, column 16, lines A) corresponding to the test image on the print medium by causing the first printing unit to print based on the print data and the first printing condition; and
a process of causing the first reading device to read the first code image printed on the print medium (reading result, of the reader, which is connected to the image forming apparatus A, column 16, lines 15-20), and
the second controller is configured to execute:
a process of printing a second test image (outputs a test chart in the image forming apparatus B, column 16, lines 10-15) corresponding to the test image on the print medium by causing the second printing unit based on the print data and the first printing condition (column 11, lines 59-62, image information and printing information can be acquired from….and other image forming apparatus; note: image forming apparatus A is other image forming apparatus to the image forming apparatus B; if the print data and print condition of image forming apparatus B are came from image forming apparatus A, the print data and the printing condition are the same for both the image forming apparatus A and B);
a process of causing the second reading device to read the second code image printed on the print medium (column 7, lines 4-5, an image reader 20 is connected to the downstream side of the image forming apparatus body 10B, column 7, lines 20-25, the reading result of the image reading unit 22 and 23 are transmitted to the image control unit 100B and are used for image quality adjustment, column 12, lines 53-55, in an image quality adjustment, an image patch is formed on a sheet of transfer paper and is read by each of the image reading units 22 and 23) ,
a process of obtaining a first reading result by the first reading device (the image forming apparatus B calculates a correction values of the image forming apparatus B based on the reading result of the reader which is connected to the image forming apparatus A, so as to match colors to those of the image forming apparatus A, column 16, lines13-16; note the reader is at image forming apparatus A and in order to have the read result to be used by image forming apparatus B; obviously, the image forming apparatus B needs to obtain the read result from the reader connected to the image forming apparatus A);
a process of performing a comparison of a second reading result by the second reading device with the first reading result (the image forming apparatus B calculates a correction values of image forming apparatus B based on the reading result of the reader, so as to match color to those of the image forming apparatus A, column 16, lines 11-20; also see column 10, lines 26-40, note: in order to math color between 2 image forming apparatus using scanned printed test chart from the 2 image forming apparatus inherently/obviously need to compare the scanned result of the 2 printed test charts which represent print quality of the two image forming apparatus A and B);
a process of changing the first printing condition to a second printing condition different from the first printing condition, based on a comparison result (the image forming apparatus B calculates a correction values of image forming apparatus B based on the reading result of the reader, column 16, lines 11-20; column 14, lines 5-8, the image forming apparatus B is adjusted so as to have the same image quality as the image forming apparatus of A); and
a process of reprinting (image quality can be automatically adjusted according to settings such as a predetermined number of sheets and a predetermined elapsed time; note: this implies that the test chart will needed to be reprinted for quality adjustment based on set predetermined elapsed time and the image quality parameter/condition in the printer is equal to the the latest corrected parameters which is the second printing condition/corrected printing condition of printer B) the second test image on the print medium by causing the second print unit to print based on the print data and the second printing condition after the process of changing.
Honma does not teach a first and second ejecting head configured to eject liquid droplets to a print medium and that the test image is a code image.
Honma does teach image forming device of different model can be provided, column 4, lines 35-40)
Sheflin teaches a test image is a code image used for quality evaluation (test pattern…bar code….quality, paragraph 0047) and the printing unit of the image forming apparatus is configured to eject liquid droplets to a print medium (ink-jet based machine can beneficially utilized the present disclosure as well, paragraph 0039, note: eject liquid droplets to a print medium is inherent in inkjet printer).
Therefore, it would have been obvious to a person with ordinary skill in the art to have modified Honma to include: first and second ejecting head configured to eject liquid droplets to a print medium and that the first and second test image is a first code image and a second code image.
The reason of doing so is: 1) inkjet printer is cheaper to make and can print very good images; 2) a code image can be designed to include many important print conditions necessary for printing high quality images compare to any other document image and hence result in better print quality.
Honma also does not clearly showing image reader is included in each of the image forming apparatus A and B in fig, 1 (although it may be inherent/obvious according to the embodiment discussed in column 16, lines 14-16 reading result of the reader, which is connected to the image forming apparatus A and fig. 2, copier/printer 10A and fig. 3, copier/printer 10B; note: inherently/obviously, a copier normally will include a scanner to scan an image).
Noguchi, in the same area of matching print parameter correction values by comparing image parameters for the corresponding scanned prescribed image with reference image parameters (abstract) teaches each image forming apparatus can has its own image reader to read a test chart (fig. 1, showing 5 image forming apparatus 1 communicate with each other, column 5, lines 30-35, the image forming apparatus 1 of the present invention is capable of 1) reading the test pattern…2) automatically calculating the image parameter correction values necessary to match the image quality of each of the other image forming apparatus 1 with its own image quality …
Therefore, it would have been obvious to a person with ordinary skill in the art to have modified Honma to include: provide each image forming apparatus of Honma with a test image reading unit.
The reason of doing so would have provided convenient and flexibility in the print system of Honma and to speed up the print quality matching process.
Regarding claim 7: Claim 7 is claiming the second printing apparatus of claim 1, please see rejection on the second printing apparatus of claim 1 (image forming apparatus B of Honma).
Honma, further teaches the controller is further include a process of obtaining print data, a first printing condition for printing the test image on the print medium based on the print data, (column 11, lines on 59-61, the image information and the printing information can be acquired from…and other image forming apparatus through the NICs 122A and 122B).
Regarding claim 8: Honma teaches a CRM storing instruction for controlling the image forming apparatus (column 9, lines 15-20, in the parameter storage section 113B, operation parameters and program for operating the control CPU111B are stored, also see column 5, lines 45-49) and printing system of claim 1, please see rejection of claim 1.
Regarding claim 3: Honma teaches the printing system according to claim 1, wherein
the first printing apparatus and the second printing apparatus are connected to communicate with each other via wired or wireless communication (see column 10, lines 10-25, communication control section 121B, and column 7, lines 59-65, communication unit 120A, note: communication can inherently done only through either wired or wireless communication).
the first controller is configured to transmit the first printing condition (column 11, lines on 59-61, the image information and the printing information can be acquired from…and other image forming apparatus through the NICs 122A and 122B), and the first reading result to the second printing apparatus (the image forming apparatus B calculates a correction values of the image forming apparatus B based on the reading result of the reader which is connected to the image forming apparatus A, so as to match colors to those of the image forming apparatus A, column 16, lines13-16; note the reader is at image forming apparatus A and in order to have the read result to be used by image forming apparatus B; obviously, the image forming apparatus A needs to transmit the read result from the reader connected to the image forming apparatus A to image forming apparatus B); and the second controller is configured to use the first printing condition received from the first printing apparatus (column 11, lines on 59-61, the image information and the printing information can be acquired from…and other image forming apparatus through the NICs 122A and 122B; column 13, lines 58, printed using same image data).
Regarding claim 6: The printing system according to claim 1, wherein
the first printing apparatus and the second printing apparatus are connected to communicate with each other via wired or wireless communication (see column 10, lines 10-25, communication control section 121B, and column 7, lines 59-65, communication unit 120A, note: communication can inherently done only through either wired or wireless communication), and
the second controller is configured to receive the first printing condition (column 11, lines on 59-61, the image information and the printing information can be acquired from…and other image forming apparatus through the NICs 122A and 122B) and the first reading result from the first printing apparatus (the image forming apparatus B calculates a correction values of the image forming apparatus B based on the reading result of the reader which is connected to the image forming apparatus A, so as to match colors to those of the image forming apparatus A, column 16, lines13-16; note the reader is at image forming apparatus A and in order to have the read result to be used by image forming apparatus B; obviously, the image forming apparatus B needs to receive the read result from the reader connected to the image forming apparatus A).
Claim(s) 2 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Honma US 10455124 in view of Sheflin US 20100021189 and Noguchi US 6157790 and further in view of Rizk US 2023/0306740.
Regarding claim 2: Honma teaches the printing system according to claim 1,
Honma does not teach the second controller is configured to execute: a process of performing pattern matching between the first code image in the first reading result and the second code image in the second reading result in the comparison, and of determining whether a matching number is less than a threshold value, the matching number indicating the number of pixels constructing both the first code image and the second code image; and
the process of changing the first printing condition to the second printing condition in a case where the matching number is less than the threshold value.
Rizk teaches a process of performing pattern matching (resolution of frame, number of pixels, color of pixels, paragraph 43 can all be view as a pattern of the video frame) between the first image (video…prior to transmission, paragraph 43) and the second image (video …after transmission, paragraph 43) in the comparison (comparator 420, paragraph 43), and of determining whether a matching number (number of matching pixel, paragraph 43) is less than a threshold value (threshold is set, paragraph 0043), the matching number indicating the number of pixels constructing both the first image and the second image; and if the matching is less than the threshold, the matching is not acceptable (any suitable threshold can be set to indicate whether clarity is acceptable, paragraph 43 note: obviously, 100% match is a perfect match and 0% match is no match. The higher the threshold is set with a match, the closer the two video image is).
Therefore, it would have been obvious to a person of ordinary skill in the art to have modified Honma to include: second controller is configured to execute: a process of performing pattern matching between the first code image in the first reading result and the second code image in the second reading result in the comparison, and of determining whether a matching number is less than a threshold value, the matching number indicating the number of pixels constructing both the first code image and the second code image, and to use the threshold to determine whether the matching is acceptable.
Note: obviously if the matching is not acceptable, the first printing condition should change to the second printing condition so that the matching would be acceptable between the first code image printed and the second code image printed using two image forming apparatus after the changed. In Honma’s invention, a plurality of printers were used to print a print job and stabilization control in color matching and concentration of the two image forming apparatus is needed, column 1, lines 25-45).
Therefore, it would have been further obvious that the second controller is to perform the process of changing the first printing condition to the second printing condition in a case where the matching number is less than the threshold value.
Allowable Subject Matter
Claims 4 and 5 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.
Conclusion
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/KING Y POON/ Supervisory Patent Examiner, Art Unit 2617
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