DETAILED ACTION
The present application, filed on or after March 16, 2013, is being examined under the first inventor to file provisions of the AIA .
Priority
Applicant’s claim for the benefit of a prior-filed application under 35 U.S.C. 119(e) or under 35 U.S.C. 120, 121, or 365(c) is acknowledged. In addition, acknowledgment is made of applicant’s claim for foreign priority under 35 U.S.C. 119 (a)-(d). The certified copy has been filed in parent Application No. 18/996,399, filed on January 17, 2025.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 102
The following is a quotation of the appropriate paragraphs of 35 U.S.C. 102 that form the basis for the rejections under this section made in this Office action:
A person shall be entitled to a patent unless –
(a)(1) the claimed invention was patented, described in a printed publication, or in public use, on sale, or otherwise available to the public before the effective filing date of the claimed invention.
(a)(2) the claimed invention was described in a patent issued under section 151, or in an application for patent published or deemed published under section 122(b), in which the patent or application, as the case may be, names another inventor and was effectively filed before the effective filing date of the claimed invention.
Claims 1, and 13-14 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(1) and 102(a)(2) as being anticipated by Sander et al., U.S. Patent Application Publication 2008/0266309 A1 (hereinafter Sander).
Regarding claim 1, Sander teaches a method for generating an image with effects (FIGS. 5-6, AND 9, paragraph[0056] of Sander teaches it may be noted that to render an edge darkening effect using a pixel shader, knowledge of the distance from the current pixel to the edge of the image/object boundary may be required; to avoid expensive filter passes (e.g. using a Gaussian blur) to get the distance, embodiments of the invention create an outline stroke that covers the edge of the stroke that is to be filled (i.e., in addition to the fill that covers the interior of the boundary); accordingly, a stroke is drawn over a contour edge of the image/object; and the width of the stroke width may be based on an adjustable parameter (e.g., by the user), and See also at least ABSTRACT, and paragraphs[0033]-[0036], [0050]-[0055], and [0057]-[0074] of Sander (i.e., Sander teaches rendering an edge darkening effect around the edge of an image)) comprising:
determining directional distance information corresponding to an original image, wherein the directional distance information represents indicates grayscale information of a segmentation result of the original image or distance information between a pixel and an image segmentation boundary (FIGS. 5-6, AND 9, paragraphs[0060]-[0061] of Sander teaches once the distance has been determined, the distance (and UV value) can be used to provide any desired edge effect; as described herein, such edge effects may include edge darkening; alternatively, the edge effect may include a fast blur shadow (e.g., where a fade out shadow is rendered based on the distance from the edge), contour gradients (e.g., where the gradients follow the shape of the actual object based on the distance from the edge), different types of blending operations (e.g., linear blending, smooth step blending, etc.), special effects (e.g., a halo effect based on the distance), etc; in this regard, the distance calculation can be used to perform any type of edge effect where an image blur operation was used in the past to accentuate the edges; in view of the above, embodiments of the invention first provide the ability to calculate/create the geometric faces that are part of both the interior of the image/object and the interior of the contour outline stroke 602; and once the geometric faces have been calculated and the distances/proximities determined (i.e., on a pixel-by-pixel basis), any desired effect that utilizes such proximities can be rendered, and See also at least ABSTRACT, and paragraphs[0047]-[0059], and [0062]-[0074] of Sander (i.e., Sander teaches determining a distance between offset curves, one of which corresponds to boundary of the image, in order to determine a distance from a current pixel to the boundary and render the edge darkening effect));
generating an initial image with effects based on the directional distance information and a set noise map; and obtaining a target image with effects by fusing the initial image with the effects and the original image (FIGS. 5-6, AND 9, paragraph[0064] of Sander teaches in the second pass, various operations may be performed; first, the image with the desired granularity (i.e., as described above) may be rendered (e.g., as illustrated in FIG. 4). Thereafter, the edge darkening effect may be rendered on top of the image; and to render the edge darkening effect, the distance/proximity to the closest edge is known from the stored v-coordinate and can be used as a texture in the 2.sup.nd pass (i.e., the edge proximity can be retrieved from the texture), and See also at least ABSTRACT, and paragraphs[0045]-[0059], [0060]-[0063], and [0065]-[0074] of Sander (i.e., Sander teaches selecting the image, setting noise parameters, and creating a granulation effect of watercolor by combining high frequency and low frequency noise in accordance with the noise parameters and combining the noise with the selected image to render an image with a desired granularity and thereafter the edge darkening effect is rendered on top of the image)).
Regarding claim 13, Sander teaches an electronic device, comprising: one or more processors; a storage device, configured to store one or more programs; when the one or more programs are executed by the one or more processors, the one or more processors implement a method (FIGS. 5-6, AND 9, paragraph[0056] of Sander teaches it may be noted that to render an edge darkening effect using a pixel shader, knowledge of the distance from the current pixel to the edge of the image/object boundary may be required; to avoid expensive filter passes (e.g. using a Gaussian blur) to get the distance, embodiments of the invention create an outline stroke that covers the edge of the stroke that is to be filled (i.e., in addition to the fill that covers the interior of the boundary); accordingly, a stroke is drawn over a contour edge of the image/object; and the width of the stroke width may be based on an adjustable parameter (e.g., by the user), and See also at least ABSTRACT, and paragraphs[0033]-[0036], [0050]-[0055], [0057]-[0074], and Claim 6 of Sander (i.e., Sander teaches rendering an edge darkening effect around the edge of an image according to a computer-implemented graphics program on a storage device, which is executed on a computer, with use of graphic processing units)) comprising: determining directional distance information corresponding to an original image, wherein the directional distance information indicates grayscale information of a segmentation result of the original image or distance information between a pixel and an image segmentation boundary (FIGS. 5-6, AND 9, paragraphs[0060]-[0061] of Sander teaches once the distance has been determined, the distance (and UV value) can be used to provide any desired edge effect; as described herein, such edge effects may include edge darkening; alternatively, the edge effect may include a fast blur shadow (e.g., where a fade out shadow is rendered based on the distance from the edge), contour gradients (e.g., where the gradients follow the shape of the actual object based on the distance from the edge), different types of blending operations (e.g., linear blending, smooth step blending, etc.), special effects (e.g., a halo effect based on the distance), etc; in this regard, the distance calculation can be used to perform any type of edge effect where an image blur operation was used in the past to accentuate the edges; in view of the above, embodiments of the invention first provide the ability to calculate/create the geometric faces that are part of both the interior of the image/object and the interior of the contour outline stroke 602; and once the geometric faces have been calculated and the distances/proximities determined (i.e., on a pixel-by-pixel basis), any desired effect that utilizes such proximities can be rendered, and See also at least ABSTRACT, and paragraphs[0047]-[0059], and [0062]-[0074] of Sander (i.e., Sander teaches determining a distance between offset curves, one of which corresponds to boundary of the image, in order to determine a distance from a current pixel to the boundary and render the edge darkening effect));
generating an initial image with effects based on the directional distance information and a noise map; and obtaining a target image with effects by fusing the initial image with the effects and the original image (FIGS. 5-6, AND 9, paragraph[0064] of Sander teaches in the second pass, various operations may be performed; first, the image with the desired granularity (i.e., as described above) may be rendered (e.g., as illustrated in FIG. 4). Thereafter, the edge darkening effect may be rendered on top of the image; and to render the edge darkening effect, the distance/proximity to the closest edge is known from the stored v-coordinate and can be used as a texture in the 2.sup.nd pass (i.e., the edge proximity can be retrieved from the texture), and See also at least ABSTRACT, and paragraphs[0045]-[0059], [0060]-[0063], and [0065]-[0074] of Sander (i.e., Sander teaches selecting the image, setting noise parameters, and creating a granulation effect of watercolor by combining high frequency and low frequency noise in accordance with the noise parameters and combining the noise with the selected image to render an image with a desired granularity and thereafter the edge darkening effect is rendered on top of the image)).
Regarding claim 14, Sander teaches a non-transitory storage medium comprising computer-executable instructions, wherein the computer-executable instructions, when executed by a computer processor, are configured to perform a method (FIGS. 5-6, AND 9, paragraph[0056] of Sander teaches it may be noted that to render an edge darkening effect using a pixel shader, knowledge of the distance from the current pixel to the edge of the image/object boundary may be required; to avoid expensive filter passes (e.g. using a Gaussian blur) to get the distance, embodiments of the invention create an outline stroke that covers the edge of the stroke that is to be filled (i.e., in addition to the fill that covers the interior of the boundary); accordingly, a stroke is drawn over a contour edge of the image/object; and the width of the stroke width may be based on an adjustable parameter (e.g., by the user), and See also at least ABSTRACT, and paragraphs[0033]-[0036], [0050]-[0055], [0057]-[0074], and Claim 6 of Sander (i.e., Sander teaches rendering an edge darkening effect around the edge of an image according to a computer-implemented graphics program on a storage device, which is executed on a computer, with use of graphic processing units)) comprising: determining directional distance information corresponding to an original image, wherein the directional distance information indicates grayscale information of a segmentation result of the original image or distance information between a pixel and an image segmentation boundary (FIGS. 5-6, AND 9, paragraphs[0060]-[0061] of Sander teaches once the distance has been determined, the distance (and UV value) can be used to provide any desired edge effect; as described herein, such edge effects may include edge darkening; alternatively, the edge effect may include a fast blur shadow (e.g., where a fade out shadow is rendered based on the distance from the edge), contour gradients (e.g., where the gradients follow the shape of the actual object based on the distance from the edge), different types of blending operations (e.g., linear blending, smooth step blending, etc.), special effects (e.g., a halo effect based on the distance), etc; in this regard, the distance calculation can be used to perform any type of edge effect where an image blur operation was used in the past to accentuate the edges; in view of the above, embodiments of the invention first provide the ability to calculate/create the geometric faces that are part of both the interior of the image/object and the interior of the contour outline stroke 602; and once the geometric faces have been calculated and the distances/proximities determined (i.e., on a pixel-by-pixel basis), any desired effect that utilizes such proximities can be rendered, and See also at least ABSTRACT, and paragraphs[0047]-[0059], and [0062]-[0074] of Sander (i.e., Sander teaches determining a distance between offset curves, one of which corresponds to boundary of the image, in order to determine a distance from a current pixel to the boundary and render the edge darkening effect));
generating an initial image with effects based on the directional distance information and a noise map; and obtaining a target image with effects by fusing the initial image with the effects and the original image (FIGS. 5-6, AND 9, paragraph[0064] of Sander teaches in the second pass, various operations may be performed; first, the image with the desired granularity (i.e., as described above) may be rendered (e.g., as illustrated in FIG. 4). Thereafter, the edge darkening effect may be rendered on top of the image; and to render the edge darkening effect, the distance/proximity to the closest edge is known from the stored v-coordinate and can be used as a texture in the 2.sup.nd pass (i.e., the edge proximity can be retrieved from the texture), and See also at least ABSTRACT, and paragraphs[0045]-[0059], [0060]-[0063], and [0065]-[0074] of Sander (i.e., Sander teaches selecting the image, setting noise parameters, and creating a granulation effect of watercolor by combining high frequency and low frequency noise in accordance with the noise parameters and combining the noise with the selected image to render an image with a desired granularity and thereafter the edge darkening effect is rendered on top of the image)).
Potentially Allowable Subject Matter
Claims 2-11, and 15-21 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, because for each of claims 2-11, and 15-21 the prior art references of record do not teach the combination of all element limitations as presently claimed.
Conclusion
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to ABDUL-SAMAD A ADEDIRAN whose telephone number is (571)272-3128. The examiner can normally be reached on Monday through Thursday, 8:00 am to 5:00 pm.
If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner’s supervisor, Amr Awad can be reached on 571-272-7764. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300.
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/ABDUL-SAMAD A ADEDIRAN/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2621
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