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 .
DETAILED ACTION
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 1-2 and 9-10 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Ono et al. (US 20220345579), in view of Sato (US 5313313).
Regarding claim 1, claim 2 recites all the limitations of claim 1, therefore claim 1 is rejected for the same reason as claim 2.
Regarding claim 9, The structural elements of apparatus claim 1 perform all of the steps of method claim 9. Thus, claim 9 is rejected for the same reasons discussed in the rejection of claim 1.
Claim 10 has been analyzed and rejected with regard to claim 1 and in accordance with Ono’s further teaching on: A computer-readable memory that contains instructions, which when executed by a processor perform steps in a method (p0032).
Regarding claim 2, Ono teaches a reading device (fig. 1) comprising:
a light source configured (p0036: The light source 11) to emit a first light band and a second light band towards a reading target object, the first and second light bands being different (p0043:The visible-light source unit 401 according to the present embodiment is a white light-emitting diode (LED) or a plurality of LEDs of multiple colors);
an imager including multiple photoelectric conversion elements, each photoelectric conversion element configured to be sensitive to one of multiple light reception wavelengths,
the imager (fig. 3) configured to:
receive light having the multiple light reception wavelengths reflected from the reading target object (p0046: The red pixels receive the light of red color, and convert the received red light into an electrical signal); output a first color read value of the reading target object with a first color having a first light reception wavelength of the multiple light reception wavelengths; output a second color read value of the reading target object with a second color having a second light reception wavelength of the multiple light reception wavelengths; output a third color read value of the reading target object with the second color having the first light reception wavelength (p0046:the red pixels receive the light of red color, and convert the received red light into an electrical signal. The green pixels receive the light of green color, and convert the received green light into an electrical signal. .. blue light); and
Ono does not teach circuitry configured to correct the first color read value based on the second color read value and the third color read value and output the corrected first color read value.
Sato teaches circuitry configured to correct the first color read value based on the second color read value and the third color read value and output the corrected first color read value (abstract: processes an image by the first color signal corrected by the correcting section as second and third color signals..).
Ono and Sato are combinable because they both deal with management servers with a printing apparatus. Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the application to combine the teachings of Ono with the teaching of Sato for purpose of provide an image processing apparatus applicable to a copier or similar recording equipment and capable of enhancing the sharpness of characters and lines..
Regarding claim 3, Ono teaches the reading device according to claim 1, wherein: the first light band includes a blue wavelength, and the second light band includes a yellow wavelength (p0043:The visible-light source unit 401 according to the present embodiment is a white light-emitting diode (LED) or a plurality of LEDs of multiple colors ).
Regarding claim 4, Ono teaches the reading device according to claim 1, wherein: the first light reception wavelength is a red wavelength, and the second light reception wavelength is a blue wavelength (p0046).
Regarding claim 5, Ono teaches the reading device according to claim 1, wherein: the first color is yellow, and the second color is white(p0043:The visible-light source unit 401 according to the present embodiment is a white light-emitting diode (LED) or a plurality of LEDs of multiple colors ).
Claim 11 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Ono in view of Sato as applied to claim 1 above, and further in view of Tanaka (US 9749559).
Regarding claim 11, Ono in view of Sato does not teach the reading device according to claim 1, wherein the first color read value includes first color subread values corresponding to different portions of the reading target object, the second color read value includes second color subread values corresponding to different portions of the reading target object, the second color subread values matching the portions of the reading target object of the first color subread values, and correcting the first color subread values based on the respective second color subread values.
Tanaka teaches wherein the first color read value includes first color subread values corresponding to different portions of the reading target object, the second color read value includes second color subread values corresponding to different portions of the reading target object, the second color subread values matching the portions of the reading target object of the first color subread values, and correcting the first color subread values based on the respective second color subread values (claim 5).
Ono in view of Sato and Tanaka are combinable because they both deal with color correction in the image reading apparatus. Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the application to combine the teachings of Ono in view Sato with the teaching of Tanaka for purpose of correcting variable characteristics of pixels, which may be generated in a case where data output from sets of a plurality of pixels are controlled separately.
Claim 13 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Ono in view of Sato as applied to claim 2 above, and further in view of Aoki et al. (US 9651907).
Regarding claim 13, Ono in view of Sato does not teach the reading device of claim 2, wherein the circuitry is further configured to determine a density unevenness of the reading target object, determine a tone correction based on the density unevenness, and apply the tone correction to the first, second, and third color read values.
Aoki teaches wherein the circuitry is further configured to determine a density unevenness of the reading target object, determine a tone correction based on the density unevenness, and apply the tone correction to the first, second, and third color read values (col. 4, lines 1-10: , wherein the circuitry is further configured to determine a density unevenness of the reading target object, determine a tone correction based on the density unevenness, and apply the tone correction to the first, second, and third color read values and col. 7, lines 35-45:The thus-measured densities represent density unevenness occurring in the plane of the sheet P ).
Ono in view of Sato and Aoki are combinable because they both deal with color correction in the image reading apparatus. Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the application to combine the teachings of Ono in view Sato with the teaching of Aoki for purpose of provided an image forming apparatus including an image carrier, an image forming unit, a transfer unit, a density measuring unit, and a density adjusting unit.
Allowable Subject Matter
8. Claims 6-8 and 12 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.
The following is a statement of reasons for the indication of allowable subject matter:
Ono et al. (US 20220345579) teaches similar system. However, the closest prior art of record, namely Ono et al. (US 20220345579), does not disclose, teach or suggest, the claim limitation, as recited in dependent claim 6-8.
Conclusion
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to HELEN Q ZONG whose telephone number is (571)270-1600. The examiner can normally be reached Mon-Fri 9-6.
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HELEN ZONG
Primary Examiner
Art Unit 2683
/HELEN ZONG/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2683
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