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
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.
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.
Claims 1-3, 11-13 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over MATSUSHITA (JP 2008244778; cited in the IDS filed with the instant application and paragraph 0003 as well) A in view of Yoshida (US 20020112112 A1).
As of Claim 1: MATSUSHITA teaches an electronic device (paragraph 003 of a plurality of cameras) comprising: a processor; and a memory storing a program which, when executed by the processor, causes the electronic device to execute acquisition processing of acquiring a plurality of captured images to which file numbers are assigned according to a specific rule (abstract and note that a partition fills a predetermined condition existing among a series of picked up images based on imaging information of a series of the images acquired by an acquisition part. A partition image preparation part produces the image showing a predetermined condition to the partition, when the partition is existed among a series of the images by discrimination part.); execute reception processing of receiving an instruction to insert a divider image between two captured images adjacent in order of file numbers among the plurality of captured images (paragraph 003).
Yoshida is a similar or analogous system to the claimed invention as evidenced Yoshida teaches a photography mode for recording image data as an image file, a sound memo mode for recording sound data as a sound memo file in association with an appropriate image file, a sound recording mode for recording sound data as a sound record file independently of image data, and a reproduction mode for reproducing images or sounds that would have prompted a predictable variation of MATSUSHITA by applying Yoshida’s known principal of execute generation processing of generating, in a case where the reception processing receives the instruction, a divider image to which a file number between file numbers of the two captured images among the file numbers is assigned, if the file numbers of the two captured images are not consecutive (Paragraphs 0084-0086 and note that consecutive is interpreted as the image with the sound file. If the sound file is not there, this feature allows that to be created. Also, in order to record a sound memo file in association with an image file "ABCD0002.JPG" recorded in a first recording directory "100EFGH", the sound memo file is given a sound file name "ABCD002.WAV" and is recorded in the first recording directory "100EFGH". Since there are an image file "ABCD0004.JPG" and a sound file "ABCD0004.WAV" in the first recording directory "100EFGH", the sound file having the same file-name "ABCD0004" as the image file "ABCD0004.JPG" is processed as a sound memo file associated with the image file "ABCD0004.JPG". On the other hand, a sound file "ABCD0004.WAV" stored in a second recording directory "101EFGH" is processed as a sound record file, because there is not an image file having the same file-name "ABCD0004" as this sound file in the second recording directory "101EFGH").
In view of the motivations such as comparing the sound file name with the image file name in order to check the correlation between the sound file and the image file. Thus, the load of data processing on the microcomputer 30 necessary for this process is very small and, in the process, allowing the movie file may be given a file-name in the same way as for the image file, and an extender specific to the move files should be attached to the file-name of the movie file. It is possible to record a sound memo file in association with the movie file, while giving the same file-name as the movie file in the same way as for the image file and one of ordinary skill in the art would have implemented the claimed variation of the prior art system of Yoshida.
Therefore, the claimed invention would have been obvious to a person having ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention.
As of Claim 2: MATSUSHITA in view of Yoshida further teaches in the generation processing, the divider image is not generated if the instruction has been received in the reception processing and the file numbers of the two captured images are consecutive (paragraphs 0071-0073 of Yoshida and note that when there are not any files on the memory card 16 that contain the same file number in their file-names as the reproduction file number, the microcomputer 30 checks if there is an image file or a sound file on the memory card 16, whose file-name contains a file number that is obtained by subtracting "1" from the initial reproduction file number. When there are not any files on the memory card 16 that contain that file number in their file-names, the microcomputer 30 checks if there is an image file or a sound file on the memory card 16, whose file-name contains a file number that is obtained by subtracting "2" from the initial reproduction file number. In this way, the microcomputer 30 searches for an image file or a sound file whose file-name contains the file number coincident with the reproduction file number while reducing the reproduction file number one by one.).
As of Claim 3: MATSUSHITA in view of Yoshida further teaches the program, when executed by the processor, further causes the electronic device to execute notification processing of notifying a user that the divider image is not insertable if the instruction has been received in the reception processing and the file numbers of the two captured images are consecutive (paragraphs 0071-0073 of Yoshida and note that an indicia is displayed on the image on the LCD 10, indicating that there is a sound memo file associated with the reproduced image file. Thereafter, the microcomputer 30 is set to the waiting condition for a command to reproduce the sounds, the command to the sound memo mode, the delete command, or the shift command. When the command to reproduce the sounds is entered in this condition, the sound data is sequentially read out from the sound memo file on the internal memory 38, and sent to the D/A converter 46, so the sounds recorded in association with the presently displayed image are reproduced through the speaker 23).
As of Claim 11: MATSUSHITA in view of Yoshida further teaches the plurality of captured images include a still image and a moving image (paragraphs 0032,0042, 0056,0057 of Yoshida).
As of Claim 12: A control method of an electronic device of claim 1 and all the limitations are addressed above.
As of Claim 13: Claim 13 is addressed in claim 1. Moreover, Yoshida teaches in paragraph 0040 a non-transitory computer readable medium that stores a program, wherein the program causes a computer to execute a control method of an electronic device.
Allowable Subject Matter
Claims 4-10 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.
As of Claim 4 : the prior art of record fails to teach or fairly suggest the limitations of claim 4, combination with claims 1 that includes, “an image sensor; and the program, when executed by the processor, further causes the electronic device to execute assignment processing of assigning, each time the image sensor performs capturing, a file number to one captured image acquired by the capturing, wherein in the assignment processing, consecutive file numbers are assigned to captured images in a first case, and file numbers are assigned to captured images at an interval in a second case, the file numbers being not consecutive. “
As of Claims 5-10: claims 5-10 are objected as allowable subject matter as well based on the claims dependence to the objected claim 4.
Conclusion
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to MEKONNEN D DAGNEW whose telephone number is (571)270-5092. The examiner can normally be reached on 8:00AM-5:00PM M-Th.
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/MEKONNEN D DAGNEW/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2638
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