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 .
Information Disclosure Statement
The information disclosure statement (IDS) submitted on 4/2/2025 was filed in compliance with the provisions of 37 CFR 1.97. Accordingly, the information disclosure statement is being considered by the examiner.
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.
1: Claim(s) 1, 2, 4, 8, 13 and 14 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over US 2022/0172472 A1 Yamada et al in view of JP 2017207554 A Kobuna (for examination purposes the examiner has relied on the provided English translation).
2: As for Claim 1, Yamada et al teaches An image capturing device comprising: an image capturing unit (Paragraph [0038]); an information acquisition unit that acquires photo shot information (meta information) at the time of photo shooting by the image capturing unit (Paragraphs [0072 and 0073]); an importance level calculation unit that calculates an importance level of a photo shot image (Paragraphs [0137-0138]), on the basis of the photo shot information (meta information) at the time of photo shooting (Paragraph [0071-0173]); and a saving unit that saves the importance level and the photo shot image in association with each other (Paragraph [0078]).
Kobuna teaches on page 7 a method for estimating blur in an image from the depth of field and teaches a defocus range estimation unit (depth of field determination) that estimates a defocus range (depth of field) with respect to one or more parts of an object on the basis of the photo shot information at the time of photo shooting (the depth of field is calculated based on object detection and subject size).
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to rank the images according to the detected blur as taught by Yamada et al by calculating the blue based on the estimated depth of field (defocus range) as taught by Kobuna to improve image ranking.
3: As for Claim 2, Yamada et al teaches in Paragraph [0073] a system that calculates an importance level of an image and a method of retrieving imaging information at the time of image capture including an F Value and other settings. However, does not teach wherein the information acquisition unit acquires a focal position in a depth direction at the time of photo shooting by the image capturing unit.
Official Notice is taken that it was well known in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to include a lens focal position in a depth direction in image meta data to enable the capturing information to be used in postprocessing operations.
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to include a lens focal position in a depth direction in image meta data of the invention of Yamada et al to enable the capturing information to be used in postprocessing operations.
4: As for Claim 4, Yamada et al further teaches in Paragraph [0073] wherein the information acquisition unit comprises: a mode information acquisition unit (determined F value of camera from the meta data) that acquires mode information which is information on a mode for setting a photo shooting subject (aperture setting) of interest in a photo shot image selected during photo shooting.
5: As for Claim 8, Yamada et al further teaches in Paragraphs [0073 and 0078] and depicts in Figure 6 wherein the information acquisition unit comprises: a positional information acquisition unit that acquires information on a position in a live view screen input during photo shooting.
6: As for Claim 13, Claim 13 is rejected for reasons discussed related to Claim 1.
7: As for Claim 14, Claim 14 is rejected for reasons discussed related to Claim 1.
Allowable Subject Matter
Claims 3, 5-7 and 9-12 are objected to as being dependent upon a rejected base claim but would be allowable if rewritten in independent form including all the limitations of the base claim and any intervening claims.
Conclusion
The prior art made of record and not relied upon is considered pertinent to applicant's disclosure. USPN 12,288,312 B2 Usami teaches on Column 8 calculating an importance level of an image based on position of a face; US 2024/0404090 A1 HOLD-GEOFFROY et al teaches estimating blur in relation to depth of field.
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to JAMES M HANNETT whose telephone number is (571)272-7309. The examiner can normally be reached 8:00 AM-5:00 PM Monday thru Thursday.
If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner’s supervisor, Twyler Haskins can be reached at 571-272-7406 The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300.
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/JAMES M HANNETT/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2639
JMH
September 1, 2026
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