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 § 102
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 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.
Claim(s) 1, 10 and 15 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(1) as being anticipated by Park et al., U.S. Patent Publication Number 2024/0394858 A1.
Claim(s) 1, 10 and 15 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(2) as being anticipated by Park et al., U .
The applied reference has a common assignee and applicant with the instant application. Based upon the earlier effectively filed date of the reference, it constitutes prior art under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(2). This rejection under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(2) might be overcome by: (1) a showing under 37 CFR 1.130(a) that the subject matter disclosed in the reference was obtained directly or indirectly from the inventor or a joint inventor of this application and is thus not prior art in accordance with 35 U.S.C. 102(b)(2)(A); (2) a showing under 37 CFR 1.130(b) of a prior public disclosure under 35 U.S.C. 102(b)(2)(B) if the same invention is not being claimed; or (3) a statement pursuant to 35 U.S.C. 102(b)(2)(C) establishing that, not later than the effective filing date of the claimed invention, the subject matter disclosed in the reference and the claimed invention were either owned by the same person or subject to an obligation of assignment to the same person or subject to a joint research agreement.
Regarding claim 1, Park discloses an electronic apparatus comprising: a display comprising a spontaneous emission element; memory storing one or more instructions (10, memory, image processing setting); and one or more processors configured to execute the one or more instructions, wherein the one or more instructions, when executed by the one or more processors, cause the electronic apparatus to: based on a mode for assisting a person with impaired vision being activated, identify an edge area of an input image (FIG. 4B, low vision mode; edge color); identify an edge enhancement area of the input image and expand the edge area in the edge enhancement area to a preset thickness (paragraph 0104, detect (or identify) an edge included in an image (e.g., an input image); paragraph 0106, edge adjustment component may adjust at least one of the thickness or the color for at least one edge included in the image); in the edge enhancement area, process the input image such that a first area corresponding to one direction relative to the edge area comprises a first color and a second area corresponding to a direction opposite to the one direction comprises a second color (FIG. 4B, paragraph 0104, pixel corresponding to the edge may be set to a first value (e.g., 1), and the pixel not corresponding to the edge may be set to a second value (e.g., 0) ); and provide the processed input image through the display, wherein the first color comprises a preset color, and wherein the second color comprises a blend of a color corresponding to the edge area and the preset color (paragraphs 0114-0115, edge adjustment image and the input image using an overlay method or blending method; may obtain the output image by blending the edge adjustment image with the input image).
Claims 10 and 15 are rejected based on similar rational as above. Park further discloses a method (paragraph 0007) and a non-transitory computer readable medium (paragraph 0035).
(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.
Claim(s) 1- 20 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(1) as being anticipated by Eguchi, U.S. Patent Publication Number 2021/0319274 A1.
Regarding claim 1, Eguchi discloses an electronic apparatus comprising: a display comprising a spontaneous emission element; memory storing one or more instructions; and one or more processors configured to execute the one or more instructions, wherein the one or more instructions, when executed by the one or more processors, cause the electronic apparatus to: based on a mode for assisting a person with impaired vision being activated (paragraph 0068, monochrome (discriminability improvement) is selected for a color mode setting; FIG. 6), identify an edge area of an input image (paragraph 0068, setting edge enhancement);
identify an edge enhancement area of the input image and expand the edge area in the edge enhancement area to a preset thickness (paragraph 0056, setting a line thickness; FIG. 6); in the edge enhancement area, process the input image such that a first area corresponding to one direction relative to the edge area comprises a first color and a second area corresponding to a direction opposite to the one direction comprises a second color (paragraph 0070, determination is made of whether there ae color objects that cannot be discriminated when the RGB values are weighted and converted to graph; paragraph 0094, determine whether the pixel of interest and the peripheral pixel have different colors); and provide the processed input image through the display, wherein the first color comprises a preset color (paragraph 0101, converting a color image to a gray image; a one-dimensional LUT is applied to a pixel value), and wherein the second color comprises a blend of a color corresponding to the edge area and the preset color (paragraph 0075, calculates a weighted average of the RGB values to obtain a gray value and adds the gray value to color value).
Regarding claim 2, Eguchi discloses when executed by the one or more processors, cause the electronic apparatus to: identify local contrast information corresponding to the edge enhancement area (paragraph 0102, using sharpness processing, the enhancement processing is performed so that the outer edge of the object to be discriminated is bordered); identify a weight value based on the local contrast information (paragraph 0105, multiplying the signal values of the 3x3 pixels in the center portion by the respective weights and then adding the values); and identify the second color by blending a color corresponding to the edge enhancement area and the preset color based on the identified weight value (paragraph 0105, when the signal value of the center pixel is 145, as indicated by an image; the center pixel is darker than the center pixel before the sharpness processing in the edge portion).
Regarding claim 3, Eguchi discloses when executed by the one or more processors, cause the electronic apparatus to: identify local contrast information corresponding to the second area (paragraph 0109, hatched portion indicates that a C pixel value is 128, and a dotted portion indicates that an M pixel value is 128; and edge portion includes 3x3 pixels in the image); identify a first weight value based on the local contrast information (paragraph 0111, multiplying the pixel values of the M planes illustrated in the edge portion by their respective weights); identify a second weight value based on the first weight value (paragraph 0111, C plane in the edge portion is combined, the pixel value of the center is CMYK (128, 128, 0, 0)); and identify the second color by applying the first weight value to the preset color and applying the second weight value to a color corresponding to the edge enhancement area (paragraph 0112, changes the image to an image in which the C and M planes overlap each other in the boundary portion).
Regarding claim 4, Eguchi discloses when executed by the one or more processors, cause the electronic apparatus to, for each respective pixel included in the edge enhancement area: identify a local contrast value corresponding to the respective pixel (paragraph 0071, if colors are difficult to discriminate are present, the attribute information of objects using the color is corrected; based on the color raster image and the attribute information, pixels are subjected to edge enhancement); identify a first weight value corresponding to the respective pixel based on the local contrast value corresponding to the respective pixel (paragraph 0075, calculates a weighted average of the RGB values to obtain a gray value); apply the identified first weight value to the preset color (paragraph 0075, adds the gray value to the color value); apply a second weight value identified based on the first weight value corresponding to the respective pixel to an input color corresponding to the respective pixel (paragraph 0075, determines the colors that are difficult to discriminate when converted to gray; paragraph 0104, weights to be applied to the respective 3x3 pixels in the edge portion); and identify the second color by blending the preset color to which the first weight value is applied and the input color to which the second weight value is applied (paragraph 0105, multiplying the signal values of the 3x3 pixels in the edge portion by the respective weights indicated and adding the values).
Regarding claim 5, Eguchi discloses when executed by the one or more processors, cause the electronic apparatus to: based on a thickness of the edge enhancement area being less than a threshold value, maintain a lower bound of the first weight value to be a preset value (paragraph 0079, reads out a predetermined threshold; determines whether the grey value difference is smaller than the threshold); and based on the thickness of the edge enhancement area being equal to or greater than the threshold value, adjust the lower bound of the first weight value to be lower than the preset value (paragraph 0079, if the grey value difference is equal to or larger than the threshold, the image processing unit determine that the colors can be discriminated; paragraph 0082, corrects the attribute information of the color objects to attribute information).
Regarding claim 6, Eguchi discloses wherein the one or more instructions, when executed by the one or more processors, cause the electronic apparatus to: identify a lower bound of the first weight value by comparing a pixel movement distance according to a pixel shift and a thickness of the edge enhancement area (paragraph 0109, an edge portion 2202 including 3×3 pixels in the image 2201 is illustrated in an enlarged manner; FIG. 19A-19E).
Regarding claim 7, Eguchi discloses when executed by the one or more processors, cause the electronic apparatus to: based on the thickness of the edge enhancement area being included in the pixel movement distance, maintain the lower bound of the first weight value to be a preset value (FIG. 4A, set color); and based on the thickness of the edge enhancement area not being included in the pixel movement distance, adjust the lower bound of the first weight value to be lower than the preset value (paragraph 0105, center pixel is darker than the center pixel before the sharpness processing illustrated in the edge portion; performing processing on the entire image changes the image; paragraph 0112).
Regarding claim 8, Eguchi discloses cause the electronic apparatus to: identify local contrast information corresponding to the second area (paragraph 0109, paragraph 0109, hatched portion indicates that a C pixel value is 128, and a dotted portion indicates that an M pixel value is 128; and edge portion includes 3x3 pixels in the image); identify a first weight value based on the local contrast information (paragraph 0109, indicates weights to be applied); and identify the second color by applying the first weight value to the preset color and applying a weight value 0 to a color corresponding to the edge enhancement area (paragraph 0111, pixel value of the center pixel is CMYK (128, 128, 0, 0; ).
Regarding claim 9, Eguchi discloses wherein the one or more instructions, when executed by the one or more processors, cause the electronic apparatus to: based on one side relative to the edge area being a black area and a side opposite from the one side relative to the edge area being a white area (paragraph 0104, which portion indicates that an R signal value is 255), identify the edge enhancement area and expand the edge area in the edge enhancement area toward the one side to the preset thickness; and based on the one side and the side opposite from the one side both being white areas, identify the edge enhancement area and expand the edge area in the edge enhancement area toward both the one side and the side opposite the one side to the preset thickness.
Regarding claims 10-14, they are rejected based upon similar rational as above. Eguchi further discloses a method (paragraph 0001).
Regarding claim 15-20, they are rejected based upon similar rational as above. Eguchi further discloses a non-transitory computer-readable medium (paragraph 0168).
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to Motilewa Good-Johnson whose telephone number is (571)272-7658. The examiner can normally be reached Monday - Friday 6am-2:30pm.
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If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner’s supervisor, Jason Chan can be reached at 571-272-3022. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300.
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MOTILEWA . GOOD JOHNSON
Primary Examiner
Art Unit 2616
/MOTILEWA GOOD-JOHNSON/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2619
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