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 .
Specification
The title of the invention is not descriptive. A new title is required that is clearly indicative of the invention to which the claims are directed.
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.
Claim(s) 1-3, 6, and 7 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Okuike (US2019/0149711 A1) in view of Lee (US 2020/0029019 A1).
Claim 1, Okuike teaches an imaging apparatus (Fig. 1) comprising:
an imaging device having a first imaging unit configured to generate an image having a first spectral characteristic (first imaging device 11A; Fig. 1) and a second imaging unit (second imaging device 12A; Fig. 1) configured to generate an image having a second spectral characteristic (one of the imaging sections may be an infrared camera; paragraph 0144);
at least one processor or circuit configured to function as:
a first image combining unit configured to combine a plurality of images having the first spectral characteristic by using a first combination parameter to generate a first combined image (first signal processor 31 synthesizes a plurality of images from first imaging section 11 to output a first synthesized image; paragraph 0055);
a second image combining unit configured to combine a plurality of images having the second spectral characteristic by using a second combination parameter to generate a second combined image (second signal processor 32 synthesizes a plurality of images from second imaging section 12 to output a second synthesized image; paragraph 0056); and
but Okuike is silent regarding a determination unit configured to determine the first combination parameter and the second combination parameter by evaluating each of the first combined image and the second combined image based on a predetermined condition.
Lee teaches an imaging apparatus configured to generate a combined image (sub-images are synthesized to generate a WDR image; paragraph 0048-0049) and a determination unit configured to determine the first combination parameter and the second combination parameter (a number of sub-images to be synthesized; paragraph 0049) by evaluating each of the first combined image and the second combined image based on a predetermined condition (number of sub-images to be synthesized are based on a calculation of luminance; paragraph 0049).
It would have been obvious to a person having ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the invention to have used the teaching of Lee with the first and second image combination units of Okuike in order to prevent deterioration of image quality even through a rapid change in the environment in which images are captured (see paragraph 0010 of Lee).
Claim 2, Lee further teaches wherein the first combination parameter and the second combination parameter include the number of the images used to be combined (number of sub-images to be synthesized are based on a calculation of luminance; paragraph 0049).
Claim 3, Lee further teaches wherein the determination unit evaluates each of the first combined image and the second combined image based on an average value of luminance of each of combined images (mode setting for synthesizing images may be based on a mean of luminance pixels of the output image data; paragraph 0024).
Claim 6 is analyzed and rejected as a method for performing the functions of the apparatus of claim 1.
Claim 7 is analyzed and rejected as a non-transitory computer-readable storage medium storing a computer program including instructions for executing the functions of the apparatus of claim 1.
Claim(s) 4 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Okuike in view of Lee, and further in view of Kostrzewa (US 2019/0342480 A1).
Claim 4, Okuike in view of Lee teaches the imaging apparatus according to claim 1, but is silent regarding wherein the determination unit evaluates each of the first combined image and the second combined image based on the number of saturated pixels in each of combined images.
Kostrzewa teaches an imaging apparatus to combine a plurality of images (combining multiple IR images; paragraph 0083), wherein a determination unit evaluates each of the first combined image and the second combined image based on the number of saturated pixels in each of combined images (determination is made based on number of pixels that exceed a saturation threshold value; paragraph 0154).
It would have been obvious to a person having ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the invention to have used the teaching of Kostrzewa with that of Okuike and Lee in order to capture a scene with large temperature variation (see paragraph 0007-0008 of Kostrzewa).
Claim(s) 5 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Okuike in view of Lee, and further in view of Watanabe (JP 2011-199787)
Claim 5, Okuike in view of Lee teaches the imaging apparatus according to claim 1, but is silent regarding wherein the determination unit evaluates each of the first combined image and the second combined image based on contrast of each of combined images.
Watanabe teaches an imaging apparatus to combine a plurality of images (number of images are combined; paragraph 0032) wherein a determination unit evaluates each of the first combined image and the second combined image based on contrast of each of combined images (number of images to be combined is estimated based on the contrast amplification factor of each image (see paragraph 0032-0036).
It would have been obvious to a person having ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the invention to have used the teaching of Watanabe with that of Okuike and Lee in order to reduce noise and to suppress a discontinuous change in the amount of noise when generating a composite image (see paragraph 0020 of Watanabe).
Conclusion
The prior art made of record and not relied upon is considered pertinent to applicant's disclosure. See PTO-892 attached.
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to CHIAWEI A CHEN whose telephone number is (571)270-1707. The examiner can normally be reached Mon-Fri 12:00pm - 9:00pm EST.
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If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner’s supervisor, Sinh Tran can be reached at (571)272-7564. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300.
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/CHIAWEI CHEN/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2637
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