Ex Parte Huang

Patent Trial and Appeal Board

Jan 23, 2013

11907324 (P.T.A.B. Jan. 23, 2013)

UNITED STATES PATENT AND TRADEMARK OFFICE
UNITED STATES DEPARTMENT OF COMMERCE
United States Patent and Trademark Office
Address: COMMISSIONER FOR PATENTS
P.O. Box 1450
Alexandria, Virginia 22313-1450
www.uspto.gov
APPLICATION NO. FILING DATE FIRST NAMED INVENTOR ATTORNEY DOCKET NO. CONFIRMATION NO.
11/907,324 10/11/2007 Huakun Huang SON-3847 3252
23353 7590 01/23/2013
RADER FISHMAN & GRAUER PLLC
LION BUILDING
1233 20TH STREET N.W., SUITE 501
WASHINGTON, DC 20036
EXAMINER
KAO, YIH-SIEN
ART UNIT PAPER NUMBER
2662
MAIL DATE DELIVERY MODE
01/23/2013 PAPER
Please find below and/or attached an Office communication concerning this application or proceeding.
The time period for reply, if any, is set in the attached communication.
PTOL-90A (Rev. 04/07)

UNITED STATES PATENT AND TRADEMARK OFFICE
____________________

BEFORE THE PATENT TRIAL AND APPEAL BOARD
____________________

Ex parte HUAKUN HUANG
____________________

Appeal 2011-010693
Application 11/907,324
Technology Center 2600
____________________

Before THU A. DANG, JAMES R. HUGHES,
and GREGORY J. GONSALVES, Administrative Patent Judges.

DANG, Administrative Patent Judge.

DECISION ON APPEAL

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Application 11/907,324

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I. STATEMENT OF THE CASE
Appellant appeals under 35 U.S.C. § 134(a) from a Final Rejection of
claims 1-8. We have jurisdiction under 35 U.S.C. § 6(b).
We affirm.

A. INVENTION
Appellant’s invention is directed to an image pickup apparatus and
method device having a unit that detects skin color, another unit that
eliminates the skin color from a face detected within an image, and a white
balance gain control that uses the information supplied by the unit to adjust
the image using the derived white balance gain values (Abstract).

B. ILLUSTRATIVE CLAIM
Claim 1 is exemplary:
1. An image pickup apparatus for picking up an image by
using a solid-state image sensing device, the image pickup
apparatus comprising:

a color component acquiring unit that acquires picked-
up-image color-component signals representing color
components of the picked-up image;

a face detecting unit that detects a face from the picked-
up image;

a skin-color-region color-component acquiring unit that,
when the picked-up image includes a face, acquires skin-color-
region color-component signals based on a face detection result;

a skin-color-eliminated-component-signal-information
creating unit that creates skin-color-eliminated component-
signal information obtained by eliminating the skin-color-
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region color-component signals, obtained by the skin-color-
region color-component acquiring unit, from the picked-up-
image color-component signals obtained by the color
component acquiring unit;

a white-balance-gain setting unit that sets a white balance
gain by using the skin-color-eliminated component-signal
information; and

a white balance control unit that performs white balance
adjustment of the color components of the picked-up image by
using the white balance gain.

C. REJECTION
The prior art relied upon by the Examiner in rejecting the claims on
appeal is:
Miki US 7,542,077 B2 Jun. 02, 2009
(filed Oct. 25, 2005)
Kawaguchi US 7,573,505 B2 Aug. 11, 2009
(filed Mar. 31, 2005)

Claims 1-8 stand rejected under 35 U.S.C. § 103(a) as being
unpatentable over Miki in view of Kawaguchi.

II. ISSUES
The dispositive issues before us are whether the Examiner has erred in
determining that the combination of Miki and Kawaguchi teaches or would
have suggested a unit that “creates skin-color-eliminated component-signal
information obtained by eliminating the skin-color-region color-component
signals,” a unit that sets “a white balance gain by using the skin-color-
eliminated component-signal information,” and a unit that performs “white
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balance adjustment” by using the white balance gain (claim 1, emphasis
added).

III. FINDINGS OF FACT
The following Findings of Fact (FF) are shown by a preponderance of
the evidence.
Miki
1. Miki discloses an image capturing device having a white
balance adjustment device for adjusting white balance of an input image;
wherein, the device includes a block dividing circuit 12 that divides an
image into blocks, a color range determining circuit 13 that detects the color
associated with pixels within each block (determining whether each pixel is
associated with an object and setting a flag for each pixel of an apparent
object color ), and a representative value calculating circuit 14 that
calculates a representative value for each block using an average value of
pixels within the block excluding pixels identified as a pixel of an apparent
object color (Fig. 1; Abstract; col. 4, ll. 29-66).
2. The device maps pixels to particular color ranges associated
with objects such as, the blue sky color range 400, a skin color range 402, a
leaf color range 404, and a flower color range 406; wherein, when a pixel’s
color is within one of the particular ranges, the system identifies the pixels (a
cluster) as an apparent object associated with that range (Fig. 10, col. 10, ll.
44-57).
3. The device is capable of using images of a face as a subject for
mapping correction (Fig. 11, col. 11, ll. 4-12).
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4. The representative value calculating circuit 14 provides input
into a white balance evaluating circuit 16 that calculates white balance gains
(Rgain, Ggain, and Bgain) from the weighted average supplied using the
representative values of the blocks (Fig. 1, col. 2, l. 58 – col. 3, l. 25 and col.
4, l. 65 – col. 5, l. 6).
5. A white balance adjusting circuit 20 adjusts the image captured
based upon the white balance gain values (Fig. 1, element 20).
Kawaguchi
6. Kawaguchi discloses an image capturing apparatus having a
face region determination unit 16 that detects the region of a man’s face by
using the video data of the first frame obtained after setting the face
detection mode (Abstract; col. 7, ll. 60-67).

IV. ANALYSIS
Claims 1-8
Appellant contends that “Miki … fails to disclose, teach or suggest ‘a
skin-color-region color-component acquiring unit that, when the picked-up
image includes a face, acquires skin-color-region color-component signals
based on a face detection result’” (App. Br. 15). Appellant argues that
“[t]hough the representative value calculating circuit 14 according Miki …
uses an average value of only remaining pixels other than pixels identified as
a pixel of an apparent object color to calculate a representative value for
each block, there is no mention of eliminating the skin-color-region color-
component signals, obtained by the skin-color-region color-component
acquiring unit, from the picked-up-image color-component signals obtained
by the color component acquiring unit” (App. Br. 17). Appellant contends
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further that “[t]here is also no mention of a white-balance-gain setting unit
that sets a white balance gain by using the skin-color-eliminated component-
signal information; and a white balance control unit that performs white
balance adjustment of the color components of the picked-up image by using
the white balance gain in Miki” (id.).
However, the Examiner finds that Miki discloses that “‘images of a
face of a person are used as a subject for mapping correction’” and “the
position of skin-color signals can be determined based on a face detection
result” (Ans. 12). The Examiner notes that “[t]he only difference [between
the claim and the teaching of Miki] is that, in the claim, the elimination of
skin-color-region color-component signal is performed after integrating all
pixels, while in Miki this is performed before integrating the pixels” (Ans.
13).
We give the claim its broadest reasonable interpretation consistent
with the Specification. See In re Morris, 127 F.3d 1048, 1054 (Fed. Cir.
1997). Claim 1 does not place any limitation on what “skin-color-
eliminated-component-signal” information and “skin-color-region color-
component” signals mean, include, or represent other than a “skin-color-
eliminated-component-signal-information” creating unit creates the
information by eliminating the signals obtained by a “skin-color-region
color-component” acquiring unit.
We find “skin-color-region color component” signals comprise data
relating to color that is acquired and find “skin-color-eliminated-component-
signal” information merely comprises data that is generated as a result of
eliminating the acquired data relating to color. However, we find that what
type of acquired data being eliminated (excluded) does not change or limit
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how the unit generates the data and what type of generated data being used
to set the white balance gain does not change or limit how the gain is set.
Rather, these terms are merely descriptions of the types of data that are
excluded and used to set the gain respectively.
When descriptive material is not functionally related to the claimed
medium, the descriptive material will not distinguish the invention from the
prior art in terms of patentability. See In re Ngai, 367 F.3d 1336, 1339 (Fed.
Cir. 2004) and In re Gulack, 703 F.2d 1381, 1385 (Fed. Circ. 1983). We
therefore give “a skin-color-eliminated-component-signal-information
creating unit that creates skin-color-eliminated component-signal
information obtained by eliminating the skin-color-region color component
signals, obtained by the skin-color-region color-component acquiring unit”
its broadest reasonable interpretation as a device that eliminates/subtracts a
first set of data relating to color from the captured image data to generate
resultant data (a second set of data), as consistent with the Specification and
claim 1.
Miki discloses adjusting white balance of an input image which
includes dividing an image into blocks, detecting the color associated with
pixels within each block (determining whether each pixel is associated with
an object and setting a flag for each pixel of an apparent object color), and
calculating a representative value for each block using an average value of
pixels excluding flagged pixels identified as a pixel of an apparent object
color (FF 1). Groups of pixels are mapped to particular color ranges
associated with objects such as, the sky, skin, a leaf, and a flower (FF 2),
wherein images of a face can be used as a subject for mapping correction
(FF 3). A representative value calculating circuit provides input into a white
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balance gain calculating circuit that calculates white balance gains from the
weighted average supplied using the representative values of the blocks (FF
4). The white balance adjusting circuit adjusts the image captured based
upon these white balance gain values (FF 5).
We find the representative value calculating circuit which excludes
flagged pixels associated with an apparent object color to be a device that
subtracts a first set of data relating to color from the captured image data to
generate resultant data. That is, we find that Miki’s image capturing device
process step of excluding flagged pixels of an apparent object color
comprises “a skin-color-eliminated-component-signal-information creating
unit that creates skin-color-eliminated component-signal information
obtained by eliminating the skin-color-region color component signals,
obtained by the skin-color-region color-component acquiring unit” (claim 1).
We also find that the white balance gain calculating circuit calculates
white balance gains by using the data representative of exclusion of the data
relating to the pixels associated with an apparent object color. In particular,
we find that the Miki’s white balance circuit comprises “a white-balance-
gain setting unit that sets a white balance gain by using the skin-color-
eliminated component-signal information” (claim 1). We find further that
the white balance adjusting circuit comprises a unit that adjusts the color
components of the picked-up image by using the white balance gain values.
That is, we find that Miki’s white balance adjusting circuit comprises “a
white balance control unit that performs white balance adjustment of the
color components of the picked-up image by using the white balance gain”
(claim 1).
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In addition, Kawaguchi discloses an image capturing apparatus having
a face region determination unit that detects the region of a man’s face (FF
6). We find that the face region determination unit detects a face from the
image. That is, we find that Kawaguchi’s face region determination unit
comprises “a face detecting unit that detects a face from the picked-up
image” (claim 1).
In view of our claim construction above, we find that the combination
of Miki and Kawaguchi at least suggests providing “a skin-color-eliminated-
component-signal-information creating unit that creates skin-color-
eliminated component-signal information obtained by eliminating the skin-
color-region color component signals, obtained by the skin-color-region
color-component acquiring unit,” as specifically required by claim 1.
Although Appellant also argue that “[i]n Applicant’s invention, two
component types of color information are acquired while the color range
determining circuit 13 of Miki … only acquires one component type of color
information” (App. Br. 16), such argument is not commensurate in scope
with the specific language of claim 1. In particular, claim 1 does not recite
such acquisition of “two component types of color information” (id.) as
Appellant argues.
Accordingly, we find that Appellant has not shown that the Examiner
erred in rejecting claim 1 under 35 U.S.C. § 103(a) over Miki in view of
Kawaguchi. Further, independent claims 5-8 having similar claim language
and claims 2-4 (depending from claim 1), which have not been argued
separately, fall with claim 1.

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V. CONCLUSION AND DECISION
The Examiner’s rejection of claims 1-8 under 35 U.S.C. § 103(a) is
affirmed.
No time period for taking any subsequent action in connection with
this appeal may be extended under 37 C.F.R. § 1.136(a)(1)(iv).

AFFIRMED

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