Ex Parte Sonoda - Page 8

              Appeal 2007-1809                                                                     
              Application 09/774,013                                                               
                                                                                                  
                    We will sustain the Examiner’s rejection with respect to our selected          
              representative claim 7.  Stavely’s film scanner provides dust and scratch            
              correction by scanning the film 300 twice.  In one scan, the image to be             
              corrected is produced by passing conventional direct visible illumination            
              through the image on the film and then onto a sensor.  Stavely refers to this        
              normal scan as “Scan A.”                                                             
                    The second scan in Stavely provides a defect signature (i.e., an image         
              of surface defects) that is produced by passing either dark- or bright-field         
              infrared light or dark-field visible white light through the image on the film.      
              Stavely refers to this scan as “Scan B.”  Using this defect signature obtained       
              from Scan B, image processing software then suitably alters corresponding            
              areas in the image produced by Scan A (Stavely, col. 2, ll. 26-34; col. 4, ll.       
              18-31; Fig. 3).                                                                      
                    The order of Scan A and Scan B is not important (Stavely, col. 4, ll.          
              24-25).  Stavely further notes that the entire image may be (1) sequentially         
              scanned twice in two separate passes, or (2) each line may be scanned twice          
              on a line-by-line basis.  In the latter case, defect calculations and image          
              processing are likewise performed on a line-by-line basis (Stavely, col. 2, ll.      
              43-56; col. 5, ll. 5-23 and 45-65).                                                  
                    Turning to representative claim 7, Stavely’s Scan B -- a scan that can         
              occur prior to Scan A as the Examiner indicates5 -- fully meets reading a            
              defective image as claimed.  We also agree with the Examiner that                    
              “preprocessing” the defective image does not preclude merely identifying             


                                                                                                  
              5 See Answer, at 3; see also Stavely, at col. 4, ll. 24-25 (noting the               
              unimportance of the order of Scan A and Scan B).                                     
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