Appeal No. 96-1628 Application No. 08/167,617 The appellant's invention relates to a video camera which reduces by a constant amount (a negative offset) the voltage level of the video signals which correspond to an incident intensity over a predetermined threshold. Claim 1 is illustrative of the claimed invention, and it reads as follows: 1. Image capture apparatus for producing video image signals, comprising: image sensor means for producing video image signals having voltage levels representative of radiation intensities incident on respective areas of said image sensor means; means for identifying those respective areas of said image sensor means at which the incident radiation intensity exceeds a predetermined intensity and for producing a control signal representative thereof; and means responsive to said control signal for selectively causing a reduction in the voltage levels of said video image signals corresponding to said respective areas, which reduction is equivalent to applying a negative offset to said video image signals. The prior art references of record relied upon by the examiner in rejecting the appealed claims are :2 2Hirobe, PN 4,535,364, issued August 13, 1985, Mizokami et al., PN 4,584,610, issued April 22, 1986, Okino et al., PN 5,019,911, issued May 28, 1991, Walter, PN 3,818,127, issued June 18, 1974, Homma et al., PN 5,339,163, 2Page: Previous 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 NextLast modified: November 3, 2007