Appeal No. 97-2541
Application 08/369,022
the lack of merit of the examiner’s expressed view and not an
affirmative or blank indication that the claims are
patentable.
Pate generally discusses trends in multimedia
applications. Examples include multimedia mail and multimedia
conferencing. Furthermore, Pate discusses media conversion.
On page 319, in column 2, Pate states:
Since multimedia applications by design are
able to handle different types of media, an
obvious next step is to convert between
media types. It might be cheaper to store
or transfer information in a different
format than the one in which it will be
used. One example would be speech stored
and transferred as text that is converted
back to speech at the destination. As with
most media conversion, some information is
lost -- in this case the characteristics of
the original speaker’s voice -- but for
some applications that is not a problem.
Media conversion can be especially helpful
for the disabled. Text can be converted to
speech for the blind, speech can be
converted to text or even to video clips of
simple sign language gestures for the deaf.
The appellants argue that Pate contemplates media
conversion only as alternatives, depending on specific
criteria such as cost reduction in transmission. The
appellants point out that the claimed invention requires the
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