Appeal No. 1998-0740 Application 08/627,838 sensor operable to clear the image data from the image sensor responsive to an image clear signal; an image memory coupled to the image sensor image area and operable to receive the image data from the image sensor image area and to store the image data responsive to an image transfer signal, an exposure time associated with the image defined as the time between the image clear signal and the image transfer signal; an electronic iris controller circuit coupled to the image sensor image area and the image memory and operable to create and transmit the image clear signal and the image transfer signal, the electronic iris controller circuit operable to alter the exposure time in response to the image data by increments having variable length having increasingly smaller duration as the exposure time is decreased and having increasingly greater duration as the exposure time is increased; and an accordion clock signal having a constant number of transitions for a given period of time and having variable periods for at least some of the transitions, the increments having variable length are derived from the accordion clock signal. The references relied upon by the examiner as evidence of obviousness are: Ishizaki et al. (Ishizaki) 4,701,626 Oct. 20, 1987 Nagai et al. (Nagai) 4,742,395 May 03, 1988 Nakajima et al. (Nakajima) 5,157,502 Oct. 20, 1992 Claims 1-5, 7-10, 12-17 and 19 stand rejected under 35 U.S.C. § 103 as being unpatentable over Nakajima in view of Nagai. Claims 6, 11 and 18 stand rejected under 35 U.S.C. § 103 as being unpatentable over Nakajima in view of Nagai and Ishizaki. The respective positions of the examiner and the appellant with regard to the propriety of these rejections are set forth in 2Page: Previous 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 NextLast modified: November 3, 2007