Appeal No. 1998-1387 Page 9
Application No. 08/208,791
For its part, Imai teaches performing an automatic
exposure adjustment operation. The appellants admit,
“According to Imai, a portion having a luminance of a
predetermined level or higher and close to skin color, as
shown in Figure 3, is extracted to perform control so that the
exposure of this portion is appropriate.” (Appeal Br. at 15.)
The reference specifically “provide[s] an image pickup
apparatus ... capable of enabling the most suitable exposure
regardless of the position and the background of the subject
image.” Col. 2, ll. 36-42. Imai’s apparatus is also “capable
of enabling the most suitable exposure when humans are subject
of the image.” Id. at ll. 45-46. “As a result of the thus-
obtained exposing mechanism controlling method,” id. at ll.
60-61, moreover, “the most suitable exposure can be always
obtained when the human's skin or the like is the subject of
the image.” Id. at ll. 61-63. We are persuaded that Imai’s
teachings of enabling the most suitable exposure would have
suggested the desirability, and thus the obviousness, of
substituting Imai’s automatic exposure adjustment operation
for Haruki’s automatic exposure adjustment operation.
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