Appeal No. 1998-1387 Page 14
Application No. 08/208,791
Further regarding claims 10, 18, and 20, the appellants
argue that the “combination of extracting human skin color and
providing automatic focusing of the human skin color is not
disclosed by either of the two references, which are directed
to exposure control.” (Appeal Br. at 20) The examiner’s
reply follows.
[H]igh pass filters 9 and 11 are able to extract
high frequency component signals from the image
sensing circuit 8 where the signals are stored in
accumulating circuits 16-21, and used by the
microcomputer 26 for determining a focusing area
(col. 5, lines 58-61 and col. 6, lines 21-59) as a
priority area for exposure control (col. 9, lines 1-
53). As a result, the video camera of Imai in view
of Haruki would be able to make an appropriate
exposure correction at an in-focus area.
(Examiner’s Answer at 9.)
As mentioned regarding claims 1, 11, 12, and 21, Haruki
teaches providing automatic focusing on a person with human
skin. For its part, Imai teaches extracting human skin color.
The appellants admit, “The feature which is relied upon by the
Examiner is circuits 208-211, which are used to extract a skin
color if available from an input ....” (Appeal Br. at 7.)
The reference specifically mentions “detecting quantity [sic]
of skin color signal component,” abs., l. 9, and “select[ing]
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