Appeal No. 1998-1387 Page 15
Application No. 08/208,791
information on the luminance of the subject of the image
including the color near skin color.” Col. 4, ll. 46-47. In
view of these teachings, we are persuaded that the combination
of references in combination with the prior art as a whole
would have suggested the combination of extracting human skin
color and providing automatic focusing of the human skin
color. Therefore, we affirm the rejection of claims 10, 18,
and 20 under 35 U.S.C. § 103.
Further regarding claims 13 and 19, the appellants argue,
“Neither Haruki nor Imai teach [sic] alone or in combination
extracting the high frequency response of only a human skin
color to determine an in-focus condition which is subsequently
used to determine a target object.” (Appeal Br. at 19.) The
examiner’s reply follows.
Haruki et al teaches high pass filters 9 and 11
which 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.)
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