Appeal No. 1999-0858
Application 08/562,429
OPINION
We reverse.
Each independent claim, 17, 27, 37, 47, 57 and 67 requires in part a means or step
for “detecting an amount of a characteristic near a picture element” as well as a means or
step for “selecting surrounding picture elements corresponding to the detected amount of
the characteristic.”
The examiner's reasoning in the final rejection and the answer relies most heavily
upon the discussion in Coward at columns 5-7 to justify the position that the claims on
appeal are anticipated by this reference. As the abstract and summary of Coward reveals,
this reference is capable of converting a first bitmap image resolution to a second bitmap
resolution by means of interpolation as generally expressed in the preamble of each
independent claim on appeal. As shown in Figure 1 of this reference and revealed in the
abstract and summary of the invention in the most succinct manner, there exists first a
prefiltering step which, in accordance with Figure 2, in part selects one of a plurality of
filters, there listed as filters A-C. Because this filter selection operation occurs in a
prefiltering operation, it can not be said to meet the step of selecting surrounding picture
elements since there had been no previous determination in the reference to rely on an
amount of a characteristic in accordance with the first major clause of each independent
claim on appeal.
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