Appeal No. 1999-0858
Application 08/562,429
The second step of the Figure 1 process is depicted beginning in Figure 3 where
unquantized scaling of this prefiltered image is performed using a given pixel window to
identify a set of neighboring input pixels surrounding a single output pixel. Each pixel in
this window contributes input pixel density information to generate a scaled grey output
pixel and each pixel in the window is assigned a weighting factor to establish a density
contribution to the output pixel. This is discussed briefly in the abstract, the middle of the
summary of the invention at column 3 and again in the paragraph bridging columns 3 and 4
of the summary of the invention. At most, these grey scale determinations may be
construed to meet the claimed feature of detecting an amount of a characteristic near a
picture element. As expressed at this later portion, the grey level values are determined
as a function of a predefined neighborhood of overlapped and non-overlapped input pixels
about the output pixel. There is thus no selection of the surrounding picture elements
corresponding to the detected amount of the characteristic as also required in each
independent claim on appeal.
According to the showing in Figure 5, for example, and the discussion in the middle
of column 7, an exemplary 3 X 3 neighborhood of pixels has been predefined as the set of
neighboring pixels. The discussion at column 7, lines 47-49 indicates that any set size
may be utilized and that such size has no relation to the input and output resolutions. In
accordance with the discussion of Figure 7 at column 8 and the showing in this figure, the
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