Appeal No. 1999-2058
Application 08/433,643
geometrically defined pattern and has nothing to do with
specifying an outline of an image area to be quantitatively
analyzed.
Nevertheless, we conclude that the subject matter of
claim 2 would have been obvious over Maayan and Poulsen.
Poulsen discloses setting the boundaries of an area of
interest for density analysis (quantitative analysis) (col. 2,
lines 35-39; col. 9, lines 20-29, 49-55). The shape of the
area is a rectangular box; however, claim 2 does not preclude
the outline of the image area from being rectangular. It
would have been obvious to provide the outline specifying
means of Poulsen in Maayan to allow the user to concentrate on
areas of interest. In the combination of Maayan and Poulsen,
the image area specifying means of Maayan would specify image
areas within the window ranges of densities and display these
specified areas as a predetermined density (e.g., white) over
the whole image, that is, both within and outside the
specified outline taught by Poulsen. However, claim 2 does
not preclude specifying an image area having a density between
the upper and lower limit values of image density outside as
well as inside the outline specified by the image area outline
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