Appeal No. 2000-0193
Application No. 08/627,010
compression ratio to an object in a second frame, even if the object is positioned
differently in the second frame.
The examiner's position, as developed on pages 10 through 13 of the Answer, is
that the "follow-up" function required by the claims is suggested by Tsukagoshi. "The
reference of Tsukagoshi is used for at least the conventional and well known 'automatic
follow-up' feature for keeping the same compression ratio regardless of position, which is
exactly what Tsukagoshi does, so that this feature is anticipated." (Answer at 10.)
We find appellants’ arguments to be persuasive. First, Ligtenberg is directed to
selecting portions of static (JPEG) images for compression of the portions at different
compression ratios from that generally selected for the image as a whole (e.g., cols. 7-8).
Tsukagoshi, on the other hand, is concerned with motion pictures; in particular, motion
adaptive quantization (e.g., Abstract and col. 10, ll. 11-39). Absent hindsight of appellants'
invention, in our opinion the artisan would not have looked to the teachings of Tsukagoshi
to improve upon the invention of Ligtenberg. As the references themselves disclose, there
are disparate concerns in the compression of static pictures as opposed to the
compression of motion pictures, and a scheme for compression of a static image would
not necessarily relate to schemes for compressing images in motion.
Moreover, Tsukagoshi teaches using different quantization in fast motion regions as
opposed to the quantization in slow motion regions. See, e.g., col. 10, ll. 28-33. We agree
with appellants that the teaching is in direct opposition to the requirements of instant
-4-
Page: Previous 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 Next
Last modified: November 3, 2007