Appeal No. 2000-2138
Application No. 08/935,314
1. A method of generating a stereoscopic sequence of frames, each frame in the sequence
having a left image and a right image, wherein for at least one frame in the sequence, one of the left
image and the right image is an approximation of the other, the method comprising the steps of:
identifying any pixels not filled in the approximation image; and
assigning, to any pixel not filled in the approximation image, the data values of a
corresponding pixel in an image from a preceding frame.
The references relied on by the examiner are:
deBoer et al. (deBoer) 4,591,898 May 27, 1986
Love (Love), “Nonholographic, Autostereoscopic, Nonplanar Display of Computer Generated
Images,” Graduate Thesis, Department of Computer Science, North Carolina State University, 1990,
pages 99 through 108.
Claims 1 through 15 stand rejected under 35 U.S.C. § 103(a) as being unpatentable over
Love in view of deBoer.
Reference is made to the revised brief (paper number 15), the answer (paper number 16) and
the reply brief (paper number 17) for the respective positions of the appellants and the examiner.
OPINION
According to the examiner (answer, page 4), “Love discloses at pages 107-108 a method of
generating a stereoscopic sequence of image frames wherein for at least one frame, one of the left or
right images is an approximation of the other (“interpolated” by shifting pixels as a function of z),”
and that “gaps may result in the approximated image (page 107).” Appellants and the examiner all
agree (revised brief, page 5; answer, page 4) that Love does not disclose filling gaps with “data
values of a corresponding pixel in an image from a preceding frame.” For such a teaching, the
examiner directs our attention to the teachings found at column 2, lines 3 through 8 of deBoer
2
Page: Previous 1 2 3 4 5 Next
Last modified: November 3, 2007