Appeal No. 2003-0261
Application No. 09/126,203
would have understood that the color filters in the wheel 54 used in the method of
Fontenot et al., or the color filters 83, 85, 87 in the liquid crystal filter color shutter
used in the method if Fontenot et al., passed both the color with which each is
associated and infrared radiation and would still be fairly identified as color pass
filters.
We disagree with the examiner’s findings. We find that Fontenot et al. teach five
embodiments and that in all five embodiments infrared (IR) light is blocked when visible
light is presented to an image sensor. The first embodiment is shown in figure 1 of
Fontenot makes use of a prism to split the beam of light to be captured by two CCDs
and two filters are used, an infrared block filter, item 6a and a visible block filter item
14a, see pages 13 and 14. Fontenot’s second embodiment, shown in figure 3, is a
sequential embodiment which makes use of a slide with two filters on the slide a color
pass filter item 36 and an infrared pass filter item 38. Fontenot’s statement that on
page 17, the “CCD has the infrared blocking filter omitted so that it is sensitive to
infrared light energy which when the filter is 38 is depressed is passed to the CCD 32”
clearly implies that infrared is only passed to the camera when the infrared filter 38 is
present and is blocked by the color pass filter. Fontenot’s third embodiment, depicted
in figures 4 and 5 and described on pages 18 through 21, makes use of a filter wheel
which has a color pass for each of the primary colors and an infrared pass filter, the
description of this embodiment makes no mention of infrared light also being passed by
the color pass filter. Fontenot’s forth embodiment, shown in figure 6 and described on
page 21, makes use of a series of LCD color filers. In relation to the LCD filters
Fontenot states: “[w]hen energized it passes only the color for which it is designed.” In
-7–
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