Appeal No. 2003-0435
Application No. 09/263,921
second block in a second picture”, “comparing the pixels with said second
precision in said second block with pixels in said second precision in all blocks
disposed within said first search area, thereby producing a plurality of best match
candidates; and averaging said best match candidates to produce said first
block”.
Independent claim 9 contains the following limitations “ means for
comparing the pixels with said second precision in a first block in a picture of
said second type with pixels with said second precision in all blocks located
within said first search area, there by producing a plurality of best match
candidates; and means for averaging said best match candidates to produce a
computed best match.”
In determining the scope of these claims we look to the appellant’s
specification. We find that block refers to a block of pixels in an image, see page
9 of appellant’s specification. Thus, the scope of claims 1, 5 and 9 includes a
comparison step which yields several matching blocks of pixels in the first image,
referred to in the claims as “best match candidates”, which correspond to a
selected block of pixels in the second image. Further, the claims require that the
“best match candidate” blocks in the first image are averaged to produce the
block in the first picture, the claimed “first block” or “computed best match”, which
corresponds to the selected block, claimed as the “second block”, in the second
image. Thus the scope of the independent claims includes the step of
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