Appeal No. 2003-1816 Page 6
Application No. 09/195,593
unwrapped and organized in an array referred to as a threshold array, which provides a
more simple mapping to the display space." Col. 9, ll. 25-31.
"As illustrated by the flow chart of FIG. 6b, the threshold array stored in memory
may . . . be easily accessed to render a digital halftone image." Col. 11, ll. 29-31. More
specifically, "dy and dx coordinates for a particular pixel are mapped to the threshold
array memory coordinate by a translation, whereby dx', the x distance from the origin of
the threshold array, is equal to: (dx-n*offset) mod (threshold width) where mod
represents a modular function." Col. 12, ll. 3-8. "Similarly dy', the y distance from the
origin, is equal to: dy-n*h." Id. at ll. 11-12.
Although we agree with the examiner that dx' and dy' are used as indices, we are
unpersuaded that the indices are used to address the cells of a stoclustic or stochastic
halftone screen. To the contrary, block 260 of Figure 6b discloses that dx' and dy' are
used to index the reference's threshold array. Furthermore, the examiner recognizes
that dx' and dy' are used "for indexing the cells of a threshold array." (Final Rejection at
2.) Absent a teaching or suggestion of storing fill-in indices for addressing the cells of a
stoclustic or stochastic halftone screen, we are unpersuaded of a prima facie case of
obviousness. Therefore, we reverse the obviousness rejection of claim 1 and of claims
2-7, which depend therefrom.
Page: Previous 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 Next
Last modified: November 3, 2007