Appeal No. 2003-2103 Page 6
Application No. 09/826,256
Bruijns discloses an image pick-up apparatus 1 for picking up on image sensors 2, 3 a
plurality of sub-images S1 and S2 split from a single image by a beam splitter 38 and
combining them so as to form a single composite image, the pick-up apparatus
including a correction unit 5 for correcting brightness values of the composite image by
selecting bright and dark parts from the sub-images and deriving a gain correction
factor from the bright parts and an offset correction term from the dark parts. Image
lines from one image sensor constitute the odd image lines in the composite image and
image lines from the other sensor constitute the even image lines in the composite
image. The bright parts of the sub-images are those parts whose brightness values
exceed a threshold value and the dark parts are those parts whose brightness values
fall below a ceiling value. In essence, the gain correction factor is obtained from a ratio
of the brightness values of the bright parts of the two sub-images and the offset
correction term is obtained from the difference between the brightness values of the
dark parts of the sub-images. The correction unit comprises an adder unit for adding
the offset correction factor to a signal level of one of the sub-image signals and a
multiplier unit for multiplying a signal level of said sub-image signal by the gain
correction factor.
Despite the examiner’s repeated reference (final rejection, page 2; answer,
pages 3 and 4) to Bruijns’ disclosure in column 7, lines 42-52, of using stored values of
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