Appeal No. 2004-0262
Application No. 09/139,711
The way the charging period is imposed on the image sensor
is further described in col. 28, lines 9-12 and shown in Figure
31:
Then, at S505, a scanning speed fp for the scanning motor
70 is determined. The scanning speed fp is defined as a
motor driving pulse cycle calculated to provide the charging
period determined in the photometering process. [Emphasis
added.]
The scanning motor 70 rotates the scanning mirror 2 at the speed
that allows the sensor 16 to capture the image and store the
charges for the duration equal to the predetermined “charge
period.” Once the charges are transformed to a transmission part
through a shift gate, they are read out in response to a clock
signal which is what Appellant argues to be independent from the
sensed brightness. Suzuki describes this charge transfer in col.
25, line 67 through col. 26, line 6:
In the image sensor 16, an electrical charge, which is
stored in a photodiode for each pixel in response to a
received light amount, is transformed to a transmission part
through a shift gate. The transmitted electrical charge is
sequentially input into a floating capacitor in response to
a transmission pulse and then converted to a voltage.
There is nothing in Suzuki indicate that this “transmission
pulse,” which is actually the only pulse applied to the image
sensor, is not determined or controlled by the sensed brightness.
We also agree with Appellant (reply brief, page 2) that the
readout of the charges from the image sensor does not depend on
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