Appeal No. 2004-0557 Application No. 08/829,187 included in the image signals by combining a first non-noise- reduced image signal previously stored in a frame memory with a second current non-noise-reduced signal to form a noise-reduced image signal (see specification, pages 13-14). Claim 1 is illustrative of the claimed invention, and it reads as follows: 1. An electronic endoscope system, comprising: an image capturing system, which receives sequential frames of an optical image of an object and sequentially outputs a plurality of image signals respectively corresponding to a plurality of color components of said sequential frames of said optical image; a frame memory for storing image signals; a noise reduction system, which reduces random noise included in each of said plurality of image signals by combining a non-noise-reduced image signal previously stored in said frame memory and including first random noise, with a non-noise-reduced current image signal from said image capturing system and including second random noise, to form a noise-reduced image signal, and outputs a plurality of said noise-reduced image signals, respectively corresponding to said plurality of image signals; a memory which receives said plurality of noise-reduced image signals for each of said sequential frames of said optical image; and a video signal generating system, which generates a video signal for each of said sequential frames based on said noise- reduced image signals, corresponding to said plurality of color components. The prior art references of record relied upon by the examiner in rejecting the appealed claims are: Buchin 5,475,420 Dec. 12, 1995 2Page: Previous 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 NextLast modified: November 3, 2007