Appeal No. 2004-0664
Application 09/756,683
an apparatus is provided for monitoring and processing a web of textile
materials, such as cotton being processed in a textile mill. The web
includes a plurality of entities such as cotton fibers, neps, leaf trash, seed
coat fragments, and other foreign matter. The web is monitored by an
optical imaging unit, such as a video camera, and a monitor signal is
produced containing information corresponding to the content of the web,
including the location of entities in the web. A computer receives the
monitor signal and determines the position of the entities based on the
location information and generates control signals based on the
determined positions. Web processing means receives the control signals
and processes the web in response thereto for reducing the amount of
entities contained in the web [column 2, lines 8 through 20].
As was the case with Leifeld, the examiner (see page 7 in the answer) concedes
that the Shofner apparatus does not meet the limitation in independent claim 1 requiring
an evaluating means for determining a distribution of useful fibers per area unit in the
fiber web. The rationale offered by the examiner to cure this shortcoming (see page 7
in the answer) is identical to that presented with respect to Leifeld and suffers the same
flaws, starting with an unsupported finding that Shofner meets the limitation in claim 1
relating to the detection of useful fibers and empty locations in the web and the
generation of signals representative thereof.
Consequently, we also shall not sustain the standing 35 U.S.C. § 103(a)
rejection of claim 1 as being unpatentable over Shofner.
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