Appeal No. 2006-2199
Application No. 09/845,391
sensors in the first line and the second line have substantially the same pitch, and
where photo-sensors in the first line are offset relative to photo-sensors in the second
line by approximately one-half the pitch.” The first set of lines of photosensors is
comprised of red photosensors, the second set of lines of photosensors is comprised of
green photosensors and the third set of lines of photosensors is comprised of blue
photosensors. The examiner acknowledges (answer, page 3) that Decker “does not
teach that the six lines of photo-sensors can all have different spectral bandwidths . . . .”
According to the examiner (answer, pages 3 and 4), “Nakamura et al teaches on
Column 7, Lines 8-17 and depicts in Figure 1 and 2 that when designing a color scanner
that uses six lines of photo-sensors, that it is advantageous that the six photo-sensors
have six different sensitivities corresponding to two red, two green, and two blue
sensitivities . . . in order to allow a scanner to distinguish between color photographic
originals and color printed originals.” Based upon the teachings of Nakamura, the
examiner concludes (answer, page 4) that “it would have been obvious to one of
ordinary skill in the art at the time the invention was made to make the six lines of
photo-sensors in the scanner of Decker et al to have six different spectral sensitivities
as taught by Nakamura et al. in order to allow a scanner to distinguish between color
photographic originals and color printed originals.”
We disagree with the examiner’s finding (answer, page 3) that Nakamura is
concerned with designing a color scanner with six lines of photosensors. As clearly
seen in Figure 1 of Nakamura, the image sensor assembly 20 consists of only a single
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