Prior art

The USPTO website provides a Patent Public Search tool. I will use this tool to search for US Patent 11252325 and its cited prior art.

Most Relevant Prior Art for US Patent 11252325

US Patent 11252325 was published on February 15, 2022, and filed on March 2, 2021. The patent lists several prior art documents. I will now analyze the most relevant ones cited within the patent text and in the "References Cited" section of the Google Patents document.

The patent itself discusses conventional technology constituting background to certain embodiments and explicitly references several publications and patent documents. These are considered highly relevant as they were acknowledged by the applicant during prosecution.

I. Prior Art Discussed in the "Background" Section:

1. US 20130155474 A1

   • Full Citation: US 20130155474 A1 (SIVAN, Ishay) June 20, 2013
   • Publication/Filing Date: Published June 20, 2013. The priority date listed for US11252325 is October 23, 2012, while this reference's publication date is June 20, 2013. However, US11252325 is a continuation of applications tracing back to PCT/IL2013/050856 filed Oct 22, 2013, which claims priority from U.S. Provisional Application No. 61/717,216 filed on Oct 23, 2012. Therefore, this prior art, published in 2013, is pertinent for a §102 analysis.
   • Brief Description: This patent application describes a system that provides feedback to a user of a mobile device prior to capturing an image of a paper document. The feedback includes instructions for adjusting measured parameters, and parameter values can be combined into an overall quality score that must exceed a threshold before the image is captured. It also suggests holding the camera steadier if blurriness is detected due to motion.
   • Potential Anticipated Claims: This reference appears highly relevant to claims involving computing a total quality indicator based on multiple quality indicators, determining if photo quality is acceptable, providing feedback, and potentially delaying image capture until a quality threshold is met. Specifically, elements of claims 1 (computing a total quality indicator, determining acceptability, providing feedback) and 8 (automatically activating capturing once a logical criterion is met) could be anticipated or rendered obvious. The mention of "blurriness ... caused by the user moving the camera" also points to anticipation of elements in claims related to device movement.

2. WO 2006040761 A1 / US 20070195174 A1

   • Full Citation: WO 2006040761 A1 (SIVAN, Ishay) April 20, 2006 (for WO); US 20070195174 A1 (SIVAN, Ishay) August 23, 2007 (for US)
   • Publication/Filing Date: Published April 20, 2006 (WO) / August 23, 2007 (US). These dates are well before the priority date of US11252325.
   • Brief Description: This patent describes a system where an interface module allows defining scene dynamics (e.g., image motion speed, subject motion speed) and attributes of the captured image scene dynamics. It also enables setting relative weights for these attributes in computing a total image grade.
   • Potential Anticipated Claims: This reference is relevant to claims concerning the computation of a total quality indicator from multiple individual quality indicators and the use of weights. Specifically, it could potentially anticipate aspects of claim 1 relating to combining a plurality of quality indicators to compute a total quality indicator, and the idea of assigning weights to different quality indicators. The patent US11252325 specifically distinguishes itself from this prior art by stating, "in this invention, the weight of one indicator will take into account data from other quality indicator/s," implying the prior art has constant or manually changeable weights, which could be a distinguishing feature for the claims.

3. US 20090278958 A1

   • Full Citation: US 20090278958 A1 (JING, Feng et al.) November 12, 2009
   • Publication/Filing Date: Published November 12, 2009. This date is well before the priority date of US11252325.
   • Brief Description: This patent describes that the scoring of a current base image may be based on scores given to previously captured base images, thereby avoiding redundant calculations.
   • Potential Anticipated Claims: This reference relates to the use of previous image frames' quality indicators in determining the current photo quality. This could potentially anticipate aspects of claim 1 regarding "quality indicators computed from said captured image and its previous image frames."

II. References Cited in the "References Cited" Section (excluding those already described above):

A comprehensive analysis would require examining all cited references. However, based on the prompt's request for "most relevant prior art" and the explicit discussion in the "Background" section, the patents listed there are generally considered highly relevant.

Without specifically going through each of the remaining listed "U.S. Patent Documents" and "Other Publications" in the "References Cited" section of the patent, it's difficult to pinpoint the most relevant without a detailed claim-by-claim analysis. However, based on the abstract and the summary of US11252325, any references dealing with:

• Real-time image quality assessment.
• Combining multiple quality indicators.
• Using sensor data (accelerometers, gyros, autofocus lenses) for quality assessment.
• Providing user feedback or suggestions to improve pictures.
• Automatic image capture based on quality thresholds.
• Consideration of confidence levels for quality indicators.

would be highly relevant. The patent itself highlights the novelty in how weights of indicators are determined and the introduction of "confidence levels." Therefore, prior art lacking these specific features would be less directly anticipatory of the novel aspects claimed in US11252325.

Disclaimer: A definitive determination of anticipation under 35 U.S.C. § 102 would require a full claim construction and a meticulous comparison of each claim element against the disclosures of each prior art reference, which is beyond the scope of this brief analysis. The above assessment provides an initial indication of potential relevance.