DETAILED ACTION
Notice of Pre-AIA or AIA Status
The present application, filed on or after March 16, 2013, is being examined under the first inventor to file provisions of the AIA .
Continued Examination Under 37 CFR 1.114
A request for continued examination under 37 CFR 1.114, including the fee set forth in 37 CFR 1.17(e), was filed in this application after final rejection. Since this application is eligible for continued examination under 37 CFR 1.114, and the fee set forth in 37 CFR 1.17(e) has been timely paid, the finality of the previous Office action has been withdrawn pursuant to 37 CFR 1.114. Applicant's submission filed on 19 February 2026 has been entered.
Response to Arguments
Applicant's arguments with respect to claim(s) 47, 52, and 58 filed 19 February 2026 have been fully considered but they are not persuasive. In particular, the applicant asserts that Maeda does not teach the amended limitations, namely that the prior art does not teach the amended “block of quantized prediction residual signal” and “reconstructing the current block by adding the dequantized block to a prediction signal”. However, it should be pointed out that while Maeda does not teach the amended limitations, Sato does still teach generated quantized residual values when Sato discloses decoding “residual data” and generating quantized values by “quantizing a residual”, see Sato ¶515-519 and 548-549. Additionally, a newly cited prior art is relied upon to disclose the claimed reconstructing the current block as will be disclosed below.
Applicant’s arguments with respect to claim(s) 51 and 56 have been considered but are moot because the new ground of rejection does not rely on any reference applied in the prior rejection of record for any teaching or matter specifically challenged in the argument.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 103
The following is a quotation of 35 U.S.C. 103 which forms the basis for all obviousness rejections set forth in this Office action:
A patent for a claimed invention may not be obtained, notwithstanding that the claimed invention is not identically disclosed as set forth in section 102, if the differences between the claimed invention and the prior art are such that the claimed invention as a whole would have been obvious before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to a person having ordinary skill in the art to which the claimed invention pertains. Patentability shall not be negated by the manner in which the invention was made.
The factual inquiries for establishing a background for determining obviousness under 35 U.S.C. 103 are summarized as follows:
1. Determining the scope and contents of the prior art.
2. Ascertaining the differences between the prior art and the claims at issue.
3. Resolving the level of ordinary skill in the pertinent art.
4. Considering objective evidence present in the application indicating obviousness or nonobviousness.
Claim(s) 47,51-52,56,58 rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Sato; Kazushi (US 20160255346 A1) in view of Maeda; Mitsuru et al. (US 20170332091 A1) in view of SONG; Jinhan et al. (US 20130266067 A1)
Regarding claim 47, Sato teaches,
A method of block-based decoding (¶496-512, “decoding device” wherein the circuitry determines information “applied to the transform block”) of an encoded picture signal from a data stream (¶496-512 and 360, decoding device configured to “decode a bitstream” such that “decoder 947 performs decoding processing to decode the encoded bit stream”) using transform decoding, (¶224-246,496-512,220, and fig. 15, decoding unit 113 depicted in fig. 15, as part of “decoding device” 110, includes “inverse-orthogonal transformation unit 134 performs, in units of TUs, inverse-orthogonal transform”) the method comprising:
determining for a current block (¶510-512, determine for “transform block”) that a transform mode is transform skip; (¶510-512, decoding device determines “whether transform skip is applied to the transform block”)
entropy decoding a block of quantized prediction residual signal, (¶496-500, 510-517, and 548-549, decoding configured to “decode a bit stream” that includes residual data and “generate a quantized value” generated by “quantizing a residual” where “generated quantized value is inversely quantized” using block size of “the transform block”) which is associated with the current block (¶510-517, “generated quantized value is inversely quantized” by using the flat scaling list corresponding to the block size of the “transform block”) according to the transform mode, (¶510-517, generated quantized value is inversely quantized “in a case where the block size of the transform block has been determined to be larger than the 4 by 4 block size and the transform skip has been determined to have been applied to the transform block”) from the data stream; (¶496-517, decoding device configured to “decode a bitstream” which further “inversely quantize the generated quantized value” in a case where a skip transform is applied)
dequantizing the block of quantized prediction residual signal (¶510-517, and 548-549, “generated quantized value is inversely quantized” of the transform block based on decoded bit stream including “residual data” used to generate “quantized value” by “quantizing a residual”) using a quantization parameter (¶510-512, generated quantized value is inversely quantized “using the flat scaling list corresponding to the block size of the transform block”) which depends on whether the transform mode is transform skip, (¶510-512, “generated quantized value is inversely quantized by using the flat scaling list corresponding to the block size of the transform block” in a case where “ transform skip has been determined to have been applied to the transform block”)
But does not explicitly teach,
using a quantization parameter which depends on whether the transform mode is transform skip, to obtain a dequantized block, wherein based on the determination that the transform mode is transform skip, the method includes determining an initial quantization parameter for the current block from the data stream and checking whether the initial quantization parameter is smaller than a predetermined minimum value, and if the initial quantization parameter is smaller than the predetermined minimum value, setting the quantization parameter to the predetermined minimum value, and when the initial quantization parameter is not smaller than the predetermined minimum value, setting the quantization parameter to the initial quantization parameter; and
reconstructing the current block by adding the dequantized block to a prediction signal of the current block.
However, Maeda teaches additionally,
dequantizing the block to be dequantized (¶154,60, and Fig. 5B, “perform dequantization and inverse orthogonal transform” for the target block) using a quantization parameter (¶60,154, and Fig. 5B, prediction error decoding unit 111 performs “dequantization and inverse orthogonal transform” using calculated “quantization parameter QP” if value of the “cu_transquant_bypass_flag code is 1” as presented in at step S554 that signals “to perform dequantization” depicted in Fig. 5B) which depends on whether the transform mode (¶154,60, and Fig. 5B, “cu_transquant_ bypass_flag code” used to determine “whether or not to skip dequantization and inverse orthogonal transform of the target block”) is transform skip, (¶154,60, and Fig. 5B, “cu_transquant_bypass_flag code is 0” or “cu_transquant_bypass_flag code is 1” for the target block) to obtain a dequantized block, (¶154,60, and Fig. 5B, if the value of cu_transquant_bypass_flag code is 1, “processing proceeds to step S216” that “dequantizes the quantized transform coefficient by using the calculated quantization step” using the “quantization parameter QP”) wherein based on the determination that the transform mode is the transform skip, (¶154,60, and Fig. 5B, “if the value of the cu_transquant_bypass_flag code is 1” as depicted in Fig. 5B) the method includes determining an initial quantization parameter (¶40 and 34, “QP decoding unit 106 calculates a quantization parameter QP” and outputs the calculated “quantization parameter QP”) for the current block (¶40 and 34, calculates quantization parameter QP in “units of blocks”) from the data stream (¶40 and 34, calculates quantization parameter QP for “units of blocks” based on “code input from the header” of a moving image sequence) and checking whether the initial quantization parameter (¶163, image decoding apparatus 100 “updates a quantization parameter for only a block to be dequantized”) is smaller than a predetermined minimum value, (¶163 and 109-111, updates a quantization parameter for a block such as on the basis of the “amount of coded data”) and if the initial quantization parameter is smaller than the predetermined minimum value, (¶163 and 109-111, “if the amount of coded data is smaller than a certain lower limit value”) setting the quantization parameter to the predetermined minimum value, (¶163 and 109-111, if amount of coded data is smaller than a certain lower limit value, “updates (changes) the value of the quantization parameter QP to become smaller than the previous quantization parameter”) and when the initial quantization parameter is not smaller than the predetermined minimum value, (¶163 and 109-111, “If the amount of coded data is an appropriate amount” which includes the amount being “equal to or larger than the certain lower limit value”) setting the quantization parameter to the initial quantization parameter; (¶163 and 109-111, If amount of coded data is an appropriate amount, where amount is equal to or larger than the certain lower limit value, “determine the previous quantization parameter as the quantization parameter QP without updating the quantization parameter”)
The prior art Maeda teaches determining a condition where decoding includes a process of dequantizing being skipped or not. Additionally, Maeda teaches updating the quantization parameters for the coded data that can be based on a limit value which corresponds to a code amount as part of a function of rate control. The prior art teaches that the changes are output as a form of code that is used in the process of updating the quantization parameters in the decoding process. While these teachings are not explicitly associated with one another, the outputs of the prior art present the techniques which result in the quantization parameters of a block are capable of being updated based on code that is output as a result of rate control based quantization parameter control. It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to combine the decoding device of Sato with the adaptive quantization parameters of Maeda which can code information relating to how to update or change quantization parameters based on code amount. This allows for an embodiment with increased coding efficiency compared to using non-updated quantization parameters.
Song teaches additionally,
block of quantized prediction residual signal (¶54 and 47, “quantized residual block” that is quantized transform block “calculated from a difference value”)
dequantizing the block of quantized prediction residual signal (¶54 and fig. 1, “residual block by dequantizing and inversely transforming the transformed and quantized residual block” by dequantizer and inverse transformer 170 depicted in fig. 1)
reconstructing the current block (¶55 and fig. 1, “adder 180 generates a reconstructed block”) by adding the dequantized block to a prediction signal of the current block. (¶55, generates a reconstructed block by “adding the predicted block” generated by the prediction unit 120 “and the residual block” reconstructed by the “dequantizer” and inverse transformer 170)
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to combine the decoding device of Sato with the adaptive quantization parameters of Maeda with the video coding of Song which reconstructs a block by adding a predicted block with a residual block. This a process that minimizes differences between the original and predicted blocks which increases efficiency and improves quality.
Regarding claim 51, Sato with Maeda with Song teaches the limitations of claim 47,
Song teaches additionally,
predetermined minimum value (¶46, “optimal scaling factor”) corresponds to a scaling factor of one. (¶46, “applying scale factors” such as a candidate “4/4 scale factor”)
Regarding claim 52, it is the decoding apparatus of decoding method claim 47.
Sato teaches additionally,
An apparatus (¶219-246 and fig. 14-15, “decoding device” 110 with decoding unit 113 depicted in fig. 14-15) comprising at least one processor (¶435-442 and fig. 36-37, “video processor 1332” includes “encode/decode engine 1407” where the video stream is decoded, depicted in fig. 36-37) for block-based decoding of an encoded picture signal (¶221-246 and fig. 14, “decoding device 110 receives the encoded stream transmitted from the encoding device 10”) from a data stream using transform decoding, (¶510-512 and 233, encode/decode engine 1407 performs “decoding processing of the video stream” which includes decoding unit 113 includes “inverse-orthogonal transformation unit 134 performs, in units of TUs, inverse-orthogonal transform on the orthogonal transform coefficients”) the at least one processor (¶463,457, and fig. 36-37, “main CPU 1531” executes programs controlling operation “processing unit in the video processor 1332” that includes “encode/decode engine 1407” depicted in fig. 36-37) configured to:
Refer to rejection of claim 47 to teach the additional limitations of claim 52.
Regarding claim 56, dependent on claim 52, it is the decoding apparatus claim of method claim 51, dependent on claim 47. Refer to rejection of claim 51 to teach the limitations of claim 56.
Regarding claim 58, it is the non-transitory digital storage medium having a computer program decoder of decoding method claim 47.
Sato teaches additionally,
A non-transitory digital storage medium (¶458 and 282, encode/decode engine 1407 “achieved by software such as an incorporated program” such that “programs constituting the software are installed to the computer”) having a computer program stored thereon to perform, (¶282, “processing may be executed by hardware, or may be executed by software” where the computer includes “computer incorporated into dedicated hardware”) when the computer program is run by a computer, (¶463 and fig. 37, “main CPU 1531 executes programs and the like for controlling operation of each processing unit in the video processor 1332”) a method of block-based decoding of a picture signal (¶221-246 and fig. 14, “decoding device 110 receives the encoded stream transmitted from the encoding device 10”) from a data stream using transform coding, (¶510-512 and 233, encode/decode engine 1407 performs “decoding processing of the video stream” which includes decoding unit 113 includes “inverse-orthogonal transformation unit 134 performs, in units of TUs, inverse-orthogonal transform on the orthogonal transform coefficients”)
Refer to rejection of claim 47 to teach the additional limitations of claim 58.
Conclusion
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/JOSEPH G USTARIS/Supervisory Patent Examiner, Art Unit 2483
/JIMMY S LEE/Examiner, Art Unit 2483
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