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 .
Response to Arguments
Applicant’s arguments, filed 11/25/2025, with respect to the rejection of claims 1, 2, 5 under 35 U.S.C. 103 have been fully considered and are persuasive. Specifically, the Examiner is persuaded that Gao does not disclose three prediction modes, respectively using a parent, parent and grandparent, and parent, grandparent, and great-grandparent node for geometry prediction of a current node. Therefore, the rejection has been withdrawn. However, upon further consideration, a new ground(s) of rejection is made in view of the newly found prior art, Zhang, US 2021/0248785 A1.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 102
The following is a quotation of the appropriate paragraphs of 35 U.S.C. 102 that form the basis for the rejections under this section made in this Office action:
A person shall be entitled to a patent unless –
(a)(2) the claimed invention was described in a patent issued under section 151, or in an application for patent published or deemed published under section 122(b), in which the patent or application, as the case may be, names another inventor and was effectively filed before the effective filing date of the claimed invention.
Claims 1, 2, 5, 8, 9, 12, 15, and 18 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(2) as being anticipated by Zhang, US 2021/0248785 A1.
Regarding claim 1, Zhang discloses: a method of transmitting point cloud data, the method comprising:
encoding geometry information including positions of points of the point cloud data (See [0058]-[0059], disclosing predictive tree coding for geometry information using position.);
encoding attribute information including attribute values of the points of the point cloud data (See [0060]-[0061].); and
transmitting the encoded geometry information, the encoded attribute information and signaling data (See figure 2, and [0027]-[0028], disclosing transmission over network 230.),
wherein the encoding the geometry information comprises:
generating a predictive tree based on the points of the point cloud data (See [0052].); and
compressing the geometry information by performing prediction based on the predictive tree (See figure 4, and [0048], specifically, “generate predictive tree” in step 440.),
wherein the prediction of a position for a current point in the predictive tree is performed based on a prediction mode including a first prediction mode, a second prediction mode, and a third prediction mode (See [0064], disclosing providing multiple predictions for a current node based on a candidate list having different prediction modes within it.),
wherein, in the first prediction mode, the position for the current point is predicted based on a position of a parent point of the current point (See [0065], disclosing a first mode uses prediction from a parent node.).
wherein, in the second prediction mode, the position for the current point is predicted based on positions of the parent point and a grand-parent point of the current point (See [0067], disclosing a second prediction mode using a linear combination of parent and grandparent nodes.), and
wherein, in the third prediction mode, the position for the current point is predicted based on positions of the parent point, the grand-parent point and a grand-grandparent point of the current point (See [0068], “The prediction from the linear combination of parent node, grandparent node and the grand grandparent node, i.e., pred=ap+bg+cx, where a, b and c are coefficients that scale the three precedent nodes.”)
Regarding claim 2, Zhang discloses: the method of claim 1, wherein the encoding the geometry information further comprises:
clustering the points of the point cloud data based on at least one of similarity of the geometry information or similarity of the attribute information related to the points of the point cloud data (See [0058]-[0063], disclosing different ways of clustering points of point cloud data, Typically, during the tree construction process, two points are connected if they are found to be close to each other.” [0063] gives example of points closes to a straight line being connected (“clustered”) to form a branch of the predictive tree.); and
dividing the points of the point cloud data into a plurality of compression units (See [0019], disclosing arithmetically coding occupancy data of each node.).
Regarding claim 5, the combination of Gao in view of Hennings Yeoman discloses the limitations of claim 1, upon which depends claim 5. This combination does not disclose explicitly: the method of claim 1, wherein the compressing the geometry information comprises:
predicting the geometry information based on the predictive tree (See [0073], “After then, the best prediction is selected from the list by choosing the one that minimizes the rate-distortion cost. The best prediction is specified by the index to the candidate list.”), and
generating residual information related to the geometry information (See [0074], disclosing signaling a prediction residual.).
Receiving method claim 15 is directed to a method of receiving point cloud data that substantially corresponds to the transmitting method claim in claim 1. Therefore, method claim 15 is rejected for the same reasons of obviousness as set forth above with respect to claim 1.
Device claims 8, 9, 12, and 18 are drawn to the method of using the corresponding apparatus claimed in method claims 1, 2, 5, and 15, respectively. Therefore, device claims 8, 9, 12, and 18, correspond, respectively, to method claims 1, 2, 5, and 15, and are rejected for the same reasons anticipation as used above.
Conclusion
Applicant's amendment necessitated the new ground(s) of rejection presented in this Office action. Accordingly, THIS ACTION IS MADE FINAL. See MPEP § 706.07(a). Applicant is reminded of the extension of time policy as set forth in 37 CFR 1.136(a).
A shortened statutory period for reply to this final action is set to expire THREE MONTHS from the mailing date of this action. In the event a first reply is filed within TWO MONTHS of the mailing date of this final action and the advisory action is not mailed until after the end of the THREE-MONTH shortened statutory period, then the shortened statutory period will expire on the date the advisory action is mailed, and any nonprovisional extension fee (37 CFR 1.17(a)) pursuant to 37 CFR 1.136(a) will be calculated from the mailing date of the advisory action. In no event, however, will the statutory period for reply expire later than SIX MONTHS from the mailing date of this final action.
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to KYLE M LOTFI whose telephone number is (571)272-8762. The examiner can normally be reached 9:00-5:00.
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/KYLE M LOTFI/Examiner, Art Unit 2425