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and the fee set forth in 37 CFR 1.17(e) has been timely paid, the finality of the previous Office action has been withdrawn pursuant to 37 CFR 1.114.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 10/30/2025 has been entered.
Response to Arguments
Applicant's arguments filed 10/30/2025 have been fully considered but they are not persuasive.
ZHANG discloses each of the three items of coordinate information included in each of the N items of subspace coordinate information is information indicating an origin in a different one of the three axial directions of a subspace corresponding to the item of subspace coordinate information ([0006] three-dimensional coordinates of the point cloud data; [0032] geometric coordinate information of the point cloud has been obtained; [0029] Perform arithmetic coding on nodes in the leaf nodes to generate a binary geometry bitstream, that is, geometry code stream). Inherently, the coordinates/origins are for each node/subspace/cube in the point cloud data.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 103
In the event the determination of the status of the application as subject to AIA 35 U.S.C. 102 and 103 (or as subject to pre-AIA 35 U.S.C. 102 and 103) is incorrect, any correction of the statutory basis (i.e., changing from AIA to pre-AIA ) for the rejection will not be considered a new ground of rejection if the prior art relied upon, and the rationale supporting the rejection, would be the same under either status.
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.
This application currently names joint inventors. In considering patentability of the claims the examiner presumes that the subject matter of the various claims was commonly owned as of the effective filing date of the claimed invention(s) absent any evidence to the contrary. Applicant is advised of the obligation under 37 CFR 1.56 to point out the inventor and effective filing dates of each claim that was not commonly owned as of the effective filing date of the later invention in order for the examiner to consider the applicability of 35 U.S.C. 102(b)(2)(C) for any potential 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(2) prior art against the later invention.
Claims 1-2, 4-8, 10-14 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over ZHANG et al. (US 20220124374 A1) in view of LI et al. (US 20210335016 A1).
Regarding claims 1, 7 and 13-14. ZHANG discloses A three-dimensional data encoding method (abstract, A point cloud encoding and decoding method; [0006] A processing order of point cloud data during point cloud encoding is determined, where the processing order indicates a coordinate axis processing order of three-dimensional coordinates of the point cloud data and the point cloud data is all or part of data in point cloud) comprising:
encoding tile information including information on N subspaces which are at least part of a target space in which three-dimensional points are included ([0029] During encoding of the geometry information based on octree, the bounding box is equally partitioned into eight sub-cubes, and non-empty (including points in the point cloud) sub-cubes are continued to be partitioned into eight equal parts until leaf nodes obtained through partition are 1×1×1 unit cubes. Perform arithmetic coding on nodes in the leaf nodes to generate a binary geometry bitstream, that is, geometry code stream), and encoding point cloud data of the three-dimensional points based on the tile information ([0029] Perform arithmetic coding on nodes in the leaf nodes to generate a binary geometry bitstream, that is, geometry code stream), N being an integer greater than or equal to 0 ([0029] non-empty (including points in the point cloud) sub-cubes are continued to be partitioned into eight equal parts …, inherently, there may be empty cubes (not including points, not counted as subspaces) and non-empty cubes (including points, counted as subspaces)); and
generating a bitstream including the point cloud data encoded (abstract, The encoder encodes the point cloud data to-be-encoded and signals encoded bits into the bitstream), wherein
the tile information includes N items of subspace coordinate information indicating coordinates of the N subspaces ([0006] three-dimensional coordinates of the point cloud data; [0032] geometric coordinate information of the point cloud has been obtained; [0029] Perform arithmetic coding on nodes in the leaf nodes to generate a binary geometry bitstream, that is, geometry code stream (Inherently, the coordinates are for each node/subspace/cube in the point cloud data)),
the N items of subspace coordinate information each include three items of coordinate information each indicating a coordinate in a different one of three axial directions in a three-dimensional orthogonal coordinate system ([0006] three-dimensional coordinates of the point cloud data; [0032] geometric coordinate information of the point cloud has been obtained; [0029] Perform arithmetic coding on nodes in the leaf nodes to generate a binary geometry bitstream, that is, geometry code stream), and
when N is greater than or equal to 1 ([0029] non-empty (including points in the point cloud) sub-cubes are continued to be partitioned into eight equal parts until leaf nodes obtained through partition are 1×1×1 unit cubes. Perform arithmetic coding on nodes in the leaf nodes to generate a binary geometry bitstream, that is, geometry code stream):
(i) in the encoding of the tile information, each of the three items of coordinate information included in each of the N items of subspace coordinate information is information indicating an origin in a different one of the three axial directions of a subspace corresponding to the item of subspace coordinate information ([0006] three-dimensional coordinates of the point cloud data; [0032] geometric coordinate information of the point cloud has been obtained; [0029] Perform arithmetic coding on nodes in the leaf nodes to generate a binary geometry bitstream, that is, geometry code stream (Inherently, the coordinates/origins are for each node/subspace/cube in the point cloud data)), and each of the three items of coordinate information is encoded (abstract, A point cloud encoding and decoding method; [0006] A processing order of point cloud data during point cloud encoding is determined, where the processing order indicates a coordinate axis processing order of three-dimensional coordinates of the point cloud data and the point cloud data is all or part of data in point cloud); and
(ii) in the generating of the bitstream, the bitstream which includes the N items of subspace coordinate information encoded (abstract, The encoder encodes the point cloud data to-be-encoded and signals encoded bits into the bitstream; [0029] Perform arithmetic coding on nodes in the leaf nodes to generate a binary geometry bitstream, that is, geometry code stream).
LI discloses
(i) the encoding uses a first fixed length that is common to the three items of coordinate information ([0075] A fixed-length code encoding method may refer to a conversion of the attributes corresponding to the position coordinates of each 3D data point in the 3D data point set into a binary value); and
(ii) in the generating of the bitstream, the bitstream which includes first fixed length information indicating the first fixed length is generated (abstract, performing position coordinate encoding on position coordinates of one or more 3D data points in the 3D data point set to obtain a first binary bitstream; [0075] When performing fixed-length code encoding, the depth of the fixed-length code may be written into the bitstream).
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 inventions of ZHANG and LI, to perform fixed-length code encoding, in order to simplify the encoding and decoding method (LI [0044]).
Regarding claims 2 and 8. LI discloses The three-dimensional data encoding method according to claim 1, wherein
the tile information includes at least one item of size information indicating a size of at least one subspace among the N subspaces ([0117], [0176] The decoding may include determining whether to further divide the current block based on the value of each bit in the current byte and the size of the current block),
in the encoding of the tile information, each of the at least one item of size information is encoded ([0117], [0176] The decoding may include determining whether to further divide the current block based on the value of each bit in the current byte and the size of the current block (inherently, the size information is encoded into the bitstream and passed to the decoder)).
Furthermore, LI discloses ([0073]) The encoding method of the binary encoding in the embodiments of the present disclosure may be a fixed-length code encoding method. Correspondingly, the decoding method of the binary decoding may be a fixed-length code decoding method. LI also discloses ([0075]) When performing fixed-length code encoding, the depth of the fixed-length code may be written into the bitstream. ZHANG discloses ([0086]) the encoder can first encode the coordinate-axis-order index by using fixed length coding, determine the encoded bits, and then signal the encoded bits into the bitstream. ZHANG also discloses ([0138]) when the decoder parses the bitstream to obtain the coordinate-axis-order index, the decoder can parse a fixed length code to obtain the coordinate-axis-order index.
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to apply the inventions of ZHANG and LI to the size information, and to perform fixed-length code encoding to the size information, and include the size information and the fixed length information in the bitstream, in order to simplify the encoding and decoding method (LI [0044]).
Regarding claims 4 and 10. It is obvious to use the same length for the first fixed length and the second fixed length. See MPEP 2144.04. IV. A. the two fixed lengths of same length are unpatentable.
Regarding claims 5 and 11. LI discloses The three-dimensional data encoding method according to claim 1, wherein
the tile information includes common origin information indicating coordinates of an origin of the target space, and
in the generating of the bitstream, the bitstream which includes the common origin information is generated ([0043] the reference point (the position coordinates used to calculate the residual)).
The same motivation has been stated in claim 1.
Regarding claims 6 and 12. ZHANG discloses The three-dimensional data encoding method according to claim 1, wherein
in the generating of the bitstream, when N is 0, the bitstream that does not include the information on the N subspaces is generated ([0029] non-empty (including points in the point cloud) sub-cubes are continued to be partitioned into eight equal parts until leaf nodes obtained through partition are 1×1×1 unit cubes. Perform arithmetic coding on nodes in the leaf nodes to generate a binary geometry bitstream).
Allowable Subject Matter
Claims 3 and 9 are objected to as being dependent upon a rejected base claim, but would be allowable if rewritten in independent form including all of the limitations of the base claim and any intervening claims.
Conclusion
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/XIAOLAN XU/ Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2488