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 .
Applicant’s response to the Non-final Office Action dated 03/11/2026, filed with the office on 05/09/2026, has been entered and made of record.
Information Disclosure Statement
The information disclosure statement (“IDS”) filed on 04/02/2026 have been reviewed and the listed references have been considered.
Status of Claims
Claims 1-7, 9-15 and 17-22 are pending. Claim 17 is amended. Claims 8, 16 and 23 were previously cancelled.
Response to Amendment
In light of Applicant’s remarks presented in third paragraph, in page 6 of it’s reply, Examiner agrees that the missing comma does not impact the readability of the claim language, therefore, the clam objections are withdrawn.
In light of Applicant’s amendments of the claims, the double patenting rejections are withdrawn.
Response to Arguments
Applicant's arguments filed on January 21, 2026 with respect to rejection of claims under 35 U.S.C. 103 has been fully considered; but they are not found persuasive. Specifically, in page 8 of its reply, Applicant argues in second paragraph that Huang does not teach generating (u, v) coordinates because first array carries UV coordinates, and the processing circuitry determines according to the first array, first boundary UV coordinates of the first list of boundary vertices for mapping the first patch to a first UV patch. Examiner respectfully disagrees. The broadest reasonable interpretation of the claim language— “generating (u,v) coordinates based on the patch identification and mapping function parameters” includes generation of u, v coordinates from the data included in the patch identification and mapping information. Applicant’s specification discloses in page 4, lines 2-6: “Generating (u,v) coordinates based on the patch identification and mapping function parameters comprises utilizing a function to generate the (u,v) coordinates from the patch identification and the mapping function parameters, wherein the mapping function parameters correspond with the patch identification. The (u,v) coordinates are generated based on transforms using a bounding box size, occupancy resolution, and scaling information (emphasize added)” includes further details regarding the generation of the u, v coordinates and establishes a clear difference between the generation of u, v coordinates in Applicant’s invention vs the cited prior art Huang. However, as the claim limitations are given the broadest reasonable interpretation, the claims do not recite these additional limitations are not limited by these elements, and therefore, the generation of u, v coordinates as recited in the claims, are interpreted to include- obtaining the u, v coordinates by decoding the first array in patch identification and mapping information— Huang, ¶0008: “the processing circuitry decodes a first array from the second portion. The first array carries UV coordinates for mapping the boundary vertices”. Therefore, Applicant’s arguments are not found persuasive.
In response to applicant’s argument presented in page 11, second paragraph, that the combination of references Huang and Graziosi is not proper, the examiner recognizes that obviousness may be established by combining or modifying the teachings of the prior art to produce the claimed invention where there is some teaching, suggestion, or motivation to do so found either in the references themselves or in the knowledge generally available to one of ordinary skill in the art. See In re Fine, 837 F.2d 1071, 5 USPQ2d 1596 (Fed. Cir. 1988), In re Jones, 958 F.2d 347, 21 USPQ2d 1941 (Fed. Cir. 1992), and KSR International Co. v. Teleflex, Inc., 550 U.S. 398, 82 USPQ2d 1385 (2007). In this case, Applicant argues that Huang does not disclose/suggest that its atlas-based construction can be used/substituted/combined with a projective one as such disclosed in Graziosi, making them incompatible. Examiner respectfully disagrees. Huang discloses in ¶0125: “It is noted that while UV atlas sampling technique is used as an example of lossy compression technique with which the patch zipping technique can be used to achieve filled gaps between patches, other remeshing or compression techniques, regardless of the parameterization, sampling or projection approach, can be utilized” (emphasis added). Therefore, applicant’s arguments are not found persuasive.
Applicant’s amendment of independent Claim 17, which has altered the scope of the claims 17-22 of the instant application, has necessitated new ground(s) of rejection presented in this office action with respect to claims of the instant application. Accordingly, because Applicant’s arguments are merely directed to the amended portion of the claims, new analyses have been presented below, which make Applicant’s arguments moot.
Consequently, THIS ACTION IS MADE FINAL.
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.
Claims 1-7 and 9-15 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Huang et al. (US 2023/0063575 A1) in view of Graziosi (US 2020/0236401 A1).
Regarding claim 1, Huang teaches, A method programmed in a non-transitory memory of a device comprising: (Huang, ¶0184: “the techniques (e.g., methods… execute a program that is stored in a non-transitory computer-readable medium”) receiving patch identification information (Huang, ¶0146: “an entry corresponding to a UV patch can be accessed according to a label of the UV patch”) and mapping function parameters; (Huang, ¶0116: “UV mapping or mesh parameterization are used to map surfaces”) generating (u,v) coordinates based on the patch identification and mapping function parameters; (Huang, ¶0008: “The processing circuitry determines, according to the first array, first boundary UV coordinates of the first list of boundary vertices for mapping the first patch to a first UV patch”) and reconstructing a 3D mesh based on the (u, v) coordinates; (Huang, ¶0009: “To generate the reconstructed mesh, in some examples, the processing circuitry determines first UV coordinates of first vertices inside the first UV patch”) and reconstructing a texture map based on a decoded attribute sub-bitstream by (Huang, ¶0066: “The texture reconstruction module (448) can determine texture information for points in the point cloud based on the decompressed texture images”). However, Huang does not explicitly teach, utilizing a single 4x4 homography transform matrix by using homogenous coordinates.
In an analogous field of endeavor, Graziosi teaches, utilizing a single 4x4 homography transform matrix (Graziosi, ¶0048: “the 4×4 Homography Matrix”) by using homogenous coordinates. (Graziosi, ¶0051: “output point cloud is simply generated by multiplying the homography transform to a vector in homogenous coordinate notion”).
Therefore, it would have been obvious to a person of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify Huang using the teachings of Graziosi to introduce a 4x4 homography matrix. A person skilled in the art would be motivated to combine the known elements as described above and achieve the predictable result of efficiently combining three dimensional transformations into a single matrix multiplication. Therefore, it would have been obvious to combine the analogous arts Huang and Graziosi to obtain the invention of claim 1.
Regarding claim 2, Huang in view of Graziosi teaches, The method of claim 1 further comprising encoding the 3D mesh to generate the patch identification information and mapping function parameters. (Huang, ¶0116: “mesh parameterization are used to map surfaces of a mesh in the 3D domain to 2D domain. In some examples, a mesh is partitioned into patches”; ¶0146: “an entry corresponding to a UV patch can be accessed according to a label of the UV patch”).
Regarding claim 3, Huang in view of Graziosi teaches, The method of claim 2 wherein the mapping function parameters are encoded on an atlas sub-bitstream. (Huang, ¶0164: “UV patches in a UV atlas are encoded into the first portion of the bitstream, information of boundaries of the UV patches is encoded into the second portion of the bitstream”; ¶0167: “a first array is encoded into the second portion, the first array (e.g., boundary_uv) carries UV coordinates for mapping the boundary vertices of the plurality of patches into a UV atlas).
Regarding claim 4, Huang in view of Graziosi teaches, The method of claim 2 wherein the mapping function parameters comprise 3D to 2D mapping function parameters. (Huang, ¶0116: “UV mapping or mesh parameterization are used to map surfaces of a mesh in the 3D domain to 2D domain”).
Regarding claim 5, Huang in view of Graziosi teaches, The method of claim 2 wherein encoding the 3D mesh comprises: generating patches from dynamic mesh information; (Huang, ¶0126: “encoder (1010) encodes an input mesh (1005) (a mesh frame in case of a dynamic mesh”) and packing the patches (Huang, ¶0116: “patches are parameterized respectively into 2D shapes. The 2D shapes can be packed”) on a texture atlas (Huang, ¶0117: “generates a UV atlas (also referred to as UV map) and one or more texture atlas (also referred to as texture map”) using orthographic projections. (Huang, ¶0050: “each patch is projected onto two images”).
Regarding claim 6, Huang in view of Graziosi teaches, The method of claim 1 wherein generating (u,v) coordinates based on the patch identification and mapping function parameters comprises utilizing a function (Huang, ¶0155: “mesh reconstruction module (1080) applies the hash function on the label of the UV patch to determine a table entry index of a table entry in the boundary_table”) to generate the (u,v) coordinates from the patch identification and the mapping function parameters, wherein the mapping function parameters correspond with the patch identification. (Huang, ¶0156: “based on the boundary vertex indices of the boundary vertices of the UV patch from boundary_table, the array boundary_uv is accessed to obtain the UV coordinates of the boundary vertices of the UV patch”).
Regarding claim 7, Huang in view of Graziosi teaches, The method of claim 1 wherein the (u,v) coordinates are generated (Huang, ¶0117: “a point in the UV atlas at a 2D coordinates (u,v) has a value that is formed by coordinates (x, y, z)”) based on transforms using a bounding box size, (Huang, ¶0101: “transform unit (551) receives a quantized transform coefficient as well as control information, including which transform to use, block size”) occupancy resolution, (Huang, ¶0046: “convert 3D point cloud frames into…. occupancy maps… occupancy map is a 2D image with pixels filled with values that indicate occupied or unoccupied by patches”) and scaling information. (Huang, ¶0101: “transform unit (551) receives a quantized transform coefficient as well as control information, including… scaling matrices”).
Regarding claim 9, Huang teaches, An apparatus comprising: (Huang, ¶0005: “an apparatus for mesh coding includes”) a non-transitory memory for storing an application, the application for: (Huang, ¶0199: “a computer-readable media can encompass a circuit (such as an integrated circuit (IC)) storing software for execution”) receiving patch identification information (Huang, ¶0146: “an entry corresponding to a UV patch can be accessed according to a label of the UV patch”) and mapping function parameters; (Huang, ¶0116: “UV mapping or mesh parameterization are used to map surfaces”) and generating (u,v) coordinates based on the patch identification and mapping function parameters; (Huang, ¶0008: “The processing circuitry determines, according to the first array, first boundary UV coordinates of the first list of boundary vertices for mapping the first patch to a first UV patch”) reconstructing a 3D mesh based on the (u, v) coordinates; (Huang, ¶0009: “To generate the reconstructed mesh, in some examples, the processing circuitry determines first UV coordinates of first vertices inside the first UV patch”) and reconstructing a texture map based on a decoded attribute sub-bitstream by (Huang, ¶0066: “The texture reconstruction module (448) can determine texture information for points in the point cloud based on the decompressed texture images”). a processor coupled to the memory, the processor configured for processing the application. (Huang, ¶0184: “the one or more processors execute a program that is stored in a non-transitory computer-readable medium”). However, Huang does not explicitly teach, utilizing a single 4x4 homography transform matrix by using homogenous coordinates.
In an analogous field of endeavor, Graziosi teaches, utilizing a single 4x4 homography transform matrix (Graziosi, ¶0048: “the 4×4 Homography Matrix”) by using homogenous coordinates. (Graziosi, ¶0051: “output point cloud is simply generated by multiplying the homography transform to a vector in homogenous coordinate notion”).
Therefore, it would have been obvious to a person of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify Huang using the teachings of Graziosi to introduce a 4x4 homography matrix. A person skilled in the art would be motivated to combine the known elements as described above and achieve the predictable result of efficiently combining three dimensional transformations into a single matrix multiplication. Therefore, it would have been obvious to combine the analogous arts Huang and Graziosi to obtain the invention of claim 9.
Regarding claim 10, it recites an apparatus with components corresponding to the steps of the method recited in claim 2. Therefore, the recited components of apparatus claim 10 are mapped to the proposed combination in the same manner as the corresponding steps in method claim 2. Additionally, the rationale and motivation to combine Huang and Graziosi presented in rejection of claim 1, apply to this claim.
Regarding claim 11, it recites an apparatus with components corresponding to the steps of the method recited in claim 3. Therefore, the recited components of apparatus claim 11 are mapped to the proposed combination in the same manner as the corresponding steps in method claim 3. Additionally, the rationale and motivation to combine Huang and Graziosi presented in rejection of claim 1, apply to this claim.
Regarding claim 12, it recites an apparatus with components corresponding to the steps of the method recited in claim 4. Therefore, the recited components of apparatus claim 12 are mapped to the proposed combination in the same manner as the corresponding steps in method claim 4. Additionally, the rationale and motivation to combine Huang and Graziosi presented in rejection of claim 1, apply to this claim.
Regarding claim 13, it recites an apparatus with components corresponding to the steps of the method recited in claim 5. Therefore, the recited components of apparatus claim 13 are mapped to the proposed combination in the same manner as the corresponding steps in method claim 5. Additionally, the rationale and motivation to combine Huang and Graziosi presented in rejection of claim 1, apply to this claim.
Regarding claim 14, it recites an apparatus with components corresponding to the steps of the method recited in claim 6. Therefore, the recited components of apparatus claim 14 are mapped to the proposed combination in the same manner as the corresponding steps in method claim 6. Additionally, the rationale and motivation to combine Huang and Graziosi presented in rejection of claim 1, apply to this claim.
Regarding claim 15, it recites an apparatus with components corresponding to the steps of the method recited in claim 7. Therefore, the recited components of apparatus claim 15 are mapped to the proposed combination in the same manner as the corresponding steps in method claim 7. Additionally, the rationale and motivation to combine Huang and Graziosi presented in rejection of claim 1, apply to this claim.
Claims 17-22 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Huang et al. (US 2023/0063575 A1), in view of Graziosi (US 2020/0236401 A1) and in further view of Su et al. (US 2024/0171775 A1).
Regarding claim 17, Huang teaches, A system comprising: (Huang, ¶0185: “a computer system (1300) suitable for implementing certain embodiments of the disclosed subject matter”) an encoder configured for encoding a 3D mesh (Huang, ¶0126: “mesh encoder (1010) encodes an input mesh”) to generate patch identification information (Huang, ¶0146: “an entry corresponding to a UV patch can be accessed according to a label of the UV patch”) and mapping function parameters; (Huang, ¶0116: “UV mapping or mesh parameterization are used to map surfaces”) and a decoder configured for: receiving (Huang, ¶0107: “decoder (800) can be configured to receive”) the patch identification information (Huang, ¶0146: “an entry corresponding to a UV patch can be accessed according to a label of the UV patch”) and the mapping function parameters; (Huang, ¶0114: “exploiting mapping information that parameterizes the mesh with 2D attribute maps”) and generating (u,v) coordinates based on the patch identification and mapping function parameters; (Huang, ¶0008: “processing circuitry determines, according to the first array, first boundary UV coordinates of the first list of boundary vertices for mapping the first patch to a first UV patch”) reconstructing the 3D mesh based on the (u,v) coordinates; (Huang, ¶0009: “To generate the reconstructed mesh, in some examples, the processing circuitry determines first UV coordinates of first vertices inside the first UV patch”) and reconstructing a texture map based on a decoded attribute sub-bitstream by (Huang, ¶0066: “The texture reconstruction module (448) can determine texture information for points in the point cloud based on the decompressed texture images”). However, Huang does not explicitly teach, utilizing a single 4x4 homography transform matrix by using homogenous coordinates, wherein the single 4x4 homography transform matrix is constructed at the decoder from atlas sub bitstream parameters associated with the patch identification and mapping parameters, including patch position, patch size, orientation, and scale.
In an analogous field of endeavor, Graziosi teaches, utilizing a single 4x4 homography transform matrix (Graziosi, ¶0048: “the 4×4 Homography Matrix”) by using homogenous coordinates, (Graziosi, ¶0051: “output point cloud is simply generated by multiplying the homography transform to a vector in homogenous coordinate notion”) wherein the single 4x4 homography transform matrix is constructed (Graziosi, ¶0037: “homography transform is constructed according to some embodiments”) at the decoder (Graziosi, ¶0049: “A decoding process for patch units coded in homography mode is implemented”).
Therefore, it would have been obvious to a person of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify Huang using the teachings of Graziosi to introduce a 4x4 homography matrix. A person skilled in the art would be motivated to combine the known elements as described above and achieve the predictable result of efficiently combining three dimensional transformations into a single matrix multiplication. Therefore, it would have been obvious to combine the analogous arts Huang and Graziosi to obtain the above-described limitations in claim 17. However, the combination of Huang and Graziosi does not explicitly teach, from atlas sub bitstream parameters associated with the patch identification and mapping parameters, including patch position, patch size, orientation, and scale.
In an analogous field of endeavor, Su teaches, from atlas sub bitstream parameters associated with the patch identification and mapping parameters, (Su, ¶0233: “atlas bitstream or sub-bitstream that indicates how a patch is defined and associated with other components and provides information of how to reconstruct such components”) including patch position, patch size, orientation, and scale. (Su, ¶0101: “Atlas information such as patch specific information (e.g., patch locations, corresponding 3D positions, orientations, levels of details such as scale factors”; and ¶0122: “Individual sizes and individual locations of the patches can be signaled in atlas data”).
Therefore, it would have been obvious to a person of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify Huang in view of Graziosi using the teachings of Su to introduce an atlas sub-bitstream containing patch position, orientation, scale information. A person skilled in the art would be motivated to combine the known elements as described above and achieve the predictable result of constructing a homography transform matrix for efficiently mapping the atlas data. Therefore, it would have been obvious to combine the analogous arts Huang, Graziosi and Su to obtain the invention in claim 17.
Regarding claim 18, Huang in view of Graziosi and in further view of Su teaches, The system of claim 17 wherein the mapping function parameters are encoded on an atlas sub-bitstream. (Huang, ¶0164: “UV patches in a UV atlas are encoded into the first portion of the bitstream, information of boundaries of the UV patches is encoded into the second portion of the bitstream”; ¶0167: “a first array is encoded into the second portion, the first array (e.g., boundary_uv) carries UV coordinates for mapping the boundary vertices of the plurality of patches into a UV atlas).
Regarding claim 19, Huang in view of Graziosi and in further view of Su teaches, The system of claim 17 wherein the mapping function parameters comprise 3D to 2D mapping function parameters. (Huang, ¶0116: “UV mapping or mesh parameterization are used to map surfaces of a mesh in the 3D domain to 2D domain”).
Regarding claim 20, Huang in view of Graziosi and in further view of Su teaches, The system of claim 17 wherein encoding the 3D mesh comprises: generating patches from dynamic mesh information; (Huang, ¶0126: “encoder (1010) encodes an input mesh (1005) (a mesh frame in case of a dynamic mesh”) and packing the patches (Huang, ¶0116: “patches are parameterized respectively into 2D shapes. The 2D shapes can be packed”) on a texture atlas (Huang, ¶0117: “generates a UV atlas (also referred to as UV map) and one or more texture atlas (also referred to as texture map”) using orthographic projections. (Huang, ¶0050: “each patch is projected onto two images”).
Regarding claim 21, Huang in view of Graziosi and in further view of Su teaches, The system of claim 17 wherein generating (u,v) coordinates based on the patch identification and mapping function parameters comprises utilizing a function (Huang, ¶0155: “mesh reconstruction module (1080) applies the hash function on the label of the UV patch to determine a table entry index of a table entry in the boundary_table”) to generate the (u,v) coordinates from the patch identification and the mapping function parameters, wherein the mapping function parameters correspond with the patch identification. (Huang, ¶0156: “based on the boundary vertex indices of the boundary vertices of the UV patch from boundary_table, the array boundary_uv is accessed to obtain the UV coordinates of the boundary vertices of the UV patch”).
Regarding claim 22, Huang in view of Graziosi and in further view of Su teaches, The system of claim 17 wherein the (u,v) coordinates are generated (Huang, ¶0117: “a point in the UV atlas at a 2D coordinates (u,v) has a value that is formed by coordinates (x, y, z)”) based on transforms using a bounding box size, (Huang, ¶0101: “transform unit (551) receives a quantized transform coefficient as well as control information, including which transform to use, block size”) occupancy resolution, (Huang, ¶0046: “convert 3D point cloud frames into…. occupancy maps… occupancy map is a 2D image with pixels filled with values that indicate occupied or unoccupied by patches”) and scaling information. (Huang, ¶0101: “transform unit (551) receives a quantized transform coefficient as well as control information, including… scaling matrices”).
Conclusion
THIS ACTION IS MADE FINAL. 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.
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/MEHRAZUL ISLAM/Examiner, Art Unit 2662
/AMANDEEP SAINI/Supervisory Patent Examiner, Art Unit 2662
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