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and the fee set forth in 37 CFR 1.17(e) has been timely paid, the finality of the previous Office action has been withdrawn pursuant to 37 CFR 1.114.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 06/24/2026 has been entered.
Response to Arguments
Applicant’s arguments, see Remarks pages 6-7, filed 06/24/2026, with respect to the Rejections of claims 1-17 under 35 U.S.C. 112(b), in regards to the limitations: “when the current frame is a first frame of image in continuous multiple frames of image in the continuous multiple frames of image” and “when the current frame is not the first frame of image in continuous multiple frames of image in the continuous multiple frames of image.”, have been fully considered and are persuasive. The 112 Rejections of claims 1-17 have been withdrawn.
Applicant’s arguments, see Remarks pages 7-11, filed 6/24/2026, with respect to the Rejections of claims 1 & 10 under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(1) have been fully considered but and are moot in view of the new grounds of rejection (detailed in the rejections below) necessitated by Applicant's amendment to the claim(s).
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 112
The following is a quotation of 35 U.S.C. 112(b):
(b) CONCLUSION.—The specification shall conclude with one or more claims particularly pointing out and distinctly claiming the subject matter which the inventor or a joint inventor regards as the invention.
The following is a quotation of 35 U.S.C. 112 (pre-AIA ), second paragraph:
The specification shall conclude with one or more claims particularly pointing out and distinctly claiming the subject matter which the applicant regards as his invention.
Claim 17 is rejected under 35 U.S.C. 112(b) or 35 U.S.C. 112 (pre-AIA ), second paragraph, as being indefinite for failing to particularly point out and distinctly claim the subject matter which the inventor or a joint inventor (or for applications subject to pre-AIA 35 U.S.C. 112, the applicant), regards as the invention.
Claim 17 recites the limitation "The method according to claim 1, wherein the step of acquiring the target compression ratio comprises". There is insufficient antecedent basis for this limitation in the claim. For the purposes of examination, the limitation is interpreted as "The method according to claim 2[1], wherein the step of acquiring the target compression ratio comprises".
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.
Claim(s) 1, 6-7, 10, 15-16, and 19-20 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Fitzgerald et al. (US2020280739A1) hereinafter referenced as Fitzgerald, in view of Iyer et al. (US2020240788A1) hereinafter referenced as Iyer.
Regarding claim 1, Fitzgerald discloses: An image processing method of a Virtual Reality device (Fitzgerald: 0095: “The image data typically represents one or more images forming part of a sequence of images, which in one example is a digital content stream displayed remotely using the HMD…it will be appreciated that some of the techniques described herein are also applicable to virtual reality and/or telepresence applications, and the term digital reality is therefore not intended to be limiting. Specifically the term digital reality is intended to encompass at least a mixed real and virtual reality application, commonly referred to as mixed or merged reality, including arrangements that merely overlay virtual objects into a user's field-of-view or provides virtual features that are strongly intertwined with, and appear to co-exist with the real-world features, but can also be extended to augmented and pure virtual reality applications.”), comprising the following steps: acquiring a current frame of image, wherein the current frame is a frame of image in continuous multiple frames of image (Fitzgerald: 0020: “ In one embodiment the image forms part of a sequence of images, and wherein the method includes using respective display data to compress and decompress at least one of: image data for a sub-sequence of one or more images; and, image data for each image.”);
detecting a moving object in the current frame of image to obtain a region of interest (Fitzgerald: 0151: “the encoder processing devices operate to generate one or more boundaries based on the content, and then differentially compress the image data based on the boundaries. The boundaries can be determined in any appropriate manner and could be estimated based on a previous boundary, calculated based on a location and extent of an area of interest, identified objects, or the like.”) and a background region (Fitzgerald: 00132: “the appearance of individual objects within an image may be unchanged between successive images, with only the position varying based on movement of the display device. Accordingly, in this example, it is possible to simply replace portions of an image with part of previous image”), wherein the region of interest includes the moving object (Fitzgerald: 0152: “For example if a boundary surrounds an object that is static, the image data within the entire boundary can simply be omitted from the compressed image data, and substituted with image data from a previous image.”; Wherein a static image is treated as a background region);
compressing image data of the region of interest to obtain first image data after compression (Fitzgerald: 0152: “The encoding of image data within the boundary could be performed in any suitable manner and could include retaining the image data for parts of the image within the boundary without change, but more typically includes some form of lossy or lossless compression, such as code substitution, JPEG compression, bit encoding, or the like.”; Wherein the non-static object regions are encoded/compressed.); and
when the current frame is a first frame of image in continuous multiple frames of image, outputting the first image data after compression and background picture data corresponding to the background region to a display device, when the current frame is not the first frame of image in continuous multiple frames of image, outputting the first image data after compression to the display device without outputting the background picture data, displaying the multiple frames of image by the display device to complete a displaying of dynamic pictures (Fitzgerald: 0152: “The encoding of image data within the boundary could be performed in any suitable manner and could include retaining the image data for parts of the image within the boundary without change, but more typically includes some form of lossy or lossless compression, such as code substitution, JPEG compression, bit encoding, or the like. A further variation is for the content of a boundary to be replaced by content from a previous image based on redundancy between images. For example if a boundary surrounds an object that is static, the image data within the entire boundary can simply be omitted from the compressed image data, and substituted with image data from a previous image.”;
0156: “The image can then be displayed in accordance with the boundary and the decoded image data. In particular, this is typically achieved by displaying images of areas of interest based on the decoded image data, with the location of the images being defined by the boundary, in effect recreating the original image. In this regard, masked portions of the original image falling outside of the boundary can simply be recreated, replaced, or not displayed, depending on the application.”;
Wherein the displaying of the decoded image data constitutes displaying the compressed image boundaries along with the background regions. Also, wherein the substitution of redundant image data, such as static objects, with image data from a previous image constitutes the first frame of image outputting the first image data after compression and background picture data, and the subsequent images outputting the first image data after compression.).
Fitzgerald does not disclose expressly: outputting the first image data after compression and uncompressed background picture data corresponding to the background region to a display device.
Iyer discloses: A method of encoding SLAM landmarks, captured by a head-mounted device, based on each SLAM landmark’s distance to the head-mounted device (Iyer: Abstract). Wherein the method comprises: outputting the first image data after compression and uncompressed background picture data corresponding to the background region to a display device (Iyer: 0004: “The HMD transmits information to the host IHS regarding the state of the user, which in turn enables the host IHS to determine which image or frame to show to the user next, and from which perspective, as the user moves in space.”;
0053: “SLAM module 403 uses positional tracking devices to construct a map of an unknown environment where HMD 102 is located, which simultaneously identifies where the HMD is located, its orientation, and/or pose…A camera (e.g., a depth-sensing camera) may provide video frames to the feature extraction component, which extracts useful image features (e.g., using thresholding, blob extraction, template matching, etc.), and generates a descriptor for each feature. These features, also referred to as “landmarks,” are then fed to the mapping component.”;
0094: “ In the example of Table I, it is assumed that SLAM landmarks closest to HMD 102 in zone 601 are of higher importance, and therefore subject to lossless compression, whereas SLAM landmarks farthest from HMD 102 in zone 607 are discarded. As a result of application of this LUT, the “foreground” of the user's FOV may be more accurately mapped using the losslessly compressed (or uncompressed) SLAM landmarks of zone 601 than the “background” of the user's FOV. In other cases, however, a reverse LUT may be applied that favors preservation of information regarding SLAM landmarks farthest away from HMD 102 , such that the background of the user's FOV may be more accurately mapped than the foreground.”; Wherein the SLAM landmark data, captured by a camera’s image data, is compressed based on a user’s, and camera’s, FOV.).
Before the effective filing date of the claimed invention, it would have been obvious to a person of ordinary skill in the art to preserve the background image regions of Fitzgerald and compress the non-static/foreground objects of interest of Fitzgerald, as taught by Iyer. The suggestion/motivation for doing so would have been “An example of an LUT that establishes encoding/compression parameters for SLAM landmarks located within each of zones 600 is shown in Table I below…In some cases, IHS 103 may maintain different LUTs, and it may select one among the plurality of LUTs based upon a data loss metric (e.g., using bit error rate thresholds, etc.). Additionally, or alternatively, IHS 103 may select one among the plurality of LUTs based upon other context information, such as a type of xR application being executed, a gaze vector, interaction with a particular VO, detection of a safety event or hazardous condition in one or more of zones 600 (e.g., via object detection), etc” (Iyer: 0093-0095; Wherein the compression of “foreground” and “background” data is varied based on context data, allowing for flexibility/adaptability). Further, one skilled in the art could have combined the elements as described above by known methods with no change in their respective functions, and the combination would have yielded nothing more than predictable results. Therefore, it would have been obvious to combine Fitzgerald with Iyer to obtain the invention as specified in claim 1.
Regarding claim 6, Fitzgerald in view of Iyer discloses: The method according to claim 1, wherein the step of compressing the image data of the region of interest to obtain the first image data after compression comprises: extracting a plurality of pixel points in the region of interest according to a preset extraction rule; and determining image data of the plurality of pixel points as the first image data after compression (Fitzgerald: 0152: “The encoding of image data within the boundary could be performed in any suitable manner and could include retaining the image data for parts of the image within the boundary without change, but more typically includes some form of lossy or lossless compression, such as code substitution, JPEG compression, bit encoding, or the like.”; Wherein the encoding of the pixel data within the boundaries constitutes the extraction and compression of a plurality of pixel points within the region of interest.).
Regarding claim 7, Fitzgerald in view of Iyer discloses: The method according to claim 1, wherein after outputting the first image data after compression and uncompressed background picture data corresponding to the background region to a display device to and displaying the current frame of image by the display device, the method further comprises: acquiring a next frame of image (Fitzgerald: 0145-0146: “ An example of a process for encoding images using content of the digital reality stream will now be described with reference to FIG. 1C. In this example, at step 120 the encoder processing devices determine content data. The content data can relate to any aspect of the content, and could include pixel array content, image content, content of different parts of the image, an opacity of different parts of the image, areas of interest within the image, locations of interest within the image, one or more cues associated with the image, such as audible or contextual cues, or one or more display objects in an image”;
0156: “The image can then be displayed in accordance with the boundary and the decoded image data.…in mixed or augmented reality applications, masked parts of the image are not displayed to allow the user's external environment to be viewed. Specifically, these are either omitted, allowing the user to view the environment directly, or are replaced by captured images of the environment.”; Wherein the digital reality stream consists of a series of frames to be displayed, wherein previous frames/image data may be used for displaying current image data.);
detecting the moving object in the next frame of image to obtain a region of interest (Fitzgerald: 0151: “the encoder processing devices operate to generate one or more boundaries based on the content, and then differentially compress the image data based on the boundaries. The boundaries can be determined in any appropriate manner and could be estimated based on a previous boundary, calculated based on a location and extent of an area of interest, identified objects, or the like.”) and a background region, wherein the background region of the next frame of image is consistent with the background region of the current frame of image (Fitzgerald: 0132: “the appearance of individual objects within an image may be unchanged between successive images, with only the position varying based on movement of the display device. Accordingly, in this example, it is possible to simply replace portions of an image with part of previous image”), and the moving object in the region of interest of the next frame of image changes (Fitzgerald: 0152: “For example if a boundary surrounds an object that is static, the image data within the entire boundary can simply be omitted from the compressed image data, and substituted with image data from a previous image.”; Wherein only boundaries with non-static objects, objects that are different between frames, are selected/compressed.);
compressing image data of the region of interest of the next frame of image to obtain second image data after compressed (Fitzgerald: 0152: “The encoding of image data within the boundary could be performed in any suitable manner and could include retaining the image data for parts of the image within the boundary without change, but more typically includes some form of lossy or lossless compression, such as code substitution, JPEG compression, bit encoding, or the like.”);
and outputting the second image data after compressed to the display device to display the next frame of image by the display device (Fitzgerald: 0156: “The image can then be displayed in accordance with the boundary and the decoded image data. In particular, this is typically achieved by displaying images of areas of interest based on the decoded image data, with the location of the images being defined by the boundary, in effect recreating the original image. In this regard, masked portions of the original image falling outside of the boundary can simply be recreated, replaced, or not displayed, depending on the application.”; 0170: “the decompression process typically determines a boundary extent and then decodes compressed image data using the boundary extent, for example by in-filling of the image in regions outside of the boundaries”).
As per claim(s) 10, arguments made in rejecting claim(s) 1 are analogous. In addition, paragraph 0243 of Fitzgerald discloses: A computer-readable storage medium having computer instructions stored thereon, wherein the computer instructions are executed by a processor.
As per claim(s) 15, arguments made in rejecting claim(s) 6 are analogous. In addition, paragraph 0243 of Fitzgerald discloses: A computer-readable storage medium having computer instructions stored thereon, wherein the computer instructions are executed by a processor.
As per claim(s) 16, arguments made in rejecting claim(s) 7 are analogous. In addition, paragraph 0243 of Fitzgerald discloses: A computer-readable storage medium having computer instructions stored thereon, wherein the computer instructions are executed by a processor.
Regarding claim 19, Fitzgerald in view of Iyer discloses: The method according to claim 1, wherein the region of interest is an irregular region (Fitzgerald: 0159: “the boundary data is indicative of a boundary extent including boundary vertices, a boundary shape and/or location. This can be of any appropriate form but is typically selected to allow the data required to define boundary to be minimised, for example by basing the boundary shape on a polygon so the boundary can be defined by vertices of the polygon. It will be appreciated however that any appropriate boundary shape could be used, in which case this could be defined in other ways. For example, in the case that the boundary is a circle, this could be defined by a radius and circle centre, whilst a square could be defined by two opposing corners. Alternatively, the boundary data could be indicative of a change in boundary, including a change in shape and/or position, or could be an indication that an estimated should be calculated by the decoder processing device, avoiding the need to transmit detailed boundary data.”).
Regarding claim 20, Fitzgerald in view of Iyer discloses: The method according to claim 1, wherein the step of compressing image data of the region of interest comprises: extracting multiple pixel points from the region of interest at a preset interval (Fitzgerald: 0152: “The encoding of image data within the boundary could be performed in any suitable manner and could include retaining the image data for parts of the image within the boundary without change, but more typically includes some form of lossy or lossless compression, such as code substitution, JPEG compression, bit encoding, or the like. A further variation is for the content of a boundary to be replaced by content from a previous image based on redundancy between images. For example if a boundary surrounds an object that is static, the image data within the entire boundary can simply be omitted from the compressed image data, and substituted with image data from a previous image.”; Wherein the compression of boundary content, which requires pixel point extraction using a preset compression algorithm, constitutes a preset interval.).
Claim(s) 2-3, 5, 11-12, and 14 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Fitzgerald in view of Iyer, and further in view of Croxford et al. (US2020034617A1) hereinafter referenced as Croxford.
Regarding claim 2, Fitzgerald in view of Iyer discloses: The method according to claim 1.
Fitzgerald in view of Iyer does not disclose expressly: wherein the step of compressing the image data of the region of interest to obtain the first image data after compression comprises: acquiring a target compression ratio; compressing the image data of the region of interest according to the target compression ratio to obtain the first image data after compression.
Croxford discloses: acquiring a target compression ratio; and compressing image data of a region of interest according to a compression ratio in order to obtain a compressed region of interest (Croxford: 0037: “At block 220, a first portion of the data is processed. The first portion of the data represents the at least one target region. The first portion of the data is processed using a first processing scheme…In some examples, the first processing scheme involves compressing according to a first compression ratio.”).
Before the effective filing date of the claimed invention, it would have been obvious to a person of ordinary skill in the art to compress the boundary regions containing non-static objects disclosed by Fitzgerald in view of Iyer according to the compression ratio taught by Croxford. The suggestion/motivation for doing so would have been “the first compression ratio (as a ratio between uncompressed size and compressed size) may be 3:2, and the second compression ratio may be 3:1…By processing the first and second portions of the received data using different compression ratios, an amount of data used to represent the image may be reduced without reducing a perceived visual level of quality.” (Croxford: 0042 & 0045; Wherein the light compression of the target regions reduces data while minimizing the loss in quality.). Further, one skilled in the art could have combined the elements as described above by known methods with no change in their respective functions, and the combination would have yielded nothing more than predictable results. Therefore, it would have been obvious to combine Fitzgerald in view of Iyer with Croxford to obtain the invention as specified in claim 2.
Regarding claim 3, Fitzgerald in view of Iyer and Croxford discloses: The method according to claim 2, wherein the step of acquiring the target compression ratio comprises: determining the target compression ratio according to a preset compression ratio (Croxford: 0042: “In examples where the first processing scheme involves compressing according to a first compression ratio...the first compression ratio (as a ratio between uncompressed size and compressed size) may be 3:2”).
Regarding claim 5, Fitzgerald in view of Iyer and Croxford discloses: The method according to claim 2, wherein the target compression ratio comprises a transverse compression ratio and a longitudinal compression ratio, and the step of compressing the image data of the region of interest according to the target compression ratio to obtain the first image data after compression comprises: compressing the image data of the region of interest according to the transverse compression ratio and the longitudinal compression ratio to obtain the first image data after compression (Croxford: 0042-0043: “In examples where the first processing scheme involves compressing according to a first compression ratio...the first compression ratio (as a ratio between uncompressed size and compressed size) may be 3:2… the first processing scheme may involve discarding a first number of LSBs…a smaller number of bits may be discarded for the at least one target region, which may be for display at a relatively high level of quality”; Wherein the compression of the target region according to the compression ratio implies the compression according to transverse and longitudinal axes, and thus the disclosure of transverse and longitudinal compression ratios.).
As per claim(s) 11, arguments made in rejecting claim(s) 2 are analogous. In addition, paragraph 0243 of Fitzgerald discloses: A computer-readable storage medium having computer instructions stored thereon, wherein the computer instructions are executed by a processor.
As per claim(s) 12, arguments made in rejecting claim(s) 3 are analogous. In addition, paragraph 0243 of Fitzgerald discloses: A computer-readable storage medium having computer instructions stored thereon, wherein the computer instructions are executed by a processor.
As per claim(s) 14, arguments made in rejecting claim(s) 5 are analogous. In addition, paragraph 0243 of Fitzgerald discloses: A computer-readable storage medium having computer instructions stored thereon, wherein the computer instructions are executed by a processor.
Claim(s) 4 and 13 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Fitzgerald in view of Iyer and Croxford, and further in view of Khanna et al. (Perceptual Depth Preserving Saliency based Image Compression) hereinafter referenced as Khanna.
Regarding claim 4, Fitzgerald in view of Iyer and Croxford discloses: The method according to claim 2.
Fitzgerald in view of Iyer and Croxford does not disclose expressly: wherein the step of acquiring the target compression ratio comprises: determining the target compression ratio according to a moving speed of the moving object.
Khanna discloses: the compression of regions in an image according saliency map computations, wherein the saliency of a region is calculated based on a moving speed of a moving object (Khanna: 1. Introduction: “we present an efficient and novel way to preserve perceptual depth information in still images by computing saliency maps. This is done on the basis of frequency information. Then we use this information to develop a scheme for image compression. Here we are using focus/defocus cue to generate saliency map. The non blurred regions are more salient whether that region be in the foreground or background. For compression we have used the standard JPEG compression scheme. In this we are changing the quality value for different regions of the image on the basis of saliency values.”; Wherein blurred regions are indicative of object movement speed as shown by Figures 2(a) and 2(b).).
Before the effective filing date of the claimed invention, it would have been obvious to a person of ordinary skill in the art to substitute the compression of the non-static boundary image data based on a compression ratio as disclosed by Fitzgerald in view of Iyer and Croxford with the compression of regions based on their respective saliency mappings as taught by Khanna. The suggestion/motivation for doing so would have been “Results show that proposed scheme achieves the goal of compression without degrading visual quality and loss of depth information is minimized” (Khanna: 1. Introduction). Further, one skilled in the art could have substituted the elements as described above by known methods with no change in their respective functions, and the substitution would have yielded nothing more than predictable results. Therefore, it would have been obvious to combine Fitzgerald in view of Iyer and Croxford with Khanna to obtain the invention as specified in claim 4.
As per claim(s) 13, arguments made in rejecting claim(s) 4 are analogous. In addition, paragraph 0243 of Fitzgerald discloses: A computer-readable storage medium having computer instructions stored thereon, wherein the computer instructions are executed by a processor.
Claim(s) 17 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Fitzgerald in view of Iyer and Croxford, and further in view of Rintaluoma et al. (US-20160073113-A1) hereinafter referenced as Rintaluoma.
Regarding claim 17, Fitzgerald in view of Iyer and Croxford discloses: The method according to claim 1 (Claim limitation is interpreted according to the rejection of claim 17 under 35 U.S.C. 112(b) disclosed above.).
Fitzgerald in view of Iyer and Croxford does not disclose expressly: wherein the step of acquiring the target compression ratio comprises: determining the target compression ratio according to a proportion of the region of interest, wherein the proportion of the region of interest is the proportion of the region of interest in the current frame of image, for the case where the current frame of image includes one region of interest, the proportion of the region of interest is the proportion of the region of interest in the current frame of image, for the case where the current frame of image includes multiple regions of interest, the proportion of the region of interest is the sum of the proportions of multiple regions of interest in the current frame of image.
Rintaluoma discloses: determining a target compression ratio according to a proportion of the region of interest, wherein the proportion of the region of interest is the proportion of the region of interest in the current frame of image, for the case where the current frame of image includes one region of interest, the proportion of the region of interest is the proportion of the region of interest in the current frame of image (Rintaluoma: 0037: “ROI reference 302 can include an offset and size, which is detailed in connection with reference numeral 306. Referencing again FIG. 2, ROI 116 begins at macroblock 2029, 1 and spans an area of 7 macroblocks by 8 macroblocks. In this case, the offset portion of ROI reference 302 can be 9,1 and the size portion of ROI reference 302 can be 7,8.”;
0039: “Compression ratio 406 can be an estimation determined based upon a macroblock size of ROI's 116 in proportion to a total number of macro blocks in the set of macro blocks.”), for the case where the current frame of image includes multiple regions of interest, the proportion of the region of interest is the sum of the proportions of multiple regions of interest in the current frame of image (Rintaluoma: 0026: “Motion component 114 can be configured to identify a region of interest (ROI) 116 that corresponds to macroblocks in the set of macroblocks that are not substantially static…For a given frame included in frames 110, multiple regions of interest 116 can identified. Thus, although for the sake of simplicity examples provided herein relate to a single ROI 116, it is readily understood the disclosed subject matter is not so limited.”;
0039: “Compression ratio 406 can be an estimation determined based upon a macroblock size of ROI's 116 in proportion to a total number of macro blocks in the set of macro blocks.”; Wherein the compression ratio is based on the size of macroblock ROI’s in proportion to the total number of macroblocks.).
Before the effective filing date of the claimed invention, it would have been obvious to a person of ordinary skill in the art to substitute the compression of the non-static boundary image data based on a compression ratio as disclosed by Fitzgerald in view of Iyer and Croxford with the algorithms for segmenting and compressing ROIs based on macroblocks as taught by Rintaluoma. The suggestion/motivation for doing so would have been “In many domains such as video conferencing, streaming news broadcasts, remote desktop applications or other domains in which some portion of the video stream does not change substantially, significant savings in compression ratio can be realized over conventional schemes by not encoding skipped macroblock bits.” (Rintaluoma: 0032; Wherein the compression ratio based on ROIs allows for improved efficiency). Further, one skilled in the art could have combined the elements as described above by known methods with no change in their respective functions, and the combination would have yielded nothing more than predictable results. Therefore, it would have been obvious to combine Fitzgerald in view of Iyer and Croxford with Rintaluoma to obtain the invention as specified in claim 17.
Claim(s) 18 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Fitzgerald in view of Iyer and Croxford, and further in view of Wang et al. (US-20210333870-A1) hereinafter referenced as Wang.
Regarding claim 18, Fitzgerald in view of Iyer and Croxford discloses: The method according to claim 5.
Fitzgerald in view of Iyer and Croxford does not disclose expressly: wherein the transverse compression ratio and the longitudinal compression ratio are different.
Wang discloses: a method for rendering a capturing image based on a determined gaze point of the human user, on the display screen (Wang: Abstract). Wherein the method comprises: the compression of image sub-areas, through the user of a transverse compression ratio and a longitudinal compression ratio, based on the determined gaze point of the user, wherein the transverse compression ratio and the longitudinal compression ratio are different (Wang: Figure 2A:
PNG
media_image1.png
484
735
media_image1.png
Greyscale
;
0138: “For example, as shown in FIG. 2A, for a high-resolution image to be displayed 20, the image to be displayed 20 is divided into nine sub-areas to be displayed according to the form of a nine-grid, the sub-area to be displayed 5 is the original resolution sampling area (high definition area) corresponding to the gaze point. The other eight sub-areas to be displayed are respectively processed as follows: the transverse resolutions and the longitudinal resolutions of the sub-area to be displayed 1, the sub-area to be displayed 3, the sub-area to be displayed 7, and the sub-area to be displayed 9 are simultaneously compressed by 4 times; the transverse resolutions of the sub-area to be displayed 2 and the sub-area to be displayed 8 are unchanged, and the longitudinal resolutions of the sub-area to be displayed 2 and the sub-area to be displayed 8 are compressed by 4 times. The longitudinal resolutions of the sub-area to be displayed 4 and the sub-area to be displayed 6 are unchanged, and the transverse resolution of the subarea to be displayed 4 and the sub-area to be displayed 6 are compressed by 4 times. The resolution size of the image to be displayed 20 is 4320*4800, and the resolution size of the output image 30, which is compressed, is 2160*2400. Compared with the image to be displayed 20, the transverse resolution of the output image 30, which is compressed, is 50% of the transverse resolution of the original image to be displayed 20, and the longitudinal resolution of the output image 30, which is compressed, is 50% of the longitudinal resolution of the original image to be displayed 20, thus saving 75% of the bandwidth in the process of transmitting the output image 30. In a case where the gaze point position changes, the range and position of the original resolution sampling area (i.e. the sub-area to be displayed 5) and the ranges and sizes of the other eight sub-areas to be displayed (the size here corresponds to the resolution) are adjusted accordingly, and the correct compression output result can be completed.”; Wherein the transverse and longitudinal compression ratios vary based the sub-area’s locations in relation to the gaze point.).
Before the effective filing date of the claimed invention, it would have been obvious to a person of ordinary skill in the art obvious to compress the regions of interest disclosed by Fitzgerald in view of Iyer and Croxford based on a transverse compression ratio that is different from the longitudinal compression ratio, as taught by Wang. The suggestion/motivation for doing so would have been “Due to the limitation of transmission bandwidth, the computer device directly transmits 4K images to the VR/AR head-mounted display device, which puts too much pressure on hardware to complete real-time display with high resolution and high refresh rate. According to the observation definition of human eye and the implementation of human eye tracking technology, non-high-definition areas of the 4K images can be compressed to save the transmission bandwidth.” (Wang: 0137; Wherein the compression based on a human gaze area, further described in 0003, allows for areas outside of the gaze area to be compressed, saving bandwidth.). Further, one skilled in the art could have combined the elements as described above by known methods with no change in their respective functions, and the combination would have yielded nothing more than predictable results. Therefore, it would have been obvious to combine Fitzgerald in view of Iyer and Croxford with Wang to obtain the invention as specified in claim 18.
Conclusion
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to ANTHONY J RODRIGUEZ whose telephone number is (703)756-5821. The examiner can normally be reached Monday-Friday 10am-7pm.
Examiner interviews are available via telephone, in-person, and video conferencing using a USPTO supplied web-based collaboration tool. To schedule an interview, applicant is encouraged to use the USPTO Automated Interview Request (AIR) at http://www.uspto.gov/interviewpractice.
If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner’s supervisor, Sumati Lefkowitz can be reached at (571) 272-3638. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300.
Information regarding the status of published or unpublished applications may be obtained from Patent Center. Unpublished application information in Patent Center is available to registered users. To file and manage patent submissions in Patent Center, visit: https://patentcenter.uspto.gov. Visit https://www.uspto.gov/patents/apply/patent-center for more information about Patent Center and https://www.uspto.gov/patents/docx for information about filing in DOCX format. For additional questions, contact the Electronic Business Center (EBC) at 866-217-9197 (toll-free). If you would like assistance from a USPTO Customer Service Representative, call 800-786-9199 (IN USA OR CANADA) or 571-272-1000.
/ANTHONY J RODRIGUEZ/Examiner, Art Unit 2672
/SUMATI LEFKOWITZ/Supervisory Patent Examiner, Art Unit 2672
