DETAILED ACTION
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and the fee set forth in 37 CFR 1.17(e) has been timely paid, the finality of the previous Office action has been withdrawn pursuant to 37 CFR 1.114.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 5/4/2026 has been entered.
Response to Amendment
This office action is in response to communications filed 5/04/2026. Claims 1, 17 and 21-22 are amended. Claims 5, 7-8 and 18 are cancelled. Claims 1-4, 6, 9-17 and 19-24 are pending in this action.
Response to Arguments
Applicant's arguments filed 5/4/2026 have been fully considered but they are not persuasive. In response to Applicant’s arguments on pages 11-12 that “Hannuksela does not disclose that the progressive information comprises an indication indicating a number of sub-images in the plurality of sub-images to be used for a progressive step, i.e. a number of sub-images in the plurality of sub-images associated with each progressive step (it being noted that the number may apply to each step, or there may be a number per step).
Accordingly, Hannukse/a does not disclose the claimed step of "generating a progressive information for defining the plurality of consecutive progressive steps for generating at least two versions of the main image, and comprising an indication for11 indicating a number of sub-images in the plurality of sub-images associated with a progressive step, each sub-image indicated by the number being in a version required to generate a corresponding version of the main image".
It is noted that Hannuksela does not comprise any hint guiding one skilled in the art to the claimed method and that the step of "generating a progressive information for defining the plurality of consecutive progressive steps for generating at least two versions of the main image, and comprising an indication for indicating a number of sub- images in the plurality of sub-images associated with a progressive step, each sub- image indicated by the number being in a version required to generate a corresponding version of the main image" cannot be considered as obvious in view of the teaching of Hannuksela”, the Examiner respectfully disagrees. The Examiner notes that Hannuksela teaches at least:
[0103] According to the ISO family of file formats, a file may include media data and metadata that may be enclosed in separate boxes. In an example embodiment, the media data may be provided in a media data (mdat) box and the movie (moov) box may be used to enclose the metadata. In some cases, for a file to be operable, both of the mdat and moov boxes must be present. The movie (moov) box may include one or more tracks, and each track may reside in one corresponding track (trak) box. Each track is associated with a handler, identified by a four-character code, specifying the track type. Video, audio, and image sequence tracks can be collectively called media tracks, and they contain an elementary media stream. Other track types comprise hint tracks and timed metadata tracks. Tracks comprise samples, such as audio or video frames. A media track refers to samples (which may also be referred to as media samples) formatted according to a media compression format (and its encapsulation to the ISO base media file format). A hint track refers to hint samples, containing cookbook instructions for constructing packets for transmission over an indicated communication protocol. The cookbook instructions may include guidance for packet header construction and may include packet payload construction. In the packet payload construction, data residing in other tracks or items may be referenced. As such, for example, data residing in other tracks or items may be indicated by a reference as to which piece of data in a particular track or item is instructed to be copied into a packet during the packet construction process. A timed metadata track may refer to samples describing referred media and/or hint samples. For the presentation of one media type, one media track may be selected. Samples of a track may be implicitly associated with sample numbers that may be incremented e.g. by 1 in the indicated decoding order of samples. The first sample in a track may be associated with sample number 1.
[0104] The ‘trak’ box contains a Sample Table box. The Sample Table box comprises e.g. all the time and data indexing of the media samples in a track. The Sample Table box is required to contain a Sample Description box. The Sample Description box includes an entry count field, specifying the number of sample entries included in the box. The Sample Description box is required to contain at least one sample entry. The sample entry format depends on the handler type for the track. Sample entries give detailed information about the coding type used and any initialization information needed for that coding.
[0118] Any number of image items can be included in the same file. Given a collection images stored by using the ‘meta’ box approach, it sometimes is essential to qualify certain relationships between images. Examples of such relationships include indicating a cover image for a collection, providing thumbnail images for some or all of the images in the collection, and associating some or all of the images in a collection with auxiliary image such as an alpha plane. A cover image among the collection of images is indicated using the ‘pitm’ box. A thumbnail image or an auxiliary image is linked to the primary image item using an item reference of type ‘thmb’ or ‘auxl’, respectively.
[0119] HEIF supports derived images. An item is a derived image, when it includes a ‘dimg’ item reference to another item. A derived image is obtained by performing a specified operation, such as rotation, to specified input images. The operation performed to obtain the derived image is identified by the item_type of the item. The image items used as input to a derived image may be coded images, e.g. with item type ‘hvcl’, or they may be other derived image items. HEIF includes the specification of the clean aperture (i.e. cropping) operation, a rotation operation for multiple-of-90-degree rotations, and an image overlay operation. The image overlay ‘iovl’ derived image locates one or more input images in a given layering order within a larger canvas. The derived image feature of HEIF is extensible so that external specifications as well as later version of HEIF itself can specify new operations.
[0123] HEIF includes specifications to encapsulate (by inclusion and/or by reference) HEVC coded still images and image sequences into files conforming to the HEIF. It is possible to specify encapsulation of images and image sequences coded with other coding formats into files conforming to HEIF.
[0124] An entity may be defined as a collective term of a track or an item. An entity group is a grouping of items, which may also group tracks. An entity group can be used instead of item references, when the grouped entities do not have clear dependency or directional reference relation. The entities in an entity group share a particular characteristic or have a particular relationship, as indicated by the grouping type.
[0126] One of the entity grouping types may enable grouping of image items and tracks of a file into one or more alternate groups (i.e. one or more groups of alternative entities or alternate entity groups). The items and tracks mapped to a group of this grouping type are alternatives to each other, and only one of them should be played (when the mapped items and tracks are part of the presentation; e.g. are displayable image items or tracks) or processed by other means (when the mapped items or tracks are not part of the presentation; e.g. are metadata). Players should select one image item or track of an alternate group for playback. The items and tracks of an alternate group may be listed in their preference order.
Therefore, given the broadest reasonable interpretation of the limitation of “generating a progressive information for defining the plurality of consecutive progressive steps for generating at least two versions of the main image (i.e., HEIF entity groupings and alternate groupings, see Hannuksela, at least at [0124]-[0126], and other related text), and comprising an indication for indicating a number of sub-images in the plurality of sub-images associated with a progressive step (i.e., at least the entry count field, see Hannuksela, at least at [0104], and other related text), each sub-image indicated by the number being in a version required to generate a corresponding version of the main image (i.e., at least sample number, see Hannuksela, at least at [0103], and other related text) ”, the teachings of Hannuksela reasonably meet the limitation as claimed, and the rejection of record is maintained.
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)(1) the claimed invention was patented, described in a printed publication, or in public use, on sale, or otherwise available to the public before the effective filing date of the claimed invention.
Claims 1-4, 6, 9-17 and 19-24 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(1) as being anticipated by Hannuksela (of record).
Regarding claims 1, 17 and 19-22, Hannuksela discloses a method of encapsulating image data in a media file (see Hannuksela, at least at abstract, [0103]-[0104], and other related text), the image data being related to a main image to be generated based on a plurality of sub-images (see Hannuksela, at least at [0118]-[0126], [0158], and other related text), wherein the method comprises:
obtaining the plurality of sub-images, each sub-image being provided in at least one version corresponding to at least one progressive step of a set of consecutive progressive steps (see Hannuksela, at least at [0065]-[0066], [0082], [0085], [0118]-[0126], [0142], [0155]-[0158], [0215], and other related text);
generating descriptive metadata for describing information about the main image and the at least one version of the plurality of sub-images (see Hannuksela, at least at [0115], [0118]-[0126], and other related text);
encapsulating the at least one version of the plurality of sub-images and the descriptive metadata in the media file (see Hannuksela, at least at [0103]-[0104], [0112]-[0114], [0118]-[0126], and other related text);
wherein the method further comprises:
generating a progressive information defining the set of consecutive progressive steps for generating at least one version of the main image, each progressive step being associated with a set of sub-images versions required to generate a corresponding version of the main image (see Hannuksela, at least at [0118]-[0126], [0149], [0158], and other related text); and
embedding the progressive information in the descriptive metadata (see Hannuksela, at least at [0115], [0118]-[0126], and other related text).
Regarding claim 2, Hannuksela discloses wherein each sub-image represents a different subset of the layers of the main image (see Hannuksela, at least at [0158], and other related text).
Regarding claim 3, Hannuksela discloses wherein sub-images are input images, at least one input image being associated with at least one alternative version of input image (see Hannuksela, at least at [0158], and other related text).
Regarding claim 4, Hannuksela discloses wherein the progressive information comprises data for identifying, for each progressive step, a position in the file of the sub-image version data associated with the progressive step (see Hannuksela, at least at [0065]-[0066], [0082]-[0083], [0085], [0146]-[0147], and other related text).
Regarding claim 6, Hannuksela discloses wherein the position comprises an offset and a length to indicate the sub-image version data associated with the progressive step (see Hannuksela, at least at [0083]-[0084], and other related text).
Regarding claim 9, Hannuksela discloses wherein sub-image versions being described as image items, the progressive information comprises data for identifying, for each progressive step a list of the image item identifiers identifying the image items associated with the progressive step (see Hannuksela, at least at [0082], [0095], [0115]-[0116], [0134], [0139], [0142], [0146], [0174], and other related text).
Regarding claim 10, Hannuksela discloses wherein input image versions being described as image items, the progressive information comprises for each progressive step the number of image items comprised in the progressive step (see Hannuksela, at least at [0082], [0095], [0103]-[0104], [0115]-[0116], [0134], [0139], [0142], [0146], [0174], and other related text).
Regarding claim 11, Hannuksela discloses wherein at least one input image version being composed of a plurality of layers, the progressive information further comprises data for identifying a layer identifier associated with the image item identifier of the input image version (see Hannuksela, at least at [0046], [0065]-[0066], [0082], [0085], [0095], [0115]-[0116], [0134], [0139], [0142], [0146], [0174], and other related text).
Regarding claim 12, Hannuksela discloses wherein generating a progressive information comprises generating a progressive rendering data structure comprising data for determining, for each progressive rendering step, the number of image items to use for the reconstruction of the main image, wherein the number of image items for a progressive rendering step is described as a difference from the previous step (see Hannuksela, at least at [0146]-[0148], [0197], and other related text).
Regarding claim 13, Hannuksela discloses wherein the progressive rendering data structure further comprises a number of progressive rendering steps (see Hannuksela, at least at [0146]-[0148], [0197], and other related text).
Regarding claim 14, Hannuksela discloses wherein the progressive information characterizes a construction of the main image so that its quality is gradually improved (see Hannuksela, at least at [0146]-[0148], [0197], and other related text).
Regarding claim 15, Hannuksela discloses wherein the progressive information is associated with the main image (see Hannuksela, at least at [0146]-[0148], [0197], and other related text).
Regarding claim 16, Hannuksela discloses wherein the main image is part of an entity group, and the progressive information is associated with at least one entity of the group (see Hannuksela, at least at abstract, [0016], [0124]-[0125], and other related text).
Regarding claims 23-24, Hannuksela discloses wherein the main image is a reconstructed image of a derived image item (see Hannuksela, at least at [0034]-[0035], [0084]-[0088], [0119], [0148], and other related text) .
Conclusion
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to CHENEA DAVIS whose telephone number is (571)272-9524 and whose email address is CHENEA.SMITH@USPTO.GOV. The examiner can normally be reached M-F: 8:00 am - 4:00 pm.
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If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner’s supervisor, Nathan Flynn can be reached at 571-272-1915. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300.
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/CHENEA DAVIS/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2421
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