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 .
Election/Restrictions
Claims 7-16 are withdrawn from further consideration pursuant to 37 CFR 1.142(b) as being drawn to a nonelected invention, there being no allowable generic or linking claim. Election was made without traverse in the reply filed on 10/16/2025.
Information Disclosure Statement
The information disclosure statement (IDS) submitted on 06/11/2024 is in compliance with the provisions of 37 CFR 1.97. Accordingly, the information disclosure statement is being considered by the examiner.
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 and 17-20 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Li et al. (US 20160277761 A1) in view of Jung et al. (US 20210266583 A1).
Regarding Claim 17, Li et al. teaches an apparatus (Abstract; Paragraph 53), the apparatus comprising:
processing circuitry (Paragraph 41) configured to:
receive a video bitstream comprising coding information of a current block in a current picture, the coding information indicating that the current block is coded by a flip mode in which locations of samples of the current block are adjusted within the current block (Paragraphs 70-73; Paragraph 80; Paragraph 89; Paragraph 132; Paragraph 142);
determine a reference block from a plurality of candidate reference blocks in a reconstructed region of the current picture for the current block (Paragraphs 148-149);
determine a reconstruction block of the current block based on the determined reference block (Paragraph 66; Paragraph 80; Paragraph 88-93); and
reconstruct the current block by adjusting locations of samples of the reconstruction block within the reconstruction block based on the flip mode (Paragraphs 90-92; Paragraph 129).
However, Li et al. does not explicitly teach determining a reference block based on template matching (TM) costs, the TM costs indicating differences between a template of the current block and respective templates of the plurality of candidate reference blocks.
Jung et al., however, teaches determining a reference block based on template matching (TM) costs, the TM costs indicating differences between a template of the current block and respective templates of the plurality of candidate reference blocks (Paragraph 122; Paragraphs 195-196; Paragraphs 201-202).
It would have been obvious to a person having ordinary skill in the art at the time of the filing of the invention to have modified the video coding taught in Li et al. to include the reference block determination taught by Jung et al. in order to improve the coding efficiency of the video coding system (See Jung et al. Paragraph 50).
Regarding Claim 18, Li et al. and Jung et al. teach the apparatus of claim 17, Li et al. further teaches wherein the flip mode includes one of (i) a vertical flip mode configured to adjust the locations of the samples of the current block such that an upper part and a lower part of the current block are reversed within the current block and (ii) a horizontal flip mode configured to adjust the locations of the samples of the current block such that a left part and a right part of the current block are reversed within the current block (Paragraphs 125; Paragraphs 130-131).
Regarding Claim 19 Li et al. and Jung et al. teach the apparatus of claim 17, Li et al. further teaches wherein the processing circuitry is further configured to: receive first coding information from the received video bitstream, the first coding information indicating whether the flip mode is to be applied to the reconstruction block, in response to the first coding information indicating that the flip mode is to be applied to the reconstruction block, determine a type of the flip mode based on second coding information in the received video bitstream; and reconstruct the current block by adjusting the locations of the samples of the reconstruction block based on the determined type of the flip mode (Paragraph 89; Paragraphs 132; Paragraphs 141-143).
Regarding Claim 20, Li et al. and Jung et al. teach the apparatus of claim 17, Li et al. further teaches wherein the processing circuitry is further configured to: determine the plurality of candidate reference blocks within a search region of the reconstructed region of the current picture (Paragraphs 6-7; Paragraphs 208-218).
However, Li et al. does not explicitly teach determining the TM costs between the template of the current block and a template of each of the plurality of candidate reference blocks; and determine the reference block from the plurality of candidate reference blocks that corresponds to a minimum TM cost among the TM costs between the template of the current block and the templates of the plurality of candidate reference blocks.
Jung et al., however, teaches determining the TM costs between the template of the current block and a template of each of the plurality of candidate reference blocks; and determine the reference block from the plurality of candidate reference blocks that corresponds to a minimum TM cost among the TM costs between the template of the current block and the templates of the plurality of candidate reference blocks (Paragraph 122; Paragraph 195-196; Paragraphs 201-202).
It would have been obvious to a person having ordinary skill in the art at the time of the filing of the invention to have modified the video coding taught in Li et al. to include the reference block determination taught by Jung et al. in order to improve the coding efficiency of the video coding system (See Jung et al. Paragraph 50).
Method claims 1-4 are drawn to the method of using corresponding apparatus of claims 17-20 and are rejected for the same reasons as used above.
Regarding Claim 5, Li et al and Jung et al. teach the method of claim 4, Li et al. further teaches wherein: based on the flip mode being a horizontal flip, a vertical range of the search region is smaller than a horizontal range of the search region, and based on the flip mode being a vertical flip, the vertical range of the search region is larger than a horizontal range of the search region (Paragraphs 6-9; Paragraphs 66-67; Paragraph 125; Paragraphs 129-130; Paragraphs 137-139; Paragraphs 208-218; Paragraph 270).
Regarding Claim 6, Li et al. and Jung et al. teach the method of claim 1, Li et al. further teaches wherein the determining the reconstruction block further comprises: flipping the determined reference block by adjusting locations of samples of the determined reference block within the determined reference block based on the flip mode (Paragraph 67; Paragraph 129); and determining the reconstruction block based on the flipped reference block (Paragraph 66; Paragraph 80; Paragraph 88-93).
Conclusion
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to FARHAN MAHMUD whose telephone number is (571)272-7712. The examiner can normally be reached 10-7.
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/FARHAN MAHMUD/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2483