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 .
This Office Action is in response to correspondence filed 08 January 2024 in reference to application 18/406,351. Claims 1-30 are pending and have been examined.
Claim Interpretation
The following is a quotation of 35 U.S.C. 112(f):
(f) Element in Claim for a Combination. – An element in a claim for a combination may be expressed as a means or step for performing a specified function without the recital of structure, material, or acts in support thereof, and such claim shall be construed to cover the corresponding structure, material, or acts described in the specification and equivalents thereof.
The following is a quotation of pre-AIA 35 U.S.C. 112, sixth paragraph:
An element in a claim for a combination may be expressed as a means or step for performing a specified function without the recital of structure, material, or acts in support thereof, and such claim shall be construed to cover the corresponding structure, material, or acts described in the specification and equivalents thereof.
This application includes one or more claim limitations that do not use the word “means,” but are nonetheless being interpreted under 35 U.S.C. 112(f) or pre-AIA 35 U.S.C. 112, sixth paragraph, because the claim limitation(s) uses a generic placeholder that is coupled with functional language without reciting sufficient structure to perform the recited function and the generic placeholder is not preceded by a structural modifier. Such claim limitation(s) is/are: “a pulse extractor,” “a pulse coder,” “a signal encoder,” “an output interface” in claim 1, “a coding entity” in claim 14, “a correction entity” in claim 15, “a band-wise parametric coder” in claim 16, “a pulse decoder,” “a signal decoder,” “a signal combiner” in claim 19, ““a pulse extractor,” “a pulse coder,” “a signal encoder,” “an output interface” in claim 21, “a filler” and “a spectral domain decoder and a band-wise parametric decoder” in claim 24.
Because this/these claim limitation(s) is/are being interpreted under 35 U.S.C. 112(f) or pre-AIA 35 U.S.C. 112, sixth paragraph, it/they is/are being interpreted to cover the corresponding structure described in the specification as performing the claimed function, and equivalents thereof.
If applicant does not intend to have this/these limitation(s) interpreted under 35 U.S.C. 112(f) or pre-AIA 35 U.S.C. 112, sixth paragraph, applicant may: (1) amend the claim limitation(s) to avoid it/them being interpreted under 35 U.S.C. 112(f) or pre-AIA 35 U.S.C. 112, sixth paragraph (e.g., by reciting sufficient structure to perform the claimed function); or (2) present a sufficient showing that the claim limitation(s) recite(s) sufficient structure to perform the claimed function so as to avoid it/them being interpreted under 35 U.S.C. 112(f) or pre-AIA 35 U.S.C. 112, sixth paragraph.
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 3 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. The term “more advantageously” in claim 3 is a relative term which renders the claim indefinite. The term “more advantageously” is not defined by the claim, the specification does not provide a standard for ascertaining the requisite degree, and one of ordinary skill in the art would not be reasonably apprised of the scope of the invention. One of ordinary skill in the art could not determine how adventitious it would be to use and MDCT encoder. Therefore the claim is indefinite.
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.
Claim(s) 1-4, 6-9, 11, and 16-18 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(1) as being anticipated by Niemeyer et al. (Detection and Extraction of Transients for Audio Coding).
Consider claim 1, Niemeyer teaches Audio encoder for encoding an audio signal (abstract) comprising:
a pulse extractor configured for extracting a pulse portion from the audio signal wherein the pulse extractor is configured to determine a spectrogram of the audio signal to extract the pulse portion (figures 4 and 5 with sections 2 and 3: transient detection and extraction based on spectrogram constituted by the temporally successive spectra);
a pulse coder for encoding the extracted pulse portion to acquire an encoded pulse portion (figures 4 and 5 with section 4: transient encoding);
a signal encoder configured for encoding a residual signal derived from the audio signal to acquire an encoded residual signal, the residual signal being derived from the audio signal by reducing or eliminating the pulse portion from the audio signal (figures 4 and 5 with section 4: stationary part/ residual encoding encodes signal that has had transients subtracted);
wherein the spectrogram comprises higher time resolution than the signal encoder (figures 2 and 5 with sections 3 and 4: transients extracted from successive spectra computed for successive 256-samples windows of the input audio signal, whereas the stationary/residual signal is encoded with longer 2048- or 4096-samples windows, such that the spectrogram constituted by the successive spectra has a higher time resolution than the stationary/residual signal encoder); and
an output interface configured for outputting the encoded pulse portion and the encoded residual signal to provide an encoded signal (figures 4 and 5, bitstream output).
Consider claim 2, Niemeyer teaches Audio encoder according to claim 1, wherein the pulse coder is configured for providing an information that the encoded pulse portion is not present when the pulse extractor is not able to find a pulse portion in the audio signal (optional limitation); and/or where the pulse portion is derived from the spectrogram of the audio signal (figures 4 and 5 with sections 2 and 3: transient detection and extraction based on spectrogram constituted by the temporally successive spectra. Also see figure 3 showing pulse positions).
Consider claim 3, Niemeyer teaches Audio encoder according to claim 1, wherein the signal encoder is configured for coding the residual signal or the residual comprising a stationary portion of the audio signal (figure 4, and 5, stationary signal portion codes residual signal after transients subtracted); and/or wherein the signal encoder is advantageously a frequency domain encoder (Figure 5, MDCT coding, bottom branch); and/or wherein the signal encoder is more advantageously an MDCT encoder (Figure 5, MDCT coding, bottom branch); and/or wherein the signal encoder is configured to perform MDCT coding (Figure 5, MDCT coding, bottom branch).
Consider claim 4, Niemeyer teaches audio encoder according to claim 1, wherein the pulse extractor is configured to acquire the pulse portion comprising pulse waveforms (Figures 4 and 5 with sections 2 and 3: transient detection and extraction based on spectrogram constituted by the temporally successive spectra, Also see figure 3, extracted transient waveforms); or wherein the pulse extractor is configured to acquire the pulse portion comprising pulses or pulse waveforms, wherein the pulses or the pulse waveforms are located at or near peaks of a temporal envelope acquired from the spectrogram of the audio signal or wherein the pulse extractor is configured to uniquely determine each pulse of the pulses by a position and pulse waveform (optional limitation).
Consider claim 6, Niemeyer teaches Audio encoder according to claim 4, further comprising a processor for processing the spectrogram of the audio signal or an enhanced spectrogram derived from the spectrogram of the audio signal, such that each pulse or pulse waveform comprises a characteristic of more energy near its temporal center than away from its temporal center or such that the pulses or the pulse waveforms are located at or near peaks of a temporal envelope acquired from the spectrogram of the audio signal (figure 1, and section 2, applying temporal envelope to signal, where more energy is at the center.).
Consider claim 7, Niemeyer teaches Audio encoder according to claim 1, wherein the spectrogram is out of the group comprising: a magnitude spectrogram; a magnitude and a phase spectrogram; a non-linear magnitude spectrogram; a non-linear magnitude and a phase spectrogram; and/or wherein the pulse extractor is configured to determine the spectrogram, especially the spectrogram of the audio signal and/or the enhanced spectrogram, as to extract the pulse portion (section 2, using MDCT to calculated complex spectrogram, i.e. both amplitude and phase information.).
Consider claim 8, Niemeyer teaches Audio encoder according to claim 7, wherein the pulse extractor is configured to acquire at least one sample of the temporal envelope or the temporal envelope in at least one time instance by summing up values of a magnitude spectrum in at least one time instance, where the magnitude spectrogram comprises at least one magnitude spectrum, and/or by summing up values of a non-linear magnitude spectrum in at least one time instance, where the non-linear magnitude spectrogram comprises at least one non-linear magnitude spectrum (Section 3, equations 3 -9, adding spectral values added according to envelope for transient extraction ).
Consider claim 9, Niemeyer teaches Audio encoder according claim 1, wherein the pulse extractor is configured to acquire the pulse portion from the spectrogram of the audio signal by removing or reducing a stationary portion of the audio signal in all time instances of the spectrogram (see figure 3, sections 2 and 3, removal of stationary portions of the signal); and/or by setting to zero and/or by reducing the spectrogram below a start frequency, where the start frequency being proportional to the inverse of an average distance between nearby pulse waveform (OPTIONAL LIMITATION)
Consider claim 11, Niemeyer teaches Audio encoder according to claim 1, wherein the pulse extractor is configured to determine pulse waveforms belonging to the pulse portion dependent on one of: a correlation between pulse waveforms, and/or a distance between the pulse waveforms, and/or a relation between the energy of the pulse waveforms and the audio signal or a relation between the energy of the pulse waveforms and a stationary portion or a relation between the energy of the audio signal and a stationary portion (sections 2 and 3, energy of transient detected by comparing to energy of surrounding audio signal).
Consider claim 16, Niemeyer teaches Audio encoder according to claim 1, further comprising a band-wise parametric coder configured to provide a coded parametric representation of a spectral representation, wherein the spectral representation of the audio signal is acquired from the residual signal using a time to frequency transform (figure 5, MDCT, lower branch), wherein the spectral representation of the audio signal is divided into a plurality of sub-bands, wherein the spectral representation comprises frequency bins or of frequency coefficients and wherein at least one sub-band comprises more than one frequency bin (Lower branch, MDCT coding, including known psychoacoustic techniques, which involve subbands and bands, also see section 1, 2, an 3.); wherein the coded parametric representation comprises a parameter describing sub-bands or a coded version of parameters describing sub-bands; wherein there are at least two sub-bands being different and, thus, parameters describing at least two sub- bands being different (Lower branch, MDCT coding, including known psychoacoustic techniques, which involve subband coding, also see section 1, 2, an 3. Similar to MP3 AAC, all sub band encoders, but without block switching).
Consider claim 17, Niemeyer teaches Audio encoder according to claim 1, wherein the pulse extractor is configured to determine positions of pulses as local peaks in a smoothed temporal envelope with the requirement that the peaks are above their surroundings; where the smoothed temporal envelope is low-pass filtered version of a temporal envelope acquired from the spectrogram of the audio signal (OPTIONAL LIMITATIONS); and/or wherein the pulse extractor is configured to determine positions of pulses and wherein the pulse coder is configured to code an information on the positions of pulses as part of the encoded pulse portion (Sections 2-4, pulse positions are determined and encoded as part of the signal along side the residual signal); and/or wherein the pulse extractor is configured to uniquely determine each pulse by a position and pulse waveform (OPTIONAL LIMITATIONS); and/or wherein the pulse extractor is configured to determine peaks in a temporal envelope, considered as positions of pulses or of transients, where the temporal envelope is acquired by summing up values of a magnitude spectrogram (OPTIONAL LIMITATIONS).
Consider claim 18, Niemeyer teaches Method for encoding an audio signal (abstract) comprising:
extracting a pulse portion from the audio signal wherein the pulse extractor is configured to determine a spectrogram of the audio signal to extract the pulse portion (figures 4 and 5 with sections 2 and 3: transient detection and extraction based on spectrogram constituted by the temporally successive spectra);
encoding the extracted pulse portion to acquire an encoded pulse portion (figures 4 and 5 with section 4: transient encoding);
encoding a residual signal derived from the audio signal to acquire an encoded residual signal, the residual signal being derived from the audio signal by reducing or eliminating the pulse portion from the audio signal (figures 4 and 5 with section 4: stationary part/ residual encoding encodes signal that has had transients subtracted);
wherein the spectrogram comprises higher time resolution than the signal encoder (figures 2 and 5 with sections 3 and 4: transients extracted from successive spectra computed for successive 256-samples windows of the input audio signal, whereas the stationary/residual signal is encoded with longer 2048- or 4096-samples windows, such that the spectrogram constituted by the successive spectra has a higher time resolution than the stationary/residual signal encoder); and
outputting the encoded pulse portion and the encoded residual signal to provide an encoded signal (figures 4 and 5, bitstream output).
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) 5, is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Niemeyer in view of Ghido et al. (US PAP 2018/0190303).
Consider claim 5, Niemeyer teaches Audio encoder according to claim 1, but does not specifically teach a highpass filter configured to process the audio signal so that each pulse waveform of the pulse portion comprises a high-pass characteristic and/or a characteristic comprising more energy at frequencies starting above a start frequency and configured to process the audio signal so that the high-pass characteristic within the residual signal is removed or reduced; and/or further comprising a filter configured to process an enhanced spectrogram, wherein the enhanced spectrogram is derived from the spectrogram of the audio signal, or the pulse portion so that each pulse waveform of the pulse portion comprises a high- pass characteristic and/or a characteristic comprising more energy at frequencies starting above a start frequency, where the start frequency being proportional to the inverse of an average distance estimation between nearby pulses; and/or wherein each pulse waveform comprises a characteristic comprising more energy at frequencies starting above a start frequency.
In the same field of transient coding, Ghido teaches a highpass filter configured to process the audio signal so that each pulse waveform of the pulse portion comprises a high-pass characteristic (optional limitation) and/or a characteristic comprising more energy at frequencies starting above a start frequency and configured to process the audio signal so that the high-pass characteristic within the residual signal is removed or reduced (optional limitation); and/or further comprising a filter configured to process an enhanced spectrogram, wherein the enhanced spectrogram is derived from the spectrogram of the audio signal, or the pulse portion so that each pulse waveform of the pulse portion comprises a high- pass characteristic (optional limitation)and/or a characteristic comprising more energy at frequencies starting above a start frequency, where the start frequency being proportional to the inverse of an average distance estimation between nearby pulses (optional limitation); and/or wherein each pulse waveform comprises a characteristic comprising more energy at frequencies starting above a start frequency (0254, high frequencies of transient events are what is processed for transient coding.).
Therefore it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art at the time of effective filing to use highpass signals as taught by Ghido in the system of Niemeyer in order to allow for more efficient coding in the high bands where temporal accuracy is more important, improving coding quality.
Claim(s) 10, 14, 15, and 29 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Niemeyer in view of Herre et al. (US PAP 2010/0262420).
Consider claim 10, Niemeyer teaches Audio encoder according to claim 1, but does not specifically teach wherein the pulse coder is configured to encode the extracted pulse portion of a current frame taking into account the extracted pulse portion or extracted pulse portions of one or more frames previous to the current frame.
In the same field of audio coding, Herre teaches wherein the pulse coder is configured to encode the extracted pulse portion of a current frame taking into account the extracted pulse portion or extracted pulse portions of one or more frames previous to the current frame (0064, encoding pulses as a sequence which are time adjusted between adjacent pulses).
Therefore it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art at the time of effective filing to use code pulses dependent on neighboring pulses as taught by Herre in the system of Niemeyer in order to further reduce the amount of data that is required for coding the audio signal accurately.
Consider claim 14, Niemeyer teaches Audio encoder according to claim 1,but does not specifically teach a coding entity configured to code or code and quantize a gain for a prediction residual signal, where the prediction residual signal is acquired based on a past pulse portion.
In the same field of coding, Herre teaches a coding entity configured to code or code and quantize a gain for a prediction residual signal, where the prediction residual signal is acquired based on a past pulse portion (0137, using prediction gains to code pulses via LPC).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art to use prediction coding as taught by Herre in the system of Niemeyer in order to further reduce the required bandwidth needed to encode the audio signal.
Consider claim 15, Herre teaches audio encoder according to claim 14, further comprising a correction entity configured to calculate for and/or apply a correction factor to the gain for the prediction residual signal (0137 using a correction factor in the prediction.).
Consider claim 29, Niemeyer teaches Method for encoding an audio signal (abstract) comprising:
extracting a pulse portion from the audio signal wherein the pulse extractor is configured to determine a spectrogram of the audio signal to extract the pulse portion (figures 4 and 5 with sections 2 and 3: transient detection and extraction based on spectrogram constituted by the temporally successive spectra);
encoding the extracted pulse portion to acquire an encoded pulse portion (figures 4 and 5 with section 4: transient encoding);
encoding a residual signal derived from the audio signal to acquire an encoded residual signal, the residual signal being derived from the audio signal by reducing or eliminating the pulse portion from the audio signal (figures 4 and 5 with section 4: stationary part/ residual encoding encodes signal that has had transients subtracted);
wherein the spectrogram comprises higher time resolution than the signal encoder (figures 2 and 5 with sections 3 and 4: transients extracted from successive spectra computed for successive 256-samples windows of the input audio signal, whereas the stationary/residual signal is encoded with longer 2048- or 4096-samples windows, such that the spectrogram constituted by the successive spectra has a higher time resolution than the stationary/residual signal encoder); and
outputting the encoded pulse portion and the encoded residual signal to provide an encoded signal (figures 4 and 5, bitstream output).
Niemeyer does not specifically teach a non-transitory digital storage medium having a computer program stored thereon to perform the method.
In the same field of audio coding, Herre teaches a non-transitory digital storage medium having a computer program stored thereon to perform the method (0172, computer readable storage media)
Therefore it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art at the time of effective filing to use computer readable media as taught by Herre in the system of Niemeyer in order to allow for well known and readily available technology to be used for the audio coding methods, increasing availability.
Allowable Subject Matter
Claims 12 and 13 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.
Consider claim 12, Niemeyer teaches Audio encoder according to claim 1. However the prior art does not specifically teach “wherein the pulse coder is configured to code the extracted pulse portion by a spectral envelope common to pulse waveforms close to each other and by parameters for presenting a spectrally flattened pulse waveform, where the extracted pulse portion comprises the pulse waveforms and the spectrally flattened pulse waveform is acquired from the pulse waveform using the spectral envelope or a coded spectral envelope” when combined with each and every other limitation of the claim, the base claim, and intervening claims. Although spectrally flatting signals is generally known, doing so in this context is not. In most prior art it is the residual signal that is flattened. Therefore claim 12 contains allowable subject matter.
Consider claim 13, Niemeyer teaches Audio encoder according to claim 4. However the prior art does not specifically teach “wherein the pulse coder is configured to spectrally flatten the pulse waveform or a pulse Short-time Fourier Transform using a spectral envelope; and/or further comprising a filter processor configured to spectrally flatten the pulse waveform by filtering the pulse waveform in time domain; and/or wherein the pulse coder is configured to acquire a spectrally flattened pulse waveform from a spectrally flattened Short-time Fourier Transform via inverse Discrete Fourier Transform, window and overlap-and-add” when combined with each and every other limitation of the claim, the base claim, and intervening claims. Although spectrally flatting signals is generally known, doing so in this context is not. In most prior art it is the residual signal that is flattened. Therefore claim 13 contains allowable subject matter.
Claims 19-28 and 30 are allowed. The following is an examiner’s statement of reasons for allowance:
Consider claim 19, Herre teaches Decoder for decoding an encoded audio signal comprising an encoded pulse portion and an encoded residual signal (see figure 2), comprising:
a pulse decoder configured for using a decoding algorithm adapted to a coding algorithm used for generating the encoded pulse portion to acquire a decoded pulse portion (see figure 2, impulse decoder 30, see para 0119);
a signal decoder configured for using a decoding algorithm adapted to a coding algorithm used for generating the encoded residual signal to acquire the decoded residual signal (see figure 2, continuous decoder 32, see para 0119); and
a signal combiner configured for combining the decoded pulse portion and the decoded residual signal to provide a decoded output signal (see figure 2, signal combiner 34, see para 0119);
wherein the signal decoder and the pulse decoder are operative to provide output values related to the same time instance of a decoded signal (figure 2 and 0119, residual decoder is continuous, impulse is intermittent, and they operate at the same time); and
the signal decoder operates in the frequency domain comprising frequency to time transform (0059, residual signal may be transform encoded, and thus would need to be transform decoded); and
wherein the decoded pulse portion comprises pulse waveforms located at specified time portions, an information on the specified time portions being a part of the encoded pulse portion (0142, encoded impulse positions).
However the prior art does not specifically teach “wherein the encoded pulse portion comprises parameters for presenting spectrally flattened pulse waveforms; and
wherein the decoded pulse portion comprises pulse waveforms and the pulse decoder is configured to acquire the pulse waveforms by spectrally shaping spectrally flattened pulse waveforms using a spectral envelope common to pulse waveforms close to each other” when combined with each and every other limitation of the claim. Although spectrally flatting signals is generally known, doing so in this context is not. In most prior art it is the residual signal that is flattened. Therefore claim 19 is allowable.
Claims 20-27 contain similar limitations as claim 19 and therefore are allowable as well.
Claim 28 contains similar limitations as claim 19 and therefore is allowable as well.
Claim 30 contains similar limitations as claim 19 and therefore is allowable as well.
Any comments considered necessary by applicant must be submitted no later than the payment of the issue fee and, to avoid processing delays, should preferably accompany the issue fee. Such submissions should be clearly labeled “Comments on Statement of Reasons for Allowance.”
Conclusion
The prior art made of record and not relied upon is considered pertinent to applicant's disclosure. Ghido et al. (Coding of fine granular audio signals using High Resolution Envelope Processing (HREP)) teaches a similar method of encoding transients and pulses.
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to DOUGLAS C GODBOLD whose telephone number is (571)270-1451. The examiner can normally be reached 6:30am-5pm Monday-Thursday.
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If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner’s supervisor, Andrew Flanders can be reached at (571)272-7516. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300.
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DOUGLAS GODBOLD
Examiner
Art Unit 2655
/DOUGLAS GODBOLD/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2655