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 .
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.
Claims 1, 3-5, 10-11, 13-16 and 21 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Elsner (US 2016/0314819) and further in view of Tsukagoshi (US 2020/0294188).
For claim 1, Elsner teaches a video encoding method, comprising:
obtaining a video, wherein the video comprises a plurality of images (e.g. figure 1, Capture device (e.g. camera) 102);
reducing a size of a first image of the plurality of images, to generate a size-reduced image (e.g. abstract: “…the encoder device generates a thumbnail from a particular image”, figure 3 shows a video frame and figure 4 shows the size of thumbnail or paragraph 4: generating thumbnail from I- frame, p-frame or b-frame);
encoding a part or all of the first image, to generate an original image encoded stream (e.g. paragraph 4: encoded I-frame, p-frame or b-frame);
encoding the size-reduced image, to generate a size-reduced image encoded stream (e.g. paragraph 4: thumbnails); and
encapsulating the original image encoded stream and the size-reduced image encoded stream into a video stream (e.g. paragraph 4: embeds the thumbnails into the encoder output stream).
Elsner does not further disclose cutting the first image according to a viewing angle, to generate a part of the first image, wherein an extended viewing angle corresponding to the part of the first image is larger than the viewing angle. Tsukagoshi teaches cutting the first image according to a viewing angle, to generate a part of the first image (e.g. paragraph 77: the MP4 stream includes an encoded stream (encoded image data) corresponding to a divided region (partition) obtained by dividing a wide viewing angle image. Figures 4-5, paragraph 88: the video encoder 104 divides the projection picture into a plurality of partitions (divided regions) and obtains an encoded stream corresponding to each of the partitions.), wherein an extended viewing angle corresponding to the part of the first image is larger than the viewing angle (e.g. paragraph 85, 360 degree picture, figures 5 (a) (b) and (c)). It would have been obvious to one ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to incorporate the teaching of Tsukagoshi into the teaching of Elsner to improve the display performance of the video by dividing wide viewing angle frame into regions (e.g. abstract, Tsukagoshi).
Claim 11 is rejected for the same reasons as discussed in claim 1 above, wherein Elsner also teach, see paragraph 66, software programs executable by computer system.
For claim 15, Elsner teaches at least one image capturing device, coupled to the at least one processor, and used for recording the video (e.g. capture device (e.g. camera) 102 couple to image processing engine 120).
For claims 3 and 13, Elsner does not further disclose a range corresponding to the extended viewing angle is extended from at least one side of a range corresponding to the viewing angle. Tsukagoshi teaches a range corresponding to the extended viewing angle is extended from at least one side of a range corresponding to the viewing angle.(e.g. paragraph 85, 360 degree picture, figures 5 (a) (b) and (c)). It would have been obvious to one ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to incorporate the teaching of Tsukagoshi into the teaching of Elsner to improve the display performance of the video by dividing wide viewing angle frame into regions (e.g. abstract, Tsukagoshi).
For claims 4 and 14, Elsner does not further disclose each of the plurality of the image is a panorama image, a 360-degree image, or a wide-angle image. Tsukagosh teaches each of the plurality of the image is a panorama image, a 360-degree image, or a wide-angle image. (e.g. paragraph 85, 360 degree picture, figures 5 (a) (b) and (c)). It would have been obvious to one ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to incorporate the teaching of Tsukagoshi into the teaching of Elsner to improve the display performance of the video by dividing wide viewing angle frame into regions (e.g. abstract, Tsukagoshi).
For claim 5, Elsner teach a video decoding method, comprising:
obtaining a video stream, wherein the video stream comprises an original image encoded stream and a size-reduced image encoded stream, the original image encoded stream is generated by encoding a part or all of a first image, the size-reduced image encoded stream is generated by encoding a size-reduced image, and the size- reduced image is generated by reducing a size of the first image (e.g. abstract: “…the encoder device generates a thumbnail from a particular image”, figure 3 shows a video frame and figure 4 shows the size of thumbnail or paragraph 4: generating thumbnail from I- frame, p-frame or b-frame).
Elsner does not further disclose: obtaining a viewing angle; and decoding at least one of the original image encoded stream and the size- reduced image encoded stream according to a change of the viewing angle. Tsukagoshi teaches obtaining a viewing angle; and decoding at least one of the original image encoded stream and the size- reduced image encoded stream according to a change of the viewing angle (e.g. figures 5- 6: paragraph 13: control section configured to control a process for decoding encoded streams of a predetermined number of divided regions corresponding to a display region from among respective divided regions of a wide viewing angle image to obtain image data of the display region). It would have been obvious to one ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to incorporate the teaching of Tsukagoshi into the teaching of Elsner to improve the display performance of the video by dividing wide viewing angle frame into regions (e.g. abstract, Tsukagoshi).
Claim 16 is rejected for the same reasons as discussed in claim 5 above, and figures 1-2 of Elsner teaches see figure 1, encoder device output video stream to media server which output video to playback device 160. Paragraph 15 disclose processor.
For claims 10 and 21, Elsner does not further disclose cutting the all of the first image according to the viewing angle, to generate the part of the first image, wherein an extended viewing angle corresponding to the part of the first image is larger than the viewing angle. Tsukagoshi teaches cutting the all of the first image according to the viewing angle, to generate the part of the first image, wherein an extended viewing angle corresponding to the part of the first image is larger than the viewing angle (e.g. figure 5: paragraph 87: G. 5(c) depicts another example of a projection picture obtained by the plane packing section 103.). It would have been obvious to one ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to incorporate the teaching of Tsukagoshi into the teaching of Elsner to improve the display performance of the video by dividing wide viewing angle frame into regions (e.g. abstract, Tsukagoshi).
Allowable Subject Matter
Claims 6-9 and 17-20 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.
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to DAQUAN ZHAO whose telephone number is (571)270-1119. The examiner can normally be reached M-Thur: 7:00 am-5:00 pm.
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If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner’s supervisor, Thai Tran can be reached on 571-272-7382. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300.
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Email: daquan.zhao1@uspto.gov.
Phone: (571)270-1119
/DAQUAN ZHAO/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2484