DETAILED ACTION
1. Applicant’s amendment filed on November 7, 2025 has been fully considered and entered, but the arguments are moot in view of the new grounds of rejection.
Notice of Pre-AIA or AIA Status
The present application is being examined under the pre-AIA first to invent provisions.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 103
2. In the event the determination of the status of the application as subject to AIA 35 U.S.C. 102 and 103 (or as subject to pre-AIA 35 U.S.C. 102 and 103) is incorrect, any correction of the statutory basis (i.e., changing from AIA to pre-AIA ) for the rejection will not be considered a new ground of rejection if the prior art relied upon, and the rationale supporting the rejection, would be the same under either status.
3. The following is a quotation of pre-AIA 35 U.S.C. 103(a) which forms the basis for all obviousness rejections set forth in this Office action:
(a) A patent may not be obtained though the invention is not identically disclosed or described as set forth in section 102, if the differences between the subject matter sought to be patented and the prior art are such that the subject matter as a whole would have been obvious at the time the invention was made to a person having ordinary skill in the art to which said subject matter pertains. Patentability shall not be negated by the manner in which the invention was made.
4. Claims 1-2, 4, 8-11, 13, and 17-20 are rejected under pre-AIA 35 U.S.C. 103(a) as being unpatentable over Joch et al. (US Patent Application Publication no. 2005/0117646) in view of Seo et al. (US Patent no. 8208545), and further in view of Yang et al. (US Patent Application Publication no. 2004/0008778).
Regarding claims 1 and 10, Joch discloses a system and method comprising: receiving reference frame data from storage (See Joch [0053] and processor 36 of Fig. 4, and paragraph [0059]); decompressing the reference frame data (See Joch [0053]-[0054]) by at least: selecting an entropy code for decoding (See Joch [0054]); computing a pixel predictor (See Joch [0058]).
It is noted that Joch is silent about decoding a pixel residual based on the pixel predictor using the entropy code or using run mode decoding.
However, Seo teaches decoding a pixel residual based on the pixel predictor using the entropy code or using run mode decoding (See Seo col. 2, lines 60-67, col. 3, lines 1-15).
Therefore, it is considered obvious that one skilled in the art at the time of the invention, would recognize the advantage of modifying Joch to incorporate Seo’s teachings to decode a pixel residual based on the pixel predictor using the entropy code or using run mode decoding. The motivation for performing such a modification in Joch is to maximize compression efficiency while improving the compression rate.
It is also noted that the although combination of Joch and Seo teaches selecting an entropy code (See Joch [0054] and [0058]), it is silent about “from among multiple entropy codes by reading an indicator of the entropy code from the reference frame data”.
However, Yang teaches “from among multiple entropy codes by reading an indicator of the entropy code from the reference frame data” (See Yang [0046] “a segmented reference frame and a new frame that is to be approximated using the segments from the reference frame and their respective motion vectors”, [0049] “the data introduced to the decoder, including the segmentation of the reference frame, previous motion vectors, the prediction indicator, the entropy-coded top-level motion vectors, and entropy-coded lower-level residual vectors.”).
Therefore, it is considered obvious that one skilled in the art, before the effective filing date of the claimed invention, would recognize the advantage of modifying the combination of Joch and Seo to incorporate Yang’s teachings to select an entropy code for decoding from among multiple entropy codes by reading an indicator of the entropy code from the reference frame data. The motivation for performing such a modification in the combination of Joch and Seo is to provide a novel way of encoding and decoding motion vectors that saves bits by exploiting the correlations between the motions of adjacent segments as taught by Yang (See Yang [0019]).
As per claims 19-20, Joch discloses a non-transitory computer-readable medium having executable instructions stored thereon, configured to be executable by one or more processors for causing the one or more processors (See Joch [0053] and [0059]) to: compress first reference frame data to generate compressed reference frame data (See Joch [0018], [0036]); store the compressed reference frame data to off-chip storage (See Joch [0055]); retrieve the compressed reference frame data from the off-chip storage (See Joch [0053]-[0054]); decompress the compressed reference frame data by at least: selecting an entropy code for decoding (See Joch [0053]-[0054]); computing a pixel predictor (See Joch [0058]).
It is noted that Joch is silent about decoding a pixel residual based on the pixel predictor using the entropy code or using run mode decoding.
However, Seo teaches decoding a pixel residual based on the pixel predictor using the entropy code or using run mode decoding (See Seo col. 2, lines 60-67, col. 3, lines 1-15).
Therefore, it is considered obvious that one skilled in the art at the time of the invention, would recognize the advantage of modifying Joch to incorporate Seo’s teachings to decode a pixel residual based on the pixel predictor using the entropy code or using run mode decoding. The motivation for performing such a modification in Joch is to maximize compression efficiency while improving the compression rate.
It is also noted that the although combination of Joch and Seo teaches selecting an entropy code (See Joch [0054] and [0058]), it is silent about “from among multiple entropy codes by reading an indicator of the entropy code from the reference frame data”.
However, Yang teaches “from among multiple entropy codes by reading an indicator of the entropy code from the reference frame data” (See Yang [0046] “a segmented reference frame and a new frame that is to be approximated using the segments from the reference frame and their respective motion vectors”, [0049] “the data introduced to the decoder, including the segmentation of the reference frame, previous motion vectors, the prediction indicator, the entropy-coded top-level motion vectors, and entropy-coded lower-level residual vectors.”).
Therefore, it is considered obvious that one skilled in the art, before the effective filing date of the claimed invention, would recognize the advantage of modifying the combination of Joch and Seo to incorporate Yang’s teachings to select an entropy code for decoding from among multiple entropy codes by reading an indicator of the entropy code from the reference frame data. The motivation for performing such a modification in the combination of Joch and Seo is to provide a novel way of encoding and decoding motion vectors that saves bits by exploiting the correlations between the motions of adjacent segments as taught by Yang (See Yang [0019]).
As per claims 2 and 11, the combination of Joch, Seo and Yang further teaches wherein receiving the reference frame data comprises retrieving compressed data from the storage (See Joch [0055] and [0061]).
As per claims 4 and 13, the combination of Joch, Seo and Yang further teaches wherein receiving the reference frame data comprises receiving the reference frame data from off-chip memory (See Joch [0053]-[0055]).
As per claims 8 and 17, the combination of Joch, Seo and Yang further teaches constructing a current pixel based on the pixel predictor and pixel residual after decoding the pixel residual using entropy code (See Seo col. 2, lines 60-67, col. 3, lines 1-15).
As per claims 9 and 18, the combination of Joch, Seo and Yang further teaches generating a picture based on the decompressed reference frame data and displaying the picture (See Joch [0017] and [0046]).
As per claim 21, the combination of Joch, Seo and Yang further teaches wherein the decompressing the reference frame data is performed by an encoder (See Joch [0017], [0046] and [0067]).
5. Claims 6 and 15 are rejected under pre-AIA 35 U.S.C. 103(a) as being unpatentable over Joch et al. (US Patent Application Publication no. 2005/0117646) in view of Seo et al. (US Patent no. 8208545) and Yang et al. (US Patent Application Publication no. 2004/0008778) as applied to claims 1 and 10 above, and further in view of Uramoto et al. (US Patent no. 5400087).
Regarding claims 6 and 15, most of the limitations of these claims have been noted in the above rejection of claims 1 and 10.
It is noted that the combination of Joch, Seo and Yang is silent about computing minimum absolute difference for the current pixel, and computing the pixel predictor for the current pixel based on the minimum absolute difference.
However, Uramoto teaches computing minimum absolute difference for the current pixel, and computing the pixel predictor for the current pixel based on the minimum absolute difference (See Uramoto col. 34, lines 46-68, col. 35, lines 1-5).
Therefore, it is considered obvious that one skilled in the art, at the time of the invention, would recognize the advantage of modifying the combination of Joch, Seo and Yang to incorporate Uramoto’s teachings to compute minimum absolute difference for the current pixel, and computing the pixel predictor for the current pixel based on the minimum absolute difference. The motivation for performing such a modification in the proposed combination of Joch, Seo and Yang is to determine a displacement vector which corresponds to the minimum absolute value sum is determined as the motion vector.
6. Claims 5, 7, 14, and 16 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.
The claims are allowable over the prior art of record since the cited references taken individually or in combination fail to teach or suggest decompressing a reference frame data wherein receiving the reference frame data comprises retrieving the reference frame data from off-chip memory, wherein the reference frame data is first reference frame data, wherein receiving the first reference frame data comprises retrieving compressed reference frame data from the off-chip memory, and wherein the method further comprises, before retrieving the first reference frame data: compressing second reference frame data to generate the compressed reference frame data; and storing the compressed reference frame data to the off-chip memory.
7. Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to GIMS S PHILIPPE whose telephone number is (571)272-7336. The examiner can normally be reached Maxi Flex.
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/GIMS S PHILIPPE/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2424