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 .
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and the fee set forth in 37 CFR 1.17(e) has been timely paid, the finality of the previous Office action has been withdrawn pursuant to 37 CFR 1.114.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 11/19/2025 has been entered.
Response to Amendment
The Amendment filed on 11/19/2025 has been entered. Claims 17-19, 21-25 and 28-35 remain pending in the application.
Response to Arguments
Applicant’s arguments on pages 7-9 with respect to claims 17, 34 and 35 have been considered but are moot upon a further consideration and a new ground of rejection made under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Kato (US PGPub 2009/0028189) in view of Disch (US PGPub 2016/0157039).
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 17-19, 21-25 and 28-35 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Kato (US PGPub 2009/0028189) in view of Disch (US PGPub 2016/0157039), and in further view of Chon (WO 2015/183060).
Regarding claims 17, 34 and 35, Kato teaches an information processing device (Kato, see figure 19 and paragraph 0361, The receiver 42 includes a receiving section 151, an audio stream processing section 152, and an output section 153) comprising:
reception circuitry configured to receive a container in a predetermined format (Kato, see paragraph 0361, The receiving section 151 receives the TS packets):
a demultiplexer that extracts a plurality of audio streams included in the container in a predetermined format (Kato, see paragraph 0361, the audio stream processing section 152 extracts the audio stream by performing processing such as decoding the received TS packets);
a combiner that outputs a synthesized audio stream obtained by synthesizing the plurality of audio streams (Kato, see paragraph 0440, the decoder 208 for base and extension combines the first audio and the second audio, which bear the same PTS (Presentation Time Stamp)); and
a decoder that performs decoding processing for obtaining audio data for driving one or more audio output devices with respect to the synthesized audio stream (Kato, see paragraph 0384, The decoder 168 for base acquires the PES packets stored in the base buffer 167, decodes the acquired packets, and supplies the resultant decoded audio as played-back audio to the output section 153).
Kato teaches the above yet fails to teach wherein the synthesized audio stream includes object coded data, the object coded data including an audio object and metadata for mapping and rendering the audio object on the one or more audio output devices.
Then Disch teaches wherein the synthesized audio stream includes object coded data (Disch, see paragraph 0491, The encoder uses single channel elements SCEs to transmit the objects in addition to the channel signals), the object coded data including an audio object and metadata for mapping and rendering the audio object on the one or more audio output devices (Disch, see figure 29 and paragraph 0482, The audio decoder 3000 also comprises an object renderer 3040, which is configured to provide one or more rendered object signals 3042 on the basis of the one or more object signals 3026 and an object metadata information 3044, wherein the object metadata information 3044 is provided by an object metadata decoder 3050 on the basis of the compressed object metadata information 3032).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify Kato with Multi-Channel Decorrelator, Multi-Channel Audio Decoder, Multi-Channel Audio Encoder, Methods and Computer Program using a Premix of Decorrelator Input Signals of Disch, because doing so would make Kato more efficient in improving the efficiency of the processing and/or the quality of the output audio signals (Disch, see paragraph 0244).
Kato in view of Disch teaches the above yet fails to teach wherein the plurality of audio streams includes an identifier indicating a content type, the identifier having a value from 0 to 15.
Then Chon teaches wherein the plurality of audio streams includes an identifier indicating a content type, the identifier having a value from 0 to 15 (Chon, see figure 11 and page 19, FIG. 11 is content region information according to an embodiment of the present invention and indicates a mae_ContentKind field (4 bits identifiers from 0 to 15) when content region information is included in an MPEG-H MAE. The mae_ContentKind field 1100 indicates a content type of a metadata element group. If the value of the mae_ContentKind field is 2, it indicates that the corresponding content is dialogue. If 3, the content is music).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify Kato in view of Disch with Method, apparatus, and computer-readable recording medium for providing audio content using audio object of Chon, because doing so would make Kato in view of Disch more efficient in providing audio content using audio objects, and more specifically, configures audio content as an audio object and provides the audio content with local information (Chon, see page 3).
Regarding claim 18, Kato in view of Disch and Chon teaches wherein the container in a predetermined format is MPEG-2 TS (Moving Picture Experts Group-2 Transport Stream) (Kato, see paragraph 0323, an example of an MPEG2 transport stream is described).
Regarding claim 19, Kato in view of Disch and Chon teaches wherein the synthesized audio stream includes channel coded data (Disch, see paragraph 0482, The audio decoder 3000 comprises a USAC decoder 3020, which provides one or more channel signals 3022).
Regarding claim 21, Kato in view of Disch and Chon teaches wherein the metadata is included as an extension element (Disch, see paragraph 0489, All additional payloads like SAOC data or object metadata have been passed through extension elements and have been considered in the encoders rate control).
Regarding claim 22, Kato in view of Disch and Chon teaches wherein the plurality of audio streams includes a main stream and a sub stream (Kato, see paragraph 0440, the decoder 208 for base and extension combines the first audio and the second audio, which bear the same PTS (Presentation Time Stamp)).
Regarding claim 23, Kato in view of Disch and Chon teaches wherein coded data included in the plurality of audio streams is classified into groups by type (Kato, see paragraph 0374, the main control portion 163 can determine whether, among the types of the base audio stream and the first to n-th extension audio streams, TS packets capable of being processed by the decoder 168 for base are included in the TS input portion 162).
Regarding claim 24, Kato in view of Disch and Chon teaches wherein the coded data selectable between the groups is registered in a switch group and coded (Kato, see paragraph 0374, the main control portion 163 can determine whether, among the types of the base audio stream and the first to n-th extension audio streams, TS packets capable of being processed by the decoder 168 for base are included in the TS input portion 162).
Regarding claim 25, Kato in view of Disch and Chon teaches wherein the plurality of audio streams includes a group ID (group identifier) that is an identifier for identifying a group and a switch group ID that is an identifier for identifying the switch group (Kato, see paragraph 0261, stream IDs are IDs that identify stream types (the base audio stream and the first to n-th extension audio stream), and are added to corresponding PES packets by the PES packetizing section 76).
Regarding claim 28, Kato in view of Disch and Chon teaches wherein the plurality of audio streams includes an identifier for identifying the sub stream (Kato, see paragraph 0261, stream IDs are IDs that identify stream types (the base audio stream and the first to n-th extension audio stream), and are added to corresponding PES packets by the PES packetizing section 76).
Regarding claim 29, Kato in view of Disch and Chon teaches wherein the object coded data includes coded data for a spoken language (Kato, see paragraph 0288, in this PMT, audio_stream_descriptor( ) is written as information of the stream-presence/absence information. In other words, in the audio_stream_descriptor( ), flag is_base indicating whether the base audio stream is present, and flags is_Ext1 to is_ExtN respectively indicating whether the first to n-th extension audio streams are present are written).
Regarding claim 30, Kato in view of Disch and Chon teaches wherein the plurality of audio streams includes a descriptor describing information related to each of the audio streams (Kato, see paragraph 0288, in this PMT, audio_stream_descriptor( ) is written as information of the stream-presence/absence information. In other words, in the audio_stream_descriptor( ), flag is_base indicating whether the base audio stream is present, and flags is_Ext1 to is_ExtN respectively indicating whether the first to n-th extension audio streams are present are written).
Regarding claim 31, Kato in view of Disch and Chon teaches wherein the descriptor has a descriptor tag field of an 8-bit field which is information indicating a descriptor type of the descriptor (Kato, see paragraph 0288, in this PMT, audio_stream_descriptor( ) is written as information of the stream-presence/absence information. In other words, in the audio_stream_descriptor( ), flag is_base indicating whether the base audio stream is present, and flags is_Ext1 to is_ExtN respectively indicating whether the first to n-th extension audio streams are present are written).
Regarding claim 32, Kato in view of Disch and Chon teaches wherein the descriptor has a descriptor length field of an 8-bit field which is information indicating a length or a size of the descriptor (Kato, see paragraph 0288, in this PMT, audio_stream_descriptor( ) is written as information of the stream-presence/absence information. In other words, in the audio_stream_descriptor( ), flag is_base indicating whether the base audio stream is present, and flags is_Ext1 to is_ExtN respectively indicating whether the first to n-th extension audio streams are present are written).
Regarding claim 33, Kato in view of Disch and Chon teaches wherein an audio elementary stream loop (audio ES loop) corresponding to each of the plurality of audio streams includes a descriptor describing information related to each of the audio streams (Kato, see paragraph 0425, After that, the process returns to step S101, and the subsequent steps are repeated. In other words, by repeatedly executing the loop processing in steps S101 to without actually decoding the TS input to the TS input portion 162, the main control portion 163 can find, from the TS, audio streams in which the value of flag is_Base is “1”, that is, audio streams including the base audio stream).
Conclusion
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to CHONG G KIM whose telephone number is (571)270-0619. The examiner can normally be reached Mon-Fri @ 9am - 5pm.
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/CHONG G KIM/Examiner, Art Unit 2443
/CHRISTOPHER B ROBINSON/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2443