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 .
Claims 1-21 are pending for examination.
Information Disclosure Statement
The information disclosure statement (IDS) submitted on 12/12/2023 is in compliance with the provisions of 37 CFR 1.97. Accordingly, the information disclosure statement is being considered by the examiner.
Priority
Receipt is acknowledged of certified copies of papers required by 37 CFR 1.55.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 101
35 U.S.C. 101 reads as follows:
Whoever invents or discovers any new and useful process, machine, manufacture, or composition of matter, or any new and useful improvement thereof, may obtain a patent therefor, subject to the conditions and requirements of this title.
Claim 21 is rejected under 35 U.S.C. 101 because Claim 21 is directed towards a computer program product comprising a computer readable storage medium. The broadest reasonable interpretation of a claim drawn to a computer readable medium (also called machine readable medium and other such variations) typically covers forms of non‐transitory tangible media and transitory propagating signals per se in view of the ordinary and customary meaning of computer readable media, particularly when the specification is silent. See MPEP 2111.01. When the broadest reasonable interpretation of a claim covers a signal per se, the claim must be rejected under 35 U.S.C. § 101 as covering non‐statutory subject matter. See In re Nuijten, 500 F.3d 1346, 1356‐57 (Fed. Cir. 2007) (transitory embodiments are not directed to statutory subject matter) and Interim Examination Instructions for Evaluating Subject Matter Eligibility Under 35 U.S.C. § 101, Aug. 24, 2009; p. 2.
The USPTO recognizes that applicants may have claims directed to computer readable media that cover signals per se, which the USPTO must reject under 35 U.S.C. § 101 as covering both nonstatutory subject matter and statutory subject matter. In an effort to assist the patent community in overcoming a rejection or potential rejection under 35 U.S.C. § 101 in this situation, the USPTO suggests the following approach. A claim drawn to such a computer readable medium that covers both transitory and non‐transitory embodiments may be amended to narrow the claim to cover only statutory embodiments to avoid a rejection under 35 U.S.C. § 101 by adding the limitation “nontransitory” to the claim. Cf. Animals ‐ Patentability, 1077 Off. Gaz. Pat. Office 24 (April 21, 1987) (suggesting that applicants add the limitation “non‐human” to a claim covering a multi‐cellular organism to avoid a rejection under 35 U.S.C. § 101). Such an amendment would typically not raise the issue of new matter, even when the specification is silent because the broadest reasonable interpretation relies on the ordinary and customary meaning that includes signals per se. The limited situations in which such an amendment could raise issues of new matter occur, for example, when the specification does not support a non‐transitory embodiment because a signal per se is the only viable embodiment such that the amended claim is impermissibly broadened beyond the supporting disclosure. See, e.g., Gentry Gallery, Inc. v. Berkline Corp., 134 F.3d 1473 (Fed. Cir. 1998).
Besides amending the claim by adding the terms “non‐transitory” preceding the terms “computer readable medium,” Examiner urges that a rejection under § 101 can also be avoided by either amending the claimed terms to: “computer usable memory,” “computer usable storage memory,” “computer readable memory,” “computer readable device,” “computer recordable memory,” “computer recordable device,” (i.e. any variations thereof, where “media” or “medium” is replaced by “device” or “memory”) or adding “wherein the media excludes signals”. Note, the term “transient” does not suffice, as transient is taken to mean, “that which is capable of being touched and/or perceived,” and therefore includes signals (e.g. sound).
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)(2) the claimed invention was described in a patent issued under section 151, or in an application for patent published or deemed published under section 122(b), in which the patent or application, as the case may be, names another inventor and was effectively filed before the effective filing date of the claimed invention.
Claims 1-8, 10-18, and 20-21 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(2) as being anticipated by Yoo (US 20190342545 A1).
Regarding claim 1, Yoo teaches a method of decoding an image, the method comprising:
determining a current block through tree structure-based block partition ([0084] One CTU may be split in a quad-tree structure. Fig. 3);
configuring one or more sub-blocks from the current block by subsampling the current block ([0158] Referring to FIG. 7, for the convenience of description, it is described a case that sub-sampling is performed with ¼ size for example, but the present invention is not limited thereto. That is, sub-sampling may be performed with a size smaller than ¼ size and applied to the method proposed in the present disclosure.); and
decoding the sub-block belonging to the current block in predetermined scan order ([0082] The encoder splits a single image (or picture) in a coding tree unit (CTU) of a rectangle form, and sequentially encodes a CTU one by one according to raster scan order.).
Regarding claim 2, Yoo teaches the method of claim 1, wherein: the tree structure-based block partition includes at least one of penta-tree partition or quad-tree partition ([0084] One CTU may be split in a quad-tree structure. That is, one CTU may be split into four units, each having a half horizontal size and half vertical size while having a square form, thereby being capable of generating a coding unit (CU).).
Regarding claim 3, Yoo teaches the method of claim 2, wherein:
the quad-tree partition partitions a coding block into 4 coding blocks in one direction of a vertical direction or a horizontal direction, and the quad-tree partition is performed by selectively using one of a plurality of partition types having a predetermined partition ratio ([0084] One CTU may be split in a quad-tree structure. That is, one CTU may be split into four units, each having a half horizontal size and half vertical size while having a square form, thereby being capable of generating a coding unit (CU).).
Regarding claim 4, Yoo teaches the method of claim 1, wherein:
the current block is divided in a unit of a NxM-sized sub-region, and
the sub-block is configured with pixels at a same position extracted from the unit of each sub-region (Fig. 4).
Regarding claim 5, Yoo teaches the method of claim 4, wherein: the subsampling is performed only for one direction of a horizontal direction or a vertical direction (That is, when the intra-prediction direction is a vertical direction, the decoder may apply filtering to the left boundary samples. When the intra-prediction direction is a horizontal direction, the decoder may apply filtering to the top boundary samples. [0148]).
Regarding claim 6, Yoo teaches the method of claim 4, wherein:
a size of the sub-region unit is adaptively determined based on an encoding parameter for the current block ([0358] An encoder may transmit a flag indicating whether the sub-sampling method is applied. In addition, the encoder/decoder may infer (or derive) whether the sub-sampling method is applied implicitly according to a specific rule.), and
the encoding parameter includes at least one of a slice type, a block size, an intra prediction mode, directivity of the intra prediction mode, a component type, a transform type, whether transform is skipped, or a scan order ([0359]-[0317]).
Regarding claim 7, Yoo teaches the method of claim 6, wherein: decoding the sub-block includes at least one of deriving a reference pixel for prediction of the sub-block, deriving the intra prediction mode for prediction of the sub-block or performing intra prediction of the sub-block ([0147] More specifically, if the current processing block has been encoded in the vertical mode or the horizontal mode, a value of a prediction sample may be derived based on a reference sample positioned in a prediction direction.).
Regarding claim 8, Yoo teaches the method of claim 7, wherein: the reference pixel includes at least one of the pixel adjacent to the current block or the pixel of a pre-reconstructed sub-block in the current block ([0215] The intra prediction unit 905 predicts the current block by referring to the samples adjacent the block that is to be encoded currently.).
Regarding claim 10, Yoo teaches the method of claim 7, wherein: intra prediction of the sub-block is performed by using at least one of an intra prediction method based on the intra prediction mode or the intra prediction method based on a linear model (The Planar mode was designed to supplement the unwanted visible contouring. In the Planar prediction method, a prediction block is constructed by performing horizontal linear prediction and vertical linear prediction using a reference pixel and then averaging them. [0153]).
Regarding claim 11, Yoo teaches a method of encoding an image, the method comprising:
determining a current block through tree structure-based block partition ([0084] One CTU may be split in a quad-tree structure. Fig. 3);
configuring one or more sub-blocks from the current block by subsampling the current block ([0158] Referring to FIG. 7, for the convenience of description, it is described a case that sub-sampling is performed with ¼ size for example, but the present invention is not limited thereto. That is, sub-sampling may be performed with a size smaller than ¼ size and applied to the method proposed in the present disclosure.); and
encoding the sub-block belonging to the current block in predetermined scan order ([0082] The encoder splits a single image (or picture) in a coding tree unit (CTU) of a rectangle form, and sequentially encodes a CTU one by one according to raster scan order.).
Regarding claim 12, Yoo teaches the method of claim 11, wherein: the tree structure-based block partition includes at least one of penta-tree partition or quad-tree partition ([0084] One CTU may be split in a quad-tree structure. That is, one CTU may be split into four units, each having a half horizontal size and half vertical size while having a square form, thereby being capable of generating a coding unit (CU).).
Regarding claim 13, Yoo teaches the method of claim 12, wherein:
the quad-tree partition partitions a coding block into 4 coding blocks in one direction of a vertical direction or a horizontal direction, and the quad-tree partition is performed by selectively using one of a plurality of partition types having a predetermined partition ratio ([0084] One CTU may be split in a quad-tree structure. That is, one CTU may be split into four units, each having a half horizontal size and half vertical size while having a square form, thereby being capable of generating a coding unit (CU).).
Regarding claim 14, Yoo teaches the method of claim 11, wherein:
the current block is divided in a unit of a NxM-sized sub-region, and
the sub-block is configured with pixels at a same position extracted from the unit of each sub-region (Fig. 4).
Regarding claim 15, Yoo teaches the method of claim 14, wherein: the subsampling is performed only for one direction of a horizontal direction or a vertical direction (That is, when the intra-prediction direction is a vertical direction, the decoder may apply filtering to the left boundary samples. When the intra-prediction direction is a horizontal direction, the decoder may apply filtering to the top boundary samples. [0148]).
Regarding claim 16, Yoo teaches the method of claim 14, wherein:
a size of the sub-region unit is adaptively determined based on an encoding parameter for the current block ([0358] An encoder may transmit a flag indicating whether the sub-sampling method is applied. In addition, the encoder/decoder may infer (or derive) whether the sub-sampling method is applied implicitly according to a specific rule.), and
the encoding parameter includes at least one of a slice type, a block size, an intra prediction mode, directivity of the intra prediction mode, a component type, a transform type, whether transform is skipped, or a scan order ([0359]-[0317]).
Regarding claim 17, Yoo teaches the method of claim 16, wherein: encoding the sub-block includes at least one of deriving a reference pixel for prediction of the sub-block, determining the intra prediction mode for prediction of the sub-block or performing intra prediction of the sub-block ([0147] More specifically, if the current processing block has been encoded in the vertical mode or the horizontal mode, a value of a prediction sample may be derived based on a reference sample positioned in a prediction direction.).
Regarding claim 18, Yoo teaches the method of claim 17, wherein: the reference pixel includes at least one of the pixel adjacent to the current block or the pixel of a pre-reconstructed sub-block in the current block ([0215] The intra prediction unit 905 predicts the current block by referring to the samples adjacent the block that is to be encoded currently.).
Regarding claim 20, Yoo teaches the method of claim 17, wherein: intra prediction of the sub-block is performed by using at least one of an intra prediction method based on the intra prediction mode or the intra prediction method based on a linear model (The Planar mode was designed to supplement the unwanted visible contouring. In the Planar prediction method, a prediction block is constructed by performing horizontal linear prediction and vertical linear prediction using a reference pixel and then averaging them. [0153]).
Regarding claim 21, Yoo teaches a computer readable recoding medium storing a bitstream decoded by a method of decoding an image ([0003] A compression encoding means a series of signal processing techniques for transmitting digitized information through a communication line or techniques for storing the information in a form that is proper for a storage medium.), wherein the method includes:
determining a current block through tree structure-based block partition ([0084] One CTU may be split in a quad-tree structure. Fig. 3);
configuring one or more sub-blocks from the current block by subsampling the current block ([0158] Referring to FIG. 7, for the convenience of description, it is described a case that sub-sampling is performed with ¼ size for example, but the present invention is not limited thereto. That is, sub-sampling may be performed with a size smaller than ¼ size and applied to the method proposed in the present disclosure.); and
decoding the sub-block belonging to the current block in predetermined scan order ([0082] The encoder splits a single image (or picture) in a coding tree unit (CTU) of a rectangle form, and sequentially encodes a CTU one by one according to raster scan order.).
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 9 and 19 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Yoo in view of Jun (US 20200021804 A1).
Regarding claim 9, Yoo teaches the method of claim 7. Yoo does not explicitly teach the following limitations, however, in an analogous art, Jun teaches the intra prediction mode is derived from a MPM list of the current block, the MPM list includes a plurality of MPM candidates ([0126] When the current block is encoded in an intra prediction mode, the MPM list can be constructed using intra prediction modes of encoded or decoded temporal and spatial neighbor blocks and/or at least one predefined specific intra prediction mode.), and
at least one of the plurality of MPM candidates is derived by using at least one of a left- middle block, a top-center block, a right block or a bottom block of the current block (For example, the MPM candidates are derived in the order of left L, above A, below-left BL, above-right AR, and above-left AL. [0128]).
It would have been obvious for a person of ordinary skill in the art, before the effective filling date of the claimed invention, to take the teachings of Jun and apply them to Yoo. One would be motivated as such as to enhance compression efficiency (Jun: [0005]).
Regarding claim 19, Yoo teaches the method of claim 17. Yoo does not explicitly teach the following limitations, however, in an analogous art, Jun teaches the intra prediction mode is derived from a MPM list of the current block, the MPM list includes a plurality of MPM candidates ([0126] When the current block is encoded in an intra prediction mode, the MPM list can be constructed using intra prediction modes of encoded or decoded temporal and spatial neighbor blocks and/or at least one predefined specific intra prediction mode.), and
at least one of the plurality of MPM candidates is derived by using at least one of a left- middle block, a top-center block, a right block or a bottom block of the current block (For example, the MPM candidates are derived in the order of left L, above A, below-left BL, above-right AR, and above-left AL. [0128]).
It would have been obvious for a person of ordinary skill in the art, before the effective filling date of the claimed invention, to take the teachings of Jun and apply them to Yoo. One would be motivated as such as to enhance compression efficiency (Jun: [0005]).
Conclusion
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to HESHAM K ABOUZAHRA whose telephone number is (571)270-0425. The examiner can normally be reached M-F 8-5.
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/HESHAM K ABOUZAHRA/ Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2486