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.
Claim(s) 1, 3-4, 6, 9, 11-12, 14, 17 and 19 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over US 2021/0243429 A1 (“Lee”) (Note: Lee is provided in the IDS) in view of US 2024/0089429 A1 (“Liu”).
Regarding claim 1, Lee discloses a method comprising:
determining a reference line offset based on reference lines of a block, wherein the reference line offset indicates a distance between at least two reference lines of a set of reference lines (e.g. see candidate reference sample line specified by index intra_luma_ref_idx variably determined based on at least one of the size, or the shape of the current block or the intra prediction mode for the current block, for example, the index 2 may indicate the third non-adjacent reference sample line (i.e. offset is one distance sample from the second non-adjacent line as shown in at least Fig. 7) of a set of reference lines that includes at least adjacent, first non-adjacent, second non-adjacent and third non-adjacent reference sample lines, paragraphs [0135]-[0137]);
determining, based on the reference line offset and a reference line index, a reference line (e.g. see determine reference sample line S601, paragraphs [0130]-[0132], using intra_luma_ref_idx and see for example, the index 2 may indicate the third non-adjacent reference sample line (i.e. offset is one distance sample from the second non-adjacent line as shown in at least Fig. 7), paragraphs [0135]-[0137]) from the set of reference lines (e.g. see set of reference lines that includes at least adjacent, first non-adjacent, second non-adjacent and third non-adjacent reference sample lines, paragraphs [0135]-[0137]); and
predicting a value of a sample in the block based on the reference line and an intra prediction mode (e.g. see perform intra prediction S603 in Fig. 6 based on the determined intra prediction mode and reference sample line).
Although Lee discloses determining the reference line offset based on reference lines of the block, it is noted Lee differs from the present invention in that it fails to particularly disclose based on a correlation between reference lines. Liu however, teaches based on a correlation between reference lines (e.g. see correlated reference lines, paragraphs [0117]-[0118]; also see paragraphs [0122]-[0125]).
Therefore, given the teachings as a whole, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention, having the references of Lee and Liu before him/her, to modify the Method for encoding/decoding video signal and apparatus of Lee with the teachings of Liu in order to improve compression ratio with little to no sacrifice in image quality, e.g. by allowing the DC prediction to be determined based on at least two correlated reference lines.
Regarding claim 3, Lee further discloses wherein the distance comprises a number of samples (e.g. see the index 2 may indicate the third non-adjacent reference sample line (i.e. offset is one distance sample from the second non-adjacent line as shown in at least Fig. 7), paragraphs [0135]-[0137]).
Regarding claim 4, Lee further discloses wherein the distance between the at least two reference lines comprises: the distance between two adjacent lines, in the set of reference lines, closest to the block; the distance between two adjacent lines, in the set of reference lines, farthest from the block; or the distance between each adjacent pair of lines in the set of reference lines (e.g. see candidate reference sample line specified by index intra_luma_ref_idx variably determined based on at least one of the size, or the shape of the current block or the intra prediction mode for the current block, for example, the index 2 may indicate the third non-adjacent reference sample line (i.e. offset is one distance sample from the second non-adjacent line as shown in at least Fig. 7) of a set of reference lines that includes at least adjacent, first non-adjacent, second non-adjacent and third non-adjacent reference sample lines, paragraphs [0135]-[0137]).
Regarding claim 6, Lee further discloses wherein the determining the reference line offset comprises selecting the reference line offset, from a plurality of reference line offset values, based on at least one of: a resolution of a picture of the block; or a size of the block (e.g. see setting of or determination of the candidate reference sample lines based at least on size, shape, position of the current block, etc., paragraphs [0135]-[0137]).
Regarding claims 9, 11-12, 14, 17, 19, the claims recite analogous limitations to the claims above and are therefore rejected on the same premise.
Claim(s) 5, 13 and 20 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over US 2021/0243429 A1 (“Lee”) (Note: Lee is provided in the IDS) in view of US 2024/0089429 A1 (“Liu”) in further view of US 2022/0159246 A1 (“Zhang”).
Regarding claim 5, although Lee discloses wherein the reference line offset is determined further based on both a size of the block and a resolution of the block, it is noted Lee differs from the present invention in that it fails to particularly disclose based on a resolution of a picture. Zhang however, teaches based on a resolution of a picture (e.g. see dimension of individual video blocks is adjusted based on a resolution of the video picture, paragraph [0542]).
Therefore, given the teachings as a whole, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention, having the references of Lee, Liu and Zhang before him/her, to incorporate the teachings of Zhang into the Method for encoding/decoding video signal and apparatus of Lee as modified by Liu in order to improve the quality of decoded video or images.
Regarding claims 13 and 20, the claims recite analogous limitations to the claims above and are therefore rejected on the same premise.
Allowable Subject Matter
Claims 2, 7-8, 10, 15-16, 18 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.
Response to Arguments
Applicant's arguments filed 1/9/26 have been fully considered but they are not persuasive.
Applicant asserts on pages 7-8 of the Remarks that the prior art do not teach "determining a reference line offset based on a correlation between reference lines of a block, wherein the reference line offset indicates a distance between at least two reference lines of a set of reference lines; determining, based on the reference line offset and a reference line index, a reference line from the set of reference lines” because Liu has "no computation of an offset or distance between reference lines" and Liu's correlation "operates as a predefined selection mechanism based on a signaled index rather than as a computation of a reference line offset or a distance between reference lines".
However, the examiner respectfully disagrees. As previously noted, the rejection relies on the teachings of Lee in view of Liu as a whole and not Liu alone. Lee, in at least paragraphs [0135]-[0137], discloses that candidate reference sample line specified by index intra_luma_ref_idx variably determined based on at least one of the size, or the shape of the current block or the intra prediction mode for the current block, for example, the index 2 may indicate the third non-adjacent reference sample line (i.e. offset is one distance sample from the second non-adjacent line as shown in at least Fig. 7) of a set of reference lines that includes at least adjacent, first non-adjacent, second non-adjacent and third non-adjacent reference sample lines, which meets the limitations "determining a reference line offset based on reference lines of a block, wherein the reference line offset indicates a distance between at least two reference lines of a set of reference lines". Lee does not specifically disclose based on a correlation between reference lines; that is, Lee does not particularly disclose that there is a correlation between the disclosed reference lines. However, the correlation between reference lines are well-known, and Liu is used to show this. Liu, in at least paragraphs [0117]-[0118], teaches correlated reference lines, i.e. that there is a correlation between the reference lines of the block. Since there is correlation between reference lines of a block, as taught by Liu, the determining a reference line offset based on reference lines of a block, as disclosed by Lee, in combination with Liu’s teaching as whole meet the limitation in the broadest reasonable sense because the limitation does not specifically recite how exactly the determination of the reference line offset is based on the correlation between reference lines of the block. It merely recites “based on”.
Further, Liu teaches how to assign code word for reference line index in at least paragraphs [0122]-[0125] based on probability that a corresponding reference line is selected as the reference line to be employed for a current block. For example, paragraph [0122] with reference to Table 5, teaches in Example 1 and Example 2 that the most probable reference line has index zero, which receives the shortest code word 0 (i.e. it is the most likely correlated reference line to the current block in order to accurately predict the current block). The second most probable reference line is the farthest reference line (index three), which receives the second shortest code word 10. Since the reference lines are correlated to the current block (in order to accurately predict the current block), they are also correlated to each other. For example, the most probable reference line with reference line index 0 and code word 0 will be more correlated to the next most probable reference line with reference line index 3 and code word 10 than the least probable reference line with reference line index 2 and code word 111 in Example 1 or with reference line index 1 and code word 111 in Example 2. Thus, instead of the MLIP column in Table 5, which is basically the same as the ordering of Table 1 in Lee, where the reference line is assumed correlated with the block based on the distance from the block (and as a consequence, the reference lines are correlated to each other also based on distance to each other), a person having ordinary skill in the art would have no difficulty to take into account Example 1 and/or Example 2 where the ordering or correlation is based on how likely the reference line is selected. Thus, in view of Liu, the determination of variable index and offset as disclosed by Lee would take into account and be based on different ordering or correlation of reference lines.
Therefore, Lee in view of Liu, as a whole, meets the limitations in the broadest reasonable sense.
Conclusion
The prior art made of record and not relied upon is considered pertinent to applicant's disclosure.
US 2022/0007052 A1, Filippov et al., Method and apparatus for intra-prediction
US 2021/0227213 A1, Kim et al., Method and device for processing video signal using MPM configuration method for multiple reference lines
US 2019/0141318 A1, Li et al., Intra-picture prediction using non-adjacent reference lines or sample values
US 2023/0338530 A1, Jiang et al., Non-transitory computer-readable medium and method for decoding video data based on one or more reference lines
US 2023/0056191 A1, Zhao et al., Multiple line intra prediction
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/Francis Geroleo/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 3619