Notice of Pre-AIA or AIA Status
1. The present application, filed on or after March 16, 2013, is being examined under the first inventor to file provisions of the AIA .
Information Disclosure Statement
2. The information disclosure statement (IDS) submitted on April 02, 2024 is in compliance with the provisions of 37 CFR 1.97. Accordingly, the information disclosure statement is being considered by the examiner.
Response to Amendments and Arguments
3. The amendment filed on July 31, 2026 has been entered. Claims 1, 3-18, and 20-21 remain pending in the application. Claims 1, 3, 7, 15, 18, and 20 are amended. Claim 21 is new.
Applicant’s arguments with respect to the 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(1) rejections for claims 1, 3-18, and 20-21 have been considered but are not persuasive.
The applicant argues that the 35 U.S.C. 101 rejection is overcome because the
specification explains that retaining the output feature of the previous audio frame increases the receptive field available for the current frame and improves coding accuracy. However, the examiner respectfully disagrees with this assertion. These improvements are only found in the specification and not in the limitations of the independent claims. Please note that explanation of technical improvements must be explicitly disclosed in the limitations to overcome the 35 U.S.C. 101 rejection.
Hence, the applicant’s arguments are not persuasive.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 101
4. 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.
5. Claims 1, 3-18, and 20-21 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 101 because the claimed invention is directed to an abstract idea without significantly more.
The Independent claim 1 recites “An audio decoding method, performed by a computer device, comprising: obtaining encoding vectors of audio frames in an audio frame sequence; during decoding of a historical audio frame in the audio frame sequence, performing up-sampling on an encoding vector of the historical audio frame using a plurality of up-sampling layers of a decoder to generate a plurality of historical feature vectors at the plurality of up-sampling layers, respectively, the historical audio frame being decoded before a current audio frame in the audio frame sequence; caching the plurality of historical feature vectors in a buffer region; and in response to the current audio frame being to be decoded: inputting an encoding vector of the current audio frame into the decoder; inputting the cached plurality of historical feature vectors into the plurality of up-sampling layers correspondingly, each cached historical feature vector being input into the up-sampling layer at which the cached historical feature vector was generated during decoding of the historical audio frame; and performing, through the plurality of up-sampling layers, up-sampling on the encoding vector of the current audio frame and the cached plurality of historical feature vectors to obtain decoded data of the current audio frame”.
The limitations “obtaining encoding vectors of audio frames in an audio frame sequence; during decoding of a historical audio frame in the audio frame sequence, performing up-sampling on an encoding vector of the historical audio frame using a plurality of up-sampling layers of a decoder to generate a plurality of historical feature vectors at the plurality of up-sampling layers, respectively, the historical audio frame being decoded before a current audio frame in the audio frame sequence; caching the plurality of historical feature vectors in a buffer region; and in response to the current audio frame being to be decoded: inputting an encoding vector of the current audio frame into the decoder; inputting the cached plurality of historical feature vectors into the plurality of up-sampling layers correspondingly, each cached historical feature vector being input into the up-sampling layer at which the cached historical feature vector was generated during decoding of the historical audio frame; and performing, through the plurality of up-sampling layers, up-sampling on the encoding vector of the current audio frame and the cached plurality of historical feature vectors to obtain decoded data of the current audio frame” as drafted, covers a mental process, as this could be done by mentally or by hand with pen and paper.
This judicial exception is not integrated into a practical application. Claim 1 recites “An audio decoding method, performed by a computer device, comprising:…”. This limitation directs towards using a computer for the method, and does not impose any meaningful limits on practicing the abstract idea.
The claim(s) does/do not include additional elements that are sufficient to amount to significantly more than the judicial exception. The addition of the generic computer components recited above with regard to claim 1 do not amount to more than mere instructions to apply the exception using a generic computer component. Mere instructions to apply an exception using a generic computer component cannot provide an inventive concept. Claim 1 does not recite any additional limitations. The claim as drafted, is not patent eligible.
The Independent claim 15 recites “An audio encoding method, performed by a computer device, comprising: obtaining audio data of audio frames in an audio frame sequence; during encoding of a historical audio frame in the audio frame sequence, performing down-sampling on audio data of the historical audio frame using a plurality of down-sampling layers of an encoder to generate a plurality of historical feature vectors at the plurality of down-sampling layers, respectively, the historical audio frame being encoded before a current audio frame in the audio frame sequence; caching the plurality of historical feature vectors in a buffer region; and in response to the current audio frame being to be encoded: inputting the audio data of the current audio frame into the encoder; inputting the cached plurality of historical feature vectors into the plurality of down-sampling layers correspondingly, each cached historical feature vector being input into the down-sampling layer at which the cached historical feature vector was generated during encoding of the historical audio frame; and performing, through the plurality of down-sampling layers, down-sampling on the audio data of the current audio frame and the cached plurality of historical feature vectors to obtain an encoding vector of the current audio frame”.
The limitations “obtaining audio data of audio frames in an audio frame sequence; during encoding of a historical audio frame in the audio frame sequence, performing down-sampling on audio data of the historical audio frame using a plurality of down-sampling layers of an encoder to generate a plurality of historical feature vectors at the plurality of down-sampling layers, respectively, the historical audio frame being encoded before a current audio frame in the audio frame sequence; caching the plurality of historical feature vectors in a buffer region; and in response to the current audio frame being to be encoded: inputting the audio data of the current audio frame into the encoder; inputting the cached plurality of historical feature vectors into the plurality of down-sampling layers correspondingly, each cached historical feature vector being input into the down-sampling layer at which the cached historical feature vector was generated during encoding of the historical audio frame; and performing, through the plurality of down-sampling layers, down-sampling on the audio data of the current audio frame and the cached plurality of historical feature vectors to obtain an encoding vector of the current audio frame” as drafted, covers a mental process, as this could be done by mentally or by hand with pen and paper.
This judicial exception is not integrated into a practical application. Claim 15 recites “An audio encoding method, performed by a computer device, comprising:…”. This limitation directs towards using a computer for the method, and does not impose any meaningful limits on practicing the abstract idea.
The claim(s) does/do not include additional elements that are sufficient to amount to significantly more than the judicial exception. The addition of the generic computer components recited above with regard to claim 15 do not amount to more than mere instructions to apply the exception using a generic computer component. Mere instructions to apply an exception using a generic computer component cannot provide an inventive concept. Claim 15 does not recite any additional limitations. The claim as drafted, is not patent eligible.
The Independent claim 18 recites “An electronic device comprising: one or more processors; and one or more memories storing one or more computer programs that, when executed by the one or more processors, cause the electronic device to: obtain encoding vectors of audio frames in an audio frame sequence; during decoding of a historical audio frame in the audio frame sequence, performing up-sampling on an encoding vector of the historical audio frame using a plurality of up-sampling layers of a decoder to generate a plurality of historical feature vectors at the plurality of up-sampling layers, respectively, the historical audio frame being decoded before a current audio frame in the audio frame sequence; caching the plurality of historical feature vectors in a buffer region; and in response to the current audio frame being to be decoded: inputting an encoding vector of the current audio frame into the decoder; inputting the cached plurality of historical feature vectors into the plurality of up-sampling layers correspondingly, each cached historical feature vector being input into the up-sampling layer at which the cached historical feature vector was generated during decoding of the historical audio frame; and perform, based on the up-sampling feature value through the plurality of up-sampling layers, up-sampling on the encoding vector of the current audio frame and the cached plurality of historical feature vectors to obtain decoded data of the current audio frame”.
The limitations “obtain encoding vectors of audio frames in an audio frame sequence; during decoding of a historical audio frame in the audio frame sequence, performing up-sampling on an encoding vector of the historical audio frame using a plurality of up-sampling layers of a decoder to generate a plurality of historical feature vectors at the plurality of up-sampling layers, respectively, the historical audio frame being decoded before a current audio frame in the audio frame sequence; caching the plurality of historical feature vectors in a buffer region; and in response to the current audio frame being to be decoded: inputting an encoding vector of the current audio frame into the decoder; inputting the cached plurality of historical feature vectors into the plurality of up-sampling layers correspondingly, each cached historical feature vector being input into the up-sampling layer at which the cached historical feature vector was generated during decoding of the historical audio frame; and perform, based on the up-sampling feature value through the plurality of up-sampling layers, up-sampling on the encoding vector of the current audio frame and the cached plurality of historical feature vectors to obtain decoded data of the current audio frame” as drafted, covers a mental process, as this could be done by mentally or by hand with pen and paper.
This judicial exception is not integrated into a practical application. Claim 18 recites “An electronic device comprising: one or more processors; and one or more memories storing one or more computer programs that, when executed by the one or more processors, cause the electronic device to:…”. This limitation directs towards using a computer for the method, and does not impose any meaningful limits on practicing the abstract idea.
The claim(s) does/do not include additional elements that are sufficient to amount to significantly more than the judicial exception. The addition of the generic computer components recited above with regard to claim 18 do not amount to more than mere instructions to apply the exception using a generic computer component. Mere instructions to apply an exception using a generic computer component cannot provide an inventive concept. Claim 18 does not recite any additional limitations. The claim as drafted, is not patent eligible.
Allowable Subject Matter
6. Claims 1, 15, and 18 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 101, but would be allowable if the rejection under 35 U.S.C. 101 is overcome.
The following is an examiner’s statement of reasons for allowance: claims 1, 15, and 18 contain the limitations “during decoding of a historical audio frame in the audio frame sequence, performing up-sampling on an encoding vector of the historical audio frame using a plurality of up-sampling layers of a decoder to generate a plurality of historical feature vectors at the plurality of up-sampling layers, respectively, the historical audio frame being decoded before a current audio frame in the audio frame sequence; caching the plurality of historical feature vectors in a buffer region; and in response to the current audio frame being to be decoded: inputting an encoding vector of the current audio frame into the decoder; inputting the cached plurality of historical feature vectors into the plurality of up-sampling layers correspondingly, each cached historical feature vector being input into the up-sampling layer at which the cached historical feature vector was generated during decoding of the historical audio frame; and performing, through the plurality of up-sampling layers, up-sampling on the encoding vector of the current audio frame and the cached plurality of historical feature vectors to obtain decoded data of the current audio frame”. At the time of the effective filing date of the application, these limitations had not been fully anticipated and it would not have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art to combine elements of the prior art to meet this limitation.
The closest prior art, Zeghidour (U.S. Publication No. 20230019128) either singularly or in combination fail to anticipate or render obvious the above described limitations. Zeghidour discloses compressing audio waveforms using neural networks and vector quantizers.
7. Claim 13 is 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 with the rejection under 35 U.S.C. 101 overcome.
The following is an examiner’s statement of reasons for allowance: claim 13 contains the limitations “the statistical parameter includes at least one of a vector sum or a quantity of hits, the vector sum representing an average value vector obtained by performing weighted average processing on encoding vector samples, and the quantity of hits representing a quantity of encoding vector samples matching the codebook vector sample; and updating the codebook based on the statistical parameter includes: performing exponential weighted smoothing on the codebook based on the vector sum; and performing Laplacian smoothing on the codebook based on the quantity of hits”. At the time of the effective filing date of the application, these limitations had not been fully anticipated and it would not have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art to combine elements of the prior art to meet this limitation.
The closest prior art, Zeghidour (U.S. Publication No. 20230019128) either singularly or in combination fail to anticipate or render obvious the above described limitations. Zeghidour discloses compressing audio waveforms using neural networks and vector quantizers.
Any comments considered necessary by applicant must be submitted no later than the payment of the issue fee and, to avoid processing delays, should preferably accompany the issue fee. Such submissions should be clearly labeled “Comments on Statement of Reasons for Allowance.”
Conclusion
8. The prior art made of record and not relied upon is considered pertinent to applicant's disclosure.
Ravelli (U.S. Publication No. 20200265855) teaches encoding and decoding audio signals. Sharma (U.S. Publication No. 20140142958) teaches multi-mode audio recognition and auxiliary data encoding and decoding.
Applicant's amendment necessitated the new ground(s) of rejection presented in this Office action. Accordingly, THIS ACTION IS MADE FINAL. See MPEP § 706.07(a). Applicant is reminded of the extension of time policy as set forth in 37 CFR 1.136(a).
A shortened statutory period for reply to this final action is set to expire THREE MONTHS from the mailing date of this action. In the event a first reply is filed within TWO MONTHS of the mailing date of this final action and the advisory action is not mailed until after the end of the THREE-MONTH shortened statutory period, then the shortened statutory period will expire on the date the advisory action is mailed, and any nonprovisional extension fee (37 CFR 1.17(a)) pursuant to 37 CFR 1.136(a) will be calculated from the mailing date of the advisory action. In no event, however, will the statutory period for reply expire later than SIX MONTHS from the mailing date of this final action.
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to ETHAN DANIEL KIM whose telephone number is (571) 272-1405. The examiner can normally be reached on Monday - Friday 9:00 - 5:00.
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If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner’s supervisor, Richemond Dorvil can be reached on (571) 272-7602. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300.
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/ETHAN DANIEL KIM/
Examiner, Art Unit 2658
/RICHEMOND DORVIL/ Supervisory Patent Examiner, Art Unit 2658
