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 .
Information Disclosure Statement
The information disclosure statement (IDS) submitted on 04/04/2024 are in compliance with the provisions of 37 CFR 1.97. Accordingly, the information disclosure statement has been considered by the examiner.
Double Patenting
1 The nonstatutory double patenting rejection is based on a judicially created doctrine grounded in public policy (a policy reflected in the statute) so as to prevent the unjustified or improper timewise extension of the “right to exclude” granted by a patent and to prevent possible harassment by multiple assignees. A nonstatutory double patenting rejection is appropriate where the conflicting claims are not identical, but at least one examined application claim is not patentably distinct from the reference claim(s) because the examined application claim is either anticipated by, or would have been obvious over, the reference claim(s). See, e.g., In re Berg, 140 F.3d 1428, 46 USPQ2d 1226 (Fed. Cir. 1998); In re Goodman, 11 F.3d 1046, 29 USPQ2d 2010 (Fed. Cir. 1993); In re Longi, 759 F.2d 887, 225 USPQ 645 (Fed. Cir. 1985); In re Van Ornum, 686 F.2d 937, 214 USPQ 761 (CCPA 1982); In re Vogel, 422 F.2d 438, 164 USPQ 619 (CCPA 1970); In re Thorington, 418 F.2d 528, 163 USPQ 644 (CCPA 1969).
A timely filed terminal disclaimer in compliance with 37 CFR 1.321(c) or 1.321(d) may be used to overcome an actual or provisional rejection based on nonstatutory double patenting provided the reference application or patent either is shown to be commonly owned with the examined application, or claims an invention made as a result of activities undertaken within the scope of a joint research agreement. See MPEP § 717.02 for applications subject to examination under the first inventor to file provisions of the AIA as explained in MPEP § 2159. See MPEP § 2146 et seq. for applications not subject to examination under the first inventor to file provisions of the AIA . A terminal disclaimer must be signed in compliance with 37 CFR 1.321(b).
The filing of a terminal disclaimer by itself is not a complete reply to a nonstatutory double patenting (NSDP) rejection. A complete reply requires that the terminal disclaimer be accompanied by a reply requesting reconsideration of the prior Office action. Even where the NSDP rejection is provisional the reply must be complete. See MPEP § 804, subsection I.B.1. For a reply to a non-final Office action, see 37 CFR 1.111(a). For a reply to final Office action, see 37 CFR 1.113(c). A request for reconsideration while not provided for in 37 CFR 1.113(c) may be filed after final for consideration. See MPEP §§ 706.07(e) and 714.13.
The USPTO Internet website contains terminal disclaimer forms which may be used. Please visit www.uspto.gov/patent/patents-forms. The actual filing date of the application in which the form is filed determines what form (e.g., PTO/SB/25, PTO/SB/26, PTO/AIA /25, or PTO/AIA /26) should be used. A web-based eTerminal Disclaimer may be filled out completely online using web-screens. An eTerminal Disclaimer that meets all requirements is auto-processed and approved immediately upon submission. For more information about eTerminal Disclaimers, refer to www.uspto.gov/patents/apply/applying-online/eterminal-disclaimer.
2 Claims 1, 5, 8, 10-13 and 17-20 are provisionally rejected on the ground of nonstatutory double patenting as being unpatentable over claims 1-3, 6-8, and 17-20 of the co-pending patent 18/622,827, further in view of Zakharchencko et al. (US 20210134018 A1) and Lasserre et al. (US 20200258262 A1). A terminal disclaimer signed by the assignee must fully comply with 37 CFR 3.73(b).
3 The table below displays specific claim languages of both patents in regards to the rejection, with underlined text being unique to their respective patent (in regards to the current comparison and not if the limitation is found in another claim).
Serial 18/627,287 (Current)
Serial 18/622,827 (Co-pending)
Claim 1:
A method for point cloud coding, comprising: determining, during a conversion between a current point cloud (PC) sample of a point cloud sequence and a bitstream of the point cloud sequence, one or multiple reference PC samples for the current PC sample, wherein at least one reference frame comprising the one or multiple reference PC samples and a current frame comprising the current PC sample are in a group of frames (GOF); and performing the conversion based on the one or multiple reference PC samples.
Claim 1:
A method for point cloud coding, comprising: determining, during a conversion between a current point cloud (PC) sample of a point cloud sequence and a bitstream of the point cloud sequence, one or multiple reference PC samples for the current PC sample; and performing the conversion based on the one or multiple reference PC samples.
Claim 5:
The method of claim 1, wherein performing the conversion based on the one or more reference PC samples comprises: performing inter prediction for the current PC sample by using the one or multiple reference PC samples, or wherein the multiple reference PC samples are from different frames or slices, or wherein the multiple reference PC samples are from the same frame or slice, wherein a reference PC sample in the one or multiple reference PC samples is from a frame or slice comprising the current PC sample, or wherein an indication about whether to use the multiple reference PC samples is indicated in the bitstream, or wherein reference information of the current PC sample is derived at a decoder of the bitstream, or wherein reference information of the current PC sample is indicated in the bitstream, or wherein the reference information comprises where the reference PC samples are from and/or which reference PC samples are to be used, or wherein the reference information comprises at least one of the following: a reference direction, an indication of a reference frame where the one or multiple reference PC samples are from, an indication of the number of the one or multiple reference PC samples, a reference relationship indication referring to at least one of the one or multiple reference PC samples, or at least one of the one or multiple reference PC samples, or wherein whether a reference direction is indicated in the bitstream depends on reference picture list information.
Claim 2:
The method of claim 1, wherein performing the conversion based on the one or more reference PC samples comprises: performing inter prediction for the current PC sample by using the one or multiple reference PC samples.
Claim 8:
The method of claim 1, wherein the one or multiple reference PC samples comprise a first reference PC sample in a reference frame with a later time stamp than the current frame comprising the current PC sample.
Claim 3:
The method of claim 1, wherein the one or multiple reference PC samples comprise a first reference PC sample in a reference frame with a later time stamp than the current frame comprising the current PC sample, or wherein the one or multiple reference PC samples comprise a second reference PC sample with an earlier time stamp than the current frame comprising the current PC sample, or wherein the one or multiple reference PC samples comprise a third reference PC sample with the same time stamp as the current frame comprising the current PC sample, or wherein an indication indicating whether a sample with a later time stamp than the current frame is allowed to be used as a reference PC sample is indicated in the bitstream.
Claim 10:
The method of claim 1, wherein the one or multiple reference PC samples comprise a second reference PC sample with an earlier time stamp than the current frame comprising the current PC sample, or wherein the one or multiple reference PC samples comprise a third reference PC sample with the same time stamp as the current frame comprising the current PC sample, or wherein an indication indicating whether a sample with a later time stamp than the current frame is allowed to be used as a reference PC sample is indicated in the bitstream.
Claim 3:
The method of claim 1, wherein the one or multiple reference PC samples comprise a first reference PC sample in a reference frame with a later time stamp than the current frame comprising the current PC sample, or wherein the one or multiple reference PC samples comprise a second reference PC sample with an earlier time stamp than the current frame comprising the current PC sample, or wherein the one or multiple reference PC samples comprise a third reference PC sample with the same time stamp as the current frame comprising the current PC sample, or wherein an indication indicating whether a sample with a later time stamp than the current frame is allowed to be used as a reference PC sample is indicated in the bitstream.
Claim 11:
The method of claim 1, wherein the current PC sample and the one or multiple reference PC samples are coded in different orders and/or with different coding accuracies, or wherein PC samples in the point cloud sequence have different coding priorities.
Claim 6:
The method of claim 1, wherein the current PC sample and the one or multiple reference PC samples are coded in different orders and/or with different coding accuracies.
Claim 7:
The method of claim 6, wherein PC samples in the point cloud sequence have different coding priorities, or wherein coding accuracies of PC samples in the point cloud sequence are controlled by a Quantization Parameter (QP) value or a quantization step in the point cloud sequence coding.
Claim 12:
The method of claim 11, further comprising: applying hierarchical coding accuracies to the PC samples based on the coding priorities of the PC samples.
Claim 8:
The method of claim 7, wherein the method further comprises: applying hierarchical coding accuracies to the PC samples based on the coding priorities of the PC samples, or wherein coding priorities of the one or multiple reference PC samples are higher than the current PC sample, or wherein coding accuracy of a first PC sample in the point cloud sequence with a higher coding priority is higher than a second PC sample in the point cloud sequence with a lower coding priority.
Claim 13:
The method of claim 12, wherein coding priorities of the one or multiple reference PC samples are higher than the current PC sample, or wherein coding accuracy of a first PC sample in the point cloud sequence with a higher coding priority is higher than a second PC sample in the point cloud sequence with a lower coding priority, or wherein coding accuracies of PC samples in the point cloud sequence are controlled by a Quantization Parameter (QP) value or a quantization step in the point cloud sequence coding.
Claim 7:
The method of claim 6, wherein PC samples in the point cloud sequence have different coding priorities, or wherein coding accuracies of PC samples in the point cloud sequence are controlled by a Quantization Parameter (QP) value or a quantization step in the point cloud sequence coding.
Claim 8:
The method of claim 7, wherein the method further comprises: applying hierarchical coding accuracies to the PC samples based on the coding priorities of the PC samples, or wherein coding priorities of the one or multiple reference PC samples are higher than the current PC sample, or wherein coding accuracy of a first PC sample in the point cloud sequence with a higher coding priority is higher than a second PC sample in the point cloud sequence with a lower coding priority.
Claim 17:
The method of claim 1, wherein the conversion includes encoding the current PC sample into the bitstream, or wherein the conversion includes decoding the current PC sample from the bitstream.
Claim 17:
The method of claim 1, wherein the conversion includes encoding the current PC sample into the bitstream, or wherein the conversion includes decoding the current PC sample from the bitstream.
Claim 18:
An apparatus for processing point cloud data comprising a processor and a non-transitory memory with instructions thereon, wherein the instructions upon execution by the processor, cause the processor to perform acts comprising: determining, during a conversion between a current point cloud (PC) sample of a point cloud sequence and a bitstream of the point cloud sequence, one or multiple reference PC samples for the current PC sample, wherein at least one reference frame comprising the one or multiple reference PC samples and a current frame comprising the current PC sample are in a group of frames (GOF); and performing the conversion based on the one or multiple reference PC samples.
Claim 18:
An apparatus for processing point cloud data comprising a processor and a non-transitory memory with instructions thereon, wherein the instructions upon execution by the processor, cause the processor to perform acts comprising: determining, during a conversion between a current point cloud (PC) sample of a point cloud sequence and a bitstream of the point cloud sequence, one or multiple reference PC samples for the current PC sample; and performing the conversion based on the one or multiple reference PC samples.
Claim 19:
A non-transitory computer-readable storage medium storing instructions that cause a processor to perform acts comprising: determining, during a conversion between a current point cloud (PC) sample of a point cloud sequence and a bitstream of the point cloud sequence, one or multiple reference PC samples for the current PC sample, wherein at least one reference frame comprising the one or multiple reference PC samples and a current frame comprising the current PC sample are in a group of frames (GOF); and performing the conversion based on the one or multiple reference PC samples.
Claim 19:
A non-transitory computer-readable storage medium storing instructions that cause a processor to perform acts comprising: determining, during a conversion between a current point cloud (PC) sample of a point cloud sequence and a bitstream of the point cloud sequence, one or multiple reference PC samples for the current PC sample; and performing the conversion based on the one or multiple reference PC samples.
Claim 20:
A non-transitory computer-readable recording medium storing a bitstream of a point cloud sequence which is generated by a method performed by a point cloud processing apparatus, wherein the method comprises: determining one or multiple reference point cloud (PC) samples for a current PC sample of the point cloud sequence, wherein at least one reference frame comprising the one or multiple reference PC samples and a current frame comprising the current PC sample are in a group of frames (GOF); and generating the bitstream based on the one or multiple reference PC samples.
Claim 20:
A non-transitory computer-readable recording medium storing a bitstream of a point cloud sequence which is generated by a method performed by a point cloud processing apparatus, wherein the method comprises: determining one or multiple reference point cloud (PC) samples for a current PC sample of the point cloud sequence; and generating the bitstream based on the one or multiple reference PC samples.
4 Regarding claim 1 of the current application 18/627,287, the claim language for the claim in the current application anticipates the limitations (or a trivial variation) recited of claim 1 of co-pending Patent 18/622,827, except for wherein at least one reference frame comprising the one or multiple reference PC samples and a current frame comprising the current PC sample are in a group of frames (GOF).
5 Zakharchencko teaches wherein at least one reference frame comprising the one or multiple reference PC samples ([0005] reciting “In a first implementation form of the apparatus according to the first aspect as such, the first field is a frame type field that indicates that values for all frames of coded point clouds in an access unit are members of a set listed for a given value of the frame type field.”) and a current frame comprising the current PC sample are in a group of frames (GOF) ([0006] reciting “In a second implement form of the apparatus according to the first aspect as such or any preceding implementation form of the first aspect, the point clouds comprise a first point cloud, wherein the point clouds are in an associated GOF”; [0051] reciting “GOF: group of frames”).
6 It would have been obvious to one with ordinary skill before the effective filing date of the claimed invention, to have modified the method of the co-pending application to incorporate the teachings of Zakharchencko to provide a method that can implement the PC samples and points taught by the co-pending application to be incorporated into a GOF and reference points. Doing so would allow the ability to encode a bitstream as stated by Zakharchencko ([Abstract] recited).
7 The same rationale from claim 1 can be applied for claims 18-20 of 18/627,827 for claims 18-20 of co-pending 18/622,827, respectively.
8 Regarding claim 5 of the current application, 18/627,287, the claim language for the claim in the current application anticipates the limitations (or a trivial variation) recited of claim 2 of co-pending Patent 18/622,827, except for wherein the multiple reference PC samples are from different frames or slices, or wherein the multiple reference PC samples are from the same frame or slice, wherein a reference PC sample in the one or multiple reference PC samples is from a frame or slice comprising the current PC sample, or wherein an indication about whether to use the multiple reference PC samples is indicated in the bitstream, or wherein reference information of the current PC sample is derived at a decoder of the bitstream, or wherein reference information of the current PC sample is indicated in the bitstream, or wherein the reference information comprises where the reference PC samples are from and/or which reference PC samples are to be used, or wherein the reference information comprises at least one of the following: a reference direction, an indication of a reference frame where the one or multiple reference PC samples are from, an indication of the number of the one or multiple reference PC samples, a reference relationship indication referring to at least one of the one or multiple reference PC samples, or at least one of the one or multiple reference PC samples, or wherein whether a reference direction is indicated in the bitstream depends on reference picture list information.
9 Lasserre teaches wherein performing the conversion based on the one or more reference PC samples comprises:
wherein the multiple reference PC samples are from different frames or slices, or
wherein the multiple reference PC samples are from the same frame or slice ([0065] reciting “For the current frame 6, the reference frame 8 is chosen from the point cloud frames within a same group of point cloud frames, called GOPC hereafter, for inter frame coding”),
wherein a reference PC sample in the one or multiple reference PC samples is from a frame or slice comprising the current PC sample ([0064] reciting “FIG. 3 is a block diagram showing the steps of the inter-predictive encoding of the current block 4 from the current frame 6 according to a preferred embodiment of the present disclosure.”), or
wherein an indication about whether to use the multiple reference PC samples is indicated in the bitstream, or
wherein reference information of the current PC sample is derived at a decoder of the bitstream ([0039] reciting “The present disclosure further provides a method for predictive decoding, from at least one bitstream, of a time-varying 3D point cloud including a series of successive frames divided in 3D blocks, comprising decoding 3D motion information including a geometric transformation comprising rotation information”), or
wherein reference information of the current PC sample is indicated in the bitstream ([0039] reciting “The present disclosure further provides a method for predictive decoding, from at least one bitstream, of a time-varying 3D point cloud including a series of successive frames divided in 3D blocks, comprising decoding 3D motion information including a geometric transformation comprising rotation information”), or
wherein the reference information comprises where the reference PC samples are from and/or which reference PC samples are to be used ([0039] reciting “The present disclosure further provides a method for predictive decoding, from at least one bitstream, of a time-varying 3D point cloud including a series of successive frames divided in 3D blocks, comprising decoding 3D motion information including a geometric transformation comprising rotation information”; [0048] reciting “FIG. 7 a decomposition of the transformation matrix used in inter-predictive coding of a 3D point cloud, according to an embodiment of the present disclosure”; [Claim 26] reciting “The method of claim 24, wherein the estimate T* of the translation information is a function of the reconstructed rotation matrix R.sup.rec and of a reconstructed vector pointing to the matched reference 3D block.”), or
wherein the reference information comprises at least one of the following: a reference direction, an indication of a reference frame where the one or multiple reference PC samples are from, an indication of the number of the one or multiple reference PC samples, a reference relationship indication referring to at least one of the one or multiple reference PC samples, or at least one of the one or multiple reference PC samples ([0024] reciting “Advantageously, the 3D motion information includes a vector pointing to a matched reference 3D-block associated with each 3D block of a current point cloud frame, said matched reference 3D-block being in a reference point cloud frame.”), or
wherein whether a reference direction is indicated in the bitstream depends on reference picture list information.
10 It would have been obvious to one with ordinary skill before the effective filing date of the claimed invention, to have modified the method taught by the co-pending application to incorporate the teachings of Lasserre to provide different usages of the PC samples taught by the co-pending application with situations like if they are indicated in a bitstream, where they are used, and to perform inter prediction. Doing so would make the methods require less quantization bits for the inter-predictive encoding of dynamic 3D point clouds as stated by Lasserre ([0018] recited).
11 Zakharchencko teaches wherein an indication about whether to use the multiple reference PC samples is indicated in the bitstream ([0083] reciting “The FOC field 335 uniquely identifies a point cloud from among all point clouds in an associated GOF, bitstream, or other set of data. When a buffer of the decoder 180 outputs a point cloud, the FOC field 335 indicates the temporal position of the point cloud relative to other point clouds. A length of the frame_order_cnt syntax element may be defined by a GOF size, and a value of frame_order_cnt may be reset for each GOF.”).
12 It would have been obvious to one with ordinary skill before the effective filing date of the claimed invention, to have modified the method taught by the co-pending application (in view of Lasserre) to incorporate the teachings of Zakharchencko to provide an indication of a certain point cloud sample in the bitstreams taught by the co-pending application in view of Lasserre. Doing so would allow the methods of an intra-prediction mode based on the bitstream as stated by Zakharchencko ([0083] recited).
13 Regarding claim 8 of the current application, 18/627,287, the claim language for the claim in the current application anticipates the limitations (or a trivial variation) recited of claim 3 of co-pending Patent 18/622,827, since all of the limitations of the current application appear in the limitations of the co-pending patent. The unique limitations in claim 3 from the co-pending application are actually similar if not identical to a different claim from the current application, which is claim 10.
14 Regarding claim 10 of the current application, 18/627,287, the claim language for the claim in the current application anticipates the limitations (or a trivial variation) recited of claim 3 of co-pending Patent 18/622,827, since all of the limitations of the current application appear in the limitations of the co-pending patent. The unique limitations in claim 3 from the co-pending application are actually similar if not identical to a different claim from the current application, which is claim 8.
15 Regarding claim 11 of the current application, 18/627,287, the claim language for the claim in the current application anticipates the limitations (or a trivial variation) recited of claims 6-7 of co-pending Patent 18/622,827, since all of the limitations of the current application appear in the limitations of the co-pending patent. The unique limitations in specifically claim 7 from the co-pending application are actually similar if not identical to a different claim from the current application, which is claim 13.
16 Regarding claim 12 of the current application, 18/627,287, the claim language for the claim in the current application anticipates the limitations (or a trivial variation) recited of claim 8 of co-pending Patent 18/622,827, since all of the limitations of the current application appear in the limitations of the co-pending patent. The unique limitations in claim 8 from the co-pending application are actually similar if not identical to a different claim from the current application, which is claim 13.
17 Regarding claim 13 of the current application, 18/627,287, the claim language for the claim in the current application anticipates the limitations (or a trivial variation) recited of claims 7-8 of co-pending Patent 18/622,827, since all of the limitations of the current application appear in the limitations of the co-pending patent. The unique limitations in claims 7-8 from the co-pending application are actually similar if not identical to different claims from the current application, which is claims 11-12, respectfully.
18 Regarding claim 17 of the current application, 18/627,287, the claim language for the claim in the current application is rejected based on the limitations (or a trivial variation) recited of claim 17 of co-pending Patent 18/622,827. Both claims are identical to each other, making the claim from the current application anticipate the claim from the co-pending application further.
19 It is obvious that the above grouping of claim elements supports a nonstatutory obviousness-type double patenting rejection as the conflicting claims are not identical, but at least one examined application claim is not patentably distinct from the reference claim(s) as the examined application claim is either anticipated by, or would have been obvious over, the reference claim(s). In addition, some of the claim language from the co-pending application appear in more than one claim(s) from the current application.
Specification
20 The lengthy specification has not been checked to the extent necessary to determine the presence of all possible minor errors. Applicant’s cooperation is requested in correcting any errors of which applicant may become aware in the specification.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 103
21 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.
22 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.
23 Claim(s) 1-4 and 17-20 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Schwarz, S., Preda, M., Baroncini, V., Budagavi, M., Cesar, P., Chou, P. A., ... & Zakharchenko, V. (2018). Emerging MPEG standards for point cloud compression. IEEE Journal on Emerging and Selected Topics in Circuits and Systems, 9(1), 133-148 (hereinafter Schwarz) in view of Zakharchencko et al. (US 20210134018 A1).
24 Regarding claim 1, Schwarz teaches a method for point cloud coding, comprising:
determining, during a conversion between a current point cloud (PC) sample of a point cloud sequence and a bitstream of the point cloud sequence, one or multiple reference PC samples for the current PC sample ([Section VII] reciting “This is essentially achieved by converting the point cloud into a set of different video sequences. In particular, two video sequences, one that captures the geometry information and another that captures the texture information of the point cloud data, are generated and compressed using existing video codecs, such as MPEG-4 AVC, HEVC, AV1 etc…The video generated bitstreams and the metadata are then multiplexed together so as to generate the final point cloud V-PCC bitstream.”; See also FIG 12),
performing the conversion based on the one or multiple reference PC samples (See FIG. 12).
25 Schwarz does not explicitly teach wherein at least one reference frame comprising the one or multiple reference PC samples and a current frame comprising the current PC sample are in a group of frames (GOF).
26 Zakharchencko teaches wherein at least one reference frame comprising the one or multiple reference PC samples ([0005] reciting “In a first implementation form of the apparatus according to the first aspect as such, the first field is a frame type field that indicates that values for all frames of coded point clouds in an access unit are members of a set listed for a given value of the frame type field.”) and a current frame comprising the current PC sample are in a group of frames (GOF) ([0006] reciting “In a second implement form of the apparatus according to the first aspect as such or any preceding implementation form of the first aspect, the point clouds comprise a first point cloud, wherein the point clouds are in an associated GOF”; [0051] reciting “GOF: group of frames”).
27 It would have been obvious to one with ordinary skill before the effective filing date of the claimed invention, to have modified the method (taught by Schwarz) to incorporate the teachings of Zakharchencko to provide a method that can implement the PC samples and points taught by Schwarz to be incorporated into a GOF and reference points. Doing so would allow the ability to encode a bitstream as stated by Zakharchencko ([Abstract] recited).
28 Regarding claim 2, Schwarz in view of Zakharchencko teaches the method of claim 1 (see claim 1 rejection above), wherein frames of the point cloud sequence are divided into one or more groups of frames (GOFs) to perform point cloud compression (Schwarz; [Section VI. B.] reciting “Thus, just after the original point cloud enters the S-PCC encoder, it is processed by a coordinate transformation module, in which the original point locations are transformed from their original (world) coordinates into internal (frame) coordinates, and the original point colors are transformed from RGB to YUV.”).
29 Regarding claim 3, Schwarz in view of Zakharchencko teaches the methods of claims 2 (see claims 1 and 2 rejections above), wherein a plurality of consecutive frames of the point cloud sequence in time stamp order are clustered as one GOF, or wherein each frame of the point cloud sequence belongs to one GOF, or wherein the number of the plurality of consecutive frames equals to a size of the GOF, or wherein the first frame of a GOF in decoding order is an I-frame (Zakharchencko; [0087] reciting “In a primary “if” condition, maximum_item_indication defines a bit count for a corresponding syntax element to be encoded. matched_patch_count defines a number of inter-coded patches that have a predictor in a corresponding reference frame. In a first “for” loop, the syntax iterates all inter-coded patches, and the syntax either encodes syntax elements in a differential manner in the encoder 130 or decodes corresponding syntax elements in the decoder 180 using delta_patch_idx from the reference index field 345. The encoder 130 iterates and encodes the rest of the patches using intra coding mode.”), or wherein the first frame of a GOF in decoding order is an I-frame, and there is only intra prediction for the I-frame, or wherein the first frame of a GOF in decoding order is not an I-frame, or wherein the first frame of a GOF in decoding order is a P-frame (Zakharchencko; [Abstract] reciting “…a first field that implements prediction type signaling of the point clouds, generate a second field that implements temporal order signaling of the point clouds, and encode the first field and the second field into an encoded bitstream…and a processor coupled to the encoded bitstream and configured to decode the encoded bitstream to obtain a first field and second field, wherein the first field implements prediction type signaling of point clouds”), or wherein the first frame of a GOF in decoding order is a P-frame or a B frame with all of the at least one reference frame ahead of the current frame in the time stamp order, or wherein whether to code the first frame of a GOF in decoding order with I-frame depends on an intra period or a random access period.
30 Regarding claim 4, Schwarz in view of Zakharchencko teaches the method of claim 3 (see claims 1-3 rejections above), wherein the size of a GOF is equal to the intra period or the random access period, or wherein the size of a GOF is smaller than the intra period or the random access period, or wherein an indication of the size of a GOF and/or coding structure within a GOF is indicated in the bitstream (Zakharchencko; [0083] reciting “The FOC field 335 uniquely identifies a point cloud from among all point clouds in an associated GOF, bitstream, or other set of data. When a buffer of the decoder 180 outputs a point cloud, the FOC field 335 indicates the temporal position of the point cloud relative to other point clouds. A length of the frame_order_cnt syntax element may be defined by a GOF size, and a value of frame_order_cnt may be reset for each GOF.”).
31 Regarding claim 17, Schwarz in view of Zakharchencko teaches the method of claim 1 (see claim 1 rejection above), wherein the conversion includes encoding the current PC sample into the bitstream, or wherein the conversion includes decoding the current PC sample from the bitstream (Zakharchencko; [Abstract] reciting “An apparatus comprises an encoder configured to obtain point clouds, generate a first field that implements prediction type signaling of the point clouds, generate a second field that implements temporal order signaling of the point clouds, and encode the first field and the second field into an encoded bitstream; and an output interface coupled to the encoder and configured to transmit the encoded bitstream. An apparatus comprises a receiver configured to receive an encoded bitstream; and a processor coupled to the encoded bitstream and configured to decode the encoded bitstream to obtain a first field and second field, wherein the first field implements prediction type signaling of point clouds”).
32 Regarding claim 18, Schwarz teaches determining, during a conversion between a current point cloud (PC) sample of a point cloud sequence and a bitstream of the point cloud sequence, one or multiple reference PC samples for the current PC sample, ; and performing the conversion based on the one or multiple reference PC samples (see claim 1 as it has similar limitations).
33 Schwarz does not explicitly teach an apparatus for processing point cloud data comprising a processor and a non-transitory memory with instructions thereon, wherein the instructions upon execution by the processor, cause the processor to perform acts comprising: … wherein at least one reference frame comprising the one or multiple reference PC samples and a current frame comprising the current PC sample are in a group of frames (GOF)…
34 Zakharchencko teaches an apparatus for processing point cloud data comprising a processor and a non-transitory memory with instructions thereon, wherein the instructions upon execution by the processor, cause the processor to perform acts comprising ([Abstract] reciting “An apparatus comprises a receiver configured to receive an encoded bitstream; and a processor coupled to the encoded bitstream and configured to decode the encoded bitstream to obtain a first field and second field, wherein the first field implements prediction type signaling of point clouds, and wherein the second field implements temporal order signaling of the point clouds, and generate the point clouds based on the first field and the second field.”; [0103] reciting “A computer program product may comprise computer-executable instructions stored on a non-transitory medium, for instance the memory 1260, that when executed by a processor, for instance the processor 1230, cause an apparatus to perform any of the embodiments.”): … wherein at least one reference frame comprising the one or multiple reference PC samples and a current frame comprising the current PC sample are in a group of frames (GOF) (see claim 1 as it has similar limitations)…
35 It would have been obvious to one with ordinary skill before the effective filing date of the claimed invention, to have modified the method (taught by Schwarz) to incorporate the teachings of Zakharchencko to provide a method that can include an apparatus and a non-transitory memory with the point cloud methods taught by Schwarz, as well as to provide a method that can implement the PC samples and points taught by Schwarz to be incorporated into a GOF and reference points. Doing so would provide computer-executable instructions, as well as the ability to encode a bitstream as stated by Zakharchencko ([0103] and [Abstract] recited).
36 Regarding claim 19, Schwarz teaches determining, during a conversion between a current point cloud (PC) sample of a point cloud sequence and a bitstream of the point cloud sequence, one or multiple reference PC samples for the current PC sample, ; and performing the conversion based on the one or multiple reference PC samples (see claim 1 as it has similar limitations).
37 Schwarz does not explicitly teach a non-transitory computer-readable storage medium storing instructions that cause a processor to perform acts comprising: … wherein at least one reference frame comprising the one or multiple reference PC samples and a current frame comprising the current PC sample are in a group of frames (GOF)…
38 Zakharchencko teaches a non-transitory computer-readable storage medium storing instructions that cause a processor to perform acts comprising ([0103] reciting “A computer program product may comprise computer-executable instructions stored on a non-transitory medium, for instance the memory 1260, that when executed by a processor, for instance the processor 1230, cause an apparatus to perform any of the embodiments.”): … wherein at least one reference frame comprising the one or multiple reference PC samples and a current frame comprising the current PC sample are in a group of frames (GOF) (see claim 1 as it has similar limitations).
39 It would have been obvious to one with ordinary skill before the effective filing date of the claimed invention, to have modified the method (taught by Schwarz) to incorporate the teachings of Zakharchencko to provide a method that can include a non-transitory medium with instructions to instruct the various point cloud methods taught by Schwarz, as well as to provide a method that can implement the PC samples and points taught by Schwarz to be incorporated into a GOF and reference points. Doing so would allow transmissions with a bitstream, as well as the ability to encode a bitstream as stated by Zakharchencko ([0098] and [Abstract] recited).
40 Regarding claim 20, Schwarz teaches determining one or multiple reference point cloud (PC) samples for a current PC sample of the point cloud sequence, ; and generating the bitstream based on the one or multiple reference PC samples.
41 Schwarz does not explicitly teach a non-transitory computer-readable recording medium storing a bitstream of a point cloud sequence which is generated by a method performed by a point cloud processing apparatus, wherein the method comprises: … wherein at least one reference frame comprising the one or multiple reference PC samples and a current frame comprising the current PC sample are in a group of frames (GOF)…
42 Zakharchencko teaches a non-transitory computer-readable recording medium storing a bitstream of a point cloud sequence which is generated by a method performed by a point cloud processing apparatus ([0103] reciting “A computer program product may comprise computer-executable instructions stored on a non-transitory medium, for instance the memory 1260, that when executed by a processor, for instance the processor 1230, cause an apparatus to perform any of the embodiments.”; [0098] reciting “At step 1040, the first field and the second field are encoded into an encoded bitstream. Finally, at step 1050, the encoded bitstream is transmitted. For instance, the output interface 140 transmits the bitstream to the input interface 170 of the destination device 160 and through the medium 150.”), wherein the method comprises: … wherein at least one reference frame comprising the one or multiple reference PC samples and a current frame comprising the current PC sample are in a group of frames (GOF) (see claim 1 as it has similar limitations).
43 It would have been obvious to one with ordinary skill before the effective filing date of the claimed invention, to have modified the method (taught by Schwarz) to incorporate the teachings of Zakharchencko to provide a method that can include a non-transitory medium which can store a bitstream(s), which can also include the various point cloud methods taught by Schwarz, as well as to provide a method that can implement the PC samples and points taught by Schwarz to be incorporated into a GOF and reference points. Doing so would allow transmissions with a bitstream, as well as the ability to encode a bitstream as stated by Zakharchencko ([0098] and [Abstract] recited).
44 Claim(s) 5 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Schwarz, S., Preda, M., Baroncini, V., Budagavi, M., Cesar, P., Chou, P. A., ... & Zakharchenko, V. (2018). Emerging MPEG standards for point cloud compression. IEEE Journal on Emerging and Selected Topics in Circuits and Systems, 9(1), 133-148 (hereinafter Schwarz) in view of Zakharchencko et al. (US 20210134018 A1) as of claim 1, further in view of Lasserre et al. (US 20200258262 A1).
45 Regarding claim 5, Schwarz in view of Zakharchencko teaches the method of claim 1 (see claim 1 rejection above), wherein performing the conversion based on the one or more reference PC samples comprises: performing inter prediction for the current PC sample by using the one or multiple reference PC samples, or wherein the multiple reference PC samples are from different frames or slices, or wherein the multiple reference PC samples are from the same frame or slice, wherein a reference PC sample in the one or multiple reference PC samples is from a frame or slice comprising the current PC sample, or wherein an indication about whether to use the multiple reference PC samples is indicated in the bitstream (Zakharchencko; [0083] reciting “The FOC field 335 uniquely identifies a point cloud from among all point clouds in an associated GOF, bitstream, or other set of data. When a buffer of the decoder 180 outputs a point cloud, the FOC field 335 indicates the temporal position of the point cloud relative to other point clouds. A length of the frame_order_cnt syntax element may be defined by a GOF size, and a value of frame_order_cnt may be reset for each GOF.”), or wherein reference information of the current PC sample is derived at a decoder of the bitstream, or wherein reference information of the current PC sample is indicated in the bitstream, or wherein the reference information comprises where the reference PC samples are from and/or which reference PC samples are to be used, or wherein the reference information comprises at least one of the following: a reference direction, an indication of a reference frame where the one or multiple reference PC samples are from, an indication of the number of the one or multiple reference PC samples, a reference relationship indication referring to at least one of the one or multiple reference PC samples, or at least one of the one or multiple reference PC samples, or wherein whether a reference direction is indicated in the bitstream depends on reference picture list information.
46 In addition to the limitations Schwarz in view of Zakharchencko teaches above, Lasserre specifically teaches wherein performing the conversion based on the one or more reference PC samples comprises: performing inter prediction for the current PC sample by using the one or multiple reference PC samples ([Abstract] reciting “This method for inter-predictive encoding of a time-varying 3D point cloud including a series of successive frames divided in 3D blocks into at least one bitstream comprises encoding (20) 3D motion information including a geometric transformation…”), or
wherein the multiple reference PC samples are from different frames or slices, or
wherein the multiple reference PC samples are from the same frame or slice ([0065] reciting “For the current frame 6, the reference frame 8 is chosen from the point cloud frames within a same group of point cloud frames, called GOPC hereafter, for inter frame coding”),
wherein a reference PC sample in the one or multiple reference PC samples is from a frame or slice comprising the current PC sample ([0064] reciting “FIG. 3 is a block diagram showing the steps of the inter-predictive encoding of the current block 4 from the current frame 6 according to a preferred embodiment of the present disclosure.”), or
wherein an indication about whether to use the multiple reference PC samples is indicated in the bitstream, or
wherein reference information of the current PC sample is derived at a decoder of the bitstream ([0039] reciting “The present disclosure further provides a method for predictive decoding, from at least one bitstream, of a time-varying 3D point cloud including a series of successive frames divided in 3D blocks, comprising decoding 3D motion information including a geometric transformation comprising rotation information”), or
wherein reference information of the current PC sample is indicated in the bitstream ([0039] reciting “The present disclosure further provides a method for predictive decoding, from at least one bitstream, of a time-varying 3D point cloud including a series of successive frames divided in 3D blocks, comprising decoding 3D motion information including a geometric transformation comprising rotation information”), or
wherein the reference information comprises where the reference PC samples are from and/or which reference PC samples are to be used ([0039] reciting “The present disclosure further provides a method for predictive decoding, from at least one bitstream, of a time-varying 3D point cloud including a series of successive frames divided in 3D blocks, comprising decoding 3D motion information including a geometric transformation comprising rotation information”; [0048] reciting “FIG. 7 a decomposition of the transformation matrix used in inter-predictive coding of a 3D point cloud, according to an embodiment of the present disclosure”; [Claim 26] reciting “The method of claim 24, wherein the estimate T* of the translation information is a function of the reconstructed rotation matrix R.sup.rec and of a reconstructed vector pointing to the matched reference 3D block.”), or
wherein the reference information comprises at least one of the following: a reference direction, an indication of a reference frame where the one or multiple reference PC samples are from, an indication of the number of the one or multiple reference PC samples, a reference relationship indication referring to at least one of the one or multiple reference PC samples, or at least one of the one or multiple reference PC samples ([0024] reciting “Advantageously, the 3D motion information includes a vector pointing to a matched reference 3D-block associated with each 3D block of a current point cloud frame, said matched reference 3D-block being in a reference point cloud frame.”), or
wherein whether a reference direction is indicated in the bitstream depends on reference picture list information.
47 It would have been obvious to one with ordinary skill before the effective filing date of the claimed invention, to have modified the method (taught by Schwarz in view of Zakharchencko) to incorporate the teachings of Lasserre to provide different usages of the PC samples taught by Schwarz in view of Zakharchencko with situations like if they are indicated in a bitstream, where they are used, and to perform inter prediction. Doing so would make the methods require less quantization bits for the inter-predictive encoding of dynamic 3D point clouds as stated by Lasserre ([0018] recited).
48 Claim(s) 6 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Schwarz, S., Preda, M., Baroncini, V., Budagavi, M., Cesar, P., Chou, P. A., ... & Zakharchenko, V. (2018). Emerging MPEG standards for point cloud compression. IEEE Journal on Emerging and Selected Topics in Circuits and Systems, 9(1), 133-148 (hereinafter Schwarz) in view of Zakharchencko et al. (US 20210134018 A1) and Lasserre et al. (US 20200258262 A1) as of claims 1 and 5, further in view of Li et al. (US 20210281871 A1).
49 Regarding claim 6, Schwarz in view of Zakharchencko and Lasserre teaches the method of claim 5 (see claims 1 and 5 rejections above), but does not explicitly teach wherein the reference direction comprises at least one of the following: a uni-prediction from a reference frame in a first reference list, a uni-prediction from a reference frame in a second reference list different from the first reference list, or a bi-prediction from a first reference frame in the first reference list and a second reference frame in the second reference list.
50 Li teaches wherein the reference direction comprises at least one of the following: a uni-prediction from a reference frame in a first reference list, a uni-prediction from a reference frame in a second reference list different from the first reference list, or a bi-prediction from a first reference frame in the first reference list and a second reference frame in the second reference list ([0536] reciting “As shown in FIG. 49, the threshold is different between the case in which uni-prediction is performed on the current block (the number of reference frames=1) and the case in which bi-prediction is performed on the current block (the number of reference frames=2). In the example of the above-mentioned equation [1], when the size of a current block on which the prediction process is performed in the affine mode is 64×64 and bi-prediction is performed, i.e., when two reference pictures are referred to, first threshold value H and second threshold value V are both determined as 24.”).
51 It would have been obvious to one with ordinary skill before the effective filing date of the claimed invention, to have modified the method (taught by Schwarz in view of Zakharchencko and Lasserre) to incorporate the teachings of Li to provide a method that utilizes at least a uni-prediction or a bi-prediction utilizing the reference points taught by Schwarz in view of Zakharchencko and Lasserre. Doing so would improve the encoding efficiency, and simplify the encoding/decoding process as stated by Li ([0006] recited).
52 Claim(s) 7 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Schwarz, S., Preda, M., Baroncini, V., Budagavi, M., Cesar, P., Chou, P. A., ... & Zakharchenko, V. (2018). Emerging MPEG standards for point cloud compression. IEEE Journal on Emerging and Selected Topics in Circuits and Systems, 9(1), 133-148 (hereinafter Schwarz) in view of Zakharchencko et al. (US 20210134018 A1), Lasserre et al. (US 20200258262 A1), and Li et al. (US 20210281871 A1) as of claims 1 and 5-6, further in view of Tourapis et al. (US 20210099701 A1).
53 Regarding claim 7, Schwarz in view of Zakharchencko, Lasserre, and Li teaches the method of claim 6 (see claims 1 and 5-6 rejections above), but does not explicitly teach wherein relative positions of reference frames in a reference list is fixed for the current frame within one group of frames (GOF), or wherein the previously coded N frames in displayer order are utilized as the reference frames, N being an integer, or wherein N is indicated in the bitstream, or wherein the N frames are consecutively previously coded frames right before the current frame, or wherein the relative positions of the reference frames in reference lists are adaptive for the current frame in a GOF, or wherein the relative positions are derived based on a size of the GOF, or wherein the indication of the reference frame is indicated as a reference list index and a reference frame index in the reference list, the reference list index being the first reference list or the second reference list, or wherein the indication of the reference frame is indicated by a reference direction and a reference frame index for the reference direction, or wherein if there is only one reference list, the reference list index is not indicated in the bitstream, or wherein if there is only one reference frame in the reference list, the reference frame index is not indicated in the bitstream, or wherein whether a reference relationship indication referring to at least one of the one or multiple reference PC samples is indicated in the bitstream depends on whether to use other samples rather than the previous one sample as the reference PC samples, or wherein the reference relationship indication is represented by an index indicating an associated sample to be used as one of the reference PC samples, or wherein the reference relationship indication is coded with one of the following: fixed-length coding, unary coding, or truncated unary coding, or wherein the reference relationship indication is coded in a predictive way.
54 Tourapis teaches wherein relative positions of reference frames in a reference list is fixed for the current frame within one group of frames (GOF) ([0076] reciting “In some embodiments, a system, may include one or more LIDAR systems, 3-D cameras, 3-D scanners, etc., and such sensor devices may capture spatial information, such as X, Y, and Z coordinates for points in a view of the sensor devices. In some embodiments, the spatial information may be relative to a local coordinate system or may be relative to a global coordinate system (for example, a Cartesian coordinate system may have a fixed reference point, such as a fixed point on the earth, or may have a non-fixed local reference point, such as a sensor location).”; [0252-0254] reciting “They could also be fixed of adaptive…b. Two mappings from reference frame RF to current frame CF and from current frame CF to reference frame RF are computed as follows:… Every point Q of reference frame RF is mapped to the point P(Q) of current frame CF that has the minimum distance to Q in the 6D space defined in the previous step.”; [0337] reciting “For example, geometry image frame 540 may indicate depths of points of a point cloud relative to a projection plane and texture or attribute image frame 544 may represent respective attributes of the points of the point cloud projected on to the projection plane.”), or
wherein the previously coded N frames in displayer order are utilized as the reference frames, N being an integer ([0094] reciting “FIG. 2C illustrates components of an encoder for encoding inter point cloud frames, according to some embodiments. An inter point cloud encoder, such as 3D inter point cloud encoder 250, may encode an image frame, while considering one or more previously encoded/decoded image frames as references.”; [0410] reciting “At 658, the decoder performs one or more post-processing processes on the video decoded image frames before using the depth patch images and attribute or texture patch images to reconstruct a reconstructed representation of the point cloud…display mapping, wherein a range of the one or more image frames is mapped to a range to be used to display a reconstructed representation of the point cloud…”), or
wherein N is indicated in the bitstream ([0439] reciting “In some embodiments, a decoder may receive an encoded bitstream comprising data for geometry image frames and data for attribute image frames of a point cloud.”), or
wherein the relative positions of the reference frames in reference lists are adaptive for the current frame in a GOF ([0252-0254] reciting “They could also be fixed of adaptive…b. Two mappings from reference frame RF to current frame CF and from current frame CF to reference frame RF are computed as follows:… Every point Q of reference frame RF is mapped to the point P(Q) of current frame CF that has the minimum distance to Q in the 6D space defined in the previous step.”), or
wherein the relative positions are derived based on a size of the GOF ([0447] reciting “When all the data is sequentially signaled without any markers to indicate the positions of different sub streams, there may be a significant disadvantage of time delay. For example, one frame cannot be reconstructed until all the group of frame GOF information is decoded. Also, the bit stream cannot be decoded in parallel unless every data has information of its own size.”), or
wherein the indication of the reference frame is indicated as a reference list index and a reference frame index in the reference list, the reference list index being the first reference list or the second reference list, or wherein the indication of the reference frame is indicated by a reference direction and a reference frame index for the reference direction, or wherein if there is only one reference list, the reference list index is not indicated in the bitstream, or wherein if there is only one reference frame in the reference list, the reference frame index is not indicated in the bitstream, or wherein whether a reference relationship indication referring to at least one of the one or multiple reference PC samples is indicated in the bitstream depends on whether to use other samples rather than the previous one sample as the reference PC samples, or wherein the reference relationship indication is represented by an index indicating an associated sample to be used as one of the reference PC samples ([0356] reciting “For example, a geometry and an attribute frame that correspond to the same Point Cloud frame can be given the same index, which helps identify their relationship later during decoding and reconstruction of the point cloud representation”), or wherein the reference relationship indication is coded with one of the following: fixed-length coding, unary coding, or truncated unary coding, or wherein the reference relationship indication is coded in a predictive way.
55 It would have been obvious to one with ordinary skill before the effective filing date of the claimed invention, to have modified the method (taught by Schwarz in view of Zakharchencko, Lasserre, and Li) to incorporate the teachings of Tourapis to provide a method that can obtain various position information of each specific frame within the group of frames (GOF) taught by Schwarz in view of Zakharchencko, Lasserre, and Li. Doing so would allow a decoder to receive or determine relationship information indicating relationships between the respective attribute patch images, depth patch images, and/or image frames as stated by Tourapis ([0012] recitied).
56 Claim(s) 8-10 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Schwarz, S., Preda, M., Baroncini, V., Budagavi, M., Cesar, P., Chou, P. A., ... & Zakharchenko, V. (2018). Emerging MPEG standards for point cloud compression. IEEE Journal on Emerging and Selected Topics in Circuits and Systems, 9(1), 133-148 (hereinafter Schwarz) in view of Zakharchencko et al. (US 20210134018 A1) as of claim 1, further in view of Zeng et al. (US 20210043002 A1).
57 Regarding claim 8, Schwarz in view of Zakharchencko teaches the method of claim 1 (see claim 1 rejection above), but does not explicitly teach wherein the one or multiple reference PC samples comprise a first reference PC sample in a reference frame with a later time stamp than the current frame comprising the current PC sample.
58 Zeng teaches wherein the one or multiple reference PC samples comprise a first reference PC sample in a reference frame with a later time stamp than the current frame comprising the current PC sample ([0049] reciting “In another embodiment, the preset condition herein may be that the data timestamp of the reference point cloud data is earlier or later than the recording timestamp of the reference image, and a difference between the data timestamp of the reference point cloud data and the recording timestamp of the reference image is less than a preset difference. For example, the data timestamp of the reference point cloud data is later than the recording timestamp of the reference image, that is, the recording timestamp of the reference image is 8:45:45, a data timestamp of point cloud data A is 8:45:46, a data timestamp of point cloud data B is 8:45:48, a data timestamp of point cloud data C is 8:45:49, and a preset difference value is 10 s.”).
59 It would have been obvious to one with ordinary skill before the effective filing date of the claimed invention, to have modified the method (taught by Schwarz in view of Zakharchencko) to incorporate the teachings of Zeng to provide a method that can indicate a later recorded timestamp using the specific point cloud samples taught by Schwarz in view of Zakharchencko, which can include multiple different data. Doing so would improve the annotation efficiency, and reduce the cost of annotation as stated by Zeng ([0012] recited).
60 Regarding claim 9, Schwarz in view of Zakharchencko and Zeng teaches the method of claim 8 (see claims 1 and 8 rejections above), wherein there is time stamp information for each frame in the point cloud sequence. ([0051] reciting “In one embodiment, performing interpolation on the reference point cloud data to obtain the target point cloud data may be that: the reference point cloud data may include first point cloud data and second point cloud data, where a data timestamp of the first point cloud data is earlier than the recording timestamp of the reference image, and a data timestamp of the second point cloud data is later than the recording timestamp of the reference image. A motion function may be determined according to first information such as a location, a speed, and a direction corresponding to the first point cloud data and second information such as a location, a speed, and a direction corresponding to the second point cloud data, and then the target point cloud data is calculated according to the motion function.”), or wherein a time stamp order of frames in the point cloud sequence is the same as their displaying order, or wherein a time stamp order of frames in the point cloud sequence is the same as their rendering order, or wherein a time stamp for each sample is equal to a time stamp of a frame comprising the sample.
61 Regarding claim 10, Schwarz in view of Zakharchencko and Zeng teaches the method of claim 9 (see claims 1 and 8-9 rejections above), wherein the one or multiple reference PC samples comprise a second reference PC sample with an earlier time stamp than the current frame comprising the current PC sample, or wherein the one or multiple reference PC samples comprise a third reference PC sample with the same time stamp as the current frame comprising the current PC sample, or wherein an indication indicating whether a sample with a later time stamp than the current frame is allowed to be used as a reference PC sample is indicated in the bitstream (Zeng; [0051] reciting “In one embodiment, performing interpolation on the reference point cloud data to obtain the target point cloud data may be that: the reference point cloud data may include first point cloud data and second point cloud data, where a data timestamp of the first point cloud data is earlier than the recording timestamp of the reference image, and a data timestamp of the second point cloud data is later than the recording timestamp of the reference image. A motion function may be determined according to first information such as a location, a speed, and a direction corresponding to the first point cloud data and second information such as a location, a speed, and a direction corresponding to the second point cloud data, and then the target point cloud data is calculated according to the motion function.”).
62 Claim(s) 11-16 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Schwarz, S., Preda, M., Baroncini, V., Budagavi, M., Cesar, P., Chou, P. A., ... & Zakharchenko, V. (2018). Emerging MPEG standards for point cloud compression. IEEE Journal on Emerging and Selected Topics in Circuits and Systems, 9(1), 133-148 (hereinafter Schwarz) in view of Zakharchencko et al. (US 20210134018 A1) as of claim 1, further in view of Zhang et al. (US 20220156980 A1).
63 Regarding claim 11, Schwarz in view of Zakharchencko teaches the method of claim 1 (see claim 1 rejection above), but does not explicitly teach wherein the current PC sample and the one or multiple reference PC samples are coded in different orders and/or with different coding accuracies.
64 Zhang teaches wherein the current PC sample and the one or multiple reference PC samples are coded in different orders and/or with different coding accuracies ([0086] reciting “An Intra Picture (I picture) may be one that may be coded and decoded without using any other picture in the sequence as a source of prediction. Some video codecs allow for different types of intra pictures, including, for example Independent Decoder Refresh (“IDR”) Pictures. A person skilled in the art is aware of those variants of I pictures and their respective applications and features.”; [0097] reciting “The attributes after the transfer operations are provided to the attribute prediction module (750). The LOD generation module (740) is configured to operate on the re-ordered points output from the octree encoding module (730), and re-organize the points into different LODs. LOD information is supplied to the attribute prediction module (750).”), or
wherein PC samples in the point cloud sequence have different coding priorities ([0063] reciting “The video decoder (510) may include a parser (520) to reconstruct symbols (521) from compressed images, such as the coded video sequence. Categories of those symbols include information used to manage operation of the video decoder (510). The parser (520) may parse/entropy-decode the coded video sequence that is received.”; [0065] reciting “Reconstruction of the symbols (521) can involve multiple different units depending on the type of the coded video picture or parts thereof (such as: inter and intra picture, inter and intra block), and other factors.”).
65 It would have been obvious to one with ordinary skill before the effective filing date of the claimed invention, to have modified the method (taught by Schwarz in view of Zakharchencko) to incorporate the teachings of Zhang to provide a method that can allow the example point cloud samples that are taught by Schwarz in view of Zakharchencko to be coded in a different order(s) as well as to have certain types of priorities. Doing so would allow the support for prediction as stated by Zhang ([0086] recitied).
66 Regarding claim 12, Schwarz in view of Zakharchencko and Zhang teaches the method of claim 11 (see claims 1 and 11 rejections above), further comprising: applying hierarchical coding accuracies to the PC samples based on the coding priorities of the PC samples (Schwarz; [Section V. D] reciting “The experimental evaluation of the proposed hierarchical prediction scheme shows that the optimal choice of the number of nearest neighbors k and the distances (dl)l=1…L is content dependent and may be computationally expensive.”).
67 Regarding claim 13, Schwarz in view of Zakharchencko and Zhang teaches the method of claim 12, wherein coding priorities of the one or multiple reference PC samples are higher than the current PC sample, or wherein coding accuracy of a first PC sample in the point cloud sequence with a higher coding priority is higher than a second PC sample in the point cloud sequence with a lower coding priority (Zhang; [0034] reciting “The point clouds (202), depicted as a bold line to emphasize a high data volume when compared to compressed point clouds (204) (a bitstream of compressed point clouds).”; [0108] reciting “The geometry information of the point cloud, which includes the 3D coordinates of the points in the point cloud, can be coded by an octree partition with occupancy information of the partitions. The attributes can be compressed based on a reconstructed geometry using, for example, prediction, lifting and region adaptive hierarchical transform techniques.”), or
wherein coding accuracies of PC samples in the point cloud sequence are controlled by a Quantization Parameter (QP) value or a quantization step in the point cloud sequence coding (Schwarz; ([Section V. A] reciting “Finally, an interpolation-based prediction module that is used to further improve the coding efficiency of the attribute values by exploiting spatial correlations as well as the quantization and dequantization steps that are applied”).
68 Regarding claim 14, Schwarz in view of Zakharchencko and Zhang teaches the method of claim 13, wherein the QP value or the quantization step for a reference PC sample in the one or more multiple reference PC samples is smaller than that for the current PC sample wherein a delta value of the QP value or the quantization step for a reference PC sample is fixed, or wherein a delta value of the QP value or the quantization step for the current PC sample is fixed, or wherein a delta value of the QP value or the quantization step for a reference PC sample is derived at a decoder of the bitstream (Zhang; [0101] reciting “The arithmetic coding module (770) is configured to receive the occupancy codes, the candidate indices (if used), the quantized residuals (if generated), and other information, and perform entropy encoding to further compress the received values or information. As a result, a compressed bitstream (702) carrying the compressed information can be generated. The bitstream (702) may be transmitted, or otherwise provided, to a decoder that decodes the compressed bitstream, or may be stored in a storage device.”), or wherein a delta value of the QP value or the quantization step for the current PC sample is derived at a decoder of the bitstream, or wherein a delta value of the QP value or the quantization step for a reference PC sample is indicated in the bitstream, or wherein a delta value of the QP value or the quantization step for the current PC sample is indicated in the bitstream (Zhang; [0103] reciting “As shown, a compressed bitstream (801) can be received at the arithmetic decoding module (810). The arithmetic decoding module (810) is configured to decode the compressed bitstream (801) to obtain quantized residuals (if generated) and occupancy codes of a point cloud.”), or wherein a delta value of the QP value or the quantization step for a reference PC sample is indicated in the bitstream, or wherein a delta value of the QP value or the quantization step for the current PC sample is indicated in the bitstream.
69 Regarding claim 15, Schwarz in view of Zakharchencko and Zhang teaches the method of claim 14 (see claims 1 and 11-14 rejections above), wherein the delta value is derived based on at least one of the following: a size of a GOF, an intra period or a random access period, indicators of lossless coding mode (Zhang; [0046] reciting “The occupancy map generated by the occupancy map module (314) can be compressed using lossless coding or lossy coding. When lossless coding is used, the entropy compression module (334) is used to compress the occupancy map.”; [0101] reciting “The arithmetic coding module (770) is configured to receive the occupancy codes, the candidate indices (if used), the quantized residuals (if generated), and other information, and perform entropy encoding to further compress the received values or information.”), or indicators of low delay coding mode.
70 Regarding claim 16, Schwarz in view of Zakharchencko and Zhang teaches the method of claim 11 (see claims 1 and 11 rejections above), wherein an indication indicating whether hierarchical QP values and/or QP values or quantization steps are to be used is indicated in the bitstream, or wherein a QP value for each PC sample in the point cloud sequence is derived at a decoder of the bitstream ([0101] reciting “The arithmetic coding module (770) is configured to receive the occupancy codes, the candidate indices (if used), the quantized residuals (if generated), and other information, and perform entropy encoding to further compress the received values or information. As a result, a compressed bitstream (702) carrying the compressed information can be generated. The bitstream (702) may be transmitted, or otherwise provided, to a decoder that decodes the compressed bitstream, or may be stored in a storage device.”).
Conclusion
71 Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to JOHNNY TRAN LE whose telephone number is (571)272-5680. The examiner can normally be reached Mon-Thu: 7:30am-5pm; First Fridays Off; Second Fridays: 7:30am-4pm.
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If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner’s supervisor, Kent Chang can be reached at (571) 272-7667. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300.
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/JOHNNY T LE/Examiner, Art Unit 2614
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