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 .
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.
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.
This application currently names joint inventors. In considering patentability of the claims the examiner presumes that the subject matter of the various claims was commonly owned as of the effective filing date of the claimed invention(s) absent any evidence to the contrary. Applicant is advised of the obligation under 37 CFR 1.56 to point out the inventor and effective filing dates of each claim that was not commonly owned as of the effective filing date of the later invention in order for the examiner to consider the applicability of 35 U.S.C. 102(b)(2)(C) for any potential 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(2) prior art against the later invention.
Claims 1, 6-9 and 11, 16-19 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over KIM et al (Intra Prediction-Based Hologram Phase Component Coding Using Modified Phase Unwrapping).
As per claim 1, Kim teaches the claimed “apparatus for compressing a hologram,” the apparatus comprising: “a memory configured to store one or more instructions; and one or more processors configured to execute the one or more instructions stored in the memory, wherein the one or more processors, by executing the one or more instructions” (Kim, 1. Introduction - Recently, studies on digital hologram technology have been widely conducted to fully utilize the three-dimensional reconstruction of holograms while overcoming the disadvantages of the analog method. In order to use digital hologram as multimedia, digital hologram signal processing technology is required. The hologram signal processing is largely composed of hologram rendering and compression. Hologram rendering techniques can include hologram creation, editing, display, interpolation, and enhancement) (Noted: Kim’s digital hologram rendering and compression implies the uses of a computer including a memory and its stored instructions), perform steps comprising: “generating a plurality of phase wavefront blocks by using a certain frame of a phase-only hologram” (Kim, 3.1. Structure of Codec - Figure 6a is the structure of the encoder, and Figure 6b is the structure of the decoder. In each figure, the gray part corresponds to the part to compress the phase… In consideration of the Intra prediction of the HEVC, the segmentation process is performed to divide the hologram into sub-holograms… HEVC divides an image into coding units (CUs) for efficient coding, and performs Intra coding in units of prediction units (PUs) having various sizes and shapes from 4 x 4 to 32 x 32), “generating a first prediction wavefront block by using one of the plurality of phase wavefront blocks” (Kim, 3.1. Structure of Codec - In consideration of the Intra prediction of the HEVC, the segmentation process is performed to divide the hologram into sub-holograms. The separated sub-holograms are unwrapped by considering the direction of the Intra prediction… We use the HEVC as an anchor codec for compressing the phase information of the still hologram and the Intra prediction of HEVC. Therefore, the phase component of the hologram is transformed into a form suitable for the Intra prediction of the HEVC); “generating a differential wavefront block by using a phase wavefront block and the first prediction wavefront block” (Kim, 3.1. Structure of Codec - For residual components generated after Intra prediction, DCT is performed in units of transform units (TU); 1. Introduction - the difference between each hologram (Phase-shifted distances-based representation) is used for compression) (Noted: Kim’s residual component implies a differential (i.e., residual) wavefront block); “transforming and quantizing the differential wavefront block” (Kim, 3.1. Structure of Codec - The HEVC supports two special coding modes such as the I_PCM and the transform skipping mode… In the I_PCM mode, prediction, transform, quantization, and entropy coding are all bypassed, and predefined bits are allocated); “generating a restored differential wavefront block by inversely quantizing and inversely transforming the differential wavefront block which is transformed and quantized” (Kim, 3.1. Structure of Codec - Next, we observe the decoding process in Figure 6b. The decoding is the reverse of the encoding process... Finally, the decoding result can be obtained by combining the separated sub-holograms) (Noted: Kim’s reversing of the encoding process by firstly, performing the “inversely quantizing and inversely transforming” on the encoded hologram’s phase); “generating a restored phase wavefront block by using the restored differential wavefront block” (Kim, 3.1. Structure of Codec - Next, we observe the decoding process in Figure 6b. The decoding is the reverse of the encoding process...) (Noted: Kim’s reversing of the encoding process by secondly, performing the “inverse” differential wavefront block of the encoded phase to restore (or reconstructing) the phase waveform block); “generating a restored phase wavefront by using a plurality of restored phase wavefront blocks which are generated by using the restored differential wavefront blocks; and restoring the phase-only hologram by using the restored phase wavefront” (Kim, 3.1. Structure of Codec - Finally, the decoding result can be obtained by combining the separated sub-holograms) (Noted: Kim’s proposed compression codec shows both of phase and amplitude encoding/decoding stages, however, Kim’s top parts encoding/decoding for hologram’s phase shows the result of restoring the phase-only hologram). Thus, t would have been obvious to perform the decoding of encoded phase-only hologram by inversing the steps of the encoding process. The motivation is to reconstruct the original hologram through the encoding/decoding processes for efficient transmission and storage of the hologram.
Claim 6 adds into claim 1 “wherein the transforming and quantizing the differential wavefront block includes: transforming the differential wavefront block by using the discrete cosine transform (DCT)” (Kim, 3.1. Structure of Codec - In H.264/AVC, Intra coding is based on spatial extrapolation of samples from previously decoded image blocks, followed by discrete cosine transform (DCT)-based transform coding… For residual components generated after Intra prediction, DCT is performed in units of transform units (TU)).
Claim 7 adds into claim 1 “wherein the generating the plurality of phase wavefront blocks includes: generating the plurality of phase wavefront blocks from the phase-only hologram by using a phase unwrapping technique” (Kim, 3.2. Intra Prediction with Unwrapping - We propose a phase unwrapping technique that can show the highest correlation between the phase component of a hologram and Intra prediction through numerous trials and experiments… That is, it can be regarded as a method that considers the trade-off relationship between linearity and compression efficiency).
Claim 8 adds into claim 1 “wherein the generating the restored phase wavefront includes: generating the restored phase wavefront by combining the plurality of restored phase wavefront blocks and removing fringes therebetween” (Kim, 3.1. Structure of Codec - Next, we observe the decoding process in Figure 6b. The decoding is the reverse of the encoding process... Finally, the decoding result can be obtained by combining the separated sub-holograms… A boundary smoothing filter can be used to reduce the discontinuity between blocks occurring during Intra prediction) (Noted: Kim’s reducing of discontinuity between blocks implies removing the visual indications of “borders,” or fringes, between blocks).
Claim 9 adds into claim 1 “wherein the restoring the phase-only hologram includes: restoring the phase-only hologram by using a phase wrapping technique in which the phase period is 2π” (Kim, 2. Phase Information of Full-Complex Hologram – Figure 5, 1st column, the reconsruction results after coding phase for the wrapped phase 2 π).
Claims 11, 16-19 claim a method based on the apparatus of claims 1, 6-9; therefore, they are rejected under a similar rationale.
Claims 2 and 12 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over KIM et al (Intra Prediction-Based Hologram Phase Component Coding Using Modified Phase Unwrapping) in view of JANG et al (Holographic Near-eye Display with Expanded Eye-box).
Claim 2 adds into claim 1 “wherein the generating the first prediction wavefront block includes: generating the first prediction wavefront block by using the phase wavefront block and a Zernike coefficient block” which Kim does not teach, but Jang teaches the use of Zernite functions for calculating a corrected computer-generated hologram (Jang, page 8, column 1 - a corrected computer-generated hologram (CGH) calculation using Zernike coefficient mapping - Theoretically, it is possible to obtain a whole sub-hologram of every image point to be displayed in this manner, but performing such ray tracing and wavefront reconstruction for all points is computationally too expensive. Thus, for more efficient computation, the Zernike coefficients of the resultant wavefront can be mapped in the 3D space according to the position of the point source. Generally, distorted wavefronts can be decomposed into several Zernike functions and these coefficients gradually change in near-by image points. By calculating the coefficients at tens of sampling points in 3D space, the continuous mapping function can be obtained by the interpolation method. As a result, a Zernike coefficient map can be obtained as a function of position in the displayed image domain). The motivation is to increase the efficiency of hologram computation using the Zernite basic functions and their coefficients.
Claims 12 claims a method based on the apparatus of claim 2; therefore, it is rejected under a similar rationale.
Claims 3-5 and 13-15 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over KIM et al (Intra Prediction-Based Hologram Phase Component Coding Using Modified Phase Unwrapping) in view of SCHELKENS et al (Compression strategies for digital holograms in biomedical and multimedia applications).
Claim 3 adds into claim 1 “wherein the one or more processors further perform a step of: generating a motion vector and a second prediction wavefront block by predicting a motion of a phase wavefront block from a plurality of restored phase wavefronts which are generated by using the restored differential wavefront block” which Kim does not teach, but Schelkens teaches the use of motion of the phase of the hologram (Schelkens, Compression solutions targeted to holography, Figure 2 - As shown in this figure, it mainly comprises of four stages: the transform unit, which aims at concentrating the signal energy in a few number of coefficients, a motion compensation unit to reuse object information from nearby frames, a rate-distortion optimized quantization step to reduce the coefficients' bit depth, and a lossless entropy coding unit to reduce the overall bitstream size. … Developing efficient motion compensation for removing temporal redundancies is crucial to significantly reduce the memory and bandwidth consumption of holographic videos containing billions of pixels per frame). The motivation is to increase the efficiency of coding the hologram video by using the motion of the phase between the frames of the hologram.
Claim 4 adds into claim 3 “wherein the generating the differential wavefront block includes: generating the differential wavefront block by using the difference between the phase wavefront block and one selected from between the first prediction wavefront block and the second prediction wavefront block” (Kim, 3.1. Structure of Codec - For residual components generated after Intra prediction, DCT is performed in units of transform units (TU); 1. Introduction - the difference between each hologram (Phase-shifted distances-based representation) is used for compression) (Noted: Kim’s residual component implies a differential (i.e., residual) wavefront block in which the differential coding adaptively performs on the difference between the phase wavefront block and the predicted wavefront blocks).
Claim 5 adds into claim 3 “wherein the generating a restored phase wavefront block includes: generating the restored phase wavefront block by combining the restored differential wavefront block with one selected from between the first prediction wavefront block and the second prediction wavefront block” (Kim, 3.1. Structure of Codec - For residual components generated after Intra prediction, DCT is performed in units of transform units (TU); 1. Introduction - the difference between each hologram (Phase-shifted distances-based representation) is used for compression; 3.1. Structure of Codec - Next, we observe the decoding process in Figure 6b. The decoding is the reverse of the encoding process... Finally, the decoding result can be obtained by combining the separated sub-holograms) (Noted: Kim’s residual component implies a differential (i.e., residual) wavefront block in which the differential decoding adaptively performs on the difference between the restored phase wavefront block and the predicted wavefront blocks).
Claims 13-15 claim a method based on the apparatus of claims 3-5; therefore, they are rejected under a similar rationale.
Claims 10 and 20 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over KIM et al (Intra Prediction-Based Hologram Phase Component Coding Using Modified Phase Unwrapping) in view of SCHELKENS et al (Compression strategies for digital holograms in biomedical and multimedia applications), and further in view of JANG et al (Holographic Near-eye Display with Expanded Eye-box).
Claim 10 adds into claim 3 “wherein the one or more processors further perform a step of: losslessly compressing the differential wavefront block which is transformed and quantized, a Zernike coefficient block, and the motion vector” (Schelkens, Compression solutions targeted to holography, Figure 2 - As shown in this figure, it mainly comprises of four stages: the transform unit, which aims at concentrating the signal energy in a few number of coefficients, a motion compensation unit to reuse object information from nearby frames, a rate-distortion optimized quantization step to reduce the coefficients' bit depth, and a lossless entropy coding unit to reduce the overall bitstream size. When the hologram is segmented into rectangular blocks, the spatial prediction unit can further removes redundancies from one block to another… Developing efficient motion compensation for removing temporal redundancies is crucial to significantly reduce the memory and bandwidth consumption of holographic videos containing billions of pixels per frame; Jang, page 8, column 1 - a corrected computer-generated hologram (CGH) calculation using Zernike coefficient mapping - Theoretically, it is possible to obtain a whole sub-hologram of every image point to be displayed in this manner, but performing such ray tracing and wavefront reconstruction for all points is computationally too expensive. Thus, for more efficient computation, the Zernike coefficients of the resultant wavefront can be mapped in the 3D space according to the position of the point source. Generally, distorted wavefronts can be decomposed into several Zernike functions and these coefficients gradually change in near-by image points. By calculating the coefficients at tens of sampling points in 3D space, the continuous mapping function can be obtained by the interpolation method. As a result, a Zernike coefficient map can be obtained as a function of position in the displayed image domain). The motivation is to increase the efficiency of hologram computation using the Zernite basic functions and their coefficients.
Claim 20 claims a method based on the apparatus of claim 10; therefore, it is rejected under a similar rationale.
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/PHU K NGUYEN/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2616