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 .
Response to Arguments
Applicant’s arguments with respect to claim(s) 1-6, 8-20 have been considered but are moot because the new ground of rejection does not rely on any reference applied in the prior rejection of record for any teaching or matter specifically challenged in the argument.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 103
The following is a quotation of 35 U.S.C. 103 which forms the basis for all obviousness rejections set forth in this Office action:
A patent for a claimed invention may not be obtained, notwithstanding that the claimed invention is not identically disclosed as set forth in section 102, if the differences between the claimed invention and the prior art are such that the claimed invention as a whole would have been obvious before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to a person having ordinary skill in the art to which the claimed invention pertains. Patentability shall not be negated by the manner in which the invention was made.
Claim(s) 1-6, 8-20 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Hur et al. (US2021/0209813) in view of Yea et al. (US2020/0304823).
To claim 1, Hur teach a method for point cloud coding, comprising:
determining, for a current point in a current point cloud (PC) sample of a point cloud sequence during a conversion between the current PC sample and a bitstream of the point cloud sequence, at least one search center from a set of points in a first PC sample of the point cloud sequence based on metrics related to geometric locations of the current point and the set of points (paragraph 0307);
determining at least one neighboring point of the current point based on the at least one search center (paragraph 0308); and
performing the conversion based on the at least one neighboring point (Fig. 4, paragraph 0153).
But, Hur do not expressly disclose wherein the at least one neighboring point is determined based on a result of performing nearest neighbor search on the first PC sample, points in the first PC sample are reordered before the nearest neighbor search is performed.
Yea teach a method of point cloud attribute coding (abstract), wherein the at least one neighboring point is determined based on a result of performing nearest neighbor search on the first PC sample, points in the first PC sample are reordered before the nearest neighbor search is performed (paragraphs 0010-0011, the neighboring points together with their reconstructed attribute values are available both at an encoder and a decoder as a k-dimensional tree structure that is used to facilitate a nearest neighbor search for each point in an identical manner; paragraph 0015, repeatedly facilitating prediction and update in G-PCC; paragraphs 0038-0045, reordering in G-PCC).
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to incorporate teaching of Yea into the method of Hur, in order to further detail in point cloud coding.
To claim 18, Hur and Yea 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 (as explained in response to claim 1 above).
To claim 19, Hur and Yea teach a non-transitory computer-readable storage medium storing instructions that cause a processor to perform acts (as explained in response to claim 1 above).
To claim 20, Hur and Yea 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 (as explained in response to claim 1 above).
To claim 2, Hur and Yea teach claim 1.
Hur teach wherein the set of points comprise part of points in the first PC sample (paragraph 0256).
To claim 3, Hur and Yea teach claim 2.
Hur teach wherein the at least one search center comprises a target point, a metric between geometric locations of the target point and the current point being the smallest among the metrics related to geometric locations of the current point and the set of points (paragraphs 0305-0306, 0375-0377).
To claim 4, Hur and Yea teach claim 3.
Hur teach wherein the metric between geometric locations of the target point and the current point is a difference between Morton codes of the target point and the current point (paragraphs 0337, 0365, 0451-0452).
To claim 5, Hur and Yea teach claim 3.
Hur teach wherein the part of points are points with Morton codes greater than or equal to a Morton code of the current point (paragraphs 0404-0407).
To claim 6, Hur and Yea teach claim 1.
Hur teach wherein the first PC sample is a reference PC sample of the current PC sample (paragraph 0153).
To claim 8, Hur and Yea teach claim 1.
Hur teach wherein the points in the first PC sample are reordered based on Morton codes of the points (paragraphs 0294-0295).
To claim 9, Hur and Yea teach claim 1.
Hur teach wherein the at least one search center comprises one search center, and the nearest neighbor search is performed on the search center, points preceding the searching center in the reordered points and points following the searching center in the reordered points (paragraphs 0306-0310).
To claim 10, Hur and Yea teach claim 1.
Hur teach wherein the at least one neighboring point is determined from a set of PC samples of the point cloud sequence based on a plurality of search ranges, and the set of PC samples comprises the first PC sample and the current PC sample (paragraphs 0499, 0572-0572, despite lack of disclosure, having different search ranges is well-known in the art, which would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to incorporate for implementation by design preference, hence Official Notice is taken).
To claim 11, Hur and Yea teach claim 10.
Hur teach wherein determining the at least one neighboring point comprises: determining the at least one neighboring point by performing nearest neighbor search on the set of PC samples based on the plurality of search ranges (paragraphs 0127, 0301, 0572, despite lack of disclosure, having different search ranges is well-known in the art, which would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to incorporate for implementation by design preference, hence Official Notice is taken).
To claim 12, Hur and Yea teach claim 11.
Hur teach wherein the nearest neighbor search is performed on the first PC sample based on a first search range of the plurality of search ranges, the nearest neighbor search is performed on the current PC sample based on a second search range of the plurality of search ranges, and the second search range is different from the first search range (obvious in paragraphs 0127, 0283-0288, 0301, 0426, 0570-0572, 0713-0714; despite lack of disclosure, having different search ranges is well-known in the art, which would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to incorporate for implementation by design preference, hence Official Notice is taken).
To claim 13, Hur and Yea teach claim 12.
Hur teach wherein the first search range indicates both a number of points to be searched before a search center of the first PC sample and a number of points to be searched after the search center (paragraphs 0377-0378).
To claim 14, Hur and Yea teach claim 12.
Hur teach wherein an indication indicating the first search range of the plurality of search ranges is comprised in the bitstream (paragraphs 0600).
To claim 15, Hur and Yea teach claim 14.
Hur teach wherein the indication is a value of the first search range, or wherein the indication is determined based on a pre-defined mathematical conversion of the first search range (paragraph 0302).
To claim 16, Hur and Yea teach claim 1.
Hur teach wherein the current PC sample is a slice within a point cloud frame in the point cloud sequence (paragraph 0211).
To claim 17, Hur and Yea teach claim 1.
Hur teach 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 (paragraph 0102).
Conclusion
Applicant's amendment necessitated the new ground(s) of rejection presented in this Office action. Accordingly, THIS ACTION IS MADE FINAL. See MPEP § 706.07(a). Applicant is reminded of the extension of time policy as set forth in 37 CFR 1.136(a).
A shortened statutory period for reply to this final action is set to expire THREE MONTHS from the mailing date of this action. In the event a first reply is filed within TWO MONTHS of the mailing date of this final action and the advisory action is not mailed until after the end of the THREE-MONTH shortened statutory period, then the shortened statutory period will expire on the date the advisory action is mailed, and any nonprovisional extension fee (37 CFR 1.17(a)) pursuant to 37 CFR 1.136(a) will be calculated from the mailing date of the advisory action. In no event, however, will the statutory period for reply expire later than SIX MONTHS from the mailing date of this final action.
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to ZHIYU LU whose telephone number is (571)272-2837. The examiner can normally be reached Weekdays: 8:30AM - 5:00PM.
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If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner’s supervisor, Stephen R Koziol can be reached at (408) 918-7630. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300.
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ZHIYU . LU
Primary Examiner
Art Unit 2669
/ZHIYU LU/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2665 August 24, 2026
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