DETAILED ACTION
Introduction
Claims 1-29 are pending. This Office action is in response to Application 18/678,465 filed on 5/30/2024.
Claim Objections
Claims 14 and 29 recites the limitation “wherein the AS includes information indicating a role descriptor DASH element having a value indicating one of geometry, occupancy map, or attribute of a corresponding V-PCC component,” but it is not clear whether the phrase “the AS” refers to the main AS or a component AS of claims 1 and 16.
Claim 29 depends from claim 15, but Examiner assumes that claim 15 is intended to depend from claim 16 given that claim 29 is identical to claim 14.
Claim Rejections: 35 U.S.C. 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.
Claims 1-3, 5-9, 11, 12, 15-18, 20-24, 26, and 27 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 because they are unpatentable over Mekuria (US 2020/0202608) in view of the non-patent literature entitled “Digital Video Broadcasting (DVB); MPEG-DASH Profile for Transport of ISO BMFF Based DVB Services over IP Based Networks” (hereinafter, “MPEG-DASH”).
Regarding claims 1 and 16, Mekuria teaches a decoding node, comprising a processor configured to: receive information associated with streaming point cloud (PC) data (PCD) corresponding to a PC in a Dynamic Adaptive Streaming of Hyper-Text Transfer Protocol (HTTP)(DASH) Media Presentation Description (MPD) (A DASH client receives volumetric video (i.e., corresponding to a point cloud object. See par. 33; fig. 1, item 101) and a streaming manifest (i.e., MPD). See par. 30, 39, and 49; see also fig. 3, items 107, 110, and 307), wherein the DASH MPD indicates at least: an Adaptation Set (AS) for the PC, wherein the AS includes information indicating at least: a representation of the PC (The streaming manifest includes an AS associated with a representation of the volumetric video. See par. 39); and a plurality of Video-based Point Cloud Compression (V-PCC) components comprising the PC, wherein the type of a corresponding V-PCC component comprises geometry, occupancy, or attribute (The streaming manifest indicates information about component video tracks of the point cloud, such as whether the component video tracks are geometric, occupancy, or attribute video component tracks of the point cloud. See par. 50; fig. 3, items 107 and 307; see also par. 11, 12, and 27); and receive the DASH MPD over the network (As indicated above, the DASH client receives the streaming manifest. See par. 30, 39, and 49; see also fig. 3, items 107, 110, and 307).
However, Mekuria does not teach the adaptation set is a main adaptation set, wherein the DASH MPD indicates a plurality of component ASs, and wherein each of the plurality of component ASs corresponds to one of the plurality of V-PCC components. Nonetheless, MPEG-DASH teaches a main AS associated with mediate data and a plurality of additional ASs that each correspond to a video, audio, or text component of media data. See section 10.10, pg. 75.
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify the system of Mekuria so that the MPD includes a main AS and a plurality of additional ASs that each correspond to one of the geometry, occupancy, and attribute component video tracks, because doing so allows the system to transmit compressed point cloud data in accordance with the MPEG-DASH standard.
In addition, Mekuria does not teach that the main AS includes information indicating at least: (i) a value for a codec attribute signifying that the main AS corresponds to V-PCC data, and (ii) an initialization segment containing at least one V-PCC sequence parameter set for a representation of the PC. However, MPEG-DASH teaches an MPD comprising a main AS that includes an @codecs attribute that signals a type of media data to be decoded (See section B.3, pg. 105; see also section 5.1.3, pg. 23-24; section 6.1.2, pg. 30), and an initialization segment that includes a sequence parameter set (SPS) (See section B.3, pg. 105; see also section 5.1.2, pg. 22).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to further modify the system of Mekuria and MPEG-DASH so that the AS is a main AS that includes an @codecs attribute which signals that the main AS corresponds to compressed point cloud data, and an initialization segment containing a sequence parameter set for a representation of the point cloud, because doing so allows the system to transmit compressed point cloud data in accordance with the MPEG-DASH standard.
Lastly, Mekuria does not teach that each additional AS includes information indicating at least: (a) a V-PCC Component descriptor identifying the type of the corresponding V-PCC component, and (b) at least one property of the corresponding V-PCC component. However, MPEG-DASH teaches that each additional AS of the MPD includes a “contentType” descriptor that indicates the type of the corresponding additional component (i.e., video, audio, or text. See section 3.1, pg. 13; section 4.4, pg. 19), and a property of the corresponding component (i.e., a “bandwidth” property. See section B.3, pg. 105-106).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to further modify the system of Mekuria and MPEG-DASH so that each additional AS includes a contentType descriptor specifying that the corresponding video track is a geometry, occupancy, or attribute video track, and a property of the corresponding geometry, occupancy, or attribute video track, because doing so allows the system to transmit compressed point cloud data in accordance with the MPEG-DASH standard.1
Regarding claims 2 and 17, Mekuria and MPEG-DASH teach the decoding node of claim 1, wherein the processor is further configured to parse the DASH MPD to generate a representation of the DASH MPD (Mekuria teaches decoding of the volumetric video at step 302 of fig. 3 to extract the representation of the volumetric video disclosed at paragraph 39. See par. 52).
Regarding claims 3 and 18, Mekuria teaches the decoding node of claim 1, wherein the processor is further configured to identify available point cloud media content based on one or more of the value for the codec attribute or the initialization segment (MPEG DASH teaches that decoder uses the @codecs attribute in the MPD to identify which content is compatible with the DASH client, and therefore which content is available to the DASH client. See pg. 82, NOTE ln. 1-6. Thus, MPEG DASH suggests modifying the system of Mekuria so that the @codec attribute indicates that volumetric video data is available to the DASH client (assuming the DASH client has a compatible player), because doing so is beneficial for the reasons provided above with respect to claim 1).
Regarding claims 5 and 20, Mekuria and MPEG DASH teach the decoding node of claim 1, wherein the processor is further configured to stream the PC by downloading the initialization segment for the main AS (MPEG DASH teaches streaming content described in a main AS downloading an initialization segment for a main AS using a URL for the initialization segment. See pg. 69, ln. 16-18. Thus, MPEG DASH suggests further modifying the system of Mekuria and MPEG DASH so that the DASH client begins streaming the volumetric video by downloading the initialization segment of the main AS, because doing so is beneficial for the reasons provided above with respect to claim 1).
Regarding claims 6 and 21, Mekuria and MPEG DASH teach the decoding node of claim 5, wherein the processor is further configured to: receive time-aligned segments from the main AS and the plurality of component ASs over HTTP; and store the time-aligned segments in a memory buffer (MPEG DASH teaches that the main adaptation set and component adaptation sets have a variable “segmentAlignment” indicating that segments of the component adaptation sets are to be time-aligned with segments of the main adaptation set when the variable is set to “true.” See pg. 100, ln. 14-34. Thus, MPEG DASH suggests further modifying the system of Mekuria and MPEG DASH so that the DASH client receives time-aligned segments for the main AS and the component ASs, because doing so is beneficial for the reasons provided above with respect to claim 1).
Regarding claims 7 and 22, Mekuria and MPEG DASH teach the decoding node of claim 6, wherein the processor is further configured to concatenate the time-aligned segments with respective initialization segments (MPEG DASH teaches @mimetype that specifies the MME type of the initialization segment and all consecutive media segments for a representation. See table 4; pg. 28, ln. 12-20. Moreover, for period-continuous ASs, MPEG DASH requires concatenation of the initialization segment and all media segments in the first period and all subsequent periods. See pg. 62, ln. 13-19. Thus, MPEG DASH suggests further modifying the system of Mekuria and MPEG DASH so that the DASH client concatenates time-aligned segments with respective initialization segments, because doing so is beneficial for the reasons provided above with respect to claim 1).
Regarding claims 8, 9, 23, and 24, Mekuria and MPEG DASH teach the decoding node of claim 7, wherein the processor is further configured to generate a V-PCC bitstream using the time-aligned segments, and decode the V-PCC bitstream (Mekuria teaches that the volumetric video comprising the time-aligned geometry, occupancy, and attribute components may be ISO BMFF format (See Mekuria, par. 10), which may involve multiplexing multiple time-aligned tracks into a single decodable movie track (i.e., one BMFF bitstream) according to the ISO BMFF standard. See ISO BMFF, pg. 110, ln. 30-32.
Regarding claims 11 and 26, Mekuria and MPEG DASH teach the decoding node of claim 1, wherein the initialization segment of the main AS includes information indicating a single initialization segment at an adaptation level, and V-PCC sequence parameter sets for a plurality of representations of the main AS (MPEG-DASH teaches that a single initialization segment may be shared by all representations of the adaptation set, including the sequence parameter set of the initialization segment. See section 5.1.2, pg. 22. Thus, MPEG-DASH suggests modifying the system of Mekuria and MPEG-DASH to include the above feature because doing so is beneficial for the reasons provided above with respect to claim 1).
Regarding claims 12 and 27, Mekuria and MPEG DASH teach the decoding node of claim 1, wherein the main AS includes information indicating an initialization segment for each of multiple representations of the PC, and wherein each initialization segment that corresponds to a representation of the PC includes a V-PCC sequence parameter set for that representation (MPEG DASH teaches that an adaptation set may include an initialization segment for each of a plurality of representations. See pg. 95, ln. 38-41. Moreover, MPEG DASH teaches that each initialization segment includes a corresponding sequence parameter set. See pg. 22, ln. 12-15. Thus, MPEG DASH suggests further modifying the system of Mekuria and MPEG DASH so that the main AS includes an initialization segment for each of a plurality of representations of the volumetric video, with each initialization segment including a corresponding sequence parameter set, because doing so is beneficial for the reasons provided above with respect to claim 1).
Regarding claim 15, Mekuria and MPEG DASH teach the decoding node of claim 1, wherein the decoding node is a DASH streaming client (Mekuria teaches that the client is a DASH streaming client. See par. 39 and 50).
Claims 10 and 25 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 because they are unpatentable over Mekuria and MPEG DASH, as applied to claims 1 and 16 above, in further view of Applicant Admitted Prior Art (hereinafter, “AAPA”).
Regarding claims 10 and 25, Mekuria and MPEG DASH teach the decoding node of claim 1, wherein, an International Organization for Standardization (IS) Base Media File Format (ISBOMF) is used as a media container for the V-PCC content (Mekuria teaches that the video tracks are in ISOBMFF format. See par. 10), but Mekuria and MPEG-DASH do not teach wherein, the initialization segment of the main AS includes a MetaBox containing one or more V-PCC GroupBox instances providing metadata information associated with V-PCC tracks. Nonetheless, AAPA teaches an initialization segment that includes a MetaBox containing one or more GroupBox instances that provide metadata information describing tracks at the file format level and the relationship between them. See US 2022/0166814, par. 96.
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify the system of Mekuria and MPEG-DASH so that the initialization segment includes a MetaBox containing one or more V-PCC GroupBox instances providing metadata information associated with the V-PCC components, because doing so allows the system to provide metadata information describing the V-PCC components and the relationship between them.
Claims 4, 13, 14, 19, 28, and 29 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 because they are unpatentable over Mekuria and MPEG DASH, as applied to claims 1 and 16 above, in further view of the non-patent literature entitled “Adaptive Streaming of Interactive Free Viewpoint Videos to Heterogenous Clients” (hereinafter, “Hamza”).
Regarding claims 4 and 19, Mekuria and MPEG DASH do not teach the decoding node of claim 1, wherein the processor is further configured to determine a number of unique point clouds based on the V-PCC component descriptor. However, Hamza teaches a viewpoint point descriptor in each component adaptation set that uniquely identifies each view, thereby allowing the system to determine the number of unique views. See section 4.1; listing 3.
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify the system of Mekuria and MPEG DASH so that the V-PCC component describer includes a unique identifier for determining the number of unique point clouds, because doing so is beneficial for the reasons set forth in Hamza.
Regarding claims 13 and 28, Mekuria and MPEG DASH do not teach the decoding node of claim 1, wherein the V-PCC component descriptor includes information indicating a video codec attribute for a codec used for encoding a corresponding PC component. However, Hamza teaches a component adaptation set that includes a descriptor indicating a codec used to encode a texture component associated with the component adaptation set. For instance, the example in “Listing 3” in section 4 shows an adaptation set for a “texture component” that includes the line “codecs=avc1.640828.”
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify the system of Mekuria and MPEG DASH so that the V-PCC component descriptor includes information indicating a video codec attribute for a codec used for encoding a corresponding geometry, occupancy, or attribute component, because doing so is beneficial for the reasons set forth in Hamza.
Regarding claims 14 and 29, Mekuria and MPEG DASH do not teach the decoding node of claim 1, wherein the AS includes information indicating a role descriptor DASH element having a value indicating one of geometry, occupancy map, or attribute of a corresponding V-PCC component. However, Hamza teaches a role descriptor for each component of a volumetric video. For instance, listing 3 describes an adaptation set for a “texture component” that includes the line “<Role… value=’t’/>” to indicate that the corresponding component is a texture component.
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify the system of Mekuria and MPEG DASH so that the a component AS includes a role descriptor indicating that the corresponding component is a geometry, occupancy, or texture component, because doing so is beneficial for the reasons set forth in Hamza.
Conclusion
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to Andrew Georgandellis whose telephone number is 571-270-3991. The examiner can normally be reached on Monday through Friday, 7:30-5:00 PM EST. If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner’s supervisor, Tonia Dollinger, can be reached on 571-272-4170. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300.
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/ANDREW C GEORGANDELLIS/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2459
1 It is also worth noting that Hamza (cited below) discusses a DASH-based 3D video streaming system comprising an adaptation set that includes s “schemeIdURI” value (“urn:mpeg:dash:mvv:2014”) that indicates the adaptation set pertains to 3D video. The adaptation set also includes a descriptor indicating whether a component corresponding to the adaptation set is a “texture” or “depth” component, as well as a property of the component such as a “bandwidth” property of the component. See section 4.1; listing 3. Nonetheless, Examiner does not currently reject claims 1 and 16 on the basis of Hamza as such a rejection would be cumulative.
Prosecution Insights