DETAILED ACTION
This action is in response to the application filed on 4/19/2024.
Claims 1-14 are pending.
Acknowledgment is made of a claim for foreign priority. of the certified copies of the priority documents have been received.
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 references listed on the Information Disclosure Statement submitted on 4/19/2024 and 12/26/2025 has/have been considered by the examiner (see attached PTO-1449).
Allowable Subject Matter
Claims 1-12 are allowed.
Reasons for Allowance
The following is an examiner’s statement of reasons for allowance: The instant invention is related to signalling structure for coded feature sequence of video for machine learning containing maximum number of internal layers allowed, id for each the internal layers, number of channels layers of the internal layers and the id for each of the channel layer.
Prior art was found for the claims as follows:
- Kim et al. (WO 2021172956 A1)
Kim discloses acquiring encoded data of feature information generated by applying an artificial neural network-based feature extraction method to an image from a bitstream.
- Hassan et al. (US 20210375008 A1)
Hassan discloses that a feature detection may be performed by a separate machine learned model (the output of which may be used in the machine learned model that does the encoding) or may be incorporated within the machine learned model that performs the encoding (e.g., as one or more layers in the model). The geometric encoding may encode all detected features within the input image, or only some detected features within the image.
The references are not anticipating or an obvious combination of the claimed invention including, with all of the other elements in each of the independent claims
The dependent claims further limit the independent claims and are considered allowable on the same basis as the independent claims as well as for the further limitations set forth.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 101
35 U.S.C. 101 reads as follows:
Whoever invents or discovers any new and useful process, machine, manufacture, or composition of matter, or any new and useful improvement thereof, may obtain a patent therefor, subject to the conditions and requirements of this title.
Claim 13 is rejected under 35 U.S.C. 101 because the claimed invention is directed to non-statutory subject matter. The claim(s) does/do not fall within at least one of the four categories of patent eligible subject matter because the claim 13 is not clearly limited to the non-transitory medium. The specification also does not clearly define the claimed "computer readable recording medium" as being limited to a non-transitory medium.
Note the following description in the specification of the present invention.
Claims 13 and 14 are directed to a judicial exception (i.e., a law of nature, a natural phenomenon, or an abstract idea) since the steps in the claim 21 for “generating a syntax element…encoding…N leading bins…bypass encoding any remaining bins…and signaling bits…” and the similar steps, functions and/or details claimed in the other independent claims and dependent claims are considered to be an abstract idea (as in the 101 related court cases of Digitech - “Organizing and manipulating information through mathematical correlations” and Electric Power Group - “Collecting information, analyzing it, and displaying certain results of the collection and analysis” and RcogniCorp – “Encoding and decoding image data” in the January 2018: Eligibility Quick Reference Sheet) that is considered to be concept relating to organizing or analyzing information in a way that can be performed mentally or is analogous to human mental work and the claim does not include any additional elements that can be considered to be sufficient to amount to significantly more than the judicial exception because the above stated functions of the claimed “processor” and the “memory” are related to conventional functions normally performed by the these elements.
It is suggested that the claims be amended to incorporate additional elements related to the encoding/decoding process that bring forth tangible and practical aspect of the invention thus giving meaning to the claimed invention.
Bitstream Claim interpretation
Claims 13 and 14 are directed to a “computer-readable medium” that stores generated bitstream or a method of transmitting bitstream.
The bitstream is being treated as a product that is the result of the process (method). The steps are not required elements of claims 13 and 14, so they only limit the invention in terms of how they define the contents of the information in the bitstream. MPEP §2113
The contents of the bitstream, defined by how the bitstream was generated, only describes the content of the information in the bitstream and as result are descriptive language. See MPEP §2111.05. The bitstream has no functional relationship with the claimed non-transitory computer-readable recording medium.
Claim Mapping Notation
In this office action, following notations are being used to refer to the paragraph numbers or column number and lines of portions of the cited reference.
In this office action, following notations are being used to refer to the paragraph numbers or column number and lines of portions of the cited reference.
[0005] (Paragraph number [0005])
C5 (Column 5)
Pa5 (Page 5)
S5 (Section 5)
Furthermore, unless necessary to distinguish from other references in this action, “et al.” will be omitted when referring to the reference.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 102
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 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 the appropriate paragraphs of 35 U.S.C. 102 that form the basis for the rejections under this section made in this Office action:
A person shall be entitled to a patent unless –
(a)(1) the claimed invention was patented, described in a printed publication, or in public use, on sale or otherwise available to the public before the effective filing date of the claimed invention.
(a)(2) the claimed invention was described in a patent issued under section 151, or in an application for patent published or deemed published under section 122(b), in which the patent or application, as the case may be, names another inventor and was effectively filed before the effective filing date of the claimed invention.
Claims 13 and 14 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a1) and (a2) as being anticipated by Hassan et al. (US 20210375008 A1).
[Claim 13] A computer-readable recording medium storing a bitstream generated by a feature encoding method, the feature encoding method comprising:
determining first information on a maximum number of internal layers allowed in a coded feature sequence (CFS);determining second information on an identifier for each internal layer and third information on the number of channel layers of the internal layer; anddetermining fourth information on an identifier for each channel layer,wherein the first information, the second information, the third information and the fourth information are encoded into a bitstream.
“[0016] Disclosed in some examples are methods, systems, devices, and machine-readable mediums which encode data into a geometric representation for more efficient and secure processing. For example, data may be converted from a binary representation to a geometric representation using an encoding dictionary. The encoding dictionary specifies one or more geometric shapes used in the encoding. The geometrically encoded data may comprise one or more identifiers that specify one or more of the shapes of the encoding dictionary that best match one or more detected features in an image corresponding to the data. In some examples, the geometrically encoded data may also comprise one or more transformations of the one or more shapes to reduce error in the geometric encoding.”
[Claim 14] A method of transmitting a bitstream generated by a feature encoding method, the feature encoding method comprising:
determining first information on a maximum number of internal layers allowed in a coded feature sequence (CFS);determining second information on an identifier for each internal layer and third information on the number of channel layers of the internal layer; anddetermining fourth information on an identifier for each channel layer,wherein the first information, the second information, the third information and the fourth information are encoded into a bitstream.
“[0016] Disclosed in some examples are methods, systems, devices, and machine-readable mediums which encode data into a geometric representation for more efficient and secure processing. For example, data may be converted from a binary representation to a geometric representation using an encoding dictionary. The encoding dictionary specifies one or more geometric shapes used in the encoding. The geometrically encoded data may comprise one or more identifiers that specify one or more of the shapes of the encoding dictionary that best match one or more detected features in an image corresponding to the data. In some examples, the geometrically encoded data may also comprise one or more transformations of the one or more shapes to reduce error in the geometric encoding.”
Conclusion
The prior art made of record and not relied upon is considered pertinent to applicant's disclosure. Hassan et al. (US 20210375008 A1) and JAGANATHAN et al. (US 20200302224 A1) disclose relevant art related to the subject matter of the present invention.
A shortened statutory period for reply to this action is set to expire THREE MONTHS from the mailing date of this action. An extension of time may be obtained under 37 CFR 1.136(a). However, in no event, will the statutory period for reply expire later than SIX MONTHS from the mailing date of this action.
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to JAE N NOH whose telephone number is (571)270-0686. The examiner can normally be reached on Mon-Fri 8:30AM-5PM.
If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner’s supervisor, William Vaughn can be reached on (571) 272-3922. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300.
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/JAE N NOH/
Primary Examiner
Art Unit 2481
Prosecution Insights