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 .
Claim Objections
Claims 13-19 objected to because of the following informalities: Claims 13,14,16-18 make the typo “The system of claim 10” when intending to state “The system of claim 11”. While the claims are addressed using their original language it is understood they intend to depend on claim 11, and would be rejected in the same manner regardless of the typo. Claims 15, 19, are objected to as well as they depend on claims which make this mistake. Appropriate correction is required.
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 (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 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)(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.
Claim(s) 1-6, 8, 11-16, 18, 20 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(2) as being anticipated by Kim (US 20230290011 A1).
Regarding independent claims 11, 1, 20,
Kim teaches:
A system, comprising: a memory storing a compressed data structure; and a processor configured to: (Kim ¶645: “The electronic device 4300 includes the electronic display 4302, one or more input devices 4304, one or more input/output (I/O) ports4306, a processor core complex 4308 having one or more processing circuitry(s) or processing circuitry cores, local memory4310, a main memory storage device4312”) obtain a first primitive from the compressed data structure based on topology information (Kim ¶53 “The pre-processor produces a base mesh m(i) and displacements d(i) that can be provided to encoder 402, which produces a compressed bitstream b(i) therefrom.” ¶61“On the decoder side (Fig. 5), the compressed bitstream b(i) is received by a decoder” ¶571 “Decoding The positions of the mesh is reconstructed by adding the i-th displacement in the area corresponding to the current patch data unit in the displacement video to the i-th vertex in the subpart associated with the current patch data unit in the … base mesh. [0572] The location of the displacement( i ) is counted from … (left top corner of the corresponding area) of the current patch. [573] The list of vertices is created from the triangle faces (with the same facegroup id) associated with the current patch. The non-overlapping vertex indices are saved into the list based on the order of their appearance” ¶574 “… if a patch (mesh_intra_patch_data_unit[0]) has subpart_id 0, then triangle faces with fi(facegroupId) 0 are associated with this patch, which are f 1/2/4, f 2/4/5 and f 0/1/2 … this correlation between triangle faces and facegroupId’s may be indicated via a correlated ordering between a listing of the triangle faces and a list of associated facegroupId’s. For example, in Figure 40, the ordered list of triangle faces (e.g., f 1/2/4, f 2/4/5, f 2/5/3, and f 0/1/2) and corresponding ordered list of facegroupId’s (e.g., f1 0, fi 0, fi 1, and fi0) indicate that each of f 1/2/4, f 2,/4/5, and f 0/1/2) are associated with facegroupId 0 and that triangle face f 2/5/3 is associated with facegroupId 1. [0575] Then, the associated vertices are ordered as 1,2,4,5,0. Therefore, the first displacement is added to vertex1(x1,y1,z1) and the last displacement is added to vertex0(x0,y0,z0). For patch[1], the associated vertices are ordered as 2,5,3.” Note: Kim teaches that we obtain primitives, in this case triangles, when we decompress a compressed data structure. The compressed data structure contains displacement data, which is an example of topology information. The triangles/primitives that we decompress exist in the context of numbered patches, within those patches they are grouped and ordered by a facegroupId and are then used for reconstruction in order. This teaches that we not only obtain primitives but obtain ordered primitives to handle based on their order which implicitly teaches the obtaining of a “first” primitive.) that indicates a subdivision type stored in the compressed data structure (Kim ¶277 “More specifically, after decoding the base mesh data, the resulting meshes may be subdivided through a mesh subdivision process. This process requires information, e.g. the subdivision method to be used among others, which may be indicated/included in the atlas data substream.” ¶285 “Atlas data subbitstreams 3206, which may be incorporated into the V-mesh bitstream via the encoding process described above in Section 1. … the atlas data subbitstreams 3206 may be decoded via an atlas data subbitstream decoder” Note: Here we see that Kim teaches that subdivision types can be specified and included in the Atlas data sub stream which will then be encoded and eventually decoded. As stated in ¶53 encoding is compression making decoding decompression, teaching that subdivision types to use are stored in the compressed data structure.) and perform rendering operations utilizing the first primitive (Kim ¶600 “The adaptive tessellation module 503 can take as inputs: … A decoded base mesh m’(i) which may (but need not) have per vertex/face/edge attributes describing saliency and importance/priority information” ¶610 “The tessellation module 503 can … be used for rendering or for processing by the application” Note: Kim teaches the ability to render a decompressed mesh, as our mesh as mentioned previously is composed of patches viewed in terms of their primitives, in this case triangles, this implicitly teaches the rendering using the first primitive and all other primitives.)
Regarding claims 12, 2, dependent on 11, 1,
Kim teaches:
The system of claim 11, wherein the topology information also indicates a number of subdivisions. (Kim ¶165 “The subdivided curve can be automatically generated by the decoder once the base/decimated curve is decoded (i.e., there may be no need for any information other than the subdivision scheme type and subdivision iteration count to be encoded/transmitted” Note: Here Kim teaches that subdivision iteration count is encoded meaning it is part of the compressed topology information in our data structure.)
Regarding claim 13, 3, dependent on 10, 1,
Kim teaches:
The system of claim 10, wherein the subdivision type comprises one of a triangle grid, a quad grid, a loop subdivided triangle, a Catmull-Clark subdivided triangle, or a Catmull-Clark subdivided quad. (Kim ¶178 “The remeshing techniques described herein can be used with these or any other subdivision technique. For triangular meshes, the mid-edge interpolation, loop, butterfly, and Catmull-Clark subdivision techniques are among the most popular.” Note: Here we see Kim teaches the options to use loop and Catmull-clark subdivision types.)
Regarding claims 14, 4, dependent on 10, 1,
Kim teaches:
The system of claim 10, wherein the compressed data structure stores vertex data for unique vertices. (Kim ¶53 “The pre-processor produces a base mesh m(i) and displacements d(i) that can be provided to encoder 402, which produces a compressed bitstream b(i) therefrom.” ¶61“On the decoder side (Fig. 5), the compressed bitstream b(i) is received by a decoder” ¶571 “Decoding The positions of the mesh is reconstructed by adding the i-th displacement in the area corresponding to the current patch data unit in the displacement video to the i-th vertex in the subpart associated with the current patch data unit in the … base mesh. [573] The list of vertices is created from the triangle faces (with the same facegroup id) associated with the current patch. The non-overlapping vertex indices are saved into the list based on the order of their appearance” Note: Kim teaches that its compressed data structure stores vertex data for unique vertices, among other vertices. After removing overlapping vertices from isolated areas individually Kim is able to create a list of unique vertices from the vertices in the compressed data structure.)
Regarding claims 15, 5, dependent on 14, 4,
The system of claim 14, wherein the subdivision type implicitly indicates a correspondence between triangles and the unique vertices. (Kim ¶573 “The list of vertices is created from the triangle faces (with the same facegroup id) associated with the current patch. The non-overlapping vertex indices are saved into the list based on the order of their appearance” ¶574 “… if a patch (mesh_intra_patch_data_unit[0]) has subpart_id 0, then triangle faces with fi(facegroupId) 0 are
associated with this patch, which are f 1/2/4, f 2/4/5 and f 0/1/2 … this correlation between triangle
faces and facegroupId’s may be indicated via a correlated ordering between a listing of the triangle faces
and a list of associated facegroupId’s. For example, in Figure 40, the ordered list of triangle faces (e.g., f
1/2/4, f 2/4/5, f 2/5/3, and f 0/1/2) and corresponding ordered list of facegroupId’s (e.g., f1 0, fi 0, fi 1,
and fi0) indicate that each of f 1/2/4, f 2,/4/5, and f 0/1/2 are associated with facegroupId 0 and that
triangle face f 2/5/3 is associated with facegroupId 1. [0575] Then, the associated vertices are ordered
as 1,2,4,5,0. Therefore, the first displacement is added to vertex1(x1,y1,z1) and the last displacement is
added to vertex0(x0,y0,z0)” Note: Here we see Kim teach that the triangle faces are ordered and
tracked by ids, and that the triangle faces are referred to by the vertices that compose them. This teaches that the topology information present identifies which unique vertices comprise which
triangles.)
Regarding claims 16, 6, dependent on 10, 1,
Kim teaches:
The system of claim 10, further comprising a second primitive having vertices stored in both the compressed data structure and a second compressed data structure. (Kim ¶62 “to produce a base mesh m(i) and a displacement field d(i) … the “original” curve, is first down-sampled to generate a base curve/polyline 602, referred to as the “decimated” curve.” ¶53 “The pre-processor produces a base mesh m(i) and displacements d(i) that can be provided to encoder 402, which produces a compressed bitstream b(i) therefrom.” Note: Kim teaches that a mesh can be decimated, a method of compression which reduces space by reducing the complexity of the mesh. It also teaches that a mesh can be compressed by means of encoding to later be decoded. As a mesh is composed from primitives Kim teaches a mesh, also meaning its primitives and the vertices that compose the primitives, can be compressed into two compressed data structures, once into a decimated mesh and then into a “second compressed data structure” when the geometry is encoded.)
Regarding claims 18, 8, dependent on 10, 1,
The system of claim 10, further comprising compressing a plurality of primitives including the first primitive to generate the compressed data structure. (Kim ¶67 “One example is described below in Section 2. FIG. 8 shows an example of re-sampling applied to an original mesh 801 with 40K triangles, which produces a 1K triangle decimated/base mesh” ¶53 “The pre-processor produces a base mesh m(i) and displacements d(i) that can be provided to encoder 402, which produces a compressed bitstream b(i) therefrom.” Note: Here we see Kim teach that a mesh can be encoded/compressed into a compressed data structure. We see in an example provided by Kim that a base mesh to later be encoded/compressed has 1K triangles clearly teaching that a plurality of primitives can be compressed to generate a compressed data structure.)
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 103
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.
Claims 17, 7 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over by Kim (US 20230290011 A1) in view of Howson (US 10339696 B2).
Regarding claims 17, 7, dependent on claims 10, 1,
Kim teaches:
The system of claim 10,
However, Kim fails to teach that rendering operations specifically comprise of rasterization or ray tracing based rendering.
Utilizing these rendering operations is taught in Howson:
wherein the rendering operations comprise one of performing rasterization based rendering or performing ray tracing based rendering. (Howson ¶4 “One aspect relates to a machine-implemented method for use in 3-D rendering. The method comprises accessing geometry data … (7)The method also may further comprise making a rendering using both a rasterization subsystem and a ray tracing subsystem” Note: Here we see that rendering geometry with rasterization and ray tracing is explicitly taught in Howson.)
It would have been obvious to a person having ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to combine Kim and Howson’s teachings wherein primitives from a compressed data structure are rendered using ray tracing or rasterization based rendering.
There are many reasons that would motivate one to use rasterization or ray tracing rendering in
this context, one of which is rendering higher quality light, shadows, reflections, and similar visual
qualities which ray tracing excels at. Another might be speed and efficiency in rendering which are known benefits of rasterization rendering.
Claims 19, 9, are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over by Kim (US 20230290011 A1) in view of Southwell (US 7170512 B02).
Regarding claims 19, 9, dependent on claims 18, 8,
Kim teaches:
The system of claim 18, wherein the compressing comprises storing … topology information into the compressed data structure. (Kim ¶53 “The pre-processor produces a base mesh m(i) and displacements d(i) that can be provided to encoder 402, which produces a compressed bitstream b(i) therefrom.” ¶61“On the decoder side (Fig. 5), the compressed bitstream b(i) is received by a decoder” ¶571 “Decoding The positions of the mesh is reconstructed by adding the i-th displacement in the area corresponding to the current patch data unit in the displacement video to the i-th vertex in the subpart associated with the current patch data unit in the … base mesh. [0572] The location of the displacement( i ) is counted from … (left top corner of the corresponding area) of the current patch.) “ Note: Kim teaches that topology information, in this case displacements, are encoded/compressed into the compressed data structure.)
While Kim derives unique vertices from its compressed data structure it does not explicitly place them into their own list or data structure prior to compression, instead obtaining them after decompression.
The explicit storing and identifying of the unique vertices is taught by Southwell which teaches:
…storing unique vertices…
(Southwell Abstract “First, decomposing the three-dimensional image into a plurality of primitive elements each defined by a set of vertices, each vertex comprising vertex information stored in a vertex storage area and addressable by a vertex index. Then receiving said vertex indices and creating a set of unique indices identifying a batch of vertices and loading only the vertices corresponding to said unique indices” Note: Here Southwell teaches the storing of unique vertices by storing them in a set.) It would have been obvious to a person having ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to combine Kim and Southwell’s teachings wherein unique vertices are stored and then compressed into the compressed data struct with the topology information.
There are several reasons that would motivate one to store unique vertices before compression so that they can then be included in the compressed data structure. One may be further reducing the space of the compressed data structure, rather than ascertaining the unique vertices after from removing overlapping vertices in triangles fewer vertices themselves could be stored if the unique vertices are identified prior to compression.
Claim 10 is rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over by Kim (US 20230290011 A1) in view of Deering (US 5793371 A)
Regarding claim 10, dependent on claim 1,
Kim teaches:
The method of claim 1,
Kim does not teach explicitly mention the storing of its primitives in a specific data type, in this case fixed point.
Doing so is taught in Deering which teaches:
wherein the first primitive is stored in a fixed-point format (Deering ¶25 “the object geometry is effectively described within a given modeling space using only a 24-bit fixed-point mantissa.” Note: Here we see that the geometry which composes an object can be described as a fixed-point number, as geometry is composed fundamentally of primitives Deering teaches the storing of primitives in fixed-point format.)
It would have been obvious to a person having ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to combine Kim and Deering’s teachings wherein primitives which are to be compressed into a compressed data structure are stored in fixed-point format.
There are several reasons that would motivate one to store primitives specifically in a fixed-point format, one reason may be further reducing the data size in compression. Storing decimal values as fixed-point, as opposed to another format like floating point, takes up less space as fewer decimal points are recorded for each piece of data.
Conclusion
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to ALAN GREGORY HAKALA whose telephone number is (571)272-7863. The examiner can normally be reached 8:00am-5:00pm.
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/KING Y POON/Supervisory Patent Examiner, Art Unit 2617