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 .
Continued Examination Under 37 CFR 1.114
A request for continued examination under 37 CFR 1.114, including the fee set forth in 37 CFR 1.17(e), was filed in this application after final rejection. Since this application is eligible for continued examination under 37 CFR 1.114, and the fee set forth in 37 CFR 1.17(e) has been timely paid, the finality of the previous Office action has been withdrawn pursuant to 37 CFR 1.114. Applicant's submission filed on 13 April 2026 has been entered.
Response to Arguments
Applicant’s arguments, see page 6, filed 13 April 2026, with respect to the rejection(s) of claims 1, 7, and 10 under 35 USC 103 have been fully considered and are persuasive in view of the new claim amendments. Therefore, the rejection has been withdrawn. However, upon further consideration, a new ground(s) of rejection is made in view of Lee et al. (US 2019/0020879 A1), Shen et al. (US 2013/0279585 A1), and Yan et al. (US 2004/0223611 A1).
For a detailed analysis see the 35 USC 103 section below.
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.
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, 2, 4, 7, 8, 10, 11, and 14 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Lee et al. (US 2019/0020879 A1) in view of Shen et al. (US 2013/0279585 A1) and further in view of Yan et al. (US 2004/0223611 A1).
Regarding claim 1, Lee teaches a video encryption method performed by a video encryption device, e.g., computer system 500 (Fig. 5, el. 500), comprising:
selecting target frames to be encrypted from among frames of a target video, e.g., the method 400 begins by encoding a new section 410 of video data 405 representing a video stream, and the system receives mask data 403 which informs the system of the frame or frames and section or sections which are to be obscured (Fig. 4, el. 400, 403, 405, 410; Para. 65),
wherein the frames of the target video have a hierarchical…structure in which a frequency of references varies depending on layers of …frames such that a lower layer has a higher frequency of references than a higher layer, e.g., B-frames require the prior decoding of either an I-frame or a P-frame in order to be decoded, wherein in H.264, there are two types of B-frame, a reference B-frame and non-reference B-frame, wherein a reference B-frame can be used as a reference frame for B-frame coding and a non-reference B-frame cannot, wherein a B-frame can use one, two, or more than two previously-decoded pictures as references during decoding (Para. 20);
detecting regions of interest in the target frames, e.g., the system determines whether the section currently being encoded is to be masked 412, wherein the system may compare the current section and frame address to the mask data or may determine the location of blocks to be obscured from the mask data bit map (Fig. 4, el. 412; Para. 65); and
performing encryption on the regions of interest, e.g., if it is determined that the section is to be obscured then the system may begin by setting the QP value for the section to the maximum possible value 416 (Fig. 4, el. 416; Para. 66); by setting the QP to maximum and forced encoding as Intra-sections an obscured region of a frame may be created (Para. 67); the regions may further be obscured by setting the Luma Coded Block Pattern (CBP)/Coded Block Flags (CBF) to 0 418 (Fig. 4, el. 418; Para. 67); further obfuscation may be achieved by setting all of the coefficients created by DCT of the intra-prediction to 0, and the encoder may perform DCT calculation and then set the AC and DC coefficients to 0 as determined from the mask data (Para. 68),
wherein, in the selecting of the target frames, an I-frame, a P-frame, and a B-frame of at least one layer that is lower than a B-frame of a highest layer are selected as the target frames, e.g., the system receives mask data 403 which informs the system of the frame or frames and section or sections which are to be obscured (Fig. 4, el. 400, 403, 405, 410; Para. 65);
an I-frame is a picture coded without reference to any picture except itself, wherein I-frames are used as references for the decoding of other P-frames or B-frames (Para. 18);
a P-frame typically references the preceding I-frame in a Group of Pictures (GoP) (Para. 19);
B-frames require the prior decoding of either an I-frame or a P-frame in order to be decoded, wherein a reference B-frame can be used as a reference frame for B-frame coding, wherein a B-frame can use one, two, or more than two previously-decoded pictures as references during decoding (Para. 20), and
….
Lee does not clearly teach wherein the frames of the target video have a hierarchical B-frame structure in which a frequency of references varies depending on layers of B-frames such that a lower layer has a higher frequency of references than a higher layer; and
wherein a layer of the B-frame selected as one of the target frames is adaptively determined according to resource usage of the video encryption device.
Shen teaches a frequency of references varies depending on layers of B-frames such that a lower layer has a higher frequency of references than a higher layer, e.g., as shown in FIG. 2a, which illustrates a coding structure diagram of hierarchical B-frames, subscripts to letters in the first row indicate the layer of each frame, and the numbers in the second row indicate the play sequence number of each frame (Fig. 2a; Para. 114);
Note that the B-frames shown in figure 2a include B3 frames where “3” indicates the layer and which have no references, B2 frames where “2” indicates the layer and which each have two references, and B1 frames where “1” indicates the layer and which each have two references to the respective B1 frame and two references to B2 frames (Fig. 2a).
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify Lee to include wherein the frames of the target video have a hierarchical B-frame structure in which a frequency of references varies depending on layers of B-frames such that a lower layer has a higher frequency of references than a higher layer, using the known method of utilizing a hierarchical B-frame encoding scheme, as taught by Shen, in combination with the frame encryption system of Lee, for the purpose of for the purpose of utilizing a scheme that delivers significantly higher compression efficiency that is inherently scalable.
Lee in view of Shen does not clearly teach wherein a layer of the B-frame selected as one of the target frames is adaptively determined according to resource usage of the video encryption device.
Yan teaches wherein, in the selecting of the target frames, an I-frame, a P-frame, and a B-frame of at least one layer that is lower than a B-frame of a highest layer are selected as the target frames, e.g., adjusting the encryption attributes to reduce the encryption strength (Step 110), and it is assumed that the data stream has three layers, i.e., basic layer, first enhancement layer and second enhancement layer (Fig. 1, el. S110; Para. 66);
a MPEG-2 video data stream includes a base layer and one or more enhancement layers, while each layer contains I-frame, P-frame and B-frame data, wherein the present embodiment combines the embodiments described with reference to FIGS. 2 and 3 and FIGS. 4 and 5, providing an encryption method that can adjust encryption strengths for different layers and also can adjust encryption strengths for different frames in the same layer (Figs. 2-5; Para. 79);
a determination is made first as to whether the encryption strength of the second enhancement layer has reached the lowest encryption strength at Step 405, and if the determination result of Step 405 is "No", Step 410 will be performed, reducing the encryption strength of the second enhancement layer (Fig. 4, el. 405; Para. 67);
the lowest encryption strength for the second enhancement layer is "no encryption" (Para. 70);
adjusting the encryption attributes for the data stream and transferring the adjusted encryption attributes to the scrambler 614, thereby controlling the scrambler 614 to perform encryption (Fig. 7, el. 614; Para. 88); and
wherein a layer of the B-frame selected as one of the target frames is adaptively determined according to resource usage of the video encryption device, e.g., during the process of encryption and decryption of the data stream, a determination is made as to whether the current complexity is greater than an upper limit threshold at Step 105, wherein the current complexity may be the load of the processor or usage of the storage of the sender (Fig. 1, el. 105; Para. 30);
if the determination result of Step 105 (FIG. 1) is "Yes", a determination is made first as to whether the encryption strength of the second enhancement layer has reached the lowest encryption strength at Step 405, and if the determination result of Step 405 is "No", Step 410 will be performed, reducing the encryption strength of the second enhancement layer (Fig. 4, el. 405; Para. 67).
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify Lee in view of Shen to include wherein a layer of the B-frame selected as one of the target frames is adaptively determined according to resource usage of the video encryption device, using the known method of reducing the encryption strength of a B-frame or second enhancement layer that includes a B-frame to “no encryption” or increasing the encryption strength of a B-frame or second enhancement layer that includes a B-frame based on the current resource usage of the sender, as taught by Yan, in combination with the frame encryption system of Lee in view of Shen, for the purpose of dynamically adjusting the encryption strength based on the current consumption of system resources, thereby improving data protection while also preventing degraded quality (Yan-Para. 5).
Regarding claim 2, Lee in view of Shen in view of Yan teaches the video encryption method of claim 1.
Lee further teaches wherein, in the selecting of the target frames, the target frames are selected…, e.g., the system receives mask data 403 which informs the system of the frame or frames and section or sections which are to be obscured (Lee-Fig. 4, el. 400, 403, 405, 410; Para. 65); an I-frame is a picture coded without reference to any picture except itself, wherein I-frames are used as references for the decoding of other P-frames or B-frames (Lee-Para. 18); a P-frame typically references the preceding I-frame in a Group of Pictures (GoP) (Lee-Para. 19); B-frames require the prior decoding of either an I-frame or a P-frame in order to be decoded, wherein a reference B-frame can be used as a reference frame for B-frame coding, wherein a B-frame can use one, two, or more than two previously-decoded pictures as references during decoding (Lee-Para. 20).
Lee does not explicitly teach wherein, in the selecting of the one or more target frames, the one or more target frames are selected according to a frequency of references to the frames of the target video.
Shen further teaches …a frequency of references to the frames of the target video, e.g., as shown in FIG. 2a, which illustrates a coding structure diagram of hierarchical B-frames, subscripts to letters in the first row indicate the layer of each frame, and the numbers in the second row indicate the play sequence number of each frame (Fig. 2a; Para. 114);
Note that the B-frames shown in figure 2a include B3 frames where “3” indicates the layer and which have no references, B2 frames where “2” indicates the layer and which each have two references, and B1 frames where “1” indicates the layer and which each have two references to the respective B1 frame and two references to B2 frames (Fig. 2a).
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify Lee to include a frequency of references to the frames of the target video, using the known method of utilizing a hierarchical B-frame encoding scheme, as taught by Shen, in combination with the frame encryption system of Lee, using the same motivation as in claim 1.
Lee in view of Shen does not explicitly teach wherein, in the selecting of the one or more target frames, the one or more target frames are selected according to a frequency of references to the frames of the target video.
Yan teaches wherein, in the selecting of the one or more target frames, the one or more target frames are selected according to a frequency of references to the frames of the target video, e.g., adjusting the encryption attributes to reduce the encryption strength (Step 110), and it is assumed that the data stream has three layers, i.e., basic layer, first enhancement layer and second enhancement layer (Fig. 1, el. S110; Para. 66);
a MPEG-2 video data stream includes a base layer and one or more enhancement layers, while each layer contains I-frame, P-frame and B-frame data, wherein the present embodiment combines the embodiments described with reference to FIGS. 2 and 3 and FIGS. 4 and 5, providing an encryption method that can adjust encryption strengths for different layers and also can adjust encryption strengths for different frames in the same layer (Figs. 2-5; Para. 79);
a determination is made first as to whether the encryption strength of the second enhancement layer has reached the lowest encryption strength at Step 405, and if the determination result of Step 405 is "No", Step 410 will be performed, reducing the encryption strength of the second enhancement layer (Fig. 4, el. 405; Para. 67);
the lowest encryption strength for the second enhancement layer is "no encryption" (Para. 70);
adjusting the encryption attributes for the data stream and transferring the adjusted encryption attributes to the scrambler 614, thereby controlling the scrambler 614 to perform encryption (Fig. 7, el. 614; Para. 88).
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify Lee in view of Shen to include wherein, in the selecting of the one or more target frames, the one or more target frames are selected according to a frequency of references to the frames of the target video, using the known method of reducing the encryption strength of a B-frame or second enhancement layer that includes a B-frame to “no encryption” or increasing the encryption strength of a B-frame or second enhancement layer that includes a B-frame based on the current resource usage of the sender, as taught by Yan, in combination with the frame encryption system of Lee in view of Shen, using the same motivation as in claim 1.
Regarding claim 4, Lee in view of Shen in view of Yan teaches the video encryption method of claim, 1, wherein the performing of the encryption on the regions of interest includes: identifying tiles including all or a part of the regions of interest in the target frames, e.g., the system determines whether the section currently being encoded is to be masked 412, wherein the system may compare the current section and frame address to the mask data or may determine the location of blocks to be obscured from the mask data bit map (Lee-Fig. 4, el. 412; Para. 65); a single picture 100 (e.g., a digital video frame) may be broken down into one or more sections, wherein the term “section” can refer to a group of one or more pixels within the picture 100, such as slices 102, macroblocks 104, sub-macro-blocks 106, blocks 108, and individual pixels 110 or Coding Tree Blocks (CTB)s (Lee-Fig. 1, el. 100, 102, 104, 106, 108, 110; Para. 15); and
performing encryption on the identified tiles, e.g., if it is determined that the section is to be obscured then the system may begin by setting the QP value for the section to the maximum possible value 416 (Lee-Fig. 4, el. 416; Para. 66); by setting the QP to maximum and forced encoding as Intra-sections an obscured region of a frame may be created (Lee-Para. 67); the regions may further be obscured by setting the Luma Coded Block Pattern (CBP)/Coded Block Flags (CBF) to 0 418 (Lee-Fig. 4, el. 418; Para. 67); further obfuscation may be achieved by setting all of the coefficients created by DCT of the intra-prediction to 0, and the encoder may perform DCT calculation and then set the AC and DC coefficients to 0 as determined from the mask data (Lee-Para. 68).
Regarding claim 7, Lee teaches a video encryption method performed by a video encryption device, e.g., computer system 500 (Fig. 5, el. 500), comprising:
receiving a target video, e.g., the method 400 begins by encoding a new section 410 of video data 405 representing a video stream, and the system receives mask data 403 which informs the system of the frame or frames and section or sections which are to be obscured (Fig. 4, el. 400, 403, 405, 410; Para. 65);
selecting some frames from among all frames of the target video as target frames, e.g., the method 400 begins by encoding a new section 410 of video data 405 representing a video stream, and the system receives mask data 403 which informs the system of the frame or frames and section or sections which are to be obscured (Fig. 4, el. 400, 403, 405, 410; Para. 65),
wherein the frames of the target video have a hierarchical…structure in which a frequency of references varies depending on layers of …frames such that a lower layer has a higher frequency of references than a higher layer, e.g., B-frames require the prior decoding of either an I-frame or a P-frame in order to be decoded, wherein in H.264, there are two types of B-frame, a reference B-frame and non-reference B-frame, wherein a reference B-frame can be used as a reference frame for B-frame coding and a non-reference B-frame cannot, wherein a B-frame can use one, two, or more than two previously-decoded pictures as references during decoding (Para. 20);
encrypting the target frames, e.g., if it is determined that the section is to be obscured then the system may begin by setting the QP value for the section to the maximum possible value 416 (Fig. 4, el. 416; Para. 66); by setting the QP to maximum and forced encoding as Intra-sections an obscured region of a frame may be created (Para. 67); the regions may further be obscured by setting the Luma Coded Block Pattern (CBP)/Coded Block Flags (CBF) to 0 418 (Fig. 4, el. 418; Para. 67); further obfuscation may be achieved by setting all of the coefficients created by DCT of the intra-prediction to 0, and the encoder may perform DCT calculation and then set the AC and DC coefficients to 0 as determined from the mask data (Para. 68); a single picture 100 (e.g., a digital video frame) may be broken down into one or more sections, wherein the term “section” can refer to a group of one or more pixels within the picture 100, such as slices 102, macroblocks 104, sub-macro-blocks 106, blocks 108, and individual pixels 110 or Coding Tree Blocks (CTB)s (Fig. 1, el. 100, 102, 104, 106, 108, 110; Para. 15),
wherein, in the selecting of the some frames as the target frames, an I-frame, a P-frame, and a B-frame of at least one layer that is lower than a B-frame of a highest layer are selected as the target frames, e.g., the system receives mask data 403 which informs the system of the frame or frames and section or sections which are to be obscured (Fig. 4, el. 400, 403, 405, 410; Para. 65);
an I-frame is a picture coded without reference to any picture except itself, wherein I-frames are used as references for the decoding of other P-frames or B-frames (Para. 18);
a P-frame typically references the preceding I-frame in a Group of Pictures (GoP) (Para. 19);
B-frames require the prior decoding of either an I-frame or a P-frame in order to be decoded, wherein a reference B-frame can be used as a reference frame for B-frame coding, wherein a B-frame can use one, two, or more than two previously-decoded pictures as references during decoding (Para. 20), and
….
Lee does not clearly teach wherein the frames of the target video have a hierarchical B-frame structure in which a frequency of references varies depending on layers of B-frames such that a lower layer has a higher frequency of references than a higher layer; and
wherein a layer of the B-frame selected as one of the target frames is adaptively determined according to resource usage of the video encryption device.
Shen teaches a frequency of references varies depending on layers of B-frames such that a lower layer has a higher frequency of references than a higher layer, e.g., as shown in FIG. 2a, which illustrates a coding structure diagram of hierarchical B-frames, subscripts to letters in the first row indicate the layer of each frame, and the numbers in the second row indicate the play sequence number of each frame (Fig. 2a; Para. 114);
Note that the B-frames shown in figure 2a include B3 frames where “3” indicates the layer and which have no references, B2 frames where “2” indicates the layer and which each have two references, and B1 frames where “1” indicates the layer and which each have two references to the respective B1 frame and two references to B2 frames (Fig. 2a).
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify Lee to include wherein the frames of the target video have a hierarchical B-frame structure in which a frequency of references varies depending on layers of B-frames such that a lower layer has a higher frequency of references than a higher layer, using the known method of utilizing a hierarchical B-frame encoding scheme, as taught by Shen, in combination with the frame encryption system of Lee, for the purpose of for the purpose of utilizing a scheme that delivers significantly higher compression efficiency that is inherently scalable.
Lee in view of Shen does not clearly teach wherein a layer of the B-frame selected as one of the target frames is adaptively determined according to resource usage of the video encryption device.
Yan teaches wherein, in the selecting of the target frames, an I-frame, a P-frame, and a B-frame of at least one layer that is lower than a B-frame of a highest layer are selected as the target frames, e.g., adjusting the encryption attributes to reduce the encryption strength (Step 110), and it is assumed that the data stream has three layers, i.e., basic layer, first enhancement layer and second enhancement layer (Fig. 1, el. S110; Para. 66);
a MPEG-2 video data stream includes a base layer and one or more enhancement layers, while each layer contains I-frame, P-frame and B-frame data, wherein the present embodiment combines the embodiments described with reference to FIGS. 2 and 3 and FIGS. 4 and 5, providing an encryption method that can adjust encryption strengths for different layers and also can adjust encryption strengths for different frames in the same layer (Figs. 2-5; Para. 79);
a determination is made first as to whether the encryption strength of the second enhancement layer has reached the lowest encryption strength at Step 405, and if the determination result of Step 405 is "No", Step 410 will be performed, reducing the encryption strength of the second enhancement layer (Fig. 4, el. 405; Para. 67);
the lowest encryption strength for the second enhancement layer is "no encryption" (Para. 70);
adjusting the encryption attributes for the data stream and transferring the adjusted encryption attributes to the scrambler 614, thereby controlling the scrambler 614 to perform encryption (Fig. 7, el. 614; Para. 88); and
wherein a layer of the B-frame selected as one of the target frames is adaptively determined according to resource usage of the video encryption device, e.g., during the process of encryption and decryption of the data stream, a determination is made as to whether the current complexity is greater than an upper limit threshold at Step 105, wherein the current complexity may be the load of the processor or usage of the storage of the sender (Fig. 1, el. 105; Para. 30);
if the determination result of Step 105 (FIG. 1) is "Yes", a determination is made first as to whether the encryption strength of the second enhancement layer has reached the lowest encryption strength at Step 405, and if the determination result of Step 405 is "No", Step 410 will be performed, reducing the encryption strength of the second enhancement layer (Fig. 4, el. 405; Para. 67).
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify Lee in view of Shen to include wherein a layer of the B-frame selected as one of the target frames is adaptively determined according to resource usage of the video encryption device, using the known method of reducing the encryption strength of a B-frame or second enhancement layer that includes a B-frame to “no encryption” or increasing the encryption strength of a B-frame or second enhancement layer that includes a B-frame based on the current resource usage of the sender, as taught by Yan, in combination with the frame encryption system of Lee in view of Shen, for the purpose of dynamically adjusting the encryption strength based on the current consumption of system resources, thereby improving data protection while also preventing degraded quality (Yan-Para. 5).
Regarding claim 8, Lee in view of Shen in view of Yan teaches the video encryption method of claim 7.
Lee further teaches wherein, in the selecting of the some frame as the target frames, the target frames are selected…, e.g., the system receives mask data 403 which informs the system of the frame or frames and section or sections which are to be obscured (Lee-Fig. 4, el. 400, 403, 405, 410; Para. 65); an I-frame is a picture coded without reference to any picture except itself, wherein I-frames are used as references for the decoding of other P-frames or B-frames (Lee-Para. 18); a P-frame typically references the preceding I-frame in a Group of Pictures (GoP) (Lee-Para. 19); B-frames require the prior decoding of either an I-frame or a P-frame in order to be decoded, wherein a reference B-frame can be used as a reference frame for B-frame coding, wherein a B-frame can use one, two, or more than two previously-decoded pictures as references during decoding (Lee-Para. 20).
Lee does not explicitly teach wherein, in the selecting of the some frames as the target frames, the target frames are selected according to a frequency of references to the frames of the target video.
Shen further teaches …a frequency of references to the frames of the target video, e.g., as shown in FIG. 2a, which illustrates a coding structure diagram of hierarchical B-frames, subscripts to letters in the first row indicate the layer of each frame, and the numbers in the second row indicate the play sequence number of each frame (Fig. 2a; Para. 114);
Note that the B-frames shown in figure 2a include B3 frames where “3” indicates the layer and which have no references, B2 frames where “2” indicates the layer and which each have two references, and B1 frames where “1” indicates the layer and which each have two references to the respective B1 frame and two references to B2 frames (Fig. 2a).
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify Lee to include a frequency of references to the frames of the target video, using the known method of utilizing a hierarchical B-frame encoding scheme, as taught by Shen, in combination with the frame encryption system of Lee, using the same motivation as in claim 1.
Lee in view of Shen does not explicitly teach wherein, in the selecting of the some frames as the target frames, the target frames are selected according to a frequency of references to the frames of the target video.
Yan teaches wherein, in the selecting of the some frames as the target frames, the one or more target frames are selected according to a frequency of references to the frames of the target video, e.g., adjusting the encryption attributes to reduce the encryption strength (Step 110), and it is assumed that the data stream has three layers, i.e., basic layer, first enhancement layer and second enhancement layer (Fig. 1, el. S110; Para. 66);
a MPEG-2 video data stream includes a base layer and one or more enhancement layers, while each layer contains I-frame, P-frame and B-frame data, wherein the present embodiment combines the embodiments described with reference to FIGS. 2 and 3 and FIGS. 4 and 5, providing an encryption method that can adjust encryption strengths for different layers and also can adjust encryption strengths for different frames in the same layer (Figs. 2-5; Para. 79);
a determination is made first as to whether the encryption strength of the second enhancement layer has reached the lowest encryption strength at Step 405, and if the determination result of Step 405 is "No", Step 410 will be performed, reducing the encryption strength of the second enhancement layer (Fig. 4, el. 405; Para. 67);
the lowest encryption strength for the second enhancement layer is "no encryption" (Para. 70);
adjusting the encryption attributes for the data stream and transferring the adjusted encryption attributes to the scrambler 614, thereby controlling the scrambler 614 to perform encryption (Fig. 7, el. 614; Para. 88).
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify Lee in view of Shen to include wherein, in the selecting of the some frames as the target frames, the one or more target frames are selected according to a frequency of references to the frames of the target video, using the known method of reducing the encryption strength of a B-frame or second enhancement layer that includes a B-frame to “no encryption” or increasing the encryption strength of a B-frame or second enhancement layer that includes a B-frame based on the current resource usage of the sender, as taught by Yan, in combination with the frame encryption system of Lee in view of Shen, using the same motivation as in claim 7.
Regarding claim 10, Lee teaches a video encryption device, e.g., computer system 500 (Fig. 5, el. 500), comprising:
a memory, e.g., memory 502 (Fig. 5, el. 502); and
at least one processor, e.g., processor module 501 (Fig. 5, el. 501), electrically connected to the memory,
wherein the at least one processor selects target frames to be encrypted from among frames of a target video, e.g., the method 400 begins by encoding a new section 410 of video data 405 representing a video stream, and the system receives mask data 403 which informs the system of the frame or frames and section or sections which are to be obscured (Fig. 4, el. 400, 403, 405, 410; Para. 65);
detects regions of interest in the target frames, e.g., the system determines whether the section currently being encoded is to be masked 412, wherein the system may compare the current section and frame address to the mask data or may determine the location of blocks to be obscured from the mask data bit map (Fig. 4, el. 412; Para. 65), and
performs encryption on the regions of interest, e.g., if it is determined that the section is to be obscured then the system may begin by setting the QP value for the section to the maximum possible value 416 (Fig. 4, el. 416; Para. 66); by setting the QP to maximum and forced encoding as Intra-sections an obscured region of a frame may be created (Para. 67); the regions may further be obscured by setting the Luma Coded Block Pattern (CBP)/Coded Block Flags (CBF) to 0 418 (Fig. 4, el. 418; Para. 67); further obfuscation may be achieved by setting all of the coefficients created by DCT of the intra-prediction to 0, and the encoder may perform DCT calculation and then set the AC and DC coefficients to 0 as determined from the mask data (Para. 68),
wherein the frames of the target video have a hierarchical…structure in which a frequency of references varies depending on layers of …frames such that a lower layer has a higher frequency of references than a higher layer, e.g., B-frames require the prior decoding of either an I-frame or a P-frame in order to be decoded, wherein in H.264, there are two types of B-frame, a reference B-frame and non-reference B-frame, wherein a reference B-frame can be used as a reference frame for B-frame coding and a non-reference B-frame cannot, wherein a B-frame can use one, two, or more than two previously-decoded pictures as references during decoding (Para. 20),
wherein the at least one processor selects an I-frame, a P-frame, and a B-frame of a layer that is lower than a B-frame of a highest layer as the target frames, e.g., the system receives mask data 403 which informs the system of the frame or frames and section or sections which are to be obscured (Fig. 4, el. 400, 403, 405, 410; Para. 65);
an I-frame is a picture coded without reference to any picture except itself, wherein I-frames are used as references for the decoding of other P-frames or B-frames (Para. 18);
a P-frame typically references the preceding I-frame in a Group of Pictures (GoP) (Para. 19);
B-frames require the prior decoding of either an I-frame or a P-frame in order to be decoded, wherein a reference B-frame can be used as a reference frame for B-frame coding, wherein a B-frame can use one, two, or more than two previously-decoded pictures as references during decoding (Para. 20), and
….
Lee does not clearly teach wherein the frames of the target video have a hierarchical B-frame structure in which a frequency of references varies depending on layers of B-frames such that a lower layer has a higher frequency of references than a higher layer; and
wherein a layer of the B-frame selected as one of the target frames is adaptively determined according to resource usage of the video encryption device.
Shen teaches a frequency of references varies depending on layers of B-frames such that a lower layer has a higher frequency of references than a higher layer, e.g., as shown in FIG. 2a, which illustrates a coding structure diagram of hierarchical B-frames, subscripts to letters in the first row indicate the layer of each frame, and the numbers in the second row indicate the play sequence number of each frame (Fig. 2a; Para. 114);
Note that the B-frames shown in figure 2a include B3 frames where “3” indicates the layer and which have no references, B2 frames where “2” indicates the layer and which each have two references, and B1 frames where “1” indicates the layer and which each have two references to the respective B1 frame and two references to B2 frames (Fig. 2a).
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify Lee to include wherein the frames of the target video have a hierarchical B-frame structure in which a frequency of references varies depending on layers of B-frames such that a lower layer has a higher frequency of references than a higher layer, using the known method of utilizing a hierarchical B-frame encoding scheme, as taught by Shen, in combination with the frame encryption system of Lee, for the purpose of for the purpose of utilizing a scheme that delivers significantly higher compression efficiency that is inherently scalable.
Lee in view of Shen does not clearly teach wherein a layer of the B-frame selected as one of the target frames is adaptively determined according to resource usage of the video encryption device.
Yan teaches wherein, in the selecting of the target frames, an I-frame, a P-frame, and a B-frame of at least one layer that is lower than a B-frame of a highest layer are selected as the target frames, e.g., adjusting the encryption attributes to reduce the encryption strength (Step 110), and it is assumed that the data stream has three layers, i.e., basic layer, first enhancement layer and second enhancement layer (Fig. 1, el. S110; Para. 66);
a MPEG-2 video data stream includes a base layer and one or more enhancement layers, while each layer contains I-frame, P-frame and B-frame data, wherein the present embodiment combines the embodiments described with reference to FIGS. 2 and 3 and FIGS. 4 and 5, providing an encryption method that can adjust encryption strengths for different layers and also can adjust encryption strengths for different frames in the same layer (Figs. 2-5; Para. 79);
a determination is made first as to whether the encryption strength of the second enhancement layer has reached the lowest encryption strength at Step 405, and if the determination result of Step 405 is "No", Step 410 will be performed, reducing the encryption strength of the second enhancement layer (Fig. 4, el. 405; Para. 67);
the lowest encryption strength for the second enhancement layer is "no encryption" (Para. 70);
adjusting the encryption attributes for the data stream and transferring the adjusted encryption attributes to the scrambler 614, thereby controlling the scrambler 614 to perform encryption (Fig. 7, el. 614; Para. 88); and
wherein a layer of the B-frame selected as one of the target frames is adaptively determined according to resource usage of the video encryption device, e.g., during the process of encryption and decryption of the data stream, a determination is made as to whether the current complexity is greater than an upper limit threshold at Step 105, wherein the current complexity may be the load of the processor or usage of the storage of the sender (Fig. 1, el. 105; Para. 30);
if the determination result of Step 105 (FIG. 1) is "Yes", a determination is made first as to whether the encryption strength of the second enhancement layer has reached the lowest encryption strength at Step 405, and if the determination result of Step 405 is "No", Step 410 will be performed, reducing the encryption strength of the second enhancement layer (Fig. 4, el. 405; Para. 67).
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify Lee in view of Shen to include wherein a layer of the B-frame selected as one of the target frames is adaptively determined according to resource usage of the video encryption device, using the known method of reducing the encryption strength of a B-frame or second enhancement layer that includes a B-frame to “no encryption” or increasing the encryption strength of a B-frame or second enhancement layer that includes a B-frame based on the current resource usage of the sender, as taught by Yan, in combination with the frame encryption system of Lee in view of Shen, for the purpose of dynamically adjusting the encryption strength based on the current consumption of system resources, thereby improving data protection while also preventing degraded quality (Yan-Para. 5).
Regarding claim 11, Lee in view of Shen in view of Yan teaches the video encryption device of claim 10.
Lee further teaches wherein the at least one processor selects the target frames…, e.g., the system receives mask data 403 which informs the system of the frame or frames and section or sections which are to be obscured (Lee-Fig. 4, el. 400, 403, 405, 410; Para. 65); an I-frame is a picture coded without reference to any picture except itself, wherein I-frames are used as references for the decoding of other P-frames or B-frames (Lee-Para. 18); a P-frame typically references the preceding I-frame in a Group of Pictures (GoP) (Lee-Para. 19); B-frames require the prior decoding of either an I-frame or a P-frame in order to be decoded, wherein a reference B-frame can be used as a reference frame for B-frame coding, wherein a B-frame can use one, two, or more than two previously-decoded pictures as references during decoding (Lee-Para. 20).
Lee does not explicitly teach wherein, wherein the at least one processor selects the target frames according to a frequency of references to the frames of the target video.
Shen further teaches …a frequency of references to the frames of the target video, e.g., as shown in FIG. 2a, which illustrates a coding structure diagram of hierarchical B-frames, subscripts to letters in the first row indicate the layer of each frame, and the numbers in the second row indicate the play sequence number of each frame (Fig. 2a; Para. 114);
Note that the B-frames shown in figure 2a include B3 frames where “3” indicates the layer and which have no references, B2 frames where “2” indicates the layer and which each have two references, and B1 frames where “1” indicates the layer and which each have two references to the respective B1 frame and two references to B2 frames (Fig. 2a).
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify Lee to include a frequency of references to the frames of the target video, using the known method of utilizing a hierarchical B-frame encoding scheme, as taught by Shen, in combination with the frame encryption system of Lee, using the same motivation as in claim 1.
Lee in view of Shen does not explicitly teach wherein, wherein the at least one processor selects the target frames according to a frequency of references to the frames of the target video.
Yan teaches wherein, in the selecting of the one or more target frames, the one or more target frames are selected according to a frequency of references to the frames of the target video, e.g., adjusting the encryption attributes to reduce the encryption strength (Step 110), and it is assumed that the data stream has three layers, i.e., basic layer, first enhancement layer and second enhancement layer (Fig. 1, el. S110; Para. 66);
a MPEG-2 video data stream includes a base layer and one or more enhancement layers, while each layer contains I-frame, P-frame and B-frame data, wherein the present embodiment combines the embodiments described with reference to FIGS. 2 and 3 and FIGS. 4 and 5, providing an encryption method that can adjust encryption strengths for different layers and also can adjust encryption strengths for different frames in the same layer (Figs. 2-5; Para. 79);
a determination is made first as to whether the encryption strength of the second enhancement layer has reached the lowest encryption strength at Step 405, and if the determination result of Step 405 is "No", Step 410 will be performed, reducing the encryption strength of the second enhancement layer (Fig. 4, el. 405; Para. 67);
the lowest encryption strength for the second enhancement layer is "no encryption" (Para. 70);
adjusting the encryption attributes for the data stream and transferring the adjusted encryption attributes to the scrambler 614, thereby controlling the scrambler 614 to perform encryption (Fig. 7, el. 614; Para. 88).
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify Lee in view of Shen to include wherein, wherein the at least one processor selects the target frames according to a frequency of references to the frames of the target video, using the known method of reducing the encryption strength of a B-frame or second enhancement layer that includes a B-frame to “no encryption” or increasing the encryption strength of a B-frame or second enhancement layer that includes a B-frame based on the current resource usage of the sender, as taught by Yan, in combination with the frame encryption system of Lee in view of Shen, using the same motivation as in claim 1.
Regarding claim 14, Lee in view of Shen in view of Yan teaches the video encryption device of claim 10, wherein the at least one processor identifies tiles including all or a part of the regions of interest in the one or more target frames, e.g., the system determines whether the section currently being encoded is to be masked 412, wherein the system may compare the current section and frame address to the mask data or may determine the location of blocks to be obscured from the mask data bit map (Lee-Fig. 4, el. 412; Para. 65); a single picture 100 (e.g., a digital video frame) may be broken down into one or more sections, wherein the term “section” can refer to a group of one or more pixels within the picture 100, such as slices 102, macroblocks 104, sub-macro-blocks 106, blocks 108, and individual pixels 110 or Coding Tree Blocks (CTB)s (Lee-Fig. 1, el. 100, 102, 104, 106, 108, 110; Para. 15), and
performs encryption on the identified tiles, e.g., if it is determined that the section is to be obscured then the system may begin by setting the QP value for the section to the maximum possible value 416 (Lee-Fig. 4, el. 416; Para. 66); by setting the QP to maximum and forced encoding as Intra-sections an obscured region of a frame may be created (Lee-Para. 67); the regions may further be obscured by setting the Luma Coded Block Pattern (CBP)/Coded Block Flags (CBF) to 0 418 (Lee-Fig. 4, el. 418; Para. 67); further obfuscation may be achieved by setting all of the coefficients created by DCT of the intra-prediction to 0, and the encoder may perform DCT calculation and then set the AC and DC coefficients to 0 as determined from the mask data (Lee-Para. 68).
Claims 5 and 6 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Lee in view of Shen in view of Yan and further in view of Kärkkäinen et al. (US 2017/0279604 A1).
Regarding claim 5, Lee in view of Shen in view of Yan teaches the video encryption method of claim 4.
Lee further teaches wherein, in the performing of the encryption on the regions of interest, some syntax elements among syntax elements generated an entropy encoding stage…, e.g., further down the encoding pipeline, the method 200 may optionally use entropy coding 208 to take advantage of the resulting statistical distribution of the motion vectors around the zero vector to reduce the output size (Lee-Fig. 2, el. 200, 208; Para. 48); Once the QP value has been set to maximum 416 the system may proceed to encode the section 414 as discussed above the section may be encoded as an Intra-coded section (Lee-Fig. 4, el. 414, 416; Para. 66).
Lee in view of Shen in view of Yan does not clearly teach wherein, in the performing of the encryption on the regions of interest, some syntax elements among syntax elements generated prior to an entropy encoding stage are selectively encrypted in the entropy encoding stage.
Kärkkäinen teaches wherein…some syntax elements among syntax elements generated prior to an entropy encoding stage are selectively encrypted in the entropy encoding stage, e.g., at a step 202, the data processing arrangement of the encoder 110 encodes the input data (D1) to generate a plurality of intermediate encoded data streams (Fig. 1, el. 110; Fig. 2, el. 202; Para. 189); the step 202 includes a sub-step at which the data processing arrangement of the encoder 110 employs one or more entropy-encoding methods, and at a step 204, the data processing arrangement of the encoder 110 encrypts at least one critical data stream of the plurality of intermediate encoded data streams using one or more encryption algorithms to generate at least one intermediate encrypted data stream, wherein the at least one critical data stream includes information indicative of at least one of: the plurality of split and/or combine operations, the one or more encoding methods, the one or more entropy-encoding methods, and/or a length of the plurality of entropy-encoded data blocks and/or data packets, and/or a length of the data blocks and/or packets prior to entropy-encoding being applied (Fig. 2, el. 204; Para. 191).
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify Lee in view of Shen in view of Yan to include wherein, in the performing of the encryption on the regions of interest, some syntax elements among syntax elements generated prior to an entropy encoding stage are selectively encrypted in the entropy encoding stage, using the known method of encrypting a critical data stream that includes information indicative of the plurality of split and/or combine operations, the one or more encoding methods, the one or more entropy-encoding methods, and/or a length of the plurality of entropy-encoded data blocks and/or data packets, and/or a length of the data blocks and/or packets prior to entropy-encoding being applied, as taught by Kärkkäinen, in combination with the entropy encoding system of Lee in view of Shen in view of Yan, for the purpose of providing a very fast and a considerably more efficient way of protecting data while not having any significant effect in a transfer rate of real-time videos, nor increasing a consumption of computing resources in any significant manner (Kärkkäinen-Para. 73).
Regarding claim 6, Lee in view of Shen in view of Yan in view of Kärkkäinen teaches the video encryption method of claim 5, wherein, in the performing of the encryption on the regions of interest, the some syntax elements among the syntax elements for the identified tiles are encrypted, e.g., further down the encoding pipeline, the method 200 may optionally use entropy coding 208 to take advantage of the resulting statistical distribution of the motion vectors around the zero vector to reduce the output size (Lee-Fig. 2, el. 200, 208; Para. 48); Once the QP value has been set to maximum 416 the system may proceed to encode the section 414 as discussed above the section may be encoded as an Intra-coded section (Lee-Fig. 4, el. 414, 416; Para. 66);
the step 202 includes a sub-step at which the data processing arrangement of the encoder 110 employs one or more entropy-encoding methods, and at a step 204, the data processing arrangement of the encoder 110 encrypts at least one critical data stream of the plurality of intermediate encoded data streams using one or more encryption algorithms to generate at least one intermediate encrypted data stream, wherein the at least one critical data stream includes information indicative of at least one of: the plurality of split and/or combine operations, the one or more encoding methods, the one or more entropy-encoding methods, and/or a length of the plurality of entropy-encoded data blocks and/or data packets, and/or a length of the data blocks and/or packets prior to entropy-encoding being applied (Kärkkäinen-Fig. 2, el. 204; Para. 191).
Relevant Prior Art
The prior art made of record and not relied upon is considered pertinent to applicant's disclosure.
Pichumani et al. (US 2015/0373383 A1)—Pichumani discloses wherein each group of pictures comprises a leading intra-coded frame and a plurality of inter-coded frames, and frames within of each group of pictures encoded with a temporally scalable hierarchical encoding relationship (Abstract).
Kang et al. (US 20240031580 A1)—Kang discloses using a hierarchical encoding structure when the encoding apparatus operates in random access mode (Fig. 6; Para. 101-105).
Edpalm et al. (US 2021/0092398 A1)—Edpalm discloses an input is received, which indicates one or more regions in the received image frame for which a privacy mask should be applied. The one or more regions are represented by one or more coding units. The image frame is encoded into an output frame, wherein image data in the one or more regions is replaced by intra-predicted coding units with transformed coefficients set to zero, the intra-predicted coding units are obtained from a prediction stage in the encoder (Abstract).
Dutt et al. (US 2012/0236935 A1)—Dutt discloses a method for masking including performing a prediction for at least one multimedia data block based on a prediction mode of a plurality of prediction modes. The at least one multimedia data block is associated with a region of interest (ROI). A residual multimedia data associated with the at least one multimedia data block is generated based on the prediction. A quantization of the residual multimedia data is performed based on a quantization parameter (QP) value. The QP value is variable such that varying the QP value controls a degree of masking of the ROI (Abstract).
Conclusion
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18 May 2026
/Jeremy S Duffield/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2498
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