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 .
Information Disclosure Statement
The information disclosure statement (IDS) submitted on 07/19/2024, 09/25/2024, 12/05/2024 and 07/01/2025 are in compliance with the provisions of 37 CFR 1.97. Accordingly, the information disclosure statement is being considered by the examiner.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 102
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.
Claim(s) 1-2, 4-5, 12, 15, 18, and 20 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(1) as being anticipated by Huang (US 20160148618 A1).
Regarding claim 1, 18, and 20, Huang (US 20160148618 A1) method, device and non-transitory digital storage medium for loss concealment of spatial audio parameters (Huang, ¶ [0002]: “the concealment of artifacts that result from loss of spatial audio packets during audio transmission over a packet-switched network.”), the spatial audio parameters comprising at least a direction of arrival information (Huang, ¶ [0051]), the method comprising:
receiving a first set of spatial audio parameters comprising at least a first direction of arrival information (Huang, Fig. 3A, items 100 and 200; ¶ [0051 and 0123]);
receiving a second set of spatial audio parameters, comprising at least a second direction of arrival information (Huang, Fig. 3A, items 100 and 200; ¶ [0051]: “the input audio signal may be ambisonic B-format signal”, the first as well as the second set of parameters are of the same type; see also ¶ [0123]); and
a processor (Huang, ¶ [0008]) for replacing the second direction of arrival information of a second set by a replacement direction of arrival information derived from the first direction of arrival information (Huang, ¶ [0062-0063], ¶ [0068]], with emphasis in restoring (smoothed) the direction parameters in spherical coordinates) if at least the second direction of arrival information or a portion of the second direction of arrival information is lost or damaged (Huang, ¶ [0066]: “pth frame has been lost”, ¶ [0068]); wherein
the first set of spatial audio parameters belongs to a first point of time, wherein the second set of spatial audio parameters belongs to a second point of time (Huang, Figs. 7 and 8, item 404; ¶ [0087-0088], [0091]).
Regarding claim 2, Huang discloses all the limitations of claim 1.
Huang further discloses, wherein the first and second sets (adjacent) of spatial audio parameters comprise a first and a second diffuseness information, respectively (Huang, ¶ [0065]: “diffuseness d”, ¶ [0060]).
Regarding claim 4, Huang discloses all the limitations of claim 2.
Huang further discloses, wherein the method further comprises replacing the second diffuseness information of a second set by a replacement diffuseness information derived from the first diffuseness information (Huang, ¶ [0065]: “a lost packet/frame, both the eigen channel components and the spatial parameters are lost, and PLC will be conducted for creating new eigen channel components and spatial parameters to replace those of the lost packet/frame.”, ¶ [0068]: “adaptively produced based on other physical property like diffuseness of frame p”).
Regarding claim 5, Huang discloses all the limitations of claim 1.
Huang further discloses, wherein the replacement direction of arrival information complies with the first direction of arrival information (Huang, ¶ [0068]).
Regarding claim 12, Huang discloses all the limitations of claim 1.
Huang further discloses, wherein the method comprises extrapolating the first direction of arrival information to acquire the replacement direction of arrival information (Huang, ¶ [0068]: “spatial parameters may be composed of d, φ, and θ. Stability of spatial parameters is critical in maintaining perceptual continuity. So, the second concealment unit (FIG. 3) may be configured to smoothing the spatial parameters directly.” The replacement direction parameter is alpha times the direction of the (p-1)th frame, which is an extrapolation from the past value.).
Regarding claim 15, Huang discloses all the limitations of claim 1.
Huang further discloses, wherein the first set of spatial audio parameters belong to a first frame and wherein the second set of spatial audio parameters belongs to a second frame; or wherein the first set of spatial audio parameters belong to a first point in time and wherein the second point in time is subsequent to the first point in time or wherein the second frame is subsequent to the first frame (Huang, ¶ [0060]: “for restoring a lost frame, either a future frame or a history frame may be used, and we generally may use the immediately adjacent future or history frame. An immediately
adjacent history frame may be called “the last frame”. In a variant, when replicating the corresponding monaural component, an attenuation factor may be used.”).
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 103
The following is a quotation of 35 U.S.C. 103 which forms the basis for all obviousness rejections set forth in this Office action:
A patent for a claimed invention may not be obtained, notwithstanding that the claimed invention is not identically disclosed as set forth in section 102, if the differences between the claimed invention and the prior art are such that the claimed invention as a whole would have been obvious before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to a person having ordinary skill in the art to which the claimed invention pertains. Patentability shall not be negated by the manner in which the invention was made.
Claim(s) 3 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Huang (US 20160148618 A1), and further in view of Pulkki et al ("Directional audio coding - perception-based reproduction of spatial sound", International Workshop on the Principles and Application on Spatial Hearing, Nov. 2009, Zao; Miyagi, Japan).
Regarding claim 3, Huang discloses all the limitations of claim 2.
Huang fails to disclose, wherein the first or the second diffuseness information is derived from at least one energy ratio related to at least one direction of arrival information.
In an analogous field of endeavor, Pulkki discloses wherein the first or the second diffuseness information is derived from at least one energy ratio related to at least one direction of arrival information (Pulkki, Page 2, section 2.2 - “the sound energy is arriving from a single direction, or from all directions…the equation (2) yields estimates that are closer to the actual diffuseness of sound field”.)
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one with ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to have used the teaching to determining the acoustic energy arriving from a single direction, or from all directions as taught by Pulkki in Huang’s invention. The motivation is to estimate de energy of a diffused sound field.
Claim(s) 17, 19 and 21 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Huang (US 20160148618 A1), and further in view of Oomen et al., US Publication 2015/0142453 A1.
Regarding Claims 17, 19 and 21, Huang, A method for a first set of spatial audio parameters and a second set of spatial audio parameters; performing the method, A non-transitory digital storage medium (Huang, ¶ [0008), and A decoder for loss concealment according to claim 1 (Huang, ¶ [0051]);
Huang fails to disclose: A method for decoding a DirAC encoded audio scene, comprising: decoding the DirAC encoded audio scene comprising a downmix, A non-transitory digital storage medium having stored thereon a computer program for performing a method for decoding a DirAC encoded audio scene, comprising: and A decoder for a DirAC encoded audio scene comprising
Oomen discloses: A method for decoding a DirAC encoded audio scene, comprising: A non-transitory digital storage medium having stored thereon a computer program for performing a method for decoding a DirAC encoded audio scene, comprising (Claim 19): and A decoder for a DirAC encoded audio scene (Oomen Fig. 3; ¶ [0023-0024) comprising
decoding the DirAC encoded audio scene comprising a downmix (Oomen Fig. 3; ¶ [0023-0024),
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one with ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to have used the teaching of decoding a DirAC encoded audio scene, comprising: decoding the DirAC encoded audio scene comprising a downmix in Huang’s invention as taught by Oomen’s invention.
The motivation for doing this would have been in order to allow increased flexibility, reduced complexity, improved scalability and/or improved performance would be advantageous (Oomen ¶ [0035)
Allowable Subject Matter
Claims 6-11, 13-14, 16 are objected to as being dependent upon a rejected base claim, but would be allowable if rewritten in independent form including all of the limitations of the base claim and any intervening claims.
Conclusion
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/CAROLYN R EDWARDS/Supervisory Patent Examiner, Art Unit 2692
/FRIEDRICH FAHNERT/
Examiner
Art Unit 2692
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