DETAILED ACTIONS
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 .
Priority
Acknowledgment is made of applicant’s claim this application being a National Stage of the International Application No. PCT/CN2023/075188, filed on February 09, 2023, and benefit of foreign priority from Chinese Patent Application No. CN202210134087.6 filed on February 14, 2022.
Information Disclosure Statement
The information disclosure statement (“IDS”) filed on 03/26/2025 was reviewed and the listed references were noted.
Drawings
The 4-page drawings have been considered and placed on record in the file.
Status of Claims
Claims 1-20 are pending.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 101
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 20 is rejected under 35 U.S.C. 101 because the claimed invention is directed to non-statutory subject matter. The claim does not fall within at least one of the four categories of patent eligible subject matter because “a computer program product” is considered “software per se” because it does not have a physical or tangible form. A claim is not directed to any of the statutory categories includes products that do not have a physical or tangible form, such as information (often referred to as "data per se") or a computer program per se (often referred to as "software per se") when claimed as a product without any structural recitations.
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.
The factual inquiries for establishing a background for determining obviousness under 35 U.S.C. 103 are summarized as follows:
1. Determining the scope and contents of the prior art.
2. Ascertaining the differences between the prior art and the claims at issue.
3. Resolving the level of ordinary skill in the pertinent art.
4. Considering objective evidence present in the application indicating obviousness or nonobviousness.
Claims 1-20 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Denoual et al., (US 2021/0377581 A1, published 12/2/2021), hereinafter referred to as Denoual.
Claim 1
Denoual discloses a video processing method (Denoual, Fig. 1a), comprising:
separately coding image data (Denoual, Fig. 1a, encoding means 140) acquired by a camera (Denoual, Fig. 1a, capturing means 100) to obtain a first image bit stream and a second image bit stream (Denoual, [010], “The projected images 122 or packed images 131 are encoded by the encoding means 140 into one or several video bit-streams”, [0099], “a stereoscopic frame packing arrangement may also consist in keeping left and right views in separate and independent projected images sequence resulting in independent video bit-streams after encoding by encoding means 140. For example, one video bit-stream represents the left view images and the other one does the right view images.”, under BRI, a stereoscopic frame is considered an image data); and
generating a target video file (Denoual, [0363], “the system 995 is for processing and providing a content (for example, a video and audio content for displaying/outputting or streaming video/audio content) to a user, who has access to the decoder 900, for example through a user interface of a user terminal comprising the decoder 900 or a user terminal that is communicable with the decoder 900.”) based on the first image bit stream and the second image bit stream (Denoual, [0363], “The system 991 obtains/receives a content comprising an original sequence of images 951, for example corresponding to a wide view scene in embodiments of the invention, which is received and processed by the encoder 950, and the encoder 950 generates a bitstream 901 that is to be communicated to the decoder 900 via a communication network 991. The bitstream 901 is then communicated to the decoder 900 in a number of ways, for example it may be generated in advance by the encoder 950 and stored as data in a storage apparatus in the communication network 999 (e.g. on a server or a cloud storage) until a user requests the content (i.e. the bitstream data) from the storage apparatus, at which point the data is communicated/streamed to the decoder 900 from the storage apparatus. The system 991 may also comprise a content providing apparatus for providing/streaming, to the user (e.g. by communicating data for a user interface to be displayed on a user terminal), content information for the content stored in the storage apparatus (e.g. the title of the content and other meta/storage location data for identifying, selecting and requesting the content), and for receiving and processing a user request for a content so that the requested content can be delivered/streamed from the storage apparatus to the user terminal.”), wherein the target video file comprises a first video track and a second video track (Denoual, [0004], “An ISOBMFF file may contain multiple encoded timed media data bit-streams or sub-parts of encoded timed media data bit-streams forming multiple tracks.”), the first image bit stream is located on the first video track, and the second image bit stream is located on the second video track (Denoual, [0110], “FIG. 10d depicts an example of stereoscopic omnidirectional content where there is a frame packing (means 125 for the optional frame packing) applied in order to pack the two projected views 1031 in a single frame-packed picture 1032. Then, the resulting frame-packed picture 1032 is encapsulated, possibly into multiple sub-picture tracks like in 1033. In this example, each sub-picture track describes both views for a given spatial region. As for the projection followed by packing, one sub-picture track may encapsulate one region or many regions (as depicted on FIG. 10). An encapsulation module may decide on a description cost versus access granularity trade-off to encapsulate the content into sub-picture tracks containing multiple packed regions for example. This may be the case when the encapsulation by computing inverse projection of the packed region finds that there is no gap in the inverse projection of contiguous regions in the packed frame. This may be a decision criterion to group these regions from the packed picture into a single sub-picture track.”, [0124], “An encoded bit-stream (e.g. HEVC) and possibly its sub-bit-streams (e.g. tiled HEVC, MV-HEVC, scalable HEVC), can be encapsulated as one single track. Alternatively multiple encoded bit-streams that are spatially related (i.e. are sub-spatial parts of a projected image) can be encapsulated as several sub-picture tracks. Alternatively, an encoded bit-stream (e.g. tiled HEVC, MV-HEVC, scalable HEVC) comprising several sub-bit-streams (tiles, views, layers) can be encapsulated as multiple sub-picture tracks.”).
It would have been obvious to someone of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to combine each of the example embodiments of the prior art. All the claimed elements were known in the prior art and one skilled in the art could have combined the embodiments as claimed by known method with no change in their respective functions, and the combination would have yielded predictable results to one of ordinary skill in the art at the time of the invention. Denoual disclosed that although the present invention has been described with reference to specific embodiments, the present invention is not limited to the specific embodiments, and modifications will be apparent to a person skilled in the art (Denoual, [0375]) and in particular the different features from different embodiments may be interchanged, where appropriate (Denoual, [0377]).
Claim 2
Denoual discloses the video processing method according to claim 1 (Denoual, Fig. 1a), wherein the generating a target video file (Denoual, [0363], “the system 995 is for processing and providing a content (for example, a video and audio content for displaying/outputting or streaming video/audio content) to a user, who has access to the decoder 900, for example through a user interface of a user terminal comprising the decoder 900 or a user terminal that is communicable with the decoder 900.”) based on the first image bit stream and the second image bit stream (Denoual, [0363], “The system 991 obtains/receives a content comprising an original sequence of images 951, for example corresponding to a wide view scene in embodiments of the invention, which is received and processed by the encoder 950, and the encoder 950 generates a bitstream 901 that is to be communicated to the decoder 900 via a communication network 991. The bitstream 901 is then communicated to the decoder 900 in a number of ways, for example it may be generated in advance by the encoder 950 and stored as data in a storage apparatus in the communication network 999 (e.g. on a server or a cloud storage) until a user requests the content (i.e. the bitstream data) from the storage apparatus, at which point the data is communicated/streamed to the decoder 900 from the storage apparatus. The system 991 may also comprise a content providing apparatus for providing/streaming, to the user (e.g. by communicating data for a user interface to be displayed on a user terminal), content information for the content stored in the storage apparatus (e.g. the title of the content and other meta/storage location data for identifying, selecting and requesting the content), and for receiving and processing a user request for a content so that the requested content can be delivered/streamed from the storage apparatus to the user terminal.”) comprises: adding a first identifier into a video file header (Denoual, [0261], where the equivalent_track_IDs parameter provides the list of track_ID (for the track identifier declared in the track header box) for the tracks that can be considered as equivalent to the current track pertaining to this track group. When, instead of using the version parameter, the flags parameter is used, the ‘sprg’ box would become:.”) of the target video file (Denoual, [0003], “Each track (uniquely identified by a track identifier (track_ID)) represents a timed sequence of media data belonging to the presentation (frames of video, for example)”, wherein the first identifier is used to identify that the target video file is compatible with an image format corresponding to the first image bit stream and an image format corresponding to the second image bit stream (Denoual, [0028], “the data structure comprising identifiers for signaling the groups of tracks whose tracks are switchable with the tracks of the first group of tracks”, [0135], “This box also includes an identifier (track_group_id), which can be used to determine the tracks belonging to the same track group. All the tracks having a track group box with a track group type box having the same track_group_type and track_group_id values are part of the same track group. The box also allows declaration of specific parameters associated with the track for a particular track group type.”).
Claim 3
Denoual discloses the video processing method according to claim 1 (Denoual, Fig. 1a), wherein after the generating a target video file based on the first image bit stream and the second image bit stream (Denoual, [0363], “the system 995 is for processing and providing a content (for example, a video and audio content for displaying/outputting or streaming video/audio content) to a user, who has access to the decoder 900, for example through a user interface of a user terminal comprising the decoder 900 or a user terminal that is communicable with the decoder 900.”), the video processing method further comprises: receiving a first input for the target video file by a user (Denoual, Fig. 1a, the output of streaming server 161 is received by the streaming client 162, [0088], “the media data can be a video sequence 1011 captured by a camera system 100 and delivered to the client device 170, to be displayed on a 2D screen 175 (TV, tablet, smartphone . . . ), by a user for example.”); and in response to the first input, parsing the target video file to obtain the first image bit stream and uploading the first image bit stream to a target platform in a target application program (Denoual, Fig. 1a, File/segment de-encapsulating means 171 and decoding means 172, [0091], “Upon reception by the streaming client 162, the encapsulated media file or media segments are parsed by File/segment de-encapsulating means 171 so as to extract one or more data streams. The extracted data stream(s) is/are decoded at by decoding means 172. In case of ISOBMFF file or segments received by the File/segment de-encapsulating means 171, the parsing is typically handled by an mp4 reader or mp4 parser. From the descriptive metadata, the parser can extract encapsulated video bitstreams and/or video sub-bitstreams.”).
Claim 4
Denoual discloses the video processing method according to claim 1 (Denoual, Fig. 1a), applied to a first electronic device (Denoual, Fig. 1a), wherein after the generating a target video file based on the first image bit stream and the second image bit stream (Denoual, [0363], “the system 995 is for processing and providing a content (for example, a video and audio content for displaying/outputting or streaming video/audio content) to a user, who has access to the decoder 900, for example through a user interface of a user terminal comprising the decoder 900 or a user terminal that is communicable with the decoder 900.”), the video processing method further comprises: receiving a second input for the target video file by a user (Denoual, [0331], “. In step 701, the user configures the encapsulation module (for example an ISOBMFF writer or mp4 packager or writer in means 150 on FIG. 1a). This can be done through a graphical user interface controlling an encapsulation software.”); and in response to the second input, parsing the target video file to obtain a target image bit stream (Denoual, Fig. 1a, Encoding means 140), encapsulating the target image bit stream to obtain a first video file (File/segment encapsulating means 150), and transmitting the first video file to a second electronic device in communication connection with the first electronic device (Denoual, Fig. 1a, the video segments are delivered to a client), wherein the target image bit stream is either the first image bit stream or the second image bit stream (Denoual, [0004], “An ISOBMFF file may contain multiple encoded timed media data bit-streams or sub-parts of encoded timed media data bit-streams forming multiple tracks.”),.
Claim 5
Denoual discloses the video processing method according to claim 2 (Denoual, Fig. 1a), wherein after the generating a target video file based on the first image bit stream and the second image bit stream (Denoual, [0363], “the system 995 is for processing and providing a content (for example, a video and audio content for displaying/outputting or streaming video/audio content) to a user, who has access to the decoder 900, for example through a user interface of a user terminal comprising the decoder 900 or a user terminal that is communicable with the decoder 900.”), the video processing method further comprises: receiving a third input for a second video file by a user (Denoual,[0363], “The system 991 may also comprise a content providing apparatus for providing/streaming, to the user (e.g. by communicating data for a user interface to be displayed on a user terminal), content information for the content stored in the storage apparatus (e.g. the title of the content and other meta/storage location data for identifying, selecting and requesting the content), and for receiving and processing a user request for a content so that the requested content can be delivered/streamed from the storage apparatus to the user terminal.”) ; in response to the third input, parsing a video file header of the second video file (Denoual, [0104], “A slice segment is encoded in the HEVC bit-stream as a slice_segment_header followed by slice_segment_data. Independent slice segments (ISS) and dependent slice segments (DSS) differ by their header: the dependent slice segment has a shorter header because reusing information from the independent slice segment's header. Both independent and dependent slice segments contain a list of entry points in the bit-stream.”); and in a case that the video file header of the second video file has the first identifier, decoding and playing a second image bit stream in the second video file (Denoual, [0274],” when used in TrackGroupBox, the track_IDs is an array of integers providing track group identifiers (track_group_id from a TrackGroupTypeBox) of the referenced track groups. The list of possible values to use for the reference type is extended with an ‘eqiv’ value as follows: [0275] ‘eqiv’: this track group contains tracks that each has an equivalent track in the referenced track group(s). It is up to a parser, depending on the track grouping type and the track properties within the track group to determine which track from the referenced track group correspond to a given track in this track group. For example, in the case of sub-picture tracks, tracks at same position with same size can be considered equivalent. As explained below by reference to FIG. 6 the ‘trgr’ boxes 601 and 602 could be associated through this ‘tref’ at track group level. As for alternative embodiments for declaration of equivalent track groups, the track reference type may be more precise in terms of description. Instead of defining a single ‘eqiv’ track reference type, two new track reference types may be used: one for bitstream equivalence (for example: ‘beqv’) and another one for display equivalence (for example: ‘deqv’).”.
Claims 6-10 are rejected for similar reasons as those described in claims 1-5. The additional elements in Claims 6-10 (Denoual) discloses includes: an electronic device (Denoual, [0364], FIG. 3 is a schematic block diagram of a computing device 300 for implementation of one or more embodiments of the invention”), comprising a processor (Denoual, [0365], “a central processing unit (CPU) 301, such as a microprocessor”) and a memory (Denoual, [0366], “a random access memory (RAM) 302”), wherein the memory stores a program or instructions capable of running on the processor (Denoual, [0366], “a random access memory (RAM) 302 for storing the executable code of the method of embodiments of the invention as well as the registers adapted to record variables and parameters necessary for implementing the method for reading and writing the manifests and/or for encoding the video and/or for reading or generating data under a given file format”), wherein the program or instructions (Denoual, Fig. 1a), when executed by the processor (Denoual, [0365], “a central processing unit (CPU) 301, such as a microprocessor”), cause the electronic device to perform (Denoual, [0364], FIG. 3 is a schematic block diagram of a computing device 300 for implementation of one or more embodiments of the invention”). It would have been obvious to someone of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to combine each of the example embodiments of the prior art. All the claimed elements were known in the prior art and one skilled in the art could have combined the embodiments as claimed by known method with no change in their respective functions, and the combination would have yielded predictable results to one of ordinary skill in the art at the time of the invention. Denoual disclosed that although the present invention has been described with reference to specific embodiments, the present invention is not limited to the specific embodiments, and modifications will be apparent to a person skilled in the art (Denoual, [0375]) and in particular the different features from different embodiments may be interchanged, where appropriate (Denoual, [0377]).
Claims 11-15 are rejected for similar reasons as those described in claims 1-5. The additional elements in Claims 11-15 (Denoual) discloses includes: a non-transitory readable storage medium (Denoual, [0366], “a random access memory (RAM) 302”), wherein the non-transitory readable storage medium stores a program or instructions (Denoual, [0366], “a random access memory (RAM) 302 for storing the executable code of the method of embodiments of the invention as well as the registers adapted to record variables and parameters necessary for implementing the method for reading and writing the manifests and/or for encoding the video and/or for reading or generating data under a given file format”), wherein the program or instructions (Denoual, Fig. 1a), when executed by a processor (Denoual, [0365], “a central processing unit (CPU) 301, such as a microprocessor”) of an electronic device, cause the processor of the electronic device to perform (Denoual, [0364], FIG. 3 is a schematic block diagram of a computing device 300 for implementation of one or more embodiments of the invention”). It would have been obvious to someone of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to combine each of the example embodiments of the prior art. All the claimed elements were known in the prior art and one skilled in the art could have combined the embodiments as claimed by known method with no change in their respective functions, and the combination would have yielded predictable results to one of ordinary skill in the art at the time of the invention. Denoual disclosed that although the present invention has been described with reference to specific embodiments, the present invention is not limited to the specific embodiments, and modifications will be apparent to a person skilled in the art (Denoual, [0375]) and in particular the different features from different embodiments may be interchanged, where appropriate (Denoual, [0377]).
Claims 16-19 are rejected for similar reasons as those described in claims 1-4. The additional elements in Claims 16-19 (Denoual) discloses includes: a chip (Denoual, Fig. 3, CPU is a chip), wherein the chip comprises a processor (Denoual, [0365], “a central processing unit (CPU) 301, such as a microprocessor”) and a communication interface (Denoual. Fig. 3, User interface 305), the communication interface is coupled to the processor (Denoual, Fig. 3), and the processor (Denoual, [0365], “a central processing unit (CPU) 301, such as a microprocessor”) is configured to run a program or instructions (Denoual, [0366], “a random access memory (RAM) 302 for storing the executable code of the method of embodiments of the invention as well as the registers adapted to record variables and parameters necessary for implementing the method for reading and writing the manifests and/or for encoding the video and/or for reading or generating data under a given file format”) to implement the video processing method according to claim 1 (Denoual, Fig. 1a). It would have been obvious to someone of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to combine each of the example embodiments of the prior art. All the claimed elements were known in the prior art and one skilled in the art could have combined the embodiments as claimed by known method with no change in their respective functions, and the combination would have yielded predictable results to one of ordinary skill in the art at the time of the invention. Denoual disclosed that although the present invention has been described with reference to specific embodiments, the present invention is not limited to the specific embodiments, and modifications will be apparent to a person skilled in the art (Denoual, [0375]) and in particular the different features from different embodiments may be interchanged, where appropriate (Denoual, [0377]).
Claim 20 is rejected for similar reasons as those described in claim 1. The additional elements in Claim 20 (Denoual) discloses includes: a computer program product (Denoual, [0367], “a read only memory (ROM) 303 for storing computer programs for implementing embodiments of the invention”), wherein the computer program product is stored in a storage medium (Denoual, [0367], “a read only memory (ROM) 303), and the computer program product is executed by at least one processor (Denoual, [0365], “a central processing unit (CPU) 301, such as a microprocessor”) to implement the method according to claim 1 (Denoual, Fig. 1a). It would have been obvious to someone of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to combine each of the example embodiments of the prior art. All the claimed elements were known in the prior art and one skilled in the art could have combined the embodiments as claimed by known method with no change in their respective functions, and the combination would have yielded predictable results to one of ordinary skill in the art at the time of the invention. Denoual disclosed that although the present invention has been described with reference to specific embodiments, the present invention is not limited to the specific embodiments, and modifications will be apparent to a person skilled in the art (Denoual, [0375]) and in particular the different features from different embodiments may be interchanged, where appropriate (Denoual, [0377]).
Conclusion
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to DENISE G ALFONSO whose telephone number is (571)272-1360. The examiner can normally be reached Monday - Friday 7:30 - 5:30.
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/DENISE G ALFONSO/Examiner, Art Unit 2662 /AMANDEEP SAINI/Supervisory Patent Examiner, Art Unit 2662
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