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 statements (IDS) were submitted on 11/12/2024. The submission 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 § 101
35 U.S.C. 101 reads as follows:
Whoever invents or discovers any new and useful process, machine, manufacture, or composition of matter, or any new and useful improvement thereof, may obtain a patent therefor, subject to the conditions and requirements of this title.
Claim 17 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. § 101 as directed to non-statutory subject matter.
Claim 17 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 101 as not falling within one of the four statutory categories of invention because the broadest reasonable interpretation of the instant claims in light of the specification encompasses transitory signals. But transitory signals are not within one of the four statutory categories ((i.e. process, machine, manufacture, or composition of matter).
However, claims directed toward a non-transitory computer readable medium may qualify as a manufacture and make the claim patent-eligible subject matter. Therefore, amending the claims to recite a “non-transitory computer-readable medium” would resolve this issue.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 112
The following is a quotation of 35 U.S.C. 112(b):
(b) CONCLUSION.—The specification shall conclude with one or more claims particularly pointing out and distinctly claiming the subject matter which the inventor or a joint inventor regards as the invention.
The following is a quotation of 35 U.S.C. 112 (pre-AIA ), second paragraph:
The specification shall conclude with one or more claims particularly pointing out and distinctly claiming the subject matter which the applicant regards as his invention.
Claim 17 is rejected under 35 U.S.C. 112, second paragraph, as being indefinite for failing to particularly point out and distinctly claim the subject matter which applicant regards as the invention.
The claim/claims is/are directed to “storing instructions” and/or “storing bitstreams” but claim/claims does not have any steps related to “storing instructions” and “storing bitstreams”, therefore, the scope of the claim/claims are/is vague and indefinite.
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 of this title, 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 1-2, 11 & 17 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over PALURI et al. (US 20210021834, hereinafter PALURI) in view of Solovyev et al. (US 20240048756, hereinafter Solovyev).
Regarding Claim 1, PALURI discloses a method of reconstructing a current block, performed by a video decoding device, the method comprising:
acquiring a compressed motion vector field and reconstructed pictures from a decoded picture buffer ([0071] FIG. 2, predictor 230 derives a prediction sample for a current block based on a sample specified in a reference picture according to a motion vector using one of the skip mode, the merge mode and the MVP (Motion vector Prediction) mode);
generating a prediction block of the current block based on intra prediction using reconstructed neighboring samples or generating the prediction block and motion information based on inter prediction using the reconstructed pictures, ([0077] a motion vector predictor candidate list may be generated using a motion vector of a reconstructed spatial neighboring block and/or a motion vector corresponding to a Col block which is a temporal neighboring block when the MVP (Motion vector Prediction) mode is applied -i.e. the motion vector of the reconstructed spatial neighboring block and/or the motion vector corresponding to the Col block which is the temporal neighboring block may be used as motion vector candidates; [0092] FIG. 4, decode motion vector and update a motion vector field (MVF) of each coding unit or prediction unit storing a motion vector, a reference index, list information, prediction mode information in the MVF); and
storing motion information corresponding to a position of the current block in the motion vector field of the current block based on a prediction mode according to the intra prediction or motion information according to the inter prediction, position information of the current block, and size information of the current block ([0077] predictor 230 selects a prediction motion vector of the current block from the motion vector candidates included in the motion vector candidate list using the motion vector index and acquires a motion vector included in the information about prediction and derive the motion vector of the current block by adding the motion vector difference to the motion vector predictor; [0092] FIG. 4, decode motion vector and update a motion vector field (MVF) of each coding unit or prediction unit storing a motion vector, a reference index, list information, prediction mode information in the MVF).
PALURI does not explicitly disclose generating a reconstructed motion vector field by dequantizing the compressed motion vector field
Solovyev teaches generating a reconstructed motion vector field by dequantizing the compressed motion vector field ([0116] decoder interpolates missing motion vectors and uses the reconstructed dense motion field for motion compensation reconstructing motion vectors for sample positions within the image; [0127] decoder then interpolates the missing motion vectors and uses the reconstructed dense motion field for motion compensation).
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify the teachings of generating a reconstructed motion vector as taught by Solovyev ([0127]) into the encoding & decoding system of PALURI in order to provide an efficient way of reconstructing motion vectors including employing of two different motion vector interpolation methods selected on a picture segment basis (Solovyev, [0010]).
Regarding Claim 2, PALURI in view of Solovyev discloses the method of claim 1, PALURI discloses wherein storing in the motion vector field includes: dividing a current coding block region corresponding to the current block into grids of the motion vector field; and copying the motion information of the current block and storing the copied motion information in each grid ([0092] FIG. 4, decode motion vector and update a motion vector field (MVF) of each coding unit or prediction unit storing a motion vector, a reference index, list information, prediction mode information in the MVF).
Regarding Claim 11, Encoding method claim 11 of using the corresponding decoding method claimed in claims 1, and the rejections of which are incorporated herein for the same reasons as used above.
Regarding Claim 17, Computer-readable encoding method claim 11 of using the corresponding decoding method claimed in claims 1, and the rejections of which are incorporated herein for the same reasons as used above.
Allowable Subject Matter
Claims 3-10 & 12-16 are objected to as being dependent upon a rejected base claims, but would be allowable if rewritten in independent form including all of the limitations of the base claim and any intervening claims.
Conclusion
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to Samuel D Fereja whose telephone number is (469)295-9243. The examiner can normally be reached 8AM-5PM.
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/SAMUEL D FEREJA/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2487