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 .
DETAILED ACTION
Summary
This office action for US Patent application 18/875736 is responsive to communications filed on Dec 17th, 2024. Currently, claims 1-20 are pending are presented for examination.
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)(2) the claimed invention was described in a patent issued under section 151, or in an application for patent published or deemed published under section 122(b), in which the patent or application, as the case may be, names another inventor and was effectively filed before the effective filing date of the claimed invention.
Claims 1-20 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C §102 (a)(2) as being anticipated by TAKAHASHI et al. (US 20230319306 A1: refer to its PCT filed 08/13/2021).
Regarding claim 1, TAKAHASHI et al. (US 20230319306 A1: refer to its PCT filed 08/13/2021) meets the claim limitations, as follows:
An image processing apparatus, comprising:
a resolution change control unit that performs control on a moving image of a predetermined frame size so that a resolution of a frame image is changed in multiple steps [i.e. the transfer method control section 101 controls resolution of a transfer-subject image; paragraph. 0097-0098, Fig. 7];
an image reduction unit that generates a reduced image by reducing a size of the frame image of the moving image in accordance with the control of the resolution change control unit [i.e. the resolution transforming section 111 performs processes related to transformation of the resolution (image size) of a transfer-subject image. The resolution transforming section 111 downsamples a normal image 131 and generates a downsized image 132; paragraph. 0102, Fig. 7-8];
a position setting unit that sets a position of the reduced image to be arranged in a frame of the frame size [i.e. the video capture 112 generates a transfer image 133 including the downsized image 132 at a predetermined position or at a position specified by the transfer method control section 101; paragraph. 0103, Fig. 7-8]; and
a coding unit that codes the moving image of the frame size including the frame in which the reduced image is arranged at the set position as a single sequence to generate a bitstream [i.e. the coding section 113 performs processes related to coding of a transfer image including the downsized image with its downsized image size information and downsized image positional information; paragraph. 0099, 0104-0105, Fig. 7-8].
Regarding claim 2, TAKAHASHI et al. (US 20230319306 A1: refer to its PCT filed 08/13/2021) discloses the following claim limitations as set forth in claim 1.
Furthermore, TAKAHASHI et al. (US 20230319306 A1: refer to its PCT filed 08/13/2021) discloses the claim limitations as follows:
The image processing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the resolution change control unit controls an amount of change in the resolution [i.e. the transfer method control section 101 controls the resolution of a transfer-subject image; paragraph. 0098].
Regarding claim 3, TAKAHASHI et al. (US 20230319306 A1: refer to its PCT filed 08/13/2021) discloses the following claim limitations as set forth in claim 2.
Furthermore, TAKAHASHI et al. (US 20230319306 A1: refer to its PCT filed 08/13/2021) discloses the claim limitations as follows:
The image processing apparatus according to claim 2, wherein the resolution change control unit controls the amount of change in accordance with a bandwidth of a transmission channel [i.e. resolution control based on transfer bandwidth information; paragraph. 0083, Fig. 7].
Regarding claim 4, TAKAHASHI et al. (US 20230319306 A1: refer to its PCT filed 08/13/2021) discloses the following claim limitations as set forth in claim 1.
Furthermore, TAKAHASHI et al. (US 20230319306 A1: refer to its PCT filed 08/13/2021) discloses the claim limitations as follows:
The image processing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the resolution change control unit controls a length of a change period of the resolution [i.e. encoding sequence with downsized image frame; Fig. 3, 5].
Regarding claim 5, TAKAHASHI et al. (US 20230319306 A1: refer to its PCT filed 08/13/2021) discloses the following claim limitations as set forth in claim 4.
Furthermore, TAKAHASHI et al. (US 20230319306 A1: refer to its PCT filed 08/13/2021) discloses the claim limitations as follows:
The image processing apparatus according to claim 4, wherein the resolution change control unit controls the length of the change period in accordance with a degree of change in a bandwidth of a transmission channel [i.e. a resolution is lowered according to a degree of reduction of a transfer band; paragraph. 0002].
Regarding claim 6, TAKAHASHI et al. (US 20230319306 A1: refer to its PCT filed 08/13/2021) discloses the following claim limitations as set forth in claim 4.
Furthermore, TAKAHASHI et al. (US 20230319306 A1: refer to its PCT filed 08/13/2021) discloses the claim limitations as follows:
The image processing apparatus according to claim 4, wherein the resolution change control unit controls the length of the change period in accordance with the moving image [i.e. encoding sequence with downsized moving image frame; Fig. 3, 5].
Regarding claim 7, TAKAHASHI et al. (US 20230319306 A1: refer to its PCT filed 08/13/2021) discloses the following claim limitations as set forth in claim 1.
Furthermore, TAKAHASHI et al. (US 20230319306 A1: refer to its PCT filed 08/13/2021) discloses the claim limitations as follows:
The image processing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the resolution change control unit controls the number of steps of the resolution change [i.e. the transfer method control section controls a number steps; Fig. 7].
Regarding claim 8, TAKAHASHI et al. (US 20230319306 A1: refer to its PCT filed 08/13/2021) discloses the following claim limitations as set forth in claim 1.
Furthermore, TAKAHASHI et al. (US 20230319306 A1: refer to its PCT filed 08/13/2021) discloses the claim limitations as follows:
The image processing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the resolution change control unit controls a transition pattern of the resolution in the change in the resolution [i.e. pattern of resolution change of a moving image; Fig. 4-5].
Regarding claim 9, TAKAHASHI et al. (US 20230319306 A1: refer to its PCT filed 08/13/2021) discloses the following claim limitations as set forth in claim 8.
Furthermore, TAKAHASHI et al. (US 20230319306 A1: refer to its PCT filed 08/13/2021) discloses the claim limitations as follows:
The image processing apparatus according to claim 8, wherein the resolution change control unit controls the transition pattern in accordance with a degree of change in a bandwidth of a transmission channel [i.e. a resolution is lowered according to a degree of reduction of a transfer band; paragraph. 0002, Fig. 5].
Regarding claim 10, TAKAHASHI et al. (US 20230319306 A1: refer to its PCT filed 08/13/2021) discloses the following claim limitations as set forth in claim 8.
Furthermore, TAKAHASHI et al. (US 20230319306 A1: refer to its PCT filed 08/13/2021) discloses the claim limitations as follows:
The image processing apparatus according to claim 8, wherein the resolution change control unit controls the transition pattern in accordance with the moving image [i.e. Fig. 4-5].
Regarding claim 11, TAKAHASHI et al. (US 20230319306 A1: refer to its PCT filed 08/13/2021) discloses the following claim limitations as set forth in claim 1.
Furthermore, TAKAHASHI et al. (US 20230319306 A1: refer to its PCT filed 08/13/2021) discloses the claim limitations as follows:
The image processing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the resolution change control unit performs control to perform at least one of increase and reduction in an amount of change in the resolution in multiple steps [i.e. generate a downsized image in according to a resolution change based on steps; paragraph. 0102-0105, Fig. 2 and 8].
Regarding claim 12, TAKAHASHI et al. (US 20230319306 A1: refer to its PCT filed 08/13/2021) discloses the following claim limitations as set forth in claim 11.
Furthermore, TAKAHASHI et al. (US 20230319306 A1: refer to its PCT filed 08/13/2021) discloses the claim limitations as follows:
The image processing apparatus according to claim 11, wherein the resolution change control unit controls the increase and reduction in the amount of change in the resolution independently of each other [i.e. Fig. 2].
Regarding claim 13, TAKAHASHI et al. (US 20230319306 A1: refer to its PCT filed 08/13/2021) discloses the following claim limitations as set forth in claim 1.
Furthermore, TAKAHASHI et al. (US 20230319306 A1: refer to its PCT filed 08/13/2021) discloses the claim limitations as follows:
The image processing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the resolution change control unit generates resolution change information indicating control contents about the change in the resolution [i.e. a downsized image 22 with resolution change; Fig. 2], and the coding unit contains the resolution change information in the bitstream [i.e. the downsized image 22 in the bitstream; paragraph. 0066Fig. 2].
Regarding claim 14, TAKAHASHI et al. (US 20230319306 A1: refer to its PCT filed 08/13/2021) discloses the following claim limitations as set forth in claim 1.
Furthermore, TAKAHASHI et al. (US 20230319306 A1: refer to its PCT filed 08/13/2021) discloses the claim limitations as follows:
The image processing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the position setting unit generates cropping position information indicating the set position, and the coding unit contains the cropping position information in the bitstream [i.e. downsized image positional information included in the downsized image frame information; paragraph. 0099, 0105].
Regarding claim 15, TAKAHASHI et al. (US 20230319306 A1: refer to its PCT filed 08/13/2021) discloses the following claim limitations as set forth in claim 14.
Furthermore, TAKAHASHI et al. (US 20230319306 A1: refer to its PCT filed 08/13/2021) discloses the claim limitations as follows:
The image processing apparatus according to claim 14, wherein the cropping position information includes top, bottom, left, and right offsets of the arranged reduced image [i.e. generate a transfer image 133 including the downsized image 132 at a predetermined position; paragraph. 0103, Fig. 8B].
Regarding claim 16, TAKAHASHI et al. (US 20230319306 A1: refer to its PCT filed 08/13/2021) discloses the following claim limitations as set forth in claim 1.
Furthermore, TAKAHASHI et al. (US 20230319306 A1: refer to its PCT filed 08/13/2021) discloses the claim limitations as follows:
The image processing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the resolution change control unit controls the change in the resolution of the entire frame image [i.e. resolution change of the whole image frame; paragraph. 0066, Fig. 2].
Regarding claim 17, TAKAHASHI et al. (US 20230319306 A1: refer to its PCT filed 08/13/2021) discloses the following claim limitations as set forth in claim 1.
Furthermore, TAKAHASHI et al. (US 20230319306 A1: refer to its PCT filed 08/13/2021) discloses the claim limitations as follows:
The image processing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the resolution change control unit controls the change in the resolution of a partial area of the frame image [i.e. the resolution change in a partial image in the frame; Fig. 8].
Regarding claims 18-20, all the claim limitations which are set forth and rejected as per discussion for claim 1.
Conclusion
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications form the examiner should be directed to Nam Pham, whose can be contacted by phone at (571)270-7352. The examiner can normally be reached on Mon—Thurs.
If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner's supervisor, CZEKAJ DAVID, can be reached on (571)272-7327.
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/NAM D PHAM/ Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2487
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