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 .
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) 1, 8-9, 11 and 14 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over US 2020/0288130 A1 (“Seregin”) in view of US 2023/0050468 A1 (“Wang”).
Regarding claim 1, Seregin discloses a method of video decoding, the method comprising:
receiving encoded data associated with a current block to be decoded at a decoder side (e.g. see encoded video bitstream/data received by video decoder 300 as shown in Fig. 4, paragraphs [0102]-[0103]), wherein the current block is coded using an SBT (Subblock Transform) mode (e.g. see cu_sbt_flag that indicates whether or not a sub-block transform mode is used, paragraphs [0117]-[0118]);
determining an SBT position among a set of candidate sub-part blocks for the current block (e.g. see SBT position, e.g. position 0 or position 1 in Fig. 5, paragraphs [0117]-[0118]);
deriving transformed residual data for the current block from the encoded data associated with the current block (e.g. see inverse quantization unit 306 in Fig. 4 form a transform coefficient block, paragraph [0104]); and
applying SBT, by using SBT information comprising the SBT position, to the transformed residual data for the current block to recover reconstructed residual data for the current block (e.g. see inverse transform processing unit 308 in Fig. 4 apply one or more transforms to a transform coefficient block using a sub-block transform mode to generate the residual block associated with the current block, paragraphs [0105]-[0108], by using SBT types and SBT positions as shown in Fig. 5, paragraphs [0117]-[0118]).
Although Seregin discloses determining the SBT position among a set of candidate sub-part blocks for the current block, it is noted Seregin differs from the present invention in that it fails to particularly disclose wherein the SBT position is determined implicitly without parsing the SBT position from a bitstream or the SBT position is selected from a partial set of candidate sub-part blocks derived implicitly from the set of candidate sub-part blocks. Wang however, teaches wherein the SBT position is determined implicitly without parsing the SBT position from a bitstream or the SBT position is selected from a partial set of candidate sub-part blocks derived implicitly from the set of candidate sub-part blocks (e.g. see implicitly indicate flag bits (e.g. sbt_dir_flag and/or sbt_pos_flag) of target sub-block positions, paragraphs [0084]-[0085], e.g. see 830 in Fig. 8, paragraphs [0101]-[0102], [0106]).
Therefore, given the teachings as a whole, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention, having the references of Seregin and Wang before him/her, to modify the Simplification of sub-block transform in video coding of Seregin with the teachings of Wang in order to reduce number of bits in a bitstream and improve the efficiency of video coding.
Regarding claim 8, Seregin further discloses wherein the set of candidate sub-part blocks comprises sub-part blocks generated using SBT-V with BT split, SBT-H with BT split, SBT-V with ABT split, SBT-H with ABT split, SBT-V with TT split, SBT-H with TT split, or a combination thereof (e.g. see SBT modes in Fig. 5).
Regarding claim 9, Seregin in view of Wang further teaches wherein an SBT partition direction is implicitly determined (Wang: e.g. see implicitly indicate flag bits (e.g. sbt_dir_flag and/or sbt_pos_flag) of target sub-block positions, paragraphs [0084]-[0085], e.g. see 830 in Fig. 8, paragraphs [0101]-[0102], [0106]). The motivation above in the rejection of claim 1 applies here.
Regarding claim 11, Seregin in view of Wang further teaches wherein an SBT partition type is implicitly determined (Wang: e.g. see implicitly indicate flag bits (e.g. sbt_dir_flag and/or sbt_pos_flag) of target sub-block positions, paragraphs [0084]-[0085], e.g. see 830 in Fig. 8, paragraphs [0101]-[0102], [0106]). The motivation above in the rejection of claim 1 applies here.
Regarding claim 14, the claim recites analogous limitations to the claim above and is therefore rejected on the same premise.
Allowable Subject Matter
Claims 2-7, 10, 12 and 13 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
The prior art made of record and not relied upon is considered pertinent to applicant's disclosure.
US 2023/0104359 A1, Wang et al., Video encoding method and apparatus, video decoding method and apparatus, computer-readable medium, and electronic device
US 2022/0030240 A1, Liu et al., Sub-block transform in transform skip mode
US 2021/0084321 A1, Sarwer et al., Method and apparatus for signaling sub-block transform information
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/Francis Geroleo/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 3619