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) submitted on 12/18/2024 is being considered by the examiner.
Drawings
The drawings are objected to as failing to comply with 37 CFR 1.84(p)(5) because they do not include the following reference sign(s) mentioned in the description: S400 and S500. Corrected drawing sheets in compliance with 37 CFR 1.121(d) are required in reply to the Office action to avoid abandonment of the application. Any amended replacement drawing sheet should include all of the figures appearing on the immediate prior version of the sheet, even if only one figure is being amended. Each drawing sheet submitted after the filing date of an application must be labeled in the top margin as either “Replacement Sheet” or “New Sheet” pursuant to 37 CFR 1.121(d). If the changes are not accepted by the examiner, the applicant will be notified and informed of any required corrective action in the next Office action. The objection to the drawings will not be held in abeyance.
Claim Interpretation
The following is a quotation of 35 U.S.C. 112(f):
(f) Element in Claim for a Combination. – An element in a claim for a combination may be expressed as a means or step for performing a specified function without the recital of structure, material, or acts in support thereof, and such claim shall be construed to cover the corresponding structure, material, or acts described in the specification and equivalents thereof.
The following is a quotation of pre-AIA 35 U.S.C. 112, sixth paragraph:
An element in a claim for a combination may be expressed as a means or step for performing a specified function without the recital of structure, material, or acts in support thereof, and such claim shall be construed to cover the corresponding structure, material, or acts described in the specification and equivalents thereof.
The claims in this application are given their broadest reasonable interpretation using the plain meaning of the claim language in light of the specification as it would be understood by one of ordinary skill in the art. The broadest reasonable interpretation of a claim element (also commonly referred to as a claim limitation) is limited by the description in the specification when 35 U.S.C. 112(f) or pre-AIA 35 U.S.C. 112, sixth paragraph, is invoked.
As explained in MPEP § 2181, subsection I, claim limitations that meet the following three-prong test will be interpreted under 35 U.S.C. 112(f) or pre-AIA 35 U.S.C. 112, sixth paragraph:
(A) the claim limitation uses the term “means” or “step” or a term used as a substitute for “means” that is a generic placeholder (also called a nonce term or a non-structural term having no specific structural meaning) for performing the claimed function;
(B) the term “means” or “step” or the generic placeholder is modified by functional language, typically, but not always linked by the transition word “for” (e.g., “means for”) or another linking word or phrase, such as “configured to” or “so that”; and
(C) the term “means” or “step” or the generic placeholder is not modified by sufficient structure, material, or acts for performing the claimed function.
Use of the word “means” (or “step”) in a claim with functional language creates a rebuttable presumption that the claim limitation is to be treated in accordance with 35 U.S.C. 112(f) or pre-AIA 35 U.S.C. 112, sixth paragraph. The presumption that the claim limitation is interpreted under 35 U.S.C. 112(f) or pre-AIA 35 U.S.C. 112, sixth paragraph, is rebutted when the claim limitation recites sufficient structure, material, or acts to entirely perform the recited function.
Absence of the word “means” (or “step”) in a claim creates a rebuttable presumption that the claim limitation is not to be treated in accordance with 35 U.S.C. 112(f) or pre-AIA 35 U.S.C. 112, sixth paragraph. The presumption that the claim limitation is not interpreted under 35 U.S.C. 112(f) or pre-AIA 35 U.S.C. 112, sixth paragraph, is rebutted when the claim limitation recites function without reciting sufficient structure, material or acts to entirely perform the recited function.
Claim limitations in this application that use the word “means” (or “step”) are being interpreted under 35 U.S.C. 112(f) or pre-AIA 35 U.S.C. 112, sixth paragraph, except as otherwise indicated in an Office action. Conversely, claim limitations in this application that do not use the word “means” (or “step”) are not being interpreted under 35 U.S.C. 112(f) or pre-AIA 35 U.S.C. 112, sixth paragraph, except as otherwise indicated in an Office action.
This application includes one or more claim limitations that use the word “means” or “step” but are nonetheless not being interpreted under 35 U.S.C. 112(f) or pre-AIA 35 U.S.C. 112, sixth paragraph because the claim limitation(s) recite(s) sufficient structure, materials, or acts to entirely perform the recited function.
Claims 1 and 14 recite limitations that use words like “means” (or “step”) or similar terms with functional language but do not invoke 35 U.S.C. 112(f):
Claim 1; recites the limitation, “An image decoding method performed by an image decoding apparatus……,” [Line 1].
Claim 14; recites the limitation, “An image encoding method performed by an image encoding apparatus……,” [Line 1].
Such claim limitation(s) is/are:
(i) “image decoding apparatus…” has a structure associated with it a decoder
(ii) “image encoding apparatus….” has a structure associated with it an encoder.
Because this/these claim limitation(s) is/are not being interpreted under 35 U.S.C. 112(f) or pre-AIA 35 U.S.C. 112, sixth paragraph, it/they is/are not being interpreted to cover only the corresponding structure, material, or acts described in the specification as performing the claimed function, and equivalents thereof.
If applicant intends to have this/these limitation(s) interpreted under 35 U.S.C. 112(f) or pre-AIA 35 U.S.C. 112, sixth paragraph, applicant may: (1) amend the claim limitation(s) to remove the structure, materials, or acts that performs the claimed function; or (2) present a sufficient showing that the claim limitation(s) does/do not recite sufficient structure, materials, or acts to perform the claimed function.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 103
In the event the determination of the status of the application as subject to AIA 35 U.S.C. 102 and 103 (or as subject to pre-AIA 35 U.S.C. 102 and 103) is incorrect, any correction of the statutory basis (i.e., changing from AIA to pre-AIA ) for the rejection will not be considered a new ground of rejection if the prior art relied upon, and the rationale supporting the rejection, would be the same under either status.
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.
Claims 1-16 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over CHEN et al. (US 20210203971 A1), hereinafter referenced as CHEN, in view of HENDRY et al. (US 20220417564 A1), hereinafter referenced as HENDRY.
Regarding claim 1, CHEN explicitly teaches an image decoding method performed by an image decoding apparatus (Fig. 3A. Paragraph [0073]-CHEN discloses a decoder can decode video bitstream 228 into video stream 304 according to process 300A.), the image decoding method comprising:
determining a type of a virtual boundary (Fig. 5, illustrates different boundaries. Paragraph [0101]-CHEN discloses in-loop filtering operations (e.g., deblocking filtering, sample adaptive offset filtering, or adaptive loop filtering) can be disabled across discontinuities in frame-packed pictures, which can be referred to as a virtual boundary technique (e.g., a concept as adopted by VVC draft 7). For example, an encoder can set a discontinued boundary as a virtual boundary and disable any loop filtering operation across the virtual boundary (wherein setting the boundary is determining a type).); and
wherein the type of the virtual boundary includes a type in which the in-loop filter for the block is unidirectionally disabled for the virtual boundary (Fig. 5. Paragraph [0102]-CHEN discloses no loop filtering operation should be applied across the boundary between a clean region (e.g., clean region 520 of picture 508 in FIG. 5) and a dirty region (e.g., dirty region 522 of picture 508). The encoder can set the boundary between the clean region and the dirty region as a virtual boundary and disable the loop filtering operations across the virtual boundary (wherein the loop filter disabled on one side and enabled on the other is a filter that is unidirectionally disabled).).
CHEN fails to explicitly teach determining whether to apply an in-loop filter to a block based on the type of the virtual boundary.
However, HENDRY explicitly teaches determining whether to apply an in-loop filter to a block based on the type of the virtual boundary (Fig. 6-7. Paragraph [0134]-HENDRY discloses regarding whether the in-loop filtering process is performed across the virtual boundary, in-loop filtering-related information may include at least one of an SPS virtual boundaries enabled flag (a virtual boundaries enabled flag in an SPS), an SPS virtual boundaries present flag, a picture header virtual boundaries present flag, an SPS picture header virtual boundaries present flag, and information on a virtual boundaries position (wherein virtual boundaries position indicates a type of virtual boundary).),
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention was made to combine the teachings of CHEN of an image decoding method performed by an image decoding apparatus, the image decoding method comprising: determining a type of a virtual boundary; and wherein the type of the virtual boundary includes a type in which the in-loop filter for the block is unidirectionally disabled for the virtual boundary with the teachings of HENDRY of determining whether to apply an in-loop filter to a block based on the type of the virtual boundary.
Wherein having CHEN’s method of image encoding and decoding having determining whether to apply an in-loop filter to a block based on the type of the virtual boundary.
The motivation behind the modification would have been to obtain an image/video encoding and decoding method that increases the efficiency of the encoder and decoder by reducing the encoding/decoding time. Since both CHEN and HENDRY relate to encoding and decoding with the use of in-loop filtering, wherein CHEN the codec can process different regions of a picture in parallel, thus increasing the coding efficiency, while HENDRY overall image/video compression efficiency may be improved, subjective/objective visual quality may be improved through efficient filtering, and the in-loop filtering process based on the virtual boundaries may be effectively performed, and filtering performance may be improved. Please see CHEN et al. (US 20210203971 A1), Paragraph [0049], and HENDRY et al. (US 20220417564 A1), Paragraph [0015-0018].
Regarding claim 2, CHEN in view of HENDRY explicitly teach the image decoding method of claim 1,
CHEN further explicitly teaches wherein the virtual boundary includes a vertical virtual boundary (Fig. 3A-3B. Paragraph [0107]-CHEN discloses the arrays “ph_virtual_boundaries_pos_x” and “ph_virtual_boundaries_pos_y” can specify the location of the i-th vertical or horizontal virtual boundary in units of luma samples divided by 8, respectively.), and
wherein based on the type of the vertical virtual boundary being a type in which the in- loop filter is unidirectionally disabled, it is determined that the in-loop filter is not unidirectionally applied (Fig. 5. Paragraph [0102]-CHEN discloses no loop filtering operation should be applied across the boundary between a clean region (e.g., clean region 520 of picture 508 in FIG. 5) and a dirty region (e.g., dirty region 522 of picture 508). The encoder can set the boundary between the clean region and the dirty region as a virtual boundary and disable the loop filtering operations across the virtual boundary (wherein the loop filter disabled on one side and enabled on the other is a filter that is unidirectionally disabled and thus is not unidirectionally applied as it is different on each side of the boundary). Further in paragraph [0107]-CHEN discloses the arrays “ph_virtual_boundaries_pos_x” and “ph_virtual_boundaries_pos_y” can specify the location of the i-th vertical or horizontal virtual boundary in units of luma samples divided by 8, respectively.).
Regarding claim 3, CHEN in view of HENDRY explicitly teach the image decoding method of claim 1
CHEN further explicitly teaches wherein the virtual boundary includes a horizontal virtual boundary (Fig. 3A-3B. Paragraph [0107]-CHEN discloses the arrays “ph_virtual_boundaries_pos_x” and “ph_virtual_boundaries_pos_y” can specify the location of the i-th vertical or horizontal virtual boundary in units of luma samples divided by 8, respectively.), and
wherein based on the type of the horizontal virtual boundary being a type in which the in-loop filter is unidirectionally disabled, it is determined that the in-loop filter is not unidirectionally applied (Fig. 5. Paragraph [0102]-CHEN discloses no loop filtering operation should be applied across the boundary between a clean region (e.g., clean region 520 of picture 508 in FIG. 5) and a dirty region (e.g., dirty region 522 of picture 508). The encoder can set the boundary between the clean region and the dirty region as a virtual boundary and disable the loop filtering operations across the virtual boundary (wherein the loop filter disabled on one side and enabled on the other is a filter that is unidirectionally disabled and thus is not unidirectionally applied as it is different on each side of the boundary). Further in paragraph [0107]-CHEN discloses the arrays “ph_virtual_boundaries_pos_x” and “ph_virtual_boundaries_pos_y” can specify the location of the i-th vertical or horizontal virtual boundary in units of luma samples divided by 8, respectively.).
Regarding claim 4, CHEN in view of HENDRY explicitly teach the image decoding method of claim 1,
CHEN further explicitly teaches wherein the type of the virtual boundary is determined based on type information obtained from a bitstream (Fig. 3A-3B. Paragraph [0107]-CHEN discloses the arrays “ph_virtual_boundaries_pos_x” and “ph_virtual_boundaries_pos_y” can specify the location of the i-th vertical or horizontal virtual boundary in units of luma samples divided by 8, respectively (wherein picture header/arrays are part of a bitstream).).
Regarding claim 5, CHEN in view of HENDRY explicitly teach the image decoding method of claim 4,
CHEN further explicitly teaches wherein the virtual boundary includes a vertical virtual boundary (Fig. 3A-3B. Paragraph [0107]-CHEN discloses the arrays “ph_virtual_boundaries_pos_x” and “ph_virtual_boundaries_pos_y” can specify the location of the i-th vertical or horizontal virtual boundary in units of luma samples divided by 8, respectively.), and
wherein the type information includes vertical type information indicating a type of the vertical virtual boundary (Fig. 3A-3B. Paragraph [0107]-CHEN discloses the arrays “ph_virtual_boundaries_pos_x” and “ph_virtual_boundaries_pos_y” can specify the location of the i-th vertical or horizontal virtual boundary in units of luma samples divided by 8, respectively (wherein type information is indicated by the location).).
Regarding claim 6, CHEN in view of HENDRY explicitly teach the method decoding method of claim 5,
CHEN further explicitly teaches wherein a right boundary or left boundary of the block corresponds to the vertical virtual boundary (Fig. 5. Paragraph [0114]-CHEN discloses if a virtual boundary vertically splits a picture into a left side and a right side, an encoder or decoder partially can disable a loop filter on the right side where the pixels is unfiltered (e.g., information of pixels on the left side is not used for loop filtering of pixels on the right side) and enable the loop filter on the left side where the pixels is filtered (e.g., information of the pixels on at least one of the left side or the right side can be used for the loop filtering).).
CHEN fails to explicitly teach wherein a first value of the vertical type information indicates a first type in which the in-loop filter is bidirectionally disabled for the vertical virtual boundary.
However, HENDRY explicitly teaches wherein a first value of the vertical type information indicates a first type in which the in-loop filter is bidirectionally disabled for the vertical virtual boundary (Fig. 6-7. Paragraph [0135]-HENDRY discloses the information on the virtual boundaries position may include information on the number of pieces of information (syntax elements) on the x-coordinate of the vertical virtual boundary which is present in the SPS. Paragraph [0136]/Table 3-HENDRY discloses sps_loop_filter_across_virtual_boundaries_disabled_present_flag equal to 0 specifies that no such disabling of in-loop filtering operations is applied in pictures referring to the SPS (wherein bidirectionally disabled is when there is no disabling of in-loop filtering on the sides of the virtual boundary and wherein the first value is sps_loop_filter_across_virtual_boundaries_disabled_present_flag equal to 0).), and
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention was made to combine the teachings of CHEN in view of HENDRY of an image decoding method performed by an image decoding apparatus, the image decoding method comprising: determining a type of a virtual boundary; and wherein the type of the virtual boundary includes a type in which the in-loop filter for the block is unidirectionally disabled for the virtual boundary with the teachings of HENDRY of wherein a first value of the vertical type information indicates a first type in which the in-loop filter is bidirectionally disabled for the vertical virtual boundary.
Wherein having CHEN’s method of image encoding and decoding having wherein a first value of the vertical type information indicates a first type in which the in-loop filter is bidirectionally disabled for the vertical virtual boundary.
The motivation behind the modification would have been to obtain an image/video encoding and decoding method that increases the efficiency of the encoder and decoder by reducing the encoding/decoding time. Since both CHEN and HENDRY relate to encoding and decoding with the use of in-loop filtering, wherein CHEN the codec can process different regions of a picture in parallel, thus increasing the coding efficiency, while HENDRY overall image/video compression efficiency may be improved, subjective/objective visual quality may be improved through efficient filtering, and the in-loop filtering process based on the virtual boundaries may be effectively performed, and filtering performance may be improved. Please see CHEN et al. (US 20210203971 A1), Paragraph [0049], and HENDRY et al. (US 20220417564 A1), Paragraph [0015-0018].
Regarding claim 7, CHEN in view of HENDRY explicitly teach the image decoding method of claim 5,
CHEN further explicitly teaches wherein a second value of the vertical type information indicates a second type in which the in-loop filter is unidirectionally disabled for the vertical virtual boundary (Fig. 11. Paragraph [0118]-CHEN discloses “sps_virtual_boundaries_loopfilter_disable” being “2” can specify that information of a virtual boundary is signalled in the SPS, and one of: (1) the in-loop filtering operation on a left side of virtual boundary is disabled; (2) the in-loop filtering operation on the left side will not use information of any pixel on a right side of the virtual boundary; (3) the in-loop filtering operation on an upper side of the virtual boundary is disabled; or (4) the in-loop filtering operation on the upper side will not use information of any pixel on a bottom side of the virtual boundary (wherein 2 is the second value and unidirectionally disabled is when in-loop filtering on only one side of the boundary is disabled).), and
wherein a right boundary of the block corresponds to the vertical virtual boundary (Fig. 5. Paragraph [0114]-CHEN discloses if a virtual boundary vertically splits a picture into a left side and a right side, an encoder or decoder partially can disable a loop filter on the right side where the pixels is unfiltered (e.g., information of pixels on the left side is not used for loop filtering of pixels on the right side) and enable the loop filter on the left side where the pixels is filtered (e.g., information of the pixels on at least one of the left side or the right side can be used for the loop filtering).).
Regarding claim 8, CHEN in view of HENDRY explicitly teach the image decoding method of claim 5,
CHEN further explicitly teaches wherein a third value of the vertical type information indicates a third type in which the in-loop filter is unidirectionally disabled for the vertical virtual boundary (Fig. 11. Paragraph [0118]-CHEN discloses “sps_virtual_boundaries_loopfilter_disable” being “3” can specify that information of a virtual boundary is signalled in the SPS, and one of: (1) the in-loop filtering operation on the right side of the virtual boundary is disabled; (2) the in-loop filtering operation on the right side will not use information of any pixel on the left side of the virtual boundary; (3) the in-loop filtering operation on the bottom side of the virtual boundary is disabled; or (4) the in-loop filtering operation on the bottom side will not use information of any pixel on the upper side (wherein 3 is a third value and wherein unidirectionally disabled is when in-loop filtering on only one side of the boundary is disabled).), and
wherein a left boundary of the block corresponds to the vertical virtual boundary (Fig. 5. Paragraph [0114]-CHEN discloses if a virtual boundary vertically splits a picture into a left side and a right side, an encoder or decoder partially can disable a loop filter on the right side where the pixels is unfiltered (e.g., information of pixels on the left side is not used for loop filtering of pixels on the right side) and enable the loop filter on the left side where the pixels is filtered (e.g., information of the pixels on at least one of the left side or the right side can be used for the loop filtering).).
Regarding claim 9, CHEN in view of HENDRY explicitly teach the image decoding method of claim 4,
CHEN further explicitly teaches wherein the virtual boundary includes a horizontal virtual boundary (Fig. 3A-3B. Paragraph [0107]-CHEN discloses the arrays “ph_virtual_boundaries_pos_x” and “ph_virtual_boundaries_pos_y” can specify the location of the i-th vertical or horizontal virtual boundary in units of luma samples divided by 8, respectively.), and
wherein the type information includes horizontal type information indicating a type of the horizontal virtual boundary (Fig. 3A-3B. Paragraph [0107]-CHEN discloses the arrays “ph_virtual_boundaries_pos_x” and “ph_virtual_boundaries_pos_y” can specify the location of the i-th vertical or horizontal virtual boundary in units of luma samples divided by 8, respectively (wherein type information is indicated by the location).).
Regarding claim 10, CHEN in view of HENDRY explicitly teach the method decoding method of claim 9,
CHEN further explicitly teaches wherein a top boundary or bottom boundary of the block corresponds to the horizontal virtual boundary (Fig. 11. Paragraph [0136]-CHEN discloses when the deblocking filter is partially disabled on a first side (e.g., a left, right, top, or bottom side) of a virtual boundary, pixels on the first side can be skipped from being processed by the deblocking filter, and pixels on a second side (e.g., a right, left, bottom, or top side) of the virtual boundary can be processed by the deblocking filter.).
CHEN fails to explicitly teach wherein a first value of the horizontal type information indicates a first type in which the in-loop filter is bidirectionally disabled for the horizontal virtual boundary.
However, HENDRY explicitly teaches wherein a first value of the horizontal type information indicates a first type in which the in-loop filter is bidirectionally disabled for the horizontal virtual boundary (Fig. 6-7. Paragraph [0135]-HENDRY discloses the information on the virtual boundaries position may include information on the number of pieces of information (syntax elements) on the y-coordinate of the horizontal virtual boundary which is present in the SPS. Further in paragraph [0136]/Table 3-HENDRY discloses sps_loop_filter_across_virtual_boundaries_disabled_present_flag equal to 0 specifies that no such disabling of in-loop filtering operations is applied in pictures referring to the SPS (wherein bidirectionally disabled is when there is no disabling of in-loop filtering on the sides of the virtual boundary and wherein the first value is sps_loop_filter_across_virtual_boundaries_disabled_present_flag equal to 0).), and
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention was made to combine the teachings of CHEN in view of HENDRY of an image decoding method performed by an image decoding apparatus, the image decoding method comprising: determining a type of a virtual boundary; and wherein the type of the virtual boundary includes a type in which the in-loop filter for the block is unidirectionally disabled for the virtual boundary with the teachings of HENDRY of wherein a first value of the horizontal type information indicates a first type in which the in-loop filter is bidirectionally disabled for the horizontal virtual boundary.
Wherein having CHEN’s method of image encoding and decoding having wherein a first value of the horizontal type information indicates a first type in which the in-loop filter is bidirectionally disabled for the horizontal virtual boundary.
The motivation behind the modification would have been to obtain an image/video encoding and decoding method that increases the efficiency of the encoder and decoder by reducing the encoding/decoding time. Since both CHEN and HENDRY relate to encoding and decoding with the use of in-loop filtering, wherein CHEN the codec can process different regions of a picture in parallel, thus increasing the coding efficiency, while HENDRY overall image/video compression efficiency may be improved, subjective/objective visual quality may be improved through efficient filtering, and the in-loop filtering process based on the virtual boundaries may be effectively performed, and filtering performance may be improved. Please see CHEN et al. (US 20210203971 A1), Paragraph [0049], and HENDRY et al. (US 20220417564 A1), Paragraph [0015-0018].
Regarding claim 11, CHEN in view of HENDRY explicitly teach the image decoding method of claim 9,
CHEN further explicitly teaches wherein a second value of the horizontal type information indicates a second type in which the in-loop filter is unidirectionally disabled for the horizontal virtual boundary (Fig. 11. Paragraph [0118]-CHEN discloses “sps_virtual_boundaries_loopfilter_disable” being “2” can specify that information of a virtual boundary is signalled in the SPS, and one of: (1) the in-loop filtering operation on a left side of virtual boundary is disabled; (2) the in-loop filtering operation on the left side will not use information of any pixel on a right side of the virtual boundary; (3) the in-loop filtering operation on an upper side of the virtual boundary is disabled; or (4) the in-loop filtering operation on the upper side will not use information of any pixel on a bottom side of the virtual boundary (wherein 2 is the second value and unidirectionally disabled is when in-loop filtering on only one side of the boundary is disabled).), and
wherein a top boundary of the block corresponds to the horizontal virtual boundary (Fig. 11. Paragraph [0136]-CHEN discloses when the deblocking filter is partially disabled on a first side (e.g., a left, right, top, or bottom side) of a virtual boundary, pixels on the first side can be skipped from being processed by the deblocking filter, and pixels on a second side (e.g., a right, left, bottom, or top side) of the virtual boundary can be processed by the deblocking filter.).
Regarding claim 12, CHEN in view of HENDRY explicitly teach the image decoding method of claim 6,
CHEN further explicitly teaches wherein a third value of the horizontal type information indicates a third type in which the in-loop filter is unidirectionally disabled for the horizontal virtual boundary (Fig. 11. Paragraph [0118]-CHEN discloses “sps_virtual_boundaries_loopfilter_disable” being “3” can specify that information of a virtual boundary is signalled in the SPS, and one of: (1) the in-loop filtering operation on the right side of the virtual boundary is disabled; (2) the in-loop filtering operation on the right side will not use information of any pixel on the left side of the virtual boundary; (3) the in-loop filtering operation on the bottom side of the virtual boundary is disabled; or (4) the in-loop filtering operation on the bottom side will not use information of any pixel on the upper side (wherein 3 is a third value and wherein unidirectionally disabled is when in-loop filtering on only one side of the boundary is disabled).), and
wherein a bottom boundary of the block corresponds to the horizontal virtual boundary (Fig. 11. Paragraph [0136]-CHEN discloses when the deblocking filter is partially disabled on a first side (e.g., a left, right, top, or bottom side) of a virtual boundary, pixels on the first side can be skipped from being processed by the deblocking filter, and pixels on a second side (e.g., a right, left, bottom, or top side) of the virtual boundary can be processed by the deblocking filter.).
Regarding claim 13, CHEN in view of HENDRY explicitly teach the image decoding method of claim 4,
CHEN further explicitly teaches wherein the type information is obtained based on a second flag obtained from a picture header (PH) level of the bitstream indicating that information about the virtual boundary is signaled at the PH level (Fig. 8-9. Paragraph [0106]-CHEN discloses “ph_virtual_boundaries_present_flag” being true (e.g., equal to “1”) can specify that information of virtual boundaries is signalled in the picture header, and “ph_virtual_boundaries_present_flag” being false (e.g., equal to “0”) can specify that no information of virtual boundaries is signalled in the picture header.), and
wherein the second flag is obtained based on a first flag obtained from a sequence parameter set (SPS) level of the bitstream indicating that the information about the virtual boundary is not signaled at the SPS level (Fig. 8-9. Paragraph [0106]-CHEN discloses if the flag “sps_virtual_boundaries_present_flag” is false (e.g., equal to “0”), then a picture-level virtual boundary present flag “ph_virtual_boundaries_present_flag” can be signaled in a picture header.).
Regarding claim 14, CHEN explicitly teaches an image encoding method performed by an image encoding apparatus (Fig. 2A. Paragraph [0051]-CHEN discloses FIG. 2A illustrates a schematic diagram of an example encoding process 200A, consistent with embodiments of the disclosure. For example, the encoding process 200A can be performed by an encoder. As shown in FIG. 2A, the encoder can encode video sequence 202 into video bitstream 228 according to process 200A.), the image encoding method comprising:
determining whether to apply an in-loop filter (Fig. 5. Paragraph [0101]-CHEN discloses in-loop filtering operations (e.g., deblocking filtering, sample adaptive offset filtering, or adaptive loop filtering) can be disabled across discontinuities in frame-packed pictures, which can be referred to as a virtual boundary technique (e.g., a concept as adopted by VVC draft 7). For example, an encoder can set a discontinued boundary as a virtual boundary and disable any loop filtering operation across the virtual boundary. By doing so, loop filtering across discontinuities can be disabled.) to a block corresponding to a virtual boundary (Fig. 5. Paragraph [0102]-CHEN discloses no loop filtering operation should be applied across the boundary between a clean region (e.g., clean region 520 of picture 508 in FIG. 5) and a dirty region (e.g., dirty region 522 of picture 508). The encoder can set the boundary between the clean region and the dirty region as a virtual boundary and disable the loop filtering operations across the virtual boundary. By doing so, the virtual boundary can be used as a way to implement GDR.); and
wherein the type of the virtual boundary includes a type in which the in-loop filter for the block is unidirectionally disabled for the virtual boundary (Fig. 5. Paragraph [0102]-CHEN discloses no loop filtering operation should be applied across the boundary between a clean region (e.g., clean region 520 of picture 508 in FIG. 5) and a dirty region (e.g., dirty region 522 of picture 508). The encoder can set the boundary between the clean region and the dirty region as a virtual boundary and disable the loop filtering operations across the virtual boundary (wherein the loop filter disabled on one side and enabled on the other is a filter that is unidirectionally disabled).).
CHEN fails to explicitly teach determining a type of the virtual boundary based on the determination of whether to apply the in-loop filter.
However, HENDRY explicitly teaches determining a type of the virtual boundary based on the determination of whether to apply the in-loop filter (Fig. 8. Paragraph [0238-0239]-HENDRY discloses the encoding apparatus may determine whether the in-loop filtering process is performed across virtual boundaries (S820). Herein, the virtual boundaries may be the same as the aforementioned virtual boundaries. In addition, the in-loop filtering process may include at least one of a deblocking process, an SAO process, and an ALF process. The encoding apparatus may generate information related to a virtual boundary (S830). The encoding apparatus may generate the information related to the virtual boundary, based on the determination of the step S820 (wherein the information related to the virtual boundary is a type of virtual boundary). Further in Paragraph [0239]-HENDRY discloses the information related to the virtual boundary may include the aforementioned information on virtual boundaries (the SPS virtual boundaries enabled flag, the picture header virtual boundaries enabled flag, the SPS virtual boundaries present flag, the picture header virtual boundaries present flag, information on positions of virtual boundaries, etc.).),
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention was made to combine the teachings of CHEN of an image encoding method performed by an image encoding apparatus, the image encoding method comprising: determining whether to apply an in-loop filter to a block corresponding to a virtual boundary; and wherein the type of the virtual boundary includes a type in which the in-loop filter for the block is unidirectionally disabled for the virtual boundary with the teachings of HENDRY of determining a type of the virtual boundary based on the determination of whether to apply the in-loop filter.
Wherein having CHEN’s method of image encoding and decoding having determining a type of the virtual boundary based on the determination of whether to apply the in-loop filter.
The motivation behind the modification would have been to obtain an image/video encoding and decoding method that increases the efficiency of the encoder and decoder by reducing the encoding/decoding time. Since both CHEN and HENDRY relate to encoding and decoding with the use of in-loop filtering, wherein CHEN the codec can process different regions of a picture in parallel, thus increasing the coding efficiency, while HENDRY overall image/video compression efficiency may be improved, subjective/objective visual quality may be improved through efficient filtering, and the in-loop filtering process based on the virtual boundaries may be effectively performed, and filtering performance may be improved. Please see CHEN et al. (US 20210203971 A1), Paragraph [0049], and HENDRY et al. (US 20220417564 A1), Paragraph [0015-0018].
Regarding claim 15, CHEN explicitly teaches a method of transmitting a bitstream generated by an image encoding method (Fig. 2A. Paragraph [0051]-CHEN discloses FIG. 2A illustrates a schematic diagram of an example encoding process 200A, consistent with embodiments of the disclosure. For example, the encoding process 200A can be performed by an encoder. As shown in FIG. 2A, the encoder can encode video sequence 202 into video bitstream 228 according to process 200A. Further in paragraph [0076]-CHEN discloses if video bitstream 228 is transmitted over a network in packets, the decoder can depacketize video bitstream 228 before feeding it to binary decoding stage 302.), the image encoding method comprising:
determining whether to apply an in-loop filter (Fig. 5. Paragraph [0101]-CHEN discloses in-loop filtering operations (e.g., deblocking filtering, sample adaptive offset filtering, or adaptive loop filtering) can be disabled across discontinuities in frame-packed pictures, which can be referred to as a virtual boundary technique (e.g., a concept as adopted by VVC draft 7). For example, an encoder can set a discontinued boundary as a virtual boundary and disable any loop filtering operation across the virtual boundary. By doing so, loop filtering across discontinuities can be disabled.) to a block corresponding to a virtual boundary (Fig. 5. Paragraph [0102]-CHEN discloses no loop filtering operation should be applied across the boundary between a clean region (e.g., clean region 520 of picture 508 in FIG. 5) and a dirty region (e.g., dirty region 522 of picture 508). The encoder can set the boundary between the clean region and the dirty region as a virtual boundary and disable the loop filtering operations across the virtual boundary. By doing so, the virtual boundary can be used as a way to implement GDR.); and
wherein the type of the virtual boundary includes a type in which the in-loop filter for the block is unidirectionally disabled for the virtual boundary (Fig. 5. Paragraph [0102]-CHEN discloses no loop filtering operation should be applied across the boundary between a clean region (e.g., clean region 520 of picture 508 in FIG. 5) and a dirty region (e.g., dirty region 522 of picture 508). The encoder can set the boundary between the clean region and the dirty region as a virtual boundary and disable the loop filtering operations across the virtual boundary (wherein the loop filter disabled on one side and enabled on the other is a filter that is unidirectionally disabled).).
CHEN fails to explicitly teach determining a type of the virtual boundary based on the determination of whether to apply the in-loop filter.
However, HENDRY explicitly teaches determining a type of the virtual boundary based on the determination of whether to apply the in-loop filter (Fig. 8. Paragraph [0238-0239]-HENDRY discloses the encoding apparatus may determine whether the in-loop filtering process is performed across virtual boundaries (S820). Herein, the virtual boundaries may be the same as the aforementioned virtual boundaries. In addition, the in-loop filtering process may include at least one of a deblocking process, an SAO process, and an ALF process. The encoding apparatus may generate information related to a virtual boundary (S830). The encoding apparatus may generate the information related to the virtual boundary, based on the determination of the step S820 (wherein the information related to the virtual boundary is a type of virtual boundary). Further in Paragraph [0239]-HENDRY discloses the information related to the virtual boundary may include the aforementioned information on virtual boundaries (the SPS virtual boundaries enabled flag, the picture header virtual boundaries enabled flag, the SPS virtual boundaries present flag, the picture header virtual boundaries present flag, information on positions of virtual boundaries, etc.).),
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention was made to combine the teachings of CHEN of a method of transmitting a bitstream generated by an image encoding method, the image encoding method comprising: determining whether to apply an in-loop filter to a block corresponding to a virtual boundary; and wherein the type of the virtual boundary includes a type in which the in-loop filter for the block is unidirectionally disabled for the virtual boundary with the teachings of HENDRY of determining a type of the virtual boundary based on the determination of whether to apply the in-loop filter.
Wherein having CHEN’s method of image encoding and decoding having determining a type of the virtual boundary based on the determination of whether to apply the in-loop filter.
The motivation behind the modification would have been to obtain an image/video encoding and decoding method that increases the efficiency of the encoder and decoder by reducing the encoding/decoding time. Since both CHEN and HENDRY relate to encoding and decoding with the use of in-loop filtering, wherein CHEN the codec can process different regions of a picture in parallel, thus increasing the coding efficiency, while HENDRY overall image/video compression efficiency may be improved, subjective/objective visual quality may be improved through efficient filtering, and the in-loop filtering process based on the virtual boundaries may be effectively performed, and filtering performance may be improved. Please see CHEN et al. (US 20210203971 A1), Paragraph [0049], and HENDRY et al. (US 20220417564 A1), Paragraph [0015-0018].
Regarding claim 16, CHEN in view of HENDRY explicitly teach the image encoding method of claim 14.
CHEN further explicitly teaches a computer-readable recording medium (Fig. 4, #404 called memory. Paragraph [0082]) storing a bitstream generated by (Fig. 4, #404 called memory. Paragraph [0082]-CHEN discloses apparatus 400 can also include memory 404 configured to store data (e.g., a set of instructions, computer codes, intermediate data, or the like). For example, as shown in FIG. 4, the stored data can include program instructions (e.g., program instructions for implementing the stages in processes 200A, 200B, 300A, or 300B) and data for processing (e.g., video sequence 202, video bitstream 228, or video stream 304).)
Conclusion
Listed below are the prior arts made of record and not relied upon but are considered pertinent to applicant’s disclosure.
HU et al. (US 20210067784 A1) - An example device for coding video data includes a memory configured to store a block of video data and one or more processors, implemented in circuitry, and communicatively coupled to the memory. The one or more processors are configured to determine whether a transform and quantization are applied to the block of the video data and based on the transform and quantization not being applied to the block of video data, code the block of video data without applying bilateral filtering (BIF) or Hadamard transform domain filtering (HTDF)…Abstract, Fig. 7.
KANG et al. (US 20220217396 A1) - Disclosed is a method for signaling virtual boundary information and constraining an operation of an in-loop filter on a virtual boundary by using the signaled boundary information in order to prevent performance deterioration which may occur when applying the in-loop filter for a discontinuous boundary (or virtual boundary) depending on frame packing in an encoding/decoding of a 360-degree omnidirectional video…Abstract, Fig. 8.
ANDERSSON et al. (US 20210274186 A1) – A method for encoding or decoding an image of a video sequence is provided. The method comprises obtaining a set of sample values associated with the image. The method comprises determining a relative location of the current sample value with respect to a virtual boundary. The virtual boundary is defined with respect to a block boundary between the first block of sample values and a second block of sample values. The virtual boundary is parallel with the block boundary and separated from the block boundary by at least one row or column of sample values included in the first block of sample values. The method comprises a filter strength value based on the determined relative location of the current sample value with respect to the virtual boundary. The method comprises filtering the current sample value based on the selected filter strength value…Abstract, Fig. 2-5.
LIN et al. (US 20200228843 A1) – Method and apparatus of coding a video sequence are disclosed. According to this method, a first syntax is signalled in or parsed from a bitstream, where the first syntax indicates whether a loop filtering process is disabled for one or more virtual boundaries in a corresponding region. A reconstructed filter unit in a current picture is received, wherein the reconstructed filter unit is associated with the loop filter and the reconstructed filter unit comprises reconstructed pixels for applying a loop filtering process associated with the loop filter to a current reconstructed pixel. When the first syntax is true, the loop filter processing is disabled when the reconstructed filter unit is across said one or more virtual boundaries in the corresponding region. When the first syntax is false, the loop filter processing is not disabled when the reconstructed filter unit is across the virtual boundary…Abstract, Fig. 5A.
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/ETHAN N WOLFSON/Examiner, Art Unit 2673
/CHINEYERE WILLS-BURNS/Supervisory Patent Examiner, Art Unit 2673
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