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 § 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)(1) the claimed invention was patented, described in a printed publication, or in public use, on sale, or otherwise available to the public before the effective filing date of the claimed invention.
Claim(s) 1-15 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(1) as being unpatentable by US 20200033615 A1 to Kim et al. (“Kim”).
As to claim 1, Kim teaches an information processing device comprising: a wavefront reproduction control unit that reproduces an object area to be reproduced in an appropriate range in a depth direction in which range reproduction image quality equal to or higher than an image quality allowable level is acquired (¶0119, principle that an object wave is reproduced when a reference wave is irradiated to a hologram that records an interference pattern of the object wave and the reference wave is used. Recently, a CGH has been used to form the interference pattern); and a lens control unit that moves a reproduced image reproduced in the appropriate range to a depth position of the object area (¶0120, When the CGH signal is input to the spatial light modulator 140, light irradiated to the spatial light modulator 140 is modulated according to the CGH signal, and an object wave used to generate the CGH is reproduced so that an observer may recognize a 3D shape of the object generating the object wave).
As to claim 2, Kim teaches the information processing device according to claim 1, further comprising a scene reproduction control unit that transforms coordinate data of the object area in such a manner that the object area falls within the appropriate range, wherein the wavefront reproduction control unit generates wavefront data of the object area by using the transformed coordinate data (¶0057, image data is related to a 3D image to be displayed, and the processor 200 includes a representative depth extractor 300 for extracting a representative depth from the image data. The 3D image display apparatus 1000 may further include a memory 400 having source code for executing the representative depth extractor 300 stored therein).
As to claim 3, Kim teaches the information processing device according to claim 2, wherein the wavefront reproduction control unit sequentially generates the reproduced image in the appropriate range while switching the object area to be reproduced in the depth direction, and the lens control unit sequentially changes a focal length of a variable focus lens that moves the reproduced image in accordance with switching timing of the object area (¶0074, The 3D image display apparatus 1000 according to the example embodiment selects a representative depth and drives the varifocal optical system 130 so that a virtual reference plane may be formed at a location corresponding to the representative depth. Accordingly, a 3D image with reduced visual fatigue may be realized by using a simple configuration. Also, selection of the representative depth for representing the multi-depth is performed by analyzing the image, and thus, an eye tracking sensor for tracking a focusing location of the observer is not necessary and the system configuration may be simplified.).
As to claim 4, Kim teaches the information processing device according to claim 3, further comprising a scene analysis unit that divides a scene to be reproduced into a plurality of layers in the depth direction, groups the plurality of layers in the depth direction, and acquires each of layer groups acquired by the grouping as the object area (¶0073, if all layers regarding the depth information included in one image frame are represented, a configuration or an operation of a display system becomes complicated and a data processing amount also increases. For example, when one display device is used to display all layers regarding the depth information, the plurality of layers may be represented in synchronization with the focus changing of the varifocal optical system 130 in a time-sequential manner, that is, by a time-division method. In this case, a high-speed varifocal device and a display device that are in proportion to the number of layers are necessary. Alternatively, a spatial-division method may be used, but in this case, a plurality of display devices corresponding to the number of depth locations have to be provided, which results in an increase in the system size).
As to claim 5, Kim teaches the information processing device according to claim 4, wherein the scene analysis unit performs the grouping in such a manner that the object area becomes an area having a depth equal to or shorter than a depth of the appropriate range (¶0017, The processor maybe further configured to: set the representative depth value as zero, based on a frequency of a zero depth value being equal to or greater than a reference value in the depth histogram; and set the representative depth value as a depth value having a highest frequency from among depth values other than the zero depth value, based on the frequency of the zero depth value being less than the reference value).
As to claim 6, Kim teaches the information processing device according to claim 4, wherein the scene analysis unit widens a depth range of the layer groups as the layer groups become farther from a viewpoint at which the scene is reproduced (¶0067, The location of the virtual reference plane VP is determined by a focal length of the lens included in the varifocal optical system 130 and a distance d′ between the display device 120 and the lens. The virtual reference plane VP may be formed a distance d from the lens included in the varifocal optical system 130. When a location of the lens included in the varifocal optical system 130 varies, the focal length of the lens does not change, but the distance d′ from the display device 120 changes and the location of the virtual reference plane VP also changes).
As to claim 7, Kim teaches the information processing device according to claim 4, wherein the scene analysis unit sets a depth range of the layer groups in such a manner that number of layer groups becomes equal to or smaller than preset maximum number of layer groups (¶0108, a frame index and a longitudinal axis denotes a representative depth value calculated with respect to each frame. A video used in this experiment includes an object having depth values from a maximum depth value 255 to a minimum depth value 0 coming to a front portion of a user and going back to a rear portion of the user from a remote distance to a near distance according to time. As a result of applying a proposed algorithm, a representative depth value is appropriately extracted from each frame in the graph).
As to claim 8, Kim teaches the information processing device according to claim 7, wherein the scene analysis unit reflects a set value of the depth range of the layer groups, which value is set in a latest frame, on a set value of the depth range of the layer groups of a current frame (¶0093, n region depth map I.sub.n′ is extracted, a pixel having the differential image value I.sub.diff that is less than a predetermined value may be processed as a value 0. Since the pixel having a relatively small differential image value I.sub.diff is a pixel having relatively small motion amount, the differential image value I.sub.diff that is less than the predetermined value may be processed as 0 to simplify whole calculations. The above predetermined value may be appropriately determined according to the experience or knowledge of a person of ordinary skill in the art. However, the calculation approximation is optional).
As to claim 9, Kim teaches the information processing device according to claim 4, wherein in a case where number of layers that belong to one of the layer groups is larger than preset maximum number of layers, the wavefront reproduction control unit reduces the number of layers by integrating adjacent layers (¶0096, he depth value quantization denotes that some discontinuous values are selected from the 256 depth values as values for representing depth, not using all of the 256 values for representing depth. For example, from among depth values d0 to d255, eight depth values, that is, d0, d32, . . . , d224, may be selected. However, the above eight depth values are examples, and any value less than 256 may be selected. The depth value quantization as above is performed to reduce a fluctuation of the representative depth values selected from continuous frames, when, for example, the representative depth value is selected from all of the frames in order to represent a moving picture. Even in a case where the representative depth values of the continuous frames are different before the quantization, when the representative depth values are selected from among the quantized values, an identical representative depth value may be selected from the continuous frames).
As to claim 10, Kim teaches the information processing device according to claim 9, wherein the scene analysis unit calculates importance of each of the layer groups on a basis of an analysis result of the scene, and the wavefront reproduction control unit preferentially reduces the number of layers in a layer group with low importance (Fig. 8, ¶0096).
As to claim 11, Kim teaches the information processing device according to claim 4, wherein the scene reproduction control unit calculates, for each of the layer groups, the focal length in reproduction of the layer group and a time code indicating timing of changing the focal length on a basis of the depth position of the layer group (¶0071).
As to claim 12, Kim teaches the information processing device according to claim 11, wherein the wavefront reproduction control unit combines wavefront data of each of the layers on a basis of a relative position of each of the layers in each of the layer groups, and calculates the wavefront data acquired by the combination as wavefront data of the layer group (¶0119-0121).
As to claim 13, Kim teaches the information processing device according to claim 12, wherein the wavefront reproduction control unit extracts, as an invariable layer group, a layer group in which a layer configuration and Intensity of each of the layers are not changed from these of a latest frame, and uses wavefront data of the invariable layer group, which wavefront data is calculated most recently, as the wavefront data of the invariable layer group of a current frame (¶0149, depth extraction based on the image analysis, that is, a method of setting a reference depth map, from which the representative depth is to be extracted, between a depth map of a current frame image and a depth map of a previous frame image and extracting a depth value having high frequency from a depth histogram of the reference depth map as the representative depth, may be used).
As to claim 14, see the rejection of claim 1.
As to claim 15, see the rejection of claim 1.
Conclusion
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/CHRISTINE A KURIEN/Examiner, Art Unit 2421 /NATHAN J FLYNN/Supervisory Patent Examiner, Art Unit 2421
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