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 .
Claims 1-20 are pending for examination.
Priority
Receipt is acknowledged of certified copies of papers required by 37 CFR 1.55.
Information Disclosure Statement
The information disclosure statement (IDS) submitted on 12/20/2024 is 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 § 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.
Claims 1 and 18-20 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(1) as being anticipated by SCHUUR (EP1841235A1)
Regarding claim 1, SCHUUR teaches an information processing apparatus, comprising:
a tiling direction setting unit which sets a tiling direction of 3D map information indicating a distribution state of a peripheral object in a 3- dimensional space in a periphery of a reference object, in accordance with a direction of a change of a relative position between the reference object and the peripheral object ([0043] Conventionally, the 2D orthogonal transformation is applied to the xy blocks (310) of each frame. According to the present invention, however, the 3D block may also be sliced in another direction, i.e., parallel to the xt (320) or yt (330) plane. This results also in eight 2D blocks with 8x8 pixels each, to which the very same 2D transformation can be applied. The encoder may hence choose the domain to which the transformation is to be applied. This decision may be taken depending on the actual image content in order to optimize coding efficiency.);
a tiling image generation unit which tiles a plurality of 2D images expressing the 3D map information on a surface perpendicular to the set tiling direction, to generate a 2-dimensional tiling image ([0043] Conventionally, the 2D orthogonal transformation is applied to the xy blocks (310) of each frame.); and
an encoding unit which encodes the tiling image ([0054] In a third step, each 2D block of xy, xt, or yt data is subjected to conventional 2D based encoding in the 2D encoding unit 530 to generate a bitstream representing the input video signal. The 2D encoding unit may be a transformation based image compression unit using an orthogonal transformation for converting the data into the frequency domain, a quantizer for reducing the transformed data, and an entropy coder for compressing the data. ).
Regarding claim 18, SCHUUR teaches an information processing method, comprising:
setting a tiling direction of 3D map information indicating a distribution state of a peripheral object in a 3-dimensional space in a periphery of a reference object, in accordance with a direction of a change of a relative position between the reference object and the peripheral object ([0043] Conventionally, the 2D orthogonal transformation is applied to the xy blocks (310) of each frame. According to the present invention, however, the 3D block may also be sliced in another direction, i.e., parallel to the xt (320) or yt (330) plane. This results also in eight 2D blocks with 8x8 pixels each, to which the very same 2D transformation can be applied. The encoder may hence choose the domain to which the transformation is to be applied. This decision may be taken depending on the actual image content in order to optimize coding efficiency.);
tiling a plurality of 2D images expressing the 3D map information on a surface perpendicular to the set tiling direction, to generate a 2-dimensional tiling image ([0043] Conventionally, the 2D orthogonal transformation is applied to the xy blocks (310) of each frame.); and
encoding the tiling image ([0054] In a third step, each 2D block of xy, xt, or yt data is subjected to conventional 2D based encoding in the 2D encoding unit 530 to generate a bitstream representing the input video signal. The 2D encoding unit may be a transformation based image compression unit using an orthogonal transformation for converting the data into the frequency domain, a quantizer for reducing the transformed data, and an entropy coder for compressing the data. ).
Regarding claim 19, SCHUUR teaches an information processing apparatus, comprising:
a decoding unit which decodes a bit stream and generates a 2-dimensional tiling image and tiling direction information ([0057] Upon decoding this bitstream, each 2D block of data is decoded by the 2D decoding unit 560, which applies the appropriate inverse transformations in accordance to the 2D encoding unit 530.);
a tiling direction setting unit which sets a tiling direction on a basis of the tiling direction information (the decoder can easily identify the orientation of the 2-dimensional slices of transform coefficients and reconstruct the 3-dimensional block of image data. [0015]); and
a map reconstruction unit which applies the set tiling direction to reconstruct 3D map information from the tiling image ([0058] From the thus decoded 2D blocks of data, corresponding 3D blocks are reconstructed by the 3D reconstruction unit 570.), wherein
the 3D map information is 3-dimensional map information indicating a distribution state of a peripheral object in a 3-dimensional space in a periphery of a reference object ([0053] In a second step, each 3D block is divided by the 2D partitioning unit 520 into a plurality of 2D slices of one pixel height, thus forming a plurality of 2-dimensional blocks of pixel data. Whether the 3D block is cut along the xy, xt, or yt plane is decided by the 2D partitioning unit in accordance with the image content of the 3D block.), and
the tiling image is information generated by tiling a plurality of 2D images expressing the 3D map information on a surface perpendicular to the tiling direction ([0043] Conventionally, the 2D orthogonal transformation is applied to the xy blocks (310) of each frame.).
Regarding claim 20, SCHUUR teaches an information processing method, comprising:
decoding a bit stream and generating a 2-dimensional tiling image and tiling direction information ([0057] Upon decoding this bitstream, each 2D block of data is decoded by the 2D decoding unit 560, which applies the appropriate inverse transformations in accordance to the 2D encoding unit 530.);
setting a tiling direction on a basis of the tiling direction information ([0043] Conventionally, the 2D orthogonal transformation is applied to the xy blocks (310) of each frame. According to the present invention, however, the 3D block may also be sliced in another direction, i.e., parallel to the xt (320) or yt (330) plane.); and
applying the set tiling direction to reconstruct 3D map information from the tiling image ([0043] Conventionally, the 2D orthogonal transformation is applied to the xy blocks (310) of each frame. According to the present invention, however, the 3D block may also be sliced in another direction, i.e., parallel to the xt (320) or yt (330) plane.), wherein
the 3D map information is 3-dimensional map information indicating a distribution state of a peripheral object in a 3-dimensional space in a periphery of a reference object ([0053] In a second step, each 3D block is divided by the 2D partitioning unit 520 into a plurality of 2D slices of one pixel height, thus forming a plurality of 2-dimensional blocks of pixel data. Whether the 3D block is cut along the xy, xt, or yt plane is decided by the 2D partitioning unit in accordance with the image content of the 3D block.), and
the tiling image is information generated by tiling a plurality of 2D images expressing the 3D map information on a surface perpendicular to the tiling direction (The 2D encoding unit may be a transformation based image compression unit using an orthogonal transformation for converting the data into the frequency domain, a quantizer for reducing the transformed data [0054]).
Allowable Subject Matter
Claims 2-17 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.
Dependent claims 2-17 further define rules for tiling direction based on minimum change of a relative position.
Conclusion
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to HESHAM K ABOUZAHRA whose telephone number is (571)270-0425. The examiner can normally be reached M-F 8-5.
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If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner’s supervisor, Jamie Atala can be reached at 57127227384. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300.
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/HESHAM K ABOUZAHRA/ Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2486