DETAILED ACTION
Claims 36-55 are pending for examination.
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 .
Priority
Acknowledgment is made of applicant's claim under EP 22305985 filed on 7/1/2022.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 102
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 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) 36-38, 40, 41, 44-46, 48, 49, 52-54 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(1) as being by Cao et al, “Intra Block Copy Mirror Mode for Screen Content Coding in Versatile Video Coding”.
Regarding Claim 36, Cao discloses a device for video decoding, comprising: a processor configured to:
determine that template-based prediction is enabled for a current block (Cao – Introduction on page 1 – refers to VVC and HEVC which define a flag for the intra-block copy (IBC) mode, remark: the claimed template-based prediction is equivalent to IBC prediction);
determine a prediction block and a template orientation for the current block based on template matching (Cao Figure 2, section II.A and II.B – IBC Mirror Code); and
decode the current block based on the prediction block and the template orientation (Cao Pg.6 C.2 – Fig. 12: consider decoder aspects; section IIl.A: IBC-mirror AMVP mode).
Regarding Claim 37, Cao discloses the device of claim 36, wherein the processor is further configured to: obtain a plurality of template orientations; and determine the template orientation from the plurality of template orientations (Cao p.6, Fig.9 – Current CU has multiple reference CUs [candidates]).
Regarding Claim 38, Cao discloses the device of claim 36, wherein the processor is further configured to: compute a first template difference between a template of the current block and a template of a first prediction block in a first template orientation; compute a second template difference between the template of the current block and a template of a second prediction block in a second template orientation; and determine the prediction block and the template orientation for the current block based on a smaller template difference of the first template difference and the second template difference (Cao Fig.6 – The two modes are used and the best mode is selection).
Regarding Claim 40, Cao discloses the device of claim 36, wherein the processor is further configured to: adjust the prediction block based on the determined template orientation, wherein the current block is decoded based on the adjusted prediction block (Cao p.4 – Section III.A – mirrorFlag can signal IBC-Mirror AMVP mode and IBC-Mirror Merge mode. whether to use mirror flipping, and mirrorType can further IBC-Mirror AMVP mode performs basic spatial search signal whether to apply vertical or horizontal flipping).
Regarding Claim 41, Cao discloses the device of claim 36, wherein the determined template orientation is a horizontally flipped template orientation, a vertically flipped template orientation, a diagonally flipped template orientation, or a rotated template orientation, wherein the processor is further configured to: reorient the prediction block based on the determined template orientation, wherein the current block is decoded based on the reoriented prediction block (Cao p.4 – Section III.A – mirrorFlag can signal IBC-Mirror AMVP mode and IBC-Mirror Merge mode. whether to use mirror flipping, and mirrorType can further IBC-Mirror AMVP mode performs basic spatial search signal whether to apply vertical or horizontal flipping).
With regard to claim 44, the claim limitations are essentially the same as claim 36 but in a different embodiment. Therefore, the rational used to reject claim 36 is applied to claim 44.
With regard to claim 45, the claim limitations are essentially the same as claim 37 but in a different embodiment. Therefore, the rational used to reject claim 37 is applied to claim 45.
With regard to claim 46, the claim limitations are essentially the same as claim 38 but in a different embodiment. Therefore, the rational used to reject claim 38 is applied to claim 46.
With regard to claim 48, the claim limitations are essentially the same as claim 40 but in a different embodiment. Therefore, the rational used to reject claim 40 is applied to claim 48.
With regard to claim 49, the claim limitations are essentially the same as claim 41 but in a different embodiment. Therefore, the rational used to reject claim 41 is applied to claim 49.
With regard to claim 52, the claim limitations are essentially the same as claim 36 but in a different embodiment. Therefore, the rational used to reject claim 36 is applied to claim 52.
With regard to claim 53, the claim limitations are essentially the same as claim 37 but in a different embodiment. Therefore, the rational used to reject claim 37 is applied to claim 53.
With regard to claim 54, the claim limitations are essentially the same as claim 38 but in a different embodiment. Therefore, the rational used to reject claim 38 is applied to claim 54.
Allowable Subject Matter
Claims 39, 42, 43, 47, 50, 51, 55 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.
The following is a statement of reasons for the indication of allowable subject matter:
The various claimed limitations mentioned in the claims are not taught or suggested by the prior art taken either singly or in combination, with emphasize that it is each claim, taken as a whole, including the interrelationships and interconnections between various claimed elements make them allowable over the prior art of record. The various claimed limitations mentioned including the interrelationships and all of the limitations of the base claim and the elements with respect to:
wherein the template matching is a second template matching search, and wherein the processor is further configured to: determine a matching block based on a first template matching search associated with an upright template orientation; and determine a refined search area for performing the second template matching search based on the matching block, wherein the prediction block and the template orientation for the current block is determined based on the second template matching search performed within the refined search area
determine a matching block based on a first template matching search; compute a first template difference based on a top template of the current block and a top template of a matched block, a second template difference based on a left template of the current block and a left template of the matching block, and a third template difference based on the top template and the left template of the current block and the top template and the left template of the matched block; and determine a candidate template orientation for a second template matching search based on the first, second and third template differences, wherein: based on the first template difference being a smallest difference among the first, second and third template differences, a vertically flipped template orientation is determined to be the candidate template orientation for the second template matching search, and based on the second template difference being the smallest difference among the first, second and third template differences, a horizontally flipped template orientation is determined to be the candidate template orientation for the second template matching search; and perform the second template matching search based on the determined candidate template orientation
receive an indication indicating whether to perform a multi-template orientation search for a second coding block; based on the indication indicating to perform the multi-template orientation search, obtain a plurality of template orientations and determining the template orientation for the second coding block from the plurality of template orientations; and based on the indication indicating to disable the multi-template orientation search for the second coding block, determine that the template orientation is upright
Conclusion
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/AMIR SHAHNAMI/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2483