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 2-4 and 9-15 have been cancelled in response to Requirement for Restriction/Election mailed 04/22/2026. Claims 1, 5-8, 16-17 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 on12/23/2024 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 § 112
The following is a quotation of 35 U.S.C. 112(b):
(b) CONCLUSION.—The specification shall conclude with one or more claims particularly pointing out and distinctly claiming the subject matter which the inventor or a joint inventor regards as the invention.
The following is a quotation of 35 U.S.C. 112 (pre-AIA ), second paragraph:
The specification shall conclude with one or more claims particularly pointing out and distinctly claiming the subject matter which the applicant regards as his invention.
Claims 1, 5-8, 16-17 rejected under 35 U.S.C. 112(b) or 35 U.S.C. 112 (pre-AIA ), second paragraph, as being indefinite for failing to particularly point out and distinctly claim the subject matter which the inventor or a joint inventor (or for applications subject to pre-AIA 35 U.S.C. 112, the applicant), regards as the invention.
The wording "network' versus "neural network' is unclear. It is not clear whether "network' refers to a "neural network' or something else.
The wording "attention network layers are used' is unclear, it is not clear how these layers operate (what input they take, how they transform the input to an output).
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.
Claims 1, 16, and 17 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over CHO (US 20190306526 A1) in view of HSIAO (US 20210168405 A1).
Regarding claim 1, CHO teaches a method to process with one or more neural-networks a coded video sequence (Fig. 35: generation encoder/generation decoder), the method comprising:
receiving high-level syntax indicating that inter-coding adaptation is enabled for decoding a current picture ([0805] The information, such as the virtual reference frame usage information and the virtual reference frame generation method indicator, may be signaled for one or more of the level of a Sequence Parameter Set (SPS), the level of a Picture Parameter Set (PPS), the level of a Video Parameter Set (VPS), the level of a Supplemental Enhancement Information (SEI) message…);
parsing the high-level syntax for extracting inter-coding adaptation parameters ([0805] virtual reference frame generation method); and
decoding the current picture based on the inter-coding adaptation parameters to generate an output picture (Fig. 35: generation encoder/generation decoder), wherein the inter-coding adaptation parameters comprise one or more of:
CHO does not explicitly teach the following limitations, however, in an analogous art, HSIAO teaches a joint luma-chroma motion compensation enabled flag, indicating that a joint luma-chroma motion compensation network is used in decoding when input pictures are in a YUV color domain ([0034] When NN is applied to video coding, different color components can be processed jointly or independently... If U and V can be processed jointly, the inputs of this NN include U and V components and this NN generates U and V data simultaneously.);
a joint luma-chroma residual coding enabled flag, indicating that a joint luma-chroma residue network is used in decoding when the input pictures are in the YUV color domain ([0036] When one NN processes more than one color component simultaneously, control flags for enabling or disabling the NN for different color components can be combined or shared by these components. For example, if the NN processes two chroma components at the same time, one on/off flag can be coded and shared by the U and V components. In another embodiment, if the NN processes three color components simultaneously, one on/off flag can be coded and shared by three color components.);
an attention layer enabled flag indicating that attention network layers are used in decoding (inter-coding adaptation parameters are claimed as optional alternatives “comprise one or more of”);
a temporal motion prediction enabled flag, indicating that temporal motion prediction networks are used for motion vector prediction in decoding (inter-coding adaptation parameters are claimed as optional alternatives “comprise one or more of”);
a cross-domain motion vector enabled flag, indicating that a cross-domain network which combines motion vector and residue information is used to decode motion vectors in decoding (inter-coding adaptation parameters are claimed as optional alternatives “comprise one or more of”);
a cross-domain residue enabled flag, indicating that a cross-domain network which combines motion vector and residue information is used to decode residuals in decoding (inter-coding adaptation parameters are claimed as optional alternatives “comprise one or more of”); and
a temporal-spatial-entropy flag indicating whether entropy decoding uses only spatial features, only temporal features, or a combination of spatial and temporal features (inter-coding adaptation parameters are claimed as optional alternatives “comprise one or more of”).
It would have been obvious for a person of ordinary skill in the art, before the effective filling date of the claimed invention, to take the teachings of HSIAO and apply them to CHO. One would be motivated as such as each segment can use its own NN parameter set to avoid unnecessary signaling.
Regarding claim 16, CHO in view of HSIAO teaches a method in accordance with claim 1. CHO further teaches a non-transitory computer-readable storage medium having stored thereon computer-executable instructions for executing with one or more processors a method in accordance with claim 1 ([1090]).
Regarding claim 17, CHO in view of HSIAO teaches the method recited in claim 1. CHO further teaches an apparatus comprising a processor and configured to perform the method recited in claim 1 ([0630]).
Allowable Subject Matter
Claims 5-8 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
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
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