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 .
Claim Interpretation
The claims in this application are given their broadest reasonable interpretation (BRI) 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 BRIs are used for purposes of searching for prior art, but cannot be incorporated into the claims. Claim limitations must be given their plain meaning unless such meaning is inconsistent with the specification. MPEP 2111.01. BRIs for some of the claim limitations are provided below. Should Applicant believe that other interpretations are warranted, Applicant should point to the portions of the present disclosure that clearly show that a different interpretation is appropriate.
Claim Objections
Claim 64 is objected to as containing an improper dependency. Specifically, claim 64 recites a dependence from claim 9, which has been canceled.
Appropriate correction is required.
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.
Claims 49-52, 57-60, 65 and 66 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(1) as being anticipated by U.S. Publ. Appl. No. 2021/023990 A1 to Choi et al. (hereinafter referred to as “Choi”).
Regarding claim 49, Choi discloses a video decoding device (Fig. 1, para. [0060]) comprising:
a processor (Para. [0061), parser 110 and inverse transformer 120: “[t]he parser 110 and the inverse transformer 120 according to embodiments may operate as individual processors, or may be controlled by a central processor.”) configured to:
determine whether multiple transform selection (MTS) is used for a chroma block associated with video block data (paras. [0103]-[0104] disclose that a flag is set to 0 when MTS is not to be used and instead a fixed chroma transform is to be used, and is set to 1 when one of multiple pre-set chroma transforms is to be used);
determine whether to obtain a chroma transform index, wherein based on a determination that MTS is used for the chroma block, the chroma transform index is determined to be obtained based on a luma transform index that corresponds to the chroma block (Regarding the BRI for the term “index”, the present specification does not provide a definition of “index”, and therefore the plain meaning consistent with the specification is given to the term. The BRI for “index”, based on paras. [0006] and [0127] of the present specification, is that it is one or more bits representing a number that is used by the processor as an indicator. In Choi, when a determination is made that the flag is set to 1 indicating that one of the pre-set chroma transforms is to be used, the chroma transform index is obtained from the transform kernel matching table of Fig. 5 duplicated below based on the luma transform index that corresponds to the block: “[t]he video decoding apparatus 100 according to an embodiment may also select a chroma transform kernel according to a luma transform kernel, when the luma transform kernel is used from among a plurality of luma transform kernels. According to a transform kernel matching table 540, when a horizontal transform kernel of the DCT7 type is selected for horizontal direction inverse transformation of a luma transformation block 510 and a vertical transform kernel of the DCT8 type is selected for vertical direction inverse transformation, a horizontal direction kernel of the DCT7 type may be selected for horizontal direction inverse transformation of a Cr transformation block 520 and a Cb transformation block 530, and a vertical direction kernel of the DCT8 type may be selected for vertical direction inverse transformation.” See also para. [0174]: “[t]he video decoding apparatus 100 according to an embodiment may variably determine a transformation kernel for a chroma block, based on a transform kernel determined according to an intra mode index in a luma block decoded in an intra prediction mode. A value equal to the intra mode index for the luma block may be used as an intra mode index for the chroma block. Alternatively, when the intra mode index for the chroma block is separately obtained, a chroma horizontal transform kernel and a chroma vertical transform kernel may be determined according to horizontal/vertical transform kernel candidates corresponding to a chroma intra mode index in the table of FIG. 6.”);
obtain chroma prediction residual data, wherein based on the determination that MTS is used for the chroma block, the chroma prediction residual data is generated based on a performed inverse transform using MTS on the chroma block using the chroma transform index (The horizontal and vertical chroma inverse transformations using MTS described in the above-quoted language from para. [0127] are used to obtain the chroma prediction residual data. As is known in the art, the decoder obtains chroma prediction residual data by applying a chroma inverse transformation that is the inverse of the chroma transformation performed in the encoder); and
decode the video block data based on the chroma prediction residual data (Figs. 1 and 2 and paras. [0061]-[0089] discuss the entirety of the process of decoding the video block data based on the chroma prediction residual data obtained using the inverse chroma transform selected during the chroma MTS process).
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Regarding claim 50, Choi discloses that the chroma transform index obtained based on the luma transform index is the same as the luma transform index (as discussed above with reference to para. [0127] of Choi and the transform kernel matching table of Fig. 5, when the DCT7 luma transform kernel corresponding to first row and first column (the Y column) of the table is selected for MTS luma horizontal inverse transformation, the DCT7 chroma transform kernel corresponding to first row and second and third columns (the Cb and Cr columns) of the table is selected for MTS chroma horizontal inverse transformation. Likewise, when the DCT8 luma transform kernel corresponding to second row and first column (the Y column) of the table is selected for MTS luma vertical inverse transformation, the DCT8 chroma transform kernel corresponding to second row and second and third columns (the Cb and Cr columns) of the table is selected for MTS chroma vertical inverse transformation. Therefore, the DCT7 and DCT8 indices corresponding to the selected horizontal and vertical luma transform kernels, respectively, are the same indices used for the selected horizontal and vertical chroma transform kernels. See also paras. [0166] and [0174] discussing the same indexes being used for the luma and chroma transforms).
Regarding claim 51, the BRI for the term “based on implicit MTS”, based on paras. [00117] – [0118] of the present specification, is that the determination of the chroma transform to be used is made in some way other than by directly signaling syntax identifying the chroma transform to be used, such as by identifying the chroma transform to be used by deriving the identifier from the selected luma transform identifier, or based on some other condition or constraint, such as whether intra-prediction mode is being used or whether a determination is made that the signaling syntax does not include bits identifying the chroma transform to be used. Choi discloses such implicit MTS (para. [0139]: “when a luma block is encoded in an intra prediction mode and a luma intra index indicating an intra prediction direction is a certain value, a chroma transform kernel of a same type as a luma transform kernel may be selected, and other wise, a certain transform kernel may be selected as the chroma transform kernel separately from the luma transform kernel.”).
Regarding claim 52, Choi discloses that the determination whether to obtain the chroma transform index is based on the determined intra prediction mode to be used for the coding block (Para. [0175]: “when the chroma intra mode index indicates an LM chroma mode or a DM chroma mode, a horizontal/vertical transform kernel candidate determined according to a luma intra mode index may be determined as a chroma horizontal/vertical transform kernel. As another example, when the chroma intra mode index indicates an LM chroma mode or a DM chroma mode, a horizontal/vertical transform kernel candidate in a planar mode (intra mode index 0) may be determined as a chroma horizontal/vertical transform kernel.”).
Regarding claim 57, since the decoder process reverses the steps that are performed during the encoder process, the encoder process recited in this claim includes many of the same steps that are recited in claim 49 as steps of the decoder process. See, for example, paras. [0093]-[0095] discussing encoding data by performing transformation and quantization on residual samples obtained by using intra or inter prediction and then performing inverse quantization and inverse transformation on the encoded residual samples to reconstruct them. Therefore, to the extent that claim 57 recites steps that are also recited in claim 49, the rejection of claim 49 applies mutatis mutandis to claim 57.
Choi discloses a video encoding device (Fig. 3, para. [0090]-[0091]) comprising:
a processor (Fig. 3, transformer 310 and encoder 320 comprise one or more processors, para. [0091]) configured to:
determine whether multiple transform selection (MTS) is used for a chroma block associated with video block data (para. [0112] discloses that the encoder determines whether MTS is used for a chroma block associated with video block data based on a determination that MTS is used for a luma block associated with video block data: “[w]hen a luma transform kernel for transformation of a luma block is determined to be among a plurality of luma transform kernels, the video encoding apparatus 300 according to an embodiment may determine a chroma transform kernel to be among a plurality of chroma transform kernels according to the luma transform kernel.”);
determine whether to obtain a chroma transform index, wherein based on a determination that MTS is used for the chroma block, the chroma transform index is determined to be obtained based on a luma transform index that corresponds to the chroma block (the same decoder process described above in the rejection of claim 1 with respect to the transform kernel matching table of Fig. 5 is performed during the encoder process during which the chroma transform index is determined based on the luna transform index that has been determined. Para. [0112]: “[w]hen a luma transform kernel for transformation of a luma block is determined to be among a plurality of luma transform kernels, the video encoding apparatus 300 according to an embodiment may determine a chroma transform kernel to be among a plurality of chroma transform kernels according to the luma transform kernel.” See also para. [0113] discussing determining the horizontal and vertical transforms for the chroma block based in the horizontal and vertical transforms determined for the luma block corresponding to the chroma block);
obtain chroma prediction residual data, wherein based on the determination that MTS is used for the chroma block, the chroma prediction residual data is generated based on a performed transform using MTS on the chroma block using the chroma transform index (Para. [0094] discloses obtaining chroma residual prediction data by using the chroma transform corresponding to the chroma transform obtained based on the luma transform);
encode the video block data based on the chroma prediction residual data (Para. [0098] discloses the encoding of the video block data into transformation coefficients of chroma prediction residual data by the transformer 320); and
include in video data the encoded video block data and an MTS indication that indicates whether MTS is used for the chroma block (Paras. [0104]-[0105] disclose including with the bit string of encoded video block data an MTS indication (a flag bit) indicating whether a fixed chroma transform has been used (bit value of 0) for the chroma block or whether a variable transform has been used (bit value of 1). The variable chroma transform corresponds to using multiple chroma transforms instead of a fixed chroma transform for the block).
Regarding claim 58, the rejection of claim 50 applies mutatis mutandis to claim 58.
Regarding claim 59, the rejection of claim 51 applies mutatis mutandis to claim 59.
Regarding claim 60, the rejection of claim 52 applies mutatis mutandis to claim 60.
Regarding claims 65 and 66, the rejections of claims 49 and 50 apply mutatis mutandis to claims 65 and 66, respectively.
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.
The factual inquiries for establishing a background for determining obviousness under 35 U.S.C. 103 are summarized as follows:
1. Determining the scope and contents of the prior art.
2. Ascertaining the differences between the prior art and the claims at issue.
3. Resolving the level of ordinary skill in the pertinent art.
4. Considering objective evidence present in the application indicating obviousness or nonobviousness.
This application currently names joint inventors. In considering patentability of the claims the examiner presumes that the subject matter of the various claims was commonly owned as of the effective filing date of the claimed invention(s) absent any evidence to the contrary. Applicant is advised of the obligation under 37 CFR 1.56 to point out the inventor and effective filing dates of each claim that was not commonly owned as of the effective filing date of the later invention in order for the examiner to consider the applicability of 35 U.S.C. 102(b)(2)(C) for any potential 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(2) prior art against the later invention.
Claims 53-54, 61-62 and 67 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Choi in view of U.S. Pat. No. 11,570,475 B2 to Koo et al. (hereinafter referred to as “Koo”).
Regarding claim 53, as indicated above in the rejection of claim 52, Choi discloses that the determination whether to obtain the chroma transform index is based on the determined intra prediction mode to be used for the coding block (Para. [0175]: “when the chroma intra mode index indicates an LM chroma mode or a DM chroma mode, a horizontal/vertical transform kernel candidate determined according to a luma intra mode index may be determined as a chroma horizontal/vertical transform kernel. As another example, when the chroma intra mode index indicates an LM chroma mode or a DM chroma mode, a horizontal/vertical transform kernel candidate in a planar mode (intra mode index 0) may be determined as a chroma horizontal/vertical transform kernel.”). However, Choi does not explicitly disclose that the chroma transform index is determined based on implicit MTS when the intra prediction mode is associated with one of a cross-component linear model (CCLM), a multi- model linear model (MMLM), or chroma fusion.
The BRI for “based on implicit MTS”, based on para. [0005] of the present specification, is that the chroma transform is selected based on information other than direct signaling of bits indicating which chroma transform to use for the inverse transformation. The present specification provides as an example of implicit MTS as selecting a chroma transform based on a determination that the CCLM intra prediction mode is being used.
Koo, in the same field of endeavor, discloses using multiple chroma transforms in the inverse transformation of chroma blocks to generate chroma residual prediction data (Col. 58, lines 11-21 discusses uses indexes to determine whether a single default chroma transform is to be applied to the chroma block or whether a set of two chroma transforms are to be applied to perform the inverse transformation). Koo further discloses that when a determination is made that intra prediction mode is one of three CCLM modes, a default chroma transform corresponding to transform set 0 is applied to perform the inverse transformation such that a default chroma (Col. 60, line 34 – Col. 70, line 9). Therefore, Koo discloses that the chroma transform is selected via implicit MTS.
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art, before the effective filing date of the present disclosure, to modify the chroma SMT process of Choi to determine when CCLM intra prediction mode is being used and to perform the inverse transformation using a chroma transform that has been implicitly selected as taught Koo. One of ordinary skill in the art would have been motivated to make the modification to reduce the number of signaling bits that need to be encoded, injected into the bitstream and decoded, thereby improving speed and reducing processing overhead. The modification could have been made by one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the present disclosure with a reasonable expectation of success because making the modification merely involves combining prior art elements according to known methods to yield predictable results (modifying the software executed by the system of Choi to select a chroma transform implicitly based on the intra prediction mode when CCLM is enabled).
Regarding claim 54, the implicit MTS of Koo results in the chroma transform being selected independently of the luma transform index. Therefore, the rejection of claim 53 applies mutatis mutandis to claim 54.
Regarding claim 61-62, the rejection of claims 53-54 applies mutatis mutandis to claims 61-62, respectively.
Regarding claim 67, this claim recites the combination of limitations recited in claims 52, 53 and 54. The rejections of claims 52, 53 and 54 apply mutatis mutandis to claim 67.
Allowable Subject Matter
Claims 55, 56, 63, 64 and 68 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. Claim 64 also is 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 and to overcome the claim objection.
Regarding claims 56 and 64, the BRI for the combination of limitations recited in each of these claims is that a determination is made as to whether ICT is used for a chroma block, and if so, an multi transform selection (MTS) indication (e.g., the value of a single flag bit) is used to indicate the transform to be used on the chroma block (i.e., multiple chroma transforms are not used on the chroma block when ICT is enabled), whereas if a determination is made that ICT is not used for the chroma block (i.e., ICT disabled), first and second MTS indications are used to indicate first and second transforms to be used on the chroma block to perform inverse transformation. The inverse transformations are then performed based on the indications. For example, the value of a single bit can be used to indicate the chroma transform to be applied to both the Cb and Cr code blocks of the chroma block when ICT is enabled, whereas the bit values of a two-bit flag can be used to indicate the first and second transforms to be applied to the Cb and Cr code blocks, respectively, of the chroma block when ICT is disabled. The BRI is based on paras. [0150]-[0151] of the present disclosure.
None of the prior art of record teaches or suggests this combination of limitations. European Pat. No. EP 3989579 A1 to Lim et al. (hereinafter referred to as “Lim”) discloses performing essentially the opposite in that it discloses disabling MTS when ICT is disabled and enabling MTS when ICT is enabled (Para. [0919]: In addition, when a current block is inter predicted and inter prediction explicit multi-transform selection enabled information indicates that multi-transform is enabled for an inter prediction block, a multi-transform selection index for the current block may be signaled. On the contrary, when inter prediction explicit multi-transform selection enabled information indicates that multi-transform is not enabled for an inter prediction block, a multi-transform selection index for the current block may not be signaled.”). For this reason, claims 56 and 64 recite allowable subject matter.
Regarding claims 55, 63 and 68, each of these claims requires that based on a determination that one of the claimed intra prediction modes is being used, MTS is disabled for the chroma block and the inverse transformation is performed using a default transform. None of the prior art of record teaches or suggests this combination of limitations. Lim discloses performing essentially the opposite in that it discloses disabling MTS when ICT is disabled and enabling MTS when ICT is enabled. In other words, Lim discloses that when MTS is enabled such that multiple transforms are selected from a set of multiple transforms, intra prediction is also enabled, whereas claim 55 essentially recites the opposite, i.e., disabling MTS and using a single default transform when intra prediction is enabled and is being used on the chroma block. For this reason, claims 55, 63 and 68 recite allowable subject matter.
Conclusion
The prior art made of record and not relied upon is considered pertinent to applicant's disclosure.
An article entitled “Multiple Transform Selection for Chroma Channel”, by Lee et al., published February 6, 2022 in 2022 International Conference on Electronics, Information, and Communication (ICEIC) (2022, Page(s): 1-2) discloses performing implicit and explicit multi transform selection (MTS) for chroma blocks.
U.S. Publ. Appl. No. 2020/0112734 A1 discloses using code configured to cause a processor to use a transform selection on a luma component, and re-using code configured to cause the processor to re-use, in response to determining that the luma component shares a block partitioning tree with a chroma component co-located with the luma component, the transform selection of a luma component on the chroma component.
U.S. Publ. Appl. No. 2018/0205949 A1 discloses using an adaptive multiple core transform (AMT) for chroma blocks based at least partly on the luma transform information for the corresponding block. When AMT is enabled and at least some side information related to using AMT can be separately signaled for the chroma transform blocks, some side information related to using AMT for chroma transform blocks can be predicted or derived from that of the corresponding luma transform block from the same transform unit or the same or neighboring picture region.
International Publ. Appl. No. WO 2022/159115 A1 discloses that a chroma transform type can be based on the luma transform type. Where the chroma transform type depends on the luma transform type, the final chroma transform type, the quantized coefficients of the quantized chroma block, or both, may depend upon quantized coefficients of the quantized luma block.
An article entitled “Implicit Transform Selection based on Cross Color Component Prediction for Future Video Coding”, by Nemoto et al., published November 1, 2019 in 2019 Picture Coding Symposium (PCS) (2019, Page(s): 1-5), discloses performing chroma multiple transform selection where the selection is implicitly based on the intra prediction mode used on the chroma block. Depending on whether LM_L mode or LM_A mode is used, either the DCT-II transform or the DCT-VII transform is applied to the chroma block.
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to DANIEL J SANTOS whose telephone number is (571)272-2867. The examiner can normally be reached M-F 9-5.
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If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner’s supervisor, Matt Bella can be reached at (571)272-7778. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300.
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/DANIEL J. SANTOS/Examiner, Art Unit 2667
/MATTHEW C BELLA/Supervisory Patent Examiner, Art Unit 2667
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