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 .
Examiner Remarks
The English translation used in the rejection herein is attached to this Office Action.
Response to Arguments
Applicant’s arguments with respect to claim(s) 1-13, 21-27 have been considered but are moot because the new ground of rejection does not rely on any reference applied in the prior rejection of record for any teaching or matter specifically challenged in the argument.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 103
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 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.
Claim(s) 1, 2, 4, 5, 7, 8, 13-15, 17, 18, 20, 22, 23 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over US 20210090301 A1 Mammou; Khaled et al. (hereafter Mammou’301), and further in view of CN 119254994 A Zou.
Regarding claim 1, Mammou’301 discloses A method of mesh processing (Fig.17), comprising: receiving a bitstream of coded information of a mesh (Fig.16, [566]), the mesh including a plurality of three-dimensional (3D) vertices in a 3D space ([08], [14], each vertex having x,y,z coordinates suggests 3D vertices in mesh), and a non-position attribute ([03], [86]), the coded information including a position connectivity of the plurality of 3D vertices in the 3D space ([519], [561], connectivity or geometry information between locations of vertices is the position connectivity).
Mammou’301 fails to disclose determining whether the coded information of the mesh indicates a first condition that a non-position attribute connectivity of the non-position attribute is equal to a position connectivity of the plurality of 3D vertices in the 3D space when a total number of non- position attribute vertices of the non-position attribute is equal to a total number of the plurality of 3D vertices; and determining the non-position attribute connectivity according to the position connectivity of the plurality of 3D vertices when the coded information of the mesh indicates the first condition.
However, Zou teaches determining whether the coded information of the mesh indicates a first condition (P. 7 para. 3rd) that a non-position attribute connectivity of the non-position attribute is equal to a position connectivity of the plurality of 3D vertices in the 3D space when a total number of non- position attribute vertices of the non-position attribute is equal to a total number of the plurality of 3D vertices (P.2nd , P.20 para.1st, decoder reconstructs the coded grid information to determine a condition of determination whether the number of vertices is the same as the number of VU values as attribute of the vertices); and determining the non-position attribute connectivity according to the position connectivity of the plurality of 3D vertices when the coded information of the mesh indicates the first condition (P.17 para,3rd-4th, when the number of vertices is the same as the number of attribute of the vertices that is the condition, the connection relations of VU are determined to be equal or different than the connection relations of geometric position/coordinate ).
Therefore it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify the method of mesh processing disclosed by Mammou’301 to include the teaching in the same field of endeavor of Zou, in order to provide lossless coding of the three-dimensional grid with complete performance and high coding efficiency, as identified by Zuo.
Regarding claim 2, Mammou’301 discloses The method of claim 1, further comprising: determining that the non-position attribute connectivity corresponds to the first condition that the non-position attribute connectivity matches the position connectivity (Fig.6G, [362], [370]).
Regarding claim 4, Mammou’301 discloses The method of claim 1, further comprising: decoding at least a signal from the coded information of the mesh that indicates whether the non-position attribute connectivity of the non-position attribute corresponds to the first condition ([389]).
Regarding claim 5, Mammou’301 discloses The method of claim 3, further comprising: decoding a first bit and a second bit from the coded information of the mesh, the first bit indicating whether the non-position attribute connectivity of the non-position attribute corresponds to a first extreme case that the non-position attribute connectivity matches the position connectivity, and the second bit indicating whether the non-position attribute connectivity of the non-position attribute corresponds to the second condition that faces of the non-position attribute are disconnected ([224], [298], [389]).
Regarding claim 7, Mammou’301 discloses The method of claim 1, wherein the non-position attribute includes at least one of colors, normals, displacements, texture and UV coordinates ([89]).
Regarding claim 8, see the rejection for claim 1, Zou teaches encoding a first signal indicative of whether the non-position attribute connectivity of the non-position attribute corresponds to the first condition into a bitstream of coded information of the mesh (P.33 para.2nd).
Regarding claim 13, Mammou’301 discloses The method of claim 8, wherein the non-position attribute includes at least one of colors, normals, displacements, texture and UV coordinates ([89]).
Regarding claim 14, Mammou’301 discloses A method of processing mesh data, the method comprising: processing a bitstream of mesh data according to a format rule ([100]), wherein: the bitstream includes coded information of a mesh(Fig.16, [566]), the mesh including a plurality of three-dimensional (3D) vertices in a 3D space ([08], [14]), and at least a non-position attribute([03], [86]), the coded information including a position connectivity of the plurality of 3D vertices in the 3D space ([519], [561]); and the format rule specifies that ([100]): whether the coded information of the mesh indicates that a non-position attribute connectivity of the non-position attribute corresponds to at least an extreme case is determined ([362]); and the non-position attribute connectivity is determined according to the position connectivity of the plurality of 3D vertices when the non-position attribute connectivity corresponds to the extreme case ([362], [519]).
Regarding claim 15, Mammou’301 discloses The method of claim 14, wherein the format rule also specifies that: the non-position attribute connectivity corresponding to a first extreme case is determined, the non-position attribute connectivity matching the position connectivity for the first extreme case (Fig.6G, [362], [370]).
Regarding claim 17, Mammou’301 discloses The method of claim 14, wherein the format rule also specifies that: at least a signal is decoded from the coded information of the mesh that indicates whether the non-position attribute connectivity of the non-position attribute corresponds to at least the extreme case ([389]).
Regarding claim 18, Mammou’301 discloses The method of claim 17, wherein the format rule also specifies that: a first bit and a second bit are decided from the coded information of the mesh, the first bit indicating whether the non-position attribute connectivity of the non-position attribute corresponds to a first extreme case that the non-position attribute connectivity matches the position connectivity, and the second bit indicating whether the non-position attribute connectivity of the non-position attribute corresponds to a second extreme case that faces of the non-position attribute are disconnected ([224], [298], [389]).
Regarding claim 20, Mammou’301 discloses The method of claim 14, wherein the non-position attribute includes at least one of colors, normals, displacements, texture and UV coordinates ([89]).
Regarding claim 22, Zou taches The method of claim 8, wherein: the non-position attribute connectivity of the non-position attribute is equal to the position connectivity of the plurality of 3D vertices in the 3D space when faces of the plurality of 3D vertices are disconnected (Fig.8).
Regarding claim 23, see the rejection for claim 8.
Claim(s) 3, 11, 16, 26 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Mammou’301, in view of Zou, and further in view of WO 2024012765 A1 RONDAO ALFACE PATRICE et al. (hereafter Rondao).
Regarding claim 3, Rondao teaches The method of claim 1, further comprising: determining that the non-position attribute connectivity corresponds to a secondcondition that faces of the non-position attribute are disconnected (Fig.17).
Therefore it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filling date of the claimed invention having all the references Mammou’301, Zuo and Rondao before him/her, to modify the method of mesh processing disclosed by Mammou’301 to include the teaching in the same field of endeavor of Zuo and Rondao, in order to provide lossless coding of the three-dimensional grid with complete performance and high coding efficiency, as identified by Zuo, and enable better compression efficiency of the system, as identified by Rondao.
Regarding claims 11, 26, Mammou’301 discloses The method of claim 8, further comprising: encoding a first bit and a second bit into the bitstream of the coded information of the mesh ([224]), the first bit indicating whether the non-position attribute connectivity of the non-position attribute corresponds to a first extreme case that the non-position attribute connectivity matches a position connectivity of the plurality of 3D vertices in the 3D space(Fig.6G, [362], [370]), and Rondao teaches the second bit indicating whether the non-position attribute connectivity of the non-position attribute corresponds to a second extreme case that faces of the non-position attribute are disconnected (Fig.17).
Regarding claim 16, Rondao teaches The method of claim 14, wherein the format rule also specifies that: the non-position attribute connectivity corresponding to a second extreme case is determined, faces of the non-position attribute being disconnected for the second extreme case (Fig.17).
Claim(s) 6, 19 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Mammou’301, in view of Zou, and further in view of EP 4329300 A1 JUN SUNGHO et al. (hereafter Jun).
Regarding claim 6, Jun teaches The method of claim 5, further comprising: decoding a byte from the coded information of the mesh, the byte includes 6 bits indicating a quantization parameter, the first bit and the second bit ([96]-[98]).
Therefore it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filling date of the claimed invention having all the references Mammou’301, Zuo and Jun before him/her, to modify the method of mesh processing disclosed by Mammou’301 to include the teaching in the same field of endeavor of Zuo and Jun, in order to provide lossless coding of the three-dimensional grid with complete performance and high coding efficiency, as identified by Zuo, and an image processing device capable of reducing or preventing deterioration of quality when performing lossy compression on image data, as identified by Jun.
Regarding claim 19, Jun teaches The method of claim 18, wherein the format rule also specifies that: a byte is decoded from the coded information of the mesh, the byte includes 6 bits indicating a quantization parameter, the first bit and the second bit ([96]-[98]).
Claim(s) 9, 10, 21, 24 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Mammou’301, in view of Zou, and further in view of US 20230290063 A1 Mammou; Khaled et al. (hereafter Mammou’063).
Regarding claims 9, 24, Mammou’063 teaches The method of claim 8, further comprising: checking whether a first number of non-position attribute vertices for representing the non-position attribute in a 2D map is equal to a second number of the plurality of 3D vertices; and determining that the non-position attribute connectivity corresponds to a first extreme case that the non-position attribute connectivity matches a position connectivity of the plurality of 3D vertices in the 3D space when the first number is equal to the second number ([240]-[242]).
Therefore it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filling date of the claimed invention having all the references Mammou’301, Zuo and Mammou’063 before him/her, to modify the method of mesh processing disclosed by Mammou’301 to include the teaching in the same field of endeavor of Zuo and Mammou’063, in order to provide lossless coding of the three-dimensional grid with complete performance and high coding efficiency, as identified by Zuo, and improve the visual/objective quality of the decoded meshes and attribute maps, as identified by Mammou’063.
Regarding claim 10, Mammou’063 teaches The method of claim 8, further comprising: checking whether a first number of non-position attribute vertices for representing the non-position attribute in a 2D map is equal to a total number of face degree of the mesh, the total number of face degree being a sum of a number of vertices incident to each face of the mesh; and determining that the non-position attribute connectivity corresponds to a second extreme case that faces of the non-position attribute are disconnected when the first number is equal to the total number of face degree ([281]-[286]).
Regarding claim 21, Mammou’063 teaches The method of claim 10, further comprising: when the first number is not equal to the second number or the first number is not equal to the total number of face degree of the mesh, encoding a second signal indicative of an operation to cut the position connectivity of the plurality of 3D vertices into the non-position attribute connectivity of the non-position attribute ([175]).
Claim(s) 12, 27 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Mammou’301, in view of Zou and Rondao, and further in view of Jun.
Regarding claims 12, 27, Jun teaches The method of claim 11, further comprising: encoding a byte into the bitstream of the coded information of the mesh, the byte includes 6 bits indicating a quantization parameter, the first bit and the second bit ([96]-[98]).
Therefore it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filling date of the claimed invention having all the references Mammou’301, Zou, Rondao, and Jun before him/her, to modify the method of mesh processing disclosed by Mammou’301 to include the teaching in the same field of endeavor of Zou, Rondao and Jun, in order to provide lossless coding of the three-dimensional grid with complete performance and high coding efficiency, as identified by Zuo, enable better compression efficiency of the system, as identified by Rondao, and provide an image processing device capable of reducing or preventing deterioration of quality when performing lossy compression on image data, as identified by Jun.
Conclusion
Applicant's amendment necessitated the new ground(s) of rejection presented in this Office action. Accordingly, THIS ACTION IS MADE FINAL. See MPEP § 706.07(a). Applicant is reminded of the extension of time policy as set forth in 37 CFR 1.136(a).
A shortened statutory period for reply to this final action is set to expire THREE MONTHS from the mailing date of this action. In the event a first reply is filed within TWO MONTHS of the mailing date of this final action and the advisory action is not mailed until after the end of the THREE-MONTH shortened statutory period, then the shortened statutory period will expire on the date the advisory action is mailed, and any nonprovisional extension fee (37 CFR 1.17(a)) pursuant to 37 CFR 1.136(a) will be calculated from the mailing date of the advisory action. In no event, however, will the statutory period for reply expire later than SIX MONTHS from the mailing date of this final action.
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to TRACY Y. LI whose telephone number is (571)270-3671. The examiner can normally be reached Monday Friday (8:30 AM- 4:30 PM) EST.
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/TRACY Y. LI/ Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2487
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