DETAILED ACTION
This office action is in response to the application filed on September 24, 2024. Claims 1 – 12 are pending.
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 for foreign priority under 35 U.S.C. 119 (a)-(d). The certified copy has been filed in parent Application No. KR10-2022-0036596 filed on March 24, 2022 and Application No. KR10-2023-0027859 filed on March 02, 2023.
Information Disclosure Statement
The information disclosure statements (IDS) were submitted on September 24, 2024 and September 26, 2024. The submissions are in compliance with the provisions of 37 CFR 1.97. Accordingly, the information disclosure statements are being considered by the Examiner.
Specification
Applicant is reminded of the proper language and format for an abstract of the disclosure.
The abstract should be in narrative form and generally limited to a single paragraph on a separate sheet within the range of 50 to 150 words. The form and legal phraseology often used in patent claims, such as "means" and "said," should be avoided. The abstract should describe the disclosure sufficiently to assist readers in deciding whether there is a need for consulting the full patent text for details.
The language should be clear and concise and should not repeat information given in the title. It should avoid using phrases which can be implied, such as, "The disclosure concerns," "The disclosure defined by this invention," "The disclosure describes," etc. In addition, the form and legal phraseology often used in patent claims, such as “means” and “said,” should be avoided.
The abstract of the disclosure is objected to because it uses the phrase “A method is disclosed for predicting chroma components…” and “In the disclosed embodiments, to intra-predict the current chroma block…”, which can be implied. Correction is required. See MPEP § 608.01(b).
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 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 12 is rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(1) as being anticipated by HENDRY et al., (US 2023/0328266 A1) referred to as HENDRY hereinafter.
Regarding Claim 12, HENDRY discloses a computer-readable recording medium storing a bitstream generated by a video encoding method (Par. [0009], a non-transitory computer-readable storage medium storing a bitstream including image information causing an image decoding method to be performed, Claim 30) the video encoding method comprising: generating a first prediction block of a current chroma block by using a Direct Mode_Intra Block Copy mode (DM_IBC mode) that uses a block vector of a previously reconstructed corresponding luma block to generate the first prediction block; generating a second prediction block of the current chroma block by using a chroma prediction mode that is a prediction mode for a chroma component; determining a prediction mode indicator of the current chroma block based on the first prediction block and the second prediction block in terms of rate-distortion optimization, the prediction mode indicator indicating whether the DM_IBC mode is to be used for the current chroma block; and encoding the prediction mode indicator (See MPEP §2113 recites: “Product-by-Process claims are not limited to the manipulations of the recited steps, only the structure implied by the steps”).
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, 2 and 7 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over CAI et al. (US 2022/0295101 A1) referred to as CAI hereinafter, and in view of CHIANG et al. (US 2022/0224891 A1) referred to as CHIANG hereinafter.
Regarding Claim 1, CAI teaches a method performed by a video decoding device for intra-predicting a current chroma block (Fig. 3, adaptive color transform, the intra chroma prediction mode), the method comprising:
decoding a prediction mode indicator of the current chroma block (Fig. 3, Par. [0049] Step 301: the intra chroma prediction mode (intra_chroma_pred_mode) (i.e. prediction mode indicator) is coded), wherein the prediction mode indicator indicates whether a Direct Mode_Intra Block Copy mode (DM_IBC mode) is to be used for the current chroma block (Par. [0050] Step 302: it is determined whether the intra chroma prediction mode is the DM mode, and it is further determined whether it is the non-regular mode if it is the DM mode and Par. [0052] Step 303: it is determined whether the intra luma prediction mode is the IBC mode, that is, whether pred_mode_ibc_flag is true, and if no, executing 304); and
checking the prediction mode indicator, wherein when the current chroma block uses the DM_IBC mode (Fig. 3, checks Step 302 Yes for DM, Step 303 Yes for IBC), generating a prediction block of the current chroma block of a previously reconstructed corresponding luma block (Par. [0095], Table 10 if cu_act_enabled_flag[ xCb ][ yCb ] is equal to 1, the chroma intra prediction mode IntraPredModeC [ xCb ][ yCb ] is set equal to lumaIntraPredMode.).
While CAI teaches motion compensated prediction in Fig. 1, CAI does not specifically teach block vectors. Therefore, CAI fails to explicitly teach generating a prediction block of the current block by using a block vector of a previously reconstructed corresponding block.
However, CHIANG teaches generating a prediction block of the current block (Par. [0011], a prediction unit (PU) is predicted from a previously reconstructed block within the same picture. Further, a displacement vector (called block vector or BV) is used to signal the relative displacement from the position of the current block to the position of the reference block) by using a block vector of a previously reconstructed corresponding block (Par. [0013], a block vector is used to indicate the displacement from the current block to a reference block, which is already reconstructed inside the current picture).
References CAI and CHIANG are considered to be analogous art because they relate to intra chroma prediction mode in video coding. Therefore, it would have been obvious that one of ordinary skill in the art, before the effective filing date of the claimed invention, would recognize the advantage of further specifying generating prediction block of current block using block vector of previous reconstrued blocks as suggested by CHIANG in the invention of CAI in order to indicate the displacement from the current block to a reference block, which is already reconstructed inside the current picture (See CHIANG, Par. [0013]).
Regarding Claim 2, CAI in view of CHIANG teaches Claim 1. CAI further teaches further comprising, when the current chroma block does not use the DM_IBC mode (Par. [0050] Step 302: it is determined whether the intra chroma prediction mode is the DM mode, NO): generating a chroma prediction mode by using the prediction mode indicator (Par. [0096], See Table 11, indicators 0-4) under Intra_chroma_pred_mode when flag is 0); and generating a prediction block of the current chroma block based on the chroma prediction mode (Par. [0095] Table 10, Otherwise ( cu_act_enabled_flag[ xCb ][ yCb ] is equal to 0 and BdpcmFlag [ xCb ][ yCb ][ 1 ] is equal to 0 ), the chroma intra prediction mode IntraPredModeC [ xCb ][ yCb ] is derived using cclm_mode_flag, cclm_mode_idx, intra_chroma_pred_ mode and lumaIntraPredMode).
Regarding Claim 7, CAI teaches a method performed by a video encoding device (Par. [0033], intra prediction and motion compensated prediction etc. FIG. 1 schematically shows various operations of a coding side (i.e. encoding device) may correspondingly perform various operations) for intra-predicting a current chroma block (Fig. 3, adaptive color transform, the intra chroma prediction mode), the method comprising:
generating a prediction block of the current chroma block by using a Direct Mode_Intra Block Copy mode (DM_IBC mode) (Par. [0095], Table 10 if cu_act_enabled_flag[ xCb ][ yCb ] is equal to 1, the chroma intra prediction mode IntraPredModeC [ xCb ][ yCb ] is set equal to lumaIntraPredMode) that uses a previously reconstructed corresponding luma block (Fig. 3, Par. [0050] Step 302: it is determined whether the intra chroma prediction mode is the DM mode, and it is further determined whether it is the non-regular mode if it is the DM mode, Par. [0052] Step 303: it is determined whether the intra luma prediction mode (i.e. generate first prediction block) is the IBC mode, that is, whether pred_mode_ibc_flag is true);
generating a prediction block of the current chroma block by using a chroma prediction mode that is a prediction mode for a chroma component (Par. [0049] Step 301: the intra chroma prediction mode (intra_chroma_pred_mode) is coded (i.e. generate second prediction block));
determining a prediction mode indicator of the current chroma block based on the prediction block in terms of rate-distortion optimization (Par. [0059], a ratio of a size of the coding unit to a size of a sub-block is taken as a determination condition (i.e. rate-distortion optimization). The ratio is, for example, cbWidth/SubWidthC and/or cbHeight/SubHeightC), the prediction mode indicator indicating whether the DM_IBC mode is to be used for the current chroma block (Par. [0052], pred_mode_ibc_flag is true); and
encoding the prediction mode indicator (Par. [0047], the second indication information is not encoded into a bitstream when the intra luma prediction mode of the coding unit is in the non-regular mode. As a result, the number of encoded bits may be lowered, and the coding efficiency may further be improved. Par. [0150] the functions of the coding apparatus 700 (i.e. encoding) for adaptive color transform may be integrated into the processor 901).
While CAI teaches motion compensated prediction in Fig. 1, CAI does not specifically teach block vectors. Therefore, CAI fails to explicitly teach generating prediction blocks of the current block by using a block vector of a previously reconstructed corresponding block.
However, CHIANG teaches generating a first and second prediction blocks of the current block (Par. [0003], For color video data, each PU may comprise multiple Prediction Blocks (PBs) (i.e. first and second prediction blocks) corresponding to multiple color components. Par. [0049], The current chroma block may correspond to a chroma coding block (CB) and the corresponding luma block corresponds to a luma coding block (CB) or a luma prediction block (PB)) by using a block vector of a previously reconstructed corresponding block to generate the prediction block (Par. [0011], a prediction unit (PU) is predicted from a previously reconstructed block within the same picture. Further, a displacement vector (called block vector or BV) is used to signal the relative displacement from the position of the current block to the position of the reference block. Par. [0013], a block vector is used to indicate the displacement from the current block to a reference block, which is already reconstructed inside the current picture. Par. [0014] At the encoder side, hash-based motion estimation is performed for IBC. The encoder performs RD (rate-distortion) check for blocks with either width or height no larger than 16 luma samples).
References CAI and CHIANG are considered to be analogous art because they relate to intra chroma prediction mode in video coding. Therefore, it would have been obvious that one of ordinary skill in the art, before the effective filing date of the claimed invention, would recognize the advantage of further specifying generating prediction blocks of current block using block vector of previous reconstrued blocks as suggested by CHIANG in the invention of CAI in order to indicate the displacement from the current block to a reference block, which is already reconstructed inside the current picture (See CHIANG, Par. [0013]).
Allowable Subject Matter
Claims 3-6 and 8-11 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: Claims 3 and 8 specifically define when the corresponding luma block comprises a plurality of luma blocks: responsive to a predicted luma block being retrieved in an Intra Block Copy mode (IBC mode) by checking a predetermined natural number N positions in the corresponding luma block, generating the first prediction block based on a block vector of the retrieved luma block that is not readily taught or suggested by the prior art uncovered during search or made of record. Claims 4-6 and 9-11 are allowed for the reasons above by virtue of their respective dependencies.
Conclusion
The prior art references made of record are not relied upon but are considered pertinent to applicant's disclosure. ZHU et al. (US 2022/0078410 A1) teaches chroma intra mode derivation in screen content coding. JANG et al. (US 2022/0272329 A1) teaches chroma intra mode derivation in screen content coding.
Any inquiry concerning this communication should be directed to SUSAN E HODGES whose telephone number is (571)270-0498. The Examiner can normally be reached on Monday - Friday from 8:00 am (EST) to 4:00 pm (EST).
If attempts to reach the Examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the Examiner's supervisor, Brian T. Pendleton, can be reached on (571) . The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300.
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/Susan E. Hodges/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2425
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