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 .
Response to Arguments
Applicant's arguments filed 12/23/2025 have been fully considered but they are not persuasive.
Transmission is a machine task.
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.
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 1-4, 7-8, 10-14, 17-18, 20-22 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Price et al. (US 20130195178 A1) in view of KIM (US 20240334062 A1).
Regarding claim 1. Price discloses An image encoding device (abstract, techniques for coding video data efficiently) comprising circuitry ([0051] Commonly, video coders are provided as electronic devices. They can be embodied in integrated circuits),
the circuitry being configured to
perform pre-processing according to image usage on an input image to generate a first image ([0010] apply pre-processing operations to the different portions of pixel blocks to preserve high quality coding of the portion belonging to the detected object and to provide high compression coding to non-object portions; [0015] The pre-processor 142 may accept source video from the camera 160 and may perform various processing operations on the source video to condition it for coding),
encode the first image ([0015] The coding engine 143 may perform compression operations on the pre-processed video to reduce spatial and/or temporal redundancies therein), and
generate a bit stream including the first image ([0015] The coding engine 143 may output coded video data to the transmitter 170; [0013] The transmitter 170 may merge coded video data provided by the video coder 140 with other data stream(s) provided by audio codecs or other data sources (not shown) and may condition the data for transmission to the other terminal 120),
wherein the image usage includes at least one machine task and human vision ([0013] The transmitter 170 may merge coded video data provided by the video coder 140 with other data stream(s) provided by audio codecs or other data sources (not shown) and may condition the data for transmission to the other terminal 120; [0011] decode the coded data and display the recovered video data; [0014] The second terminal 120 may include a receiver 180, video decoder 150 and display 190), and
when the image usage is the human vision, the pre-processing does not reduce a code amount of the first image more than when the image usage is the machine task ([0010] apply pre-processing operations to the different portions of pixel blocks to preserve high quality coding of the portion belonging to the detected object and to provide high compression coding to non-object portions; [0011] decode the coded data and display the recovered video data; [0014] The second terminal 120 may include a receiver 180, video decoder 150 and display 190 (the video data used for transmission and display has been pre-processed in the same way)).
However, Price doesn’t explicitly disclose
generate information indicating the pre-processing performed on the input image,
encode the information, and
generate a bit stream including the information.
KIM discloses
generate information indicating the pre-processing performed on the input image ([0472] Encoding data and information generated during the pre-processing process may be added to a bitstream),
encode the first image and the information ([0472] Encoding data and information generated during the pre-processing process may be added to a bitstream), and
generate a bit stream including the first image and the information ([0472] Encoding data and information generated during the pre-processing process may be added to a bitstream).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to combine the inventions of Price and KIM, to include the information indicating the pre-processing in the bitstream, in order to construct a decoded image in combination of a plurality of pieces of encoding data (encoding data+pre-processing information) according to user environments (KIM [0472]).
Regarding claim 2. Price discloses The image encoding device according to claim 1, wherein the pre-processing includes filter processing ([0017] The pre-processor 142 may include an array of filters).
Regarding claim 3. Price discloses The image encoding device according to claim 2, wherein the filter processing applies at least one of a noise removal filter, a sharpening filter, a bit depth conversion filter, a color space conversion filter, a resolution conversion filter, and a filter using a neural network on the input image ([0017] The pre-processor 142 may include an array of filters (not shown) such as de-noising filters, sharpening filters, smoothing filters, bilateral filters and the like).
Regarding claim 4. Price discloses The image encoding device according to claim 3, wherein the noise removal filter includes at least one of a low-pass filter, a Gaussian filter, a smoothing filter, an averaging filter, a bilateral filter, and a median filter ([0017] The pre-processor 142 may include an array of filters (not shown) such as de-noising filters, sharpening filters, smoothing filters, bilateral filters and the like).
Regarding claim 7. Price discloses The image encoding device according to claim 1, wherein the pre-processing
defines a non-important region that is not important in the input image; and
reduces the code amount of the non-important region ([0010] apply pre-processing operations to the different portions of pixel blocks to preserve high quality coding of the portion belonging to the detected object and to provide high compression coding to non-object portions).
Regarding claim 8. Price discloses The image encoding device according to claim 1, wherein the pre-processing
defines an important region that is important in the input image; and
emphasizes the important region ([0010] apply pre-processing operations to the different portions of pixel blocks to preserve high quality coding of the portion belonging to the detected object and to provide high compression coding to non-object portions).
Regarding claim 10. KIM discloses The image encoding device according to claim 1, wherein the information is stored in a supplemental enhancement information (SEI) region of the bitstream ([0472] The information generated during the pre-processing process may be added to the bitstream in the form of SEI or metadata).
The same motivation has been stated in claim 1.
Regarding claim 11. The same analysis has been stated in claim 1.
Regarding claim 12. The same analysis has been stated in claim 2.
Regarding claim 13. The same analysis has been stated in claim 3.
Regarding claim 14. The same analysis has been stated in claim 4.
Regarding claim 17. The same analysis has been stated in claim 7.
Regarding claim 18. The same analysis has been stated in claim 8.
Regarding claim 20. The same analysis has been stated in claim 10.
Regarding claim 21. The same analysis has been stated in claim 1.
Regarding claim 22. The same analysis has been stated in claim 1.
Claims 5-6 and 15-16 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Price et al. (US 20130195178 A1) in view of KIM (US 20240334062 A1) as applied above in claims 1-4, 7-14, 17-22, and further in view of MA et al. (US 20220021905 A1).
Regarding claim 5. MA discloses a resolution conversion filter includes a downsampling filter that reduces resolution of the first image from resolution of the input image ([0004] a pre-processing filter is used to pre-process an original picture for decreasing resolution of a video; [0027] perform pre-processing filtering on an original picture frame in the original video frames to reduce video resolution; [0044] a sample rearrangement processing (which may also be called a down-sampling processing) may be performed on a colour component with high resolution).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to combine the inventions of Price and KIM with the invention of MA, to include a downsampling filter, in order to improve an overall coding efficiency (MA [0004]).
Regarding claim 6. MA discloses a pre-processing reduces a code amount of the first image from a code amount of the input image ([0004] Since the resolution of the video needs to be coded is lower than resolution of an original video, fewer bits may be used for representation).
The same motivation has been stated in claim 5.
Regarding claim 15. The same analysis has been stated in claim 5.
Regarding claim 16. The same analysis has been stated in claim 6.
Conclusion
THIS ACTION IS MADE FINAL. 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 XIAOLAN XU whose telephone number is (571)270-7580. The examiner can normally be reached Mon. to Fri. 9am-5pm.
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/XIAOLAN XU/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2488