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 Objections
Claim 10 is objected to because of the following informalities: “an encoded bitstream” in --last line-- should be changed to “the encoded bitstream” since the preamble introduces “an encoded bitstream” in --line 5--. Appropriate correction is required.
Claim 17 is objected to because of the following informalities: “the operations of outputting” should be changed to “the operation of outputting” since claim 16 introduces a singular operation of outputting the encoded bitstream. Appropriate correction is required.
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.
Claim 15 is 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.
Claim 15 recites the limitation "the operation of encoding" in --line 1--. There is insufficient antecedent basis for this limitation in the claim.
Allowable Subject Matter
Claims 10-17 are allowable, once the claim objections and the 35 USC 112 rejection, above, has been overcome.
The following is an examiner’s statement of reasons for allowance:
Regarding independent claim 10, the closest prior art of record, Griesinger (US Pub. 20090028360) discloses a multichannel downmixing system comprising a downmixer capable of mixing a multichannel signal including a plurality of channels to an output signal including a plurality of channels, while preserving the intended direction and signal energy of the multichannel signal; and encoding and decoding methods for acoustic signal processing including direction of arrival, audio signal energy, and diffuse signal components encoding and decoding for multi-channel downmix signals processing, but fails to disclose the combination of a system comprising: one or more processors; and a non-transitory computer readable medium storing instructions that, upon execution by the one or more processors, cause the one or more processors to perform operations to generate an encoded bitstream, the operations comprising: receiving a downmix audio signal comprising two channels, wherein a first channel of the downmix audio signal comprises a first directional sound component corresponding to a first direction, wherein a second channel of the downmix audio signal comprises a second directional sound component corresponding to a second direction, and wherein at least one of the first channel and the second channel further comprises a diffuse sound component; receiving, for the first channel of the downmix audio signal: a first direction index indicating a direction of arrival (DOA) of the first directional sound component, wherein the direction of arrival corresponds to a first azimuth angle and a first elevation angle; a first direct-to-total energy ratio indicating a ratio of an energy of the first directional sound component to a total energy; and receiving, for the second channel of the downmix audio signal: a second direction index indicating a direction of arrival (DOA) of the second directional sound component, wherein the direction of arrival corresponds to a second azimuth angle and a second elevation angle; and a second direct-to-total energy ratio indicating a ratio of an energy of the second directional sound component to the total energy; receiving a diffuse-to-total energy ratio indicating a ratio of a diffuse sound energy to the total energy; encoding the downmix audio signal into an encoded downmix audio signal; and combining the encoded downmix audio signal, the first direction index, the first direct-to-total energy ratio, the second direction index, the second direct-to-total energy ratio, and the diffuse-to-total energy ratio into an encoded bitstream. The distinct features, as disclosed in independent claim 10 render the dependent claims 11-17 allowable.
Any comments considered necessary by applicant must be submitted no later than the payment of the issue fee and, to avoid processing delays, should preferably accompany the issue fee. Such submissions should be clearly labeled “Comments on Statement of Reasons for Allowance.”
Conclusion
The prior art made of record and not relied upon is considered pertinent to applicant's disclosure.
Koppens et al. (US Pub. 20230209302) discloses an apparatus and method for generating a diffuse reverberation signal.
McGrath et al. (US Pub. 20210166708) discloses methods for encoding and decoding immersive audio signals.
Del Galdo et al. (US Pub. 20110222694) discloses an apparatus for determining a converted spatial audio signal.
10. Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to PAUL KIM whose telephone number is (571)270-7697. The examiner can normally be reached on 9 AM - 5 PM, PST.
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/PAUL KIM/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2695
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