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 .
Procedural Summary
This is responsive to the claims 10/30/2024.
Claims 1-20 are pending.
Signed copies of the IDS’ are attached.
The Drawings filed 10/30/2024 are noted.
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 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 set forth in Graham v. John Deere Co., 383 U.S. 1, 148 USPQ 459 (1966), that are applied 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.
Claims 1, 4, 5, 7-10, 13, 14, 16 & 17 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Caballero et al. (U.S. Patent. No.: 10,701,394 B1) in view of “Basic VSR”1.
Regarding Claims 1, 10 & 17: Caballero discloses an apparatus, (Col. 14. Lines 22-24), comprising: a computer processor for executing computer program instructions, (Col. 8. Lines 20-54); and a non-transitory computer-readable memory storing computer program instructions executable by the computer processor to perform operations, (Col. 52. Lines 41-50).
Caballero discloses receiving, at an input channel, input video including a current image frame and a previous image frame, (Fig. 9, 910, 920 and related descriptions); performing, at a first convolution layer, a first set of convolution operations on the current image frame, (Fig. 6, 250 and related descriptions, noting e.g., Col. 9. Lines 5-20 showing multiple convolution layers).
Caballero discloses the invention substantially but does make explicit, generating subsets of intermediate convolution outputs including the first subset of intermediate convolution outputs and a previous subset of intermediate convolution outputs from the previous image frame. In a related invention, Basic VSR teaches “video super-resolution” with b-directional frame propagation, (e.g., Pages 1 & 2, Abstract and Introduction; the propagated features showing intermediate outputs.)
It would have been obvious to a person of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to have provided the second-order grid propagation taught by Basic VSR in Caballero’s system for the purpose of ameliorating information flow in the network and improving robustness of image regeneration, (e.g., Basic VSR, Page 2.) Caballero and Basic VSR teach performing, at a second convolution layer, a second set of convolution operations on the first set of intermediate convolution outputs; and outputting a high-resolution image frame, (Caballero, Fig. 6, 250 and related description noting multiple convolution layers/operations for example, hierarchical Col. 9. Lines 10-20.)
Regarding Claims 4, 13: Caballero and Basic VSR teach wherein outputting the high-resolution image includes outputting a super-sampled image frame, (Fig. 7, 740, 750 and related descriptions.)
Regarding Claims 5, 14: Caballero and Basic VSR teach, further comprising accessing, at the second convolution layer, via a skip connection, information from the first convolution layer. (e.g., Caballero, Fig. 6, 250 and related descriptions, Col. 9. Lines 10-20.)
Regarding Claims 7, 16: Caballero and Basic VSR teach further comprising dividing the input channel into a plurality of sections and stacking the sections in parallel to expand a spatial perceptual field of the first and second convolutional layers, (e.g., Caballero Col. 17. Lines 64-67-Col. 18. Lines 1-4).
Regarding Claim 8: Caballero and Basic VSR teach wherein performing the first set of convolution operations includes encoding the current image frame at an encoding layer, (e.g., Caballero Fig. 3 and related descriptions.)
Regarding Claim 9: Caballero and Basic VSR teach comprising performing preprocessing on the current image frame and the previous image frame and generating preprocessed image frame data, and wherein performing the first set of convolution operations includes performing the first set of convolution operations on the preprocessed image frame data, (Caballero, Fig. 6, 250 and related description noting multiple convolution layers/operations for example, hierarchical Col. 9. Lines 10-20.)
Allowable Subject Matter
Claims 2, 3, 6, 11, 12, 15, 18-20 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: The closest prior art, of record herein, namely Caballero and Basic VSR, fail to disclose, suggest or render obvious, in combination with the other claimed limitations:
Per Claims 2, 3, 11, 12, 18 & 19: wherein generating the first set of intermediate convolution outputs includes concatenating the previous subset of intermediate convolution outputs to the first subset of intermediate convolution outputs
Per Claims 6, 15 & 20: wherein the first subset of intermediate convolution outputs is a current first subset of intermediate convolution outputs, wherein the previous subset of intermediate convolution outputs from the previous image frame is a previous first subset of intermediate convolution outputs, wherein performing the second set of convolution operations includes generating a current second subset of intermediate convolution outputs, and further comprising: generating a second set of intermediate convolution outputs, including the current second subset of intermediate convolution outputs and a previous second subset of
intermediate convolution outputs from the previous image frame.
Conclusion
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to OMKAR A DEODHAR whose telephone number is (571)272-1647. The examiner can normally be reached M-F, generally 9am-5:30 pm.
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If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner’s supervisor, Xuan Thai can be reached on 571-272-7147. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300.
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/OMKAR A DEODHAR/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 3715
1 “Basic VSR++: Improving Video Super-Resolution with Enhanced Propagation and Alignment” (NPL cited on attached 892 form, published and publicly accessible April 2021.)
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