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 .
Information Disclosure Statement
The information disclosure statement (IDS) submitted on 10/31/2024 is in compliance with the provisions of 37 CFR 1.97. Accordingly, the information disclosure statement is being considered by the examiner.
Claim Objections
Claims 2, 4, 6, and 8 are objected to because of the following informalities:
In claims 2, 4, 6, and 8, “Moton order” should be changed to “Morton order”.
Appropriate correction is required.
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 (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 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)(2) the claimed invention was described in a patent issued under section 151, or in an application for patent published or deemed published under section 122(b), in which the patent or application, as the case may be, names another inventor and was effectively filed before the effective filing date of the claimed invention.
Claim(s) 3, 4, 7, and 8 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(2) as being anticipated by Mammou et al (US20190080483).
Regarding claim 3, Mammou discloses a decoding method comprising:
decoding a bitstream to obtain positions of points (para. [0092], A decoder, such as decoder 220, may receive an encoded compressed point cloud and/or an encoded compressed attribute information file for points of a point cloud. In such situations, the spatial information generator 222, may recreate the geometry of the point cloud being decompressed using decoded spatial information from encoded data interface 226; para. [0143]-[0144]) and a second data series including data of points arranged in a second order (para. [0066], Because the encoder and the decoder may determine the same evaluation order based on the spatial information for the point cloud, the decoder may determine which attribute correction value corresponds to which attribute of which point based on the order in which the attribute correction values are encoded in the compressed attribute information file; para. [0094]); and
generating a first data series from the second data series based on the positions of points (para. [0092], For example, decoded spatial information may be formatted as residual values to be used in a sub-sampled prediction method to recreate a geometry of a point cloud to be decompressed; para. [0159], In some embodiments, a deterministic re-ordering process may be applied on both an encoder side (such as at encoder 202) and at a decoder side (such as at decoder 220) in order to organize points of a point cloud), the first data series including the data of points arranged in a first order (para. [0159]);
wherein the second data series includes data of a reference point and data of a first point arranged at a position next to the data of the reference point (para. [0094], For example, a prediction evaluator may select a next nearest neighboring point to the starting point as a next point to evaluate, wherein the next nearest neighboring point is selected based on a shortest distance to a neighboring point from the starting point in the minimum spanning tree; para. [0147]), and the first point is the nearest point to the reference point (para. [0094], For example, a prediction evaluator may select a next nearest neighboring point to the starting point as a next point to evaluate, wherein the next nearest neighboring point is selected based on a shortest distance to a neighboring point from the starting point in the minimum spanning tree; para. [0147]).
Regarding claim 4, Mammou discloses a decoding method wherein the first order is a Morton order (para. [0378]-[0379]).
Regarding claim 7, the claim recites similar subject matter as claim 3 and is rejected for the same reasons as stated above.
Regarding claim 8, the claim recites similar subject matter as claim 4 and is rejected for the same reasons as stated above.
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.
Claim(s) 1, 2, 5, and 6 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Hemmer et al (US9787321) in view of Mammou et al (20190080483).
Regarding claim 1, Mammou teaches an encoding method comprising:
obtaining a first data series including data of points arranged in a first order (col. 2 lines 23-29; col. 6 lines 34-42);
generating a second data series including the data of points arranged in a second order, the second order being different from the first order (col. 6 lines 43-46);
encoding the second data series to generate encoded data (col. 6 lines 46-52); and
generating a bitstream including the encoded data (col. 6 lines 27-33).
Hemmer fails to teach wherein the second data series is generated by:
determining a reference point from among the points, and arranging the data of a first point at a position next to the data of the reference point; and
wherein the first point is the nearest point to the reference point.
However Mammou teaches determining a reference point from among the points (para. [0107], At 414, attribute values for a starting point are assigned. In some embodiments, an encoder may encode data indicating spatial information for a starting point and/or other indicia of which point of the point cloud is the starting point or starting points), and arranging the data of a first point at a position next to the data of the reference point (para. [0108], The evaluation order may be determined based on a shortest distance from the starting point to an adjacent neighboring point, wherein the closest neighboring point is selected as the next point in the evaluation order. In some embodiments, an evaluation order may be determined only for a next point to evaluate); and
wherein the first point is the nearest point to the reference point (para. [0108], The evaluation order may be determined based on a shortest distance from the starting point to an adjacent neighboring point, wherein the closest neighboring point is selected as the next point in the evaluation order; para. [0109], In some embodiments, a neighboring point to be next evaluated may be selected based on the neighboring point being at a shortest distance from a point last evaluated).
Therefore taking the combined teachings of Hemmer and Mammou as a whole, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art at the time the invention was filed to incorporate the steps of Mammou into the method of Hemmer. The motivation to combine Mammou and Hemmer would be to reduce costs and time associated with storing and transmitting large point cloud files (para. [0055] of Mammou).
Regarding claim 2, the modified method of Hemmer teaches an encoding method wherein the first order is a Morton order (para. [0378]-[0379] of Mammou).
Regarding claim 5, the claim recites similar subject matter as claim 1 and is rejected for the same reasons as stated above.
Regarding claim 6, the claim recites similar subject matter as claim 2 and is rejected for the same reasons as stated above.
Related Art
Cohen et al (US20190116372) – see para. [0009], [0050], [0052], [0111]
Conclusion
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to LEON VIET Q NGUYEN whose telephone number is (571)270-1185. The examiner can normally be reached Mon-Fri 11AM-7PM.
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/LEON VIET Q NGUYEN/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2663
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