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 .
Continued Examination Under 37 CFR 1.114
A request for continued examination under 37 CFR 1.114, including the fee set forth in 37 CFR 1.17(e), was filed in this application after final rejection. Since this application is eligible for continued examination under 37 CFR 1.114, and the fee set forth in 37 CFR 1.17(e) has been timely paid, the finality of the previous Office action has been withdrawn pursuant to 37 CFR 1.114. Applicant's submission filed on 05/19/2026 has been entered.
Response to Arguments
Applicant's arguments, filed 05/19/2026, have been fully considered but they are not persuasive.
Applicant argues that Chang in view of Huang fails to teach “searching a plurality of candidate MVs only in a region corresponding to the moving direction of the touch gesture, wherein each of the plurality of candidate MVs is directed to a block in the region; and selecting a second MV from the plurality of candidate MVs as one of the at least one MV used for constructing the interpolated frame.” In support, Applicant states “[i]n the instant application, the MVs are all used for generating interpolated frames, and are equivalent to the image MV of Huang, rather than the touch MV,” “the Examiner relies on touch MVs of Huang to be unreasonably analogous to the image MV of the instant application,” “the computation taught by Huang is an average computation, which cannot be regarded as the operations of region define, region-based search, and candidate MV selection as specified in the instant application,” “claim 1 specifies ‘performing candidate MV 25 search only in this region’, which means other regions are not searched, and this feature is not taught by Huang,” further in the instant claims “the second MV and the candidate MVs are image MVs rather than touch MVs since they are used for constructing the interpolated frames” and “one of ordinary skill in the art would not be motivated to apply the touch MVs and related operations of Huang to the image MVs of Chang to reach the features of the instant application.” Examiner respectfully disagrees.
In response to applicant's arguments against the references individually, one cannot show nonobviousness by attacking references individually where the rejections are based on combinations of references. See In re Keller, 642 F.2d 413, 208 USPQ 871 (CCPA 1981); In re Merck & Co., 800 F.2d 1091, 231 USPQ 375 (Fed. Cir. 1986). Applicant focuses on Huang, the secondary reference, for allegedly not teaching the amended claim language, while largely ignoring Chang, the primary reference.
In the Chang ME procedure, the ME unit 204 may find out the best motion vector (MV) for each block in the input frame from a plurality of MV candidates, where the MV candidates include one or more temporal MV candidates and/or one or more spatial MV candidates, but not limited thereto. If an image block is determined to be the mixed block, the ME unit 204 may apply a gain to the temporal MV candidate(s) for this mixed block, and select the best MV for this mixed block from the MV candidates after the temporal MV candidate(s) is modified based on the gain. In the Chang MC procedure, the MC unit 206 may generate the interpolated frame based on the selected MV for each block; (Chang: Fig 2; motion estimation (ME) unit 204; col 4, line 62 – col 5, line 4; motion compensation (MC) unit 206; col 5, line 5-6; Fig 3). Thus Chang teaches “finding at least one motion vector (MV), searching a plurality of candidate MVs only in a region, wherein each of the plurality of candidate MVs is directed to a block in the region, and selecting a second MV from the plurality of candidate MVs as one of the at least one MV used for constructing the interpolated frame.”
Huang teaches computing motions vectors of two fingers for use in subsequent computation (Huang: [0037]). Thus Huang teaches “searching a plurality of candidate MVs only in a region corresponding to the moving direction of the touch gesture.” Huang teaches selecting both motion vectors to obtain an average of the two motion vectors (Huang: [0037]). Thus Huang teaches “selecting a second MV among the at least one MV from the plurality of candidate MVs.”
Therefore Chang in view of Huang teaches “searching a plurality of candidate MVs only in a region corresponding to the moving direction of the touch gesture, wherein each of the plurality of candidate MVs is directed to a block in the region; and selecting a second MV from the plurality of candidate MVs as one of the at least one MV used for constructing the interpolated frame.”
In response to applicant’s argument that there is no teaching, suggestion, or motivation to combine the references, the examiner recognizes that obviousness may be established by combining or modifying the teachings of the prior art to produce the claimed invention where there is some teaching, suggestion, or motivation to do so found either in the references themselves or in the knowledge generally available to one of ordinary skill in the art. See In re Fine, 837 F.2d 1071, 5 USPQ2d 1596 (Fed. Cir. 1988), In re Jones, 958 F.2d 347, 21 USPQ2d 1941 (Fed. Cir. 1992), and KSR International Co. v. Teleflex, Inc., 550 U.S. 398, 82 USPQ2d 1385 (2007). In this case, using touch information to determine a motion vector, as in Huang, would benefit the Chang teachings by allowing more user customization, increased compression and reduced use of computation resources, especially once the shooting angle or the shooting position of the video camera changes (Huang: [0008]-[0009]).
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.
Claim(s) 1-5, 8-12 and 15-19 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Chang (US 11,503,248) in view of Huang et al. (US 2013/0070852).
Regarding claim 1,
Chang teaches:
An image processing method for a video processor (Chang: Fig 1; video processor 106, including frame rate controller 104, part of display system 10; col 3, line 49-51; video processor receives input frames, (of a source video) from video provider 12; col 4, line 10-15; As shown in FIG. 1, the display system 10 such as a TV may receive and display a source video having a series of image frames provided by a video provider 12 such as a DVD player or a video streaming service provider communicated with the display system 10 via a wired network or a wireless network) to generate an interpolated frame (Chang: col 4, line 28-35; when receiving a 24-Hz input video having two input frames A and B, the frame rate converter 104 may convert the 2 input frames A and B into 5 image frames A, A, A, B, B in 60 Hz. These image frames may be served as the film part to be combined with the video part, and the video processor 106 may perform MEMC operations to generate appropriate interpolated frames based on these image frames; col 5, line 5-6; Fig 3; Table 1-2; col 9, line 17-37; col 12, line 25-6), the image processing method comprising:
finding at least one motion vector (MV), searching a plurality of candidate MVs only in a region, wherein each of the plurality of candidate MVs is directed to a block in the region, and selecting a second MV from the plurality of candidate MVs as one of the at least one MV used for constructing the interpolated frame (Chang: Fig 2; motion estimation (ME) unit 204; col 4, line 62 – col 5, line 4; In the ME procedure, the ME unit 204 may find out the best motion vector (MV) for each block in the input frame from a plurality of MV candidates, where the MV candidates include one or more temporal MV candidates and/or one or more spatial MV candidates, but not limited thereto. If an image block is determined to be the mixed block, the ME unit 204 may apply a gain to the temporal MV candidate(s) for this mixed block, and select the best MV for this mixed block from the MV candidates after the temporal MV candidate(s) is modified based on the gain; motion compensation (MC) unit 206; col 5, line 5-6; In the MC procedure, the MC unit 206 may generate the interpolated frame based on the selected MV for each block; Fig 3); and
constructing the interpolated frame by using the at least one MV (Chang: Fig 2; motion compensation (MC) unit 206; col 5, line 5-6; In the MC procedure, the MC unit 206 may generate the interpolated frame based on the selected MV for each block; Fig 3);
Chang fails to teach:
receiving a touch information;
finding at least one motion vector (MV) according to the touch information;
wherein the touch information comprises a moving direction of a touch gesture,
corresponding to the moving direction of the touch gesture.
Huang teaches:
receiving a touch information (Huang: Fig 2; S204; [0036]-[0042]; control unit 13 detects a touch operation performed on the touch screen 12 and computes a motion vector of the touch operation (step S204); Fig 3; S304; Fig 4; [0044]-[0046]);
finding at least one motion vector (MV) according to the touch information (Huang: Fig 2; S204; [0036]-[0042]; control unit 13 detects a touch operation performed on the touch screen 12 and computes a motion vector of the touch operation (step S204); Fig 3; S304; Fig 4; [0044]-[0046]; [0037]; motion vectors of two fingers);
wherein the touch information comprises a moving direction of a touch gesture (Huang: [0036]-[0037]; touch operation includes detection of position of touch points; drag operation of two fingers along a same direction; [0046]; direction of the change/delta in the x and y directions of touch and drag operation; Fig 4; direction arrow of touch and drag), and the step of finding the at least one MV according to the touch information comprises:
searching a plurality of candidate MVs only in a region corresponding to the moving direction of the touch gesture (Huang: [0037]; compute motions vectors of two fingers for use in subsequent computation); and
selecting a second MV among the at least one MV from the plurality of candidate MVs (Huang: [0037]; select both motion vectors to obtain average of the two motion vectors).
Before the effective filing date of the claimed invention, it would have been obvious to a person having ordinary skill in the art to combine the teachings of Huang with Chang. Using touch information to determine a motion vector, as in Huang, would benefit the Chang teachings by allowing more user customization, increased compression and reduced use of computation resources, especially once the shooting angle or the shooting position of the video camera changes (Huang: [0008]-[0009]). Additionally, this is the application of a known technique, using touch information to determine a motion vector, to a known device ready for improvement, the Chang device, to yield predictable results.
Regarding claim 2,
Chang in view of Huang teaches:
The image processing method of claim 1, wherein the touch information is received from a host processor (Huang: Fig 1; [0030]-[0033]).
Regarding claim 3,
Chang in view of Huang teaches:
The image processing method of claim 1, wherein the touch information is received from a display driver circuit (Huang: Fig 1; [0030]-[0033]).
Regarding claim 4,
Chang in view of Huang teaches:
The image processing method of claim 1, wherein the touch information further comprises at least one of a displacement of the touch gesture and a touch event (Huang: [0036]-[0037]; [0039]-[0040]; [0046]; Fig 4).
Regarding claim 5,
Chang in view of Huang teaches:
The image processing method of claim 4, wherein the step of finding the at least one MV according to the touch information comprises:
converting the displacement of the touch gesture into a moving distance of an object in an original image (Huang: [0036]-[0037]; [0039]-[0040]; [0046]; Fig 4); and
finding a first MV among the at least one MV according to the moving distance of the object (Huang: [0036]-[0037]; [0039]-[0042]; [0046]; Fig 4; Chang: Table 1; col 9, line 4-47).
Regarding claim 8,
Chang teaches:
A video processor (Chang: Fig 1; video processor 106, including frame rate controller 104, part of display system 10; col 3, line 49-51; video processor receives input frames, (of a source video) from video provider 12; col 4, line 10-15; As shown in FIG. 1, the display system 10 such as a TV may receive and display a source video having a series of image frames provided by a video provider 12 such as a DVD player or a video streaming service provider communicated with the display system 10 via a wired network or a wireless network) to generate an interpolated frame (Chang: col 4, line 28-35; when receiving a 24-Hz input video having two input frames A and B, the frame rate converter 104 may convert the 2 input frames A and B into 5 image frames A, A, A, B, B in 60 Hz. These image frames may be served as the film part to be combined with the video part, and the video processor 106 may perform MEMC operations to generate appropriate interpolated frames based on these image frames; col 5, line 5-6; Fig 3; Table 1-2; col 9, line 17-37; col 12, line 25-6), the video processor comprising:
a motion estimation (ME) circuit to find at least one motion vector (MV) and the ME circuit searches a plurality of candidate MVs only in a region, and selects a second MV from the plurality of candidate MVs as one of the at least one MV used for constructing the interpolated frame, wherein each of the plurality of candidate MVs is directed to a block in the region (Chang: Fig 2; motion estimation (ME) unit 204; col 4, line 62 – col 5, line 4; In the ME procedure, the ME unit 204 may find out the best motion vector (MV) for each block in the input frame from a plurality of MV candidates, where the MV candidates include one or more temporal MV candidates and/or one or more spatial MV candidates, but not limited thereto. If an image block is determined to be the mixed block, the ME unit 204 may apply a gain to the temporal MV candidate(s) for this mixed block, and select the best MV for this mixed block from the MV candidates after the temporal MV candidate(s) is modified based on the gain; motion compensation (MC) unit 206; col 5, line 5-6; In the MC procedure, the MC unit 206 may generate the interpolated frame based on the selected MV for each block; Fig 3); and
a motion compensation (MC) circuit to construct the interpolated frame by using the at least one MV (Chang: Fig 2; motion compensation (MC) unit 206; col 5, line 5-6; In the MC procedure, the MC unit 206 may generate the interpolated frame based on the selected MV for each block; Fig 3);
Chang fails to teach:
to receive a touch information and find at least one motion vector (MV) according to the touch information;
wherein the touch information comprises a moving direction of a touch gesture, and corresponding to the moving direction of the touch gesture.
Huang teaches:
to receive a touch information and find at least one motion vector (MV) according to the touch information (Huang: Fig 2; S204; [0036]-[0042]; control unit 13 detects a touch operation performed on the touch screen 12 and computes a motion vector of the touch operation (step S204); Fig 3; S304; Fig 4; [0044]-[0046]; [0037]; motion vectors of two fingers);
wherein the touch information comprises a moving direction of a touch gesture (Huang: [0036]-[0037]; touch operation includes detection of position of touch points; drag operation of two fingers along a same direction; [0046]; direction of the change/delta in the x and y directions of touch and drag operation; Fig 4; direction arrow of touch and drag), and the ME circuit searches a plurality of candidate MVs only in a region corresponding to the moving direction of the touch gesture (Huang: [0037]; compute motions vectors of two fingers for use in subsequent computation), and selects a second MV among the at least one MV from the plurality of candidate MVs (Huang: [0037]; select both motion vectors to obtain average of the two motion vectors).
Before the effective filing date of the claimed invention, it would have been obvious to a person having ordinary skill in the art to combine the teachings of Huang with Chang. Using touch information to determine a motion vector, as in Huang, would benefit the Chang teachings by allowing more user customization, increased compression and reduced use of computation resources, especially once the shooting angle or the shooting position of the video camera changes (Huang: [0008]-[0009]). Additionally, this is the application of a known technique, using touch information to determine a motion vector, to a known device ready for improvement, the Chang device, to yield predictable results.
Regarding claim 9,
Chang in view of Huang teaches:
The video processor of claim 8, wherein the ME circuit receives the touch information from a host processor (Huang: Fig 1; [0030]-[0033]).
Regarding claim 10,
Chang in view of Huang teaches:
The video processor of claim 8, wherein the ME circuit receives the touch information from a display driver circuit (Huang: Fig 1; [0030]-[0033]).
Regarding claim 11,
Chang in view of Huang teaches:
The video processor of claim 8, wherein the touch information further comprises at least one of a displacement of the touch gesture and a touch event (Huang: [0036]-[0037]; [0039]-[0040]; [0046]; Fig 4).
Regarding claim 12,
Chang in view of Huang teaches:
The video processor of claim 11, wherein the ME circuit converts the displacement of the touch gesture into a moving distance of an object in an original image, and finds a first MV among the at least one MV according to the moving distance of the object (Huang: [0036]-[0037]; [0039]-[0042]; [0046]; Fig 4; Chang: Table 1; col 9, line 4-47).
Regarding claim 15,
Chang teaches:
A display system comprising:
a host processor to generate a previous frame and a current frame (Chang: Fig 1; video provider 12; col 3, line 49-56; col 4, line 10-15; DVD player or a video streaming service provider);
a video processor, coupled to the host processor, (Chang: Fig 1; video processor 106, including frame rate controller 104, part of display system 10; col 3, line 49-51; video processor receives input frames, (of a source video) from video provider 12; col 4, line 10-15; As shown in FIG. 1, the display system 10 such as a TV may receive and display a source video having a series of image frames provided by a video provider 12 such as a DVD player or a video streaming service provider communicated with the display system 10 via a wired network or a wireless network) to generate an interpolated frame according to the previous frame and the current frame (Chang: col 4, line 28-35; when receiving a 24-Hz input video having two input frames A and B, the frame rate converter 104 may convert the 2 input frames A and B into 5 image frames A, A, A, B, B in 60 Hz. These image frames may be served as the film part to be combined with the video part, and the video processor 106 may perform MEMC operations to generate appropriate interpolated frames based on these image frames; col 5, line 5-6; Fig 3; Table 1-2; col 9, line 17-37; col 12, line 25-6), the video processor comprising:
a motion estimation (ME) circuit to find at least one motion vector (MV) and the ME circuit searches a plurality of candidate MVs only in a region, and selects a second MV from the plurality of candidate MVs as one of the at least one MV used for constructing the interpolated frame, wherein each of the plurality of candidate MVs is directed to a block in the region (Chang: Fig 2; motion estimation (ME) unit 204; col 4, line 62 – col 5, line 4; In the ME procedure, the ME unit 204 may find out the best motion vector (MV) for each block in the input frame from a plurality of MV candidates, where the MV candidates include one or more temporal MV candidates and/or one or more spatial MV candidates, but not limited thereto. If an image block is determined to be the mixed block, the ME unit 204 may apply a gain to the temporal MV candidate(s) for this mixed block, and select the best MV for this mixed block from the MV candidates after the temporal MV candidate(s) is modified based on the gain; motion compensation (MC) unit 206; col 5, line 5-6; In the MC procedure, the MC unit 206 may generate the interpolated frame based on the selected MV for each block; Fig 3); and
a motion compensation (MC) circuit to construct the interpolated frame by using the at least one MV (Chang: Fig 2; motion compensation (MC) unit 206; col 5, line 5-6; In the MC procedure, the MC unit 206 may generate the interpolated frame based on the selected MV for each block; Fig 3); and
a display driver circuit, coupled to the video processor, (Chang: Fig 1; display driver 108) to drive a display panel (Chang: Fig 1; display panel 110) to display the interpolated frame (Chang: col 4, line 31-47; These image frames may be served as the film part to be combined with the video part, and the video processor 106 may perform MEMC operations to generate appropriate interpolated frames based on these image frames. The display driver 108 may convert the image data into data voltage signals and drive the display panel 110 to display the image frames through the data voltage signals. The display driver 108 may include a timing controller, a source driver, a gate driver, and/or any other devices capable of driving the display panel 110. The display panel 110 may be of any type such as a liquid crystal display (LCD) panel, light-emitting diode (LED) display, and plasma display panel (PDP), but not limited thereto. The video processor 106 is configured to perform the MEMC operations to generate the interpolated frames and make the series of output frames smooth);
Chang fails to teach:
to receive a touch information and find at least one motion vector (MV) according to the touch information;
wherein the touch information comprises a moving direction of a touch gesture, and corresponding to the moving direction of the touch gesture.
Huang teaches:
to receive a touch information and find at least one motion vector (MV) according to the touch information (Huang: Fig 2; S204; [0036]-[0042]; control unit 13 detects a touch operation performed on the touch screen 12 and computes a motion vector of the touch operation (step S204); Fig 3; S304; Fig 4; [0044]-[0046]; [0037]; motion vectors of two fingers);
wherein the touch information comprises a moving direction of a touch gesture (Huang: [0036]-[0037]; touch operation includes detection of position of touch points; drag operation of two fingers along a same direction; [0046]; direction of the change/delta in the x and y directions of touch and drag operation; Fig 4; direction arrow of touch and drag), and the ME circuit searches a plurality of candidate MVs only in a region corresponding to the moving direction of the touch gesture (Huang: [0037]; compute motions vectors of two fingers for use in subsequent computation), and selects a second MV among the at least one MV from the plurality of candidate MVs (Huang: [0037]; select both motion vectors to obtain average of the two motion vectors).
Before the effective filing date of the claimed invention, it would have been obvious to a person having ordinary skill in the art to combine the teachings of Huang with Chang. Using touch information to determine a motion vector, as in Huang, would benefit the Chang teachings by allowing more user customization, increased compression and reduced use of computation resources, especially once the shooting angle or the shooting position of the video camera changes (Huang: [0008]-[0009]). Additionally, this is the application of a known technique, using touch information to determine a motion vector, to a known device ready for improvement, the Chang device, to yield predictable results.
Regarding claim 16,
Chang in view of Huang teaches:
The display system of claim 15, wherein the ME circuit receives the touch information from the host processor (Huang: Fig 1; [0030]-[0033]).
Regarding claim 17,
Chang in view of Huang teaches:
The display system of claim 15, wherein the ME circuit receives the touch information from the display driver circuit (Huang: Fig 1; [0030]-[0033]).
Regarding claim 18,
Chang in view of Huang teaches:
The display system of claim 15, wherein the touch information further comprises at least one of a displacement of the touch gesture and a touch event (Huang: [0036]-[0037]; [0039]-[0040]; [0046]; Fig 4).
Regarding claim 19,
Chang in view of Huang teaches:
The display system of claim 18, wherein the ME circuit converts the displacement of the touch gesture into a moving distance of an object in an original image, and finds a first MV among the at least one MV according to the moving distance of the object (Huang: [0036]-[0037]; [0039]-[0042]; [0046]; Fig 4; Chang: Table 1; col 9, line 4-47).
Allowable Subject Matter
Claims 7, 14 and 21 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.
Conclusion
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to JAMES M PONTIUS whose telephone number is (571)270-7687. The examiner can normally be reached M-Th 8-4.
Examiner interviews are available via telephone, in-person, and video conferencing using a USPTO supplied web-based collaboration tool. To schedule an interview, applicant is encouraged to use the USPTO Automated Interview Request (AIR) at http://www.uspto.gov/interviewpractice.
If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner’s supervisor, Sath V Perungavoor can be reached at (571)272-7455. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300.
Information regarding the status of published or unpublished applications may be obtained from Patent Center. Unpublished application information in Patent Center is available to registered users. To file and manage patent submissions in Patent Center, visit: https://patentcenter.uspto.gov. Visit https://www.uspto.gov/patents/apply/patent-center for more information about Patent Center and https://www.uspto.gov/patents/docx for information about filing in DOCX format. For additional questions, contact the Electronic Business Center (EBC) at 866-217-9197 (toll-free). If you would like assistance from a USPTO Customer Service Representative, call 800-786-9199 (IN USA OR CANADA) or 571-272-1000.
/JAMES M PONTIUS/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2488
Prosecution Insights