CTNF 18/942,767 CTNF 88810 Notice of Pre-AIA or AIA Status 07-03-aia AIA 15-10-aia The present application, filed on or after March 16, 2013, is being examined under the first inventor to file provisions of the AIA. DETAIL ACTION Priority This application claims priority to U.S provisional Patent Application No. 63560578, filed on 3/1/2024 and is hereby incorporated by references. Information Disclosure Statement 06-52 The information disclosure statement (IDS) was submitted on 11/10/2024. The submission is in compliance with the provisions of 37 CFR 1.97. Accordingly, the information disclosure statement is being considered by the examiner. Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 103 07-06 AIA 15-10-15 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. 07-20-aia AIA 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. 07-21-aia AIA Claim (s) 1, 3-4, 6, 8, 10-13, 15, 17-18 and 20 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over HUANG et al (US 20190237086 A1) in view of MCGRATH et al (US 20230343346 A1) . Regarding claim 1, HUANG discloses a method [e.g. FIG. 1-2; audio signal processing, transmitting and receiving method] comprising: accessing a set of Ambisonics data [e.g. FIG. 2; [0005]; W channel; Ambisonics format frame] encoding an audio signal [e.g. encoding transformed frame] and comprising a plurality of Ambisonics channels [e.g. FIG. 2-3; a third order Ambisonics stream, consisting of 16 channels of audio]; applying a singular value decomposition transform to the set of Ambisonics data to decorrelate the Ambisonics channels [e.g. FIG. 2 and 4; [0019]; applying a de correlat or and energy compaction transform, such as a Karhunen Loeve Transform (“KLT”), Singular Value Decomposition]; determining, for each decorrelated Ambisonics channel, a relative energy [e.g. FIG. 2 and 4; energy compaction transform; [0024]; the first transformed channel contains the highest energy and each subsequent transformed channel has decreasing amounts of energy] of that decorrelated Ambisonics channel, based on the decorrelating singular value decomposition transform; and determining, for each decorrelated Ambisonics channel, an allocated bitrate [e.g. FIG. 2 and 4; encoding the first transform channel at lower bit rate], wherein the allocated bitrate is based on the relative energy of the respective decorrelated Ambisonics channel [e.g. [0032]; the greatest amount of energy may then be encoded using a lower bit-rate and transmitted with subsequent packets]; and encoding each decorrelated Ambisonics channel according to the allocated bitrate [e.g. FIG.2 and 4]. It is noted that HUANG differs to the present invention in that HUANG fails to explicitly disclose determining bitrate from an available bitrate. However, MCGRATH teaches the well-known concept of determining, for each decorrelated Ambisonics channel [e.g. FIG. 1; [0042]; ambisonics codec], an allocated bitrate [e.g. FIG. 2-4; estimated bitrate] from an available bitrate [e.g. bitrate thresholds]. It would have been obvious to a person of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the invention to modify the a Ambisonics data encoding system disclosed by HUANG to exploit the well-known determining bitrate technique taught by MCGRATH as above, in order to provide improved coding efficiency and flexibility [See MCGRATH; [0023]]. Regarding claim 3, HUANG and MCGRATH discloses adjusting one or more of the allocated bitrates based on one or more of a minimum bitrate threshold or a maximum bitrate threshold [e.g. MCGRATH: FIG. 2-4; a target bitrate threshold t1 and a maximum bitrate threshold t2]. It would have been obvious to a person of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the invention to modify the a Ambisonics data encoding system disclosed by HUANG to exploit the well- known determining bitrate technique taught by MCGRATH as above, in order to provide improved coding efficiency and flexibility [See MCGRATH; [0023]]. Regarding claim 4, HUANG and MCGRATH discloses dividing the accessed set of Ambisonics data into a plurality of frames [e.g. HUANG: FIG 4 and 7; [0034]; a plurality of frames; MCGRATH: [0009]; the bitrate requirement may change from time to time (e.g., from frame to frame)]. It would have been obvious to a person of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the invention to modify the a Ambisonics data encoding system disclosed by HUANG to exploit the well-known determining bitrate technique taught by MCGRATH as above, in order to provide improved coding efficiency and flexibility [See MCGRATH; [0023]]. Regarding claim 6, HUANG and MCGRATH discloses applying an inverse singular value decomposition transformation to the encoded decorrelated Ambisonics channels [e.g. HUANG: FIG. 7-8; inverse transform is applied]. Regarding claim 8, 10-11 and 12-13, this is an apparatus that includes same limitation as in claim 1, 3-4 and 6 above, the rejection of which are incorporated herein. Regarding claim 15, 17-18 and 20, this is a non-transitory computer-readable storage medium that includes same limitation as in claim 1, 3-4 and 6 above, the rejection of which are incorporated herein . 07-21-aia AIA Claim (s) 2, 9 and 16 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over HUANG et al (US 20190237086 A1) in view of MCGRATH et al (US 20230343346 A1) and VASILACHE et al (US 20190096410 A1) . Regarding claim 2, HUANG and MCGRATH discloses compressing one or more decorrelated Ambisonics channels from the singular value decomposition transform, but HUANG and MCGRATH fail to explicitly disclose compressing by truncating a set of basis vectors. However, VASILACHE teaches the well-known concept of compressing by truncating a set of basis vectors from a transformation [e.g. FIG. 1, 3 and 5; selecting truncate coefficient vector]. It would have been obvious to a person of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the invention to modify the a Ambisonics data encoding system disclosed by HUANG to exploit the well-known determining bitrate technique taught by MCGRATH and the well-known audio signal encoding technique taught by VASILACHE as above, in order to provide improved coding efficiency and flexibility [See MCGRATH; [0023]] and multichannel audio coding that produces efficien t high quality and low bit rate stereo (or multichannel) signal coding [See VASILACHE; [0073]]. Regarding claim 9, this is an apparatus that includes same limitation as in claim 2 above, the rejection of which are incorporated herein. Regarding claim 16, this is a non-transitory computer-readable storage medium that includes same limitation as in claim 2 above, the rejection of which are incorporated herein . 07-21-aia AIA Claim (s) 5 and 19 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over HUANG et al (US 20190237086 A1) in view of MCGRATH et al (US 20230343346 A1) and Najaf-Zadeh et al (US 20150194161 A1) . Regarding claim 5, HUANG and MCGRATH disclose all limitations in claim 4, but HUANG and MCGRATH fail to explicitly disclose creating an overlapping window of data between each pair of adjacent frames. However, Najaf-Zadeh teaches the well-known concept of creating an overlapping window of data between each pair of adjacent frames [e.g. FIG. 7-8; [0100-0103]; a 50% overlap between the current and previous frames]. It would have been obvious to a person of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the invention to modify the a Ambisonics data encoding system disclosed by HUANG to exploit the well-known determining bitrate technique taught by MCGRATH and the well-known Ambisonics signal encoding technique taught by Najaf-Zadeh as above, in order to provide improved coding efficiency and flexibility [See MCGRATH; [0023]] and no discontinuity in the speaker signals [See Najaf-Zadeh; [0102]]. Regarding claim 19, this is a non-transitory computer-readable storage medium that includes same limitation as in claim 5 above, the rejection of which are incorporated herein . 07-21-aia AIA Claim (s) 7 and 14 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over HUANG et al (US 20190237086 A1) in view of MCGRATH et al (US 20230343346 A1) and Jiang et al (US 11314844 B1) Regarding claim 7, HUANG and MCGRATH discloses the singular value decomposition comprises an incremental singular value decomposition. However, Jing teaches the well-known concept of an incremental singular value decomposition for audio data processing [e.g. FIG. 1; 122; input data set 124 may include audio information]. It would have been obvious to a person of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the invention to modify the a Ambisonics data encoding system disclosed by HUANG to exploit the well-known determining bitrate technique taught by MCGRATH and the well-known incremental singular value decomposition for audio data processing taught by Jiang as above, in order to provide improved coding efficiency and improv ed efficiency and accuracy during computation [See Jiang; column 3; lines 19-32]. Regarding claim 14, this is an apparatus that includes same limitation as in claim 7 above, the rejection of which are incorporated herein . Conclusion 07-96 AIA The prior art made of record and not relied upon is considered pertinent to applicant's disclosure. Kim (US 20150340044 A1). Olivieri et al (US 20200402521 A1). Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to ZHUBING REN whose telephone number is (571)272-2788. The examiner can normally be reached Monday-Friday 9am-5pm. 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, Joseph Ustaris can be reached at 571-2727383. 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. /ZHUBING REN/ Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2483 Application/Control Number: 18/942,767 Page 2 Art Unit: 2483 Application/Control Number: 18/942,767 Page 3 Art Unit: 2483 Application/Control Number: 18/942,767 Page 4 Art Unit: 2483 Application/Control Number: 18/942,767 Page 5 Art Unit: 2483 Application/Control Number: 18/942,767 Page 6 Art Unit: 2483 Application/Control Number: 18/942,767 Page 7 Art Unit: 2483
Prosecution Insights