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 .
Priority
Receipt is acknowledged of certified copies of papers required by 37 CFR 1.55.
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) 1-3 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Xiu et al (2021/0185338) in view of Nakazoto et al (2010/0014588).
In regard to claim 1 Xiu discloses An image decoding device comprising a circuit, wherein the circuit:
decodes a motion vector from coded data (Xiu Fig. 3 and pars 82-84 note decoding prediction information including motion vectors);
searches for the motion vector with a value of the decoded motion vector as an initial value (Xiu Fig. 7 and par. 91 note using the selected merge candidate to perform a template matching search as part of a DMVR process);
ends the searching for the motion vector in a case where a searching cost at an initial searched point is smaller than a first threshold value (Xiu Fig. 9 and pars 98 and 121 note early termination process for DVMR where a distortion, or ‘searching cost’ at an initial position is compared to a threshold value, and DMVR searching ends if the initial distortion is smaller than the threshold);
searches for the motion vector at an integer pixel interval position in a case where the searching cost at the initial searched point is equal to or larger than the first threshold value (Xiu Fig. 9 and par. 121 note performing DMVR, further note Fig. 7 and pars 92-99 when the DMVR process is performed which searches for a refined motion vector based an initial motion vector, particularly note par. 92 search is performed at integer sample offsets); and
It is noted that Xiu discloses comparing an initial searching cost to a threshold for early termination. and does not disclose details of comparing differences between a minimum searching cost and the search cost of search points with a threshold value. However, Nakazoto discloses a post search termination process that includes comparing a determined minimum searching cost to the cost of an initial minimum searched point and discarding the result of the minimum searching cost if the minimum cost is within a threshold value of the cost of the initial searched point (Nakazoto Fig. 23 and par. 105 note an iterative search is performed around an initial motion vector in order to determine a search position that provides a smallest SAD, or minimum searching cost, then the motion vector coding cost, or threshold value, is added to the minimum searching cost and compared the initial searching cost, the initial motion vector is used, and hence the search results discarded, if the initial cost, initial SAD is smaller than the minimum cos, smallest SAD, plus its motion vector cost, MV cost, further note that initial SAD < smallest SAD + MV Cost is mathematically equivalent to initial SAD – smallest SAD < MV Cost and hence represents whether the difference between the initial SAD and the smallest SAD is less than a ‘third threshold value’ which is the MV Cost value).
It is therefore considered obvious that one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the invention would recognize the advantage of incorporating an MV Cost threshold as taught by Nakazoto in the matching cost comparison of Xiu in order to gain the expected advantage of preventing the selection of arbitrary motion vectors when coding smooth surfaces and reducing bits spent coding motion vector information as taught by Nakazoto (Nakazoto par. 116).
Claims 2-3 recite a method and a program implementing steps corresponding to the functions performed by the decoding device of claim 1. Refer to the statements made in regard to claim 1 for the rejection of claims 2 and 3 which will not be repeated here for brevity. In particular regard to claim 3 further note that Xu discloses implementing the decoding device as a program executed on a computer (Xiu par. 46).
Conclusion
The prior art made of record and not relied upon is considered pertinent to applicant's disclosure.
US 20210195227 A1 LEE; Ha Hyun et al.
US 20200128258 A1 CHEN; Chun-Chia et al.
US 20200092545 A1 Xu; Meng et al.
US 20200053372 A1 XU; Meng et al.
US 20200045325 A1 XU; Meng et al.
US 20190238883 A1 Chen; Chun-Chia et al.
US 20190132606 A1 SU; Yu-Chi et al.
US 20180316929 A1 Li; Xiang et al.
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/JEREMIAH C HALLENBECK-HUBER/ Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2481