DETAILED ACTION
1. This office action is in response to U.S. Patent Application No.: 18/959,501 filed on 11/25/2024
with effective filing date 3/31/2020. Claims 1-20 are pending.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 103
2. 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.
3. The factual inquiries 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.
4. Claim(s) 1, 2, 6-7, 11 -12 & 15 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Benjamin et al. Versatile Video Coding draft 8, JVET (IDS) in view of Seregin et al. US 2021/0266600 A1.
Per claims 1 & 6, Benjamin et al. discloses a method for video encoding, comprising: signaling a first syntax element for determining whether information of one or more reference picture lists is present in a picture header (PH) associated with a picture (page 62, sec: 7.3.7.2, e.g. wherein the ph_disable_bdof_flag equal to 1 specifies that bi-directional optical flow inter prediction based inter biprediction is disabled in slices associated with the PH, and the ph_disable_bdof_flag equal to 0 specifies that bi-directional optical flow inter prediction based inter bi-prediction may or may not be enabled in the slices associated with the PH).
Benjamin et al. fails to explicitly disclose the remaining claim limitation.
Seregin et al. however in the same field of endeavor teaches and signaling the information of the one or more reference picture lists in the PH in a case that the first syntax element has a first value (para: 188, e.g. video encoder 200 may be configured to determine that reference picture list information is included in a PH syntax structure and generate a first syntax element, such as rpl_info_in_ph_flag above to indicate that the reference picture list information is included in the PH syntax structure. Video encoder 200 may generate a second syntax element), wherein in a case that the information of the one or more reference picture lists is signaled in the PH and one or more slices associated with the picture are determined, from the information of the one or more reference picture lists, as being not bi-predictive, one or more second syntax elements in the PH are not parsed (para: 189-190, e.g. video decoder 300 may be configured to receive a first syntax element, such as rpl_info_in_ph_flag above, indicating that reference picture list information is included in a PH syntax structure, and in response, receive a second syntax element, such as ph_collocated_from_l0_flag above in the PH syntax structure; Video decoder 300 may additionally be configured to receive, in response to receiving the first syntax element indicating that reference picture list information is included in the picture header syntax structure and in response to the slice being the P slice, an instance of a fourth syntax element).
Therefore, in view of disclosures by Seregin et al., it would have been obvious to a person of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention was made to combine Benjamin et al. and Seregin et al. in order to reduce or remove redundancy inherent in video sequences. he bitstream of encoded video data is outputted that includes the first syntax element and the picture header syntax structure, without actually receiving an instance of the syntax element.
Per claims 2 & 7, Seregin et al. further teaches the method according to claim 1, wherein the one or more second syntax elements comprise one or more flags applicable for the one or more slices (para: 244, e.g. in response to receiving a first syntax element, such as e.g., rpl_info_in_ph_flag, indicating that reference picture list information is included in a PH syntax structure, video decoder 300 receives a second syntax element, such as ph_collocated_from_l0_flag).
Per claims 11 & 15, Seregin et al. further teaches a non-transitory computer-readable storage medium storing a bitstream generated by the method according to claim 1 (para: 193, e.g. video data memory 230 may store video data to be encoded by the components of video encoder 200. Video encoder 200 may receive the video data stored in video data memory 230).
Per claim 12, Seregin et al. further teaches the non-transitory computer-readable storage medium according to claim 11, wherein the one or more second syntax elements comprise one or more flags applicable for the one or more slices (para: 244, e.g. in response to receiving a first syntax element, such as e.g., rpl_info_in_ph_flag, indicating that reference picture list information is included in a PH syntax structure, video decoder 300 receives a second syntax element, such as ph_collocated_from_l0_flag).
Examiner Note
Examiner notes that terminal disclosure will be required for claims 16-20, and 1-15 depending on how the claims are amended.
Allowable Subject Matter
5. Claims 3-5, 8-10, & 13-14 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.
6. Claim 16-20 are allowed.
Conclusion
7. The prior art made of record and not relied upon is considered pertinent to applicant's disclosure.
Kang et al. US 2021/0274215 A1, e.g. an image decoding method is disclosed in the present specification. An image decoding method according to the present invention comprises the step of deriving a first candidate list for the current block by using motion information of neighboring blocks of the current block; deriving a second candidate list for the current block by using previously reconstructed motion information; deriving a third candidate list by using the first candidate list and the second candidate list; and deriving a prediction block for the current block by using the third candidate list.
Francois et al. US 10,931,945, e.g. a method of providing a mode value representing a prediction mode of at least part of an image to be encoded, the image being composed of a plurality of processing blocks, each processing block being predictable by applying a prediction mode of a plurality M of available prediction modes, the method comprising: determining first data indicative of a first set of n most probable prediction modes, from the plurality M of available prediction modes, for predicting the said at least part of an image; determining, for the case where a most probable prediction mode is not used, second data representative of a second set of prediction modes of the plurality M of available prediction modes wherein the second set of prediction modes comprise a restricted number N of prediction modes of the M available prediction modes, the prediction modes of the second set being selected from the M available prediction modes according to a predefined condition.
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/Irfan Habib/ Examiner, Art Unit 2485