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 .
Notice to Applications
This communication is in response to the Application filed on December 02, 2024.
Claims 1-20 are pending.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 101
35 U.S.C. 101 reads as follows:
Whoever invents or discovers any new and useful process, machine, manufacture, or composition of matter, or any new and useful improvement thereof, may obtain a patent therefor, subject to the conditions and requirements of this title.
35 U.S.C. 101 requires that a claimed invention must fall within one of four eligible categories of invention (i.e. process, machine, manufacture, or composition of matter) and must not be directed to subject matter encompassing a judicially recognized exception as interpreted by the courts. MPEP 2106. Three categories of subject matter are found to be judicially recognized exceptions to 35 U.S.C. § 101 (i.e. patent ineligible) (1) laws of nature, (2) physical phenomena, and (3) abstract ideas. MPEP 2106(II). To be patent-eligible, a claim directed to a judicial exception must as whole be integrated into a practical application or directed to significantly more than the exception itself (MPEP 2106). Hence, the claim must describe a process or product that applies the exception in a meaningful way, such that it is more than a drafting effort designed to monopolize the exception.
Claim 20 is rejected under the most recent interpretation of the Interim Guidelines regarding 35 U.S.C. 101 because the claimed invention is directed to non-statutory subject matter. The claim does not fall within at least one of the four categories of patent eligible subject matter because a "computer readable storage medium" is discussed in the specification as corresponding to “1) tangible computer-readable storage media, which is non-transitory; or (2) a communication medium such as a signal or carrier wave. Data storage media may be any available media that can be accessed by one or more computers or one or more processors to retrieve instructions, code, and/or data structures for implementation of the techniques described in this disclosure. By way of example, and not limitation, such computer-readable media may include RAM, ROM, EEPROM, compact disc-read only memory (CD-ROM), or other optical disk storage, magnetic disk storage, or other magnetic storage devices. Disk and disc, as used herein, includes compact disc (CD), laser disc, optical disc, digital versatile disc (DVD), floppy disk, and Blu-ray disc, where disks usually reproduce data magnetically, while discs usually reproduce data optically with lasers.”
The broadest reasonable interpretation of a claim drawn to a computer readable medium (also called machine readable medium and other such variations) typically covers forms of non-transitory tangible media and transitory propagating signals per se in view of the ordinary and customary meaning of computer readable media. See MPEP 2111.01. When the broadest reasonable interpretation of a claim covers a signal per se, the claim must be rejected under 35 U.S.C 101 as covering non-statutory subject matter. The claims, as defined in the specification, cover both non-statutory subject matter and statutory subject matter. A claim drawn to such a computer readable medium that covers both transitory and non-transitory embodiments may be amended to narrow the claim to cover only statutory embodiments by adding the limitation "non-transitory" to the claim.
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.
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.
Claims 1-7, 11-16, and 18-20 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable of Tian et al., US 20140254688 A1, (hereinafter “Tian”) in view of Soroushian et al., US 20150189225 A1, (hereinafter “Soroushian”).
Regarding claim 1, Tian teaches an apparatus for display processing, comprising:
a memory ([0015] “The memory 12 can include random access memory (RAM) or a combination of RAM and read only memory (ROM), magnetic disk storage media devices, optical storage media devices, flash memory devices, electrical, optical, or other physical/tangible memory storage devices.”); and
a processor coupled to the memory, wherein, based on information stored in the memory, the processor is configured to ([0015] “The processor 8 executes the control process logic instructions 14 stored in memory 12 for controlling each device 4, including the performance of operations as set forth in the flowcharts of FIGS. 3-6.”):
generate a data structure indicative of a spread of color tones between a set of image frames ([0016] “The codec module 16 includes a color histogram generation module 18 that generates color histograms for video frames that are received by the computing device and have been decoded. The color histograms that are generated by module 18 are analyzed by a histogram analysis/frame processing module 20 of the codec module 16 in order to process frames (e.g., rendering a frame, refining or filtering a frame, designating a frame as new, etc.) utilizing the techniques as described herein.” wherein the data structure is a color histogram); and
([0026] “In response to the C.sub.S value not exceeding the first threshold value T1 (thus indicating that a new scene has not occurred), additional C.sub.S values are calculated within a selected time window t at 230. This analysis is performed to determine whether the quality of frame N is such that it can be rendered or, alternatively, it should be skipped. In particular, color histograms are generated for frames N-K, where K=0, 1, 2 . . . t, and C.sub.S values are determined for each comparison between frame N and frame N-K. At 235, in response to any C.sub.S value over the range of frames N-K exceeding a second threshold value T2, a decision is made to skip frame N at 240.” wherein a dropped first subset of images is the skipped frames based on the color histogram comparisons).
Tian does not specifically disclose a first frame rate and output a rate-matched set of image frames at a second frame rate.
However, Soroushian teaches a first frame rate and output a rate-matched set of image frames at a second frame rate ([0020] “The management machine typically sends a given segment to a given transcoding resource along with instructions to change the frame rate to a specified output frame rate.” wherein a first frame rate is an initial frame rate) ([0076] “A variety of approaches are known in the art for performing a frame-rate conversion and can be used in conjunction with the teachings hereof. Frame-rate conversion can be achieved through the duplication or elimination of frames from the input sequence for frames to match the desired frame-rate of the output sequence, for example.”) ([0020] “The management machine typically sends a given segment to a given transcoding resource along with instructions to change the frame rate to a specified output frame rate.” wherein a second frame rate is specified output frame rate).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to combine the frame-rate conversion method of Soroushian with the color histogram based video frame analysis device of Tian to ensure color detected changes are consistent with the actual movement in video scenes and to apply corrections that preserve both color fidelity and temporal smoothness.
Regarding claim 2, Tian in view of Soroushian teaches the apparatus of claim 1, wherein to drop the first subset of image frames based on the spread of color tones, the processor is configured to:
drop the first subset of image frames based on a set of first difference values associated with each frame of the first subset of image frames and a difference threshold condition, wherein the set of first difference values are indicative of first differences between first color tone spreads of the spread of color tones associated with first image frames and second color tone spreads of the spread of color tones associated with second image frames that are adjacent to the first image frames (Soroushian - [0076] “A variety of approaches are known in the art for performing a frame-rate conversion and can be used in conjunction with the teachings hereof. Frame-rate conversion can be achieved through the duplication or elimination of frames from the input sequence for frames to match the desired frame-rate of the output sequence, for example.”) (Tian - [0024] “At 205, a technique is performed to determine a difference between the color histograms for frame N and the previous frame (N-1). In an example embodiment, the technique utilizes a Chi-Square measure that calculates a bin-to-bin difference between the color histograms generated for frame N and the previous frame (N-1). Chi-Square algorithms are known for calculating differences between histograms.”) (Tian - [0030] “At 265, color histograms are calculated or retrieved for frame N and the most recent base frame. At 270, a cross bin difference measure, such as a Quad-Chi measure, QC, of the color histograms of the two frames (frame N and the most recent base frame) is calculated…At 275, the QC value obtained from step 270 is compared with a third threshold value, T3. In the event the QC value does not exceed the third threshold value T3, frame N is discarded after being rendered at 280. In the event the QC value exceeds the third threshold value T3, frame N is stored as a semantic frame at 285.” wherein a set of first difference values between first color tone spreads and second color tone spreads is the difference values between color histograms for frames; wherein a difference threshold condition is a threshold value).
The motivation for combining Tian and Soroushian is the same motivation as used for claim 1.
Regarding claim 3, Tian in view of Soroushian teaches the apparatus of claim 2, wherein the set of first difference values is less than or equal to the difference threshold condition (Tian - [0030] “At 265, color histograms are calculated or retrieved for frame N and the most recent base frame. At 270, a cross bin difference measure, such as a Quad-Chi measure, QC, of the color histograms of the two frames (frame N and the most recent base frame) is calculated…At 275, the QC value obtained from step 270 is compared with a third threshold value, T3. In the event the QC value does not exceed the third threshold value T3, frame N is discarded after being rendered at 280. In the event the QC value exceeds the third threshold value T3, frame N is stored as a semantic frame at 285.” wherein a set of first difference values is difference values less than the threshold value).
The motivation for combining Tian and Soroushian is the same motivation as used for claim 1.
Regarding claim 4, Tian in view of Soroushian teaches the apparatus of claim 2, wherein the first differences comprise a set of smallest differences of the set of first difference values (Tian - [0030] “At 265, color histograms are calculated or retrieved for frame N and the most recent base frame. At 270, a cross bin difference measure, such as a Quad-Chi measure, QC, of the color histograms of the two frames (frame N and the most recent base frame) is calculated…At 275, the QC value obtained from step 270 is compared with a third threshold value, T3. In the event the QC value does not exceed the third threshold value T3, frame N is discarded after being rendered at 280. In the event the QC value exceeds the third threshold value T3, frame N is stored as a semantic frame at 285.” wherein a set of first difference values is difference values less than the threshold value and wherein it would have been obvious to one or ordinary skill in the art for the set to feature smaller differences as indicated by the cross bin difference measure (Quad-Chi measure) being below the threshold value).
The motivation for combining Tian and Soroushian is the same motivation as used for claim 1.
Regarding claim 5, Tian in view of Soroushian teaches the apparatus of claim 2, wherein the difference threshold condition is associated with a percentage difference, an absolute difference, or a distributional difference of color tone spreads (Tian - [0030] “In particular, the filtered frame N resulting from 250 is marked as a base frame at 260. At 265, color histograms are calculated or retrieved for frame N and the most recent base frame. At 270, a cross bin difference measure, such as a Quad-Chi measure, QC, of the color histograms of the two frames (frame N and the most recent base frame) is calculated.” wherein the difference threshold condition is associated with a Quad-Chi measure which is a distributional difference of the color histograms).
The motivation for combining Tian and Soroushian is the same motivation as used for claim 1.
Regarding claim 6, Tian in view of Soroushian teaches the apparatus of claim 2, wherein to output the rate-matched set of image frames at the second frame rate, the processor is configured to:
duplicate a second subset of image frames of the set of image frames based on the second frame rate being greater than the first frame rate (Soroushian - [0076] “A variety of approaches are known in the art for performing a frame-rate conversion and can be used in conjunction with the teachings hereof. Frame-rate conversion can be achieved through the duplication or elimination of frames from the input sequence for frames to match the desired frame-rate of the output sequence, for example.”) (Soroushian - [0020] “The management machine typically sends a given segment to a given transcoding resource along with instructions to change the frame rate to a specified output frame rate.” wherein a first frame rate is an initial frame rate and a second frame rate is specified output frame rate).
The motivation for combining Tian and Soroushian is the same motivation as used for claim 1.
Regarding claim 7, Tian in view of Soroushian teaches the apparatus of claim 6, wherein to duplicate the second subset of image frames, the processor is configured to duplicate the second subset of image frames based on the spread of color tones (Soroushian - [0076] “A variety of approaches are known in the art for performing a frame-rate conversion and can be used in conjunction with the teachings hereof. Frame-rate conversion can be achieved through the duplication or elimination of frames from the input sequence for frames to match the desired frame-rate of the output sequence, for example.”) (Tian - [0030] “At 265, color histograms are calculated or retrieved for frame N and the most recent base frame. At 270, a cross bin difference measure, such as a Quad-Chi measure, QC, of the color histograms of the two frames (frame N and the most recent base frame) is calculated…At 275, the QC value obtained from step 270 is compared with a third threshold value, T3. In the event the QC value does not exceed the third threshold value T3, frame N is discarded after being rendered at 280. In the event the QC value exceeds the third threshold value T3, frame N is stored as a semantic frame at 285.” wherein it would have been obvious to one or ordinary skill in the art to duplicate the second subset of image frames of Soroushian if it is determined that the frame has semantic content of Tian).
The motivation for combining Tian and Soroushian is the same motivation as used for claim 1.
Regarding claim 11, Tian in view of Soroushian teaches the apparatus of claim 7, wherein to duplicate the second subset of image frames, the processor is configured to duplicate the second subset of image frames prior to dropping the first subset of image frames (Soroushian - [0078] “The best-available approach (FIG. 10) utilizes the best available decoded frame. Here, each time a frame is decoded, it is examined to see whether it can be used for an output frame with a +/-1 frame distance in the past (duplicating) or the future (dropping).” wherein a second subset of image frames are the frames duplicated and the first subset of image frames are the frames dropped).
The motivation for combining Tian and Soroushian is the same motivation as used for claim 1.
Regarding claim 12, Tian in view of Soroushian teaches the apparatus of claim 7, wherein to duplicate the second subset of image frames, the processor is configured to duplicate image frames of the second subset of image frames for a respective placement adjacent to a corresponding duplicated image frame (Soroushian - [0076] “A variety of approaches are known in the art for performing a frame-rate conversion and can be used in conjunction with the teachings hereof. Frame-rate conversion can be achieved through the duplication or elimination of frames from the input sequence for frames to match the desired frame-rate of the output sequence, for example.” wherein the second subset of image frames is the frames achieved for duplication; wherein duplicating for a respective placement is duplicating to match a desired frame-rate output) (Soroushian - [0077] “In the closest possible frame approach (FIG. 9), whether for up-conversion or down-conversion, for each frame to be encoded, the absolute closest decoded frame must be selected for use by the duplication/dropping algorithm; as shown in FIG. 9, this approach requires that for every frame to be encoded, two input frames (before and after) be available, such that the absolute closest frame can be successfully determined.”).
The motivation for combining Tian and Soroushian is the same motivation as used for claim 1.
Regarding claim 13, Tian in view of Soroushian teaches the apparatus of claim 1, wherein the first subset of image frames comprises two or more consecutive image frames of the set of image frames (Soroushian - [0077] “In the closest possible frame approach (FIG. 9), whether for up-conversion or down-conversion, for each frame to be encoded, the absolute closest decoded frame must be selected for use by the duplication/dropping algorithm; as shown in FIG. 9, this approach requires that for every frame to be encoded, two input frames (before and after) be available, such that the absolute closest frame can be successfully determined.” wherein the first subset of images frames is the frames used by the dropping algorithm; it is obvious to one or ordinary skill that if decoded frames are being selected for either duplication or dropping, there will be consecutive images frames within the set).
The motivation for combining Tian and Soroushian is the same motivation as used for claim 1.
Regarding claim 14, Tian in view of Soroushian teaches the apparatus of claim 1, wherein to generate the data structure indicative of the spread of color tones, the processor is configured to:
determine a respective color tone spread for each image frame in the set of image frames (Tian - [0016] “The codec module 16 includes a color histogram generation module 18 that generates color histograms for video frames that are received by the computing device and have been decoded. The color histograms that are generated by module 18 are analyzed by a histogram analysis/frame processing module 20 of the codec module 16 in order to process frames (e.g., rendering a frame, refining or filtering a frame, designating a frame as new, etc.) utilizing the techniques as described herein.” wherein a respective color tone spread is a color histogram); and
associate each image frame in the set of image frames with (i) the respective color tone spread and with (ii) a set of adjacent image frames that are prior to or subsequent to each image frame (Tian - [0016] “The codec module 16 includes a color histogram generation module 18 that generates color histograms for video frames that are received by the computing device and have been decoded. The color histograms that are generated by module 18 are analyzed by a histogram analysis/frame processing module 20 of the codec module 16 in order to process frames (e.g., rendering a frame, refining or filtering a frame, designating a frame as new, etc.) utilizing the techniques as described herein.” wherein a respective color tone spread is a color histogram).
The motivation for combining Tian and Soroushian is the same motivation as used for claim 1.
Regarding claim 15, Tian in view of Soroushian teaches the apparatus of claim 1, wherein the set of image frames includes a second number of image frames corresponding to a first number of image frames per second of the first frame rate of the source application (Soroushian - [0049] “The assigned transcoding resource 40x creates an output segment at the desired frame rate based on the input segment and the assistance information, and returns the output segment to the transcoding management machine 400.” wherein a second number of image frames is the number of input segment frames) (Soroushian - [0020] “In an embodiment, a transcoding management machine manages a distributed transcoding process, creating a plurality of video segments and assigning the video segments across a set of distributed transcoding resources for frame rate conversion. The management machine typically sends a given segment to a given transcoding resource along with instructions to change the frame rate to a specified output frame rate.” wherein a first number of image frames per second of the first frame rate is the initial frame rate).
The motivation for combining Tian and Soroushian is the same motivation as used for claim 1.
Regarding claim 16, Tian in view of Soroushian teaches the apparatus of claim 1, wherein the rate-matched set of image frames includes a first number of image frames corresponding to a second number of image frames per second of the second frame rate of the display panel (Soroushian - [0075] “Each transcoding resource, after determining or receiving the results of the foregoing calculations with respect to its assigned input segment, can create an output segment with a proper start-of-segment offset time t2 and an appropriate number of output frames in compliance with the desired output frame rate.” wherein a first number of image frames of the rate-matched set of images frames is the number of output frames) (Soroushian - [0020] “In an embodiment, a transcoding management machine manages a distributed transcoding process, creating a plurality of video segments and assigning the video segments across a set of distributed transcoding resources for frame rate conversion. The management machine typically sends a given segment to a given transcoding resource along with instructions to change the frame rate to a specified output frame rate.” wherein a second number of images frames per second of the second frame rate is a specified output frame rate).
The motivation for combining Tian and Soroushian is the same motivation as used for claim 1.
Regarding claim 18, Tian in view of Soroushian teaches the apparatus of claim 1, wherein to output the rate-matched set of image frames at the second frame rate associated with the display panel, the processor is configured to at least one of:
provide, for the display panel, the rate-matched set of image frames at the second frame rate associated with the display panel, wherein the apparatus is a wireless communication device (Soroushian - [0076] “A variety of approaches are known in the art for performing a frame-rate conversion and can be used in conjunction with the teachings hereof. Frame-rate conversion can be achieved through the duplication or elimination of frames from the input sequence for frames to match the desired frame-rate of the output sequence, for example.”) (Soroushian - [0020] “The management machine typically sends a given segment to a given transcoding resource along with instructions to change the frame rate to a specified output frame rate.” wherein a second frame rate is specified output frame rate) (Soroushian - [0098] “The computer system 1400 may be embodied in a client, server, personal computer, workstation, tablet computer, wireless device, mobile device, network device, router, hub, gateway, or other device.”); or
store, in the memory, the rate-matched set of image frames at the second frame rate associated with the display panel.
The motivation for combining Tian and Soroushian is the same motivation as used for claim 1.
Regarding claim 19, the claim recites similar limitations to claim 1 but in the form of a method. Therefore, claim 19 recites similar limitations to claim 1 and is rejected for similar rationale and reasoning (see the analysis for claim 1 above).
Regarding claim 20, the claim recites similar limitations to claim 1 but in the form of a computer-readable medium (Tian - [0015] “In general, the memory 12 may comprise one or more tangible computer readable storage media (e.g., a memory device) encoded with software comprising computer executable instructions and when the software is executed (by the processor 8) it is operable to perform the operations described herein in connection with control process logic instructions 14.”). Therefore, claim 20 recites similar limitations to claim 1 and is rejected for similar rationale and reasoning (see the analysis for claim 1 above).
Allowable Subject Matter
Claims 8-10 and 17 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
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/AMANDA H PEARSON/Examiner, Art Unit 2666
/MING Y HON/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2666
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