DETAILED ACTION
1. This office action is in response to U.S. Patent Application No.: 18/974,661 filed on 12/26/2024
with effective filing date 3/4/2019. Claims 2-21 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) 2-5, 8-12, 15-19 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Hsiang US 2018/0278958 A1 (IDS) in view of Chen et al. US 2014/0341275 A1 and Lei et al. US 2016/0173906 A1.
Per claims 2, 8 & 16, Hsiang discloses a method for video decoding in a video decoder, the method comprising: determining a maximum transform size associated with a video sequence (para: 47, e.g. a syntax element slice_luma_log 2_max_transform_skip_block_size_diff can be employed in a modification operation to indicate the maximum transform block size for enabling the transform skip mode in the current slice segment), wherein the maximum transform size is indicated by a syntax element associated with the video sequence (para: 44-45, e.g. process 1000 may transition to operation 1015, whereby it is signaled that chroma constraints are present, such as through transform_skip_chroma_present_flag and the chroma transform skip constraints are also signaled independently of the luma transform skip constraints; if it is determined that luma and chroma transform skipping are controlled by independent HLS elements, as determined by process 1000).
Hsiang fails to explicitly disclose determining whether a coding unit (CU) size of a CU of the video sequence is larger than the maximum transform size.
Chen et al. however in the same field of endeavor teaches determining whether a coding unit (CU) size of a CU of the video sequence is larger than the maximum transform size (para: 97, e.g. video encoder 20 or video encoder 50 may determine a smallest coding unit size for each of a plurality of pictures defining a video sequence (302)… video encoder 50 determine a picture size associated with the video sequence, wherein the picture size associated with the video sequence is an multiple of the aligned coding unit size value (306).
Therefore, in view of disclosures by Chen 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 Hsiang and Chen et al. in order to enable utilizing techniques for improving video quality and smooth pixel boundaries and removing artifacts from decoded video in a decoding loop of an encoder or decoder.
Hsiang and Chen et al. fails to explicitly teach the remaining claim limitation.
Lei et al. however teaches when the CU size is less than the maximum transform size, enabling a sub-block transform (SBT) mode (para: 27, e.g. position-dependent transform is applied on luma transform blocks in SBT-V and SBT-H (chroma TB always using DCT-2). The two positions (i.e., left-right or top-bottom positions) of SBT-H and SBT-V are associated with different core transforms); when the CU size is larger than the maximum transform size, splitting the CU into a plurality of first transform units (TUs) (para: 85, e.g. transform size check module 805 may perform transform size checks when transform sizes check indicator 622 indicates transform size checks are to be performed (e.g., the current portion of the video frame is not flat) and partition check module 804 may not perform transform size checks (e.g., transform size checks may be bypassed) when transform sizes check indicator 622 indicates transform size checks are to be bypassed (e.g., the current portion of the video frame is flat)) and when intra sub partition (ISP) mode is enabled, splitting one of the plurality of first TUs into a plurality of second TUs (para: 21 & 94, e.g. for each of these sub-partitions, a residual signal is generated by entropy decoding the coefficients sent by the encoder and then inverse quantizing and inverse transforming them; a portion of a video frame may be encoded based on an encoding mode (e.g., intra, inter, or skip)…such partitioning information may be provided as splits data, which may be entropy encoded and inserted into encoded bitstream 615 as encoded splits data 903. Also as shown, transform size data as determined herein may be generated, entropy encoded and inserted into bitstream 615); and reconstructing the CU based on whether the CU size is larger than the maximum transform size (para: 85 & 91, e.g. when transform sizes check indicator 622 indicates transform size checks are to be bypassed (e.g., the current portion of the video frame is flat). In other embodiments, transform size checks may not be performed for flat or not flat portions of a video frame).
Therefore, in view of disclosures by Lei 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 Hsiang, Chen et al., and Lei et al. in order to improve by using de-blocking filtering in video/image coding systems utilizing sub-block prediction including short distance intra prediction (SDIP) mode or sub-block transform (SBT).
Per claims 3, 10 & 17, Hsiang further teaches the method of claim 2, wherein the syntax element is included in one of a sequence parameter set (SPS), a video parameter set (VPS), and a picture parameter set (PPS) (para: 35, e.g. intra mode information 1212 is provided to intra prediction component 1270 for intra-picture decoding, inter mode information 1214 is provided to motion compensation component 1265 for inter-picture decoding, SAO information 1215 is provided to in-loop filter 1250 for in-loop filtering and transform skip information 1218 is provided to inverse transform component 1245 for transform skipping).
Per claims 4, 11 & 18, Hsiang further teaches the method of claim 2, wherein the maximum transform size is a maximum transform unit area (para: 37, e.g. in HEVC, it is indicated by a syntax element transform_skip_flag signaled for a non-empty transform block (with at least one coded non-zero sample value). High-level control of this TB coding mode is signaled by the PPS syntax elements transform_skip_enabled_flag and log 2_max_transform_skip_block_size_minus2).
Per claims 5, 12 & 19, Lei et al. further teaches the method of claim 2, wherein when the ISP mode is enabled, a maximum coding unit size is less than or equal to the maximum transform size (para: 81-82, e.g. partitions check indicator 621 and/or transform sizes check indicator 622 may be provided to inter-prediction module 609 to control, at least partially, the inter-prediction of the portion of the video frame)
Per claim 8 & 15, Lei et al. further teaches the method of claim 2, wherein the ISP mode is only applied to the CU without implicit transform split (para: 21, e.g. for each of these sub-partitions, a residual signal is generated by entropy decoding the coefficients sent by the encoder and then inverse quantizing and inverse transforming them).
Allowable Subject Matter
5. Claims 6-7, 13-14, 20-21 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
6. The prior art made of record and not relied upon is considered pertinent to applicant's disclosure.
Liu et al. US 9,788,019 B2, e.g. the maximum TU size is equal to the maximum of PU width and height, and the minimum TU size is equal to the minimum of PU width and height except for a 2N.times.2N CU with 2N.times.2N partition type.
Lee et al. US 9,300,974 B2, e.g. deciding a prediction mode that corresponds to a chroma
component block; deciding a transform skip mode of the chroma component block
from a plurality of transform skip mode candidates.
Wang US 10,021,394 B2, e.g. a computing device selects, from among a set of hypothetical reference decoder (HRD) parameters in a video parameter set and a set of HRD parameters in a
sequence parameter set, a set of HRD parameters applicable to a particular operation point of a bitstream.
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/Irfan Habib/ Examiner, Art Unit 2485