DETAILED ACTION
Claims 1-20 are pending for examination.
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
Acknowledgment is made of applicant's claim under US PRO 63/612705 filed on 12/20/2023.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 102
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 the appropriate paragraphs of 35 U.S.C. 102 that form the basis for the rejections under this section made in this Office action:
A person shall be entitled to a patent unless –
(a)(1) the claimed invention was patented, described in a printed publication, or in public use, on sale, or otherwise available to the public before the effective filing date of the claimed invention.
Claim(s) 1-3, 16-18, 20 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(1) as being anticipated by Wang et al, US 2021/0014505 A1 (Wang).
Regarding Claim 1, Wang discloses a method of video decoding, comprising:
receiving a coded video bitstream comprising coded information of a current block in a current picture, the coded information of the current block indicating an intra prediction mode for the current block;
applying one or more in-loop filters on one or more reconstructed samples in the current picture to generate one or more filtered reconstructed samples; and
reconstructing the current block using the intra prediction mode and based on the one or more filtered reconstructed samples
(Wang [0139], Fig.3 – see FIG. 3 – the decoder 30 comprises an entropy decoding unit 304, an inverse quantization unit 310, an inverse transform processing unit 312, a reconstruction unit 314 (e.g. a summer 314), a loop filter 320, a decoded picture buffer (DBP) 330, a mode application unit 360, an inter prediction unit 344 and an intra prediction unit 354. Inter prediction unit 344 may be or include a motion compensation unit).
Regarding Claim 2, Wang discloses the method of claim 1, wherein the applying comprises: determining that a data dependency requirement associated with the one or more in-loop filters is satisfied by the one or more reconstructed samples (Wang [0190] – The intra mode coding of VVC depends on the intra modes of its neighboring blocks. Namely The left and above blocks of the current block. Their position is shown in FIG. 10).
Regarding Claim 3, Wang discloses the method of claim 1, wherein the one or more in-loop filters comprise at least one of a deblocking filter, a bilateral filter, a shape adaptive filter, a wiener filter, a sample adaptive offset (SAO) filter, and/or an adaptive loop filter (ALF) (Wang [0149] – The loop filter unit 320 (either in the coding loop or after the coding loop) is configured to filter the reconstructed block 315 to obtain a filtered block 321, e.g. to smooth pixel transitions, or otherwise improve the video quality. The loop filter unit 320 may comprise one or more loop filters such as a de-blocking filter, a sample-adaptive offset (SAO) filter or one or more other filters, e.g. a bilateral filter, an adaptive loop filter (ALF), a sharpening, a smoothing filters or a collaborative filters, or any combination thereof. Although the loop filter unit 320 is shown in FIG. 3 as being an in loop filter, in other configurations, the loop filter unit 320 may be implemented as a post loop filter).
With regard to claim 16, the claim limitations are essentially the same as claim 1 but in a different embodiment. Therefore, the rational used to reject claim 1 is applied to claim 16.
With regard to claim 17, the claim limitations are essentially the same as claim 2 but in a different embodiment. Therefore, the rational used to reject claim 2 is applied to claim 17.
With regard to claim 18, the claim limitations are essentially the same as claim 3 but in a different embodiment. Therefore, the rational used to reject claim 3 is applied to claim 18.
With regard to claim 20, the claim limitations are essentially the same as claim 1 but in a different embodiment. Therefore, the rational used to reject claim 1 is applied to claim 20.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 103
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) 4, 6, 12, 19 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Wang, in view of Wang et al, US 2025/0392709 A1 (Wang-2).
Regarding Claim 4, Wang discloses the method of claim 1, as outlined above.
However, Wang does not explicitly disclose the intra prediction mode is a block vector based intra prediction mode, and the method comprises: determining a block vector that points to a reference block of the current block in the current picture, the reference block comprising reference samples corresponding to the one or more reconstructed samples; applying at least the one or more in-loop filters on the reference samples to generate filtered reference samples; and reconstructing the current block based on the filtered reference samples.
Wang-2 teaches wherein the intra prediction mode is a block vector based intra prediction mode, and the method comprises: determining a block vector that points to a reference block of the current block in the current picture, the reference block comprising reference samples corresponding to the one or more reconstructed samples; applying at least the one or more in-loop filters on the reference samples to generate filtered reference samples; and reconstructing the current block based on the filtered reference samples (Wang-2 [0105] – for IBC, the reference area for intra prediction for a current CU may be the coded area of the current picture after in-loop filtering).
Therefore, it 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 to modify Wang to determine a block vector, apply an in-loop filter, and reconstruct the current block, as taught by Wang-2. One would be motivated as the IBC can reduce processing by using matching patterns by referencing reconstructed pixels from the frame.
Regarding Claim 6, Wang, in combination, further discloses the method of claim 4, further comprising: determining whether to apply the one or more in-loop filters on the reference samples based on coding information of the reference samples (see Wang Fig.3 – loop filter 320; [0149] – the loop filter unit is show as an in loop filter).
Regarding Claim 12, Wang and Wang-2 teach the method of claim 4, as outlined above.
However, Wang does not explicitly disclose the determining the block vector comprises: decoding the block vector that is signaled in the coded video bitstream.
Wang-2 teaches the determining the block vector comprises: decoding the block vector that is signaled in the coded video bitstream (Wang-2 [0119] – A decoder may reconstruct the output video from the compressed version of the video by applying prediction means similar to the encoder to form a predicted representation of the pixel blocks (e.g. using information created by the encoder and stored in the compressed representation).
Therefore, it 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 to modify Wang to decode the block vector that is signaled in the coded video bitstream, as taught by Wang-2. One would be motivated as the bitstream contains information for decoding the block vector to match the encoding side.
With regard to claim 19, the claim limitations are essentially the same as claim 4 but in a different embodiment. Therefore, the rational used to reject claim 4 is applied to claim 19.
Allowable Subject Matter
Claims 5, 7-11, 13-15 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.
The following is a statement of reasons for the indication of allowable subject matter:
The various claimed limitations mentioned in the claims are not taught or suggested by the prior art taken either singly or in combination, with emphasize that it is each claim, taken as a whole, including the interrelationships and interconnections between various claimed elements make them allowable over the prior art of record. The various claimed limitations mentioned including the interrelationships and all of the limitations of the base claim and the elements with respect to the following:
applying the one or more in-loop filters on the reference samples in the current picture to generate intermediate filtered reference samples; and applying at least one of a smoothing filter and/or an interpolation filter on the intermediate filtered reference samples to generate the filtered reference samples
wherein the intra prediction mode is a block vector (BV) based intra prediction mode with a template-based search, and the method comprises: applying the one or more in-loop filters on the one or more reconstructed samples in a search area of the current picture to generate the one or more filtered reconstructed samples; and searching in the search area based on the one or more filtered reconstructed samples to determine a BV that points to a reference block of the current block in the current picture
applying the one or more in-loop filters on the one or more reconstructed samples that form a current template of the current block to generate a filtered current template of the current block; and searching in a search area based on the filtered current template of the current block to determine a BV that points to a reference block of the current block in the current picture
calculating, respective cost values of a plurality of candidate reference blocks in a search area, a cost value of a candidate reference block in the plurality of candidate reference blocks being calculated based on a first template of the candidate reference block and a second template of the current block; determining most similar templates based on the respective cost values; applying the one or more in-loop filters on the most similar templates to generate filtered most similar templates; and determining a BV that points to a reference block of the current block in the current picture based on the filtered most similar templates
calculating, respective cost values of a plurality of candidate reference blocks in a search area, a cost value of a candidate reference block in the plurality of candidate reference blocks being calculated based on a first template of the candidate reference block and a second template of the current block; determining a most similar block in the plurality of candidate reference blocks based on the respective cost values; and applying the one or more in-loop filters on the most similar block to generate a prediction of the current block.
determining that the reference block crosses at least an edge of two coded blocks and applying a deblocking filter on at least neighboring samples of the edge in the reference block
the intra prediction mode is based on a template based intra mode derivation, the one or more reconstructed samples comprises first one or more samples in a template of the current block, and second one or more samples in a reference portion of the template of the current block, and the method comprises: applying the one or more in-loop filters on the first one or more samples in the template of the current block to generate filtered first one or more samples; applying the one or more in-loop filters on the second one or more samples in the reference portion of the template of the current block to generate filtered second one or more samples; and deriving an intra mode based on the filtered first one or more samples and the filtered second one or more samples
storing the one or more reconstructed samples in a buffer; discarding the one or more filtered reconstructed samples after the current block has been reconstructed; and reconstructing a second current block in the current picture based on at least one of the one or more reconstructed samples that is stored in the buffer
storing the one or more filtered reconstructed samples in a picture buffer, and in response to an application of the one or more in-loop filters to the picture buffer, skipping the application of the one or more in-loop filters on the one or more filtered reconstructed samples.
Conclusion
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to AMIR SHAHNAMI whose telephone number is (571)270-0707. The examiner can normally be reached Monday - Friday 8:00 am to 4:00 pm.
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/AMIR SHAHNAMI/ Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2483
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