The present application, filed on or after March 16, 2013, is being examined under the first inventor to file provisions of the AIA .
DETAILED ACTION
Specification
The title of the invention is not descriptive. A new title is required that is clearly indicative of the invention to which the claims are directed. Appropriate correction is required.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 112
The following is a quotation of 35 U.S.C. 112(b):
(b) CONCLUSION.—The specification shall conclude with one or more claims particularly pointing out and distinctly claiming the subject matter which the inventor or a joint inventor regards as the invention.
The following is a quotation of 35 U.S.C. 112 (pre-AIA ), second paragraph:
The specification shall conclude with one or more claims particularly pointing out and distinctly claiming the subject matter which the applicant regards as his invention.
Claims 13, 17, and 18 rejected under 35 U.S.C. 112(b) or 35 U.S.C. 112 (pre-AIA ), second paragraph, as being indefinite for failing to particularly point out and distinctly claim the subject matter which the inventor or a joint inventor (or for applications subject to pre-AIA 35 U.S.C. 112, the applicant), regards as the invention.
Claim 13 is rejected as it is not clear if the claim intends to include all of the limitations of claim 1 or just the transmitting step. Therefore, the metes and bounds are unclear and the claim is an improper dependent claim.
Claim 17 is rejected as it fails to positively claim any structural element and thus the metes and bounds cannot be determined.
Claim 18 is rejected as it does not make any sense. A “non-transitory storage medium” can not run on a device! Instructions stored on a non-transitory medium can be executed by a processor/ run on a device!
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 102
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.
Claims 1-5 and 11-18 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(1) as being anticipated by Bahl, USPGPN 6,289,297 (hereinafter “Bahl”).
Regrading claim 1, Bahl discloses a computer-implemented method of streaming digital content to a computer-implemented entertainment environment implemented using at least one client device (As shown in Figs. 1-3), the method (As shown in Figs. 4-14 and corresponding description) implemented by a processing resource (The devices of Figs. 1-3 have processors and associated memories), the method comprising:
obtaining a frame associated with digital content to be streamed to a client device, the digital content comprising a plurality of frames (Figs. 4-5; Col. 6, lines 1-28);
identifying a first portion of the frame, wherein the first portion of the frame comprises a first plurality of pixels, wherein the first portion does not encompass the whole frame (Col. 6, lines 29-61; Portions with significant motion activity is distinguished and identified);
wherein the first portion of the frame is identified based on at least one image characteristic of the frame (Col. 6, line 29 through Col. 9, line23; The image characteristic is the motion activity as identified. The operation is detailed in Figs. 4-8 and corresponding descriptions.);
transmitting the first portion of the frame to the client device in place of the frame as part of the streaming of the digital content (Transmitting segments per Fig. 4, and corresponding descriptions. See Figs. 9-10 and corresponding descriptions for further detail. Col. 9, lines 24 through Col. 10, line 7).
Regarding claim 2, Bahl discloses wherein the first portion is identified by applying image segmentation (See Fig. 4, Segmentation/ Segmentation map and corresponding description) to the image to segment objects from the image which satisfy the at least one image characteristic of the frame (e.g. motion activity as described with respect to claim 1); and the first portion is identified based on the presence of the segmented objects (Segmentation map). See Fig. 9 and corresponding description
Regarding claim 3, Bahl discloses wherein the application of the image segmentation comprises the segmentation of the image to segment foreground or background images (Col. 7, lines 9-12 and 64-66; Col. 8, lines 20-24).
Regarding claim 4, Bahl discloses wherein the image characteristic comprises motion data associated with pixels of the frame (Col. 6, lines 17-52).
Regarding claim 5, Bahl discloses wherein the image characteristic is based on at least one of luminosity and/or chromaticity values associated with pixels of the frame (Col. 8, lines 38-54).
Regarding claim 11, Bahl discloses wherein the identification of the first portion comprises the identification of a subset of the rows or columns of the frame (row and column as illustrated in Fig. 8; Col. 8, line 25 through Col. 9, line 23).
Regarding claim 12, Bahl discloses wherein the subset of the rows or columns comprises respective even or odd numbered rows or columns (row and column as illustrated in Fig. 8; Col. 8, line 25 through Col. 9, line 23).
Regarding claim 13, Bahl discloses a computer-implemented method of rendering digital content on a computing device, the method implemented by a processing resource, the method (As analyzed with respect to claim 1) comprising:
receiving a first portion of a frame transmitted in accordance with Claim 1, wherein the portion of the frame is received as part of a content stream of digital content (As analyzed with respect to claim 1, and further described with respect to segment IDs of Fig. 9, and transmission per Fig. 10. The reception according to Figs. 13-14);
associating the portion of the frame with a sequence of frames received as part of the content stream (As described with respect to segment IDs of Fig. 9, and transmission per Fig. 10. The reception according to Figs. 13-14);
reprojecting the frame associated with the portion of the frame based on other frames in the sequence of frames and the portion of the frame (As described with respect to segment IDs of Fig. 9, and transmission per Fig. 10. The reception according to Figs. 13-14);
rendering the digital content on the computing device (As described with respect to segment IDs of Fig. 9, and transmission per Fig. 10. The reception according to Figs. 13-14).
Regarding claim 14, Bahl discloses wherein the portion of the frame is associated with the sequence of frames using a frame identifier which identifies the position of the associated frame in the stream of content (Fig. 14; Col. 10, line 43-67; Also Fig. 9 and corresponding description).
Regarding claim 15, Bahl discloses a method according to Claim 14, wherein the frame identifier is received with the portion of the frame (Fig. 14; Col. 10, line 43-67; Also Fig. 9 and corresponding description).
Regarding claim 16, Bahl discloses wherein reprojecting the frame is based on previous frames in the sequence of frames (Fig. 14; Col. 10, line 43-67; Also Fig. 9 and corresponding description).
The system of claim 17, implementing the method of claim 1, is rejected by the same analysis.
The computer program product of claim 18, effectuating the method of claim 1, is rejected by the same analysis.
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.
Claims 6-10 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Bahl, in view of Kalva et al., USPGPUB 2025/0324067 (hereinafter “Kalva”).
Regarding claim 6, Bahl is silent on wherein the first portion is identified using a trained model which is trained to identify the first portion of the frame using the at least one image characteristic.
However, Kalva discloses a system, method, and computer program product for identifying regions of interest in video frames (Abstract; Fig. 1, 115, and corresponding description) wherein the first portion is identified using a trained model which is trained to identify the first portion of the frame using the at least one image characteristic (¶¶ [4]-[5], [26]).
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art, before the effective filing date of the claimed invention, to modify the system of Bahl with Kalva’s teachings in order to utilize well-known machine learning techniques and expedite the processing and identification of images.
Regarding claim 7, the system of Bahl and Kalva discloses wherein the at least one image characteristic represents a part of a frame which is determined as being likely to be transmitted successfully (Bahl: Col. 9, line 46 through Col. 10, line 20).
Regarding claim 8, the system of Bahl and Kalva discloses wherein the trained model is trained to identify parts of an image (Bahl: Col. 6, lines 1-61; Kalva: ¶¶ [26]-[32]).
Regarding claim 9, the system of Bahl and Kalva discloses wherein the trained model is trained to segment an image based on an image characteristic (Bahl: Col. 6, lines 1-61; Kalva: ¶¶ [26]-[32]).
Regarding claim 10, the system of Bahl and Kalva discloses wherein the trained model comprises a convolutional neural network which is applied to the image content of the frame and trained to identify parts of the image content associated with the image characteristic (Bahl: Col. 6, lines 1-61; Kalva: ¶¶ [5], [26]-[32]).
Contacts
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to JAMES R MARANDI whose telephone number is (571)270-1843. The examiner can normally be reached Monday-Friday 8-7 ET flex.
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If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner’s supervisor, Nathan J Flynn can be reached at 571-272-1915. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300.
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/JAMES R MARANDI/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2421