DETAILED ACTION
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 .
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 112
The following is a quotation of the first paragraph of 35 U.S.C. 112(a):
(a) IN GENERAL.—The specification shall contain a written description of the invention, and of the manner and process of making and using it, in such full, clear, concise, and exact terms as to enable any person skilled in the art to which it pertains, or with which it is most nearly connected, to make and use the same, and shall set forth the best mode contemplated by the inventor or joint inventor of carrying out the invention.
The following is a quotation of the first paragraph of pre-AIA 35 U.S.C. 112:
The specification shall contain a written description of the invention, and of the manner and process of making and using it, in such full, clear, concise, and exact terms as to enable any person skilled in the art to which it pertains, or with which it is most nearly connected, to make and use the same, and shall set forth the best mode contemplated by the inventor of carrying out his invention.
Claims 18-20 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 112(a) or 35 U.S.C. 112 (pre-AIA ), first paragraph, as failing to comply with the written description requirement. The claim(s) contains subject matter which was not described in the specification in such a way as to reasonably convey to one skilled in the relevant art that the inventor or a joint inventor, or for applications subject to pre-AIA 35 U.S.C. 112, the inventor(s), at the time the application was filed, had possession of the claimed invention. Applicant has not pointed out where the amended claim 1 is supported, nor does there appear to be a written description of the claim limitation ‘the bitstream comprising… decoding for the current block is performed based on the coefficients of the current block’ in the original disclosure.
More particularly, Examiner did not find a bitstream that itself comprises a “decoding” step. For the purpose of examining, the “bitstream” will be interpreted as described in the original disclosure (Application no. 16/461,001) as bitstream generated by an encoding method (i.e. “Bitstream: means a bitstream including encoding image information”- ¶0049… The encoding apparatus 100 may perform encoding of an input image by using an intra mode or an inter mode or both. In addition, encoding apparatus 100 may generate a bitstream through encoding the input image, and output the generated bitstream- ¶0082)
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.
(a)(2) the claimed invention was described in a patent issued under section 151, or in an application for patent published or deemed published under section 122(b), in which the patent or application, as the case may be, names another inventor and was effectively filed before the effective filing date of the claimed invention.
Claims 1-8 and 13-17 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a) (1) as being anticipated by Joel Sole Rojals et al. [US 20130058407 A1].
Regarding claim 1, Joel teaches:
1. A method of decoding an image (i.e. FIG. 20 is a block diagram illustrating an example video decoder- ¶0039), the method comprising:
obtaining coefficients of a current block (i.e. quantized transform coefficients- fig. 20) according to a scanning (i.e. The video decoder 30 may receive, from encoded bitstream, signaling that identifies the scan order and/or contexts used for CABAC by the video encoder 20- ¶0201) order (i.e. Although the scanning of coefficients may be performed in the inverse quantization unit 76, scanning will be described for purposes of illustration as being performed by the entropy decoding unit 70- ¶0198… the video decoder 30 may scan both the significance map of the transform coefficients as well as levels of the transform coefficients according to the same scan order- ¶0199); and
perform decoding for the current block based on the coefficients of the current block (i.e. The inverse quantization unit 76 inverse quantizes, i.e., de-quantizes, the quantized transform coefficients provided in the bitstream and decoded by the entropy decoding unit 70- ¶0203… The inverse transform module 78 applies an inverse transform, e.g., an inverse DCT, an inverse integer transform, an inverse KLT, an inverse rotational transform, an inverse directional transform, or another inverse transform… the inverse transform module 78 may determine a transform to apply to the current block based on a signaled transform at the root node of a quadtree for an LCU including the current block- ¶0204… The summer 80 combines the residual blocks with the corresponding prediction blocks generated by the motion compensation unit 72 or the intra-prediction module 74 to form decoded blocks- ¶0207).
Regarding claim 2, Joel teaches all the limitations of claim 1 and Joel further teaches:
wherein a transform skip is applied to the current block (i.e. In certain video coding modes such as transform skip mode, transform processing module 52 may send the residual block to quantization unit 54 directly, without performing transformation. In such instances, the residual values may still be referred to herein as "transform coefficients," despite no transform actually being applied to the residual values- ¶0120).
Regarding claim 3, Joel teaches all the limitations of claim 2 and Joel further teaches:
wherein the scanning order is a diagonal scanning order (i.e. As one example, the so-called diagonal (or wavefront) scan order has been adopted for use in scanning quantized transform coefficients in the HEVC standard- ¶0063).
Regarding claim 4, Joel teaches all the limitations of claim 1 and Joel further teaches:
further comprising: determining a scanning unit (i.e. or more sub-sets transform coefficient- 0228) of the current block (i.e. The video coder may be configured to arrange a block of transform coefficients into one or more sub-sets of transform coefficients (160)- ¶0228), wherein the coefficients of the current block are arranged by scanning the coefficients of the current block based on the scanning unit (i.e. FIG. 3 shows the scanning order followed by one proposed version of the HEVC process to encode the levels of transform coefficients (absolute value of the level and sign of the level) in a transform unit 25. Note that there is a forward zig-zag pattern 27 for scanning of the 4×4 sub-blocks of a larger block, and an inverse zig-zag pattern 23 for scanning the levels of transform coefficients within each sub-block. In other words, a series of 4×4 sub-blocks are scanned in a forward zig-zag pattern such that the sub-blocks are scanned in a sequence. Then, within each sub-block, an inverse zig-zag scan is performed to scan the levels of the transform coefficients within the sub-block. Hence, the transform coefficients in the two-dimensional array formed by the transform unit are serialized into a one-dimensional array such that coefficients that are inverse scanned in a given sub-block are then followed by coefficients that are inverse scanned in a successive sub-block- ¶0082).
Regarding claim 5, Joel teaches all the limitations of claim 4 and Joel further teaches:
wherein the scanning unit is a coefficient group unit determined based on a size of the current block (i.e. For some transform sizes, the sub-set can be the entire transform unit. In this case, there is a single sub-set corresponding to all of the significant coefficients for an entire transform unit, and the significance scan and level scan proceed in the same scan order. In this case, instead of limited number of n (e.g., n=16) coefficients in a sub-set, the sub-set could be a single sub-set for a transform unit, wherein the single sub-set includes all significant coefficients- ¶0140).
Regarding claim 6, Joel teaches all the limitations of claim 4 and Joel further teaches:
wherein the scanning order is an up-right diagonal scanning order (i.e. Note that each of the inverse diagonal pattern 9- ¶0123, fig. 6).
Regarding claim 7, Joel teaches all the limitations of claim 4 and Joel further teaches:
wherein an inverse-transform is applied to the current block (i.e. The inverse transform module 78 applies an inverse transform, e.g., an inverse DCT, an inverse integer transform, an inverse KLT, an inverse rotational transform, an inverse directional transform, or another inverse transform- ¶0204).
Regarding claim 8, Joel teaches all the limitations of claim 1 and Joel further teaches:
wherein inverse-transform is performed on coefficients of a coefficient group unit of the current block according to an inverse-transform method indicated by transform method information (i.e. The inverse transform module 78 applies an inverse transform, e.g., an inverse DCT, an inverse integer transform, an inverse KLT, an inverse rotational transform, an inverse directional transform, or another inverse transform. In some examples, the inverse transform module 78 may determine an inverse transform based on signaling from the video encoder 20, or by inferring the transform from one or more coding characteristics such as block size, coding mode, or the like. In some examples, the inverse transform module 78 may determine a transform to apply to the current block based on a signaled transform at the root node of a quadtree for an LCU including the current block. In some examples, the inverse transform module 78 may apply a cascaded inverse transform- ¶0204).
Regarding claim 13, Joel teaches:
13. A method of encoding an image (i.e. FIG. 5 is a block diagram illustrating an example video encoder- ¶0024), the method comprising:
obtaining coefficients of a current block according to a scanning order (i.e. This disclosure proposes a harmonization of the scan order to code both the significance map of the transform coefficients as well as to code the levels of the transform coefficient- Abstract);
perform encoding for the current block based on the coefficients of the current block (i.e. The entropy encoding engine 94 applies an entropy encoding process to the scanned coefficients using the selected context from the scan order and context selection unit 90- ¶0192); and
generating a bitstream comprising encoding information generated by the encoding (i.e. The entropy encoding engine 94 produces a bitstream carrying the encoded video… The entropy encoding process may be applied to the coefficients after they are fully scanned into the 1D vector, or as each coefficient is added to the 1D vector. In other examples, the coefficients are processed directly in the 2D array using the scan order- ¶0192).
Regarding claim 14, Joel teaches all the limitations of claim 13 and Joel further teaches:
wherein a transform skip is applied to the current block (i.e. In certain video coding modes such as transform skip mode, transform processing module 52 may send the residual block to quantization unit 54 directly, without performing transformation. In such instances, the residual values may still be referred to herein as "transform coefficients," despite no transform actually being applied to the residual values- ¶0120).
Regarding claim 15, Joel teaches all the limitations of claim 13 and Joel further teaches:
further comprising: determining a scanning unit of the current block,
further comprising: determining a scanning unit (i.e. or more sub-sets transform coefficient- 0228) of the current block (i.e. The video coder may be configured to arrange a block of transform coefficients into one or more sub-sets of transform coefficients (160)- ¶0228), wherein the coefficients of the current block are arranged by scanning the coefficients of the current block based on the scanning unit (i.e. FIG. 3 shows the scanning order followed by one proposed version of the HEVC process to encode the levels of transform coefficients (absolute value of the level and sign of the level) in a transform unit 25. Note that there is a forward zig-zag pattern 27 for scanning of the 4×4 sub-blocks of a larger block, and an inverse zig-zag pattern 23 for scanning the levels of transform coefficients within each sub-block. In other words, a series of 4×4 sub-blocks are scanned in a forward zig-zag pattern such that the sub-blocks are scanned in a sequence. Then, within each sub-block, an inverse zig-zag scan is performed to scan the levels of the transform coefficients within the sub-block. Hence, the transform coefficients in the two-dimensional array formed by the transform unit are serialized into a one-dimensional array such that coefficients that are inverse scanned in a given sub-block are then followed by coefficients that are inverse scanned in a successive sub-block- ¶0082).
Regarding claim 16, Joel teaches all the limitations of claim 13 and Joel further teaches:
wherein transform is performed on coefficients of a coefficient group unit of the current block according to a transform method indicated by transform method information (i.e. The inverse transform module 78 applies an inverse transform, e.g., an inverse DCT, an inverse integer transform, an inverse KLT, an inverse rotational transform, an inverse directional transform, or another inverse transform. In some examples, the inverse transform module 78 may determine an inverse transform based on signaling from the video encoder 20, or by inferring the transform from one or more coding characteristics such as block size, coding mode, or the like. In some examples, the inverse transform module 78 may determine a transform to apply to the current block based on a signaled transform at the root node of a quadtree for an LCU including the current block. In some examples, the inverse transform module 78 may apply a cascaded inverse transform- ¶0204).
Note: Claims 17-20 is directed to “A non-transitory computer-readable recording medium storing a bitstream”. The computer readable medium that is not a transitory propagating signal or wave without functional relationship between the computer readable medium and the rest of recited features of the claim “encoding information for a current block, wherein coefficients of the current block is obtained according to a scanning order based on the encoding information; and decoding for the current block is performed based on the coefficients of the current block”. When determining the scope of the claim, the above features of claims 17-20 were not given patentable weight. See MPEP 2111.05 (III). Thus, the computer- readable data recording medium such as CD-ROM, floppy disk, or a hard disk drive, etc. disclosed in Joel meets claim 17-20.
Regarding claim 18, Joel teaches:
17. A non-transitory computer-readable recording medium storing the bitstream generated by the method of claim 13 (i.e. The entropy encoding engine 94 produces a bitstream carrying the encoded video. The bitstream may be transmitted to another device or stored in a data storage archive for later retrieval- ¶0192).
Regarding claim 18, Joel teaches:
18. A non-transitory computer-readable recording medium storing a bitstream (i.e. The entropy encoding engine 94 produces a bitstream carrying the encoded video. The bitstream may be transmitted to another device or stored in a data storage archive for later retrieval- ¶0192), the bitstream comprising: encoding information for a current block, wherein coefficients of the current block is obtained according to a scanning order based on the encoding information; and decoding for the current block is performed based on the coefficients of the current block.
Regarding claim 19, Joel teaches all the limitations of claim 18 and Joel further teaches:
wherein: a scanning unit (i.e. or more sub-sets transform coefficient- 0228) of the current block (i.e. The video coder may be configured to arrange a block of transform coefficients into one or more sub-sets of transform coefficients (160)- ¶0228) is determined, and the coefficients of the current block are arranged by scanning the coefficients of the current block based on the scanning unit (i.e. FIG. 3 shows the scanning order followed by one proposed version of the HEVC process to encode the levels of transform coefficients (absolute value of the level and sign of the level) in a transform unit 25. Note that there is a forward zig-zag pattern 27 for scanning of the 4×4 sub-blocks of a larger block, and an inverse zig-zag pattern 23 for scanning the levels of transform coefficients within each sub-block. In other words, a series of 4×4 sub-blocks are scanned in a forward zig-zag pattern such that the sub-blocks are scanned in a sequence. Then, within each sub-block, an inverse zig-zag scan is performed to scan the levels of the transform coefficients within the sub-block. Hence, the transform coefficients in the two-dimensional array formed by the transform unit are serialized into a one-dimensional array such that coefficients that are inverse scanned in a given sub-block are then followed by coefficients that are inverse scanned in a successive sub-block- ¶0082).
Regarding claim 20, Joel teaches all the limitations of claim 18 and Joel further teaches:
wherein inverse-transform is performed on coefficients of a coefficient group unit of the current block according to an inverse-transform method indicated by transform method information (i.e. The inverse transform module 78 applies an inverse transform, e.g., an inverse DCT, an inverse integer transform, an inverse KLT, an inverse rotational transform, an inverse directional transform, or another inverse transform. In some examples, the inverse transform module 78 may determine an inverse transform based on signaling from the video encoder 20, or by inferring the transform from one or more coding characteristics such as block size, coding mode, or the like. In some examples, the inverse transform module 78 may determine a transform to apply to the current block based on a signaled transform at the root node of a quadtree for an LCU including the current block. In some examples, the inverse transform module 78 may apply a cascaded inverse transform- ¶0204).
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 of this title, 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 set forth in Graham v. John Deere Co., 383 U.S. 1, 148 USPQ 459 (1966), that are applied 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.
This application currently names joint inventors. In considering patentability of the claims the examiner presumes that the subject matter of the various claims was commonly owned as of the effective filing date of the claimed invention(s) absent any evidence to the contrary. Applicant is advised of the obligation under 37 CFR 1.56 to point out the inventor and effective filing dates of each claim that was not commonly owned as of the effective filing date of the later invention in order for the examiner to consider the applicability of 35 U.S.C. 102(b)(2)(C) for any potential 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(2) prior art against the later invention.
Claims 9-12 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Joel Sole Rojals et al. [US 20130058407 A1] in view of Peisong Chen et al. [US 20120170649 A1].
Regarding claim 9, Joel teaches all the limitations of claim 8.
However, Joel does not teach explicitly:
wherein the transform method information is determined based on an intra prediction mode of the current block.
In the same field of endeavor, Peisong teaches:
wherein the transform method information is determined based on an intra prediction mode of the current block (i.e. In another example, the proposed HEVC standard currently specifies 12 different combinations of transforms and scanning modes for intra-prediction. The current transforms for intra-prediction in HEVC include a horizontal DCT/vertical DST, a horizontal DST/vertical DCT, a horizontal DCT/vertical DCT, and a horizontal DST/vertical DST. The current scanning modes include a horizontal scanning mode, a vertical scanning mode, and a diagonal scanning mode, as is shown in FIG. 2. For each intra-prediction mode, each combination is tested and the transform/scanning mode combination that provides for the best bit rate (or meets a bit rate threshold) is chosen for use. Testing all 12 combinations often causes an increased computational burden on the encoder. Furthermore, the transform and scanning mode combination is signaled in the encoded bitstream. Since there are 12 combinations, a relatively large number of bits are used for signaling the combination, thus increasing the bit rate. The example of 12 combinations in HEVC is just one example. The techniques of this disclosure may be applicable for any video coding scheme with any number of transform and scanning mode combinations, and is applicable with any type of transform and any type of scanning mode. As is described in greater detail below, this disclosure provides techniques to reduce computational complexity and to improve bitstream coding efficiency- ¶0045).
It would have been obvious to one with ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention, to modify the teachings of Joel with the teachings of Peisong to select the transform/scanning mode combination that provides for the best bit rate (Peisong- ¶0045).
Regarding claim 10, Joel and Peisong teach all the limitations of claim 9.
However, Joel does not teach explicitly:
wherein the scanning order is a vertical scanning order in a case that the intra prediction mode of current block is a vertical mode, and the scanning order is a horizontal scanning order in a case that the intra prediction mode of current block is a horizontal mode.
In the same field of endeavor, Peisong teaches:
wherein the scanning order is a vertical scanning order in a case that the intra prediction mode of current block is a vertical mode, and the scanning order is a horizontal scanning order in a case that the intra prediction mode of current block is a horizontal mode (i.e. As an example, for a horizontal prediction mode, when only two combinations are used, the subset may be chosen to be (1) horizontal DST/vertical DCT and vertical scan and (2) horizontal DCT/vertical DCT and diagonal scan.).
It would have been obvious to one with ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention, to modify the teachings of Joel with the teachings of Peisong to select the transform/scanning mode combination that provides for the best bit rate (Peisong- ¶0045).
Regarding claim 11, Joel and Peisong teach all the limitations of claim 8.
However, Joel does not teach explicitly:
wherein the inverse-transform method is a two-dimensional non-separable transform.
In the same field of endeavor, Peisong teaches:
wherein the inverse-transform method is a two-dimensional non-separable transform (i.e. In accordance with the techniques described in this disclosure, transforms, including non-separable and separable transforms, may be mapped to certain scanning modes so as to avoid having to perform multiple scan and evaluations as described above- ¶0056).
It would have been obvious to one with ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention, to modify the teachings of Joel with the teachings of Peisong to select the transform/scanning mode combination that provides for the best bit rate (Peisong- ¶0045).
Regarding claim 12, Joel and Peisong teach all the limitations of claim 8.
However, Joel does not teach explicitly:
wherein the coefficient group unit is located on an upper-left corner of the current block.
In the same field of endeavor, Peisong teaches:
wherein the coefficient group unit is located on an upper-left corner of the current block (i.e. Each of these scanning modes may be performed in the forward or inverse direction. A scanning mode in the forward direction proceeds from the upper left corner of the array (i.e., the DC coefficient of the array) to the lower right corner of the array (i.e., the higher frequency coefficients of the array). Conversely, a scanning mode in the inverse direction proceeds from the lower right corner of the array to the upper left corner of the array- ¶0043).
It would have been obvious to one with ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention, to modify the teachings of Joel with the teachings of Peisong to select the transform/scanning mode combination that provides for the best bit rate (Peisong- ¶0045).
Conclusion
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to CLIFFORD HILAIRE whose telephone number is (571)272-8397. The examiner can normally be reached 5:30-1400.
Examiner interviews are available via telephone, in-person, and video conferencing using a USPTO supplied web-based collaboration tool. To schedule an interview, applicant is encouraged to use the USPTO Automated Interview Request (AIR) at http://www.uspto.gov/interviewpractice.
If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner’s supervisor, SATH V PERUNGAVOOR can be reached at (571)272-7455. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300.
Information regarding the status of published or unpublished applications may be obtained from Patent Center. Unpublished application information in Patent Center is available to registered users. To file and manage patent submissions in Patent Center, visit: https://patentcenter.uspto.gov. Visit https://www.uspto.gov/patents/apply/patent-center for more information about Patent Center and https://www.uspto.gov/patents/docx for information about filing in DOCX format. For additional questions, contact the Electronic Business Center (EBC) at 866-217-9197 (toll-free). If you would like assistance from a USPTO Customer Service Representative, call 800-786-9199 (IN USA OR CANADA) or 571-272-1000.
CLIFFORD HILAIRE
Primary Examiner
Art Unit 2488
/CLIFFORD HILAIRE/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2488