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 .
Response to Arguments
Applicant's arguments filed 20 July 2026 with respect to the prior art Hemmer have been fully considered but they are not persuasive. In particular, the applicant argues that the prior art does not cure the deficiencies of Tourapis, asserting that the prior art does not teach the amendments to the claimed invention. However, Hemmer partially teaches the amendments filed when the prior art ¶18 describes the generation and storage of valence data of a triangular mesh.
Additionally, the applicant arguments with respect to the additional limitations of the independent claims 1, 9, and 16 have been considered but are moot because the new ground of rejection does not rely on any reference applied in the prior rejection of record for any teaching or matter specifically challenged in the argument.
Claim Interpretation
The following is a quotation of 35 U.S.C. 112(f):
(f) Element in Claim for a Combination. – An element in a claim for a combination may be expressed as a means or step for performing a specified function without the recital of structure, material, or acts in support thereof, and such claim shall be construed to cover the corresponding structure, material, or acts described in the specification and equivalents thereof.
The following is a quotation of pre-AIA 35 U.S.C. 112, sixth paragraph:
An element in a claim for a combination may be expressed as a means or step for performing a specified function without the recital of structure, material, or acts in support thereof, and such claim shall be construed to cover the corresponding structure, material, or acts described in the specification and equivalents thereof.
This application includes one or more claim limitations that do not use the word “means,” but are nonetheless being interpreted under 35 U.S.C. 112(f) or pre-AIA 35 U.S.C. 112, sixth paragraph, because the claim limitation(s) uses a generic placeholder that is coupled with functional language without reciting sufficient structure to perform the recited function and the generic placeholder is not preceded by a structural modifier. Such claim limitation(s) is/are: “a communication interface configured to receive a compressed bitstream” and “a processor configured to” in claim 1-20.
Review of the specification discloses:
- “a communication interface”, specification ¶64 and fig. 2 describes a communications interface 220 could include a network interface card or a wireless transceiver, and
-“a processor”, specification ¶61 and fig. 2 describes processors 210 include microprocessors, microcontrollers, digital signal processors, field programmable gate arrays, application specific integrated circuits, and discrete circuitry.
Because this/these claim limitation(s) is/are being interpreted under 35 U.S.C. 112(f) or pre-AIA 35 U.S.C. 112, sixth paragraph, it/they is/are being interpreted to cover the corresponding structure described in the specification as performing the claimed function, and equivalents thereof.
If applicant does not intend to have this/these limitation(s) interpreted under 35 U.S.C. 112(f) or pre-AIA 35 U.S.C. 112, sixth paragraph, applicant may: (1) amend the claim limitation(s) to avoid it/them being interpreted under 35 U.S.C. 112(f) or pre-AIA 35 U.S.C. 112, sixth paragraph (e.g., by reciting sufficient structure to perform the claimed function); or (2) present a sufficient showing that the claim limitation(s) recite(s) sufficient structure to perform the claimed function so as to avoid it/them being interpreted under 35 U.S.C. 112(f) or pre-AIA 35 U.S.C. 112, sixth paragraph.
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.
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.
Claim(s) 1,5,9,13,16,20 rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Tourapis; Alexandros et al. (US 20240022765 A1) in view of Hemmer; Michael et al. (US 20180350153 A1) in view of TSUCHIE; Shoichi (US 20220121783 A1) in view of TIAN; Jun et al. (US 20240242389 A1)
Regarding claim 1, Tourapis teaches,
An apparatus (¶33,95-96,6, and fig. 8, “a system” including an “combined encoder 800”, depicted in fig. 8, “used to generate compressed volumetric content” that includes “one or more computing devices storing program instructions”) comprising:
a communication interface (¶55-56, and fig. 8, “multiplexer (MUX) 438” depicted in fig. 8) configured to receive a compressed bitstream (¶55-56 and fig. 8, “base mesh bitstream” and “displacement bitstreams” provided to multiplexer (MUX) 438 as depicted in fig. 8) including a base mesh sub-bitstream (¶55-56 and fig. 8, “base mesh bitstream”) and a displacements sub-bitstream; (¶55-56 and fig. 8, “displacement bitstream”) and
a processor operably coupled to the communication interface; (¶48-49,95-96,55-56, figs. 3-4,6, and 8, “pre-processing 302”, and processing components for “intra frame encoder 402 shown in FIG. 4 and intra-frame encoder 602 shown in FIG. 6” combined into “encoder 800” with included “multiplexer (MUX) 438” as depicted in fig. 8) the processor configured to:
reconstruct a base mesh, (¶55-56 and fig. 8, “static mesh decoder 408” and “reconstruction of base-mesh 408” depicted in fig. 8 “generate a reconstructed version of the base mesh”)
perform one or more subdivisions (¶95-96,38, and fig. 8, mesh “encoder 800” may perform “patch generation process, wherein the mesh is subdivided into a set of sub-meshes”) of the base mesh (¶95-96,38, and fig. 8, “base-mesh” encoded by encoder 800 depicted in fig. 8) to generate a subdivided mesh including a plurality of vertices, (¶38 and 45, “mesh is subdivided into a set of sub-meshes” which has a “set of displacement vectors associated with the subdivided mesh vertices”)
reconstruct displacement wavelet coefficients (¶56 and fig. 8, “wavelet transform 412” which “outputs wavelet coefficients e(i)”) for the plurality of vertices, (¶56 and 45, displacement d’(i) that refers to “a set of displacement vectors associated with the subdivided mesh vertices”)
perform an update process with the displacement wavelet coefficients (¶56 and fig. 8, generates quantized wavelet coefficients e′(i) based on “outputs wavelet coefficients e(i), which are provided to quantization module 414”) to generate updated displacement wavelet coefficients (¶56 and fig. 8, “generates quantized wavelet coefficients e′(i)”) for the plurality of vertices, (¶56 and 45, displacement d’(i) that refers to “a set of displacement vectors associated with the subdivided mesh vertices”)
generate reconstructed displacements, (¶58 and fig. 4, inverse wavelet transform 424 may “generate reconstructed displacements d″(i)” as depicted in fig. 4) and
reconstruct a mesh frame (¶58 and fig. 8, reconstructed deformed mesh generation module 426, depicted in fig. 8, applies the reconstructed displacements d″(i) to the reconstructed base mesh m″ (i) “generate reconstructed deformed mesh DM(i)”) based on the reconstructed displacements (¶58 and fig. 4, module 426 receiving “reconstructed displacements d″(i)” as disclosed in fig. 4) and the subdivided mesh. (¶58 and fig. 4, module 426 receiving “reconstructed base mesh m″(i)” as disclosed in fig. 4)
But does not explicitly teach,
decode the displacements sub-bitstream
wherein during the update process, the processor is configured to:
determine a first valence indicating a number of connected edges at a first vertex which forms an edge to which a current vertex belongs, based on whether the first vertex belongs to the base mesh, wherein a valence is determined and stored only for vertices belonging to the base mesh, and wherein, when the first vertex belongs to the base mesh, the first valence is determined from the reconstructed base mesh before the one or more subdivisions are performed, and
update a displacement wavelet coefficient of the first vertex based on the first valence,
perform a prediction process with the updated displacement wavelet coefficients
However, Hemmer teaches additionally,
decode the displacements sub-bitstream (¶22 and fig. 1, “decoding manager 180”, depicted in fig. 1, “configured to decode the encoded difference data 172”) to reconstruct displacement (¶22 and fig. 1, “decode the encoded difference data 172 to produce decoded difference data 182”)
wherein during the update process, (¶16-20 and fig. 1, process instructions including “a mesh manager 130, a valence manager 140, a traversal manager 150, a difference manager 160” as depicted in fig. 1) the processor (¶16 and fig. 1, “processors (e.g., processing units 124) configured to process instructions”) is configured to:
determine a first valence (¶17-18 and fig. 1, “valence manager 140”, depicted in fig. 1, “configured to generate and store valence data 142” as associated with a first “vertex identifier for each vertex” included with the “vertices of the vertex data 134”)) indicating a number of connected edges at a first vertex which forms an edge to which a current vertex belongs, (¶18,38, “generates the valence data 142 by counting (e.g., adding, summing, quantifying) the number of neighboring vertices in the triangular mesh” based on the “connectivity of the triangular mesh” of the vertex data 134) based on whether the first vertex belongs to the base mesh, (¶18,38, and fig. 4, vertex data 134 associated with first vertex identifier in the triangular mesh with “vertex identifiers at each vertex” as depicted in fig. 1) wherein a valence is determined and stored (¶18 and fig. 1, “ generate and store valence data 142”) only for vertices belonging to the base mesh, (¶18 and fig. 1, generate and store valence data 142 from “vertex data 134” based on the “vertices in the triangular mesh”) and wherein, when the first vertex belongs to the base mesh, (¶18 and fig. 1, valence data 142 from the “vertex data 134” of the “number of neighboring vertices in the triangular mesh”) and
update a displacement coefficient (¶19 and fig. 1, “traversal manager 150 is configured to generate a traversal order 152”) of the first vertex (¶19 and fig. 1, “traversal order 152 in which the vertices 134 are arranged” for vertex data 134 associated with first vertex identifier) based on the first valence, (¶19, identify possible “traversal order 152” steps “according to values of a valence-based penalty function for each neighboring vertex” for vertex data 134 associated with first vertex identifier)
It would have been obvious to one with ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to combine the encoder system of Tourapis with the valence-based processing of Hemmer which generates vertices of a triangular mesh based on valences of the vertices. Addition of this teaching minimizes prediction error and makes compression more efficient.
Tsuchie teaches additionally,
the first valence is determined (¶53 and fig. 1, “assesses whether or not a sum of valences of both endpoints of each edge of interest thus identified exceeds the predetermined value Vsum” by valence determination unit 6 as depicted in fig. 1) from the reconstructed base mesh (¶50-54,27, and fig. 2(a), “valence determination unit 6 assesses” mesh illustrated in FIG. 2(a) as input “shape data represented by a triangle mesh”) before the one or more subdivisions are performed, (¶37,50,27, and fig. 1-2(a) and 4(a)-4(b), “avoidance processing unit 3 performs edge swapping” which occurs after valence determination unit 6 assesses the input mesh depicted in fig. 2(a))
It would have been obvious to one with ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to combine the encoder system of Tourapis with the valence-based processing of Hemmer with the mesh simplification of Tsuchie which performs edge swapping after valence determination. This allows for techniques that can reduce the number of triangular facets of the mesh for simplification.
Tian teaches additionally,
update a displacement wavelet coefficient of the first vertex (¶157, “vertex displacements” of subdivided meshes are “computed and transformed” by “wavelet transforms” to output “displacement coefficients” more compact to the original displacements)
perform a prediction process (¶118, “vertex predictors are generated” by “predictor vertices”) with the updated displacement wavelet coefficients (¶118,157, and 141, vertex predictors are generated using quantization “applied to the transform coefficients of those displacement vectors”, also referred to vertex displacement, transformed by “wavelet transforms” that outputs displacement coefficients) to generate reconstructed displacements, (¶118, “displacement vectors whose vertex predictors are generated”)
It would have been obvious to one with ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to combine the encoder system of Tourapis with the valence-based processing of Hemmer with the mesh simplification of Tsuchie with the displacement vector coding of Tian which generates displacement vectors with vertex predictors using wavelet transformed coefficients. This teaching allows for improved efficiencies by improving mesh vertex 3D location prediction.
Regarding claim 5, Tourapis with Hemmer with Tsuchie with Tian teaches the limitations of claim 1,
Hemmer teaches additionally,
wherein during the update process, (¶16-20 and fig. 1, process instructions including “a mesh manager 130, a valence manager 140, a traversal manager 150, a difference manager 160” as depicted in fig. 1) the processor (¶16 and fig. 1, “processors (e.g., processing units 124) configured to process instructions”) is configured to:
determine a second valence (¶17-18 and fig. 1, “valence manager 140”, depicted in fig. 1, “configured to generate and store valence data 142” as associated with a second “vertex identifier for each vertex” included with the “vertices of the vertex data 134”) indicating a number of connected edges at a second vertex which forms an edge to which a current vertex belongs, (¶18,38, “generates the valence data 142 by counting (e.g., adding, summing, quantifying) the number of neighboring vertices in the triangular mesh” based on the “connectivity of the triangular mesh” of a second vertex data 134) based on whether the second vertex belongs to the base mesh, (¶18,38, and fig. 4, vertex data 134 associated with second vertex identifier in the triangular mesh with “vertex identifiers at each vertex” as depicted in fig. 1) and
update a displacement coefficient (¶19 and fig. 1, “traversal manager 150 is configured to generate a traversal order 152”) of the second vertex (¶19 and fig. 1, “traversal order 152 in which the vertices 134 are arranged” for vertex data 134 associated with second vertex identifier) based on the second valence, (¶19, identify possible “traversal order 152” steps “according to values of a valence-based penalty function for each neighboring vertex” for vertex data 134 associated with second vertex identifier)
It would have been obvious to one with ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to combine the encoder system of Tourapis with the valence-based processing for vertices at each point in space of Hemmer with the mesh simplification of Tsuchie with the displacement vector coding of Tian which generates vertices of a triangular mesh based on valences of the vertices. Addition of this teaching minimizes prediction error and makes compression more efficient.
However, Tian teaches additionally,
update a displacement wavelet coefficient of the second vertex (¶157, “vertex displacements” of subdivided meshes are “computed and transformed” by “wavelet transforms” to output “displacement coefficients” more compact to the original displacements)
It would have been obvious to one with ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to combine the encoder system of Tourapis with the valence-based processing for vertices at each point in space of Hemmer with the mesh simplification of Tsuchie with the displacement vector coding of Tian which generates displacement vectors with vertex predictors using wavelet transformed coefficients. This teaching allows for improved efficiencies by improving mesh vertex 3D location prediction.
Regarding claim 9, it is the method claim of apparatus claim 1. Refer to rejection of claim 1 to teach the limitations of claim 9.
Regarding claim 13, dependent on claim 9, it is the method claim similar to claim 5, dependent on claim 1. Refer to rejection of claim 5 to teach the limitations of claim 13.
Regarding claim 16, it is the apparatus claim similar to apparatus claim 1.
Tourapis teaches additionally,
An apparatus (¶33,95-96,6, and fig. 8, “a system” including an “combined encoder 800”, depicted in fig. 8, “used to generate compressed volumetric content” that includes “one or more computing devices storing program instructions”) comprising:
a communication interface; (¶55-56, and fig. 8, “multiplexer (MUX) 438” depicted in fig. 8) and
a processor operably coupled to the communication interface; (¶48-49,95-96,55-56, figs. 3-4,6, and 8, “pre-processing 302”, and processing components for “intra frame encoder 402 shown in FIG. 4 and intra-frame encoder 602 shown in FIG. 6” combined into “encoder 800” with included “multiplexer (MUX) 438” as depicted in fig. 8) the processor configured to:
determine displacements, (¶56 and fig. 8, displacement update module 410 receives “original displacement d(i)” depicted in fig. 8)
perform a prediction process with the displacements (¶56 and fig. 8, “displacement update module 410” adjusts the “displacements d(i) to account for differences” depicted in fig. 8) to generate displacement wavelet coefficients, (¶56 and fig. 8, “updated displacements d′(i)” that are provided to wavelet transform 412 which “applies a wavelet transformation” to the “updated displacements d′(i) and outputs wavelet coefficients e(i)” as depicted in fig. 8)
encode the updated displacement wavelet coefficients (¶56 and fig. 8, “generates quantized wavelet coefficients e′(i)” packed into a 2D image frame that is “video encoded via video encoding 418” as depicted in fig. 8) to generate a compressed displacements bitstream, (¶56 and fig. 8, “encoded video images” output as compressed displacements bitstream as depicted in fig. 8) and
transmit a compressed bitstream (¶56 and fig. 8, “encoded video images are also provided to multiplexer (MUX) 438” output as compressed displacements bitstream as depicted in fig. 8) including the compressed displacements bitstream. (¶56 and fig. 8, “encoded video images” depicted as compressed displacements bitstream “provided to multiplexer (MUX) 438 for inclusion in the compressed bit stream b(i)” as depicted in fig. 8)
Refer to disclosure of claim 1 to teach the limitations of claim 16.
Regarding claim 20, dependent on claim 16, it is the apparatus claim similar to claim 5, dependent on claim 1. Refer to rejection of claim 5 to teach the limitations of claim 20.
Claim(s) 2-4,10-12,17-19 rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Tourapis; Alexandros et al. (US 20240022765 A1) in view of Hemmer; Michael et al. (US 20180350153 A1) in view of TSUCHIE; Shoichi (US 20220121783 A1) in view of TIAN; Jun et al. (US 20240242389 A1) in view of Sederberg; Thomas W. et al. (US 20180293791 A1)
Regarding claim 2, Tourapis with Hemmer with Tsuchie with Tian teaches the limitations of claim 1,
But does not explicitly teach the additional limitations of claim 2,
However, Sederberg teaches additionally,
first valence (¶29 and fig. 1, “valence data 136” representing a “valence number of the vertex” as disclosed in fig. 1) is determined to be equal to a predetermined value (¶29, in the case the “vertex” has a “valence number” that is “equal to three, five, six, and so on”) if the vertex does not belong to the base mesh. (¶29, “vertex” is “an extraordinary point” when it has a “valence number” that is “equal to three, five, six, and so on” representing the vertex is not part of the “spatial mesh representing the object”)
It would have been obvious to one with ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to combine the encoder system of Tourapis with the valence-based processing of Hemmer with the mesh simplification of Tsuchie with the displacement vector coding of Tian with the valence number of Sederberg indicating extraordinary points. Identifying extraordinary points allows for applying refinement rules that can reach desired smoothness properties in the neighborhood of the extraordinary point.
Regarding claim 3, Tourapis with Hemmer with Tsuchie with Tian with Sederberg teaches the limitations of claim 2,
Hemmer teaches additionally,
first valence is determined (¶18,38, and fig. 1, “valence manager 140”, depicted in fig. 1, “configured to generate and store valence data 142” from “vertex data 134”) based on an index of the first vertex (¶18,38, and fig. 4, vertex data 134 for a “triangular mesh with vertex identifiers at each vertex”) from an array of predetermined valences (¶38 and fig. 4, triangular mesh with vertex identifiers at each vertex including “interior vertices (e.g., vertices with indices 3, 6, 7, 10) and corner vertices (e.g., vertices with indices 0, 1, 2, 4, 5, 8, 9, 11, 12, 13)”) if the first vertex belongs to the base mesh. (¶38 and fig. 4, vertex identifiers at each vertex as associated with “neighboring vertices in the triangular mesh”)
It would have been obvious to one with ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to combine the encoder system of Tourapis with the valence-based processing of Hemmer with the mesh simplification of Tsuchie with the displacement vector coding of Tian with the valence number of Sederberg which includes identifiers at each vertex. Addition of this approach helps provide information to minimize prediction error and makes compression more efficient.
Regarding claim 4, Tourapis with Hemmer with Tsuchie with Tian with Sederberg teaches the limitations of claim 2,
Sederberg teaches additionally,
predetermined value is 6. (¶29, “extraordinary point, has a valence number” that is equal to “six”)
It would have been obvious to one with ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to combine the encoder system of Tourapis with the valence-based processing of Hemmer with the mesh simplification of Tsuchie with the displacement vector coding of Tian with the valence number of Sederberg indicating extraordinary points. Identifying extraordinary points allows for applying refinement rules that can reach desired smoothness properties in the neighborhood of the extraordinary point.
Regarding claim 10, dependent on claim 9, it is the method claim similar to apparatus claim 2, dependent on claim 1. Refer to rejection of claim 2 to teach the limitations of claim 10.
Regarding claim 11, dependent on claim 10, it is the method claim similar to apparatus claim 3, dependent on claim 2. Refer to rejection of claim 3 to teach the limitations of claim 11.
Regarding claim 12, dependent on claim 10, it is the method claim similar to apparatus claim 4, dependent on claim 2. Refer to rejection of claim 4 to teach the limitations of claim 12.
Regarding claim 17, dependent on claim 16, it is the apparatus claim similar to apparatus claim 2, dependent on claim 1. Refer to rejection of claim 2 to teach the limitations of claim 17.
Regarding claim 18, dependent on claim 17, it is the apparatus claim similar to apparatus claim 3, dependent on claim 2. Refer to rejection of claim 3 to teach the limitations of claim 18.
Regarding claim 19, dependent on claim 17, it is the apparatus claim similar to apparatus claim 4, dependent on claim 2. Refer to rejection of claim 4 to teach the limitations of claim 19.
Claim(s) 6-8,14-15 rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Tourapis; Alexandros et al. (US 20240022765 A1) in view of Hemmer; Michael et al. (US 20180350153 A1) in view of TSUCHIE; Shoichi (US 20220121783 A1) in view of TIAN; Jun et al. (US 20240242389 A1) in view of TIAN; Jun et al. (US 20250220242 A1) (Tian2) (with relevant disclosure found in provisional application 63/617,014 filed 2 Jan 2024)
Regarding claim 6, Tourapis with Hemmer with Tsuchie with Tian teaches the limitations of claim 1,
But does not explicitly teach the additional limitations of claim 6,
However, Tian2 teaches additionally,
an update weight is determined (¶109-114 and fig. 8, syntax element “vltp_log2_ lifting_update_weight[ltpIndex][i]” denotes the weighting coefficients used for the update filter for “the wavelet transform” [i], as depicted in fig. 8) based on the first syntax element, (¶109-114, weighting coefficients of the “wavelet transform” of the [i] level of details) and
the displacement wavelet coefficient of the first vertex is updated (¶109-114 and fig. 8, adaptive linear wavelet transform is applied, also referred to as “valence-based adaptive lifting update weight”) based on the first valence (¶109-114 and fig. 8, adaptive linear wavelet transform applied to “neighboring vertices of a vertex in a wavelet transform of attribute values associated with vertices”) and the update weight. (¶109-114 and fig. 8, “vltp_log2_ lifting_update_weight[ltpIndex][i]” denoting “weighting coefficients” used for update filter of the wavelet transform)
It would have been obvious to one with ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to combine the encoder system of Tourapis with the valence-based processing of Hemmer with the mesh simplification of Tsuchie with the displacement vector coding of Tian with the wavelet transform of Tian2 which applies adaptive linear wavelet transform to values associated with a vertex. This allows for dynamically applying linear wavelet transform in the process of reconstruction, which can optimize the bitstream for particular system designs.
Regarding claim 7, Tourapis with Hemmer with Tsuchie with Tian teaches the limitations of claim 1,
Tourapis teaches additionally,
the compressed bitstream further includes an atlas sub-bitstream (¶59 and fig. 4, “updated attribute map is output as updated attribute map A′(i)” that is included in the “compressed attribute bitstream” as depicted in fig. 4)
But does not explicitly teach the additional limitations of claim 7,
However, Tian2 teaches additionally,
atlas sub-bitstream including a first syntax element (¶109-114 and fig. 8, “syntax element vltp_log2_lifting_update_weight[ltpIndex][i]” depicted in fig. 8) for determining an update weight, (¶109-114, syntax element denotes “weighting coefficients used for the update filter”)
an update weight is determined based on the first syntax element in the bitstream, (¶111 and fig.8, “vltp_log2_lifting_update_weight[ltpIndex][i] denotes the weighting coefficients used for the update filter (e.g., used in the update process) of the wavelet transform”) and
the displacement wavelet coefficient of the first vertex is updated (¶109-114 and fig. 8, adaptive linear wavelet transform is applied, also referred to as “valence-based adaptive lifting update weight”) based on the first valence (¶109-114 and fig. 8, adaptive linear wavelet transform applied to “neighboring vertices of a vertex in a wavelet transform of attribute values associated with vertices”) and the update weight. (¶109-114 and fig. 8, “vltp_log2_ lifting_update_weight[ltpIndex][i]” denoting “weighting coefficients” used for update filter of the wavelet transform)
It would have been obvious to one with ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to combine the encoder system of Tourapis with the valence-based processing of Hemmer with the mesh simplification of Tsuchie with the displacement vector coding of Tian with the wavelet transform of Tian2 which applies adaptive linear wavelet transform to values associated with a vertex. This allows for dynamically applying linear wavelet transform in the process of reconstruction, which can optimize the bitstream for particular system designs.
Regarding claim 8, Tourapis with Hemmer with Tsuchie with Tian teaches the limitations of claim 1,
Tourapis teaches additionally,
the compressed bitstream further includes an atlas sub-bitstream (¶59 and fig. 4, “updated attribute map is output as updated attribute map A′(i)” that is included in the “compressed attribute bitstream” as depicted in fig. 4)
But does not explicitly teach the additional limitations of claim 8,
However, Tian2 teaches additionally,
atlas sub-bitstream including a second syntax element (¶109-114 and fig. 8, “syntax element vltp_log2_lifting_prediction_weight[ltpIndex][i]” depicted in fig. 8) for determining a prediction weight, (¶109-114, syntax element denotes “weighting coefficients used for the prediction filter”)
a prediction weight is determined based on the second syntax element in the bitstream, (¶111 and fig.8, “vltp_log2_lifting_prediction_weight[ltpIndex][i] denotes the weighting coefficients used for the prediction filter (e.g., used in the prediction process) of the wavelet transform”) and
the displacement of the current vertex (¶91 and fig. 7, “detail coefficients of the vertices” for vertex (701)) is determined based on the prediction weight (¶91,109-114 and fig. 7-8, detail coefficients for a vertex “calculated by the prediction process” including the use of “weighting coefficients used for the update filter (e.g., used in the update process) of the wavelet transform” denoted by “vltp_log2_lifting_prediction_ weight[ltpIndex][i]”) and the updated displacement wavelet coefficient of the first vertex. (¶91,109-114, and fig. 7-8, “vertices (711) and (712)” signals are “updated as shown by (760)” including the use of “weighting coefficients used for the prediction filter (e.g., used in the prediction process) of the wavelet transform” denoted by “vltp_log2_lifting_prediction_weight[ltpIndex][i]”)
It would have been obvious to one with ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to combine the encoder system of Tourapis with the valence-based processing of Hemmer with the mesh simplification of Tsuchie with the displacement vector coding of Tian with the wavelet transform of Tian2 which applies adaptive linear wavelet transform to values associated with a vertex. This allows for dynamically applying linear wavelet transform in the process of reconstruction, which can optimize the bitstream for particular system designs.
Regarding claim 14, dependent on claim 9, it is the method claim similar to apparatus claim 7, dependent on claim 1. Refer to rejection of claim 7 to teach the limitations of claim 14.
Regarding claim 15, dependent on claim 9, it is the method claim similar to apparatus claim 8, dependent on claim 1. Refer to rejection of claim 8 to teach the limitations of claim 15.
Conclusion
Applicant's amendment necessitated the new ground(s) of rejection presented in this Office action. Accordingly, THIS ACTION IS MADE FINAL. See MPEP § 706.07(a). Applicant is reminded of the extension of time policy as set forth in 37 CFR 1.136(a).
A shortened statutory period for reply to this final action is set to expire THREE MONTHS from the mailing date of this action. In the event a first reply is filed within TWO MONTHS of the mailing date of this final action and the advisory action is not mailed until after the end of the THREE-MONTH shortened statutory period, then the shortened statutory period will expire on the date the advisory action is mailed, and any nonprovisional extension fee (37 CFR 1.17(a)) pursuant to 37 CFR 1.136(a) will be calculated from the mailing date of the advisory action. In no event, however, will the statutory period for reply expire later than SIX MONTHS from the mailing date of this final action.
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/JOSEPH G USTARIS/Supervisory Patent Examiner, Art Unit 2483
/JIMMY S LEE/Examiner, Art Unit 2483
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