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 Amendment
This action is in response to the remark entered on July 7, 2026.
Claims 1, 3-8, 10-14, and 17-20 are pending in the instant application.
Claims 1, 8, and 15 are amended.
Claims 2, 9, and 16 are cancelled.
Response to Arguments
Applicant's remarks filed 07/07/2026, page 5, regarding the rejection of claim 1, and similarly claims 6, 12 & 15 under 35 U.S.C. § 103 have been fully considered but they are not persuasive.
The Applicant asserts that Shiodera does not teach or suggest the limitations of wherein marking the first element as the out-of-bounds element comprises: encoding, into a bitstream, flag information indicating that the first element is the out-of-bounds element.
The Examiner respectfully disagrees. As stated in Paragraph [0108]-[0118] & [0140]-[0154] & [0189]-[0219] in Shiodera, the determination of coefficients to be using first variable-length or second variable-length indicates if the bit length is more or less than 1 bit, wherein the target range is between 0 to 1 bit. If the bit length is greater than 1 bit, then it is considered out of bounds, and the flag CodingMethodFlag, reading as the flag information, indicates the condition of out of bounds or not accordingly. Therefore Shiodera reads upon the claimed limitaitons of wherein marking the first element as the out-of-bounds element comprises: encoding, into a bitstream, flag information indicating that the first element is the out-of-bounds element. It would have been obvious to the person of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify the method disclosed by Chong to integrate and implement the variable-length coding scheme in Shiodera as above, for the coding performance in arithmetic coding can be improved by applying the first variable-length coding unit 123 and the second variable-length coding unit 124 having different transition of context and switching therebetween by the switching unit 122 for each coefficient position as Shiodera states in Paragraph [0158]. Furthermore one of ordinary skill in the art would have recognized that applying the known technique of Shiodera would have yielded predictable results and resulted in an improved method. It would have been recognized that applying the technique of Shiodera to the teachings of Chong would have yielded predictable results because the level of ordinary skill in the art demonstrated by the references applied shows the ability to incorporate such arithmetic entropy encoding methods into similar methods and systems. Further, applying variable-length coding schemes to Chong with feature maps generated accordingly, would have been recognized by those of ordinary skill in the art as resulting in an improved method that would allow more efficiently coded feature maps based upon the element values.
Therefore the rejection of claims 1, 8 & 15 under 35 USC 103 is maintained.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 103
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 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 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.
Claims 1, 8 & 15 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Chong et al. (US 2019/0373264 A1) (hereinafter Chong) in view of Shiodera et al. (US 2012/0121012 A1) (hereinafter Shiodera).
Regarding claim 1, Chong discloses an encoding method [Paragraph [0228], dedicated software modules or hardware modules configured for encoding], comprising:
inputting an image into an encoding network to obtain a feature map of the image [Paragraph [0061]-[0062], [0108], Fig. 3, 12A, input image 320, 1201, input into convolutional network and coding engine(s) to obtain feature maps 322 and 1203], wherein the feature map comprises a plurality of elements [Paragraph [0070]-[0080], Fig. 4A-5, feature maps containing elements]; and
performing variable-length code encoding on the first element [Paragraph [0187], the residual data can be stored as the compressed activation data 1236, without further compressing the residuals data using the compression engine 1234. Examples of coding techniques that can be applied by the compression engine 1234 include entropy coding (e.g., run-length coding with variable length codes (VLC)].
However, does not disclose determining a boundary value of a first element of the plurality of elements in the feature map; judging whether the first element is in a target range corresponding to the first element, wherein the target range is determined based on the boundary value of the first element; and in response to determining that the first element is in the target range corresponding to the first element, performing entropy encoding on the first element; or in response to determining that the first element is outside the target range corresponding to the first element, marking the first element as an out-of-bounds element.
Shiodera teaches determining a boundary value of a first element of the plurality of elements in the feature map [Paragraph [0108]-[0109], Determining coefficients as elements in the coefficient block as feature map, to determine bit length of 1 bit as boundary value];
judging whether the first element is in a target range corresponding to the first element, wherein the target range is determined based on the boundary value of the first element [Paragraph [0108]-[0109], Determining coefficients to be using first variable-length vs second variable-length based upon being more or less than bit length of 1 bit, as target range is between 0 to 1 bit]; and
in response to determining that the first element is in the target range corresponding to the first element, performing entropy encoding on the first element; or in response to determining that the first element is outside the target range corresponding to the first element, marking the first element as an out-of-bounds element and performing variable-length code encoding on the first element [Paragraph [0108]-[0118] & [0140]-[0154] & [0189]-[0219], Determining coefficients to be using first variable-length vs second variable-length based upon being more or less than bit length of 1 bit, wherein CodingMethodFlag marks whether coefficient is using first variable-length coding as entropy encoding, or second variable-length coding as variable-length code encoding], wherein marking the first element as the out-of-bounds element comprises: encoding, into a bitstream, flag information indicating that the first element is the out-of-bounds element [Paragraph [0108]-[0118] & [0140]-[0154] & [0189]-[0219], Determining coefficients to be using first variable-length vs second variable-length based upon being more or less than bit length of 1 bit, wherein CodingMethodFlag marks whether coefficient is using first variable-length coding as entropy encoding, or second variable-length coding as variable-length code encoding].
It would have been obvious to the person of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify the method disclosed by Chong to integrate and implement the variable-length coding scheme in Shiodera as above, for the coding performance in arithmetic coding can be improved by applying the first variable-length coding unit 123 and the second variable-length coding unit 124 having different transition of context and switching therebetween by the switching unit 122 for each coefficient position (Shiodera, Paragraph [0158]). Furthermore one of ordinary skill in the art would have recognized that applying the known technique of Shiodera would have yielded predictable results and resulted in an improved method. It would have been recognized that applying the technique of Shiodera to the teachings of Chong would have yielded predictable results because the level of ordinary skill in the art demonstrated by the references applied shows the ability to incorporate such arithmetic entropy encoding methods into similar methods and systems. Further, applying variable-length coding schemes to Chong with feature maps generated accordingly, would have been recognized by those of ordinary skill in the art as resulting in an improved method that would allow more efficiently coded feature maps based upon the element values.
Regarding claim 8, claim 8 is drawn to a decoding method having limitations similar to the encoding method of using the same as claimed in claim 1 treated in the above rejection. Therefore, method claim 8 corresponds to method claim 1 and is rejected for the same reasons of obviousness as used above.
Furthermore, Chong discloses of a decoding method [Paragraph [0189]-[0208], Fig. 12B decompression engine 1238].
Regarding claim 15, decoder claim 15 is drawn to the decoder using/performing the same method as claimed in claim 8. Therefore decoder claim 15 corresponds to method claim 8, and is rejected for the same reasons of obviousness as used above.
Further Chong discloses a decoder, comprising: one or more processors; and a computer-readable storage medium coupled to the one or more processors [Paragraphs [0006]-[0007] & [0219]-[0222], one or more microprocessors, executing code that may be stored on a computer-readable or machine-readable storage medium, for example, in the form of a computer program comprising a plurality of instructions executable by one or more processors. The computer-readable or machine-readable storage medium may be non-transitory]
Allowable Subject Matter
Claims 3-7, 10-15 & 18-20 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.
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.
Conclusion
THIS ACTION IS MADE FINAL. 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.
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to DANIEL CHANG whose telephone number is (571)272-5707. The examiner can normally be reached M-Sa, 12PM - 10 PM.
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, David Czekaj can be reached at 571-272-7327. 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.
/DANIEL CHANG/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2487
