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 § 101
35 U.S.C. 101 reads as follows:
Whoever invents or discovers any new and useful process, machine, manufacture, or composition of matter, or any new and useful improvement thereof, may obtain a patent therefor, subject to the conditions and requirements of this title.
Claims 1-23 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 101 because the claimed invention is directed to non-statutory subject matter.
The claim(s) does/do not fall within at least one of the four categories of patent eligible subject matter because claim 1 is directed to a primitive adaptive variable rate shading method, comprising the steps of: generating, generating, generate and setting which are nothing more than software instructions. Software instructions are non-statutory under 35 U.S.C. 101.
Claims 2-23 depend from claim 1 and comprise additional steps, for example, claim 3 comprises the step of setting, therefore claims 2-23 have the same problem as claim 1 and are rejected under the same rationale.
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 (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 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.
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) 1 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over MORITA (WO 2012147247A1 in view of FULLER (US2019/0005714A1) in view of JOSHI (US2015/0023405A1).
Regarding claim 1, MORITA teaches:
1. A primitive adaptive variable rate shading method, comprising:
generating a first absolute difference of depths in x direction (MORITA: pg. 10 lines 1-7; horizontal direction is interpreted as x direction);
generating a second absolute difference of depths in y direction (MORITA: pg. 10 lines 1-7; vertical direction is interpreted as y direction);
MORITA doesn’t teach however the analogous prior art FULLER teaches:
setting a variable shading rate at least according to a plurality of thresholds, and the absolute difference (FULLER: par. 56 lines 3-19).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to combine setting a variable shading rate at least according to a plurality of thresholds, and the absolute difference as shown in FULLER with MORITA for the benefit of allowing the GPU to blend the previous frame pixels with pixels in the current frame, injecting additional information to reduce aliasing artefacts [par. 4].
The previous combination of MORITA and FULLER doesn’t teach however the analogous prior art JOSHI teaches:
adding the first absolute difference with the second absolute difference to generate a third absolute difference (JOSHI: par. 340 lines 1-10); and
the absolute difference is a third absolute difference (JOSHI: par. 340 lines 8-10).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to combine adding the first absolute difference with the second absolute difference to generate a third absolute difference; and the absolute difference is a third absolute difference as shown in JOSHI with the previous combination for the benefit of addressing a shortcoming in the prior art in that the decision processes described in JCTVC-NO183 work only for the interpolation filter switch off. Third, in JCTVC-NO183, thresholds used for the decision criteria are not flexible. As described elsewhere in this disclosure, the threshold used for the decision criteria can be formulated in a more flexible form than was proposed in JCTVC-NO183 [par. 0179, lines 16-22].
Claim(s) 2 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over MORITA in view of FULLER in view of JOSHI in view of HONG (KR 950003489B1) in view of SALIGH (JP 2004500565A) in view of AKENINE-MOLLER (WO 2017105612 A1).
Regarding claim 2, the previous combination of MORITA, FULLER and JOSHI don’t teach however the analogous prior art HONG teaches:
2. The primitive adaptive variable rate shading method of claim 1,
wherein the plurality of thresholds comprise:
a 2-pixel by 1-pixel threshold (HONG: pg. 3 lines 30-35).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to combine wherein the plurality of thresholds comprise: a 2-pixel by 1-pixel threshold as shown in HONG with the previous combination for the benefit of fulfilling a need in the prior art for a non-linear process for performing operations such as a min filter and a max filter during interpolation of a scan line, and a linear operation for performing operations such as multiplication and addition ( In the case of using the pseudo median filter which performs simultaneous processing, the minimum and maximum values of the surrounding pixels on the previous scanning line to be interpolated, the surrounding pixels on the next scanning line to be interpolated, and the pixels above and below the pixel position to be interpolated By using the median filter that calculates the maximum value of the minimum value as the pixel value to be used for the average and uses the scanning line components above and below the position to be interpolated, the shadow median filter is well adapted to the edge pattern of the image while using only one line memory [pg. 2, see 2nd par. from bottom, lines 2-12].
The previous combination of MORITA, FULLER, JOSHI, and HONG doesn’t teach however the analogous prior art SALIGH teaches:
wherein the plurality of thresholds comprise: a 2-pixel by 2-pixel threshold (SALIGH: par. 21 lines 3-8).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to combine wherein the plurality of thresholds comprise: a 2-pixel by 2-pixel threshold as shown in SALIGH with the previous combination for the benefit of fulfilling a need in the prior art for a simple, fast, and inexpensive reticle inspection method that can accurately inspect straight line defects [par. 8, lines 4-5].
The previous combination of MORITA, FULLER, JOSHI, HONG and SALIGH doesn’t teach however the analogous prior art AKENINE-MOLLER teaches:
wherein the plurality of thresholds comprise:
a 4-pixel by 2-pixel threshold, and a 4-pixel by 4-pixel threshold (AKENINE-MOLLER: pg. 31 lines 33-40).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to combine wherein the plurality of thresholds comprise: a 4-pixel by 2-pixel threshold, and a 4-pixel by 4-pixel threshold as shown in AKENINE-MOLLER with the previous combination for the benefit of providing for a novel compression/decompression technique that is not only cost-efficient, but also resource-efficient, such as based on low latency (e.g., low number of clock cycles) in order to maintain proper balancing of the media pipeline [pg. 3, Detailed Description, lines 5-10].
Claim(s) 3 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over MORITA in view of FULLER in view of JOSHI in view of HONG in view of SALIGH in view of AKENINE-MOLLER in view of ZHANG (WO 2019/147929A1).
Regarding claim 3, the previous combination of MORITA, FULLER, JOSHI, HONG, SALIGH and AKENINE-MOLLER doesn’t teach however the analogous prior art ZHANG teaches:
3. The primitive adaptive variable rate shading method of claim 2, further comprising:
setting a final variable shading rate as 4-pixel by 4-pixel,
4-pixel by 2-pixel, 2-pixel by 2-pixel, or 2-pixel by 1-pixel (ZHANG: pars. 58 and 64).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to combine setting a final variable shading rate as 4-pixel by 4-pixel, 4-pixel by 2-pixel, 2-pixel by 2-pixel, or 2-pixel by 1-pixel as shown in ZHANG with the previous combination for the benefit of fulfilling a shortcoming in the prior art by providing a method for varying the shading rate depending on the rendered image content, reducing shading rate where the surface appearance varies smoothly and increasing the shading rate for high frequency regions such as bumps, shadow edges and specular highlights [par. 8, lines 6-9].
Allowable Subject Matter
Claims 4-23 would be objected to (except for the 101 rejection) 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:
Regarding claims 4-23, the prior art doesn’t teach:
4. The primitive adaptive variable rate shading method of claim 3,
wherein setting the variable shading rate according to at least the plurality of thresholds, and the third absolute difference is if the final variable shading rate is set as 4-pixel by 4-pixel, and the third absolute difference is larger than the 2-pixel by 1-pixel threshold, setting the variable rate shading as 1-pixel by 1-pixel.
5. The primitive adaptive variable rate shading method of claim 3, wherein setting the variable shading rate according to at least the plurality of thresholds, and the third absolute difference is if the final variable shading rate is set as 4-pixel by 4-pixel, the third absolute difference is between the 2-pixel by 2-pixel
threshold and the 2-pixel by 1-pixel threshold, and the first absolute difference is larger than the second absolute difference,
setting the variable rate shading as 1-pixel by 2-pixel.
6. The primitive adaptive variable rate shading method of claim 3, wherein setting the variable shading rate according to at least the plurality of thresholds, and the third absolute difference is if the final variable shading rate is set as 4-pixel by 4-pixel, the third absolute difference is between the 2-pixel by 2-pixel threshold and the 2-pixel by 1-pixel threshold, and the first absolute difference is smaller than the second absolute difference,
setting the variable rate shading as 2-pixel by 1-pixel.
7. The primitive adaptive variable rate shading method of claim 3, wherein setting the variable shading rate according to at least the plurality of thresholds, and the third absolute difference is if the final variable shading rate is set as 4-pixel by 4-pixel,
and the third absolute difference is between the 4-pixel by 2-pixel threshold and the 2-pixel by 2-pixel threshold, setting the variable rate shading as 2-pixel by 2-pixel.
8. The primitive adaptive variable rate shading method of claim 3, wherein setting the variable shading rate according to at least the plurality of thresholds, and the third absolute difference is if the final variable shading rate is set as 4-pixel by 4-pixel, the third absolute difference is between the 4-pixel by 4-pixel threshold and the 4-pixel by 2-pixel threshold, and the first absolute difference is larger than the second absolute difference,
setting the variable rate shading as 2-pixel by 4-pixel.
9. The primitive adaptive variable rate shading method of claim 3, wherein setting the variable shading rate according to at least the plurality of thresholds, and the third absolute difference is if the final variable shading rate is set as 4-pixel by 4-pixel, the third absolute difference is between the 4-pixel by 4-pixel
threshold and the 4-pixel by 2-pixel threshold, and the first absolute difference is smaller than the second absolute difference,
setting the variable rate shading as 4-pixel by 2-pixel.
10. The primitive adaptive variable rate shading method of claim 3, wherein setting the variable shading rate according to at least the plurality of thresholds, and the third absolute difference is if the final variable shading rate is set as 4-pixel by 4-pixel,
and the third absolute difference is smaller than the 4-pixel by 4-pixel threshold, setting the variable rate shading as 4-pixel by 4-pixel.
11. The primitive adaptive variable rate shading method of claim 3, wherein setting the variable shading rate according to at least the plurality of thresholds, and the third absolute difference is if the final variable shading rate is set as 4-pixel by 2-pixel, and the third absolute difference is larger than the 2-pixel by 1-pixel threshold, setting the variable rate shading as 1-pixel by 1-pixel.
12. The primitive adaptive variable rate shading method of claim 3, wherein setting the variable shading rate according to at least the plurality of thresholds, and the third absolute difference is if the final variable shading rate is set as 4-pixel by 2-pixel, the third absolute difference is between the 2-pixel by 2-pixel threshold and the 2-pixel by 1-pixel threshold, and the first absolute difference is larger than the second absolute difference,
setting the variable rate shading as 1-pixel by 2-pixel.
13. The primitive adaptive variable rate shading method of claim 3, wherein setting the variable shading rate according to at least the plurality of thresholds, and the third absolute difference is if the final variable shading rate is set as 4-pixel by 2-pixel, the third absolute difference is between the 2-pixel by 2-pixel threshold and the 2-pixel by 1-pixel threshold, and the first
absolute difference is smaller than the second absolute difference,
setting the variable rate shading as 2-pixel by 1-pixel.
14. The primitive adaptive variable rate shading method of claim 3, wherein setting the variable shading rate according to at least the plurality of thresholds, and the third absolute difference is if the final variable shading rate is set as 4-pixel by 2-pixel,
and the third absolute difference is between the 4-pixel by 2-pixel threshold and the 2-pixel by 2-pixel threshold, setting the variable rate shading as 2-pixel by 2-pixel.
15. The primitive adaptive variable rate shading method of claim 3, wherein setting the variable shading rate according to at least the plurality of thresholds, and the third absolute difference is if the final variable shading rate is set as 4-pixel by 2-pixel, the third absolute difference is smaller than the 4-pixel by 2-pixel threshold, and the first absolute difference is larger than the second absolute difference, setting the variable rate shading as 2-pixel by 4-pixel.
16. The primitive adaptive variable rate shading method of claim 3, wherein setting the variable shading rate according to at least the plurality of thresholds, and the third absolute difference is if the final variable shading rate is set as 4-pixel by 2-pixel, the third absolute difference is smaller than the 4-pixel by 2-pixel threshold, and the first absolute difference is smaller than the second absolute difference, setting the variable rate shading as 4-pixel by 2-pixel.
17. The primitive adaptive variable rate shading method of claim 3, wherein setting the variable shading rate according to at least the plurality of thresholds, and the third absolute difference is if the final variable shading rate is set as 2-pixel by 2-pixel, and the third absolute difference is larger than the 2-pixel by 1-pixel threshold, setting the variable rate shading as 1-pixel
by 1-pixel.
18. The primitive adaptive variable rate shading method of claim 3, wherein setting the variable shading rate according to at least the plurality of thresholds, and the third absolute difference is if the final variable shading rate is set as 2-pixel by 2-pixel, the third absolute difference is between the 2-pixel by 2-pixel threshold and the 2-pixel by 1-pixel threshold, and the first absolute difference is larger than the second absolute difference,
setting the variable rate shading as 1-pixel by 2-pixel.
19. The primitive adaptive variable rate shading method of claim 3, wherein setting the variable shading rate according to at least the plurality of thresholds, and the third absolute difference is if the final variable shading rate is set as 2-pixel by 2-pixel, the third absolute difference is between the 2-pixel by 2-pixel threshold and the 2-pixel by 1-pixel threshold, and the first absolute difference is smaller than the second absolute difference,
setting the variable rate shading as 2-pixel by 1-pixel.
20. The primitive adaptive variable rate shading method of claim 3, wherein setting the variable shading rate according to at least the plurality of thresholds, and the third absolute difference is if the final variable shading rate is set as 2-pixel by 2-pixel, and the third absolute difference is smaller than the 2-pixel by 2-pixel threshold, setting the variable rate shading as 2-pixel by 2-pixel.
21. The primitive adaptive variable rate shading method of claim 3, wherein setting the variable shading rate according to at least the plurality of thresholds, and the third absolute difference is if the final variable shading rate is set as 2-pixel by 1-pixel, and the third absolute difference is larger than the 2-pixel by 1-pixel threshold, setting the variable rate shading as 1-pixel by 1-pixel.
22. The primitive adaptive variable rate shading method of claim 3, wherein setting the variable shading rate according to at least the plurality of thresholds, and the third absolute difference is if the final variable shading rate is set as 2-pixel by 1-pixel, the third absolute difference is smaller than the 2-pixel by 1-pixel threshold, and the first absolute difference is larger than the second absolute difference, setting the variable rate shading as 1-pixel by 2-pixel.
23. The primitive adaptive variable rate shading method of claim 3, wherein setting the variable shading rate according to at least the plurality of thresholds, and the third absolute difference is if the final variable shading rate is set as 2-pixel by 1-pixel, the third absolute difference is smaller than the 2-pixel by 1-pixel threshold, and the first absolute difference is smaller than the second absolute difference, setting the variable rate shading as 2-pixel by 1-pixel.
Conclusion
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/MAURICE L. MCDOWELL, JR/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2612
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