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
Amendment, filed on 08/21/2026, has been entered.
Claims 1-20 are pending.
Continued Examination Under 37 CFR 1.114
A request for continued examination under 37 CFR 1.114, including the fee set forth in 37 CFR 1.17(e), was filed in this application after final rejection. Since this application is eligible for continued examination under 37 CFR 1.114, and the fee set forth in 37 CFR 1.17(e) has been timely paid, the finality of the previous Office action has been withdrawn pursuant to 37 CFR 1.114. Applicant's submission filed on 08/21/2026 has been entered.
Examiner’s Note
The instant application has a lengthy prosecution history and the examiner encourages the applicant to have an interview (telephonic or personal) with the examiner prior to filing a response to the instant office action. Also, prior to the interview the examiner encourages the applicant to present multiple possible claim amendments, so as to enable the examiner to identify claim amendments that will advance prosecution in a meaningful manner.
Response to Arguments/Amendments
Presented arguments have been fully considered, but they are rendered moot in view of the new ground(s) of rejection necessitated by amendment(s) initiated by the applicant(s).
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, 4, 6, 7, 10, 11, 14, and 20 rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Choi et al. (“Choi”) [U.S Patent No. 11,765,357 B2] in view of Marpe et al. (“Marpe”) [US 2005/0038837 A1] in further view of Choi et al. (“Choi_345”) [US 2022/0377345 A1]
Regarding claim 1, Choi meets the claim limitations as follows:
A computer-implemented method for coding audiovisual content, the method comprising:
identifying a first coefficient (i.e. ‘symbolVal’) [Fig. 23: ‘S320’; col. 50: Equation 7 or 8] included in a block of coefficients;
determining a threshold value (i.e. ‘cRiceParam’) [col. 50; Eq. 8] based on [Choi: col. 53, ll. 25-35: disclose the threshold value derived through ‘a process’ performed by ‘luma position (x0, y0)’ and the dimension ‘TbWidth’; ‘TbHeight’];
identifying a first portion (i.e. ‘suffixVal’) [col. 50: Equation 8] of the first coefficient based on the threshold value (i.e. ‘cRiceParam’) [col. 50; Eq. 8] ; identifying a second portion (i.e. ‘prefixVal’) [col. 50: Equation 7] of the first coefficient based on the threshold value, wherein the first portion of the first coefficient represents a lower value range (i.e. suffix of symbolVal <prefix) than the second portion of the first coefficient;
performing one or more entropy coding operations (e.g. exponential Golomb, … (CAVLC), … (CABAC)) [Fig. 10, 12: ‘Context-coded’; col. 9, ll. 40-60] on the first portion of the first coefficient to generate a coded version of the first portion of the first coefficient; and
performing one or more bypass coding operations (i.e. ‘‘unary binarization’) [Fig. 10, 12: ‘Context-coded’; col. 9, ll. 40-60; col. 28, 29: ‘when the input signal is already a binary value … may be bypassed; [col. 50, ll. 25-30: ‘unary binarization for the prefixVal’] on the second portion of the first coefficient to generate a coded version of the second portion of the first coefficient.
Choi does not disclose explicitly the following claim limitations (emphasis added):
determining a threshold value based on a quantization step size associated with the block of coefficients;
performing one or more entropy coding operations on the first portion (i.e. ‘suffixVal’) of the first coefficient to generate a coded version of the first portion of the first coefficient; and
performing one or more bypass coding operations on the second portion (i.e. ‘prefixVal’) of the first coefficient to generate a coded version of the second portion of the first coefficient.
However in the same field of endeavor Marpe discloses the deficient claim as follows:
determining a threshold value based on a quantization step size associated with the block of coefficients;
performing one or more entropy coding operations on the first portion (i.e. ‘suffixVal’) [Fig. 4: kth order exponential Golomb binarization is applied to primary suffix; para. 0045-0047: ‘codeword of … a transform coefficient level’] of the first coefficient to generate a coded version of the first portion of the first coefficient; and
performing one or more bypass coding operations on the second portion (i.e. ‘prefixVal’) [Fig. 4: truncated unary binarization is applied to primary suffix] of the first coefficient to generate a coded version of the second portion of the first coefficient.
Choi and Marpe are combinable because they are from the same field of video compression.
It would have been obvious to one with ordinary skill in the art before the effective filling date of the claimed invention to combine teachings of Choi and Marpe as motivation to switch context-coding to bypass coding so as to reduce the significantly model costs [Marpe: para. 0047].
Marpe does not disclose explicitly the following claim limitations (emphasis added):
determining a threshold value based on a quantization step size associated with the block of coefficients;
However in the same field of endeavor Choi_345 discloses the deficient claim as follows:
determining a threshold value based on a quantization step size [Abstract; 0008: ‘deriving a Rice parameter for the information indicating the level value of the transform coefficient, on the basis of a quantization parameter of the current block’] associated with the block of coefficients;
Choi, Marpe and Choi_345 are combinable because they are from the same field of video compression.
It would have been obvious to one with ordinary skill in the art before the effective filling date of the claimed invention to combine teachings of Choi and Marpe as motivation to derive a rice parameter based on a quantization parameter for improving coding efficiency in various environments [Choi_345: para. 0007-0008].
Regarding claim 4, Choi meets the claim limitations as follows:
The computer-implemented method of claim 1, further comprising determining the threshold value(i.e. ‘cRiceParam’) [col. 50; Eq. 8] based on at least one of a size attribute associated with the block of coefficients [col. 53, ll. 25-35: ‘TbWidth’; ‘TbHeight’], a dimension attribute associated with the block of coefficients, a transform type [col. 53, ll. 25-30: ‘luma position (x0, y0)’] associated with the block of coefficients.
Regarding claim 6, Choi meets the claim limitations as follows:
The computer-implemented method of claim 1, further comprising determining the threshold value based on a color plane [col. 53, ll. 25-30; col. 55: ‘inputting the color component cIdx and luma position (x0, y0)’] associated with the block of coefficients, wherein the color plane comprises a luma color plane or a chroma color plane.
Regarding claim 7, Choi meets the claim limitations as follows:
The computer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein the first portion of the first coefficient (i.e. ‘suffixVal’) [col. 50: Equation 8] includes base range values and low range values, and the second portion of the first coefficient (i.e. ‘prefixVal’) [col. 50: Equation 7] includes remaining high range values.
Regarding claim 9, Choi meets the claim limitations as follows:
The computer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein generating the coded version of the second portion of the first coefficient (i.e. bypass coding operations) [See rejection of claim 1 limitations “performing one or more bypass coding operations”] comprises: determining a unary prefix length [col. 50, ll. 25-30: ‘unary binarization for the prefixVal] associated with the second portion of the first coefficient; and encoding the second portion of the first coefficient [Fig. 10, 12; See rejection of claim 1 limitations “performing one or more bypass coding operations”] based on the unary prefix length to generate the coded version of the second portion of the first coefficient.
Choi does not disclose explicitly the following claim limitations (emphasis added):
determining a unary prefix length associated with the second portion of the first coefficient;
However in the same field of endeavor Marpe discloses the deficient claim as follows:
determining a unary prefix length associated with the second portion (i.e. ‘prefixVal’) [Fig. 4: truncated unary binarization is applied to primary suffix] of the first coefficient;
Choi and Marpe are combinable because they are from the same field of video compression.
It would have been obvious to one with ordinary skill in the art before the effective filling date of the claimed invention to combine teachings of Choi and Marpe as motivation to switch context-coding to bypass coding so as to reduce the significantly model costs [Marpe: para. 0047].
Regarding claim 10, Choi meets the claim limitations as follows:
The computer-implemented method of claim 1, further comprising generating the block of coefficients by [Fig. 2]: transforming [Fig. 2: ‘transformer 232’] a first block of pixel or sample values to generate one or more coefficients; and quantizing [Fig. 2: ‘quantizer 233’] the one or more coefficients to generate the first block of coefficients.
Regarding claim 11, all claim limitations are set forth as claim 1 in the form of “One or more non-transitory computer-readable media including instructions” [Choi: col. 75, ll. 30-40] and rejected as per discussion for claim 1.
Regarding claim 14, all claim limitations are set forth as claim 4 in the form of “One or more non-transitory computer-readable media including instructions” and rejected as per discussion for claim 4.
Regarding claim 17, all claim limitations are set forth as claim 9 in the form of “One or more non-transitory computer-readable media including instructions” and rejected as per discussion for claim 9.
Regarding claim 20, all claim limitations are set forth as claim 11 in the system form and rejected as per discussion for claim 11.
Claims 2-3 and 12-23 rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Choi in view of Marpe in further view of Choi_345 in further view of Cheon et al. (“Cheon”) [US 2011/0310973 A1]
Regarding claim 2, Choi meets the claim limitations as follows:
The computer-implemented method of claim 1, further comprising:
identifying a first region [Fig. 11: a 4x4 block; col. 6, ll. 15-30: ‘The unit may include at least one of a specific region of the picture’; ‘One unit may include one luma block and two chroma’] within the block of coefficients based on at least one attribute (e.g. luma or chroma) of the block of coefficients;
determining that the first coefficient resides in the first region based on a scan index (i.e. a scan order) [Fig. 11; col. 45, ll. 55-67: ‘in a scanning order within the transform block’; col. 63, ll. 1-7: ‘the last coefficient in a scan order’] associated with the first coefficient; and in response to determining that the first coefficient (i.e. ‘symbolVal’) [Fig. 11, 23: ‘S320’; col. 50: Equation 7 or 8] resides in the first region, generating the threshold value (i.e. ‘symbolVal’) [Fig. 23: ‘S320’; col. 50: Equation 7 or 8. See rejection of claim 1 limitation “a threshold value’].
Choi does not disclose explicitly the following claim limitations (emphasis added):
identifying a first region within the block of coefficients based on at least one attribute of the block of coefficients; determining that the first coefficient resides in the first region based on a scan index associated with the first coefficient; and in response to determining that the first coefficient resides in the first region, generating the threshold value.
However in the same field of endeavor Cheon discloses the deficient claim as follows:
identifying a first region within the block of coefficients based on at least one attribute (e.g., lowest frequency or highest frequency) of the block of coefficients [Fig. 8, 9, 29; para. 0336, 0341: ‘determine the coefficient block 2920’]; determining that the first coefficient resides in the first region based on a scan index [Fig. 8, 9, 29; para. 0336, 0341: ‘to be scanned by extracting only the vertical index Y’; ‘changing an order of scanning 8x8 transformation coefficients based on frequency characteristics of each frequency band’] associated with the first coefficient; and in response to determining that the first coefficient resides in the first region, generating the threshold value.
Choi, Marpe, Choi_345 and Cheon are combinable because they are from the same field of video compression.
It would have been obvious to one with ordinary skill in the art before the effective filling date of the claimed invention to combine teachings of Choi, Marpe and Cheon as motivation to include the selective frequency domain transform for effectively encoding/decoding the high resolution or high quality video content [Cheon: para. 0005-0010].
Regarding claim 3, Choi meets the claim limitations as follows:
The computer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein a scan index (i.e. a scan order) [Fig. 11; col. 45, ll. 55-67: ‘in a scanning order within the transform block’; col. 63, ll. 1-7: ‘the last coefficient in a scan order’] indicates whether the first coefficient resides in a low frequency region of the block of coefficients [Fig. 11: low-frequency region] or a default region of the block of coefficients [Fig. 11: a 4x4 block; col. 6, ll. 15-30: ‘The unit may include at least one of a specific region of the picture’; ‘One unit may include one luma block and two chroma’], and further comprising determining the threshold value (i.e. ‘symbolVal’) [Fig. 23: ‘S320’; col. 50: Equation 7 or 8. See rejection of claim 1 limitation “a threshold value’] based on the scan index.
Choi does not disclose explicitly the following claim limitations (emphasis added):
wherein a scan index indicates whether the first coefficient resides in a low frequency region of the block of coefficients or a default region of the block of coefficients, and further comprising determining the threshold value based on the scan index.
However in the same field of endeavor Cheon discloses the deficient claim as follows:
wherein a scan index [Fig. 8, 9, 29; para. 0336, 0341: ‘to be scanned by extracting only the vertical index Y’; ‘changing an order of scanning 8x8 transformation coefficients based on frequency characteristics of each frequency band’] indicates whether the first coefficient resides in a low frequency region (e.g., lowest frequency or highest frequency) [Fig. 8, 9, 29; para. 0336, 0341: ‘determine the coefficient block 2920’] of the block of coefficients or a default region of the block of coefficients, and further comprising determining the threshold value based on the scan index.
Choi, Marpe, Choi_345 and Cheon are combinable because they are from the same field of video compression.
It would have been obvious to one with ordinary skill in the art before the effective filling date of the claimed invention to combine teachings of Choi, Marpe and Cheon as motivation to include the selective frequency domain transform for effectively encoding/decoding the high resolution or high quality video content [Cheon: para. 0005-0010].
Regarding claim 12, all claim limitations are set forth as claim 2 in the form of “One or more non-transitory computer-readable media including instructions” and rejected as per discussion for claim 2.
Regarding claim 13, all claim limitations are set forth as claim 3 in the form of “One or more non-transitory computer-readable media including instructions” and rejected as per discussion for claim 3.
Claims 5, 15, 18 and 19 rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Choi in view of Marpe in further view of Choi_345 in further view of Zhang et al. (“Zhang”) [US 2017/0064336 A1]
Regarding claim 5, Choi meets the claim limitations set forth in claim 1.
Choi does not disclose explicitly the following claim limitations:
The computer-implemented method of claim 1, further comprising determining the threshold value based on a prediction mode used to generate the block of coefficients, wherein the prediction mode comprises either an intra prediction mode or an inter prediction mode.
However in the same field of endeavor Zhang discloses the deficient claim as follows:
further comprising determining the threshold value (i.e. ‘determining Rice parameters … if an intra prediction mode used’ [para. 0151, 0154] based on a prediction mode used to generate the block of coefficients, wherein the prediction mode comprises either an intra prediction mode or an inter prediction mode.
Choi, Marpe, Choi_345 and Zhang are combinable because they are from the same field of video compression.
It would have been obvious to one with ordinary skill in the art before the effective filling date of the claimed invention to combine teachings of Choi, Marpe and Zhang as motivation to determine a Rice parameter K for the syntax element [Zhang: para. 0006].
Regarding claim 15, all claim limitations are set forth as claim 3 in the form of “One or more non-transitory computer-readable media including instructions” and rejected as per discussion for claim 5.
Regarding claim 18, Choi meets the claim limitations as follows:
The one or more non-transitory computer-readable media of claim 11, wherein the one or more bypass coding operations comprise one or more truncated Rice coding operations (i.e. ‘TR’) [col. 49, ll. 55-60].
Choi does not disclose explicitly the following claim limitations (emphasis added):
wherein the one or more bypass coding operations comprise one or more truncated Rice coding operations.
However in the same field of endeavor Zhang discloses the deficient claim as follows:
wherein the one or more bypass coding operations (i.e. ‘The prefix is binarized with 0-th order truncated Rice (TR)’) [para. 0099] comprise one or more truncated Rice coding operations.
Choi, Marpe, Choi_345 and Zhang are combinable because they are from the same field of video compression.
It would have been obvious to one with ordinary skill in the art before the effective filling date of the claimed invention to combine teachings of Choi, Marpe and Zhang as motivation to determine a Rice parameter K for the syntax element [Zhang: para. 0006].
Regarding claim 19, Choi meets the claim limitations set forth in claim 11.
Choi does not disclose explicitly the following claim limitations:
The one or more non-transitory computer-readable media of claim 11, wherein the one or more bypass coding operations comprise one or more Golomb-Rice coding operations or one or more Exponential-Golomb coding operations.
However in the same field of endeavor Zhang discloses the deficient claim as follows:
wherein the one or more bypass coding operations comprise one or more Golomb-Rice coding operations or one or more Exponential-Golomb coding operations [para. 0119: ‘Otherwise, a prefix (with three ‘1’s) and a suffix using a K-th order Exp-Golomb code is used for bypass coding’] comprise one or more truncated Rice coding operations.
Choi, Marpe, Choi_345 and Zhang are combinable because they are from the same field of video compression.
It would have been obvious to one with ordinary skill in the art before the effective filling date of the claimed invention to combine teachings of Choi, Marpe and Zhang as motivation to determine a Rice parameter K for the syntax element [Zhang: para. 0006].
Claims 8 and 16 rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Choi in view of Marpe in further view of Choi_345 in further view of Karczewicz et al. (“Karczewicz”) [US 2020/0077117 A1]
Regarding claim 8, Choi meets the claim limitations set forth in claim 11.
Choi does not disclose explicitly the following claim limitations:
The one or more non-transitory computer-readable media of claim 11, wherein the coded version of the second portion of the first coefficient is generated by: generating a first coding parameter for the second portion of the first coefficient based on a second coefficient included in the block of coefficients; selecting a first bypass coder from a plurality of bypass coders based on the first coding parameter; and executing the first bypass coder on the second portion of the first coefficient using the first coding parameter to generate the coded version of the second portion of the first coefficient.
However in the same field of endeavor Karczewicz discloses the deficient claim as follows:
wherein the coded version of the second portion of the first coefficient is generated by (i.e. bypass coding operations) [See rejection of claim 1 limitations “performing one or more bypass coding operations”]:
generating a first coding parameter (e.g., [b0 b1]) for the second portion of the first coefficient [Fig. 6: ‘bypass coded Golomb-Rice code; para. 0125, 0145-0149] based on a second coefficient [Fig. 6: ‘the Exponential-Golomb code; para.0014, 0125, 0145-0149] included in the block of coefficients; selecting a first bypass coder from a plurality of bypass coders based on the first coding parameter; and executing the first bypass coder on the second portion of the first coefficient using the first coding parameter to generate the coded version of the second portion of the first coefficient [Fig. 6: ‘the Exponential-Golomb code; para. 0014, 0125, 0145-0149].
Choi, Marpe, Choi_345 and Karczewicz are combinable because they are from the same field of video compression.
It would have been obvious to one with ordinary skill in the art before the effective filling date of the claimed invention to combine teachings of Choi, Marpe and Karczewicz as motivation to derive the threshold to switch between bypass coded Golomb-Rice code and the Exponential-Golomb code for effectively encoding/decoding the high resolution or high quality video content [Karczewicz: para. 0010-0014].
Regarding claim 16, all claim limitations are set forth as claim 8 in the form of “One or more non-transitory computer-readable media including instructions” and rejected as per discussion for claim 8.
Conclusion
The prior art made of record and not relied upon is considered pertinent to applicant's disclosure. See form 892.
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/PETER D LE/
Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2488
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