DETAILED ACTION
This Office Action is in response to the application filed on 01/17/2025, wherein claims 1-20 have been examined and are pending.
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 .
Information Disclosure Statement
The information disclosure statement (IDS) submitted on 04/14/2025. The submission is in compliance with the provisions of 37 CFR 1.97. Accordingly, the information disclosure statement is being considered by the examiner.
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, 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 AIA 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.
Claims 1, 5, 7 and 13 are rejected under AIA 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable Iguchi et al. (U.S. 2021/0409769) hereinafter Iguchi, in view of Ichigaya et al. (U.S. 2021/0014481) hereinafter Ichigaya.
Regarding claims 1 and 18, Iguchi discloses a method, and a non-transitory computer-readable medium comprising instructions stored thereon for encoding sparse volumetric information, which instructions, when executed on a processor, perform the steps of:
by a control circuit: dividing a volumetric dataset into a plurality of volumetric blocks (Iguchi Fig. 1, [0215], [0554]: a three-dimensional space is divided into spaces (SPCs), each SPC is further divided into volumes (VMLs) which correspond to macroblocks. Hence, dividing a volumetric data into volumetric blocks);
applying a spatial-frequency transform to each of the volumetric blocks to obtain transform-domain coefficients (Iguchi Fig. 37, [0553]: encoding three-dimensional data to generate encoded bitstream using divider 1301, transformer 1303, quantizer 1304; [0562]-[0564]: transformer 1303 applies frequency transforming to information of the volume);
quantizing the transform-domain coefficients according to one or more quantization parameters to provide quantized coefficients (Iguchi Fig. 37, [0567]: quantizer 1304 generates quantized coefficient by performing quantization on frequency component of the data generated by the transformer 1303);
composing a collection of symbols for each volumetric block, the collection of symbols including at least a block header and a sparse representation of non-zero coefficients (Iguchi [0595]: encoder binarizes the quantized coefficients and encodes the coefficients which include non-zero coefficients; [0858]: encodes the non-zero coefficient after binarizing the coefficient and generate various kinds of header information, hence sparse representation of non-zero coefficients; [0561]: header information of the volume is used, hence block header can be used);
entropy encoding at least some of the symbols to generate a compressed bitstream; and storing the compressed bitstream in memory (Iguchi Fig. 37, [0553]: encoding three-dimensional data to generate encoded bitstream).
Iguchi does not explicitly disclose reordering the quantized coefficients based on a scanning order determined to reduce coefficient differences.
However, Ichigaya disclose reordering the quantized coefficients based on a scanning order determined to reduce coefficient differences (Ichigaya [0212]: a degree of importance in encoding of transform coefficients becomes lower for transform coefficients between which the absolute value is smaller because a smaller absolute value between the coefficients indicates a higher degree of similarity; [0221], [0223]-[0225]: order the transform coefficient from the quantizer, i.e. quantized transform coefficients, in scanning order then output the coefficients for encode. Rearrange the coefficients in the coefficient sequence in descending order of the degree of importance or ascending order of degree of similarity between the coefficients. Hence, reorder the quantized coefficients based on scanning order to reduce coefficient differences).
It would have been obvious to a person of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to use the system and method, as disclosed by Iguchi, and further incorporate reordering the quantized coefficients based on a scanning order determined to reduce coefficient differences, as taught by Ichigaya, to shorten length of the transform coefficients sequence to be encoded and improve coding efficiency (Ichigaya [0225], [0010]).
Regarding claim 13, Iguchi discloses a method for decoding sparse volumetric frames from a compressed bitstream, comprising: by a control circuit:
entropy decoding symbols for each of a plurality of volumetric blocks to provide decoded coefficients (Iguchi [0275], [0278], [0367], [0634]: decode encoded data; [0550], [0552]: encoding and decoding method; [0215], [0554]: a three-dimensional space is divided into spaces (SPCs), each SPC is further divided into volumes (VMLs) which correspond to macroblocks);
dequantizing the inverse reordered decoded coefficients to restore approximate transform-domain values (Iguchi [0596], [0598]: inverse quantizer 1402 generates inverse quantized coefficients);
applying an inverse spatial-frequency transform to generate reconstructed volumetric blocks (Iguchi [0596], [0599]: inverse transformer 1402 performs inverse transformation); and
performing a post-processing step to finalize voxel values of the reconstructed volumetric blocks (Iguchi [0596], [0600]-[0602]: generate predicted volume through prediction).
Iguchi does not explicitly disclose reordering the quantized coefficients based on a scanning order determined to reduce coefficient differences.
However, Ichigaya disclose inverse reordering of the decoded coefficients based on a predetermined scanning order to provide inverse reordered decoded coefficients (Ichigaya [0212]: a degree of importance in encoding of transform coefficients becomes lower for transform coefficients between which the absolute value is smaller because a smaller absolute value between the coefficients indicates a higher degree of similarity; [0221], [0223]-[0225]: the serializer 103b performs serialization to order the transform coefficient from the quantizer, i.e. quantized transform coefficients, in scanning order then output the coefficients for encode. Rearrange the coefficients in the coefficient sequence in descending order of the degree of importance or ascending order of degree of similarity between the coefficients. Hence, reorder the quantized coefficients based on scanning order to reduce coefficient differences; Fig. 20, [0227]-[0230]: deserialize 200c deserializes the transform coefficient sequence input from the decoder).
It would have been obvious to a person of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to use the system and method, as disclosed by Iguchi, and further incorporate inverse reordering of the decoded coefficients based on a predetermined scanning order to provide inverse reordered decoded coefficients, as taught by Ichigaya, to shorten length of the transform coefficients sequence to be encoded and improve coding efficiency (Ichigaya [0225], [0010]).
Regarding claim 5, Iguchi and Ichigaya disclose all the limitations of claim 1.
Iguchi does not explicitly disclose wherein reordering the quantized coefficients comprises sorting according to coefficient magnitude or by utilizing a space-filling curve to place coefficients with smaller differences adjacent to each other.
However, Ichigaya discloses wherein reordering the quantized coefficients comprises sorting according to coefficient magnitude or by utilizing a space-filling curve to place coefficients with smaller differences adjacent to each other (Ichigaya [0212]: a degree of importance in encoding of transform coefficients becomes lower for transform coefficients between which the absolute value is smaller because a smaller absolute value between the coefficients indicates a higher degree of similarity; [0221], [0223]-[0225]: order the transform coefficient from the quantizer, i.e. quantized transform coefficients, in scanning order then output the coefficients for encode. Rearrange the coefficients in the coefficient sequence in descending order of the degree of importance or ascending order of degree of similarity between the coefficients. Hence, reorder the quantized coefficients by sorting according to coefficient magnitude).
It would have been obvious to a person of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to use the system and method, as disclosed by Iguchi, and further incorporate reordering the quantized coefficients comprises sorting according to coefficient magnitude or by utilizing a space-filling curve to place coefficients with smaller differences adjacent to each other, as taught by Ichigaya, to shorten length of the transform coefficients sequence to be encoded and improve coding efficiency (Ichigaya [0225], [0010]).
Regarding claim 7, Iguchi and Ichigaya disclose all the limitations of claim 1.
Iguchi does not explicitly disclose wherein reordering the quantized coefficients comprises determining a scanning order by sorting the quantized coefficients according to an average value of each coefficient across a volumetric frame.
However, Ichigaya discloses wherein reordering the quantized coefficients comprises determining a scanning order by sorting the quantized coefficients according to an average value of each coefficient across a frame (Ichigaya [0212]: a degree of importance in encoding of transform coefficients becomes lower for transform coefficients between which the absolute value is smaller because a smaller absolute value between the coefficients indicates a higher degree of similarity; [0221], [0223]-[0225]: order the transform coefficient from the quantizer, i.e. quantized transform coefficients, in scanning order then output the coefficients for encode. Rearrange the coefficients in the coefficient sequence in descending order of the degree of importance or ascending order of degree of similarity between the coefficients. Hence, reorder the quantized coefficients by sorting according to coefficient magnitude; [0267]: rearrange the read out order by calculating average of degrees of similarity between transform coefficients of blocks and comparing the degree of similarity of blocks of frame).
It would have been obvious to a person of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to use the system and method, as disclosed by Iguchi, and further incorporate having reordering the quantized coefficients comprise determining a scanning order by sorting the quantized coefficients according to an average value of each coefficient across a volumetric frame, as taught by Ichigaya, to shorten length of the transform coefficients sequence to be encoded and improve coding efficiency (Ichigaya [0225], [0010]).
Claims 4 and 19 are rejected under AIA 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable Iguchi et al. (U.S. 2021/0409769) hereinafter Iguchi, in view of Ichigaya et al. (U.S. 2021/0014481) hereinafter Ichigaya, further in view of Li et al. (U.S. 6,625,321) hereinafter Li, further in view of Guillotel et al. (U.S. 5,604,602) hereinafter Guillotel.
Regarding claims 4 and 19, Iguchi and Ichigaya disclose all the limitations of claims 1 and 18, respectively.
Iguchi discloses wherein quantizing the transform-domain coefficients comprises: applying a quantization function to emphasize smaller coefficients and to provide normalized transform-domain coefficients; and converting the normalized transform-domain coefficients into integer values (Iguchi [0663]: quantization into integer value which emphasize smaller coefficients).
Iguchi does not explicitly disclose wherein quantizing the transform-domain coefficients comprises: normalizing the transform-domain coefficients by dividing by a block-specific maximum coefficient magnitude; applying a nonlinear quantization function to emphasize smaller coefficients and to provide normalized transform-domain coefficients; and converting the normalized transform-domain coefficients into integer values.
However, Li discloses quantizing the transform-domain coefficients comprises: normalizing the transform-domain coefficients by dividing by a block-specific maximum coefficient magnitude; applying a quantization function to emphasize smaller coefficients and to provide normalized transform-domain coefficients; and converting the normalized transform-domain coefficients into integer values (Li Col. 4, lines 35-65: the transform coefficients are normalized through the division of the maximum absolute value of the transform coefficients. The normalized transform coefficients are denoted as
w
i
and represented in the bitstream wherein it is between -1 and +1, hence integer value; Col. 6, lines 25-30, Col. 8, lines 10-35, Col. 9, lines 40-47: quantization).
It would have been obvious to a person of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to use the system and method, as disclosed by Iguchi and Ichigaya, and further incorporate quantizing the transform-domain coefficients comprises: normalizing the transform-domain coefficients by dividing by a block-specific maximum coefficient magnitude, as taught by Li, to improve coding efficiency (Li Col. 2, line 37).
Iguchi does not explicitly disclose applying a nonlinear quantization function.
Guillotel discloses nonlinear quantization function (Guillotel Col. 8, lines 56-67, Col. 9, lines 1-5: non-linear quantizer can be used. Input signals to the quantizer can be normalized.)
It would have been obvious to a person of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to use the system and method, as disclosed by Iguchi and Ichigaya and Li, and further incorporate applying a nonlinear quantization function, as taught by Guillotel, to improve reconstruction quality (Guillotel Col. 1, lines 63-67).
Claims 8, 14 and 20 are rejected under AIA 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable Iguchi et al. (U.S. 2021/0409769) hereinafter Iguchi, in view of Ichigaya et al. (U.S. 2021/0014481) hereinafter Ichigaya, further in view of Li et al. (U.S. 6,625,321) hereinafter Li.
Regarding claims 8 and 20, Iguchi and Ichigaya disclose all the limitations of claims 1 and 18, respectively.
Iguchi does not explicitly disclose normalizing the transform-domain coefficients for each volumetric block to a range of -1 to 1 based on a block-specific maximum absolute coefficient value; and storing a corresponding normalization parameter for each volumetric block in the compressed bitstream such that an original coefficient range can be reconstructed at decoding.
However, Li discloses normalizing the transform-domain coefficients for each volumetric block to a range of -1 to 1 based on a block-specific maximum absolute coefficient value; and storing a corresponding normalization parameter for each volumetric block in the compressed bitstream such that an original coefficient range can be reconstructed at decoding (Li Col. 4, lines 35-65: the transform coefficients are normalized through the division of the maximum absolute value of the transform coefficients. The normalized transform coefficients are denoted as
w
i
and represented in the bitstream wherein it is between -1 and +1).
It would have been obvious to a person of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to use the system and method, as disclosed by Iguchi and Ichigaya, and further incorporate normalizing the transform-domain coefficients for each volumetric block to a range of -1 to 1 based on a block-specific maximum absolute coefficient value; and storing a corresponding normalization parameter for each volumetric block in the compressed bitstream such that an original coefficient range can be reconstructed at decoding, as taught by Li, to improve coding efficiency (Li Col. 2, line 37).
Regarding claim 14, Iguchi and Ichigaya disclose all the limitations of claim 13.
Iguchi does not explicitly disclose wherein dequantizing the inverse reordered decoded coefficients includes retrieving a normalization parameter for each volumetric block from the compressed bitstream and multiplying each inverse reordered decoded coefficient by a corresponding normalization parameter to restore the inverse reordered decoded coefficients to at least approximately their original amplitude range.
However, Li discloses retrieving a normalization parameter for each volumetric block from the compressed bitstream and multiplying each decoded coefficient by a corresponding normalization parameter to restore the decoded coefficients to at least approximately their original amplitude range (Li Col. 4, lines 35-65: the transform coefficients are normalized through the division of the maximum absolute value of the transform coefficients, i.e. normalization parameter. The normalized transform coefficients are denoted as
w
i
and represented in the bitstream wherein it is between -1 and +1. Hence, to generate the original coefficient, the normalization parameter is multiplied to the decoded coefficient).
It would have been obvious to a person of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to use the system and method, as disclosed by Iguchi and Ichigaya, and further incorporate retrieving a normalization parameter for each volumetric block from the compressed bitstream and multiplying each inverse reordered decoded coefficient by a corresponding normalization parameter to restore the inverse reordered decoded coefficients to at least approximately their original amplitude range, as taught by Li, to improve coding efficiency (Li Col. 2, line 37).
Claims 10 and 16 are rejected under AIA 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable Iguchi et al. (U.S. 2021/0409769) hereinafter Iguchi, in view of Ichigaya et al. (U.S. 2021/0014481) hereinafter Ichigaya, further in view of Pettersson et al. (U.S. 2021/0058633) hereinafter Pettersson.
Regarding claim 10, Iguchi and Ichigaya disclose all the limitations of claim 1.
Iguchi does not explicitly disclose storing a bit offset for each volumetric block's portion of the compressed bitstream, thereby enabling parallel entropy encoding and decoding of multiple blocks on a graphics processing unit or other parallel-processing hardware.
Pettersson disclose storing a bit offset for each volumetric block's portion of the compressed bitstream, thereby enabling parallel entropy encoding and decoding of multiple blocks on a graphics processing unit or other parallel-processing hardware (Pettersson [0055]-[0056], [0062], [0079], [0159]: the header comprises signaling of a bit-stream offsets which indicate the starting point of tiles in the picture used to splitting the coded picture into coded tiles to distribute them for parallel decoding, hence bit offset for tiles or block can be used).
It would have been obvious to a person of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to use the system and method, as disclosed by Iguchi and Ichigaya, and further incorporate storing a bit offset for each volumetric block's portion of the compressed bitstream, thereby enabling parallel entropy encoding and decoding of multiple blocks on a graphics processing unit or other parallel-processing hardware, as taught by Pettersson, to improve latency (Pettersson [0084]).
Regarding claim 16, Iguchi and Ichigaya disclose all the limitations of claim 13.
Iguchi does not explicitly disclose using a per-block offset for parallel entropy decoding of multiple volumetric blocks on a graphics processing unit or other parallel-processing hardware.
Pettersson disclose using a per-block offset for parallel entropy decoding of multiple volumetric blocks on a graphics processing unit or other parallel-processing hardware (Pettersson [0055]-[0056], [0062], [0079], [0159]: the header comprises signaling of a bit-stream offsets which indicate the starting point of tiles in the picture used to splitting the coded picture into coded tiles to distribute them for parallel decoding, hence bit offset for tiles or block can be used).
It would have been obvious to a person of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to use the system and method, as disclosed by Iguchi and Ichigaya, and further incorporate using a per-block offset for parallel entropy decoding of multiple volumetric blocks on a graphics processing unit or other parallel-processing hardware, as taught by Pettersson, to improve latency (Pettersson [0084]).
Claims 6, 11 and 17 are rejected under AIA 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable Iguchi et al. (U.S. 2021/0409769) hereinafter Iguchi, in view of Ichigaya et al. (U.S. 2021/0014481) hereinafter Ichigaya, further in view of Coban et al. (U.S. 2012/0099646) hereinafter Coban.
Regarding claim 6, Iguchi and Ichigaya disclose all the limitations of claim 1.
Iguchi does not explicitly disclose wherein the entropy encoding comprises: encoding non-zero coefficients using a zero-run scheme for intervening zero-valued coefficients; and applying Huffman coding to resulting symbols, wherein multiple Huffman trees are used, each corresponding to a different symbol type.
Ichigaya discloses applying Huffman coding to resulting symbols, wherein multiple Huffman trees are used, each corresponding to a different symbol type (Ichigaya [0050], [0172]: Huffman codes can be used).
It would have been obvious to a person of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to use the system and method, as disclosed by Iguchi, and further incorporate applying Huffman coding to resulting symbols, wherein multiple Huffman trees are used, each corresponding to a different symbol type, as taught by Ichigaya, to shorten length of the transform coefficients sequence to be encoded and improve coding efficiency (Ichigaya [0225], [0010]).
Coban discloses encoding non-zero coefficients using a zero-run scheme for intervening zero-valued coefficients (Coban [0007], [0037], [0043]: identifying and signaling a scan order of the transform coefficients using one-dimensional array; [0047]: packing non-zero transform coefficients toward the front of a serialized array of transform coefficients and create long runs of zero-valued transform coefficients near the end of the array as in [0164]; [0090]: generate and signal scan order for last significant coefficient that is greater than a predetermined threshold position; [0092]: set values for coefficients a position N through the end of the array equal to zero).
It would have been obvious to a person of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to use the system and method, as disclosed by Iguchi and Ichigaya, and further incorporate encoding non-zero coefficients using a zero-run scheme for intervening zero-valued coefficients, as taught by Coban, to increase coding efficiency (Coban [0047]).
Regarding claim 11, Iguchi and Ichigaya disclose all the limitations of claim 1.
Iguchi does not explicitly disclose encoding spatial-frequency coefficients by: encoding a predefined number N of largest coefficients of spatial-frequency components as a dense array for each volumetric block; and encoding remaining one of the spatial-frequency coefficients using a sparse representation that incorporates zero-run coding.
However, Coban discloses encoding spatial-frequency coefficients by: encoding a predefined number N of largest coefficients of spatial-frequency components as a dense array for each volumetric block; and encoding remaining one of the spatial-frequency coefficients using a sparse representation that incorporates zero-run coding (Coban [0007], [0037], [0043]: identifying and signaling a scan order of the transform coefficients using one-dimensional array; [0047]: packing non-zero transform coefficients toward the front of a serialized array of transform coefficients and create long runs of zero-valued transform coefficients near the end of the array as in [0164]; [0090]: generate and signal scan order for last significant coefficient that is greater than a predetermined threshold position; [0092]: set values for coefficients a position N through the end of the array equal to zero).
It would have been obvious to a person of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to use the system and method, as disclosed by Iguchi and Ichigaya, and further incorporate encoding spatial-frequency coefficients by: encoding a predefined number N of largest coefficients of spatial-frequency components as a dense array for each volumetric block; and encoding remaining one of the spatial-frequency coefficients using a sparse representation that incorporates zero-run coding, as taught by Coban, to increase coding efficiency (Coban [0047]).
Regarding claim 17, Iguchi and Ichigaya disclose all the limitations of claim 13.
Iguchi does not explicitly disclose decoding spatial-frequency coefficients by: decoding a predefined number N of coefficients as a dense array for each volumetric block; and decoding remaining coefficients using a sparse representation that incorporates zero-run coding.
However, Coban discloses decoding spatial-frequency coefficients by: decoding a predefined number N of coefficients as a dense array for each volumetric block; and decoding remaining coefficients using a sparse representation that incorporates zero-run coding (Coban [0007], [0037], [0043]: identifying and signaling a scan order of the transform coefficients using one-dimensional array; [0047]: packing non-zero transform coefficients toward the front of a serialized array of transform coefficients and create long runs of zero-valued transform coefficients near the end of the array as in [0164]; [0090]: generate and signal scan order for last significant coefficient that is greater than a predetermined threshold position; [0092]: set values for coefficients a position N through the end of the array equal to zero).
It would have been obvious to a person of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to use the system and method, as disclosed by Iguchi and Ichigaya, and further incorporate decoding spatial-frequency coefficients by: decoding a predefined number N of coefficients as a dense array for each volumetric block; and decoding remaining coefficients using a sparse representation that incorporates zero-run coding, as taught by Coban, to increase coding efficiency (Coban [0047]).
Claim 12 is rejected under AIA 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable Iguchi et al. (U.S. 2021/0409769) hereinafter Iguchi, in view of Ichigaya et al. (U.S. 2021/0014481) hereinafter Ichigaya, in view of Hamza (U.S. 2022/0353520), in view of Li et al. (U.S. 6,625,321) hereinafter Li, further in view of Coban et al. (U.S. 2012/0099646) hereinafter Coban.
Regarding claim 12, Iguchi and Ichigaya disclose all the limitations of claim 1.
Iguchi discloses decoding wherein storing the compressed bitstream in memory comprises storing an encoded bitstream of a plurality of volumetric blocks (Iguchi [0259], [0302]), each of the volumetric blocks being represented by: block properties, including at least a position within a volumetric coordinate space (Iguchi [0224], [0249], [0360]: spatial position is used; [0636]: geometry information includes coordinates with respect to a certain point; [0215], [0259], [0311]: the volume includes a plurality of voxels, each being a unit in which position coordinate are associated).
Iguchi does not explicitly disclose a count of attributes.
However, Hamza discloses a count of attributes (Hamza [0219]: syntax element of attribute information includes attribute count indication and attribute index).
It would have been obvious to a person of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to use the system and method, as disclosed by Iguchi and Ichigaya, and further incorporate having a count of attributes, as taught by Hamza, to efficiently store and transmit data (Hamza [0129]).
Iguchi does not explicitly disclose a normalization scale indicating a coefficient range for each of the volumetric blocks.
However, Li discloses a normalization scale indicating a coefficient range for each of the volumetric blocks (Li Col. 4, lines 35-65: the transform coefficients are normalized through the division of the maximum absolute value of the transform coefficients, hence scale. The normalized transform coefficients are denoted as
w
i
and represented in the bitstream wherein it is between -1 and +1).
It would have been obvious to a person of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to use the system and method, as disclosed by Iguchi and Ichigaya and Hamza, and further incorporate normalizing the transform-domain coefficients for each volumetric block to a range of -1 to 1 based on a block-specific maximum absolute coefficient value; and storing a corresponding normalization parameter for each volumetric block in the compressed bitstream such that an original coefficient range can be reconstructed at decoding, as taught by Li, to improve coding efficiency (Li Col. 2, line 37).
Iguchi does not explicitly disclose a number of dense coefficients; a sequence of dense coefficients; and a sequence of coefficients encoded in a sparse format using zero-run encoding.
However, Coban discloses a number of dense coefficients; a sequence of dense coefficients; and a sequence of coefficients encoded in a sparse format using zero-run encoding (Coban [0007], [0037], [0043]: identifying and signaling a scan order of the transform coefficients using one-dimensional array; [0047]: packing non-zero transform coefficients toward the front of a serialized array of transform coefficients and create long runs of zero-valued transform coefficients near the end of the array as in [0164]; [0090]: generate and signal scan order for last significant coefficient that is greater than a predetermined threshold position; [0092]: set values for coefficients a position N through the end of the array equal to zero).
It would have been obvious to a person of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to use the system and method, as disclosed by Iguchi and Ichigaya and Hamza and Li, and further incorporate having a number of dense coefficients; a sequence of dense coefficients; and a sequence of coefficients encoded in a sparse format using zero-run encoding, as taught by Coban, to increase coding efficiency (Coban [0047]).
Allowable Subject Matter
Claims 2-3, 9 and 15 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:
Regarding claim 2, the prior arts of record individually or in combination fail to discloses within the context of the claim the feature of for unsigned volumetric datasets, introducing a negative offset to voxel values having a density attribute below a user-specified threshold, the negative offset being a product of a zeroOffset parameter and a maximum voxel value within each volumetric block as cited in claim 2.
Regarding claim 3, the prior arts of record individually or in combination fail to discloses within the context of the claim the feature of quantizing the transform-domain coefficients includes omitting coefficients below a threshold defined by a power-law function of an absolute frequency of a corresponding voxel and a user-specified exponent as cited in claim 3.
Regarding claim 9, the prior arts of record individually or in combination fail to discloses within the context of the claim the feature of for volumetric dataset is unsigned, and further comprising: transforming voxel attribute values by applying a nonlinear function pow(attr[i],a[i]) prior to applying the spatial-frequency transform as cited in claim 9.
Regarding claim 15, the prior arts of record individually or in combination fail to discloses within the context of the claim the feature of applying an inverse of a previously utilized nonlinear function to each voxel's attribute value after dequantizing, wherein the inverse spatial-frequency transform is at least pow(attr[i], -a[i]) to recover approximate original attribute values as cited in claim 15.
Conclusion
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to KATHLEEN V NGUYEN whose telephone number is (571)270-0626. The examiner can normally be reached on M-F 9:00am-6:00pm.
If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner’s supervisor, Jamie Atala can be reached on 571-272-7384. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300.
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/KATHLEEN V NGUYEN/Primary examiner, Art Unit 2486
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