DETAILED ACTION
1. This office action is in response to U.S. Patent Application No.: 19/104,289 filed on 2/17/2025
with effective filing date 8/19/2022. Claims 1-10 are pending.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 103
2. 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.
3. 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.
4. Claim(s) 1-8 & 10 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Sun et al. US 2019/0082193 A1 (IDS) in view of Nam et al. US 2018/0316922 A1.
Per claims 1 & 10, Sun et al. disclose a video coding method comprising: receiving data to be encoded or decoded as a current picture of a video (para: 27, e.g. a current block in a current picture may have a motion vector that indicates a location in a reference picture that is outside a picture boundary of the reference picture); generating out-of-bound (OOB) padding samples of the current picture by using a motion information of a boundary block of the current picture to fetch samples of a first reference block in a first reference picture (para: 85, e.g. The motion vector of the current block of the current picture may specify a position 504 outside a padding boundary 506 of reference frame 500; the video coder may identify a boundary block 508 located within padding boundary 506 of reference frame 500. Assuming boundary block 508 has a motion vector 510, the video coder may use motion vector 510 to identify a position 512 in reference frame 502); applying the offset value to the padding samples (para: 95, e.g. the video coder may derive a padding value for P.sub.i as P.sub.i=+β); and deriving a candidate reference picture based on the current picture and the padding samples for encoding or decoding a subsequent picture in the video (para: 95-96, e.g. β may be the difference between the average pixel value of boundary block 606 and an average pixel value of reference boundary block 608. In another example, β is the difference between a maximum (or minimum) pixel value of boundary block 606 and a maximum (or minimum) pixel value of reference boundary block 608).
Sun et al. fails to explicitly disclose computing an offset value based on a first DC value of the boundary block and a second DC value of the first reference block, wherein the first and second DC values are calculated based on reconstructed samples without in-loop filtering.
Nam et al. however in the same field of endeavor teaches computing an offset value based on a first DC value of the boundary block and a second DC value of the first reference block, wherein the first and second DC values are calculated based on reconstructed samples without in-loop filtering (para: 15-16, & 63, e.g. the method includes obtaining information on a first Sample Adaptive Offset (SAO) and information on a second SAO of a current block through a bitstream, generating a reconstructed block of the current block, and performing an SAO procedure for the reconstructed block based on the first SAO and the second SAO; the filter 145 applies a deblocking filter, an ALF Adaptive Loop Filter, an SAO Sample Adaptive Offset to the reconstructed picture).
Therefore, in view of disclosures by Nam et al., it would have been obvious to a person of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention was made to combine Sun et al. and Nam et al. in order to enables performing SAO procedure obtaining process based on multiple SAOs about the reconstruction block in an effective manner, so that video quality of the image can be improved.
Per claim 2, Sun et al. further teaches the video coding method of claim 1, wherein OOB padding samples in a corner region outside the current picture are generated based on a boundary block at the corner of the current picture (para: 80, e.g. pixel values outside the frame boundary are inferred as the nearest pixel values inside the boundary as shown in FIG. 4A).
Per claim 3, Sun et al. further teaches the video coding method of claim 2, wherein the first reference block provides samples that span both sides of the boundary of the current picture (para: 81, e.g. a current frame 400 (i.e., frame N) includes a current block 402. Current block 402 has a motion vector 404 that indicates a location of a reference block 406 partially outside a boundary (i.e., a frame boundary) of a reference frame 408. In FIG. 4A, each circle in reference block 406 represents a pixel with pixel value N, where N in this context is not related to N as used in the picture numbers of FIG. 4A and FIG. 4B)
Per claim 4, Sun et al. further teaches the video coding method of claim 1, wherein using the motion information of the boundary block to generate the OOB padding samples comprises updating the motion information based on a position of the OOB padding samples relative to the boundary of the current picture (para: 83, e.g. the padding boundary can be a frame boundary, slice boundary, tile boundary, or another type of boundary across which a video coder is unable to use actual values of samples for coding samples within the boundary).
Per claim 5, Sun et al. further teaches the video coding method of claim 1, wherein a block in the subsequent picture of the video is coded by motion compensation using the OOB padding samples (para: 84, e.g. an inter-coded current block of a current frame (not shown in FIG. 5) may have a motion vector that points to a location outside a padding boundary of a reference frame 500).
Per claim 6, Sun et al. further teaches the video coding method of claim 1, wherein the boundary block is coded by bi- prediction based on first and second motion vectors, the first motion vector referencing the first reference block and the second motion vector referencing a second reference block in a second reference picture (para: 91-92).
Per claim 7, Sun et al. further teaches the video coding method of claim 6, further comprising selecting one of the first and second reference blocks based on whether the first or second reference blocks are OOB (para: 83).
Per claim 8, Sun et al. further teaches the video coding method of claim 7, further comprising: when the first and second reference blocks are not OOB, selecting one of the first and second reference blocks based on which of the first and second reference blocks has a smaller quantization parameter (QP) (para: 96, e.g. the parameters α and/or β may change from pixel to pixel. For instance, in some examples, α and/or β may depend on the relative coordinators of P.sub.i).
Allowable Subject Matter
5. Claim 9 is 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.
Conclusion
6. The prior art made of record and not relied upon is considered pertinent to applicant's disclosure.
Zhang et al. US 11,589,042 B2, e.g. a method of video processing includes determining, for a conversion between a block that is in a video picture of a video and a bitstream representation of the video, a manner of padding a first set of samples located across boundaries of multiple video regions of the video picture for a current sample in an adaptive loop filter process. The method also includes performing the conversion according to the determining.
Karczwicz et al. US 2010/011182 A1, e.g. this disclosure describes techniques for encoding digital video data using interpolation filters and offsets. An encoder may be configured to select interpolation filters for sub-pixel precision motion estimation based on historical interpolation results obtained for previously encoded video units, such as frames or slices. The encoder also may be configured to compute and assign offsets to the sub-pixel positions after interpolation based on differences between a reference unit and the unit to be coded.
7. Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to IRFAN HABIB whose telephone number is (571)270-7325. The examiner can normally be reached Mon-Th 9AM-7PM.
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/Irfan Habib/Examiner, Art Unit 2485
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