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 .
Drawings
Specification indicates: “Traditional systems and methods for predictive video coding are described next in reference to FIGS. 1-4, followed by description of aspects of the present disclosure, described in reference to FIGS. 5-17.” See Specification, Paragraph 24.
Figures 1-4 should be designated by a legend such as --Prior Art-- because only that which is old is illustrated. See MPEP § 608.02(g). Corrected drawings in compliance with 37 CFR 1.121(d) are required in reply to the Office action to avoid abandonment of the application. The replacement sheet(s) should be labeled “Replacement Sheet” in the page header (as per 37 CFR 1.84(c)) so as not to obstruct any portion of the drawing figures. If the changes are not accepted by the examiner, the applicant will be notified and informed of any required corrective action in the next Office action. The objection to the drawings will not be held in abeyance.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 112
The following is a quotation of 35 U.S.C. 112(b):
(b) CONCLUSION.—The specification shall conclude with one or more claims particularly pointing out and distinctly claiming the subject matter which the inventor or a joint inventor regards as the invention.
The following is a quotation of 35 U.S.C. 112 (pre-AIA ), second paragraph:
The specification shall conclude with one or more claims particularly pointing out and distinctly claiming the subject matter which the applicant regards as his invention.
Claim 22 recites the limitation " An apparatus for decoding video data, comprising: at least one processor; and memory storing instructions that, when executed by the at least one processor, cause the system to …" There is insufficient antecedent basis for “the system” in the claim.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 102
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 following is a quotation of the appropriate paragraphs of 35 U.S.C. 102 that form the basis for the rejections under this section made in this Office action:
A person shall be entitled to a patent unless –
(a)(1) the claimed invention was patented, described in a printed publication, or in public use, on sale, or otherwise available to the public before the effective filing date of the claimed invention.
(a)(2) the claimed invention was described in a patent issued under section 151, or in an application for patent published or deemed published under section 122(b), in which the patent or application, as the case may be, names another inventor and was effectively filed before the effective filing date of the claimed invention.
Claims 1, 14, 19, 22 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a) as being anticipated by US 12192494 to Yang (“Yang”).
Regarding Claim 1: “A method for encoding video data, comprising:
coding, into a bitstream, a video block of the video data, the coding comprises: (“FIG. 6 is a schematic diagram of an encoding procedure according to one embodiment. As shown in FIG. 6, the following content is mainly included. 601. Input an image, divide the image into image blocks,” Yang, Column 18, lines 39-43 and Fig. 6.)
down-sampling a transform block, and (As noted in the original claims 1 and 7, “transform block contains residual samples” before transforming is applied. Prior art teaches this feature: “and perform downsampling on a luma component of a current to-be-processed image block,” Yang, Column 18, lines 43-44.)
transforming the down-sampled transform block, generating a coefficient block to be coded into the bitstream, (“obtain a residual signal of the luma component of the processed image block. … 606. Perform a spatial transform operation on the residual signal” Yang, Column 18, lines 46-67.)
wherein the transform block contains residual samples, each representing a difference between corresponding samples of the video block and a prediction block that predicts the video block.” (“602. Subtract a prediction signal from the initial signal, to obtain a residual signal of the luma component of the current to-be-processed image block.” Yang, Column 18, lines 46-48.)
Claim 14, “A method for decoding video data,” is rejected for reasons stated for Claim 1, because the decoding steps of Claim 14 exactly reverse the encoding steps of Claim 1, and because prior art teaches this reversal in Yang, Figs. 1, 6-7 and Column 19, lines 38-67.)
Claim 19, “An apparatus for encoding video data,” is rejected for reasons stated for Claim 1, and because prior art teaches: “at least one processor; and memory storing instructions that, when executed by the at least one processor, cause the apparatus to …” (“The computer software product is stored in a storage medium, and includes several instructions for instructing a computer device (which may be a personal computer, a server, a network device, or the like) to perform all or some of the steps of the methods described in the embodiments of this application.” Yang, Column 23, lines 30-35.)
Claim 22, “An apparatus for decoding video data, comprising:,” is rejected for reasons stated for Claim 1, and because prior art teaches: “at least one processor; and memory storing instructions that, when executed by the at least one processor, cause the system to …” (“The computer software product is stored in a storage medium, and includes several instructions for instructing a computer device (which may be a personal computer, a server, a network device, or the like) to perform all or some of the steps of the methods described in the embodiments of this application.” Yang, Column 23, lines 30-35.)
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 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 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.
This paragraph describes the treatment of admitted prior art. In describing an invention, Applicant must inevitably reference that which is known in the art as the basis for the invention, however it is important that the claims particularly point out and distinctly claim that which Applicant regards to be his own invention. See 35 U.S.C. 112 (b) or 35 U.S.C. 112 (pre-AIA ), second paragraph. A statement by an applicant in the specification or made during prosecution identifying prior art is an admission which can be relied upon for both anticipation and obviousness determinations, regardless of whether the admitted prior art would otherwise qualify as prior art under the statutory categories of 35 U.S.C. 102. Riverwood Int ’l Corp. v. R.A. Jones & Co., 324 F.3d 1346, 1354, 66 USPQ2d 1331, 1337 (Fed. Cir. 2003); Constant v. Advanced Micro-Devices Inc., 848 F.2d 1560, 1570, 7 USPQ2d 1057, 1063 (Fed. Cir. 1988). The examiner must determine whether the subject matter identified as prior art is applicant’s own work, or the work of another. In the absence of another credible explanation, examiners should treat such subject matter as the work of another. MPEP 2129.
Claims 2-11, 15-18 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over US 12192494 to Yang (“Yang”) in view of Applicant admitted prior art (“AAPA”), in particular, features of the HEVC and VVC standards as they are described in the Specification.
Regarding Claim 2: “The method according to claim 1 , wherein the down-sampling comprises:
down-sampling the video block (“perform downsampling on a luma component of a current to-be-processed image block, … Subtract a prediction signal from the initial signal …” Yang, Column 18, lines 43-44, and Fig. 6.)
and the prediction block; and (“It should be noted that the prediction signal is a prediction signal obtained when a reconstructed pixel of the luma component of the current to-be-processed image block is generated based on an adjacent reconstructed pixel” Yang, Column 18, lines 49-52. “It should be noted that resolution of the reconstructed pixel of the luma component is low.” Yang, Column 19, lines 53-62.
Note that Yang does not explicitly perform the combination of upsampling 1365, 1465 and downsampling 1375 on the downsampled reconstructed blocks to obtain the prediction block as in Specification Figs. 13-14.
Yang indicates that for an element-wise subtraction, a downsampled prediction block is required to be subtracted (or added) from an identically downsampled coding block, that is, the blocks need to have the same resolution. See Yang, Column 18, lines 46-48, Column 19, lines 22-26, 53-62. Yang also teaches that “If the resolution of the chroma component [coding block] of the to-be-processed image block is different from the resolution of the luma component [prediction block] of the to-be-processed image block, the resolution of the luma component [prediction block] should be adjusted based on the resolution of the chroma component, so that resolution of the adjusted luma component of the to-be-processed image block is the same.” Yang, Column 19, lines 26-34.
Therefore, before the effective filing date of the claimed invention, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art to downsample the prediction block if it has been upsampled or otherwise has a resolution that is higher that the downsampled coding block being processed, in order to perform the element-wise subtraction of the blocks during encoding. See Yang, Column 19, lines 22-62 and Fig. 6.)
generating the down-sampled transform block by subtracting corresponding samples of the down-sampled video block and the down-sampled prediction block.” (“602. Subtract a prediction signal from the initial signal, to obtain a residual signal of the luma component of the current to-be-processed image block.” Yang, Column 18, lines 46-48. See similarly in AAPA, Specification, Paragraph 40.)
Regarding Claim 3: “The method according to claim 1,
Yang does not discuss SBT or ESBT modes in the VVC standard, as they are described in the claim language below.
AAPA discusses such features in the context of coding video using HEVC and VVC standards:
wherein the coding of the video block is performed in an ESBT mode and is further comprising: (“In the VVC standard, the transformer 225 can operate in a subblock transform (SBT) mode,” AAPA, Specification, Paragraph 46. See enhancements (E) that can be applied to an SBT mode in Claim 1.)
signaling in the bitstream the coding in the ESBT mode using a syntax element cu_sbt_flag.” (“In the VVC standard, the transformer 225 can operate in a subblock transform (SBT) mode, where an SBT mode can be applied to CUs … When an SBT mode is used, SBT-type and SBT-position information have to be signaled in the bitstream.” AAPA, Specification, Paragraphs 46-47. “Table 1 illustrates VVC signaling of coding in an SB T mode. if( cu_sbt_flag) { …” AAPA, Specificaiton, Paragraphs 49-50 and Table 1.)
Therefore, before the effective filing date of the claimed invention, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art to supplement the features of the HEVC standard described in Yang to use the claimed SBT and Enhanced SBT features as taught in AAPA, in order to perform this manner of video coding using the VVC standard. See AAPA, Specification, Paragraph 38.
Finally, in reviewing the present application, there does not seem to be objective evidence that the claim limitations are particularly directed to: addressing a particular problem which was recognized but unsolved in the art, producing unexpected results at the level of the ordinary skill in the art, or any other objective indicators of non-obviousness.
Regarding Claim 4: “The method according to claim 1, further comprising: signaling in the bitstream a direction of the down sampling using a syntax element cu_sbt_horizontal_ flag.” (“As shown, in an SBT mode, the SBT-type is signaled using cu _sbt _ horizontal _flag,” AAPA, Specificaiton, Paragraphs 49-50 and Table 1. See statement of motivation in Claim 2.)
Regarding Claim 5: “The method according to claim 1, further comprising: signaling in the bitstream a sampling ratio of the down sampling using a syntax element cu sbt_quad_ flag.” (“and the splitting ratio is signaled using cu _sbt _quad _flag” AAPA, Specificaiton, Paragraphs 49-50 and Table 1. See statement of motivation in Claim 2.)
Regarding Claim 6: “The method according to claim 1, further comprising: further signaling in the bitstream the coding in the ESBT mode using a syntax element cu_sbt_resampling_flag.” (“In the VVC standard, the transformer 225 can operate in a subblock transform (SBT) mode, where an SBT mode can be applied to CUs … When an SBT mode is used, SBT-type and SBT-position information have to be signaled in the bitstream.” AAPA, Specification, Paragraphs 46-47. For example, “the first processing information is used to indicate a downsampling processing manner used for a luma component of the to-be-processed image block,” Yang, Column 20, lines 25-28. Although Yang and AAPA do not propose the same name for this flag, the references indicate that it would have been necessary and thus obvious to signal a particular flag for a particular SBT mode that is used in the encoding. See statement of motivation in Claim 2.)
Regarding Claim 7: “The method according to claim 1, further comprising: … prior to the transforming, setting a portion of the down-sampled transform block to zero, … wherein the transforming comprises transforming the remaining portion of the down-sampled transform block to generate the coefficient block.” (“In the VVC standard … in an SBT mode, only a subset of the residual samples that constitute a transform block are transformed (using an inferred adaptive transform), while the values of the remaining samples are set to zero.” AAPA, Specification Paragraph 46 and Fig. 4. See using a downsampled residual in Claim 1. See statement of motivation in Claim 2.)
Regarding Claim 8: “The method according to claim 1, wherein
the coding of the video block is performed in a combined ESBT-SBT mode and further comprising: (As described in the Specification, “As disclosed herein, the ESBT mode may be used to replace the existed SBT mode or may be used in combination with the SBT mode.” Thus, under the broadest reasonable interpretation consistent with the specification and ordinary skill in the art, the combined ESBT-SBT mode may be an SBT mode of the VVC with the claimed enhancements, i.e. downsampling features and flags that indicate them. AAPA discloses: “Table 1 illustrates VVC signaling of coding in an SBT mode.” AAPA, Specification, Paragraphs 49-50. See treatment of the claimed enhancements in Claim 1. See statement of motivation in Claim 2.)
signaling in the bitstream: the portion of the down-sampled transform block set to zero using a syntax element cu_sbt_quad_flag, and (“Table 1 illustrates VVC signaling of coding in an SBT mode. … the splitting ratio is signaled using cu_sbt _quad _flag.” AAPA, Specification, Paragraphs 49-50. See statement of motivation in Claim 2.)
a sampling ratio of the down sampling using syntax elements cu_sbt_resampling_horizontal ratio and cu_sbt_resampling_vertical ratio.” (“In the VVC standard, the transformer 225 can operate in a subblock transform (SBT) mode, where an SBT mode can be applied to CUs … When an SBT mode is used, SBT-type and SBT-position information have to be signaled in the bitstream.” AAPA, Specification, Paragraphs 46-47. For example, “the first processing information is used to indicate a downsampling processing manner used for a luma component of the to-be-processed image block,” Yang, Column 20, lines 25-28. The information for indicating the downsampling processing manner can be directed to “adjusting horizontal resolution of the transient luma block … and adjusting vertical resolution of the transient luma block” Yang, Column 3, lines 55-64. Although Yang and AAPA do not propose the same name for these flags, the references indicate that it would have been necessary and thus obvious to signal a particular flag for a particular SBT mode that is used in the encoding. See statement of motivation in Claim 2.)
Regarding Claim 9: “The method according to claim 1, further comprising:
inverse transforming the coefficient block, reconstructing the down-sampled transform block, (See “603. … perform inverse transform on the transform coefficient, to obtain the residual signal of the luma component of the current to-be-processed image block. 604.” Yang, Column 18, lines 49-61 and Fig. 6.)
up-sampling the reconstructed down-sampled transform block, reconstructing the transform block, (“604. Perform filtering after the prediction signal and the residual signal are added. 605. Obtain the reconstructed pixel of the luma component of the current to-be-processed image block.” Yang, Column 18, lines 61-64 and Fig. 6. “To obtain the reconstructed luma block of the to-be-processed image block, the upsampling processing is performed on the transient luma block. The upsampling processing manner is a reverse process of downsampling.” Yang, Column 16, lines 55-65.)
generating a refinement block, each sample of the refinement block represents a difference between corresponding samples of the transform block and the reconstructed transform block, and (See producing a residual signal as a difference between an initial signal and a refinement / Prediction signal in Yang, Fig. 6: “606. Perform a spatial transform operation on the residual signal of the luma component of the current to-be-processed image block. processed image block, … 602. Subtract a prediction signal from the initial signal, to obtain a residual signal of the luma component of the In one embodiment, the method is used to encode the current to-be-processed image block.” Yang, Column 18, lines 65-67, 46-48, and Fig. 6.)
transforming the refinement block, generating a refinement coefficient block to be coded into the bitstream.” (“606. Perform a spatial transform operation on the residual signal of the luma component of the current to-be-processed image block. processed image block,” Yang, Column 18, lines 65-67, and Fig. 6.)
Regarding Claim 10: “The method according to claim 1, further comprising: signaling in the bitstream the coding of the refinement coefficient block using a syntax element_cu_refinement_flag.” (“In the VVC standard, the transformer 225 can operate in a subblock transform (SBT) mode, where an SBT mode can be applied to CUs … When an SBT mode is used, SBT-type and SBT-position information have to be signaled in the bitstream.” AAPA, Specification, Paragraphs 46-47. For example, “the first processing information is used to indicate a downsampling processing manner used for a luma component of the to-be-processed image block,” Yang, Column 20, lines 25-28. Although Yang and AAPA do not propose the same name for these flags, the references indicate that it would have been necessary and thus obvious to signal a particular flag for a particular SBT mode that is used in the encoding. See statement of motivation in Claim 2.)
Regarding Claim 11: “The method according to claim 1, further comprising: prior to the down-sampling, filtering the transform block using a low-pass filter, a median filter, a bilateral filter, or a combination thereof.” (For example, “the first processing information is used to indicate a filter that performs downsampling on the luma component of the to-be-processed image block … Alternatively, the first processing information may be at least one of a model, a quantity of taps, or a coefficient of a filter. A model of the downsampling filter may indicate a 3-lobe Lanczos filter, a bilinear filter, a bicubic filter, a Gauss filter [mean], or the like,” which are examples of low-pass filters. Yang, Column 2, lines 29-32 and Column 9, lines 23-29, 57-63. This reads on the examples in Specification, Paragraphs 56-57.)
Claims 15-18 are rejected for reasons stated for Claims 3-6 in view of the Claim 14 rejection.
Claims 20-21 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over US 12192494 to Yang (“Yang”) in view of Applicant admitted prior art (“AAPA”), and in view of US 20140112394 to Sullivan (“Sullivan”)
Regarding Claim 20: “The apparatus according to claim 19, wherein
Yang and AAPA do not discuss using a wavelet transform for down-sampling, however this is a well-known technique in the art. Sullivan teaches embodiments of the claim elements below in the context of coding video using video coding standards such as MPEG and HEVC:
the down-sampling and the transforming comprises: transforming, using a wavelet transform, the transform block, generating wavelet coefficients containing low-band coefficients, (“frame packing of video frames of a higher-resolution chroma sampling format into video frames of a lower-resolution chroma sampling format for purposes of encoding. … As part of the packing, the computing device performs wavelet decomposition ( or other band separation filtering) on sample values … to produce sample values of multiple bands [of high and low coefficients]. The computing device then assigns the sample values of the multiple bands to parts of the frame(s) of the lower-resolution chroma sampling format.” Sullivan, Paragraphs 6-7, 234 and Fig. 11. Also note that “A set of samples can be a macroblock, sub-macroblock or sub-macroblock partition (as in the H.264 standard), or it can be a coding tree unit or prediction unit (as in the HEVC standard).” Sullivan, Paragraph 75.)
wherein the coefficient block comprises the lowband coefficients.” (“The computing device then assigns the sample values of the multiple bands to parts of the frame(s) of the lower-resolution chroma sampling format.” Sullivan, Paragraphs 6-7 and Fig. 11. For example, “with reference to FIG. 14 , the vertically lowpass filtered/horizontally highpass filtered band F A(x, y) is vertically decimated when assigning sample values to V420aux and V420aux” Sullivan, Paragraphs 240-241.)
Therefore, before the effective filing date of the claimed invention, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art to supplement the teachings of Yang and AAPA to use a wavelet transform in the manner claimed above as taught in Sullivan, in order for the encoder and decoder to perform computation at a lower resolution while retaining the higher resolution information. Sullivan, Paragraphs 6-7.
Finally, in reviewing the present application, there does not seem to be objective evidence that the claim limitations are particularly directed to: addressing a particular problem which was recognized but unsolved in the art, producing unexpected results at the level of the ordinary skill in the art, or any other objective indicators of non-obviousness.
Regarding Claim 21: “The apparatus according to claim 20, further comprising: signaling in the bitstream:
a wavelet filter type using a syntax element cu_sbt_resampling_filter_type, and (“the first processing information is used to indicate a filter that performs downsampling on the luma component of the to-be-processed image block” Yang, Column 9, lines 3-6. See application to wavelet filters and statement of motivation in Claim 19.)
a wavelet depth using syntax elements cu_sbt_resampling_horizontal_depth and cu sbt_resampling_vertical_ depth.” (“The first processing information indicates that downsampling is performed on the luma component of the to-be-processed image block, downsampling rates in both a horizontal direction and a vertical direction” Yang, Column 12, lines 9-13. See similar and additional settings in Sullivan, Paragraph 295. See application to wavelet filters and statement of motivation in Claim 19.)
Conclusion
The prior art made of record and not relied upon is considered pertinent to applicant's disclosure.
US 20080199094 to Choi (“Choi”) relevant for using downsampling in processing a residual signal in video coding.
US 20220070465 to Zhu (“Zhu”) relevant for teaching bitstream signaling in the context of SBT and block downsampling.
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to MIKHAIL ITSKOVICH whose telephone number is (571)270-7940. The examiner can normally be reached Mon. - Thu. 9am - 8pm.
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If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner’s supervisor, Joseph Ustaris can be reached at (571)272-7383. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300.
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/MIKHAIL ITSKOVICH/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2483
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