DETAILED ACTION
Notice of Pre-AIA or AIA Status
The present application, filed on or after March 16, 2013, is being examined under the first inventor to file provisions of the AIA .
Claim Objections
Claims 1, 17, 31, 33 are objected to because of the following informalities:
Claims 1, 17, 31: The phrase “wherein the at least one parameter of the depth model define a plane (emphasis added)” should be conjugated as singular: “defines a plane”.
Claim 33: The claim ends with an typographical fragment: “The apparatus of claim 32, wherein the one depth parameter is representative of a depth value of a central sample of the coding block. of samples of a subsampled coding block. (emphasis added)”. The trailing fragment should be deleted.
Appropriate correction is required.
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.
Claims 1-4, 7, 17-20, 23, 31-34, 37, 47-50, 53 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 112(b) or 35 U.S.C. 112 (pre-AIA ), second paragraph, as being indefinite for failing to particularly point out and distinctly claim the subject matter which the inventor or a joint inventor, or for pre-AIA the applicant regards as the invention.
Missing Definite Articles: Claims 1, 17, 31, 47 recite the limitation: “… determin[ing] motion information … wherein motion information … and motion information is representative … based on the motion information.” (emphasis added to accentuate insufficient antecedent basis). Independent claims 1, 17, 31, and 47 introduce “motion information,” however subsequent clauses in the same claims refer back to it using “wherein motion information” and “and motion information” rather than the required definite article “the motion information”, and therefore creates a lack of clarity.
For the purposes of examination the limitation is interpreted as:
“… determin[ing] motion information … wherein the motion information … and the motion information is representative … based on the motion information.”.
Improper Reintroduction of Elements: Dependent claims 2, 4, 7, 18, 20, 23, 32, 34, 37, 48, 50, 53 begin their limitations with “wherein a depth model”. Since “a depth model” was already introduced in each respective independent base claim, these dependent claims introduce a lack of clarity. For example, the claims could refer to a different (a second or third) depth model or the claims may be interpreted as using the same depth model.
For the purposes of examination, the claims are interpreted as:
“… wherein [[a]] the depth model …”.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 103
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.
Claims 1-2, 17-18, 31-32, 47-48 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Chuah et al., hereinafter referred to as Chuah (US 2016/0330493 A1) in view of Zhang et al., hereinafter referred to as Zhang (US 2014/0294061 A1) in further view of Sung et al., hereinafter referred to as Sung (US 2011/0222602 A1).
As per claim 1, Chuah discloses a method (Chuah: Abstract.), comprising:
obtaining a coding block in a current image, wherein the current image is part of a game engine two-dimensional (2D) rendered video (Chuah: Para. [0036] discloses utilizing an H.264/AVC codec, which is a standard block-based compression algorithm, to process the rendered game images, and therefore “An image/video encoder [includes claimed obtaining a coding block in a current image] at the cloud server compresses the high quality graphics [claimed current image part of a game engine two-dimensional (2D) rendered video]”.);
However, Chuah does not explicitly disclose “… obtaining at least one parameter of a depth model for the coding block, wherein the at least one parameter of the depth model define a plane representative of depth values; obtaining camera parameters for the current image; obtaining camera parameters for a reference image; determining motion information for at least one sample in the coding block of the current image to be coded in inter with respect to the reference image, wherein motion information is determined from the at least one parameter of the depth model and from the camera parameters, and motion information is representative of camera motion between the current image and the reference image; and encoding the coding block based on the motion information.”
Further, Zhang is in the same field of endeavor and teaches obtaining at least one parameter of a depth model for the coding block, wherein the at least one parameter of the depth model define a plane representative of depth values (Zhang: Para. [0037] discloses that in SDC mode “the depth block is signaled as … a single planar partition [claimed parameter of a depth model that defines a plane representative of depth values]”.);
wherein motion information is determined from the at least one parameter of the depth model (Zhang: Para. [0037] discloses that in SDC mode “the depth block is signaled as … a single planar partition [claimed parameter of the depth model]” and Zhang: Paras. [0101], [0125], [0172] disclose mode selection may be based on motion vectors and partition information and that “the SDC mode is further extended for depth inter coding”.).
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention, and having the teachings of Chuah and Zhang before him or her, to modify the encoding decoding system of Chuah to include the depth model defining plane feature as described in Zhang. The motivation for doing so would have been to improve video coding techniques for encoding and decoding depth data by providing a computationally efficient mechanism for depth representation in block-based coding.
However, Chuah-Zhang do not explicitly disclose “… obtaining camera parameters for the current image; obtaining camera parameters for a reference image; determining motion information for at least one sample in the coding block of the current image to be coded in inter with respect to the reference image, wherein motion information is determined from the at least one parameter of the depth model and from the camera parameters, and motion information is representative of camera motion between the current image and the reference image; and encoding the coding block based on the motion information.”.
Furthermore, Sung is in the same field of endeavor and teaches obtaining camera parameters for the current image (Sung: Paras. [0076]-[0078] disclose obtaining “focal length (f)” and “Z is depth information [claimed camera parameters]” for the current image.);
obtaining camera parameters for a reference image (Sung: Para. [0076] discloses obtaining “a focal length (f) [camera parameter] of the current viewpoint camera and a distance (B) [camera parameter] between the current viewpoint camera and the reference viewpoint camera” which is used to relate the reference and current images.);
determining motion information for at least one sample in the coding block of the current image to be coded in inter with respect to the reference image, wherein motion information is determined from the at least one parameter of the depth model and from the camera parameters, and motion information is representative of camera motion between the current image and the reference image (Sung: Para. [0066] discloses “The depth inter-view prediction may predict color information of the current block from a reference block … the current block may be encoded using … depth inter-view prediction … if the depth inter-view prediction flag is set to 1 [claimed at least one parameter of the depth model]”; Sung: Para. [0068] discloses “the motion of the current block may be compensated” using the “color information of the reference block pixel [claimed motion information is determined from the at least one parameter of the depth model]” and Sung: Para. [0076] discloses “a difference (hereinafter referred to as ‘d’) between the x values may indicate a variation in pixel position between the current block and the reference block corresponding to the current block pixel [claimed representative of camera motion]. The variation may be referred to as an inter-view position difference” and that the “inter-viewpoint position difference [claimed motion information] may be calculated by the following equation 7 using a focal length (f) [camera parameter] of the current viewpoint camera and a distance (B) [camera parameter] between the current viewpoint camera and the reference viewpoint camera” using depth information”.); and
encoding the coding block based on the motion information (Sung: Para. [0066] discloses “In this case, a flag that indicates whether a current block is to be encoded using the depth inter-view prediction can be defined [claimed encoding the coding block based on the motion information]”.).
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention, and having the teachings of Chuah-Zhang and Sung before him or her, to modify the coding system of Chuah-Zhang to include the motion information-based depth model camera parameter coding feature as described in Sung. The motivation for doing so would have been to improve prediction accuracy by providing a configuration that reduces the amount of residual data.
As per claim 47, Chuah discloses an apparatus comprising a memory and one or more processors (Chuah: Abstract; [0001].), wherein the one or more processors are configured to (Chuah: Claim 21 discloses the one or more processors are configured to:):
obtain a coding block in a current image, wherein the current image is part of a game engine two-dimensional (2D) rendered video (Chuah: Para. [0036] discloses utilizing an H.264/AVC codec, which is a standard block-based compression algorithm, to process the rendered game images, and therefore “An image/video encoder [includes claimed obtaining a coding block in a current image] at the cloud server compresses the high quality graphics [claimed current image part of a game engine two-dimensional (2D) rendered video]”.);
However, Chuah does not explicitly disclose “… obtaining at least one parameter of a depth model for the coding block, wherein the at least one parameter of the depth model define a plane representative of depth values; obtaining camera parameters for the current image; obtaining camera parameters for a reference image; determining motion information for at least one sample in the coding block of the current image to be coded in inter with respect to the reference image, wherein motion information is determined from the at least one parameter of the depth model and from the camera parameters, and motion information is representative of camera motion between the current image and the reference image; and decoding the coding block based on the motion information.”
Further, Zhang is in the same field of endeavor and teaches obtain at least one parameter of a depth model for the coding block, wherein the at least one parameter of the depth model defines a plane representative of depth values (Zhang: Para. [0037] discloses that in SDC mode “the depth block is signaled as … a single planar partition [claimed parameter of a depth model that defines a plane representative of depth values]”.);
wherein motion information is determined from the at least one parameter of the depth model (Zhang: Para. [0037] discloses that in SDC mode “the depth block is signaled as … a single planar partition [claimed parameter of the depth model]” and Zhang: Paras. [0101], [0125], [0172] disclose mode selection may be based on motion vectors and partition information and that “the SDC mode is further extended for depth inter coding”.).
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention, and having the teachings of Chuah and Zhang before him or her, to modify the encoding decoding system of Chuah to include the depth model defining plane feature as described in Zhang. The motivation for doing so would have been to improve video coding techniques for encoding and decoding depth data by providing a computationally efficient mechanism for depth representation in block-based coding.
However, Chuah-Zhang do not explicitly disclose “… obtain camera parameters for the current image; obtain camera parameters for a reference image; determine motion information for at least one sample in the coding block of the current image to be coded in inter with respect to the reference image, wherein motion information is determined from the at least one parameter of the depth model and from the camera parameters, and motion information is representative of camera motion between the current image and the reference image; and decoding the coding block based on the motion information.”.
Furthermore, Sung is in the same field of endeavor and teaches obtain camera parameters for the current image (Sung: Paras. [0076]-[0078] disclose obtaining “focal length (f)” and “Z is depth information [claimed camera parameters]” for the current image.);
obtain camera parameters for a reference image (Sung: Para. [0076] discloses obtaining “a focal length (f) [camera parameter] of the current viewpoint camera and a distance (B) [camera parameter] between the current viewpoint camera and the reference viewpoint camera” which is used to relate the reference and current images.);
determine motion information for at least one sample in the coding block of the current image to be coded in inter with respect to the reference image, wherein motion information is determined from the at least one parameter of the depth model and from the camera parameters, and motion information is representative of camera motion between the current image and the reference image (Sung: Para. [0066] discloses “The depth inter-view prediction may predict color information of the current block from a reference block … the current block may be encoded using … depth inter-view prediction … if the depth inter-view prediction flag is set to 1 [claimed at least one parameter of the depth model]”; Sung: Para. [0068] discloses “the motion of the current block may be compensated” using the “color information of the reference block pixel [claimed motion information is determined from the at least one parameter of the depth model]” and Sung: Para. [0076] discloses “a difference (hereinafter referred to as ‘d’) between the x values may indicate a variation in pixel position between the current block and the reference block corresponding to the current block pixel [claimed representative of camera motion]. The variation may be referred to as an inter-view position difference” and that the “inter-viewpoint position difference [claimed motion information] may be calculated by the following equation 7 using a focal length (f) [camera parameter] of the current viewpoint camera and a distance (B) [camera parameter] between the current viewpoint camera and the reference viewpoint camera” using depth information”.); and
decode the coding block based on the motion information (Sung: Para. [0085] discloses “a differential vector between the motion vector of the current block and the representative inter-view position difference may be decoded [claimed decode the coding block based on the motion information].”.).
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention, and having the teachings of Chuah-Zhang and Sung before him or her, to modify the coding system of Chuah-Zhang to include the motion information-based depth model camera parameter coding feature as described in Sung. The motivation for doing so would have been to improve prediction accuracy by providing a configuration that reduces the amount of residual data.
As per claims 17, & 31, the claim(s) recites analogous limitations to claim(s) 1 and 47 above, and is/are therefore rejected on the same premise.
As per claim 2, Chuah-Zhang-Sung disclose the method of claim 1, wherein a depth model for the coding block includes a plane parallel to a camera's sensor and is characterized by one depth parameter (Zhang: Para. [0037] discloses “SDC mode [claimed depth model for the coding block] … a single DC partition [claimed plane parallel to a camera's sensor]” and Zhang: Para. [0178] discloses “DC value for each partition [claimed characterized by one depth parameter]”.).
As per claims 18, 32, 48, the claim(s) recites analogous limitations to claim(s) 2 above, and is/are therefore rejected on the same premise.
Claims 3, 19, 33, 49 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Chuah in view of Zhang in view of Sung in further view of Zhang_277 et al., hereinafter referred to as Zhang_277 (US 2017/0318277 A1).
As per claim 3, Chuah-Zhang-Sung disclose the method of claim 2, wherein the one depth parameter is representative of a depth value (Zhang: Para. [0037] discloses that in SDC mode “the depth block is signaled as … a single planar partition [claimed depth parameter is representative of a depth value]”.).
However, Chuah-Zhang-Sung do not explicitly disclose “… a depth value of a central sample of the coding block …”.
Further, Zhang_277 is in the same field of endeavor and teaches a depth value of a central sample of the coding block (Zhang_277: Para. [0054] discloses “a depth value corresponding to a center pixel [claimed depth value of a central sample] associated with the individual sub-block [claimed coding block]”.).
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention, and having the teachings of Chuah-Zhang-Sung and Zhang_277 before him or her, to modify the coding system of Chuah-Zhang-Sung to include the depth value of a central sample of the coding block feature as described in Zhang_277. The motivation for doing so would have been to improve coding efficiency by providing a robust and accurate mechanism for determining motion and depth information within the coding block.
As per claims 19, 33, 49, the claim(s) recites analogous limitations to claim(s) 3 above, and is/are therefore rejected on the same premise.
Allowable Subject Matter
Claims 4, 7, 20, 23, 34, 37, 50, 53 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.
Conclusion
The prior art made of record and not relied upon is considered pertinent to applicant's disclosure and can be viewed in the list of references.
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/PEET DHILLON/Primary Examiner
Art Unit: 2488
Date: 07-23-2026
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