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 .
Status of Claims
The following is a Non-Final Office Action in response to the correspondence filed on 07/01/2025.
Claims 1- 15 are considered in this Office Action. Claims 1- 15 are currently pending.
Information Disclosure Statement
The IDS(s) received on date 07/01/2025 are in compliance with the provisions of 37 CFR 1.97, being reviewed and 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 (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.
Claims 1- 9, 11 and 13- 15 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Yixin Du (US 20210092368 A1) (hereinafter Du) in view of Adarsh Krishnan Ramasubramonian (US 20200154115 A1) (hereinafter Ramasubramonian) further in view of Xiang Li (US 20220377386 A1) (hereinafter Li):
Regarding Claim 1, Du teaches a method of processing colour pictures (image processing method [0004]), the method comprising:
receiving input data associated with a current block comprising a first-colour block and a second-colour block, wherein the first-colour block comprises first-colour samples and the second-colour block comprises second-colour samples (receiving video data containing a luma color block that contains luma samples and a chroma color block that contains chroma samples [0004]; [0005]);
generating one or more filtered second-colour samples by applying target ALF (Adaptive Loop Filter) using filter input samples comprising one or more filter-input second-colour samples and said one or more target second-colour samples (CC-ALF uses the luma values through a cross component linear filter to drive the chroma samples [0026]; [0037]).
Du does not explicitly teach the following limitations; however, in an analogous art, Ramasubramonian teaches deriving one or more target second-colour samples according to a Cross-Component Model (CCM) applied to one or more CCM-input first-colour samples (using a cross component model to derive the chroma samples using the luma sample [0072]- [0073]).
It would have been obvious to the person having ordinary skill in the art before the effective filling date of the claimed invention to modify video coding method utilizing cross component ALF as disclosed by Du to add the Cross-component video coding mode as disclosed by Ramasubramonian above to improve coding efficiency (Ramasubramonian [0025]; [0105]).
Ramasubramonian does not explicitly teach the following limitations; however, in an analogous art, Li teaches or deriving said one or more target second-colour samples at one or more non-integer positions by applying one or more interpolation filters to one or more interpolation-input first-colour or one or more interpolation input second-colour samples (applying a down-sampling interpolation filter to a luma block to generate a down-sampled luma block [0028]).
It would have been obvious to the person having ordinary skill in the art before the effective filling date of the claimed invention to modify video coding method utilizing cross component ALF as disclosed by Du to add the Cross-component video coding mode as disclosed by Ramasubramonian to further add the down-sampling interpolation filter as disclosed by Li above to reduce video artifacts (Li [0110]).
Regarding Claim 2, Du in view of Ramasubramonian and Li teach the method of Claim 1. Du further teaches wherein the Cross-Component Model corresponds to an ALF- type filtering process (the cross component ALF type filter [0004]).
Regarding Claim 3, Du in view of Ramasubramonian and Li teach the method of Claim 2. Ramasubramonian further teaches wherein coefficients associated with the Cross-Component Model are derived using reconstructed first-colour samples and reconstructed second-colour samples of a neighbouring reference area and/or the current block (deriving the parameter using reconstructed luma samples and reconstructed chroma samples located in neighboring reference areas [0073]- [0074]).
It would have been obvious to the person having ordinary skill in the art before the effective filling date of the claimed invention to modify video coding method utilizing cross component ALF as disclosed by Du to add the Cross-component video coding mode as disclosed by Ramasubramonian above to improve coding efficiency (Ramasubramonian [0025]; [0105]).
Regarding Claim 4, Du in view of Ramasubramonian and Li teach the method of Claim 3. Du further teaches wherein the reconstructed first-colour samples and the reconstructed second-colour samples of the neighbouring reference area correspond to reconstructed samples before or after an ALF filtering process (the reconstructed samples used for CC-ALF as samples either before applying AFL filtering or after [0040]- [0042]).
Regarding Claim 5, Du in view of Ramasubramonian and Li teach the method of Claim 3. Ramasubramonian further teaches wherein the neighbouring reference area is classified into multiple areas (classifying the neighboring reference area into multiple groups [0076]) and one Cross-Component Model is derived for each of the multiple areas ( each group uses its own Cross component model [0078]- [0079]).
It would have been obvious to the person having ordinary skill in the art before the effective filling date of the claimed invention to modify video coding method utilizing cross component ALF as disclosed by Du to add the Cross-component video coding mode as disclosed by Ramasubramonian above to improve coding efficiency (Ramasubramonian [0025]; [0105]).
Regarding Claim 6, Du in view of Ramasubramonian and Li teach the method of Claim 5. Ramasubramonian further teaches wherein said one or more target second-colour samples are derived by applying said one Cross-Component Model according to a class associated with one of the multiple areas (deriving the chroma samples by applying the respective cross component model according the class the sample is associated with [0076]- [0077]).
It would have been obvious to the person having ordinary skill in the art before the effective filling date of the claimed invention to modify video coding method utilizing cross component ALF as disclosed by Du to add the Cross-component video coding mode as disclosed by Ramasubramonian above to improve coding efficiency (Ramasubramonian [0025]; [0105]).
Regarding Claim 7, Du in view of Ramasubramonian and Li teach the method of Claim 2. Du further teaches, wherein said one or more CCM-input first-colour samples correspond to reconstructed first-colour samples before or after an ALF filtering process (the reconstructed samples used for CC-ALF as samples either before applying AFL filtering or after [0040]- [0042]).
Regarding Claim 8, Du in view of Ramasubramonian and Li teach the method of Claim 1. Du further teaches wherein said one or more target second-colour samples are used for the target ALF independently (the chroma sample are used for the CC-ALF independently [0041]).
Regarding Claim 9, Du in view of Ramasubramonian and Li teach the method of Claim 8. Du further teaches wherein the target ALF is separate from a luma ALF, chroma ALF, or Cross-Component ALF (CCALF) filtering process (the ALF is different from Luma ALF and chroma ALF[0040]- [0041]).
Regarding Claim 11, Du in view of Ramasubramonian and Li teach the method of Claim 1. Du further teaches wherein said one or more target second-colour samples are used as reconstructed samples after applying an ALF filtering process (the cross component filter results are applied to the chroma ALF, the samples become the reconstructed chroma after ALF[0040]- [0041]).
Regarding Claim 13, Du in view of Ramasubramonian and Li teach the method of Claim 1. Li further teaches wherein said one or more interpolation filters correspond to one or more upscaling filters, one or more downscaling filters or both (down sampling filter is the interpolation filter [0028]) .
Regarding Claim 14, Du in view of Ramasubramonian and Li teach the method of Claim 1. Du further teaches wherein the first-colour samples correspond to luma samples and the second-colour samples correspond to chroma samples, the first-colour samples correspond to the chroma samples and the second-colour samples correspond to the luma samples, or the first- colour samples and the second-colour samples correspond to two different chroma components (the cross component filter takes luma samples as the source (first color) and refines chroma components (second color) [0026]).
Regarding Claim 15, Du teaches an apparatus for processing of coded video, the apparatus comprising one or more electronics or processors (the video coding apparatus comprises electronics and processors [0005]) arranged to:
receive input data associated with a current block comprising a first-colour block and a second-colour block, wherein the first-colour block comprises first-colour samples and the second-colour block comprises second-colour samples (receiving video data containing a luma color block that contains luma samples and a chroma color block that contains chroma samples [0004]; [0005]);
generate one or more filtered second-colour samples by applying target ALF (Adaptive Loop Filter) using filter input samples comprising one or more filter-input second-colour samples and said one or more target second-colour samples (CC-ALF uses the luma values through a cross component linear filter to drive the chroma samples [0026]; [0037]).
Du does not explicitly teach the following limitations; however, in an analogous art, Ramasubramonian teaches derive one or more target second-colour samples according to a Cross-Component Model (CCM) applied to one or more CCM-input first-colour samples (using a cross component model to derive the chroma samples using the luma sample [0072]- [0073]).
It would have been obvious to the person having ordinary skill in the art before the effective filling date of the claimed invention to modify video coding method utilizing cross component ALF as disclosed by Du to add the Cross-component video coding mode as disclosed by Ramasubramonian above to improve coding efficiency (Ramasubramonian [0025]; [0105]).
Ramasubramonian does not explicitly teach the following limitations; however, in an analogous art, Li teaches or deriving said one or more target second-colour samples at one or more non-integer positions by applying one or more interpolation filters to one or more interpolation-input first-colour or one or more interpolation- input second-colour samples (applying a down-sampling interpolation filter to a luma block to generate a down-sampled luma block [0028]).
It would have been obvious to the person having ordinary skill in the art before the effective filling date of the claimed invention to modify video coding method utilizing cross component ALF as disclosed by Du to add the Cross-component video coding mode as disclosed by Ramasubramonian to further add the down-sampling interpolation filter as disclosed by Li above to reduce video artifacts (Li [0110]).
Claim 10 is rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Yixin Du (US 20210092368 A1) (hereinafter Du) in view of Adarsh Krishnan Ramasubramonian (US 20200154115 A1) (hereinafter Ramasubramonian) in view of Xiang Li (US 20220377386 A1) (hereinafter Li) further in view of Xinwei Li (US 20230217026 A1) (hereinafter Xinwei):
Regarding Claim 10, Du in view of Ramasubramonian and Li teach the method of Claim 1; however, do not explicitly teach wherein the Cross-Component Model corresponds to a CCCM (Convolutional Cross-Component Model)-type filtering process.
However, in an analogous art, Xinwei teaches wherein the Cross-Component Model corresponds to a CCCM (Convolutional Cross-Component Model)-type filtering process (the cross component model is linear model and is a CCCM [0136]).
It would have been obvious to the person having ordinary skill in the art before the effective filling date of the claimed invention to modify video coding method utilizing cross component ALF as disclosed by Du to add the Cross-component video coding mode as disclosed by Ramasubramonian to add the down-sampling interpolation filter as disclosed by Li to further add the CCCM type as disclosed by Xinwei to improve prediction accuracy (Xinwei [0089]).
Claim 12 is rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Yixin Du (US 20210092368 A1) (hereinafter Du) in view of Adarsh Krishnan Ramasubramonian (US 20200154115 A1) (hereinafter Ramasubramonian) in view of Xiang Li (US 20220377386 A1) (hereinafter Li) further in view of Nan Hu (US 20210152841 A1) (hereinafter Hu):
Regarding Claim 12, Du in view of Ramasubramonian and Li teach the method of Claim 1; however, do not explicitly teach wherein one or more coefficients of the target ALF are signalled or parsed from a video bitstream.
However, in an analogous art, Hu teaches wherein one or more coefficients of the target ALF are signalled or parsed from a video bitstream (the filter coefficients are signaled in the bitstream [0076]; [0129]).
It would have been obvious to the person having ordinary skill in the art before the effective filling date of the claimed invention to modify video coding method utilizing cross component ALF as disclosed by Du to add the Cross-component video coding mode as disclosed by Ramasubramonian to add the down-sampling interpolation filter as disclosed by Li to further add the singling of the ALF coefficients of as disclosed by Hu to improve the video encoder performance (Hu [0074]).
Conclusion
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to MAHMOUD KAMAL ABOUZAHRA whose telephone number is (703)756-1694. The examiner can normally be reached M-F 7:00 AM to 5:00 PM.
Examiner interviews are available via telephone, in-person, and video conferencing using a USPTO supplied web-based collaboration tool. To schedule an interview, applicant is encouraged to use the USPTO Automated Interview Request (AIR) at http://www.uspto.gov/interviewpractice.
If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner’s supervisor, Jamie Atala can be reached at (571) 272-7384. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300.
Information regarding the status of published or unpublished applications may be obtained from Patent Center. Unpublished application information in Patent Center is available to registered users. To file and manage patent submissions in Patent Center, visit: https://patentcenter.uspto.gov. Visit https://www.uspto.gov/patents/apply/patent-center for more information about Patent Center and https://www.uspto.gov/patents/docx for information about filing in DOCX format. For additional questions, contact the Electronic Business Center (EBC) at 866-217-9197 (toll-free). If you would like assistance from a USPTO Customer Service Representative, call 800-786-9199 (IN USA OR CANADA) or 571-272-1000.
/MAHMOUD KAMAL ABOUZAHRA/Examiner, Art Unit 2486
/JAMIE J ATALA/Supervisory Patent Examiner, Art Unit 2486
Prosecution Insights