DETAILED ACTION.
This Office Action is in response to the application filed on 07/03/2025, wherein claims 1-15 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 statements (IDSs) were submitted on 07/03/2025. 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 § 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 15 is 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 applications subject to pre-AIA 35 U.S.C. 112, the applicant), regards as the invention.
Claim 15 recites “A method for transmitting a bitstream generated by a feature encoding method” but it fails to include any step of transmission in the body of the claim. Therefore, itis unclear what constitutes the claimed method of transmission.
1. Claim 15 is rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(1) as being anticipated by Kadono et al. (U.S. 2006/0268989) hereinafter Kadono.
Regarding claim 14, Claim 14 recites “a computer-readable recording medium storing a bitstream generated by the feature encoding method…”.
A bit stream generated by a method, the method comprising… is a product by process claim limitation where the product is the bit stream and the process is the method steps to generate the bitstream. MPEP §2113 recites “Product-by-Process claims are not limited to the manipulations of the recited steps, only the structure implied by the steps”. Thus, the scope of the claim is the storage medium storing the bitstream (with the structure implied by the method steps). The structure includes the information and samples manipulated by the steps.
“To be given patentable weight, the printed matter and associated product must be in a functional relationship. A functional relationship can be found where the printed matter performs some function with respect to the product to which it is associated”. MPEP §2111.05(I)(A). When a claimed “computer-readable medium merely serves as a support for information or data, no functional relationship exists. MPEP §2111.05(III). The storage medium storing the claimed bitstream in claim 18 merely services as a support for the storage of the bitstream and provides no fictional relationship between the stored bitstream and storage medium. Therefor the structure bitstream, which scope is implied by the method steps, is non-functional descriptive material and given no patentable weight. MPEP §2111.05(III). Thus, the claim scope is just a storage medium storing data and is anticipated by Kadono which recites a generated bitstream is stored in a storage medium as in [0060].
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 text of those sections of Title 35, U.S. Code not included in this action can be found in a prior Office action.
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.
2. Claims 1, 10 and 14-15 are rejected under AIA 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Choi et al. (KR 20220073666 – see translation attached) hereinafter Choi, in view of Kidani et al. (US 2021/0112242) hereinafter Kidani.
Regarding claim 1, Choi discloses a feature decoding method performed by a feature decoding apparatus, comprising:
obtaining reference information from a bitstream; based on the reference information, determining at least one reference channel (Choi [0282], [0099], [0004], [0092]: a feature map extracted from a neural network can include one or more channels; [0115]-[0121]: information about a feature map can be transmitted to a decoding device via a bitstream. The decoder can generate feature map using received information about the feature map; [0125]-[0127]: feature map information can include coefficients of one or more channels of a feature map; [0125]-[0127]: feature map information can include coefficients of one or more channels of a feature map; [0094]: information regarding parameters used for the feature map can be encoded in a bitstream. The encoded feature map information includes feature map conversion information as in [0112]; [0297]: inter-channel prediction can be used).
Choi does not explicitly disclose channel for a target channel; and based on the determined reference channel, predicting the target channel.
However, Kidani discloses determining at least one reference channel for a target channel; and based on the determined reference channel, predicting the target channel (Kidani [0048]-[0060], [0044]: inter-channel reconfigured sample generation unit 184 uses a sample of a first component (first channel) and a prediction coefficient to generate a prediction sample of the second component (second channel) contained in a target unit, wherein first component corresponding to a first channel, i.e. reference channel, and second component corresponding to second channel, i.e. target channel, in the inter-channel coding).
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 Choi, and further incorporate having determining at least one reference channel for a target channel; and based on the determined reference channel, predicting the target channel, as taught by Kidani, to improve prediction (Kidani [0012]).
Regarding claims 10 and 15, Choi discloses a feature encoding method performed by a feature encoding apparatus, and a method for transmitting a bitstream generated by a feature encoding method, wherein the feature encoding method comprises:
reference information indicating determined reference channel is encoded into a bitstream (Choi [0282], [0099], [0004], [0092]: a feature map extracted from a neural network can include one or more channels; [0115]-[0121]: information about a feature map can be transmitted to a decoding device via a bitstream. The decoder can generate feature map using received information about the feature map; [0125]-[0127]: feature map information can include coefficients of one or more channels of a feature map; [0094]: information regarding parameters used for the feature map can be encoded in a bitstream. The encoded feature map information includes feature map conversion information as in [0112]; [0297]: inter-channel prediction can be used).
Choi does not explicitly disclose reference channel for a target channel; and based on the determined reference channel, predicting the target channel.
However, Kidani discloses determining at least one reference channel for a target channel; and based on the determined reference channel, predicting the target channel (Kidani [0048]-[0060], [0044]: inter-channel reconfigured sample generation unit 184 uses a sample of a first component (first channel) and a prediction coefficient to generate a prediction sample of the second component (second channel) contained in a target unit, wherein first component corresponding to a first channel, i.e. reference channel, and second component corresponding to second channel, i.e. target channel, in the inter-channel coding).
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 Choi, and further incorporate determining at least one reference channel for a target channel; and based on the determined reference channel, predicting the target channel, as taught by Kidani, to improve prediction (Kidani [0012]).
Regarding claim 14, Choi and Kidani disclose a computer-readable recording medium storing a bitstream generated by the feature encoding method of Claim 10 (Choi [0119]: generate bitstream containing information about the feature map and stores the information on a computer-readable recording medium) as discussed in claim 10 above.
3. Claims 1-6, 9-11 and 14-15 are rejected under AIA 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Choi et al. (KR 20220073666 – see translation attached) hereinafter Choi, in view of Park et al. (WO 2019112394 – see translation attached) hereinafter Park.
Regarding claim 1, Choi discloses a feature decoding method performed by a feature decoding apparatus, comprising:
obtaining reference information from a bitstream; based on the reference information, determining at least one reference channel (Choi [0282], [0099], [0004], [0092]: a feature map extracted from a neural network can include one or more channels; [0115]-[0121]: information about a feature map can be transmitted to a decoding device via a bitstream. The decoder can generate feature map using received information about the feature map; [0125]-[0127]: feature map information can include coefficients of one or more channels of a feature map; [0125]-[0127]: feature map information can include coefficients of one or more channels of a feature map; [0094]: information regarding parameters used for the feature map can be encoded in a bitstream. The encoded feature map information includes feature map conversion information as in [0112]; [0297]: inter-channel prediction can be used).
Choi does not explicitly disclose reference channel for a target channel; and based on the determined reference channel, predicting the target channel.
However, Park discloses determining at least one reference channel for a target channel; and based on the determined reference channel, predicting the target channel (Park [0734]: to derive predict value of target channel using reconstructed information from other channel, which is representative channel as in [0745], Cross Component Linear Model (CCLM), Multimode Linear Model (MMLM), and MultiFilter Linear Model can be used, wherein a component can be replaced by a channel; [0773]: determining whether cross-channel prediction is determined as the coding mode of the target block).
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 Choi, and further incorporate having determining at least one reference channel for a target channel; and based on the determined reference channel, predicting the target channel, as taught by Park, to improve encoding efficiency and image quality (Park [0789], [0727]).
Regarding claim 2, Choi and Park disclose all limitations of claim 1.
Choi does not explicitly disclose wherein the predicting comprises: applying a first transform and a second transform to the determined reference channel; and based on the reference channel to which the first transform and the second transform are applied, predicting the target channel.
However, Park discloses (Park [0768], [0731], [0733]: transformation can be performed for representative channel, i.e. reference channel; [0203]: residual between target block and prediction block is obtained, wherein the prediction block is obtained from information of the representative channel; [0596]-[0600]: various transformations include a first primary transformation and a secondary transformation can be applied to the residual signals generated by intra or inter-prediction; [0607]-[0608]: second transform can be performed on the transformation coefficients generated by the performance of the first transformation; [1025], [1028], [1022]: transformations used for luminance channel can correspond to transformations used for chroma channel, i.e. target channel and reference channel; [0925]: transform information of the representative channel can be used as transform information of the target channel. Hence, first transform and second transform can be used for reference channel).
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 Choi, and further incorporate having determining at least one reference channel for a target channel; and based on the determined reference channel, predicting the target channel, as taught by Park, to improve encoding efficiency and image quality (Park [0789], [0727]).
Regarding claim 3, Choi and Park disclose all limitations of claim 2.
Choi does not explicitly disclose wherein the first transform is one of predefined transforms.
However, Park discloses wherein the first transform is one of predefined transforms (Park [0600]-[0603]: first transformation can be one of plurality of predefined transformation methods including DCT, DST, KLT).
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 Choi, and further incorporate having wherein the first transform is one of predefined transforms, as taught by Park, to improve encoding efficiency and image quality (Park [0789], [0727]).
Regarding claim 4, Choi and Park disclose all limitations of claim 3.
Choi does not explicitly disclose wherein the first transform is a transform indicated by first transform information among the predefined transforms, and wherein the first transform information is obtained from the bitstream.
However, Park discloses the first transform is a transform indicated by first transform information among the predefined transforms, and wherein the first transform information is obtained from the bitstream (Park [0610]: transformation information may include an index of the transformation to be used for the first transformation; [0807]: the primary conversion information applied can be explicitly signaled).
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 Choi, and further incorporate having the first transform is a transform indicated by first transform information among the predefined transforms, and wherein the first transform information is obtained from the bitstream, as taught by Park, to improve encoding efficiency and image quality (Park [0789], [0727]).
Regarding claim 5, Choi and Park disclose all limitations of claim 2.
Choi does not explicitly disclose wherein the second transform is derived based on second transform information among second transform candidates, and wherein the second transform information is obtained from the bitstream.
However, Park discloses the second transform is derived based on second transform information among second transform candidates, and wherein the second transform information is obtained from the bitstream (Park [1024]: once a transformation is determined, the transformation can be used for all channels, hence a second transform for the reference channel can be derived based on transform information; [0809]: secondary transformation information can be implicitly derived using coding decision information, which can be signaled through the bitstream as in [0800]; [0610]: transformation information may include an index of the transformation to be used for the second transformation; [0800]: a bitstream can be used to derive coding decision information of a representative channel).
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 Choi, and further incorporate having the second transform is derived based on second transform information among second transform candidates, and wherein the second transform information is obtained from the bitstream, as taught by Park, to improve encoding efficiency and image quality (Park [0789], [0727]).
Regarding claim 6, Choi and Park disclose all limitations of claim 5.
Choi does not explicitly disclose wherein the second transform information includes transform parameter information for deriving the second transform from the second transform candidates.
However, Park discloses wherein the second transform information includes transform parameter information for deriving the second transform from the second transform candidates (Park [0809]: secondary transformation information can be implicitly derived using coding decision information, which can be signaled through the bitstream as in [0800]; [0610]: transformation information may include an index of the transformation to be used for the second transformation; [0800]: a bitstream can be used to derive coding decision information of a representative channel).
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 Choi, and further incorporate having wherein the second transform information includes transform parameter information for deriving the second transform from the second transform candidates, as taught by Park, to improve encoding efficiency and image quality (Park [0789], [0727]).
Regarding claim 9, Choi and Kidani disclose all limitations of claim 1.
Choi does not explicitly disclose wherein the reference information is obtained based on application information obtained from the bitstream indicating that prediction for a channel is performed.
Park discloses wherein the reference information is obtained based on application information obtained from the bitstream indicating that prediction for a channel is performed (Park [0734]: to derive predict value of target channel using reconstructed information from other channel, which is representative channel as in [0745], Cross Component Linear Model (CCLM), Multimode Linear Model (MMLM), and MultiFilter Linear Model can be used, wherein a component can be replaced by a channel; [0773]: determining whether cross-channel prediction is determined as the coding mode of the target block involving determining whether the CCLM , which signifies cross-channel prediction, is applied to the target block; wherein a flag can be used to signal whether the CCLM is used as in [0746]-[0748]. Hence, application information from the bitstream indicating that a prediction for a channel is performed).
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 Choi, and further incorporate having wherein the reference information is obtained based on application information obtained from the bitstream indicating that prediction for a channel is performed, as taught by Park, to improve encoding efficiency and image quality (Park [0789], [0727]).
Regarding claims 10 and 15, Choi discloses a feature encoding method performed by a feature encoding apparatus, and a method for transmitting a bitstream generated by a feature encoding method, wherein the feature encoding method comprises:
reference information indicating determined reference channel is encoded into a bitstream (Choi [0282], [0099], [0004], [0092]: a feature map extracted from a neural network can include one or more channels; [0115]-[0121]: information about a feature map can be transmitted to a decoding device via a bitstream. The decoder can generate feature map using received information about the feature map; [0125]-[0127]: feature map information can include coefficients of one or more channels of a feature map; [0094]: information regarding parameters used for the feature map can be encoded in a bitstream. The encoded feature map information includes feature map conversion information as in [0112]; [0297]: inter-channel prediction can be used).
Choi does not explicitly disclose reference channel for a target channel; and based on the determined reference channel, predicting the target channel.
However, Park discloses determining at least one reference channel for a target channel; and based on the determined reference channel, predicting the target channel (Park [0734]: to derive predict value of target channel using reconstructed information from other channel, which is representative channel as in [0745], Cross Component Linear Model (CCLM), Multimode Linear Model (MMLM), and MultiFilter Linear Model can be used, wherein a component can be replaced by a channel; [0773]: determining whether cross-channel prediction is determined as the coding mode of the target block).
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 Choi, and further incorporate determining at least one reference channel for a target channel; and based on the determined reference channel, predicting the target channel, as taught by Park, to improve encoding efficiency and image quality (Park [0789], [0727]).
Regarding claim 14, Choi and Park disclose a computer-readable recording medium storing a bitstream generated by the feature encoding method of Claim 10 (Choi [0119]: generate bitstream containing information about the feature map and stores the information on a computer-readable recording medium) as discussed in claim 10 above.
Allowable Subject Matter
Claims 7-8 and 12-13 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 claims 7 and 12, the prior arts of record, taken individually or in combination fail to explicitly teach or render obvious within the context of the respective claim the feature of the target channel is predicted based on a weighted sum of reference channels to which the first transform and the second transform are applied.
as cited in claims 7 and 12.
Claims 8 and 13 are objected because they depend on objected claims 7 and 12, respectively.
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.
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/KATHLEEN V NGUYEN/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2486
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