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 . 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 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. There are a total of 20 claims and claims 1-20 are pending.
Information Disclosure Statement
The information disclosure statement (IDS) submitted on 07/15/2025 is in compliance with the provisions of 37 CFR 1.97. Accordingly, the information disclosure statement is being considered by the examiner.
Priority
Acknowledgment is made of applicant’s claim for foreign priority under 35 U.S.C. 119 (a)-(d) which papers have been placed of record in the file.
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.
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 and 7-8 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Chen et al. (US 2024/0015319; filed Nov. 10, 2022) in view of TAKAHASHI et al. (US 2019/0238881).
Regarding claim 1, Chen discloses an image decoding method, comprising([see in Fig. 26-28]-image decoding method): determining a co-located block for temporal motion vector prediction of a current block([para 0040]- In response to the reference picture of the motion information candidate being the one of the plurality of collocated pictures, the processing circuitry determines a collocated block in the one of the plurality of collocated pictures based on the motion information candidate of the current block); deriving a block vector from the co-located block([abstract]- A first collocated block in a first collocated picture is determined based on a first displacement vector candidate of the current block corresponding to a first SbTMVP candidate); deriving a motion vector of the current block based on the block vector([abstract]- decodes a current block in a current picture with a subblock-based temporal motion vector prediction (SbTMVP) mode).
However, Chen does not explicitly discloses generating a prediction signal of the current block by performing inter prediction based on the motion vector of the current block.
In an analogous art, TAKAHASHI discloses generating a prediction signal of the current block by performing inter prediction based on the motion vector of the current block([para 0441;0731]- the motion compensating unit 211-1 determines whether or not a mode of a prediction motion vector is temporal prediction based on the inter prediction information. When a mode of a prediction motion vector is determined to be temporal prediction, the process proceeds to step S1635). Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to provide the technique of TAKAHASHI to the modified system of Chen an image processing device and method which are capable of suppressing an increase in a storage capacity necessary for encoding and decoding [Chen; paragraph 0002].
Regarding claim 7, the claim is interpreted and rejected for the same reason as set forth in claim 1. Hence; all limitations for claim 7 have been met in claim 1.
Regarding claim 8, the claim is interpreted and rejected for the same reason as set forth in claim 1. Hence; all limitations for claim 8 have been met in claim 1; Chen discloses deriving a residual signal of the current block based on the prediction signal([para 0086]-generating residual signal or residual sample); generating a bitstream by encoding the residual signal([para 0072; 0086-0087]-bitstream is being generated by encoding); and transmitting the image data including the bitstream([para 0072]- The encoded video data can be transmitted in the form of one or more coded video bitstreams). Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to provide the technique of TAKAHASHI to the modified system of Chen an image processing device and method which are capable of suppressing an increase in a storage capacity necessary for encoding and decoding [Chen; paragraph 0002].
Claim 2 is rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Chen in view of TAKAHASHI as applied to claim 1 above and further in view of Pang et al.( US 2016/0105670 A1).
Regarding claim 2, the combination of Chen and TAKAHASHI do not explicitly disclose wherein the co-located block is a block encoded in an intra block copy (IBC) mode.
In an analogous art, Pang discloses wherein the co-located block is a block encoded in an intra block copy (IBC) mode([para 0168;0170]- when both IBC mode and TMVP are enabled, for the merge process, if the co-located block is an IBC block, video encoder 20 and/or video decoder 30 may consider the co-located IBC block as available without checking whether the first reference picture in each reference picture list is a long-term reference picture or a short-term reference picture). Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to provide the technique of Pang to the modified system of Chen and TAKAHASHI techniques for motion vector and block vector prediction in video coding. The techniques may be used for blocks of video data coded relative to a predictive block in another frame of video data and for blocks of video data coded relative to a predictive block in the same frame of video data (e.g., a block coded according to an intra block copy mode) [Pang; para 0006 ].
Claim 3 is rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Chen in view of TAKAHASHI as applied to claim 1 above and further in view of Deng et al.(US 2025/0330589 A1).
Regarding claim 3, the combination of Chen and TAKAHASHI do not explicitly disclose wherein the co-located block is a block encoded in a template matching-based intra mode.
In an analogous art, Deng discloses wherein the co-located block is a block encoded in a template matching-based intra mode([para 0617;0669; claim 3]- wherein whether a block vector of the N×N luma subblock of the collocated luma block is available is dependent on whether the N×N subblock is coded with at least one of: an intra block copy (IBC) mode or an intra template matching prediction (IntraTMP) mode). Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to provide the technique of Deng to the modified system of Chen and TAKAHASHI a method and technique to direct block vector mode for chroma prediction in image/video coding for improve coding efficiency and coding performance [Deng; para 0002].
Claims 4-5 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Chen in view of TAKAHASHI and Deng as applied to claim 1 and 3 above and further in view of Kang et al.( US 2026/0019572 A1).
Regarding claim 4, the combination of Chen, TAKAHASHI and Deng do not explicitly disclose wherein the block vector is derived based on a position difference between the co-located block and a reference block for the template matching of the co-located block.
In an analogous art, Kang discloses wherein the block vector is derived based on a position difference between the co-located block and a reference block for the template matching of the co-located block([claim text 8 and 15]- a block co-located with the current block in a reference frame of the current block, a reference block indicated by a motion vector of the current block, or a prediction block searched for in a current frame according to template matching based on a template of the current block). Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to provide the technique of Kang to the modified system of Chen, TAKAHASHI and Deng a video coding method using an in-loop filter adaptive to various types of noise and characteristics which will improve coding efficiency by about 30% or more compared to HEVC [Kang; abstract].
Regarding claim 5, Kang discloses wherein a reference picture of the current block is substituted with a co-located picture to which the co-located block belongs([claim text 8 and 15]- a block co-located with the current block in a reference frame of the current block, a reference block indicated by a motion vector of the current block, or a prediction block searched for in a current frame according to template matching based on a template of the current block).
Claim 6 is rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Chen in view of TAKAHASHI as applied to claim 1 above and further in view of Lim et al.( US Pat. No. 10,244,252 B2).
Regarding claim 6, the combination of Chen and TAKAHASHI do not explicitly disclose wherein the motion vector of the current block is derived by applying a predetermined scaling factor to the block vector, and wherein the scaling factor is derived based on at least one of a first picture order count (POC) difference between a current picture to which the current block belongs and a reference picture of the current block or a second POC difference between a co-located picture to which the co-located block belongs and the reference picture of the current block.
In an analogous art, Lim discloses wherein the motion vector of the current block is derived by applying a predetermined scaling factor to the block vector, and wherein the scaling factor is derived based on at least one of a first picture order count (POC) difference between a current picture to which the current block belongs and a reference picture of the current block or a second POC difference between a co-located picture to which the co-located block belongs and the reference picture of the current block([claim 1]- a reference picture buffer to store a reference picture; and one or more processors to calculate a scaling factor based on a picture order count of the reference picture, clip the scaling factor in a first predetermined range, scale a motion vector of the reference picture based on the clipped scaling factor, clip the scaled motion vector of the reference picture in a second predetermined range, and generate a prediction block based on the reference picture and the clipped scaled motion vector of the reference picture, wherein the motion vector of the reference picture is determined as a motion vector of a collocated block in the reference picture). Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to provide the technique of Lim to the modified system of Chen and TAKAHASHI a method for clipping a motion vector of a reference picture and for transmitting information on a motion vector which will reduce a size of a memory required for storing motion vectors [Lim; abstract].
Citation of Pertinent Prior Art
The prior art are made of record and not relied upon but considered pertinent to applicant’s disclosure:
1. SUGIO et al., US 2016/0050432 A1, discloses a moving picture coding method and a moving picture decoding method.
2. Li et. al., US 2013/0170550 A1, discloses video encoding and decoding, and in particular, to representative motion information for use in video encoding and decoding.
3. Lim et al., US 2013/0294522 A1, discloses an image processing, and more particularly, to a video coding/decoding method using a clipped motion vector and an apparatus thereof.
4. Oh et al., US 2016/0381383 A1, discloses an apparatus for decoding a moving picture, and more particularly, to an apparatus for constructing a motion vector list by using a candidate of a spatial motion vector and a candidate of a temporal motion vector, decoding a motion vector of a current prediction unit by using a received motion vector index, and decoding the moving picture encoded in inter prediction mode.
5. Park et al., US Application/Control Number: 19/269,569 Page 10
Art Unit: 2487A1, a method and apparatus for decoding an image, which can improve image compression efficiency.
Conclusion
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to MD NAZMUL HAQUE whose telephone number is (571)272-5328. The examiner can normally be reached IFW.
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/MD N HAQUE/ Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2487
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