DETAILED ACTION
Claims 1-15 are pending for examination.
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 statement (IDS) was submitted on 09/03/2025. 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 § 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.
Claims 1, 4, 6, 9, 14 and 15 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Lim et al, US 20250274581 A1 (Lim), in view of Urban et al, US 20220303526 A1 (Urban).
Regarding Claim 1, Lim discloses an image decoding method performed by an image decoding apparatus, comprising: obtaining at least one motion information for a current block (Lim ¶ [1603]– A...motion vector indicating a reference block corresponding to each partitioned region may be the sum of the predictive motion vector and the motion vector difference) to which a geometry partitioning mode (GPM) is applied (Lim ¶ [1603]– Partitioned regions in a target block may be determined by the partitioning mode of GPM);
However, Lim does not explicitly disclose based on a neighboring area of at least one reference block represented by the motion information and a neighboring area of the current block, deriving compensation information related to compensation of the reference block; and based on the compensation information, generating prediction samples of the current block.
Urban teaches based on a neighboring area of at least one reference block represented by the motion information and a neighboring area of the current block (Urban Fig. 5B– Neighboring area of reference block and neighboring area of current block; Urban Fig. 6– Collect reference-0 samples in L-shape (310); Get reconstructed samples in L-shape (320)), deriving compensation information related to compensation of the reference block (Urban ¶ [0054]– When this tool is activated and LIC flag is true, the decoder computes some prediction parameters based on ...the corresponding reference picture samples located on the left and/or on the top of the reference block; Urban Fig. 6– Compute LIC-0 parameters (eq.2) (330); Compute LIC-1 parameters (eq.2) (335));
and based on the compensation information, generating prediction samples of the current block (Urban ¶ [0054]– When this tool is activated and LIC flag is true, the decoder computes some prediction parameters ...of the current block ...; Urban Fig. 6– Compute pred_0 with LIC-0 (eq.3) (340); Compute pred_1 with LIC-1 (eq.3) (345); Combine pred_0 and pred_1 (350)).
Therefore, it 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 to modify Lim to incorporate deriving compensation information as taught by Urban.
One would be motivated to combine Urban’s deriving of compensation information to increase compression efficiency and processing efficiency (Urban ¶ [0009]– provide improvements to a video encoding and/or decoding system including … increased compression efficiency and/or coding efficiency and/or processing efficiency and/or decreased complexity).
Regarding Claim 4, Lim in combination, further discloses the method according to Claim 1, wherein the neighboring area of the current block is determined based on a partitioning direction of the GPM (Lim Fig. 27 ¶ [1250]– As illustrated in FIG. 27, the template region may be partitioned into the first partial template region and the second partial template region by applying any one of available partitioning modes of GPM to a template region adjacent to the target block).
Regarding Claim 6, Lim in combination, further discloses the method according to Claim 1, wherein the neighboring area of the current block includes an adjacent area adjacent to a top or a left of the current block (Lim Fig. 27– template region (i.e., neighboring area) is adjacent to the top-left of target block (i.e., current block)).
Regarding Claim 9, Lim discloses wherein the current block includes a first block and a second block partitioned by the GPM, and wherein based on the first block and the second block having a triangular shape partitioned in an up-rightward diagonal direction (Lim Fig. 48– Shows a first partitioned region (P0) and a second partitioned region (P1) having a triangular shape partitioned in an up-rightward diagonal direction).
However, Lim does not explicitly disclose compensation information for the second block is not derived.
Urban teaches compensation information for the second block is not derived (Urban Fig. 12; ¶ [0088]– In the case of the triangle configuration example shown at the bottom left of FIG. 12, both “top-samples” and “left-samples” sets are used for triangle “c” and LIC-flag is inferred to be false for the triangle “d”).
Therefore, it 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 to modify Lim to incorporate compensation information for the second block is not derived as taught by Urban.
One would be motivated to combine Urban’s non-deriving of compensation information to increase compression efficiency, processing efficiency and decreased complexity. Please see motivation of Claim 1.
With regard to claim 14, the claim limitations are essentially the same as Claim 1 but in a different embodiment. Therefore, the rational used to reject Claim 1 is applied to Claim 14.
Furthermore, Lim discloses an image encoding method (Lim ¶ [0808]– The embodiment may be a part of a…video encoding method) performed by an image encoding apparatus (Lim ¶ [0806]– Hereinafter, a processing unit may represent the processing unit 1610 of the encoding apparatus 1600).
With regard to claim 15, the claim limitations are essentially the same as Claim 1 but in a different embodiment. Therefore, the rational used to reject Claim 1 is applied to Claim 15.
Furthermore, Lim discloses s method for transmitting a bitstream generated by an image encoding method (Lim ¶ [0599]– the encoding apparatus 100 may transmit a bitstream including predefined information to the decoding apparatus 200.).
Claims 2, 3, 10, 11 and 12 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Lim, in view of Urban, and further in view of Han et al, US 20210076029 A1 (Han).
Regarding Claim 2, Lim and Urban teach the method of Claim 1, as outlined above.
Lim in view of Urban teaches of the neighboring area of the current block or of the neighboring area of the reference block (Urban Fig. 5B– Neighboring area of reference block and neighboring area of current block).
Therefore, it 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 to modify Lim to incorporate neighboring areas as taught by Urban.
One would be motivated to combine Urban’s neighboring areas to increase compression efficiency and processing efficiency. Please see motivation of Claim 1.
However, Lim in view of Urban does not explicitly disclose wherein the compensation information includes scale information applied to a luma value of the neighboring area of the current block or a luma value of the neighboring area of the reference block.
Han teaches wherein the compensation information includes scale information applied to a luma value (Han ¶ [0093]– video encoder 20 may use the same scaling factors for the ...luma component, and may use a ...offset value).
Therefore, it 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 to modify Lim to incorporate applying scale information to a luma value as taught by Han.
One would be motivated to combine Han’s application of scaling information to a luma value to achieve even more compression (Han [0005]– to achieve even more compression).
Regarding Claim 3, Lim and Urban teach the method of Claim 2, as outlined above.
Lim in view of Urban teaches of the neighboring area of the current block or of the neighboring area of the reference block (Urban Fig. 5B– Neighboring area of reference block and neighboring area of current block).
Therefore, it 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 to modify Lim to incorporate neighboring areas as taught by Urban.
One would be motivated to combine Urban’s neighboring areas to increase compression efficiency and processing efficiency. Please see motivation of Claim 1.
However, Lim in view of Urban does not explicitly disclose wherein the compensation information further includes offset information applied to a luma value to which the scale information is applied among the luma value of the neighboring area of the current block or the luma value of the neighboring area of the reference block.
Han teaches wherein the compensation information further includes offset information applied to a luma value to which the scale information is applied among the luma value (Han [0093]– video encoder 20 may use the same scaling factors for the ...luma component, and may use a ...offset value).
Therefore, it 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 to modify Lim to incorporate applying offset information to a luma value as taught by Han.
One would be motivated to combine Han’s application of offset information to a luma value to achieve even more compression. Please see the motivation of Claim 2.
Regarding Claim 10, Lim and Urban teach the method of Claim 1, as outlined above.
However, Lim does not explicitly disclose wherein deriving the compensation information is performed based on application information obtained from a bitstream representing that compensation is applied.
Han teaches wherein deriving the compensation information is performed based on application information obtained from a bitstream representing that compensation is applied (Han [0103]– LIC can be enabled or disabled, and the enabled/disabled status may map to the value of a flag of each inter-mode CU).
Therefore, it 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 to modify Lim to incorporate deriving the compensation information based on application information as taught by Han.
One would be motivated to combine Han’s deriving the compensation information based on application information to achieve even more compression. Please see the motivation of Claim 2.
Regarding Claim 11, Lim and Urban teach the method of Claim 10, as outlined above. In addition, Lim discloses wherein the current block includes a first block and a second block (Lim ¶ [0009]– A first subblock and a second subblock for the target block may be determined) partitioned by the GPM (Lim ¶ [0012]– A reference region for the target block may be partitioned into a first reference region and a second reference region based on intersection points between an extended line of a partition boundary and a reference pixel line), to the first block and to the second block (Lim ¶ [0009]– A first subblock and a second subblock for the target block may be determined).
However, Lim does not explicitly disclose and wherein the application information includes first application information representing whether compensation is applied and second application information representing whether compensation is applied.
Han teaches and wherein the application information includes first application information representing whether compensation is applied (Han [0103]– LIC can be enabled or disabled, and the enabled/disabled status may map to the value of a flag of each inter-mode CU) and second application information representing whether compensation is applied (Han [0103]– LIC can be enabled or disabled, and the enabled/disabled status may map to the value of a flag of each inter-mode CU).
Therefore, it 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 to modify Lim to incorporate application information representing whether compensation is applied to the two blocks as taught by Han.
Although the application information is of the same kind, one of ordinary skill in the art would understand that applying Han’s application information independently to each of Lim’s two subblocks would achieve the result of a first application information representing whether compensation is applied to the first block and a second application information representing whether compensation is applied to the second block. One would be motivated to combine Han’s application information representing whether compensation is applied to achieve even more compression. Please see the motivation of Claim 2.
Regarding Claim 12, Lim and Urban teach the method of Claim 10, as outlined above. In addition, Lim discloses wherein the current block includes a first block and a second block (Lim ¶ [0009]– A first subblock and a second subblock for the target block may be determined) partitioned by the GPM (Lim ¶ [0012]– A reference region for the target block may be partitioned into a first reference region and a second reference region based on intersection points between an extended line of a partition boundary and a reference pixel line), among the first block or the second block (Lim ¶ [0009]– A first subblock and a second subblock for the target block may be determined).
However, Lim does not explicitly disclose wherein the application information includes third application information representing whether compensation is applied to the current block and fourth application information representing a block to which compensation is applied, and wherein the fourth application information is obtained based on the third application information representing that compensation is applied to the current block.
Han teaches wherein the application information includes third application information representing whether compensation is applied to the current block (Han [0093]– Video encoder 20 may encode an IC flag for each PU, where the IC flag indicates whether or not IC applies for a current PU) and fourth application information representing a block to which compensation is applied (Han [0093]– IC applies for the current PU…video encoder 20 may signal a set of IC parameters (i.e., a and b) to video decoder 30. The IC parameters are used for motion compensation), and wherein the fourth application information is obtained based on the third application information representing that compensation is applied to the current block (Han [0093]– If IC applies for the current PU (i.e., if the IC flag is set to a true value for the current PU), then video encoder 20 may signal a set of IC parameters (i.e., a and b) to video decoder 30. The IC parameters are used for motion compensation.).
Therefore, it 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 to modify Lim to incorporate third and fourth application information as taught by Han.
One would be motivated to combine Han’s application information to achieve even more compression. Please see the motivation of Claim 2.
Claim 5 is rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Lim, in view of Urban, and further in view of Liao et al, US 20200404267 A1 (Liao).
Regarding Claim 5, Lim and Urban teach the method of Claim 4, as outlined above. In addition, Lim discloses wherein the neighboring area of the current block (Lim Fig. 27– template region neighbors the target block (i.e., current block) and includes a partitioning mode).
However, Lim does not explicitly disclose is determined further based on a partitioning offset of the GPM.
Liao teaches is determined further based on a partitioning offset of the GPM (Liao [0145]– If geometric partitioning mode is used for the current CU, then a geometric partition index indicating the partition mode of the geometric partition (angle and offset),...are further signalled).
Therefore, it 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 to modify Lim to incorporate a determination based on a partitioning offset of the GPM as taught by Liao.
One would be motivated to combine Liao’s a determination based on a partitioning offset of the GPM to provide better compression performance (Liao ¶ [0028]– provide better compression performance).
Claim 7 is rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Lim, in view of Urban, and further in view of Chen et al, US 20180359483 A1 (Chen).
Regarding Claim 7, Lim and Urban teach the method of Claim 6, as outlined above.
However, Lim does not explicitly disclose wherein based on the adjacent area being positioned only on any one of the top or the left of the current block, the neighboring area of the current block further includes a non-adjacent area that is not adjacent to the current block, and wherein the non-adjacent area is positioned in a same direction as the adjacent area among the top or the left of the current block.
Chen discloses wherein based on the adjacent area being positioned only on any one of the top or the left of the current block, the neighboring area of the current block further includes a non-adjacent area that is not adjacent to the current block, and wherein the non-adjacent area is positioned in a same direction as the adjacent area among the top or the left of the current block (Chen Fig. 15– The legend identifies non-adjacent and reconstructed blocks (white) which are positioned above and to the left of current block 1502, extending in the same directions as the adjacent and reconstructed blocks (1500)).
Therefore, it 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 to modify Lim to incorporate a non-adjacent area as taught by Chen.
One would be motivated to combine Chen’s inclusion of a non-adjacent area to improve motion vector prediction and video compression efficiency (Chen ¶ [0055]– This disclosure describes techniques that may improve motion vector prediction, and thereby potentially improve video compression efficiency, by more fully using reconstructed motion vector information).
Claim 8 is rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Lim, in view of Urban, and further in view of Liao et al, US 20220329824 A1 (Liao).
Regarding Claim 8, Lim and Urban teach the method of Claim 6, as outlined above. In addition, Lim discloses and wherein based on an area adjacent to the left of the current block including an area adjacent only to a left of the first block and an area adjacent only to a left of the second block, the neighboring area of the first block further includes the area adjacent only to the left of the second block (Lim Fig. 28– Shows an l-shaped template region (i.e., neighboring region) which is adjacent to the target block (i.e., current block) and is partitioned into two blocks that have areas adjacent only to the two partitioned blocks to the left).
However, Lim does not explicitly disclose wherein the current block includes a first block and a second block partitioned by the GPM, wherein based on an area adjacent to the top of the current block including an area adjacent only to a top of the first block and an area adjacent only to a top of the second block, a neighboring area of the first block further includes the area adjacent only to the top of the second block.
Liao discloses wherein the current block includes a first block and a second block partitioned by the GPM, wherein based on an area adjacent to the top of the current block including an area adjacent only to a top of the first block and an area adjacent only to a top of the second block (Liao [0139]– As shown in FIG. 15B, For the first partition 1510B...top templates 1511B are used for refining motion. For the second partition 1520B, only the top template 1521B is used…), a neighboring area of the first block further includes the area adjacent only to the top of the second block (Liao [0139]– As shown in FIG. 15B...For the second partition 1520B, only the top template 1521B is used…).
Therefore, it 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 to modify Lim to incorporate adjacent areas to the top of partitioned blocks as taught by Liao.
One would be motivated to combine Liao’s inclusion of adjacent areas to the top of partitioned blocks to improve encoding efficiency (Liao ¶ [0580]– additional information that enables the motion information of the target block to be derived using the motion information of reconstructed neighbor blocks may be encoded … and encoding efficiency may be improved).
Claim 13 is rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Lim, in view of Urban and Han, and further in view of Wang et al, US 20250350760 A1 (Wang).
Regarding Claim 13, Lim and Urban teach the method of Claim 12, as outlined above.
However, Lim does not explicitly disclose wherein based on a size of the first block being greater than a size of the second block, the application information does not include the fourth application information.
Wang teaches wherein based on a size of the first block being greater than a size of the second block, the application information does not include the fourth application information. (Wang [0514]– if the second sub- has a size smaller than the size of the current block, then the decoding end performs the search in a part of area in the current block to obtain a second motion vector…).
Therefore, it 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 to modify Lim to incorporate block size comparison as taught by Wang.
Although Wang performs a different operation based on the block size comparison, one of ordinary skill in the art would understand that application information associated with the non-selected operation would be omitted, thereby achieving the claimed omission of the fourth application information. One would be motivated to combine Wang’s block size comparison technique to achieve more autonomous combinations (Wang ¶ [0172] The advantage of GPM is that more autonomous combinations may be achieved …).
Conclusion
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to CHRISTIAN P MCFALL whose telephone number is (571)270-0773. The examiner can normally be reached Monday Friday, 8 a.m. 5 p.m. ET..
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/C.P.M./ Examiner, Art Unit 2483
/JOSEPH G USTARIS/ Supervisory Patent Examiner, Art Unit 2483
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