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 .
Remarks
This communication is in response the Application filed on 09/05/2025. Claims 1-15 were originally filed. Applicant filed Preliminary Amendment on 09/05/2025. Claims 1, 4-8, 10, 13 and 14 have been amended. Claim 15 has been cancelled. Claims 16-21 have been added. Claims 1-14 and 16-21 are currently pending.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 102
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 the appropriate paragraphs of 35 U.S.C. 102 that form the basis for the rejections under this section made in this Office action:
A person shall be entitled to a patent unless –
(a)(2) the claimed invention was described in a patent issued under section 151, or in an application for patent published or deemed published under section 122(b), in which the patent or application, as the case may be, names another inventor and was effectively filed before the effective filing date of the claimed invention.
Claims 1, 3-4, 10, 12-13, and 17-18 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(2) as being anticipated by XU et al. (US 2022/0086447 A1, hereinafter “Xu”).
Regarding claim 1. (Currently Amended) Xu discloses a video decoding device (0008), comprising:
a processor (0466; Figure 30) configured to:
obtain, for a video block, a first intra prediction signal associated with a first prediction mode (0340-0380; “[0341] 1. Intra prediction and IBC prediction may be both used to generate prediction for a block.”);
obtain, for the video block, a second intra prediction signal associated with a block-vector based prediction mode (0340-0380; “[0341] 1. Intra prediction and IBC prediction may be both used to generate prediction for a block.”);
determine a first weight associated with the first intra prediction signal and a second weight associated with the second intra prediction signal (0340-0380; “[0352] b. A block's prediction may be generated by weighted averaging intra prediction and IBC prediction signals.”);
generate a prediction sample associated with the video block based on the first intra prediction signal, the second intra prediction signal, the first weight associated with the first intra prediction signal, and the second weight associated with the second intra prediction signal (0340-0380; “[0352] b. A block's prediction may be generated by weighted averaging intra prediction and IBC prediction signals.”); and
decode the video block based on the predicted sample (0262 and 0352).
Regarding claim 3. (Original) The video decoding device of claim 1, wherein the block-vector based prediction mode is intra block copy (IBC) (0352; “[0352] b. A block's prediction may be generated by weighted averaging intra prediction and IBC prediction signals.”).
Regarding claim 4. (Currently Amended) The video decoding device of claim 1, wherein the prediction sample associated with the video block is generated based on the first weight applied to the first intra prediction signal and the second weight applied to the second intra prediction signal (0352; “[0352] b. A block's prediction may be generated by weighted averaging intra prediction and IBC prediction signals.”).
Regarding claims 10, and 12-13. (Currently Amended/Original) Method claims 10, and 12-13 are drawn to the method of using the corresponding device claimed in claims 1 and 3-4. Therefore method claims 10, and 12-13 correspond to device claims 1, and 3-4 are rejected for same reasons of anticipation as used above.
Regarding claims 17 and 18. (New) The video encoding device claims 17 and 18 are drawn to the reverse of the video encoding device of using the corresponding video decoding device claimed in claims 1 and 4, and are rejected for same reasons of anticipation as used above.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 102
The following is a quotation of the appropriate paragraphs of 35 U.S.C. 102 that form the basis for the rejections under this section made in this Office action:
A person shall be entitled to a patent unless –
(a)(1) the claimed invention was patented, described in a printed publication, or in public use, on sale, or otherwise available to the public before the effective filing date of the claimed invention.
Claims 1-2, 4-11, and 13-21 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(1) as being anticipated by Seregin et al. (QUALCOMM): “Exploration experiment on enhanced compression beyond VVC capability (EE2)”, 29. JVET MEETING; 20230111 - 20230120; TELECONFERENCE; (THE JOINT VIDEO EXPLORATION TEAM OF ISO/IEC JTC1/SC29/WG11 AND ITU-T SG. 16 ), no. JVET-AC2024 ; m62414 20 February 2023 (2023-02-20), hereinafter “Seregin”.
Regarding claim 1. (Currently Amended) Seregin discloses a video decoding device (sections 1 and 2), comprising:
a processor (Implicit) configured to:
obtain, for a video block, a first intra prediction signal associated with a first prediction mode (Page 16, Test 1.18; “This contribution proposes re-using and extending CIIP with intra only prediction. That is, replacing the inter-part by a similar intra prediction process.”);
obtain, for the video block, a second intra prediction signal associated with a block-vector based prediction mode (Page 16, Test 1.18; “This contribution proposes re-using and extending CIIP with intra only prediction. That is, replacing the inter-part by a similar intra prediction process.”);
determine a first weight associated with the first intra prediction signal and a second weight associated with the second intra prediction signal (Page 16, Test 1.17; “the prediction block is the weighted sum of two prediction signals generated by IntraTMP and intra prediction, in which the intra prediction mode derived by TIMD is used for intra prediction. A CU flag is signalled whether the proposed method is used.”);
generate a prediction sample associated with the video block based on the first intra prediction signal, the second intra prediction signal, the first weight associated with the first intra prediction signal, and the second weight associated with the second intra prediction signal (Page 16, Tests 1.17 and 1.18; “This contribution proposes re-using and extending CIIP with intra only prediction. That is, replacing the inter-part by a similar intra prediction process.”); and
decode the video block based on the predicted sample (Page 16, Test 1.18; “This contribution proposes re-using and extending CIIP with intra only prediction. That is, replacing the inter-part by a similar intra prediction process”).
Regarding claim 2. (Original) Xu discloses the video decoding device of claim 1, wherein the block-vector based prediction mode is intra template matching prediction (IntraTMP) (Page 16, Test 1.18; “This test proposes extending CIIP with intra only prediction. This is done by re-using the same fusion of CIIP and replace inter part by IntraTMP prediction.”).
Regarding claim 4. (Currently Amended) The video decoding device of claim 1, wherein the prediction sample associated with the video block is generated based on the first weight applied to the first intra prediction signal and the second weight applied to the second intra prediction signal (Page 16, Test 1.17; “the prediction block is the weighted sum of two prediction signals generated by IntraTMP and intra prediction, in which the intra prediction mode derived by TIMD is used for intra prediction. A CU flag is signalled whether the proposed method is used.”).
Regarding claim 5. (Currently Amended) The video decoding device of claim 1, wherein the first weight and the second weight are determined based on whether IntraTMP is associated with one or more of a first block neighboring the video block and a second block neighboring the video block (Page 13, Test 1.11; “In this test, a fusion method of IntraTMP is investigated where the fusion weights are derived by template costs or fixed values. The number of fused blocks is determined by a threshold and up to 3 candidate blocks could be fused. If there is only one block selected for fusion, the final predictor is a fusion of the selected matched block and the intra predictor derived by Planar mode. In this test, the search procedure of IntraTMP follows what is proposed in JVET-AC0068. The non-modified search procedure is also tested.”).
Regarding claim 6. (Currently Amended) The video decoding device of claim 1, wherein the first intra prediction signal is associated with a most probable mode (MPM) list of the video block, and wherein the processor is further configured to:
sort a plurality of MPM modes in the MPM list based on a respective cost associated with each MPM mode (pages 18-19; Test 1.22); and
determine the first prediction mode based on the sorted plurality of MPM modes, wherein the first intra prediction signal is obtained based on the first prediction mode (pages 18-19; Test 1.22; “Test 1.22: Template-based intra MPM list construction (JVET-AC0120). In the test, the MPM list is constructed by the following three steps: 1. The first entry in the general MPM list is always planar mode., 2. The next entries are composed of the intra modes of neighbouring blocks as shown in Figure 1 of JVET-AC0120, and DIMD modes, which are sorted in ascending order of SAD cost. Up to 5 modes with the smallest SAD cost are added. The SAD cost is computed between the prediction and the reconstruction samples of the template., and 3. The sorted directional modes with added offset are added into the general MPM list, and then the default modes, until the general MPM list with 22 entries is constructed.”).
Regarding claim 7. (Currently Amended) The video decoding device of claim 6, wherein the processor is further configured to:
obtain an index associated with the MPM list, wherein the first prediction mode is determined based on the index and the sorted plurality of MPM (pages 18-19; Test 1.22; “Test 1.22: Template-based intra MPM list construction (JVET-AC0120). … For the signalling part, MPM list is equally divided into four groups and the group index is parsed first. Then, a mode index is further parsed to indicate which mode in the selected group is used.”).
Regarding claim 8. (Currently Amended) The video decoding device of claim 1, wherein the processor is further configured to:
obtain a plurality of block vectors and an index (page 13; Test 1.10; “Test 1.10: Multi-candidate IntraTMP (JVET-AC0068)”); and
select a block vector from the plurality of block vectors based on the index, wherein the second intra prediction signal is obtained based on the selected block vector (page 13; Test 1.10; “Test 1.10: Multi-candidate IntraTMP (JVET-AC0068) … In the proposed multi-candidate IntraTMP method, a candidate list is constructed with the candidate BVs ranked in ascending order of their template matching costs, and the index of selected candidate is signalled in the bitstream.”).
Regarding claim 9. (Original) The video decoding device of claim 8, wherein the plurality of block vectors comprise at least one of:
a plurality of block vectors obtained by performing intra template matching prediction (IntraTMP) on the video block; or a plurality of block vectors obtained from at least one block neighboring the video block (page 13; Test 1.10; “Test 1.10: Multi-candidate IntraTMP (JVET-AC0068) … In the proposed multi-candidate IntraTMP method, a candidate list is constructed with the candidate BVs ranked in ascending order of their template matching costs, and the index of selected candidate is signalled in the bitstream.”).
Regarding claims 10-11, 13-14 and 16. (Currently Amended/Original/New) Method claims 10-11 and 13-16 are drawn to the method of using the corresponding device claimed in claims 1-2, and 4-6. Therefore method claims 10-11, 13-14 and 16 correspond to device claims 1-2, and 4-6 are rejected for same reasons of anticipation as used above.
Regarding claims 17-21. (New) The video encoding device claims 17-21 are drawn to the reverse of the video encoding device of using the corresponding video decoding device claimed in claims 1 and 4-7, and are rejected for same reasons of anticipation as used above.
Conclusion
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to ASMAMAW G TARKO whose telephone number is (571)272-7493. The examiner can normally be reached M-F: 8am-5pm EST.
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/ASMAMAW G TARKO/ Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2482
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