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 .
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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.
Claim(s) 1-20 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Wang et al., US PGPUB No. 20200036983 A1, hereinafter Wang, in view of Tourapis et al., US PGPUB No. 20200219290 A1, hereinafter Tourapis, and further in view of He et al., US PGPUB No. 20180240276 A1, hereinafter He.
Regarding claim 15, Wang discloses an apparatus (Wang; an apparatus [¶ 0061-0062], as illustrated within Figs. 1A-B; moreover, decoding apparatus [¶ 0363], as illustrated within Fig. 17), comprising:
at least one memory and one or more processors (Wang; the apparatus [as addressed above] comprises at least one memory and one or more processors [¶ 0062], as illustrated within Fig. 1B), wherein said one or more processors are configured to:
decode one or more texture attribute atlases and one or more alpha attribute atlases from a bitstream representing media (Wang; said one or more processors [as addressed above] are configured to decode one or more texture attribute atlases and one or more alpha attribute atlases from a bitstream representing media [¶ 0198-0203]; wherein, establishing RGBA data corresponding to image file [¶ 0209-0210 and ¶ 0214-0215]); and
obtaining texture attribute and alpha attribute (Wang; obtaining texture attribute and alpha attribute [¶ 0436-0438]), from said decoded one or more texture attribute atlases and alpha attribute atlases (Wang; from said decoded [as addressed above] one or more texture attribute atlases and alpha attribute atlases [¶ 0436-0438]).
Wang fails to disclose representing a 3D scene; and
perform for each patch of a plurality of patches:
obtaining attributes for a patch; and
assigning said attributes for said patch to a corresponding portion of a corresponding plane in an MPI (Multiplane Image) cube representing said 3D scene.
However, Tourapis teaches representing a 3D scene (Tourapis; representing a 3D scene [¶ 0110 and ¶ 0114]; moreover, any 3D frame of a sequence of 3D frames of a point cloud may be specified, and the decoder may be able to identify the auxiliary information for the specified 3D frame without having to sequentially process the auxiliary information for all preceding 3D frames of the point cloud [¶ 0008]; additionally, 3D point cloud [¶ 0225]); and
perform for each patch of a plurality of patches (Tourapis; perform for each patch of a plurality of patches [¶ 0114-0116 and ¶ 0127]; wherein, one or more patch images may comprise attribute and/or spatial information of the point cloud projected onto the patch image using one or more projections [¶ 0100-0103]; moreover, packed patch image [¶ 0215-0218], as illustrated within Fig. 3B):
obtaining texture attribute and alpha attribute for a patch (Tourapis; obtaining texture attribute and implicitly alpha attribute (given several packed attributes) for a patch [¶ 0116 and ¶ 0119]; wherein, patches are packed with several attributes [¶ 0107-0108 and ¶ 0521]), from said decoded one or more texture attribute atlases and alpha attribute atlases (Tourapis; from said decoded [¶ 0102 and ¶ 0121-0122] one or more texture attribute atlas (i.e. image file) and implicit alpha attribute (given several packed attributes) atlases (i.e. image file) [¶ 0430-0432], as illustrated within Figs. 5C-D), and assigning said texture attribute and alpha attribute for said patch to a corresponding portion of a corresponding plane representing said 3D scene (Tourapis; assigning said texture attribute and alpha attribute for said patch to a corresponding portion of a corresponding plane (i.e. reconstructed point cloud) representing said 3D scene [¶ 0430-0432], as illustrated within Figs. 5C-D).
Wang and Tourapis are considered to be analogous art because both pertain to generating and/or managing data in relation with providing media data to a user, wherein one or more computerized units are utilized in order to image processing.
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing of the claimed invention was made to modify Wang, to incorporate representing a 3D scene; and perform for each patch of a plurality of patches: obtaining texture attribute and alpha attribute for a patch, from said decoded one or more texture attribute atlases and alpha attribute atlases, and assigning said texture attribute and alpha attribute for said patch to a corresponding portion of a corresponding plane representing said 3D scene (as taught by Tourapis), in order to provide efficient transmission of relatively large datasets (Tourapis; [¶ 0003]).
Wang as modified by Tourapis fails to disclose assigning said texture attribute and alpha attribute for said patch to a corresponding portion of a corresponding plane in an MPI (Multiplane Image) cube representing said 3D scene.
However, He teaches obtaining attributes for a patch (He; obtaining attributes for a patch [¶ 0041-0043], as illustrated within Fig. 2 and Fig. 4; moreover, cubemap [¶ 0051-0053]), from one or more attribute atlases (He; from one or more texture attributes atlases [¶ 0042-0043]), and assigning said texture attribute and alpha attribute for said patch to a corresponding portion of a corresponding plane in an MPI (Multiplane Image) cube representing said 3D scene (He; assigning said attributes [¶ 0055-0056] for said patch to a corresponding portion of a corresponding plane in an MPI cube representing said 3D scene [¶ 0042], as illustrated within Fig. 3 and Fig. 4).
Wang in view of Tourapis and He are considered to be analogous art because both pertain to generating and/or managing data in relation with providing media data to a user, wherein one or more computerized units are utilized in order to image processing.
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing of the claimed invention was made to modify Wang as modified by Tourapis, to incorporate obtaining attributes for a patch, from one or more attribute atlases, and assigning said texture attribute and alpha attribute for said patch to a corresponding portion of a corresponding plane in an MPI (Multiplane Image) cube representing said 3D scene (as taught by He), in order to provide enhanced virtual-reality experience and user interaction (He; [¶ 0002 and ¶ 0035-0036]).
Regarding claim 16, Wang in view of Tourapis and He further disclose the apparatus of claim 15, wherein the one or more processors (Wang; the one or more processors [as addressed within the parent claim(s)]) are further configured to:
decode metadata from said bitstream (Wang; the processor [as addressed above] configured to decode metadata from said bitstream [¶ 0070-0072, ¶ 0074, and ¶ 0077]).
Tourapis further teaches to decode (Tourapis; decoding [¶ 0012 and ¶ 0121-0122]), wherein said metadata indicates at least one of a z- plane index of each patch of said plurality of patches, position of each patch of said plurality of patches in an atlas, width and height of each patch of said plurality of patches (Tourapis; wherein said metadata/data indicates at least one of a z-plane index (i.e. depth map) of each patch of said plurality of patches, position of each patch of said plurality of patches in an atlas, width and height of each patch of said plurality of patches [¶ 0208-0209 and ¶ 0215-0218]).
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing of the claimed invention was made to modify Wang as modified by Tourapis and He, to incorporate to decode, wherein said metadata indicates at least one of a z- plane index of each patch of said plurality of patches, position of each patch of said plurality of patches in an atlas, width and height of each patch of said plurality of patches (as taught by Tourapis), in order to provide efficient transmission of relatively large datasets (Tourapis; [¶ 0003]).
Regarding claim 17, Wang in view of Tourapis and He further disclose the apparatus of claim 16, wherein said metadata further indicates at least one of a number of patches in said bitstream and which plane a patch corresponds to (Tourapis; said metadata further indicates at least one of a number of patches in said bitstream and which plane a patch corresponds to [¶ 0114-0115 and ¶ 0443]; additionally, patch data in relation with forming an image file [¶ 0215-0218]).
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing of the claimed invention was made to modify Wang as modified by Tourapis and He, to incorporate to said metadata further indicates at least one of a number of patches in said bitstream and which plane a patch corresponds to (as taught by Tourapis), in order to provide efficient transmission of relatively large datasets (Tourapis; [¶ 0003]).
Regarding claim 1, the rejection of claim 1 is addressed within the rejection of claim 15, due to the similarities claim 1 and claim 15 share, therefore refer to the rejection of claim 15 regarding the rejection of claim 1. Although, claim 1 and claim 15 may not be identical, they are considerably comparable or substantially equivalent given their overlapping subject matter. Thus, it is reasonable to reject claim 1 based on the teachings and rational in relation with the prior art within the rejection of claim 15.
Regarding claim 2, Wang in view of Tourapis and He further disclose the method of claim 1, further comprising rendering a view using MPI view synthesis (He; rendering a view using MPI view synthesis [¶ 0042 and ¶ 0060]).
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing of the claimed invention was made to modify Wang as modified by Tourapis and He, to incorporate rendering a view using MPI view synthesis (as taught by He), in order to provide enhanced virtual-reality experience and user interaction (He; [¶ 0002 and ¶ 0035-0036]).
Regarding claim 3, Wang in view of Tourapis and He further discloses the method of claim 1, wherein said one or more texture attribute atlases and one or more alpha attribute atlases are decoded by a video decoder (Wang; said one or more texture attribute atlases and one or more alpha attribute atlases are decoded [as addressed within the parent claim(s)] by a video decoder [¶ 0201-0202]).
Regarding claim 4, the rejection of claim 4 is addressed within the rejection of claim 16, due to the similarities claim 4 and claim 16 share, therefore refer to the rejection of claim 16 regarding the rejection of claim 4.
Regarding claim 5, the rejection of claim 5 is addressed within the rejection of claim 17, due to the similarities claim 5 and claim 17 share, therefore refer to the rejection of claim 17 regarding the rejection of claim 5.
Regarding claim 6, Wang in view of Tourapis and He further discloses the method of claim 1, wherein said one or more alpha attribute atlases are conveyed in an occupancy map (Tourapis; said one or more alpha attribute atlases [as addressed within the parent claim(s)] are conveyed in an occupancy map [¶ 0114 and ¶ 0118]).
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing of the claimed invention was made to modify Wang as modified by Tourapis and He, to incorporate said one or more alpha attribute atlases are conveyed in an occupancy map (as taught by Tourapis), in order to provide efficient transmission of relatively large datasets (Tourapis; [¶ 0003]).
Regarding claim 7, Wang in view of Tourapis and He further discloses the method of claim 1, wherein said one or more alpha attribute atlases are conveyed in place of a depth attribute atlas (Tourapis; said one or more implicit alpha attribute (given several packed attributes) atlases [as addressed within the parent claim(s)] are conveyed in place of a depth attribute atlas [¶ 0149-0151]).
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing of the claimed invention was made to modify Wang as modified by Tourapis and He, to incorporate said one or more alpha attribute atlases are conveyed in place of a depth attribute atlas (as taught by Tourapis), in order to provide efficient transmission of relatively large datasets (Tourapis; [¶ 0003]).
(below relies on the same prior art mentioned above, however in a different order)
Regarding claim 18, He discloses an apparatus (He; an apparatus [¶ 0010 and ¶ 0096-0097]), comprising:
at least one memory and one or more processors (He; the apparatus [as addressed above] at least one memory and one or more processors [¶ 0010 and ¶ 0097 and ¶ 0101]), wherein said one or more processors are configured to:
convert an MPI cube representing a 3D scene to a plurality of patches (He; convert an MPI cube representing a 3D scene to a plurality of patches [¶ 0041-0043]; wherein, cube mapping [¶ 0051-0052] further corresponds a cubemap representation [¶ 0053-0054]), each patch of said plurality of patches is associated with attributes (He; each patch of said plurality of patches is associated with attributes [¶ 0042-0043 and ¶ 0055-0056]); and
pack texture attributes of said plurality of patches into one or more texture attribute atlases (He; pack texture attributes of said plurality of patches into one or more texture attribute atlases and one or more alpha attribute atlases [¶ 0042-0043 and ¶ 0053-0056])
He fails to explicitly disclose each patch of said plurality of patches is associated with texture attribute and alpha attribute;
pack texture attributes and alpha attributes of said plurality of patches into one or more texture attribute atlases and one or more alpha attribute atlases;
encode said one or more texture attribute atlases and said one or more alpha attribute atlases into a bitstream.
However, Torapis teaches each patch of said plurality of patches is associated with texture attribute and alpha attribute (Torapis; each patch of said plurality of patches [¶ 0116 and ¶ 0119] is associated with texture attribute and implicitly alpha attribute (given several packed attributes) atlases (i.e. image file) [¶ 0430-0432], as illustrated within Figs. 5C-D; wherein, patches are packed with several attributes [¶ 0107-0108 and ¶ 0521]);
pack texture attributes and alpha attributes of said plurality of patches into one or more texture attribute atlases and one or more alpha attribute atlases (Torapis; pack texture attributes and implicitly alpha attribute (given several packed attributes) of said plurality of patches into one or more texture attribute atlases and one or more implicitly alpha attribute (given several packed attributes) atlases [¶ 0108, ¶ 0116-0117, and ¶ 0237]; moreover, binary occupancy map [¶ 0312]);
encode said one or more texture attribute atlases and said one or more alpha attribute atlases into a bitstream (Torapis; encode said one or more texture attribute atlases and said one or more implicitly alpha attribute (given several packed attributes) atlases into image data [¶ 0006, ¶ 0008, and ¶ 0110-0111]).
He and Tourapis are considered to be analogous art because both pertain to generating and/or managing data in relation with providing media data to a user, wherein one or more computerized units are utilized in order to image processing.
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing of the claimed invention was made to modify He, to incorporate each patch of said plurality of patches is associated with texture attribute and alpha attribute; pack texture attributes and alpha attributes of said plurality of patches into one or more texture attribute atlases and one or more alpha attribute atlases; encode said one or more texture attribute atlases and said one or more alpha attribute atlases into a bitstream (as taught by Tourapis), in order to provide efficient transmission of relatively large datasets (Tourapis; [¶ 0003]).
He as modified by Torapis fails to explicitly disclose encode into a bitstream.
However, Wang teaches encode said one or more texture attribute atlases and said one or more alpha attribute atlases into a bitstream (Wang; encode said one or more texture attribute atlases and said one or more alpha attribute atlases into a bitstream [¶ 0060, ¶ 0065, and ¶ 0070-0071]).
He in view of Tourapis and Wang are considered to be analogous art because they pertain to generating and/or managing data in relation with providing media data to a user, wherein one or more computerized units are utilized in order to image processing.
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing of the claimed invention was made to modify He as modified by Torapis, to incorporate encode said one or more texture attribute atlases and said one or more alpha attribute atlases into a bitstream (as taught by Wang), in order to provide efficient transmission of relatively large datasets (Wang; [¶ 0003-0005]).
Regarding claim 19, He in view of Torapis and Wang further discloses the apparatus of claim 18, wherein the one or more processors are further configured to:
obtain a layer of said MPI cube (He; obtain a layer of said MPI cube [¶ 0040-0043]); and
cut said layer into a plurality of sub-images (He; implicitly cut/segmenting (given the sections) said layer into a plurality of sub-images [¶ 0042-0043 and ¶ 0053-0054]; moreover, cubemap [¶ 0053-0054]), wherein each one of said plurality of sub-images corresponds to a patch (He; each one of said plurality of sub-images corresponds to a patch [¶ 0052-0054]), and wherein RGB and alpha information of a sub-image is assigned to a corresponding patch (He; information of a sub-image is assigned to a corresponding patch [¶ 0056-0057]).
Torapis further teaches patches (Torapis; patches associated within formatted image data [¶ 0100-0101]; moreover, patch image layers [¶ 0184-0193]).
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing of the claimed invention was made to modify He as modified by Torapis and Wang, to incorporate patches (as taught by Tourapis), in order to provide efficient transmission of relatively large datasets (Tourapis; [¶ 0003]).
Wang further teaches RGBA layer (Wang; RGBA layer [¶ 0060 and ¶ 0066-0069]); and
wherein each one of said plurality of sub-images corresponds to a file, and wherein RGB and alpha information of a sub-image is assigned to a corresponding file (Wang; each one of said plurality of sub-images corresponds to a file, and wherein RGB and alpha information of a sub-image is assigned to a corresponding file [¶ 0076-0080]; wherein sub-images corresponds to frames of an image [¶ 0083-0086]).
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing of the claimed invention was made to modify He as modified by Torapis and Wang, to incorporate RGBA layer; and wherein each one of said plurality of sub-images corresponds to a file, and wherein RGB and alpha information of a sub-image is assigned to a corresponding file (as taught by Wang), in order to provide efficient transmission of relatively large datasets (Wang; [¶ 0003-0005]).
Regarding claim 20, the rejection of claim 20 is addressed within the rejection of claim 16, due to the similarities claim 20 and claim 16 share, therefore refer to the rejection of claim 16 regarding the rejection of claim 20. Although, claim 20 and claim 16 may not be identical, they are considerably comparable or substantially equivalent given their overlapping subject matter. However, the subject matter/limitations not addressed by claim 16 is/are addressed below.
Wang teaches encode metadata into said bitstream (Wang; encode metadata into said bitstream [¶ 0070-0071]).
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing of the claimed invention was made to modify He as modified by Torapis, to incorporate encode metadata into said bitstream (as taught by Wang), in order to provide efficient transmission of relatively large datasets (Wang; [¶ 0003-0005]).
(further refer to the rejection of claim 16)
Regarding claim 8, the rejection of claim 8 is addressed within the rejection of claim 18, due to the similarities claim 8 and claim 18 share, therefore refer to the rejection of claim 18 regarding the rejection of claim 8. Although, claim 8 and claim 18 may not be identical, they are considerably comparable or substantially equivalent given their overlapping subject matter. Thus, it is reasonable to reject claim 8 based on the teachings and rational in relation with the prior art within the rejection of claim 18.
Regarding claim 9, the rejection of claim 9 is addressed within the rejection of claim 19, due to the similarities claim 9 and claim 19 share, therefore refer to the rejection of claim 19 regarding the rejection of claim 9.
Regarding claim 10, the rejection of claim 10 is addressed within the rejection of claim 3, due to the similarities claim 10 and claim 3 share, therefore refer to the rejection of claim 3 regarding the rejection of claim 10.
Regarding claim 11, the rejection of claim 11 is addressed within the rejection of claim 20, due to the similarities claim 11 and claim 20 share, therefore refer to the rejection of claim 20 regarding the rejection of claim 11.
Regarding claim 12, the rejection of claim 12 is addressed within the rejection of claim 17, due to the similarities claim 12 and claim 17 share, therefore refer to the rejection of claim 17 regarding the rejection of claim 12.
Regarding claim 13, the rejection of claim 13 is addressed within the rejection of claim 6, due to the similarities claim 13 and claim 6 share, therefore refer to the rejection of claim 6 regarding the rejection of claim 13.
Regarding claim 14, the rejection of claim 14 is addressed within the rejection of claim 7, due to the similarities claim 14 and claim 7 share, therefore refer to the rejection of claim 7 regarding the rejection of claim 14.
Conclusion
The prior art made of record and not relied upon is considered pertinent to applicant's disclosure:
(regarding cube-map projection)
Oh et al. (US PGPUB No. 20190379877 A1);
Tourapis et al. (US PGPUB No. 2020031443 A1);
Bala et al. (US PGPUB No. 20170161917 A1); and
Hannuksela (US PGPUB No. 20220239949 A1).
The prior art made of record and not relied upon is considered pertinent to applicant's disclosure. Refer to PTO-892, Notice of Reference Cited for a listing of analogous art.
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to Charles Lloyd Beard whose telephone number is (571)272-5735. The examiner can normally be reached Monday - Friday, 8:00 AM - 5: 00 PM, alternate Fridays EST.
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If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner’s supervisor, Tammy Goddard can be reached at (571) 272-7773. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300.
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CHARLES LLOYD. BEARD
Primary Examiner
Art Unit 2611
/CHARLES L BEARD/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2611
Prosecution Insights