DETAILED ACTION
This office action is in response to the application filed on 05/16/2025. Claims 1-14 have been examined.
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 .
Priority
Acknowledgement is made of applicant's claim for provisional application No. 62/932,597 filed on 11/8/2019.
Specification
The lengthy specification has not been checked to the extent necessary to determine the presence of all possible minor errors. Applicant's cooperation is requested in correcting any errors of which applicant may become aware in the specification.
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 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 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 1-14 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Tian (US 2015/0222928) in view of Lippincott (US 2005/0117815).
Regarding claim Tian discloses the following claim limitations: a decoder, the decoder comprising circuitry configured to: (Tian, paragraph 71 discloses multi-view video encoder and/or decoder; in addition paragraph 55 a combination of circuit elements that performs that function or b) software in any form, including, therefore, firmware, microcode or the like, combined with appropriate circuitry for executing that software to perform the function),
receive a bitstream (Tian, paragraph 86 discloses an input of the input buffer 410 is available as an input of the decoder 400, for receiving an input bitstream),
identify, as a function of the bitstream, a current frame (Tian, abstract paragraphs 88 and 272 discloses a bitstream is formed that includes the encoded video picture and the generated information… the function block 504 arranges each view at a particular time instance as a sub-picture in tile format… for each part of the view, the left position, in the current large decoded/encoded frame, of the cropping window in pixels or number of macroblocks; for each part of the view, the right position, in the current large decoded/encoded frame, of the cropping window in pixels or number of macroblocks),
and a sub-frame of the current frame (Tian, paragraphs 7, 60, 90 and 101 discloses the signaling section includes an encoding of generated information indicating how the multiple pictures in the accessed video picture are combined… frame_crop_left_offset[view_id[i]][j]; frame_crop_right_offset[view_id[i]][j]; frame_crop_top_offset[view_id[i]][j]; and frame_crop_bottom_offset[view_id[i]][j]),
determine a scaling constant associated with the sub-frame, wherein the scaling constant is signaled within the bitstream as a function of the sub-frame, the sub-frame being signaled by a quadruple in the bitstream (Tian, paragraphs 317 and 360-362 discloses sampling factor indicates the ratio between the original size and the sampled size of a video picture. For example, when the sampling factor is 2, the original picture size is twice as large as the sampled picture size. The picture size is usually a measure of resolution in pixels. So a horizontally downsampled picture requires a corresponding horizontal upsampling by the same factor to restore the resolution of the original video picture).
Tian does not explicitly disclose the following claim limitations: reconstruct pixel data of the sub-frame using the scaling constant; and crop the sub-frame.
However, in the same field of endeavor Lippincott discloses more explicitly the following: reconstruct pixel data of the sub-frame using the scaling constant; and crop the sub-frame (Lippincott, abstract, paragraphs 6, 31 and 45-46 discloses a graphic image that has pixels arranged in rows and columns is scaled by processing a succession of segments… to create the 4:1 downscaled image 14, an overlay process reads sixteen pixels of image 12… to create a vertically scaled image 24… in general what the PFB 34 does is vertically scale pixel segments (four pixels for a 4:1 downscaling) of the original image 22 and output the scaled pixels to the OPFB 36 i.e. reconstruction).
It would have been obvious to one with ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date to modify the teachings Tian with Lippincott to create the decoding method of Tian with the reconstruction method of Lippincott.
The reasoning being is to improve the quality of images displayed via a downscaled method (Lippincott, paragraph 6).
Regarding claim 2, Tian and Lippincott discloses the decoder of claim 1, wherein the quadaruple specifies coordinates of a corner of the sub-frame, and the width and height of the sub-frame (Tian, paragraph 143 discloses the function block 1445 sets the following syntax elements, and passes control to a function block 1450: tiling_mode; org_pic_width_in_mbs_minus1; and org_pic_height_in_mbs_minus1. The function block 1450 calls a syntax element pseudo_view_info(view_id) for each coded view, and passes control to the end block 1499).
Regarding claim 3, Tian and Lippincott discloses the decoder of claim 1, wherein the quadaruple specifies opposing vertices of a rectangular sub-frame (Tian, paragraph 233 discloses frame_crop_left_offset[view_id[i]][j], frame_crop_right_offset[view_id[i]][j], frame_crop_top_offset[view_id[i]][j], and frame_crop_bottom_offset[view_id[i]][j] specify the samples of the pictures in the coded video sequence that are part of num_part j and view_id i, in terms of a rectangular region specified in frame coordinates for output).
Regarding claim 4, Tian and Lippincott discloses the decoder of claim 1, wherein the quadruple is static over a group of pictures (Tian, paragraph 264 discloses the decision of grouping can be made based on picture type. This information of grouping is signaled in high level syntax).
Regarding claim 5, Tian and Lippincott discloses the decoder of claim 1, wherein the quadruple is dynamic over a group of pictures (Tian, paragraph 264 discloses the decision of grouping can be made based on picture type. This information of grouping is signaled in high level syntax).
Regarding claim 6, Tian and Lippincott discloses the decoder of claim 1, wherein the quadruple is signaled in a picture parameter set (Tian, paragraph 78 discloses an output of the Sequence Parameter Set (SPS) and Picture Parameter Set (PPS) inserter 340 is connected in signal communication with a third non-inverting input of the combiner 390. An output of the SEI Inserter 330 is connected in signal communication with a second non-inverting input of the combiner 390).
Regarding claim 7, Tian and Lippincott discloses the decoder of claim 1, wherein the quadruple is signaled in a sequence parameter set (Tian, paragraph 78 discloses an output of the Sequence Parameter Set (SPS) and Picture Parameter Set (PPS) inserter 340 is connected in signal communication with a third non-inverting input of the combiner 390. An output of the SEI Inserter 330 is connected in signal communication with a second non-inverting input of the combiner 390).
With regard to claim 8, claim 8 lists all the same elements and features to claim 1 as outlined above. Therefore, the same rationale that was utilized in claim 1 applies equally as well to claim 8.
Regarding claim 9, Tian and Lippincott discloses the encoder of claim 8, wherein the quadaruple specifies coordinates of a corner of the sub-frame, and the width and height of the sub-frame (Tian, paragraph 143 discloses the function block 1445 sets the following syntax elements, and passes control to a function block 1450: tiling_mode; org_pic_width_in_mbs_minus1; and org_pic_height_in_mbs_minus1. The function block 1450 calls a syntax element pseudo_view_info(view_id) for each coded view, and passes control to the end block 1499).
Regarding claim 10, Tian and Lippincott discloses the encoder of claim 8, wherein the quadaruple specifies opposing vertices of a rectangular sub-frame (Tian, paragraph 233 discloses frame_crop_left_offset[view_id[i]][j], frame_crop_right_offset[view_id[i]][j], frame_crop_top_offset[view_id[i]][j], and frame_crop_bottom_offset[view_id[i]][j] specify the samples of the pictures in the coded video sequence that are part of num_part j and view_id i, in terms of a rectangular region specified in frame coordinates for output).
Regarding claim 11, Tian and Lippincott discloses the encoder of claim 8, wherein the quadruple is static over a group of pictures (Tian, paragraph 264 discloses the decision of grouping can be made based on picture type. This information of grouping is signaled in high level syntax).
Regarding claim 12, Tian and Lippincott discloses the encoder of claim 8, wherein the quadruple is dynamic over a group of pictures (Tian, paragraph 264 discloses the decision of grouping can be made based on picture type. This information of grouping is signaled in high level syntax).
Regarding claim 13, Tian and Lippincott discloses the encoder of claim 8, wherein the quadruple is signaled in a picture parameter set (Tian, paragraph 78 discloses an output of the Sequence Parameter Set (SPS) and Picture Parameter Set (PPS) inserter 340 is connected in signal communication with a third non-inverting input of the combiner 390. An output of the SEI Inserter 330 is connected in signal communication with a second non-inverting input of the combiner 390).
Regarding claim 14, Tian and Lippincott discloses the encoder of claim 8, wherein the quadruple is signaled in a sequence parameter set (Tian, paragraph 78 discloses an output of the Sequence Parameter Set (SPS) and Picture Parameter Set (PPS) inserter 340 is connected in signal communication with a third non-inverting input of the combiner 390. An output of the SEI Inserter 330 is connected in signal communication with a second non-inverting input of the combiner 390).
Conclusion
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to JERRY T JEAN BAPTISTE whose telephone number is (571)272-6189. The examiner can normally be reached on Monday-Friday 9-5PM EST.
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/JERRY T JEAN BAPTISTE/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2481
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