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 .
Claim Interpretation
Patentable weight is given to data stored on a computer-readable medium when there exists a functional relationship between the data and its associated substrate. MPEP 2111.05 III. For example, if a claim is drawn to a computer-readable medium containing programming, a functional relationship exists if the programming “performs some function with respect to the computer with which it is associated.” Id. However, if the claim recites that the computer-readable medium merely serves as a support for information or data, no functional relationship exists and the information or data is not given patentable weight. Id.
Claim 15 is directed to a non-transitory computer-readable storage medium storing a bitstream generated by steps outlined in the claim. These steps are not performed by an intended computer, and the bitstream is not a form of programming that causes functions to be performed by an intended computer. This shows that the computer-readable medium merely serves as support for the bitstream and provides no functional relationship between the steps/elements that describe the generation of the bitstream and intended computer system. Therefore, those claim elements are not given patentable weight.
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.
Claim(s) 1-15 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(2) as being anticipated by Kim et al. (US 20240333923 A1).
Re claim 1, Kim discloses an image decoding method performed by an apparatus, the method comprising:
generating reference motion information for at least one block included in a current picture, based on at least one of: pixel data of at least one reconstructed picture, or motion information of the at least one reconstructed picture (Kim: paragraph [0123]);
obtaining motion information for a current block among the at least one block included in the current picture, based on the reference motion information and at least one syntax information obtained from a bitstream (Kim: paragraphs [0115] and [0133]); and
reconstructing the current block, based on the motion information for the current block (Kim: paragraph [0134]).
Re claim 2, Kim discloses that
the generating of the reference motion information for the at least one block included in the current picture comprises:
generating the reference motion information for the at least one block included in the current picture based on inputting at least one of: the pixel data of the at least one reconstructed picture, or the motion information of the at least one reconstructed picture to a neural network (Kim: paragraphs [0243]-[0246]; paragraph [0249]).
Re claim 3, Kim discloses that the motion information for the current block includes at least one of first motion vector information, second motion vector information, first prediction list utilization information, second prediction list utilization information, or prediction mode information (Kim: paragraph [0084]).
Re claim 4, Kim discloses
performing at least one of:
aggregating the reference motion information, scaling the reference motion information, or transforming a format of the reference motion information (Kim: paragraph [0191], the image decoding apparatus may derive the motion vector of the decoding target block through the sum of the entropy-decoded MVD and the motion vector candidate).
Re claim 5, Kim discloses that
the generating of the reference motion information for the at least one block included in the current picture comprises:
down-sampling the at least one reconstructed picture (Kim: paragraph [0229]); and
generating the reference motion information for the at least one block included in the current picture, based on at least one of: pixel data of the downsampled reconstructed picture or motion information of the downsampled reconstructed picture (Kim: paragraphs [0243]-[0246]; paragraph [0249]).
Re claim 6, Kim discloses that the obtaining of the motion information for the current block comprises:
based on a time interval between the reconstructed picture and the current picture being equal to or greater than a certain value, excluding the reference motion information from a motion information candidate for the current block (Kim: paragraph [0087], the merge index may indicate a block from which a merge candidate has been derived, among reconstructed blocks spatially/temporally adjacent to a current block).
Re claim 7, Kim discloses that the generating of the reference motion information for the at least one block included in the current picture comprises:
based on reference picture resampling being applied, downsampling the at least one reconstructed picture, based on a reference picture of low resolution (Kim: paragraph [0229]).
Re claim 8, Kim discloses generating motion information for an additional picture based on performing interpolation or extrapolation, based on the motion information of the at least one reconstructed picture (Kim: paragraph [0180], When a sample that is not usable as a reference sample of the current block is present, a value obtained by duplicating or performing interpolation on at least one sample value of samples included in the reconstructed neighboring block or both may be used as replacement for the sample that is not usable as the reference sample and may be used as the reference sample of the current block).
Re claim 9, Kim discloses the at least one syntax information includes information indicating whether the reference motion information is used to obtain the motion information for the current block (Kim: paragraph [0115]).
Re claim 10, Kim discloses that the obtaining of the motion information for the current block comprises:
constructing a merge candidate list including the reference motion information (Kim: paragraph [0196]); and
obtaining the motion information for the current block, based on the merge candidate list (Kim: paragraph [0198]).
Re claim 11, Kim discloses that the reference motion information includes motion information at a location corresponding to:
an x-coordinate based on adding half a width of the current block to an upper left sample location of the current block in a map of the reference motion information (Kim: paragraph [0229], upper left position is (0, 0) position), and
a y-coordinate based on adding half a height of the current block to the upper left sample location of the current block in the map of the reference motion information (Kim: paragraph [0229], upper left position is (0, 0) position).
Re claim 12, Kim discloses that the obtaining of the motion information for the current block comprises:
dividing the current block into a plurality of subblocks (Kim: paragraph [0193]); and
assigning the reference motion information to the plurality of subblocks (Kim: paragraph [0193]), and
wherein the reconstructing of the current block comprises performing motion compensation on a subblock, based on reference motion information for the subblock (Kim: paragraph [0189], prediction mode may include a subblock merge mode).
Re claim 13, Kim discloses that
the obtaining of the motion information for the current block comprises obtaining a plurality of control point motion vectors for the current block, based on the reference motion information (Kim: paragraph [0200]), and
the reconstructing of the current block comprises performing motion compensation on a subblock of the current block based on the plurality of the control point motion vectors for the current block (Kim: paragraph [0200]).
Claim 14 recites the corresponding image encoding method for generating the encoded bitstream decoded by the method of claim 1. Kim discloses both encoding (Kim: Fig. 1; paragraph [0001]) and decoding (Kim: Fig. 2; paragraph [0001]). Therefore, arguments analogous to those presented for claim 1 are applicable to claim 14. Accordingly, claim 14 has been analyzed and rejected with respect to claim1 above.
Re claim 15, Kim discloses a recording medium storing a bitstream generated by the image encoding method/decoding apparatus of the present disclosure (Kim: paragraph [0001]).
Contact
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to CHRISTOPHER G FINDLEY whose telephone number is (571)270-1199. The examiner can normally be reached Monday-Friday 9AM-5PM.
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If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner’s supervisor, Chris Kelley can be reached at (571)272-7331. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300.
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/CHRISTOPHER G FINDLEY/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2482
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