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 .
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.
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 1-20 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over US 20190246103 to Jun (“Jun”) in view of US 20220182657 to Yang (“Yang”).
Regarding Claim 1: “A method of decoding video data, the method comprising:
determining a reference picture list for a current block of a current picture of the video data; (“Motion information of a current block may be … included in a reference picture list.” Jun, Paragraph 132. See similarly in Yang, Paragraph 4.)
determining that a reference picture of a collocated block is listed in the reference picture list for the current block, the collocated block being collocated with the current block in a collocated picture; (“The temporal merge candidate of the current block may be determined in consideration of the current block and the reference picture list ( or prediction direction) of the co-located block.” Jun, Paragraphs 175, 132. See similarly in Yang, Paragraph 6.)
selecting, in a condition where the reference picture of the collocated block is listed in the reference picture list for the current block, a reference picture for the current block to be the reference picture of the collocated block; and (“The motion information of the current block may be derived by using motion information of a reconstructed neighboring block, motion information of a collocated block” thus enabling the use of the reference picture of the collocated block. Jun, Paragraphs 132, 175. “In addition, the decoder may select a block having a reference picture the same as that of the current block,” Jun, Paragraph 365.
Jun describes existence of the condition, but does not explicitly describe checking the “condition where the reference picture of the collocated block is listed in the reference picture list for the current block.”
Yang teaches this step in the context of encoding and decoding motion information of a block based on neighboring and co-located blocks: “In an example, on a condition that a symmetric reference picture exists in the second reference picture list, the first merge candidate may be selected to derive the symmetric merge candidate.” Yang, Paragraph 6.
Therefore, before the effective filing date of the claimed invention, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art to supplement the teachings of Jun to check the condition that a particular reference picture exists in the reference picture list as taught in Yang, in order to check if the desired reference picture is a viable reference picture for the present block. Yang, Paragraph 6.
Finally, in reviewing the present application, there does not seem to be objective evidence that the claim limitations are particularly directed to: addressing a particular problem which was recognized but unsolved in the art, producing unexpected results at the level of the ordinary skill in the art, or any other objective indicators of non-obviousness.)
decoding the current block based on the reference picture for the current block.” (“Motion information of a current block may be derived during inter-picture prediction by each of the encoding apparatus 100 and the decoding apparatus 200.” Jun, Paragraph 132.)
Regarding Claim 2 “The method of claim 1, wherein the reference picture for the current block is a reference picture for a temporal motion vector predictor.” (“Motion information of a current block may be derived during inter-picture prediction by each of the encoding apparatus 100 and the decoding apparatus 200.” Jun, Paragraph 132.)
Regarding Claim 3: “The method of claim 1, further comprising:
determining a temporal motion vector predictor candidate based on the reference picture for the current block; and (“The temporal merge candidate of the current block may be determined in consideration of the current block and the reference picture list” Jun, Paragraphs 175, 132-134. See similarly in Lee, Column 34, lines 4-5, 26-28.)
adding the temporal motion vector predictor candidate to a motion vector predictor candidate list, (“at least one of motion vectors of the reconstructed neighboring blocks, motion vectors of the co-located blocks, motion vectors of blocks adjacent to the co-located blocks, and a (0, 0) motion vector may be determined as motion vector candidates for the current block, and a motion vector candidate list is generated by using the emotion vector candidates.” Jun, Paragraph 134.)
wherein decoding the current block based on the reference picture for the current block comprises decoding the current block based on the motion vector predictor candidate list.” (“The motion vector candidate of the current block can be derived by using the generated motion vector candidate list.” Jun, Paragraph 134.)
Regarding Claim 4: “The method of claim 1, further comprising:
determining a subblock-based temporal motion vector predictor candidate based on the reference picture for the current block; and (“the motion information of the sub-block of the co-located block can be used as the temporal merge candidate of the current block” Jun, Paragraph 168.)
adding the subblock-based temporal motion vector predictor candidate to a motion vector predictor candidate list, (“at least one of motion vectors of the reconstructed neighboring blocks, motion vectors of the co-located blocks, motion vectors of blocks adjacent to the co-located blocks, and a (0, 0) motion vector may be determined as motion vector candidates for the current block, and a motion vector candidate list is generated by using the emotion vector candidates.” Jun, Paragraph 134. Here, “the encoder/decoder may determine motion information of any one sub-block among the sub-blocks of the co-located block of the current block as the temporal merge candidate of the current block.” Jun, Paragraph 165.)
decoding the current block based on the reference picture for the current block comprises decoding the current block based on the motion vector predictor candidate list.” (“The motion vector candidate of the current block can be derived by using the generated motion vector candidate list.” Jun, Paragraph 134.)
Regarding Claim 5: “The method of claim 1, further comprising:
determining a first picture order count (POC) distance between the collocated picture and the reference picture of the collocated block; (“a picture order count (POC) difference value td between a POC of the co-located picture and a POC of the reference picture of the co-located block” Jun, Paragraph 187.)
determining a third POC distance between the current picture and the reference picture of the collocated block, the first POC distance and the third POC distance being different; and (“POC difference tb between a POC of the current picture and a POC of the reference picture of the current block,” indicating a different determination basis. Jun, Paragraph 187.)
determining that a second POC distance between the current picture and at least one potential reference picture listed in the reference picture list of the current block is closer to the first POC distance than the third POC distance, (“Before performing the scaling, the td and the tb may be adjusted such that each of the tb and the td falls within a predetermined range.” Jun, Paragraph 188. “in accordance with a ratio of a POC difference value td between a POC of the co-located block and a POC of the reference picture of the co-located block and a POC difference value tb between a POC of the current block and a POC of the reference picture of the current block.” Jun, Paragraph 298.)
wherein selecting the reference picture of the current block to be the reference picture of the collocated block is further in a condition where the first POC distance and the third POC distance are different and in a condition where the second POC distance is closer to the first POC distance than the third POC distance.” (Prior art teaches operating in a condition “in accordance with a ratio of a POC difference value td between a POC of the co-located block and a POC of the reference picture of the co-located block and a POC difference value tb between a POC of the current block and a POC of the reference picture of the current block,” in which second POC distance may be closer than the first POC distance. Jun, Paragraph 298.)
Regarding Claim 6: “The method of claim 1, wherein the reference picture list is a first reference picture list, the current block is a first current block, the current picture is a first current picture, the collocated block is a first collocated block, the collocated picture is a first collocated picture, the method further comprising:
determining a second reference picture list for a second current block of a second current picture of the video data; and (“Motion information of a current block may be … included in a reference picture list.” Jun, Paragraph 132. See similarly in Lee, Column 34, lines 4-5, 26-28. This can be performed for multiple coding blocks in the picture. See Jun, Paragraphs 121 and 132.)
selecting, as a reference picture for the second current block, a first available reference picture listed in the second reference picture list for the second current block that is identical to the reference picture of the collocated block or has a same picture order count (POC) distance from the second current picture as the POC distance between the collocated picture and the reference picture of the collocated block.” (“The motion information of the current block may be derived by using motion information of a reconstructed neighboring block, motion information of a collocated block … Here, information on the co-located picture may be at least any one of an inter-picture prediction indicator, a reference picture index, and motion vector information. … spatial merge candidate having an identical inter-picture prediction indicator and/or an identical reference picture.” Jun, Paragraphs 132, 157, 179. Also note using the reference information of a co-located block when “2) When the block C' and the block N' within the co-located picture have an equal td,” corresponding to equal POC distances, and “6) When the motion vector of the block N' in the co-located picture and the motion vector of the block C use a same reference picture.” Jun, Paragraphs 313-323.)
Regarding Claim 7: “The method of claim 1, wherein the reference picture list is a first reference picture list, the current block is a first current block, the current picture is a first current picture, the collocated block is a first collocated block, the collocated picture is a first collocated picture, the method further comprising:
determining a second reference picture list for a second current block of a second current picture of the video data; (“Motion information of a current block may be … included in a reference picture list.” Jun, Paragraph 132. See similarly in Lee, Column 34, lines 4-5, 26-28. This can be performed for multiple coding blocks in the picture. See Jun, Paragraphs 121 and 132.)
determining that a reference picture of a second collocated block is not listed in the second reference picture list for the second current block, the second collocated block being collocated with the second current block in a second collocated picture; and (“the combined merge candidate may mean a merge candidate derived by combining the motion information of merge candidates that are not listed in the merge candidate list,” Jun, Paragraph 199.)
determining, in a condition where the reference picture of the second collocated block is not listed in the second reference picture list for the second current block, the reference picture of the second current block to be a maximum overlap reference picture, the maximum overlap reference picture being a potential reference picture listed in the second reference picture list of the second current block (“the combined merge candidate may mean a merge candidate derived by combining the motion information of merge candidates that are not listed in the merge candidate list, in which the merge candidates that are not listed in the merge candidate list may include a derived temporal merge candidate from a block from which at least one temporal or spatial merge candidate can be derived, and include … , and a merge candidate having a predetermined motion information value, which are generated based on the derived temporal merge candidate and the derived spatial merge candidate.” Jun, Paragraph 199.)
[a potential reference picture listed in the second reference picture list of the second current block] having a highest number of pictures between the potential reference picture and the second current picture that overlap pictures between the reference picture of the second collocated block and the second collocated picture.” (Jun does not provide this example selection. Yang teaches this feature in the context of using co-located pictures in generating motion vector candidates. See Yang, Fig. 6 in which the col_ref picture with a POC distance to the col_pic that ovelaps the curr_ref and the curr_pic and has the highest illustrated number of pictures to the current picture curr_pic. See statement of motivation in Claim 1.)
Regarding Claim 8: “The method of claim 7, further comprising:
determining that the reference picture of the second collocated block has a different POC distance from the second current picture as the POC distance between the second collocated picture and the reference picture of the second collocated block; and (“a picture order count (POC) difference value td between a POC of the co-located picture and a POC of the reference picture of the co-located block.” Further, “POC difference tb between a POC of the current picture and a POC of the reference picture of the current block,” indicating a different determination basis. Jun, Paragraph 187.)
determining that a second POC distance between the second current picture and at least one potential reference picture listed in the second reference picture list of the second current block is closer to a first POC distance between the second collocated picture and the reference picture of the second collocated block than a third POC distance between the second current picture and the reference picture of the second collocated block, (“Before performing the scaling, the td and the tb may be adjusted such that each of the tb and the td falls within a predetermined range.” Jun, Paragraph 188. “in accordance with a ratio of a POC difference value td between a POC of the co-located block and a POC of the reference picture of the co-located block and a POC difference value tb between a POC of the current block and a POC of the reference picture of the current block.” Jun, Paragraph 298.)
wherein determining the reference picture of the second current block to be the maximum overlap reference picture is further in a condition where the reference picture of the second collocated block has the different POC distance from the second current picture as the POC distance between the second collocated picture and the reference picture of the second collocated block and in a condition where the second POC distance is closer to the first POC distance than the third POC distance.” (Prior art teaches operating in a condition “in accordance with a ratio of a POC difference value td between a POC of the co-located block and a POC of the reference picture of the co-located block and a POC difference value tb between a POC of the current block and a POC of the reference picture of the current block,” in which second POC distance may be closer than the first POC distance. Jun, Paragraph 298.)
Regarding Claim 9: “The method of claim 7, further comprising
determining that the reference picture of the second collocated block has a different POC distance from the second current picture as the POC distance between the second collocated picture and the reference picture of the second collocated block, (“a picture order count (POC) difference value td between a POC of the co-located picture and a POC of the reference picture of the co-located block.” Further, “POC difference tb between a POC of the current picture and a POC of the reference picture of the current block,” indicating a different determination basis. Jun, Paragraph 187.)
wherein determining the reference picture of the second current block to be the maximum overlap reference picture is further in a condition where the reference picture of the second collocated block has a different POC distance from the second current picture as the POC distance between the second collocated picture and the reference picture of the second collocated block.” (Prior art teaches operating in a condition “in accordance with a ratio of a POC difference value td between a POC of the co-located block and a POC of the reference picture of the co-located block and a POC difference value tb between a POC of the current block and a POC of the reference picture of the current block,” in which second POC distance may be closer than the first POC distance. Jun, Paragraph 298.)
Claim 10: “A device for decoding video data,” is rejected for reasons stated for Claim 1, and because prior art teaches:
“the device comprising: one or more memories for storing the video data; and (“The computer-readable recording medium may include stand-alone or a combination of program instructions, data files, data structures, etc. … Examples of the computer-readable recording medium include magnetic recording media such as hard disks, floppy disks, and magnetic tapes; optical data storage media such as CD-ROMs or DVD-ROMs; magneto-optimum media such as floptical disks; and hardware devices, such as read-only memory (ROM), random-access memory (RAM), flash memory, etc.,” Jun, Paragraph 386.)
one or more processors operatively coupled to the one or more memories, the one or more processors configured to: …” (“The embodiments of the present invention may be implemented in a form of program instructions, which are executable by various computer components, and recorded in a computer-readable recording medium.” Jun, Paragraph 386.)
Claims 11-18 are rejected for reasons stated for Claims 2-9 respectively in view of the Claim 10 rejection.
Regarding Claim 19: “The device of claim 10, comprising at least one of a camera configured to capture the video data or a display configured to display decoded video data.” (“The processor 118 may further be coupled to other peripherals 138, which may include … a digital camera (for photographs and/or video),” Yang, Paragraph 55. Cumulatively, “The system 400 can provide an output signal to various output devices, including a display 475,” Yang, Paragraph 112. See statement of motivation in Claim 1.)
Claim 20, “A device for encoding video data,” is rejected for reasons stated for Claims 1 and 10, and because prior art teaches the method of Claim 1 in the context where “Motion information of a current block may be derived during inter-picture prediction by each of the encoding apparatus 100 and the decoding apparatus 200.” Jun, Paragraph 132.)
Conclusion
The prior art made of record and not relied upon is considered pertinent to applicant's disclosure.
US 12368878 to Lee (“Lee”) is relevant for teaching prediction of a current block based on motion information of a co-located block.
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/MIKHAIL ITSKOVICH/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2483
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