DETAILED ACTION
This office action is in response to the application filed on 06/05/2025. Claims 21-56 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. 63/009,931 filed on 04/14/2020.
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 § 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) 21-56 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102 (a)(2) as being anticipated by Oh (US 2022/0060529).
Regarding claim 21, Oh discloses a video decoding device comprising: a processor configured to: determine a plurality of atlas tile tracks associated with an atlas track of a volumetric content (Oh paragraphs 1036 and 1113 discloses The V-PCC track according to the embodiments is a track carrying the volumetric visual information in the V-PCC bitstream, which includes the atlas sub-bitstream and the sequence parameter sets (or V-PCC parameter sets… TrackGroupTypeBox with track_group_type equal to ‘vctg’ indicates that this track belongs to a group of tracks carrying V-PCC component bitsream or atlas sub-bitstream that is associated with the viewport camera parameter information),
determine a first set of tile identifiers (IDs) associated with a first atlas tile track of the plurality of atlas tile tracks and a second set of tile IDs associated with a second atlas tile track of the plurality of atlas tile tracks; identify a first atlas tile track sample associated with the first set of tile IDs wherein the first atlas tile track sample comprises a first set of atlas network abstraction layer (NAL) units associated with the first set of tile IDs; identify a second atlas tile track sample associated with the second set of tile IDs, wherein the second atlas tile track sample comprises a second set of atlas NAL units associated with the second set of tile IDs;obtain the first set of atlas NAL units associated with the first set of tile IDs and the second set of atlas NAL units associated with the second set of tile IDs (Oh paragraphs 617 and 1119 discloses The V-PCC track according to the embodiments is a track carrying the volumetric visual information in the V-PCC bitstream, which includes the atlas sub-bitstream and the sequence parameter sets (or V-PCC parameter sets… A V-PCC track which contains V-PCC parameter sets and atlas sub-bitstream parameter sets (in the sample entry) and samples carrying atlas sub-bitstream NAL units. This track also includes track references to other tracks carrying the payloads of video compressed V-PCC units),
and decode the first set of atlas NAL units and the second set of atlas NAL units to reconstruct the volumetric content (Oh paragraph 910 discloses the value of the lengthSizeMinusOne field plus 1 may indicate that the length in bytes of the NALUnitLenght field included in the VPCCDecoderConfigurationRecord or the V-PCC sample of a stream to which the VPCCDecoderConfigurationRecord is applied. For example, the size of 1 byte is indicated by ‘0’. The value of this field is the same as the value of the ssnh_unit_size_precision_bytes_minus1 field in sample_stream_nal_header( ) for the atlas substream).
Regarding claim 22, Oh discloses the device of claim 21, wherein the first set of tile IDs or the second set of tile IDs are indicated in a tile group configuration IDs (Oh paragraphs 617 and 1119 discloses the claimed limitation).
Regarding claim 23, Oh discloses the device of claim 21, wherein the first atlas tile track sample or the second atlas tile track sample is identified using a tile group sample entry (Oh paragraphs 1170-1171 discloses A V-PCC bitstream sample entry includes a VPCCConfigurationBox… Under the ‘vpe1’ sample entry, all atlas sequence parameter sets, atlas adaptation parameter sets, atlas frame parameter sets, V-PCC essential SEI or V-PCC non-essential SEIs may be in the setupUnit array. Under the ‘vpeg’ sample entry, atlas sequence parameter sets, atlas frame parameter sets, atlas adaptation parameter sets, V-PCC essential SEI or V-PCC non-essential SEIs may be present in this array, or in the stream).
Regarding claim 24, Oh discloses the device of claim 21, wherein the processor is further configured to: obtain a first set of component tracks associated with a first set of tiles and a second set of component tracks associated with a second set of tiles, wherein the first set of component tracks indicates component information associated with the first set of tiles and the second set of component tracks indicates component information associated with the second set of tiles (Oh paragraphs 617 and 1119 discloses The V-PCC track according to the embodiments is a track carrying the volumetric visual information in the V-PCC bitstream, which includes the atlas sub-bitstream and the sequence parameter sets (or V-PCC parameter sets… A V-PCC track which contains V-PCC parameter sets and atlas sub-bitstream parameter sets (in the sample entry) and samples carrying atlas sub-bitstream NAL units. This track also includes track references to other tracks carrying the payloads of video compressed V-PCC units),
and decode the first set of atlas NAL units and the second set of atlas NAL units further based on the component information associated with the first set of tiles and the component information associated with the second set of tiles (Oh paragraph 910 discloses the value of the lengthSizeMinusOne field plus 1 may indicate that the length in bytes of the NALUnitLenght field included in the VPCCDecoderConfigurationRecord or the V-PCC sample of a stream to which the VPCCDecoderConfigurationRecord is applied. For example, the size of 1 byte is indicated by ‘0’. The value of this field is the same as the value of the ssnh_unit_size_precision_bytes_minus1 field in sample_stream_nal_header( ) for the atlas substream).
Regarding claim 25, Oh discloses the device of claim 24, wherein the component information associated with the first set of tiles and the component information associated with the second set of tiles indicates at least one of occupancy information, geometry information, or attribute information (Oh paragraph 171 discloses point cloud data according to the embodiments represents PCC data according to video-based point cloud compression (V-PCC) scheme. The point cloud data may include a plurality of components. For example, it may include an occupancy map, a patch, geometry and/or texture).
Regarding claim 26, Oh discloses the device of claim 21, wherein the processor is further configured to receive a timed- metadata track associated with the atlas track (Oh paragraph 402 discloses the claimed limitation).
Regarding claim 27, Oh discloses the device of claim 26, wherein the timed-metadata track indicates viewport information associated with the atlas track, wherein the viewport information indicates an extrinsic or an intrinsic camera parameter associated with a viewport (Oh, abstract discloses the file further includes signaling data, the signaling data includes at least one parameter set and viewport-related information, and the viewport-related information includes at least first viewport information or second viewport information).
Regarding claim 28, Oh discloses the device of claim 26, wherein the timed-metadata track indicates spatial region information associated with the atlas track, wherein the spatial region information indicates a mapping of a spatial region to a set of tiles associated with the first atlas tile track or the second atlas tile track (Oh paragraph 933 discloses 3D SpatialRegionStruct(dimensions_included_flag), dimensions_included_flag is a flag indicating whether dimensions of the 3D spatial region are signaled. That is, the 3D spatial region information includes CuboidRegionStruct( ) when the value of the dimensions_included_flag field is ‘true’).
Regarding claim 29, Oh discloses the device of claim 21, wherein the reconstructed volumetric content comprises a point cloud sequence associated with a spatial region, wherein the spatial region is associated with a viewport of a user (Oh paragraph 117 discloses the viewport information may be information about a region of the point cloud video that the user is viewing. A viewpoint (or orientation) is a point where a user is viewing a point cloud video and may refer to a center point of the viewport region).
With regards to claims 30-56, claims 30-56 lists all the same features and elements to claims 21-29 as outlined above. Therefore, the same rationale that was utilized in claims 21-29 applies equally as well to claims 30-56.
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 Monday-Friday 9-5PM EST.
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If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner’s supervisor, William Vaughn can be reached at 571-272-3922. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300.
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/JERRY T JEAN BAPTISTE/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2481
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