DETAILED ACTION
This office action is in response to the application filed on 07/01/2025. Claims 1-20 are pending and are 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
Applicant's claim for the benefit of a prior-filed application under 35 U.S.C. 119(e) or under 35 U.S.C. 120, 121, or 365(c) is acknowledged.
Information Disclosure Statement
The reference(s) listed on the Information Disclosure Statement(s) submitted on 07/01/2025 has/have been considered by the examiner (see attached PTO-1449).
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 101
35 U.S.C. 101 reads as follows:
Whoever invents or discovers any new and useful process, machine, manufacture, or composition of matter, or any new and useful improvement thereof, may obtain a patent therefor, subject to the conditions and requirements of this title.
Claim 20 is rejected under 35 U.S.C. 101 because the claimed invention is directed to non-statutory subject matter. The claim(s) does/do not fall within at least one of the four categories of patent eligible subject matter.
In Claim 20, “A computer-readable storage medium” is recited in the claim. However, it appears that one of ordinary skill in the art could interpret a computer-readable storage medium as nothing more than encompassing a signal only, and thus, as a signal, per se. Furthermore, there is no language in the claim or Specification by which the claim elements can be made functional and statutory. A claim to a computer storage media that encompasses a signal covers a non-statutory embodiment (signal, per se), and thus is directed to non-statutory subject matter. See MPEP § 2106. As such, a person of ordinary skill in the art would interpret the limitations to mean merely a computer-readable storage medium encompassing a signal only, which is non-statutory.
Therefore, the examiner suggests amending the claim to recite - - A non-transitory computer-readable storage medium - - .
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.
Claims 1-2, 11-12, and 20 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Zhang et al., US Patent Application Publication No.: 2024/0323436 A1, hereby Zhang, in view of G-PPC 2nd Edition codec description (06/21/2022), hereby GPPC.
Zhang discloses the invention substantially as claimed. Regarding Claims 1, 11, and 20, Zhang discloses a decoding method, an encoding method, and a computer-readable storage medium (Figs. 1-6; see also Figs. 7-10), comprising:
“determining planar structure information of neighborhood nodes of a current node (Figs. 1-3, and [0049]-[0050], [0054]-[0057], [0063], and [0084]-[0086], disclosing determining a context of a to-be-encoded subnode based on determined occupancy information (i.e., planar structure information) of reference node(s), which may be neighboring nodes; Figs. 4-5, [0117]-[0112] and [0125]-[0128], disclosing coplanar neighboring nodes with associated occupancy cases (i.e., planar structure information) in relation to the current to-be-encoded subnode of the current node, and final context determinations; Fig. 6, and [0130]-[0132] and [0148]-[0154], further disclosing context of a to-be-decoded subnode based on occupancy information (i.e., planar structure information); see also [0105]-[0115] and [0159]-[0166], further disclosing occupancy cases of the neighboring node and context determinations; see also Figs. 7-10);
determining context indication information of the current node according to the planar structure information of the neighborhood nodes (Figs. 1-3, and [0049]-[0050], [0054]-[0057], [0063], and [0084]-[0086], disclosing determining a context of a to-be-encoded subnode based on determined occupancy information (i.e., planar structure information) of reference node(s), which may be neighboring nodes; Figs. 4-5, [0117]-[0112] and [0125]-[0128], disclosing coplanar neighboring nodes with associated occupancy cases (i.e., planar structure information) in relation to the current to-be-encoded subnode of the current node, and final context determinations; Fig. 6, and [0130]-[0132] and [0148]-[0154], further disclosing context of a to-be-decoded subnode based on occupancy information (i.e., planar structure information); see also [0105]-[0115] and [0159]-[0166], further disclosing occupancy cases of the neighboring node and context determinations; see also Figs. 7-10);
determining . . . context information according to the context indication information (Figs. 1-3, and [0049]-[0050], [0054]-[0057], [0063], and [0084]-[0086], disclosing determining a context of a to-be-encoded subnode based on determined occupancy information (i.e., planar structure information) of reference node(s), which may be neighboring nodes; Figs. 4-5, [0117]-[0112] and [0125]-[0128], disclosing coplanar neighboring nodes with associated occupancy cases (i.e., planar structure information) in relation to the current to-be-encoded subnode of the current node, and final context determinations; Fig. 6, and [0130]-[0132] and [0148]-[0154], further disclosing context of a to-be-decoded subnode based on occupancy information (i.e., planar structure information); see also [0105]-[0115] and [0159]-[0166], further disclosing occupancy cases of the neighboring node and context determinations; see also Figs. 7-10); and
decoding a bitstream based on the . . . context information to determine . . . position information of the current node (Figs. 1-3, and [0049]-[0050], [0054]-[0057], [0063], and [0084]-[0086], disclosing determining a context of a to-be-encoded subnode based on determined occupancy information (i.e., planar structure information) of reference node(s), which may be neighboring nodes; Figs. 4-5, [0117]-[0112] and [0125]-[0128], disclosing coplanar neighboring nodes with associated occupancy cases (i.e., planar structure information) in relation to the current to-be-encoded subnode of the current node, and final context determinations; Fig. 6, and [0130]-[0132] and [0148]-[0154], further disclosing context of a to-be-decoded subnode based on occupancy information (i.e., planar structure information); see also [0105]-[0115] and [0159]-[0166], further disclosing occupancy cases of the neighboring node and context determinations; see also Figs. 7-10).”
However, although Zhang suggests the claimed target context information to determine planar position information of the current node, GPPC does expressly disclose the following:
“. . . ;
determining target context information (page 40, ctxIdx) according to the context indication information (page 40, context selection for Planar Flag and Plane Position Coding; see also Sections 4.4.2-4.4.3, all of the planar flags; see also page 31, disclosing occupied child nodes of current node; see also page 33, disclosing a current node; see also page 32, disclosing decoded from the bitstream); and
decoding a bitstream based on the target context information to determine planar position information of the current node (page 40, ctxIdx; page 40, context selection for Planar Flag and Plane Position Coding; see also Sections 4.4.2-4.4.3, all of the planar flags; see also pages 31-34, disclosing occupied child nodes of current node; see also page 32, disclosing decoded from the bitstream).”
Accordingly, before the effective filing date, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art, having the teachings of Zhang and GPPC (hereby Zhang-GPPC), to modify a decoding method, an encoding method, and a computer-readable storage medium of Zhang to use the claimed target context information to determine planar position information of the current node as in GPPC. The motivation for doing so would have been to create the advantage of providing efficient signaling of planar flags/information in the encoding/decoding process (see GPPC, pages 31-34 and 40).
Regarding Claims 2 and 12, Zhang-GPPC discloses:
“wherein the neighborhood nodes comprise at least one of: at least one co-planar node sharing a face with the current node, at least one co-edge node sharing an edge with the current node, or at least one co-vertex node sharing a vertex with the current node (Zhang, Figs. 1-3, and [0049]-[0050], [0054]-[0057], [0063], and [0084]-[0086], disclosing determining a context of a to-be-encoded subnode based on determined occupancy information (i.e., planar structure information) of reference node(s), which may be neighboring nodes; Figs. 4-5, [0117]-[0112] and [0125]-[0128], disclosing coplanar neighboring nodes with associated occupancy cases (i.e., planar structure information) in relation to the current to-be-encoded subnode of the current node, and final context determinations; Fig. 6, and [0130]-[0132] and [0148]-[0154], further disclosing context of a to-be-decoded subnode based on occupancy information (i.e., planar structure information); see also [0105]-[0115] and [0159]-[0166], further disclosing occupancy cases of the neighboring node and context determinations; see also Figs. 7-10).”
The motivation that was utilized in Claims 1, 11, and 20 applies equally as well here.
Allowable Subject Matter
Claims 3-10 and 13-19 are objected to as being dependent upon a rejected base claim, but would be allowable if rewritten in independent form including all of the limitations of the base claim and any intervening claims.
Conclusion
The prior art made of record and not relied upon is considered pertinent to applicant's disclosure:
Examiner notes that multiple references cited disclose occupancy coding in point cloud compression. For example, the following references show similar features in the claims, although not relied upon: Pham (US 20230018907 A1), [0197]-[0239], [0240]-[0249], [0250]-[0278], and [0301].
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to KATHLEEN M WALSH whose telephone number is (571)270-0423. The examiner can normally be reached M-F 8:00 AM - 5:00 PM.
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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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/KATHLEEN M WALSH/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2482
