DETAILED ACTION
Claims 1-9 are pending for examination.
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 .
Information Disclosure Statement
The information disclosure statement (IDS) was submitted on 07/03/2025. The
submission is in compliance with the provisions of 37 CFR 1.97. Accordingly, the information
disclosure statement is being considered by the examiner.
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)(1) the claimed invention was patented, described in a printed publication, or in public use, on sale, or otherwise available to the public before the effective filing date of the claimed invention.
Claims 5 and 8 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(2) as being anticipated by Wang et al, US 20210211662 A1 (Wang).
Regarding Claim 5, Wang discloses an apparatus comprising: at least one processor (Wang ¶ [0020]– In an embodiment, the disclosure includes a video coding device comprising: a processor…);
and at least one memory storing instructions that, when executed by the at least one processor, cause the apparatus at least to perform (Wang ¶ [0021]– the computer program product comprising computer executable instructions stored on the non-transitory computer readable medium such that when executed by a processor cause the video coding device to perform the method of any of the preceding aspects): receiving a constituent rectangle information message (Wang ¶ [0051]– addresses of the CTUs can be signaled in the bitstream);
and receiving an associated constituent rectangle identifier within the constituent rectangle information message, wherein the associated constituent rectangle identifier is used for associating a second constituent rectangle with a constituent rectangle (Wang ¶ [157]– Further, the coding module 814 can signal the boundaries of image slices based on tile ID and position, which allows various slice, tile, and CTU data to be inferred and hence omitted from the bitstream to increase coding efficiency. When acting as a decoder, the coding module 814 can reconstruct an image and infer slice position, tile IDs in the slice, and CTU addresses based on the upper left and bottom right tiles in a slice, and hence increase coding efficiency; Wang Fig. 10, 1003-1007– Determine a top left tile ID and a bottom right tile ID associated with a first slice; Determine boundaries of the first slice based on the top left tile ID and the bottom right tile ID; Determine tile IDs and addresses for CTUs in the first slice based on the left tile ID and the bottom right tile ID).
Regarding Claim 8, Wang discloses an apparatus comprising: at least one processor (Wang ¶ [0020]– In an embodiment, the disclosure includes a video coding device comprising: a processor…);
and at least one memory storing instructions that, when executed by the at least one processor, cause the apparatus at least to perform (Wang ¶ [0021]– the computer program product comprising computer executable instructions stored on the non-transitory computer readable medium such that when executed by a processor cause the video coding device to perform the method of any of the preceding aspects): receiving a constituent rectangle information message (Wang ¶ [0051]– addresses of the CTUs can be signaled in the bitstream);
and receiving a group identifier within the constituent rectangle information message to provide a capability to group two or more constituent rectangles sharing same value for the group identifier (Wang ¶ [157]– Further, the coding module 814 can signal the boundaries of image slices based on tile ID and position, which allows various slice, tile, and CTU data to be inferred and hence omitted from the bitstream to increase coding efficiency. When acting as a decoder, the coding module 814 can reconstruct an image and infer slice position, tile IDs in the slice, and CTU addresses based on the upper left and bottom right tiles in a slice, and hence increase coding efficiency; Wang Fig. 10, 1003-1007– Determine a top left tile ID and a bottom right tile ID associated with a first slice; Determine boundaries of the first slice based on the top left tile ID and the bottom right tile ID; Determine tile IDs and addresses for CTUs in the first slice based on the left tile ID and the bottom right tile ID).
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 103
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 and 4 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Wang, in view of Hannuksela, US 8532194 B2 (Hannuksela).
Regarding Claim 1, Wang discloses an apparatus comprising: at least one processor (Wang ¶ [0020]– In an embodiment, the disclosure includes a video coding device comprising: a processor…);
and at least one memory storing instructions that, when executed by the at least one processor, cause the apparatus at least to perform (Wang ¶ [0021]– the computer program product comprising computer executable instructions stored on the non-transitory computer readable medium such that when executed by a processor cause the video coding device to perform the method of any of the preceding aspects): receiving a constituent rectangle information message without a value of an identifier of a constituent rectangle (Wang ¶ [0051]– addresses of the CTUs can be signaled in the bitstream. In other examples, the addresses of the CTUs can also be...omitted from the bitstream);
inferring the value of the identifier (Wang ¶ [0157]– Further, the coding module 814 can signal the boundaries of image slices based on tile ID and position, which allows various slice, tile, and CTU data to be inferred…);
and determining the constituent rectangle based on the inferring (Wang Fig. 10, 1007– Determine tile IDs and addresses for CTUs in the first slice based on the left tile ID and the bottom right tile ID).
However, Wang does not explicitly disclose to be equal to a value of a previously signaled identifier plus a first value.
Hannuksela teaches to be equal to a value of a previously signaled identifier plus a first value (Hannuksela col. 4, lines 64-67– The H.263 picture number or JVT frame number of a non-reference picture is specified to be equal to the picture or frame number of the previous reference picture in decoding order plus 1).
Therefore, it 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 to modify Wang to incorporate an identifier to be equal to a value of a previously signaled identifier plus a first value as taught by Hannuksela.
One would be motivated to combine Hannuksela’s incorporation of an identifier set equal to a value of a previously signaled identifier plus a first value to minimize the end-to-end delay in order to improve the user experience (Hannuksela col. 1, lines 36-38– to minimize the end-to-end delay…in order to improve the user experience).
Regarding Claim 2, Wang, in combination, further discloses the apparatus of claim 1, further comprising wherein the apparatus is further caused to perform: receiving an associated constituent rectangle identifier within the constituent rectangle information message for associating a second constituent rectangle with the constituent rectangle (Wang ¶ [157]– Further, the coding module 814 can signal the boundaries of image slices based on tile ID and position, which allows various slice, tile, and CTU data to be inferred and hence omitted from the bitstream to increase coding efficiency. When acting as a decoder, the coding module 814 can reconstruct an image and infer slice position, tile IDs in the slice, and CTU addresses based on the upper left and bottom right tiles in a slice, and hence increase coding efficiency; Wang Fig. 10, 1003-1007– Determine a top left tile ID and a bottom right tile ID associated with a first slice; Determine boundaries of the first slice based on the top left tile ID and the bottom right tile ID; Determine tile IDs and addresses for CTUs in the first slice based on the left tile ID and the bottom right tile ID).
Regarding Claim 4, Wang, in combination, further discloses the apparatus of claim 1, further comprising wherein the apparatus is further caused to perform: receiving a group identifier within the constituent rectangle information message, wherein the group identifier provides a capability to group two or more constituent rectangles sharing same value for the group identifier (Wang ¶ [157]– Further, the coding module 814 can signal the boundaries of image slices based on tile ID and position, which allows various slice, tile, and CTU data to be inferred and hence omitted from the bitstream to increase coding efficiency. When acting as a decoder, the coding module 814 can reconstruct an image and infer slice position, tile IDs in the slice, and CTU addresses based on the upper left and bottom right tiles in a slice, and hence increase coding efficiency; Wang Fig. 10, 1003-1007– Determine a top left tile ID and a bottom right tile ID associated with a first slice; Determine boundaries of the first slice based on the top left tile ID and the bottom right tile ID; Determine tile IDs and addresses for CTUs in the first slice based on the left tile ID and the bottom right tile ID).
Allowable Subject Matter
Claims 3, 6, 7 and 9are 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.
The following is a statement of reasons for the indication of allowable subject matter:
The various claimed limitations mentioned in the claims are not taught or suggested by the prior art taken either singly or in combination, with emphasize that it is each claim, taken as a whole, including the interrelationships and interconnections between various claimed elements make them allowable over the prior art of record. The various claimed limitations mentioned including the interrelationships and all of the limitations of the base claim and the elements with respect to
the apparatus is further caused perform: receiving an enable flag; and receiving, when the enable flag is set to a second value, a presence flag for the constituent rectangle, wherein the associated constituent rectangle identifier is received when the presence flag is set to a third value.
when a depth representation information message applies to a current picture, the associated constituent rectangle identifier indicates a primary constituent rectangle associated with a constituent rectangle of type depth.
when an alpha channel information message applies to a current picture, the associated constituent rectangle identifier indicates a primary constituent rectangle associated with a constituent rectangle of type alpha to provide information about alpha channel sample values and post-processing applied to decoded alpha planes coded in the constituent rectangle of type alpha and the associated constituent rectangle.
when a multiview acquisition information message is present, the group identifier indicates a view identifier or determines which constituent rectangles that parameters signaled in the multiview acquisition information message apply to.
Conclusion
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to CHRISTIAN P MCFALL whose telephone number is (571)270-0773. The examiner can normally be reached Monday Friday, 8 a.m. 5 p.m. ET..
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/C.P.M./Examiner, Art Unit 2483
/JOSEPH G USTARIS/Supervisory Patent Examiner, Art Unit 2483
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