Detailed Office Action
1. This communication is being filed in response to the initial submission having a mailing date of 07/10/2025, in which a three (3) month Shortened Statutory Period for Response has been set.
Notice of Pre-AIA or AIA Status
2. The present application, filed on or after March 16, 2013, is being examined under the first inventor to file provisions of the AIA .
Acknowledgements
3. Upon new entry, claims (1 -20) appear pending for examination, of which (1, 18. 19 and 20) is/are the four (4) independent claims on record.
Information Disclosure Statement
4. The Information Disclosure Statement (IDS) that was/were submitted on 07/10/2025, is/are in compliance with the provisions of 37 CFR 1.97, being considered by the Examiner.
Drawings
5. The submitted Drawings on date 07/10/2025 has been accepted and considered under the 37 CFR 1.121 (d).
Claim rejection section
35 USC 103
6. 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 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.
6.1. The factual inquiries set forth in Graham v. John Deere Co., 383 U.S. 1, 148 USPQ 459 (1966), that are applied 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 non-obviousness.
6.2. Claims (1 -20) is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Khaled; et al. (“Apple's Dynamic Mesh Coding CfP Response; 2022”; hereafter “Khaled”) in view of Zhang; et al. US 12,530,809 B2; hereafter “Zhang”
Claim 1. Khaled discloses the basics of the invention substantially as claimed - A method for processing visual media data including displacement data, comprising: (e.g. see coding/decoding data in accordance with the DMC standard, as shown in Fig. (1, 2, 5), employing lossy and/or lossless approaches, [Khaled 2.2.7] and geometric and/or texture data [Khaled 2.2.9]; as illustrated in at least Fig. 11.)
Khaled specifically teaches - determining that the displacement data is coded in a 4:2:0 format; (e.g. see experimentation data, where displacement vectors use plurality of color formats (4:4:4, 4:2:0, 4:0:0) and a conversion before and after encoder and decoder respectively; [Khaled page 2.2.8; page 22]);
and performing a conversion between the visual media data and a bitstream based on the displacement data as coded in the 4:2:0 format; (e.g. see analogous color space conversion and chroma sampling, in format types (4:4:4, 4:2:0); [Khaled 2.2.8].).
Given the teachings of Khaled as a whole, and under the obvious assumption and purpose of his papers, it is noted that some of the functional steps/components as listed (i.e. no detailed encoder/decoder architecture disclosed), are missed or not fully described in the papers.
For the purpose of additional clarification and in the same field of endeavor, Zhang discloses a codec ecosystem of the same, similarly employing DMC compress standard, as illustrated in Figs. (3-4), where displacement vectors similarly use plurality of color formats (4:4:4, 4:2:0, 4:0:0); [Khaled page 22]);
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one skilled in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention, to modify the implementation of Khaled, with the codec architecture of Zhang, in order to provide (e.g. encoding and reconstruct mesh frame based on the point cloud, the estimated connectivity information, map and coordinates of the image texture, improve coding gain and visual quality of the processed point cloud. [Summary].)
Claim 2. Khaled/Zhang discloses - The method of claim 1, wherein the displacement data is converted to the 4:2:0 format prior to being encoded into the bitstream, and converted to a 4:4:4 format after being decoded from the bitstream; (e.g. see displacement vectors conversion, in plurality of different color formats; [Khaled/ Zhang]; the same motivation apply herein. Examiner’s note is taken: regarding the well-know and use of such color space formats, in accordance with R-REC-BT.709 standard, way before the invention was made/filed.
Claim 3. Khaled/Zhang discloses - The method of claim 1, wherein one or both of an sps chroma format idc syntax element and a Chroma Format Idc variable is set to 1 for coding the displacement data; (e.g. see codex standard syntax(s) (i.e. VPS, SPS, PPS, etc) in at least [Khaled; chap. 4]. See also see H.265 codex standard syntax(s) in [Zhang; 2: 25; 11: 27]; the same motivation applies herein.)
Claim 4. Khaled/Zhang discloses - The method of claim 1, wherein coding of the displacement data uses a main profile or a main 10 profile. Examiner’s note is taken: regarding the HEVC standard having a coding of displacement data able to use main or mainl0 profile.)
Claim 5. Khaled/Zhang discloses - The method of claim 1, wherein the displacement data is packed into luma and chroma components in the 4:2:0 format when the displacement data has only one non-zero component; (e.g. see chroma components in the 4:2:0 format; [Khaled/Zhang]; the same motivation applies herein.)
Claim 6. Khaled/Zhang discloses - The method of claim 1, wherein when coding the displacement data, a subblock size of a subblock of the visual media data is represented by 2s, where S is a non-negative integer; (e.g. see analogous block size defined by the HEVC codec, [Zhang; 14: 52]; the same motivation applies herein.)
Claim 7. Khaled/Zhang discloses - The method of claim 6, further comprising signalling a value equal to S-K in the bitstream, where K is a non-negative integer; (e.g. see codex standard syntax and signalization, in at least [Khaled; chap. 4]. See also see H.265 codex standard syntax(s) in [Zhang; 2: 25; 11: 27]; the same motivation applies herein.)
Claim 8. Khaled/Zhang discloses - The method of claim 7, wherein the value in the bitstream is represented as an unsigned integer Exp-Golomb- coded syntax element (ue(v)) or as an unsigned integer using n bits (u(n)); (e.g. see codex standard syntax and signalization, in at least Tables (4.1 -4.3) and [Khaled; chap. 4].
Claim 9. Khaled/Zhang discloses - The method of claim 7, wherein K is equal to 0; (e.g. see codex standard syntax and signalization, in at least Tables (4.1 -4.3) [Khaled; chap. 4].
Claim 10. Khaled/Zhang discloses - The method of claim 7, wherein K is equal to 6; (e.g. see codex standard syntax and signalization, in at least Tables (4.1 -4.3) and [Khaled; chap. 4].
Claim 11. Khaled/Zhang discloses - The method of claim 7, wherein K is equal to 7; (e.g. see codex standard syntax and signalization, in at least Tables (4.1 -4.3) and [Khaled; chap. 4].
Claim 12. Khaled/Zhang discloses - The method of claim 7, wherein the value of S-K is in a range of 0 to 3, inclusive; (e.g. see codex standard syntax and signalization, in at least Tables (4.1 -4.3) and [Khaled; chap. 4].
Claim 13. Khaled/Zhang discloses - The method of claim 1, wherein the visual media data further includes texture data, and wherein the texture data and the displacement data are included in a single video or a single bitstream; (e.g. see Figs. (1 -2); as displacement and texture being part of the bitstream; [Khaled].)
Claim 14. Khaled/Zhang discloses -The method of claim 1, further comprising concatenating the displacement data in the 4:2:0 format with texture data in the 4:2:0 format. (e.g. see displacement vectors conversion, in plurality of different color formats; [Khaled/ Zhang]; the same motivation apply herein. Examiner’s note is taken: regarding the well-know and use of such color space formats, in accordance with R-REC-BT.709 standard, way before the invention was made/filed.
Claim 15. Khaled/Zhang discloses - The method of claim 1, further comprising converting the displacement data to N-bit, wherein the N-bit is a bit depth of texture data, and where N is an integer. (e.g. displacement data is mapped as bit depth of texture data; [Khaled; 22].)
Claim 16. Khaled/Zhang discloses - The method of claim 1, wherein the conversion includes encoding the visual media data into the bitstream; (e.g. see Figs. (1 -2); [Khaled].)
Claim 17. Khaled/Zhang discloses - The method of claim 1, wherein the conversion includes decoding the visual media data from the bitstream; (e.g. see Figs. (1 -2); [Khaled].)
Claim 18. Khaled/Zhang discloses - An apparatus for processing media data, comprising: a processor; and a non-transitory memory with instructions thereon, wherein the instructions upon execution by the processor, cause the processor to: determine that displacement data is coded in a 4:2:0 format; and perform a conversion between visual media data and a bitstream based on the displacement data as coded in the 4:2:0 format. (Current lists all the same elements as recite in Claim 1 above, but in “Apparatus form” form instead, and is/are therefore on the same premise.)
Claim 19. Khaled/Zhang discloses - A non-transitory computer readable storage medium, storing instructions that cause a processor to: determine that displacement data is coded in a 4:2:0 format; and perform a conversion between visual media data and a bitstream based on the displacement data as coded in the 4:2:0 format. (Current lists all the same elements as recite in Claim 1 above, but in “Apparatus form” form instead, and is/are therefore on the same premise.)
Claim 20. Khaled/Zhang discloses - A non-transitory computer-readable recording medium storing a bitstream of a video which is generated by a method performed by a video processing apparatus, wherein the method comprises: determining that displacement data is coded in a 4:2:0 format; and generating the bitstream based on the displacement data as coded in the 4:2:0 format. (Current lists all the same elements as recite in Claim 1 above, but in “Apparatus form” form instead, and is/are therefore on the same premise.)
Prior Art Citations
7. The following List of prior art, made of record and not relied upon, is/are considered
pertinent to applicant's disclosure:
71. Patent documentation:
US 12,354,222 B2 Kim; et al. with Prov. benefit 2022.
US 12,530,809 B2 Zhang; et al.
US 12,563,222 B2 Rajan; et al.
US 20250343931 A1 Xu; Jizheng et al.
US 20250343874 A1 Xu; Jizheng et al.
7.2. Non-Patent documentation:
_ Part 29 - Video based dynamic mesh coding V-DMC; Feb-2023;
_ Apple's dynamic mesh coding CIP response; April -2022;
_ CIP for Dynamic mesh coding; Oct-2021;
_ R-REC-BT.709 -2015;
CONCLUSIONS
8. Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to LUIS PEREZ-FUENTES (luis.perez-fuentes@uspto.gov) whose telephone number is (571) 270 -1168. The examiner can normally be reached on Monday-Friday 8am-5pm. If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner's supervisor, WILLIAM VAUGHN can be reached on (571) 272-3922. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is (571) 272 -3922. Information regarding the status of an application may be obtained from the Patent Application Information Retrieval (PAIR) system. Status information for published applications may be obtained from either Private PAIR or Public PAIR. Status information for unpublished applications is available through Private PAIR only. For more information about the PAIR system, http://pair-direct.uspto.gov. Should you have questions on access to the Private PAIR system, contact the Electronic Business Center (EBC) at 866-217-9197 (toll-free). If you would like assistance from a USPTO Customer Service Representative or access to the automated system, please call (800) 786 -9199 (USA OR CANADA) or (571) 272 -1000.
/LUIS PEREZ-FUENTES/
Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2481.
Prosecution Insights