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 .
Information Disclosure Statement
The information disclosure statement (IDS), submitted on 7/15/2025, is being considered by the examiner.
Objections
The drawings are objected to under 37 CFR 1.83(a). The drawings must show every feature of the invention specified in the claims. Therefore, “at least one slice in the current picture has a shape other than the rectangular shape”, “slice mode information”, “slice number information”, “tile index presence information”, “tile index difference value information” must be shown or the feature(s) must be canceled from the claims 1-9. No new matter should be entered.
Corrected drawing sheets in compliance with 37 CFR 1.121(d) are required in reply to the Office action to avoid abandonment of the application. Any amended replacement drawing sheet should include all of the figures appearing on the immediate prior version of the sheet, even if only one figure is being amended. The figure or figure number of an amended drawing should not be labeled as “amended.” If a drawing figure is to be canceled, the appropriate figure must be removed from the replacement sheet, and where necessary, the remaining figures must be renumbered and appropriate changes made to the brief description of the several views of the drawings for consistency. Additional replacement sheets may be necessary to show the renumbering of the remaining figures. Each drawing sheet submitted after the filing date of an application must be labeled in the top margin as either “Replacement Sheet” or “New Sheet” pursuant to 37 CFR 1.121(d). If the changes are not accepted by the examiner, the applicant will be notified and informed of any required corrective action in the next Office action. The objection to the drawings will not be held in abeyance.
Claim Rejection – 35 U.S.C. § 112
The following is a quotation of 35 U.S.C. 112(b):
(B) CONCLUSION.—The specification shall conclude with one or more claims particularly pointing out and distinctly claiming the subject matter which the inventor or a joint inventor regards as the invention.
The following is a quotation of pre-AIA 35 U.S.C. 112, second paragraph:
The specification shall conclude with one or more claims particularly pointing out and distinctly claiming the subject matter which the applicant regards as his invention.
Claims 1-9 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 112(b) or 35 U.S.C. 112 (pre-AIA ), second paragraph, as being indefinite for failing to particularly point out and distinctly claim the subject matter, which the inventor or a joint inventor, or for pre-AIA the applicant regards as the invention. Claims 1, 5, and 9 recite “wherein under the raster scan order mode, at least one slice in the current picture has a shape other than the rectangular shape”. These claims later describe decoding operations specifically for the rectangular shape slice. These claims however do not include any operations to process “the at least one slice in the current picture has a shape other than the rectangular shape”. Since the claims indicate that the picture in this invention always has “at least one slice in the current picture has a shape other than the rectangular shape” under the raster scan order mode, hence it is not clear to readers how “the at least one slice in the current picture has a shape other than the rectangular shape” will be processed. Since there is no operation for “the at least one slice in the current picture has a shape other than the rectangular shape”, the coding system may be hung up and crashed when it detects “the at least one slice in the current picture has a shape other than the rectangular shape” such as a trapezoid shape, a triangular shape, a pentagonal shape, etc. Therefore, claims 1, 5, 9, and their dependent claims are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 112(b) or 35 U.S.C. 112 (pre-AIA ), second paragraph.
Claims 5-9 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 112(b) or 35 U.S.C. 112 (pre-AIA ), second paragraph, as being indefinite for failing to particularly point out and distinctly claim the subject matter, which the inventor or a joint inventor, or for pre-AIA the applicant regards as the invention. Claims 5 and 9 recite "the same". There is insufficient antecedent basis for this limitation in the claims. Therefore, claim 5, its dependent claims, and claim 9 are are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 112(b) or 35 U.S.C. 112 (pre-AIA ), second paragraph.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 102
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 1-9 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(1) as being anticipated by Ouedraogo et al. (UK Patent Application GB 2584723), (“Ouedraogo”).
Regarding claim 1, Ouedraogo meets the claim limitations, as follows:
An image decoding method (a method … for encoding and decoding pictures) [Ouedraogo: page 1, line 7-8], the method comprising: partitioning a current picture into a plurality of tiles (the tile, brick and slice partitioning is described in a non-VCL NAL unit such as the PPS) [Ouedraogo: page 27, line 23-24]; decoding (decoding) [Ouedraogo: page 3, line 34] slice mode information ((mode of slice) [Ouedraogo: page 6, line 30]; (syntax elements which describe the tile, brick and slice partitioning information) [Ouedraogo: page 28, line 7-8]), the slice mode information representing which one of a rectangular slice mode ((mode of slice) [Ouedraogo: page 6, line 30]; (wherein the data array is partitioned into a set of rectangular slices) [Ouedraogo: page 55, line 1-2]; (wherein the slice forms a rectangular shape) [Ouedraogo: page 54, line 27]; (slices forming a rectangular area in the picture) [Ouedraogo: page 6, line 30-31]; (the tile, brick and slice partitioning is described in a non-VCL NAL unit such as the PPS) [Ouedraogo: page 27, line 23-24]) and a raster scan order mode is applied to the current picture (A second mode of slice partitioning is restricted to successive tiles in raster scan order) [Ouedraogo: page 6, line 32-33],wherein under the rectangular slice mode (mode of slice partitioning is restricted to slices forming a rectangular area in the picture) [Ouedraogo: page 6, line 30-31], all of slices in the current picture are determined as a rectangular shape (mode of slice partitioning is restricted to slices forming a rectangular area in the picture) [Ouedraogo: page 6, line 30-31], andwherein under the raster scan order mode (A second mode of slice partitioning is restricted to successive tiles in raster scan order) [Ouedraogo: page 6, line 32-33], at least one slice in the current picture has a shape (when the scan order across the tiles is such that the bricks are encoded by following a raster scan direction, the brick partitioning is constrained so that it forms a grid of bricks) [Ouedraogo: page 54, line 19-21] other than the rectangular shape ((When the slice is not rectangular, the slice header indicates the number of bricks in the slice NAL unit with the help of num_bricks_in_slice_minus1 syntax element) [Ouedraogo: page 11, line 21-22]; (In one example, the frame of the Figure 7 contains 4 slices. The first slice contains the brick 700. The second slice contains the brick 701, the third slice contains the brick 702 and the last slice contains the bricks 703 and 704) [Ouedraogo: page 6, line 4; Fig. 7] – Note: As it is shown in Figure 7, the third slice has only brick 702, which has a square shape - not a rectangular shape);in response to the slice mode information indicating that the rectangular slice mode is applied (mode of slice partitioning is restricted to slices forming a rectangular area in the picture) [Ouedraogo: page 6, line 30-31], decoding slice number information (In a step 903, the decoder determines the number of slices associated with an item of identification information of each sub picture when present) [Ouedraogo: page 30, line 1-2], the slice number information representing a value subtracting 1 from a number of slices included in the current picture (the syntax element num_slices_in_pic_minus1 is equal to the number of rectangular slices in the picture minus one) [Ouedraogo: page 11, line 9-10]; anddecoding (decoding) [Ouedraogo: page 3, line 34] tile index difference value information (for each tile of the frame, the decoder determines the index (brick_layout) of the brick pattern associated with the tile index) [Ouedraogo: page 28, line 16-18] for a first slice in the current picture (the first slice) [Ouedraogo: page 25, line 28], the first slice being composed of one or more tile in the current picture ((NumTileslnPic is the number of tiles in the picture) [Ouedraogo: page 29, line 3]; (Tiles represent sub-portions of the picture. Slices are sub-portion groups. In Figure 1B, the picture 104 is subdivided in 24 sub pictures including the sub pictures 105 and 106. These two sub pictures further describe a tile grid and a partitioning into slices similar to pictures 101 and 102 of Figure 1A) [Ouedraogo: page 7, line 30-33]),wherein the tile index difference value information represents a difference between an index of a first tile in the first slice and an index of a first tile in a second slice in the current picture ((In TABLE 15, reuse_brick_split_column_idx_delta_minus1[i] plus 1 specifies the difference between the index of the i-th tile (i.e., the index equals i) and the index of the tile for which the brick splitting pattern is reused) [Ouedraogo: page 18, line 5-8]; (Syntax elements top_left_brick_idx[] and bottom_right_brick_idx[] are arrays that respectively specify the first brick (top left) and the last (bottom right) brick in a rectangular slice. Theses arrays are indexed by slice index) [Ouedraogo: page 11, line 11-13]; {if (i > 0) top_left_brick_idx[i] bottom_right_brick_idx_delta[i])) [Ouedraogo: Table 3] - Note: From Ouedraogo‘s descriptions, the syntax elements top_left_brick_idx[0] can indicate the index of the first tile in the first slice, and top_left_brick_idx[1] can indicate the index of the first tile in the second slice. The reuse_brick_split_column_idx_delta_minus1[i] plus 1 specifies the difference between the index of these tiles), wherein the index of the first tile in the second slice is derived by the tile index difference value information (The slice scanning order consists in adding the bricks of the tile starting by the top brick up to the bottom brick within the tile column. The scanning of the tile columns is made in tile scan order, typically from the left to right in the picture. In other words, it consists in processing the bricks vertically column by column) [Ouedraogo: page 25, line 4-8], andwherein the tile index difference value information is decoded (decoding order index of the i-th brick) [Ouedraogo: page 21, line 11] from a bitstream (In a step 904, the decoder decodes the VCL NAL units corresponding to the slices according to the parameters determined in the previous steps. The decoding order of the slice is the order of the slice in the bitstream) [Ouedraogo: page 30, line 3-5] in response to the slice number information (The syntax element num_sub_pics_minus1) [Ouedraogo: page 9, line 1] being greater than a pre-defined value ((In a step 903, the decoder determines the number of slices associated with an item of identification information of each sub picture when present) [Ouedraogo: page 30, line 1-2]; ; (if (rect_slice_flag && !single_brick_per_slice_flag) { num_slices_in_pic_minus1
for (i = 0; i <= num_slices_in_pic_minus1; i++) {if (i > 0) top_left_brick_idx[i]
bottom_right_brick_idx_delta[i])) [Ouedraogo: Table 3] – Note: A pre-defined value could be 0); (The slice identifiers are specified when the signalled_slice_id_flag is equal to 1. In this case, the signalled_slice_id_length_minus1 syntax element indicates the number of bits used to encode each slice identifier value. The slice_id[] table is indexed by slice index and contains the identifier of the slice. When the signalled_slice_id_flag equal to 0 the slice_id is indexed by slice index and contains the slice index of the slice) [Ouedraogo: page 11, line 14-18]).
Regarding claims 2 and 6, Ouedraogo meets the claim limitations as set forth in claims 1 and 5. Ouedraogo further meets the claim limitations as follow.
wherein the slice mode information ((mode of slice) [Ouedraogo: page 6, line 30]; (syntax elements which describe the tile, brick and slice partitioning information) [Ouedraogo: page 28, line 7-8]), the slice number information (the number of slices associated with an item of identification information of each sub picture when present) [Ouedraogo: page 30, line 1-2], (the syntax element num_slices_in_pic_minus1 is equal to the number of rectangular slices in the picture minus one) [Ouedraogo: page 11, line 9-10], and the tile index difference value information (reuse_brick_split_column_idx_delta_minus1 [ i ] plus 1 specifies the difference between the index of the i-th tile (i.e., the index equals i) and the index of the tile for which the brick splitting pattern is reused. The index of this tile is) [Ouedraogo: page 18, line 5-8]; ; {if (i > 0) top_left_brick_idx[i] bottom_right_brick_idx_delta[i])) [Ouedraogo: Table 3]) are signaled through a picture parameter set (pic_parameter_set_rbsp( ) [Ouedraogo: Table 3] – Note: Please see details of pic_parameter_set_rbsp( ) structure in Table 3)).
Regarding claims 3 and 7, Ouedraogo meets the claim limitations as set forth in claims 1 and 5. Ouedraogo further meets the claim limitations as follow.
in response to the slice number information being greater than a pre-defined value, decoding tile index difference presence information indicating whether the tile index difference value information is present in the bitstream or not (if (rect_slice_flag && !single_brick_per_slice_flag) { num_slices_in_pic_minus1
for (i = 0; i <= num_slices_in_pic_minus1; i++) {if (i > 0) top_left_brick_idx[i]
bottom_right_brick_idx_delta[i])) [Ouedraogo: Table 3], andwherein the tile index difference value information is decoded from the bitstream only (i.e. reuse_brick_split_column_idx_delta_minus1 [ i ] plus 1 specifies the difference between the index of the i-th tile (i.e., the index equals i) and the index of the tile for which the brick splitting pattern is reused. The index of this tile is computed with the following equation: ReferenceTilelndex = i - (reuse_brick_split_column_idx_delta_minus1 [i] + 1) ) [Ouedraogo: page 18, line 5-10] when the tile index difference presence information indicates that the tile index difference value information is present in the bitstream (i.e. The syntax element single_tile_in_pic_flag states whether the picture contains a single tile) [Ouedraogo: page 11, line 2-3]; (i.e. The scan order of the tiles in each slice of the frame is the processing order of the tile columns within a picture or a slice. Typically, the tile columns are processed in raster scan order from the left-most tile column to the rightmost column. The first tile starts with the index 0 and thus the last tile of the frame has an index equal to the number of tiles minus one in the frame. In a variant, the tile scan order is from right to left) [Ouedraogo: page 19, line 31-35]).
Regarding claims 4 and 8, Ouedraogo meets the claim limitations as set forth in claims 1 and 5. Ouedraogo further meets the claim limitations as follow.
wherein the index of the first tile in the second slice is derived by adding a value of the tile index difference value information to the index of the first tile in the first slice (i.e. The slice scanning order consists in adding the bricks of the tile starting by the top brick up to the bottom brick within the tile column. The scanning of the tile columns is made in tile scan order, typically from the left to right in the picture. In other words, it consists in processing the bricks vertically column by column) [Ouedraogo: page 25, line 4-8].
Regarding claim 5, Ouedraogo meets the claim limitations, as follows:
An image encoding method (a method … for encoding and decoding pictures) [Ouedraogo: page 1, line 7-8], the method comprising: partitioning a current picture into a plurality of tiles (the tile, brick and slice partitioning is described in a non-VCL NAL unit such as the PPS) [Ouedraogo: page 27, line 23-24]; encoding (A slice can be encoded in the bit stream) [Ouedraogo: page 7, line 1-2] slice mode information ((mode of slice) [Ouedraogo: page 6, line 30]; (syntax elements which describe the tile, brick and slice partitioning information) [Ouedraogo: page 28, line 7-8]), the slice mode information representing which one of a rectangular slice mode ((mode of slice) [Ouedraogo: page 6, line 30]; (wherein the data array is partitioned into a set of rectangular slices) [Ouedraogo: page 55, line 1-2]; (wherein the slice forms a rectangular shape) [Ouedraogo: page 54, line 27]; (slices forming a rectangular area in the picture) [Ouedraogo: page 6, line 30-31]; (the tile, brick and slice partitioning is described in a non-VCL NAL unit such as the PPS) [Ouedraogo: page 27, line 23-24]) and a raster scan order mode is applied to the current picture (A second mode of slice partitioning is restricted to successive tiles in raster scan order) [Ouedraogo: page 6, line 32-33],wherein under the rectangular slice mode (mode of slice partitioning is restricted to slices forming a rectangular area in the picture) [Ouedraogo: page 6, line 30-31], all of slices in the current picture are determined as a rectangular shape (mode of slice partitioning is restricted to slices forming a rectangular area in the picture) [Ouedraogo: page 6, line 30-31], andwherein under the raster scan order mode (A second mode of slice partitioning is restricted to successive tiles in raster scan order) [Ouedraogo: page 6, line 32-33], at least one slice in the current picture has a shape (when the scan order across the tiles is such that the bricks are encoded by following a raster scan direction, the brick partitioning is constrained so that it forms a grid of bricks) [Ouedraogo: page 54, line 19-21] other than the rectangular shape ((When the slice is not rectangular, the slice header indicates the number of bricks in the slice NAL unit with the help of num_bricks_in_slice_minus1 syntax element) [Ouedraogo: page 11, line 21-22]; (In one example, the frame of the Figure 7 contains 4 slices. The first slice contains the brick 700. The second slice contains the brick 701, the third slice contains the brick 702 and the last slice contains the bricks 703 and 704) [Ouedraogo: page 6, line 4; Fig. 7] – Note: As it is shown in Figure 7, the third slice has only brick 702, which has a square shape - not a rectangular shape);in response to the slice mode information indicating that the rectangular slice mode is applied (mode of slice partitioning is restricted to slices forming a rectangular area in the picture) [Ouedraogo: page 6, line 30-31], decoding slice number information (In a step 903, the decoder determines the number of slices associated with an item of identification information of each sub picture when present) [Ouedraogo: page 30, line 1-2], the slice number information representing a value subtracting 1 from a number of slices included in the current picture (the syntax element num_slices_in_pic_minus1 is equal to the number of rectangular slices in the picture minus one) [Ouedraogo: page 11, line 9-10]; andencoding (A slice can be encoded in the bit stream) [Ouedraogo: page 7, line 1-2] tile index difference value information (for each tile of the frame, the decoder determines the index (brick_layout) of the brick pattern associated with the tile index) [Ouedraogo: page 28, line 16-18] for a first slice in the current picture (the first slice) [Ouedraogo: page 25, line 28], the first slice being composed of one or more tile in the current picture ((NumTileslnPic is the number of tiles in the picture) [Ouedraogo: page 29, line 3]; (Tiles represent sub-portions of the picture. Slices are sub-portion groups. In Figure 1B, the picture 104 is subdivided in 24 sub pictures including the sub pictures 105 and 106. These two sub pictures further describe a tile grid and a partitioning into slices similar to pictures 101 and 102 of Figure 1A) [Ouedraogo: page 7, line 30-33]),wherein the tile index difference value information represents a difference between an index of a first tile in the first slice and an index of a first tile in a second slice in the current picture ((In TABLE 15, reuse_brick_split_column_idx_delta_minus1[i] plus 1 specifies the difference between the index of the i-th tile (i.e., the index equals i) and the index of the tile for which the brick splitting pattern is reused) [Ouedraogo: page 18, line 5-8]; (Syntax elements top_left_brick_idx[] and bottom_right_brick_idx[] are arrays that respectively specify the first brick (top left) and the last (bottom right) brick in a rectangular slice. Theses arrays are indexed by slice index) [Ouedraogo: page 11, line 11-13] ; {if (i > 0) top_left_brick_idx[i] bottom_right_brick_idx_delta[i])) [Ouedraogo: Table 3] - Note: From Ouedraogo‘s descriptions, the syntax elements top_left_brick_idx[0] can indicate the index of the first tile in the first slice, and top_left_brick_idx[1] can indicate the index of the first tile in the second slice. The reuse_brick_split_column_idx_delta_minus1[i] plus 1 specifies the difference between the index of these tiles),
wherein the index of the first tile in the second slice is the same as a value adding the difference to the index of the first tile in the first slice (The slice scanning order consists in adding the bricks of the tile starting by the top brick up to the bottom brick within the tile column. The scanning of the tile columns is made in tile scan order, typically from the left to right in the picture. In other words, it consists in processing the bricks vertically column by column) [Ouedraogo: page 25, line 4-8], andwherein the tile index difference value information is encoded ((A slice can be encoded in the bit stream) [Ouedraogo: page 7, line 1-2]; (index of the i-th brick) [Ouedraogo: page 21, line 11]) from a bitstream (the VCL NAL units corresponding to the slices according to the parameters determined in the previous steps. The decoding order of the slice is the order of the slice in the bitstream) [Ouedraogo: page 30, line 3-5] in response to the slice number information (The syntax element num_sub_pics_minus1) [Ouedraogo: page 9, line 1] being greater than a pre-defined value ((determines the number of slices associated with an item of identification information of each sub picture when present) [Ouedraogo: page 30, line 1-2]; ; (if (rect_slice_flag && !single_brick_per_slice_flag) { num_slices_in_pic_minus1
for (i = 0; i <= num_slices_in_pic_minus1; i++) {if (i > 0) top_left_brick_idx[i]
bottom_right_brick_idx_delta[i])) [Ouedraogo: Table 3] – Note: A pre-defined value could be 0); (The slice identifiers are specified when the signalled_slice_id_flag is equal to 1. In this case, the signalled_slice_id_length_minus1 syntax element indicates the number of bits used to encode each slice identifier value. The slice_id[] table is indexed by slice index and contains the identifier of the slice. When the signalled_slice_id_flag equal to 0 the slice_id is indexed by slice index and contains the slice index of the slice) [Ouedraogo: page 11, line 14-18]).
Regarding claim 9, Ouedraogo meets the claim limitations, as follows:
A non-transitory computer-readable recording medium, comprising executable instructions that (a random access memory (RAM) 1008 for storing the executable code of the method of embodiments of the invention as well as the registers adapted to record variables and parameters necessary for implementing the method for encoding pictures) [Ouedraogo: page 30, line 14-16], when executed by a processor (a central processing unit (CPU) 1004, such as a microprocessor) [Ouedraogo: page 30, line 13], causes the processor to preform steps for storing a bitstream generated by an image encoding method (The central processing unit 1004 is adapted to control and direct the execution of the instructions or portions of software code of the program or programs according to embodiments of the invention, which instructions are stored in one of the aforementioned storage means. After powering on, the CPU 1004 is capable of executing instructions from main RAM memory 1008 relating to a software application after those instructions have been loaded from the program ROM 1006 or the hard disk (HD) 1010, for example. Such a software application, when executed by the CPU 1004, causes the steps of the flowcharts shown in the previous figures to be performed) [Ouedraogo: page 31, line 4-11],wherein the image encoding method (a method … for encoding and decoding pictures) [Ouedraogo: page 1, line 7-8] comprises: partitioning a current picture into a plurality of tiles (the tile, brick and slice partitioning is described in a non-VCL NAL unit such as the PPS) [Ouedraogo: page 27, line 23-24]; encoding (A slice can be encoded in the bit stream) [Ouedraogo: page 7, line 1-2] slice mode information ((mode of slice) [Ouedraogo: page 6, line 30]; (syntax elements which describe the tile, brick and slice partitioning information) [Ouedraogo: page 28, line 7-8]), the slice mode information representing which one of a rectangular slice mode ((mode of slice) [Ouedraogo: page 6, line 30]; (wherein the data array is partitioned into a set of rectangular slices) [Ouedraogo: page 55, line 1-2]; (wherein the slice forms a rectangular shape) [Ouedraogo: page 54, line 27]; (slices forming a rectangular area in the picture) [Ouedraogo: page 6, line 30-31]; (the tile, brick and slice partitioning is described in a non-VCL NAL unit such as the PPS) [Ouedraogo: page 27, line 23-24]) and a raster scan order mode is applied to the current picture (A second mode of slice partitioning is restricted to successive tiles in raster scan order) [Ouedraogo: page 6, line 32-33],wherein under the rectangular slice mode (mode of slice partitioning is restricted to slices forming a rectangular area in the picture) [Ouedraogo: page 6, line 30-31], all of slices in the current picture are determined as a rectangular shape (mode of slice partitioning is restricted to slices forming a rectangular area in the picture) [Ouedraogo: page 6, line 30-31], andwherein under the raster scan order mode (A second mode of slice partitioning is restricted to successive tiles in raster scan order) [Ouedraogo: page 6, line 32-33], at least one slice in the current picture has a shape (when the scan order across the tiles is such that the bricks are encoded by following a raster scan direction, the brick partitioning is constrained so that it forms a grid of bricks) [Ouedraogo: page 54, line 19-21] other than the rectangular shape ((When the slice is not rectangular, the slice header indicates the number of bricks in the slice NAL unit with the help of num_bricks_in_slice_minus1 syntax element) [Ouedraogo: page 11, line 21-22]; (In one example, the frame of the Figure 7 contains 4 slices. The first slice contains the brick 700. The second slice contains the brick 701, the third slice contains the brick 702 and the last slice contains the bricks 703 and 704) [Ouedraogo: page 6, line 4; Fig. 7] – Note: As it is shown in Figure 7, the third slice has only brick 702, which has a square shape - not a rectangular shape);in response to the slice mode information indicating that the rectangular slice mode is applied (mode of slice partitioning is restricted to slices forming a rectangular area in the picture) [Ouedraogo: page 6, line 30-31], decoding slice number information (In a step 903, the decoder determines the number of slices associated with an item of identification information of each sub picture when present) [Ouedraogo: page 30, line 1-2], the slice number information representing a value subtracting 1 from a number of slices included in the current picture (the syntax element num_slices_in_pic_minus1 is equal to the number of rectangular slices in the picture minus one) [Ouedraogo: page 11, line 9-10]; andencoding (A slice can be encoded in the bit stream) [Ouedraogo: page 7, line 1-2] tile index difference value information (for each tile of the frame, the decoder determines the index (brick_layout) of the brick pattern associated with the tile index) [Ouedraogo: page 28, line 16-18] for a first slice in the current picture (the first slice) [Ouedraogo: page 25, line 28], the first slice being composed of one or more tile in the current picture ((NumTileslnPic is the number of tiles in the picture) [Ouedraogo: page 29, line 3]; (Tiles represent sub-portions of the picture. Slices are sub-portion groups. In Figure 1B, the picture 104 is subdivided in 24 sub pictures including the sub pictures 105 and 106. These two sub pictures further describe a tile grid and a partitioning into slices similar to pictures 101 and 102 of Figure 1A) [Ouedraogo: page 7, line 30-33]),wherein the tile index difference value information represents a difference between an index of a first tile in the first slice and an index of a first tile in a second slice in the current picture ((In TABLE 15, reuse_brick_split_column_idx_delta_minus1[i] plus 1 specifies the difference between the index of the i-th tile (i.e., the index equals i) and the index of the tile for which the brick splitting pattern is reused) [Ouedraogo: page 18, line 5-8]; (Syntax elements top_left_brick_idx[] and bottom_right_brick_idx[] are arrays that respectively specify the first brick (top left) and the last (bottom right) brick in a rectangular slice. Theses arrays are indexed by slice index) [Ouedraogo: page 11, line 11-13]; {if (i > 0) top_left_brick_idx[i] bottom_right_brick_idx_delta[i])) [Ouedraogo: Table 3] - Note: From Ouedraogo‘s descriptions, the syntax elements top_left_brick_idx[0] can indicate the index of the first tile in the first slice, and top_left_brick_idx[1] can indicate the index of the first tile in the second slice. The reuse_brick_split_column_idx_delta_minus1[i] plus 1 specifies the difference between the index of these tiles),
wherein the index of the first tile in the second slice is the same as a value adding the difference to the index of the first tile in the first slice (The slice scanning order consists in adding the bricks of the tile starting by the top brick up to the bottom brick within the tile column. The scanning of the tile columns is made in tile scan order, typically from the left to right in the picture. In other words, it consists in processing the bricks vertically column by column) [Ouedraogo: page 25, line 4-8], andwherein the tile index difference value information is encoded ((A slice can be encoded in the bit stream) [Ouedraogo: page 7, line 1-2]; (index of the i-th brick) [Ouedraogo: page 21, line 11]) from a bitstream (the VCL NAL units corresponding to the slices according to the parameters determined in the previous steps. The decoding order of the slice is the order of the slice in the bitstream) [Ouedraogo: page 30, line 3-5] in response to the slice number information (The syntax element num_sub_pics_minus1) [Ouedraogo: page 9, line 1] being greater than a pre-defined value ((determines the number of slices associated with an item of identification information of each sub picture when present) [Ouedraogo: page 30, line 1-2]; ; (if (rect_slice_flag && !single_brick_per_slice_flag) { num_slices_in_pic_minus1
for (i = 0; i <= num_slices_in_pic_minus1; i++) {if (i > 0) top_left_brick_idx[i]
bottom_right_brick_idx_delta[i])) [Ouedraogo: Table 3] – Note: A pre-defined value could be 0); (The slice identifiers are specified when the signalled_slice_id_flag is equal to 1. In this case, the signalled_slice_id_length_minus1 syntax element indicates the number of bits used to encode each slice identifier value. The slice_id[] table is indexed by slice index and contains the identifier of the slice. When the signalled_slice_id_flag equal to 0 the slice_id is indexed by slice index and contains the slice index of the slice) [Ouedraogo: page 11, line 14-18]).
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 of this title, 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.
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 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 pre-AIA 35 U.S.C. 103(a) 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.
This application currently names joint inventors. In considering patentability of the claims under pre-AIA 35 U.S.C. 103(a), the examiner presumes that the subject matter of the various claims was commonly owned at the time any inventions covered therein were made absent any evidence to the contrary. Applicant is advised of the obligation under 37 CFR 1.56 to point out the inventor and invention dates of each claim that was not commonly owned at the time a later invention was made in order for the examiner to consider the applicability of pre-AIA 35 U.S.C. 103(c) and potential pre-AIA 35 U.S.C. 102(e), (f) or (g) prior art under pre-AIA 35 U.S.C. 103(a).
Claims 1-9 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Ouedraogo et al. (UK Patent Application GB 2584723), (“Ouedraogo”), in view of Lee et al. (US Patent Application Publication US 2019/0068989 A1), (“Lee”), in view of Bross et al. (VVC Draft 5), (“Bross”).
Regarding claim 1, Ouedraogo meets the claim limitations, as follows:
An image decoding method (a method … for encoding and decoding pictures) [Ouedraogo: page 1, line 7-8], the method comprising: partitioning a current picture into a plurality of tiles (the tile, brick and slice partitioning is described in a non-VCL NAL unit such as the PPS) [Ouedraogo: page 27, line 23-24]; decoding (decoding) [Ouedraogo: page 3, line 34] slice mode information ((mode of slice) [Ouedraogo: page 6, line 30]; (syntax elements which describe the tile, brick and slice partitioning information) [Ouedraogo: page 28, line 7-8]), the slice mode information representing which one of a rectangular slice mode ((mode of slice) [Ouedraogo: page 6, line 30]; (wherein the data array is partitioned into a set of rectangular slices) [Ouedraogo: page 55, line 1-2]; (wherein the slice forms a rectangular shape) [Ouedraogo: page 54, line 27]; (slices forming a rectangular area in the picture) [Ouedraogo: page 6, line 30-31]; (the tile, brick and slice partitioning is described in a non-VCL NAL unit such as the PPS) [Ouedraogo: page 27, line 23-24]) and a raster scan order mode is applied to the current picture (A second mode of slice partitioning is restricted to successive tiles in raster scan order) [Ouedraogo: page 6, line 32-33],wherein under the rectangular slice mode (mode of slice partitioning is restricted to slices forming a rectangular area in the picture) [Ouedraogo: page 6, line 30-31], all of slices in the current picture are determined as a rectangular shape (mode of slice partitioning is restricted to slices forming a rectangular area in the picture) [Ouedraogo: page 6, line 30-31], andwherein under the raster scan order mode (A second mode of slice partitioning is restricted to successive tiles in raster scan order) [Ouedraogo: page 6, line 32-33], at least one slice in the current picture has a shape (when the scan order across the tiles is such that the bricks are encoded by following a raster scan direction, the brick partitioning is constrained so that it forms a grid of bricks) [Ouedraogo: page 54, line 19-21] other than the rectangular shape ((When the slice is not rectangular, the slice header indicates the number of bricks in the slice NAL unit with the help of num_bricks_in_slice_minus1 syntax element) [Ouedraogo: page 11, line 21-22]; (In one example, the frame of the Figure 7 contains 4 slices. The first slice contains the brick 700. The second slice contains the brick 701, the third slice contains the brick 702 and the last slice contains the bricks 703 and 704) [Ouedraogo: page 6, line 4; Fig. 7] – Note: As it is shown in Figure 7, the third slice has only brick 702, which has a square shape - not a rectangular shape);in response to the slice mode information indicating that the rectangular slice mode is applied (mode of slice partitioning is restricted to slices forming a rectangular area in the picture) [Ouedraogo: page 6, line 30-31], decoding slice number information (In a step 903, the decoder determines the number of slices associated with an item of identification information of each sub picture when present) [Ouedraogo: page 30, line 1-2], the slice number information representing a value subtracting 1 from a number of slices included in the current picture (the syntax element num_slices_in_pic_minus1 is equal to the number of rectangular slices in the picture minus one) [Ouedraogo: page 11, line 9-10]; anddecoding (decoding) [Ouedraogo: page 3, line 34] tile index difference value information (for each tile of the frame, the decoder determines the index (brick_layout) of the brick pattern associated with the tile index) [Ouedraogo: page 28, line 16-18] for a first slice in the current picture (the first slice) [Ouedraogo: page 25, line 28], the first slice being composed of one or more tile in the current picture ((NumTileslnPic is the number of tiles in the picture) [Ouedraogo: page 29, line 3]; (Tiles represent sub-portions of the picture. Slices are sub-portion groups. In Figure 1B, the picture 104 is subdivided in 24 sub pictures including the sub pictures 105 and 106. These two sub pictures further describe a tile grid and a partitioning into slices similar to pictures 101 and 102 of Figure 1A) [Ouedraogo: page 7, line 30-33]),wherein the tile index difference value information represents a difference between an index of a first tile in the first slice and an index of a first tile in a second slice in the current picture ((In TABLE 15, reuse_brick_split_column_idx_delta_minus1[i] plus 1 specifies the difference between the index of the i-th tile (i.e., the index equals i) and the index of the tile for which the brick splitting pattern is reused) [Ouedraogo: page 18, line 5-8]; (Syntax elements top_left_brick_idx[] and bottom_right_brick_idx[] are arrays that respectively specify the first brick (top left) and the last (bottom right) brick in a rectangular slice. Theses arrays are indexed by slice index) [Ouedraogo: page 11, line 11-13]; {if (i > 0) top_left_brick_idx[i] bottom_right_brick_idx_delta[i])) [Ouedraogo: Table 3] - Note: From Ouedraogo‘s descriptions, the syntax elements top_left_brick_idx[0] can indicate the index of the first tile in the first slice, and top_left_brick_idx[1] can indicate the index of the first tile in the second slice. The reuse_brick_split_column_idx_delta_minus1[i] plus 1 specifies the difference between the index of these tiles), wherein the index of the first tile in the second slice is derived by the tile index difference value information (The slice scanning order consists in adding the bricks of the tile starting by the top brick up to the bottom brick within the tile column. The scanning of the tile columns is made in tile scan order, typically from the left to right in the picture. In other words, it consists in processing the bricks vertically column by column) [Ouedraogo: page 25, line 4-8], andwherein the tile index difference value information is decoded (decoding order index of the i-th brick) [Ouedraogo: page 21, line 11] from a bitstream (In a step 904, the decoder decodes the VCL NAL units corresponding to the slices according to the parameters determined in the previous steps. The decoding order of the slice is the order of the slice in the bitstream) [Ouedraogo: page 30, line 3-5] in response to the slice number information (The syntax element num_sub_pics_minus1) [Ouedraogo: page 9, line 1] being greater than a pre-defined value ((In a step 903, the decoder determines the number of slices associated with an item of identification information of each sub picture when present) [Ouedraogo: page 30, line 1-2]; ; (if (rect_slice_flag && !single_brick_per_slice_flag) { num_slices_in_pic_minus1
for (i = 0; i <= num_slices_in_pic_minus1; i++) {if (i > 0) top_left_brick_idx[i]
bottom_right_brick_idx_delta[i])) [Ouedraogo: Table 3] – Note: A pre-defined value could be 0); (The slice identifiers are specified when the signalled_slice_id_flag is equal to 1. In this case, the signalled_slice_id_length_minus1 syntax element indicates the number of bits used to encode each slice identifier value. The slice_id[] table is indexed by slice index and contains the identifier of the slice. When the signalled_slice_id_flag equal to 0 the slice_id is indexed by slice index and contains the slice index of the slice) [Ouedraogo: page 11, line 14-18]).
Regarding claims 2 and 6, Ouedraogo meets the claim limitations as set forth in claims 1 and 5. Ouedraogo further meets the claim limitations as follow.
wherein the slice mode information ((mode of slice) [Ouedraogo: page 6, line 30]; (syntax elements which describe the tile, brick and slice partitioning information) [Ouedraogo: page 28, line 7-8]), the slice number information (the number of slices associated with an item of identification information of each sub picture when present) [Ouedraogo: page 30, line 1-2], (the syntax element num_slices_in_pic_minus1 is equal to the number of rectangular slices in the picture minus one) [Ouedraogo: page 11, line 9-10], and the tile index difference value information (reuse_brick_split_column_idx_delta_minus1 [ i ] plus 1 specifies the difference between the index of the i-th tile (i.e., the index equals i) and the index of the tile for which the brick splitting pattern is reused. The index of this tile is) [Ouedraogo: page 18, line 5-8]; ; {if (i > 0) top_left_brick_idx[i] bottom_right_brick_idx_delta[i])) [Ouedraogo: Table 3]) are signaled through a picture parameter set (pic_parameter_set_rbsp( ) [Ouedraogo: Table 3] – Note: Please see details of pic_parameter_set_rbsp( ) structure in Table 3)).
Regarding claims 3 and 7, Ouedraogo meets the claim limitations as set forth in claims 1 and 5. Ouedraogo further meets the claim limitations as follow.
in response to the slice number information being greater than a pre-defined value, decoding tile index difference presence information indicating whether the tile index difference value information is present in the bitstream or not (if (rect_slice_flag && !single_brick_per_slice_flag) { num_slices_in_pic_minus1
for (i = 0; i <= num_slices_in_pic_minus1; i++) {if (i > 0) top_left_brick_idx[i]
bottom_right_brick_idx_delta[i])) [Ouedraogo: Table 3], andwherein the tile index difference value information is decoded from the bitstream only (i.e. reuse_brick_split_column_idx_delta_minus1 [ i ] plus 1 specifies the difference between the index of the i-th tile (i.e., the index equals i) and the index of the tile for which the brick splitting pattern is reused. The index of this tile is computed with the following equation: ReferenceTilelndex = i - (reuse_brick_split_column_idx_delta_minus1 [i] + 1) ) [Ouedraogo: page 18, line 5-10] when the tile index difference presence information indicates that the tile index difference value information is present in the bitstream (i.e. The syntax element single_tile_in_pic_flag states whether the picture contains a single tile) [Ouedraogo: page 11, line 2-3]; (i.e. The scan order of the tiles in each slice of the frame is the processing order of the tile columns within a picture or a slice. Typically, the tile columns are processed in raster scan order from the left-most tile column to the rightmost column. The first tile starts with the index 0 and thus the last tile of the frame has an index equal to the number of tiles minus one in the frame. In a variant, the tile scan order is from right to left) [Ouedraogo: page 19, line 31-35]).
In the same field of endeavor Lee further discloses the claim limitations as follows:
a difference between an index of a first tile in the first slice and an index of a first tile in a second slice (i.e. In the example shown in FIG. 28, for a residual motion information (the motion vector difference)-related symbol, in the first tile (tile0), the initial probability index is determined as pStateidx0, and in the second time (tile1), the initial probability index is determined as pStateidx1) [Lee: para. 0284].
It would have been obvious to one with an ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify the teachings of Ouedraogo with Lee to program the system to implement of Lee’s method.
Therefore, the combination of Ouedraogo with Lee will enable the system to improve coding efficiency [Lee: para. 0021].
In the same field of endeavor, Bross further discloses the claim limitations as follows:
a difference between an index of a first tile in the first slice and an index of a first tile in a second slice (i.e. top_left_brick_idx[i] specifies the brick index of the brick located at the top-left comer of the i-th slice. The value of top_left_brick_idx[i] shall not be equal to the value of top_left_brick_idx[j] for any i not equal to j) [Bross: page 83].
It would have been obvious to one with an ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify the teachings of Ouedraogo and Lee with Bross to program the system to implement of Bross’s method.
Therefore, the combination of Ouedraogo and Lee with Bross will enable the system to be comply with the VVC standard [Bross: Normative references].
Regarding claims 4 and 8, Ouedraogo meets the claim limitations as set forth in claims 1 and 5. Ouedraogo further meets the claim limitations as follow.
wherein the index of the first tile in the second slice is derived by adding a value of the tile index difference value information to the index of the first tile in the first slice (i.e. The slice scanning order consists in adding the bricks of the tile starting by the top brick up to the bottom brick within the tile column. The scanning of the tile columns is made in tile scan order, typically from the left to right in the picture. In other words, it consists in processing the bricks vertically column by column) [Ouedraogo: page 25, line 4-8].
Regarding claim 5, Ouedraogo meets the claim limitations, as follows:
An image encoding method (a method … for encoding and decoding pictures) [Ouedraogo: page 1, line 7-8], the method comprising: partitioning a current picture into a plurality of tiles (the tile, brick and slice partitioning is described in a non-VCL NAL unit such as the PPS) [Ouedraogo: page 27, line 23-24]; encoding (A slice can be encoded in the bit stream) [Ouedraogo: page 7, line 1-2] slice mode information ((mode of slice) [Ouedraogo: page 6, line 30]; (syntax elements which describe the tile, brick and slice partitioning information) [Ouedraogo: page 28, line 7-8]), the slice mode information representing which one of a rectangular slice mode ((mode of slice) [Ouedraogo: page 6, line 30]; (wherein the data array is partitioned into a set of rectangular slices) [Ouedraogo: page 55, line 1-2]; (wherein the slice forms a rectangular shape) [Ouedraogo: page 54, line 27]; (slices forming a rectangular area in the picture) [Ouedraogo: page 6, line 30-31]; (the tile, brick and slice partitioning is described in a non-VCL NAL unit such as the PPS) [Ouedraogo: page 27, line 23-24]) and a raster scan order mode is applied to the current picture (A second mode of slice partitioning is restricted to successive tiles in raster scan order) [Ouedraogo: page 6, line 32-33],wherein under the rectangular slice mode (mode of slice partitioning is restricted to slices forming a rectangular area in the picture) [Ouedraogo: page 6, line 30-31], all of slices in the current picture are determined as a rectangular shape (mode of slice partitioning is restricted to slices forming a rectangular area in the picture) [Ouedraogo: page 6, line 30-31], andwherein under the raster scan order mode (A second mode of slice partitioning is restricted to successive tiles in raster scan order) [Ouedraogo: page 6, line 32-33], at least one slice in the current picture has a shape (when the scan order across the tiles is such that the bricks are encoded by following a raster scan direction, the brick partitioning is constrained so that it forms a grid of bricks) [Ouedraogo: page 54, line 19-21] other than the rectangular shape ((When the slice is not rectangular, the slice header indicates the number of bricks in the slice NAL unit with the help of num_bricks_in_slice_minus1 syntax element) [Ouedraogo: page 11, line 21-22]; (In one example, the frame of the Figure 7 contains 4 slices. The first slice contains the brick 700. The second slice contains the brick 701, the third slice contains the brick 702 and the last slice contains the bricks 703 and 704) [Ouedraogo: page 6, line 4; Fig. 7] – Note: As it is shown in Figure 7, the third slice has only brick 702, which has a square shape - not a rectangular shape);in response to the slice mode information indicating that the rectangular slice mode is applied (mode of slice partitioning is restricted to slices forming a rectangular area in the picture) [Ouedraogo: page 6, line 30-31], decoding slice number information (In a step 903, the decoder determines the number of slices associated with an item of identification information of each sub picture when present) [Ouedraogo: page 30, line 1-2], the slice number information representing a value subtracting 1 from a number of slices included in the current picture (the syntax element num_slices_in_pic_minus1 is equal to the number of rectangular slices in the picture minus one) [Ouedraogo: page 11, line 9-10]; andencoding (A slice can be encoded in the bit stream) [Ouedraogo: page 7, line 1-2] tile index difference value information (for each tile of the frame, the decoder determines the index (brick_layout) of the brick pattern associated with the tile index) [Ouedraogo: page 28, line 16-18] for a first slice in the current picture (the first slice) [Ouedraogo: page 25, line 28], the first slice being composed of one or more tile in the current picture ((NumTileslnPic is the number of tiles in the picture) [Ouedraogo: page 29, line 3]; (Tiles represent sub-portions of the picture. Slices are sub-portion groups. In Figure 1B, the picture 104 is subdivided in 24 sub pictures including the sub pictures 105 and 106. These two sub pictures further describe a tile grid and a partitioning into slices similar to pictures 101 and 102 of Figure 1A) [Ouedraogo: page 7, line 30-33]),wherein the tile index difference value information represents a difference between an index of a first tile in the first slice and an index of a first tile in a second slice in the current picture ((In TABLE 15, reuse_brick_split_column_idx_delta_minus1[i] plus 1 specifies the difference between the index of the i-th tile (i.e., the index equals i) and the index of the tile for which the brick splitting pattern is reused) [Ouedraogo: page 18, line 5-8]; (Syntax elements top_left_brick_idx[] and bottom_right_brick_idx[] are arrays that respectively specify the first brick (top left) and the last (bottom right) brick in a rectangular slice. Theses arrays are indexed by slice index) [Ouedraogo: page 11, line 11-13] ; {if (i > 0) top_left_brick_idx[i] bottom_right_brick_idx_delta[i])) [Ouedraogo: Table 3] - Note: From Ouedraogo‘s descriptions, the syntax elements top_left_brick_idx[0] can indicate the index of the first tile in the first slice, and top_left_brick_idx[1] can indicate the index of the first tile in the second slice. The reuse_brick_split_column_idx_delta_minus1[i] plus 1 specifies the difference between the index of these tiles),
wherein the index of the first tile in the second slice is the same as a value adding the difference to the index of the first tile in the first slice (The slice scanning order consists in adding the bricks of the tile starting by the top brick up to the bottom brick within the tile column. The scanning of the tile columns is made in tile scan order, typically from the left to right in the picture. In other words, it consists in processing the bricks vertically column by column) [Ouedraogo: page 25, line 4-8], andwherein the tile index difference value information is encoded ((A slice can be encoded in the bit stream) [Ouedraogo: page 7, line 1-2]; (index of the i-th brick) [Ouedraogo: page 21, line 11]) from a bitstream (the VCL NAL units corresponding to the slices according to the parameters determined in the previous steps. The decoding order of the slice is the order of the slice in the bitstream) [Ouedraogo: page 30, line 3-5] in response to the slice number information (The syntax element num_sub_pics_minus1) [Ouedraogo: page 9, line 1] being greater than a pre-defined value ((determines the number of slices associated with an item of identification information of each sub picture when present) [Ouedraogo: page 30, line 1-2]; ; (if (rect_slice_flag && !single_brick_per_slice_flag) { num_slices_in_pic_minus1
for (i = 0; i <= num_slices_in_pic_minus1; i++) {if (i > 0) top_left_brick_idx[i]
bottom_right_brick_idx_delta[i])) [Ouedraogo: Table 3] – Note: A pre-defined value could be 0); (The slice identifiers are specified when the signalled_slice_id_flag is equal to 1. In this case, the signalled_slice_id_length_minus1 syntax element indicates the number of bits used to encode each slice identifier value. The slice_id[] table is indexed by slice index and contains the identifier of the slice. When the signalled_slice_id_flag equal to 0 the slice_id is indexed by slice index and contains the slice index of the slice) [Ouedraogo: page 11, line 14-18]).
In the same field of endeavor Lee further discloses the claim limitations as follows:
a difference between an index of a first tile in the first slice and an index of a first tile in a second slice (i.e. In the example shown in FIG. 28, for a residual motion information (the motion vector difference)-related symbol, in the first tile (tile0), the initial probability index is determined as pStateidx0, and in the second time (tile1), the initial probability index is determined as pStateidx1) [Lee: para. 0284].
It would have been obvious to one with an ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify the teachings of Ouedraogo with Lee to program the system to implement of Lee’s method.
Therefore, the combination of Ouedraogo with Lee will enable the system to improve coding efficiency [Lee: para. 0021].
In the same field of endeavor, Bross further discloses the claim limitations as follows:
a difference between an index of a first tile in the first slice and an index of a first tile in a second slice (i.e. top_left_brick_idx[i] specifies the brick index of the brick located at the top-left comer of the i-th slice. The value of top_left_brick_idx[i] shall not be equal to the value of top_left_brick_idx[j] for any i not equal to j) [Bross: page 83].
It would have been obvious to one with an ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify the teachings of Ouedraogo and Lee with Bross to program the system to implement of Bross’s method.
Therefore, the combination of Ouedraogo and Lee with Bross will enable the system to be comply with the VVC standard [Bross: Normative references].
Regarding claim 9, Ouedraogo meets the claim limitations, as follows:
A non-transitory computer-readable recording medium, comprising executable instructions that (a random access memory (RAM) 1008 for storing the executable code of the method of embodiments of the invention as well as the registers adapted to record variables and parameters necessary for implementing the method for encoding pictures) [Ouedraogo: page 30, line 14-16], when executed by a processor (a central processing unit (CPU) 1004, such as a microprocessor) [Ouedraogo: page 30, line 13], causes the processor to preform steps for storing a bitstream generated by an image encoding method (The central processing unit 1004 is adapted to control and direct the execution of the instructions or portions of software code of the program or programs according to embodiments of the invention, which instructions are stored in one of the aforementioned storage means. After powering on, the CPU 1004 is capable of executing instructions from main RAM memory 1008 relating to a software application after those instructions have been loaded from the program ROM 1006 or the hard disk (HD) 1010, for example. Such a software application, when executed by the CPU 1004, causes the steps of the flowcharts shown in the previous figures to be performed) [Ouedraogo: page 31, line 4-11],wherein the image encoding method (a method … for encoding and decoding pictures) [Ouedraogo: page 1, line 7-8] comprises: partitioning a current picture into a plurality of tiles (the tile, brick and slice partitioning is described in a non-VCL NAL unit such as the PPS) [Ouedraogo: page 27, line 23-24]; encoding (A slice can be encoded in the bit stream) [Ouedraogo: page 7, line 1-2] slice mode information ((mode of slice) [Ouedraogo: page 6, line 30]; (syntax elements which describe the tile, brick and slice partitioning information) [Ouedraogo: page 28, line 7-8]), the slice mode information representing which one of a rectangular slice mode ((mode of slice) [Ouedraogo: page 6, line 30]; (wherein the data array is partitioned into a set of rectangular slices) [Ouedraogo: page 55, line 1-2]; (wherein the slice forms a rectangular shape) [Ouedraogo: page 54, line 27]; (slices forming a rectangular area in the picture) [Ouedraogo: page 6, line 30-31]; (the tile, brick and slice partitioning is described in a non-VCL NAL unit such as the PPS) [Ouedraogo: page 27, line 23-24]) and a raster scan order mode is applied to the current picture (A second mode of slice partitioning is restricted to successive tiles in raster scan order) [Ouedraogo: page 6, line 32-33],wherein under the rectangular slice mode (mode of slice partitioning is restricted to slices forming a rectangular area in the picture) [Ouedraogo: page 6, line 30-31], all of slices in the current picture are determined as a rectangular shape (mode of slice partitioning is restricted to slices forming a rectangular area in the picture) [Ouedraogo: page 6, line 30-31], andwherein under the raster scan order mode (A second mode of slice partitioning is restricted to successive tiles in raster scan order) [Ouedraogo: page 6, line 32-33], at least one slice in the current picture has a shape (when the scan order across the tiles is such that the bricks are encoded by following a raster scan direction, the brick partitioning is constrained so that it forms a grid of bricks) [Ouedraogo: page 54, line 19-21] other than the rectangular shape ((When the slice is not rectangular, the slice header indicates the number of bricks in the slice NAL unit with the help of num_bricks_in_slice_minus1 syntax element) [Ouedraogo: page 11, line 21-22]; (In one example, the frame of the Figure 7 contains 4 slices. The first slice contains the brick 700. The second slice contains the brick 701, the third slice contains the brick 702 and the last slice contains the bricks 703 and 704) [Ouedraogo: page 6, line 4; Fig. 7] – Note: As it is shown in Figure 7, the third slice has only brick 702, which has a square shape - not a rectangular shape);in response to the slice mode information indicating that the rectangular slice mode is applied (mode of slice partitioning is restricted to slices forming a rectangular area in the picture) [Ouedraogo: page 6, line 30-31], decoding slice number information (In a step 903, the decoder determines the number of slices associated with an item of identification information of each sub picture when present) [Ouedraogo: page 30, line 1-2], the slice number information representing a value subtracting 1 from a number of slices included in the current picture (the syntax element num_slices_in_pic_minus1 is equal to the number of rectangular slices in the picture minus one) [Ouedraogo: page 11, line 9-10]; andencoding (A slice can be encoded in the bit stream) [Ouedraogo: page 7, line 1-2] tile index difference value information (for each tile of the frame, the decoder determines the index (brick_layout) of the brick pattern associated with the tile index) [Ouedraogo: page 28, line 16-18] for a first slice in the current picture (the first slice) [Ouedraogo: page 25, line 28], the first slice being composed of one or more tile in the current picture ((NumTileslnPic is the number of tiles in the picture) [Ouedraogo: page 29, line 3]; (Tiles represent sub-portions of the picture. Slices are sub-portion groups. In Figure 1B, the picture 104 is subdivided in 24 sub pictures including the sub pictures 105 and 106. These two sub pictures further describe a tile grid and a partitioning into slices similar to pictures 101 and 102 of Figure 1A) [Ouedraogo: page 7, line 30-33]),wherein the tile index difference value information represents a difference between an index of a first tile in the first slice and an index of a first tile in a second slice in the current picture ((In TABLE 15, reuse_brick_split_column_idx_delta_minus1[i] plus 1 specifies the difference between the index of the i-th tile (i.e., the index equals i) and the index of the tile for which the brick splitting pattern is reused) [Ouedraogo: page 18, line 5-8]; (Syntax elements top_left_brick_idx[] and bottom_right_brick_idx[] are arrays that respectively specify the first brick (top left) and the last (bottom right) brick in a rectangular slice. Theses arrays are indexed by slice index) [Ouedraogo: page 11, line 11-13]; {if (i > 0) top_left_brick_idx[i] bottom_right_brick_idx_delta[i])) [Ouedraogo: Table 3] - Note: From Ouedraogo‘s descriptions, the syntax elements top_left_brick_idx[0] can indicate the index of the first tile in the first slice, and top_left_brick_idx[1] can indicate the index of the first tile in the second slice. The reuse_brick_split_column_idx_delta_minus1[i] plus 1 specifies the difference between the index of these tiles),
wherein the index of the first tile in the second slice is the same as a value adding the difference to the index of the first tile in the first slice (The slice scanning order consists in adding the bricks of the tile starting by the top brick up to the bottom brick within the tile column. The scanning of the tile columns is made in tile scan order, typically from the left to right in the picture. In other words, it consists in processing the bricks vertically column by column) [Ouedraogo: page 25, line 4-8], andwherein the tile index difference value information is encoded ((A slice can be encoded in the bit stream) [Ouedraogo: page 7, line 1-2]; (index of the i-th brick) [Ouedraogo: page 21, line 11]) from a bitstream (the VCL NAL units corresponding to the slices according to the parameters determined in the previous steps. The decoding order of the slice is the order of the slice in the bitstream) [Ouedraogo: page 30, line 3-5] in response to the slice number information (The syntax element num_sub_pics_minus1) [Ouedraogo: page 9, line 1] being greater than a pre-defined value ((determines the number of slices associated with an item of identification information of each sub picture when present) [Ouedraogo: page 30, line 1-2]; ; (if (rect_slice_flag && !single_brick_per_slice_flag) { num_slices_in_pic_minus1
for (i = 0; i <= num_slices_in_pic_minus1; i++) {if (i > 0) top_left_brick_idx[i]
bottom_right_brick_idx_delta[i])) [Ouedraogo: Table 3] – Note: A pre-defined value could be 0); (The slice identifiers are specified when the signalled_slice_id_flag is equal to 1. In this case, the signalled_slice_id_length_minus1 syntax element indicates the number of bits used to encode each slice identifier value. The slice_id[] table is indexed by slice index and contains the identifier of the slice. When the signalled_slice_id_flag equal to 0 the slice_id is indexed by slice index and contains the slice index of the slice) [Ouedraogo: page 11, line 14-18]).
In the same field of endeavor Lee further discloses the claim limitations as follows:
a difference between an index of a first tile in the first slice and an index of a first tile in a second slice (i.e. In the example shown in FIG. 28, for a residual motion information (the motion vector difference)-related symbol, in the first tile (tile0), the initial probability index is determined as pStateidx0, and in the second time (tile1), the initial probability index is determined as pStateidx1) [Lee: para. 0284].
It would have been obvious to one with an ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify the teachings of Ouedraogo with Lee to program the system to implement of Lee’s method.
Therefore, the combination of Ouedraogo with Lee will enable the system to improve coding efficiency [Lee: para. 0021].
In the same field of endeavor, Bross further discloses the claim limitations as follows:
a difference between an index of a first tile in the first slice and an index of a first tile in a second slice (i.e. top_left_brick_idx[i] specifies the brick index of the brick located at the top-left comer of the i-th slice. The value of top_left_brick_idx[i] shall not be equal to the value of top_left_brick_idx[j] for any i not equal to j) [Bross: page 83].
It would have been obvious to one with an ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify the teachings of Ouedraogo and Lee with Bross to program the system to implement of Bross’s method.
Therefore, the combination of Ouedraogo and Lee with Bross will enable the system to be comply with the VVC standard [Bross: Normative references].
Reference Notice
Additional prior arts, included in the Notice of Reference Cited, made of record and not relied upon is considered pertinent to applicant's disclosure.
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