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 . 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. There are a total of 20 claims and claims 1-20 are pending.
Information Disclosure Statement
The information disclosure statement (IDS) submitted on 07/22/2025 was filed 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 § 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 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 1-20 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 applications subject to pre-AIA 35 U.S.C. 112, the applicant), regards as the invention.
Claim 1 recites “determining whether to use a continued context, and the first information indicates whether to use the continued context”. It is not clear what is meant by “a continued context”. The Examiner reviews the original disclosure and finds reference of “context” but no reference of “a continued context”. Therefore, lacking enough information regarding “the continued context” has created indefiniteness in interpreting the actual scope of the claimed invention. Claims 10, 19-20 have the same issue. All the other claims are rejected due to their direct or indirect dependency upon the rejected base claims.
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, 5-6, 10, 14-15, 19-20 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Kim et al. (US PGPub 2023/0232044 A1) (Inventive concepts disclosed in 62/697369 dated 07/12/2018) in view of Lasserre et al. (US PGPub 2021/0281874 A1) Mammou et al. (US PGPub 2021/0183112 A1) (Inventive concepts disclosed in 62/655764 dated 04/10/2018).
Regarding claim 1, Kim et al. teach a method for encoding N-dimensional data (Abstract; [0085], L13-18; it teaches that an encoder, such as encoder 200, converts a 3D point cloud into an image-based representation along with some meta data), comprising:
obtaining N-dimensional data, where N is equal to or greater than three ([0003], L1-10; it teaches that an encoder, e.g., 3-D-cameras, 3-D scanners, etc. may capture data indicating positions of points in three dimensional space, for example positions in the X, Y, and Z planes),
encoding the N-dimensional data ([0085], L13-18; it teaches that an encoder, such as encoder 200, converts a 3D point cloud into an image-based representation along with some meta data),
generating a data unit including the encoded N-dimensional data ([0422]; Fig. 7A shows a PCCNAL unit 720 that indicates an encoding parameter for a sequence of image frames and/or PCCNAL units. Here PCCNAL unit is a data unit because a PCCNAL unit may be defined as a set of data that contains one or more types of information and that can be placed anywhere in the bit stream, as disclosed in [0415], L17-19),
generating first information ([0422]; it teaches that PCCNAL unit 722, may indicate one or more encoding parameters that supplement or override encoding parameters included in a sequence parameter set PCCNAL unit, such as PCCNAL unit 720, where the encoding parameters constitute a first information among multiple information), and
generating a bitstream including the data unit and the first information ([0218]; It teaches that the arithmetic encoding contexts could be adaptively adjusted based on information extracted from the video bit streams associated with the texture/geometry/motion frames, which means the bitstream contains information which indicates adjustment of the arithmetic encoding contexts as well as the PCCNAL unit as shown in Fig. 7A and described in [0422]),
wherein in the encoding of the N-dimensional data, determining whether to use a continued context ([0218]; It teaches that the arithmetic encoding contexts could be adaptively adjusted based on information extracted from the video bit streams associated with the texture/geometry/motion frames), and
the first information indicates whether to use the continued context ([0218]; It teaches that the arithmetic encoding contexts could be adaptively adjusted based on information extracted from the video bit streams associated with the texture/geometry/motion frames, which means the first information could be the information about encoding contexts).
Although, Kim et al. teach encoding contexts and associated information in the bit stream, but it does not explicitly teach that the first information indicates whether to use the continued context.
However, Mammou et al., in the same field of endeavor (Abstract), teach a 3D point cloud compression technique, where it teaches that the bitstream has information indicating whether to use a continued context (Mammou et al.; Fig. 5; [0130], Last sentence; It teaches that an encoder may select an encoding context for encoding attribute correction values for a first one of the color attributes, for example the Red attribute, and may use the same encoding context for encoding attribute correction values for the other color attributes, such as the Green attribute and the Blue attribute. Which means the bitstream carries information about whether to use the same continued context for different color attributes as evident from [0131], Last sentence).
It would have been obvious before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to a person having ordinary skill in the art to combine Kim et al’s invention of bitstream structure for compressed point cloud data to include Mammou et al's inclusion of indication of continued context usage in the bitstream, because some encoding contexts may be optimized for encoding values with certain characteristics while other encoding contexts may be optimized for encoding values with other characteristics (Mammou et al.; [0128]).
Regarding claim 5, Kim et al. and Mammou et al. teach the method according to claim 1, wherein
the data unit includes a plurality of sub-data units (Kim et al.; Figs. 7A-B show that the PCCNAL data unit is composed of sub-data units PCCNAL-OCC, PCCNAL-GEO, PCCNAL-ATT as shown in Fig. 7C), and
for each sub-data unit, it is determined whether to use the continued context in its encoding (Kim et al.; [0218]; It teaches that the arithmetic encoding contexts could be adaptively adjusted based on information extracted from the video bit streams associated with the texture/geometry/motion frames, which means the context is coded for each of the sub-data units e.g., PCCNAL-GEO, PCCNAL-ATT, etc.).
Regarding claim 6, Kim et al. and Mammou et al. teach the method according to claim 5, wherein
the plurality of sub-data units each include geometry information and attribute information (Kim et al.; Figs. 7A-B show that the PCCNAL data unit is composed of sub-data units PCCNAL-OCC, PCCNAL-GEO, PCCNAL-ATT as shown in Fig. 7C, where PCCNAL-GEO represents geometry information and PCCNAL-ATT represents attribute information).
Regarding claim 10, Kim et al. teach a method for decoding N-dimensional data (Abstract; [0092]; it teaches that decoder 230 receives compressed point cloud information 204, which may be the same compressed point cloud information 204 generated by encoder 200. Decoder 230 generates reconstructed point cloud 246 based on receiving the compressed point cloud information 204), comprising:
obtaining, from a bitstream, first information indicating whether to use a continued context ([0218]; It teaches that the arithmetic encoding contexts could be adaptively adjusted based on information extracted from the video bit streams associated with the texture/geometry/motion frames, which means the first information could be the information about encoding contexts),
obtaining, from the bitstream, a data unit including encoded N-dimensional data ([0422]; Fig. 7A shows a PCCNAL unit 720 that indicates an decoding parameter for a sequence of image frames and/or PCCNAL units. Here PCCNAL unit is a data unit because a PCCNAL unit may be defined as a set of data that contains one or more types of information and that can be placed anywhere in the bit stream, as disclosed in [0415], L17-19), where N is equal to or greater than three ([0003], L1-10; it teaches that an encoder, e.g., 3-D-cameras, 3-D scanners, etc. may capture data indicating positions of points in three dimensional space, for example positions in the X, Y, and Z planes, wherein in [0010], Last sentence, it teaches that a decoder may scan a bit stream for PCCNAL units and may further utilize organization information included in the PCCNAL units in order to determine which video encoded image frames or portions of the video encoded image frames to decoder), and
decoding the data unit using the first information ([0016]; Figs. 2B, 2D, 5B), and
in the decoding of the data unit, determining whether to use the continued context based on the first information ([0218]; It teaches that the arithmetic encoding contexts could be adaptively adjusted based on information extracted from the video bit streams associated with the texture/geometry/motion frames).
Although, Kim et al. teach encoding contexts and associated information in the bit stream, but it does not explicitly teach that the first information indicates whether to use the continued context.
However, Mammou et al., in the same field of endeavor (Abstract), teach a 3D point cloud compression technique, where it teaches that the bitstream has information indicating whether to use a continued context (Mammou et al.; Fig. 5; [0130], Last sentence; It teaches that an encoder may select an encoding context for encoding attribute correction values for a first one of the color attributes, for example the Red attribute, and may use the same encoding context for encoding attribute correction values for the other color attributes, such as the Green attribute and the Blue attribute. Which means the bitstream carries information about whether to use the same continued context for different color attributes as evident from [0131], Last sentence).
It would have been obvious before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to a person having ordinary skill in the art to combine Kim et al’s invention of bitstream structure for compressed point cloud data to include Mammou et al's inclusion of indication of continued context usage in the bitstream, because some encoding contexts may be optimized for encoding values with certain characteristics while other encoding contexts may be optimized for encoding values with other characteristics (Mammou et al.; [0128]).
Regarding claim 14, Kim et al. and Mammou et al. teach the method according to claim 10, wherein
the data unit includes a plurality of sub-data units (Kim et al.; Figs. 7A-B show that the PCCNAL data unit is composed of sub-data units PCCNAL-OCC, PCCNAL-GEO, PCCNAL-ATT as shown in Fig. 7C), and
for each sub-data unit, it is determined whether to use the continued context in its decoding (Kim et al.; [0218]; It teaches that the arithmetic encoding contexts could be adaptively adjusted based on information extracted from the video bit streams associated with the texture/geometry/motion frames, which means the context is coded for each of the sub-data units e.g., PCCNAL-GEO, PCCNAL-ATT, etc.).
Regarding claim 15, Kim et al. and Mammou et al. teach the method according to claim 14, wherein
the plurality of sub-data units each include geometry information and attribute information (Kim et al.; Figs. 7A-B show that the PCCNAL data unit is composed of sub-data units PCCNAL-OCC, PCCNAL-GEO, PCCNAL-ATT as shown in Fig. 7C, where PCCNAL-GEO represents geometry information and PCCNAL-ATT represents attribute information).
Regarding claim 19, Kim et al. teach an apparatus for encoding N-dimensional data (Figs. 2A, 2C, 5A), comprising:
a processor (Fig. 15, reference numerals 1510*); and
memory (Fig. 15, reference numerals 1520), wherein
using the memory, the processor:
obtains N-dimensional data, where N is equal to or greater than three ([0003], L1-10; it teaches that an encoder, e.g., 3-D-cameras, 3-D scanners, etc. may capture data indicating positions of points in three dimensional space, for example positions in the X, Y, and Z planes),
encodes the N-dimensional data ([0085], L13-18; it teaches that an encoder, such as encoder 200, converts a 3D point cloud into an image-based representation along with some meta data),
generates a data unit including the encoded N-dimensional data ([0422]; Fig. 7A shows a PCCNAL unit 720 that indicates an encoding parameter for a sequence of image frames and/or PCCNAL units. Here PCCNAL unit is a data unit because a PCCNAL unit may be defined as a set of data that contains one or more types of information and that can be placed anywhere in the bit stream, as disclosed in [0415], L17-19),
generates first information ([0422]; it teaches that PCCNAL unit 722, may indicate one or more encoding parameters that supplement or override encoding parameters included in a sequence parameter set PCCNAL unit, such as PCCNAL unit 720, where the encoding parameters constitute a first information among multiple information), and
generates a bitstream including the data unit and the first information ([0218]; It teaches that the arithmetic encoding contexts could be adaptively adjusted based on information extracted from the video bit streams associated with the texture/geometry/motion frames, which means the bitstream contains information which indicates adjustment of the arithmetic encoding contexts as well as the PCCNAL unit as shown in Fig. 7A and described in [0422]),
wherein in the encoding of the N-dimensional data, the processor determines whether to use a continued context ([0218]; It teaches that the arithmetic encoding contexts could be adaptively adjusted based on information extracted from the video bit streams associated with the texture/geometry/motion frames), and
the first information indicates whether to use the continued context ([0218]; It teaches that the arithmetic encoding contexts could be adaptively adjusted based on information extracted from the video bit streams associated with the texture/geometry/motion frames, which means the first information could be the information about encoding contexts).
Although, Kim et al. teach encoding contexts and associated information in the bit stream, but it does not explicitly teach that the first information indicates whether to use the continued context.
However, Mammou et al., in the same field of endeavor (Abstract), teach a 3D point cloud compression technique, where it teaches that the bitstream has information indicating whether to use a continued context (Mammou et al.; Fig. 5; [0130], Last sentence; It teaches that an encoder may select an encoding context for encoding attribute correction values for a first one of the color attributes, for example the Red attribute, and may use the same encoding context for encoding attribute correction values for the other color attributes, such as the Green attribute and the Blue attribute. Which means the bitstream carries information about whether to use the same continued context for different color attributes as evident from [0131], Last sentence).
It would have been obvious before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to a person having ordinary skill in the art to combine Kim et al’s invention of bitstream structure for compressed point cloud data to include Mammou et al's inclusion of indication of continued context usage in the bitstream, because some encoding contexts may be optimized for encoding values with certain characteristics while other encoding contexts may be optimized for encoding values with other characteristics (Mammou et al.; [0128]).
Regarding claim 20, Kim et al. teach an apparatus for decoding N-dimensional data (Figs. 2B, 2D, 5B), comprising:
a processor (Fig. 15, reference numerals 1510*); and
memory (Fig. 15, reference numerals 1520), wherein
using the memory, the processor:
obtains, from a bitstream, first information indicating whether to use a continued context ([0218]; It teaches that the arithmetic encoding contexts could be adaptively adjusted based on information extracted from the video bit streams associated with the texture/geometry/motion frames, which means the first information could be the information about encoding contexts),
obtains, from the bitstream, a data unit including encoded N-dimensional data ([0422]; Fig. 7A shows a PCCNAL unit 720 that indicates an decoding parameter for a sequence of image frames and/or PCCNAL units. Here PCCNAL unit is a data unit because a PCCNAL unit may be defined as a set of data that contains one or more types of information and that can be placed anywhere in the bit stream, as disclosed in [0415], L17-19), where N is equal to or greater than three ([0003], L1-10; it teaches that an encoder, e.g., 3-D-cameras, 3-D scanners, etc. may capture data indicating positions of points in three dimensional space, for example positions in the X, Y, and Z planes, wherein in [0010], Last sentence, it teaches that a decoder may scan a bit stream for PCCNAL units and may further utilize organization information included in the PCCNAL units in order to determine which video encoded image frames or portions of the video encoded image frames to decoder), and
decodes the data unit using the first information ([0016]; Figs. 2B, 2D, 5B),
wherein, in the decoding of the data unit, determines whether to use the continued context based on the first information ([0218]; It teaches that the arithmetic encoding contexts could be adaptively adjusted based on information extracted from the video bit streams associated with the texture/geometry/motion frames).
Although, Kim et al. teach encoding contexts and associated information in the bit stream, but it does not explicitly teach that the first information indicates whether to use the continued context.
However, Mammou et al., in the same field of endeavor (Abstract), teach a 3D point cloud compression technique, where it teaches that the bitstream has information indicating whether to use a continued context (Mammou et al.; Fig. 5; [0130], Last sentence; It teaches that an encoder may select an encoding context for encoding attribute correction values for a first one of the color attributes, for example the Red attribute, and may use the same encoding context for encoding attribute correction values for the other color attributes, such as the Green attribute and the Blue attribute. Which means the bitstream carries information about whether to use the same continued context for different color attributes as evident from [0131], Last sentence).
It would have been obvious before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to a person having ordinary skill in the art to combine Kim et al’s invention of bitstream structure for compressed point cloud data to include Mammou et al's inclusion of indication of continued context usage in the bitstream, because some encoding contexts may be optimized for encoding values with certain characteristics while other encoding contexts may be optimized for encoding values with other characteristics (Mammou et al.; [0128]).
Allowable Subject Matter
Claims 2-4, 7-9, 11-13, 16-18 are objected to as being dependent upon a rejected base claim, but would be allowable if rewritten in independent form including all of the limitations of the base claim and any intervening claims.
Conclusion
The prior art made of record and not relied upon is considered pertinent to applicant's disclosure.
“POINT CLOUD COMPRESSION USING NON-CUBIC PROJECTIONS AND MASKS” – Tourapis et al., US PGPub 2019/0087978 A1.
“POINT CLOUD COMPRESSION WITH CLOSED-LOOP COLOR CONVERSION” – Mammou et al., US PGPub 2019/0156518 A1.
“POINT CLOUD COMPRESSION WITH MULTI-LAYER PROJECTION” - Mammou et al., US PGPub 2019/0156519 A1.
“ADAPTIVE SUB-BAND BASED CODING OF HIERARCHICAL TRANSFORM COEFFICIENTS OF THREE-DIMENSIONAL POINT CLOUD” – Vosoughi et al., US PGPub 2020/0013215 A1.
“METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR IMAGE COMPRESSION” – Aflaki Beni et al., WO 2018/220260 A1.
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to MAINUL HASAN whose telephone number is (571)272-0422. The examiner can normally be reached on MON-FRI: 10AM-6PM, Alternate FRIDAYS, EST.
If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner’s supervisor, JAY PATEL can be reached on (571)272-2988. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300.
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/Mainul Hasan/
Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2485
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