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 .
Status of Claims
The following is a Non-Final Office Action in response to the correspondence filed on 08/18/2025.
Claims 1- 20 are considered in this Office Action. Claims 1-20 are currently pending.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 103
In the event the determination of the status of the application as subject to AIA 35 U.S.C. 102 and 103 (or as subject to pre-AIA 35 U.S.C. 102 and 103) is incorrect, any correction of the statutory basis (i.e., changing from AIA to pre-AIA ) for the rejection will not be considered a new ground of rejection if the prior art relied upon, and the rationale supporting the rejection, would be the same under either status.
The following is a quotation of 35 U.S.C. 103 which forms the basis for all obviousness rejections set forth in this Office action:
A patent for a claimed invention may not be obtained, notwithstanding that the claimed invention is not identically disclosed as set forth in section 102, if the differences between the claimed invention and the prior art are such that the claimed invention as a whole would have been obvious before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to a person having ordinary skill in the art to which the claimed invention pertains. Patentability shall not be negated by the manner in which the invention was made.
The factual inquiries 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 nonobviousness.
Claims 1, 12, and 20 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Alexandros Tourapis (US 20240022765 A1) (hereinafter Tourapis) in view of Danillo Graziosi (US 20220108483 A1) (hereinafter Graziosi):
Regarding Claim 1, Tourapis teaches a method of encoding performed by at least one processor (encoder/encoder and processor [0038]; [0167]), the method comprising:
receiving a polygon mesh comprising a plurality of vertices (3D mesh of connected vertices is received [0004]; [0006]) defining a plurality of faces (the vertices are connected to form the polygons of the mesh [0037]; Note: the polygons are the faces);
dividing the polygon mesh into a plurality of sub-meshes (the mesh is divided into multiple sub-meshes [0038];[0107]);
generating a sub-mesh header for at least one sub-mesh (a sub-mesh header is generated for a sub-mesh [0106]); and
generating a bitstream comprising the polygon mesh and the sub-mesh header (generating the bitstream comprising the mesh and the header [0007]; [0105]- [0106]).
Tourapis does not explicitly teach the following limitations; however, in an analogous art, Graziosi teaches determining a mesh face type of the polygon mesh (asps_mesh_quad_flag determines the face type [0066]);
Generating a header from the plurality of sub-meshes in accordance with at least the mesh face type of the polygon mesh (the face type flag govern the per-patch mesh header [0066]).
It would have been obvious to the person having ordinary skill in the art before the effective filling date of the claimed invention to modify Tourapis’s sub-mesh header generation to be governed by Graziosi face type determination to improve the image rendering and extend the V3C framework (Graziosi [0076]).
Regarding Claim 12, Tourapis teaches a decoding method performed by at least one processor (decoder running on a computer system with a processor [0014]; [0026]; [0167]), the method comprising:
receiving a bitstream (the bitstream is received by the decoder [0062]) comprising a polygon mesh and a sub-mesh header (the bitstream that includes the mesh header [0062]; [0106]), the polygon mesh divided into a plurality of sub-meshes (the mesh is divided into multiple sub-meshes [0038];[0107]);
decoding at least one sub-mesh from the plurality of sub-meshes in accordance with the sub-mesh header (parsing the sub-mesh header and decoding the sub-mesh data unit [0062]; [0106]).
Tourapis does not explicitly teach the following limitations; however, in an analogous art, Graziosi teaches wherein the sub-mesh header is generated based on a mesh face type of the polygon mesh (the header flag generated according to the mesh face type that controls face decoding [0066]; [TABLE-US-00002]).
It would have been obvious to the person having ordinary skill in the art before the effective filling date of the claimed invention to modify Tourapis’s sub-mesh header generation to be governed by Graziosi face type determination to improve the image rendering and extend the V3C framework (Graziosi [0076]).
Regarding Claim 20, Tourapis teaches a method performed by at least one processor (encoder/encoder and processor [0038]; [0167]), the method comprising:
processing a polygon mesh comprising a plurality of vertices (process 3D mesh of connected vertices is received [0004]; [0006]) defining a plurality of faces (the vertices are connected to form the polygons of the mesh [0037]; Note: the polygons are the faces);
wherein the polygon mesh is divided into a plurality of sub-meshes (the mesh is divided into multiple sub-meshes [0038];[0107]);
wherein a sub-mesh header for at least one sub-mesh from the plurality of sub-meshes (a sub-mesh header is generated for a sub-mesh [0106]); and
wherein a bitstream comprising the polygon mesh and the sub-mesh header (generating the bitstream comprising the mesh and the header [0007]; [0105]- [0106]).
Tourapis does not explicitly teach the following limitations; however, in an analogous art, Graziosi wherein a mesh face type of the polygon mesh is determined (asps_mesh_quad_flag determines the face type [0066]);
header is generated in accordance with at least the mesh face type of the polygon mesh (the face type flag govern the per-patch mesh header [0066]).
It would have been obvious to the person having ordinary skill in the art before the effective filling date of the claimed invention to modify Tourapis’s sub-mesh header generation to be governed by Graziosi face type determination to improve the image rendering and extend the V3C framework (Graziosi [0076]).
Claims 2, and 13 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Alexandros Tourapis (US 20240022765 A1) (hereinafter Tourapis) in view of Danillo Graziosi (US 20220108483 A1) (hereinafter Graziosi)further in view of Xiang Zhang (WO 2023196107 A1) (hereinafter Zhang):
Regarding Claim 2, Tourapis in view of Graziosi teaches the method according to claim 1; however do not explicitly teach wherein when the mesh face type indicates that the polygon mesh comprises more than one type of faces, the sub-mesh header comprises a submesh_face_type indicating a face type of the at least one sub-mesh.
However, in an analogous art, Zhang teaches wherein when the mesh face type indicates that the polygon mesh comprises more than one type of faces (hybrid mesh, having both triangle regions and quad regions [0057]), the sub-mesh header comprises a submesh_face_type (a per region connectivity type indicator in the header [0031];[0057]) indicating a face type of the at least one sub-mesh (the signaled values indicates to the decoder whether a particular region of the mesh is triangles or quads [0057]).
It would have been obvious to the person having ordinary skill in the art before the effective filling date of the claimed invention to modify Tourapis’s sub-mesh header generation to be governed by Graziosi face type determination to further add determining a mesh that contains more than one type of mesh face as disclosed by Zhang to improve the immersive experience (Zhang [0003]).
Regarding Claim 13, Tourapis in view of Graziosi teaches the decoding method according to claim 12; however do not explicitly teach wherein when the mesh face type indicates that the polygon mesh comprises more than one type of faces, the sub-mesh header comprises a submesh_face_type indicating a face type of the at least one sub-mesh.
However, in an analogous art, Zhang teaches wherein when the mesh face type indicates that the polygon mesh comprises more than one type of faces (hybrid mesh, having both triangle regions and quad regions [0057]), the sub-mesh header comprises a submesh_face_type (a per region connectivity type indicator in the header [0031];[0057]) indicating a face type of the at least one sub-mesh (the signaled values indicates to the decoder whether a particular region of the mesh is triangles or quads [0057]).
It would have been obvious to the person having ordinary skill in the art before the effective filling date of the claimed invention to modify Tourapis’s sub-mesh header generation to be governed by Graziosi face type determination to further add determining a mesh that contains more than one type of mesh face as disclosed by Zhang to improve the immersive experience (Zhang [0003]).
Claims 3, and 14 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Alexandros Tourapis (US 20240022765 A1) (hereinafter Tourapis) in view of Danillo Graziosi (US 20220108483 A1) (hereinafter Graziosi )further in view of Andrei Khodakovsky (US 7098916 B1) (hereinafter Khodakovsky):
Regarding Claim 3, Tourapis in view of Graziosi teaches the method according to claim 1. Graziosi further teaches wherein the mesh face type is one of a first face type indicating that the polygon mesh comprises triangle faces (the flag indicates triangle face [0066]), a second face type indicating that the polygon mesh comprises quadrilateral faces(the flag indicates quadrilateral face [0066]).
Graziosi does not explicitly teach the following limitations; however, in an analogous art, Khodakovsky teaches a third face type indicating that the polygon mesh comprises both triangle and quadrilateral faces ( type of meshes as combinations of triangles and quads face types [Col 1: Lines 18- 20]; [Col 4: Lines 8- 9]), and a fourth face type indicating the polygon mesh contains polygon faces (type of mesh including polygon faces [Col 1: Lines 18- 19]; [Col 4: Lines 8- 9]).
It would have been obvious to the person having ordinary skill in the art before the effective filling date of the claimed invention to modify Tourapis’s sub-mesh header generation to be governed by Graziosi face type determination to further add the coded face type fields as disclosed by Khodakovsky to improve the compression ratio (Khodakovsky [Col 11: Lines 38- 41]).
Regarding Claim 14, Tourapis in view of Graziosi teaches the decoding method according to claim 12. Graziosi further teaches wherein the mesh face type is one of a first face type indicating that the polygon mesh comprises triangle faces (the flag indicates triangle face [0066]), a second face type indicating that the polygon mesh comprises quadrilateral faces(the flag indicates quadrilateral face [0066]).
Graziosi does not explicitly teach the following limitations; however, in an analogous art, Khodakovsky teaches a third face type indicating that the polygon mesh comprises both triangle and quadrilateral faces ( type of meshes as combinations of triangles and quads face types [Col 1: Lines 18- 20]; [Col 4: Lines 8- 9]), and a fourth face type indicating the polygon mesh contains polygon faces (type of mesh including polygon faces [Col 1: Lines 18- 19]; [Col 4: Lines 8- 9]).
It would have been obvious to the person having ordinary skill in the art before the effective filling date of the claimed invention to modify Tourapis’s sub-mesh header generation to be governed by Graziosi face type determination to further add the coded face type fields as disclosed by Khodakovsky to improve the compression ratio (Khodakovsky [Col 11: Lines 38- 41]).
Claims 4, and 15 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Alexandros Tourapis (US 20240022765 A1) (hereinafter Tourapis) in view of Danillo Graziosi (US 20220108483 A1) (hereinafter Graziosi )further in view of Kangying Cai (US 20140160241 A1) (hereinafter Cai):
Regarding Claim 4, Tourapis in view of Graziosi teaches the method according to claim 1; however do not explicitly teach wherein the sub-mesh header further comprises a parameter indicating whether all connected components in the at least one sub-mesh have a same connectivity.
However, in an analogous art, Cai teaches wherein the sub-mesh header further comprises a parameter indicating whether all connected components in the at least one sub-mesh have a same connectivity (a header flag that indicates whether the connected pieces repeat the same shape [0002]- [0003]; [Table-US-00002 [0039]]).
It would have been obvious to the person having ordinary skill in the art before the effective filling date of the claimed invention to modify Tourapis’s sub-mesh header generation to be governed by Graziosi face type determination to further add the header parameter signaling whether the connected components share the same connectivity as disclosed by Cai to improve video compression (Cai [0002]).
Regarding Claim 15, Tourapis in view of Graziosi teaches the decoding method according to claim 12; however do not explicitly teach wherein the sub-mesh header further comprises a parameter indicating whether all connected components in the at least one sub-mesh have a same connectivity.
However, in an analogous art, Cai teaches wherein the sub-mesh header further comprises a parameter indicating whether all connected components in the at least one sub-mesh have a same connectivity (a header flag that indicates whether the connected pieces repeat the same shape [0002]- [0003]; [Table-US-00002 [0039]]).
It would have been obvious to the person having ordinary skill in the art before the effective filling date of the claimed invention to modify Tourapis’s sub-mesh header generation to be governed by Graziosi face type determination to further add the header parameter signaling whether the connected components share the same connectivity as disclosed by Cai to improve video compression (Cai [0002]).
Claims 5- 9, and 16- 19 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Alexandros Tourapis (US 20240022765 A1) (hereinafter Tourapis) in view of Danillo Graziosi (US 20220108483 A1) (hereinafter Graziosi )further in view of Qu Qing Chen (US 20110285708 A1) (hereinafter Chen):
Regarding Claim 5, Tourapis in view of Graziosi teaches the method according to claim 1; however do not explicitly teach wherein the sub-mesh header further comprises a prediction strategy indicating how a vertex in the at least one sub-mesh is encoded based on one or more vertices in the at least one sub-mesh.
However, in an analogous art, Chen teaches wherein the sub-mesh header further comprises a prediction strategy (prediction strategy flag in the header of each sub group of the mesh [0004]; [0056]; [0064]) indicating how a vertex in the at least one sub-mesh is encoded based on one or more vertices in the at least one sub-mesh (predicts each new vertex by the reference triangle formed from adjacent already coded vertices [0004]; [0056]).
It would have been obvious to the person having ordinary skill in the art before the effective filling date of the claimed invention to modify Tourapis’s sub-mesh header generation to be governed by Graziosi face type determination to further add placement of the prediction mode information in the header, and predicting new vertex from its neighboring vertices using parallelogram prediction as disclosed by Chen to improve the prediction accuracy (Chen [0007]).
Regarding Claim 6, Tourapis in view of Graziosi and Chen teaches the method according to claim 5. Chen further teaches wherein the prediction strategy is a parallelogram prediction strategy ( parallelogram prediction strategy [0004]; [0008]; [0064];[0056]).
It would have been obvious to the person having ordinary skill in the art before the effective filling date of the claimed invention to modify Tourapis’s sub-mesh header generation to be governed by Graziosi face type determination to further add placement of the prediction mode information in the header, and predicting new vertex from its neighboring vertices using parallelogram prediction as disclosed by Chen to improve the prediction accuracy (Chen [0007]).
Regarding Claim 7, Tourapis in view of Graziosi and Chen teaches the method according to claim 5. Chen further teaches wherein the sub-mesh header further comprises a parameter (prediction mode bits in the header of each mesh sub groups [0007]; [0064]; [0056]).indicating at least one of a singleway prediction mode and a multiway prediction mode (single way and multiway prediction modes [0007]; [0064]; [0056]).
It would have been obvious to the person having ordinary skill in the art before the effective filling date of the claimed invention to modify Tourapis’s sub-mesh header generation to be governed by Graziosi face type determination to further add placement of the prediction mode information in the header, and predicting new vertex from its neighboring vertices using parallelogram prediction as disclosed by Chen to improve the prediction accuracy (Chen [0007]).
Regarding Claim 8, Tourapis in view of Graziosi and Chen teaches the method according to claim 7. Chen further teaches wherein the singleway prediction mode in which the vertex is encoded in accordance with the prediction strategy (a single prediction of the vertex performed by parallelogram prediction [0004]; [0007]) using at least one side of the sub-mesh header (the prediction by one side uv of the reference triangle where each triangle has only one reference triangle [0005]; [0041]; [0057]).
It would have been obvious to the person having ordinary skill in the art before the effective filling date of the claimed invention to modify Tourapis’s sub-mesh header generation to be governed by Graziosi face type determination to further add placement of the prediction mode information in the header, and predicting new vertex from its neighboring vertices using parallelogram prediction as disclosed by Chen to improve the prediction accuracy (Chen [0007]).
Regarding Claim 9, Tourapis in view of Graziosi and Chen teaches the method according to claim 7. Chen further teaches wherein the multiway prediction mode in which the vertex is encoded in accordance with the prediction strategy (multi-way parallelogram prediction scheme [0004]; [0007]) using at least two sides of the sub-mesh header (multiway prediction exploits all possible reference triangles and uses embodiments with two advanced prediction triangles [0007]; [0041]).
It would have been obvious to the person having ordinary skill in the art before the effective filling date of the claimed invention to modify Tourapis’s sub-mesh header generation to be governed by Graziosi face type determination to further add placement of the prediction mode information in the header, and predicting new vertex from its neighboring vertices using parallelogram prediction as disclosed by Chen to improve the prediction accuracy (Chen [0007]).
Regarding Claim 16, Tourapis in view of Graziosi teaches the decoding method according to claim 12; however do not explicitly teach wherein the sub-mesh header further comprises a prediction strategy indicating how a vertex in the at least one sub-mesh is decoded based on one or more vertices in the at least one sub-mesh.
However, in an analogous art, Chen teaches wherein the sub-mesh header further comprises a prediction strategy (prediction strategy flag in the header of each sub group of the mesh [0004]; [0056]; [0064]) indicating how a vertex in the at least one sub-mesh is decoded based on one or more vertices in the at least one sub-mesh (predicts each new vertex by the reference triangle formed from adjacent already coded vertices [0004]; [0056]).
It would have been obvious to the person having ordinary skill in the art before the effective filling date of the claimed invention to modify Tourapis’s sub-mesh header generation to be governed by Graziosi face type determination to further add placement of the prediction mode information in the header, and predicting new vertex from its neighboring vertices using parallelogram prediction as disclosed by Chen to improve the prediction accuracy (Chen [0007]).
Regarding Claim 17, Tourapis in view of Graziosi and Chen teaches the decoding method according to claim 16. Chen further teaches wherein the prediction strategy is a parallelogram prediction strategy ( parallelogram prediction strategy [0004]; [0008]; [0064];[0056]).
It would have been obvious to the person having ordinary skill in the art before the effective filling date of the claimed invention to modify Tourapis’s sub-mesh header generation to be governed by Graziosi face type determination to further add placement of the prediction mode information in the header, and predicting new vertex from its neighboring vertices using parallelogram prediction as disclosed by Chen to improve the prediction accuracy (Chen [0007]).
Regarding Claim 18, Tourapis in view of Graziosi and Chen teaches the decoding method according to claim 16. Chen further teaches wherein the sub-mesh header further comprises a parameter (prediction mode bits in the header of each mesh sub groups [0007]; [0064]; [0056]).indicating at least one of a singleway prediction mode and a multiway prediction mode (single way and multiway prediction modes [0007]; [0064]; [0056]).
It would have been obvious to the person having ordinary skill in the art before the effective filling date of the claimed invention to modify Tourapis’s sub-mesh header generation to be governed by Graziosi face type determination to further add placement of the prediction mode information in the header, and predicting new vertex from its neighboring vertices using parallelogram prediction as disclosed by Chen to improve the prediction accuracy (Chen [0007]).
Regarding Claim 19, Tourapis in view of Graziosi and Chen teaches the decoding method according to claim 18. Chen further teaches wherein the singleway prediction mode in which the vertex is encoded in accordance with the prediction strategy (a single prediction of the vertex performed by parallelogram prediction [0004]; [0007]) using at least one side of the sub-mesh header (the prediction by one side uv of the reference triangle where each triangle has only one reference triangle [0005]; [0041]; [0057]).
It would have been obvious to the person having ordinary skill in the art before the effective filling date of the claimed invention to modify Tourapis’s sub-mesh header generation to be governed by Graziosi face type determination to further add placement of the prediction mode information in the header, and predicting new vertex from its neighboring vertices using parallelogram prediction as disclosed by Chen to improve the prediction accuracy (Chen [0007]).
Claims 10- 11 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Alexandros Tourapis (US 20240022765 A1) (hereinafter Tourapis) in view of Danillo Graziosi (US 20220108483 A1) (hereinafter Graziosi )further in view of Khaled Mammou (US 20160063737 A1) (hereinafter Mammou):
Regarding Claim 10, Tourapis in view of Graziosi teaches the method according to claim 1. Tourapis further teaches wherein the sub-mesh header comprises an indices coding strategy (sub-mesh header carry a codec/coding method identifier specified independently for every sub-mesh [0106]; [0130])
Tourapis does not explicitly teach the following limitations; however, in an analogous art, Mammou teaches indicates one of a polygon-fan method and a dual-degree method (partitions the mesh into polygon fans and relabels vertex indices accordingly [0006]; [0019]; [0040]).
It would have been obvious to the person having ordinary skill in the art before the effective filling date of the claimed invention to modify Tourapis’s sub-mesh header generation to be governed by Graziosi face type determination to further add coding the mesh by partitioning it polygon fans and relabeling vertex indices according to the polygon fan traversal order as disclosed by Mammou to improve realistic 3D computer graphics (Mammou [0004]).
Regarding Claim 11, Tourapis in view of Graziosi and Mammou teaches the method according to claim 10. Tourapis further teaches wherein the sub-mesh header (the sub-mesh header carries per-sub-mesh coding parameters [0106]; [0130]).
Tourapis does not explicitly teach the following limitations; however, in an analogous art, Mammou teaches comprises a traversal strategy (defines a neighbor to neighbor deterministic traversal in a unique traversal order [0036]; [0040]) based on determining that the indices coding strategy indicates the polygon-fan method (the traversal order for partitioning the mesh into a set of polygon fans and a polygon fan is defined by the traversal order. The traversal strategy is invoked when the polygon fan method is selected [0006]; [0038]; [0040]).
It would have been obvious to the person having ordinary skill in the art before the effective filling date of the claimed invention to modify Tourapis’s sub-mesh header generation to be governed by Graziosi face type determination to further add coding the mesh by partitioning it polygon fans and relabeling vertex indices according to the polygon fan traversal order as disclosed by Mammou to improve realistic 3D computer graphics (Mammou [0004]).
Conclusion
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to MAHMOUD KAMAL ABOUZAHRA whose telephone number is (703)756-1694. The examiner can normally be reached M-F 7:00 AM to 5:00 PM.
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/MAHMOUD KAMAL ABOUZAHRA/Examiner, Art Unit 2486
/JAMIE J ATALA/Supervisory Patent Examiner, Art Unit 2486
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