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 .
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.
Claim(s) 1, 9-20 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over US 2020/0236355 A1 (“Zhao”) in view of US 2019/0124327 A1 (“Kawai”).
Regarding claim 1, Zhao discloses a video coding method comprising: receiving data to be encoded or decoded as a current block of pixels of a current picture of a video (e.g. see source video blocks, e.g. see paragraph [0067], Fig. 7); classifying a current sample of the current block by identifying at least one class from a plurality of classes by using a coding information of the current sample (e.g. see block of the luma component for a reconstructed picture is classified according to a classification index, paragraphs [0038]-[0039], and see one or more of the following are inferred based on video properties and/or video coding parameters: size of an ALF filter; shape of an ALF filter; size of blocks being classified (e.g., 4x4 for luma and 2x2 for chroma); coefficients of an ALF filter; number of ALF filters available for selection, paragraphs [0073]-[0079]; also see paragraphs [0082]-[0083]); selecting a filter based on the identified class (e.g. see applying the ALF, paragraphs [0050]-[0051], [0059]-[0060], 216 in Fig. 7; thus, after classification, a specific filter that corresponds to the class is selected in order to apply the ALF); and applying the selected filter to the current sample to generate a filtered sample as part of a reconstruction of the current block (e.g. see applying the ALF, paragraphs [0050]-[0051], [0059]-[0060], modified reconstructed video block output of 216 in Fig. 7) (note that the above mapping focused on the encoding of video block as shown in Fig. 7 for brevity and conciseness but the video decoder shown in Fig. 8 and corresponding text also meet the limitations).
Although Zhao discloses classifying a current sample of the current block by identifying at least one class from a plurality of classes by using a coding information of the current sample, it is noted Zhao differs from the present invention in that it fails to particularly disclose by using a coding information of the current sample that is independent of pixel values of the current sample and of its spatial neighbors. Kawai however, teaches by using a coding information of the current sample that is independent of pixel values of the current sample and of its spatial neighbors (e.g. see encoding information of the target pixel used to perform classification, paragraphs [0374]-[0379], and see each pixel is classified into more classes than classes of the ALF, paragraphs [0506]-[0509], [0524]-[0526]).
Therefore, given the teachings as a whole, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention, having the references of Zhao and Kawai before him/her, to modify the Systems and methods for filtering reconstructed video data using adaptive loop filtering techniques of Zhao with the teachings of Kawai in order to improve image quality (S/N) and minimize residual.
Regarding claim 9, Zhao in view of Kawai further teaches wherein the coding information used for classifying the current sample comprises a prediction mode of the current block (Kawai: e.g. see encoding information include a prediction mode, paragraphs [0306], [0424]). The motivation above in the rejection of claim 1 applies here.
Regarding claim 10, Zhao in view of Kawai further teaches wherein the coding information used for classifying the current sample comprises whether the current block is coded by intra prediction, inter prediction, or intra block copy (IBC) (Kawai: e.g. see encoding information include a prediction mode of intra prediction or inter prediction, paragraphs [0306], [0424]). The motivation above in the rejection of claim 1 applies here.
Regarding claim 11, Zhao in view of Kawai further teaches wherein the coding information used for classifying the current sample comprises whether the current block is coded by translation motion (Kawai: e.g. see encoding information include a prediction mode of inter prediction, paragraphs [0306], [0424]). The motivation above in the rejection of claim 1 applies here.
Regarding claim 12, Zhao in view of Kawai further teaches wherein the coding information used for classifying the current sample comprises whether the current block is coded by uni-prediction or bi-prediction (Kawai: e.g. see encoding information include a picture type (I, P, B), paragraphs [0306], [0424]). The motivation above in the rejection of claim 1 applies here.
Regarding claim 13, Zhao in view of Kawai further teaches wherein the coding information used for classifying the current sample comprises a prediction category of the current block that is one of first, second, third prediction categories, wherein: the first prediction category indicates that the prediction is based on samples spatially neighboring the current block (Kawai: e.g. see encoding information include a prediction mode of intra prediction, paragraphs [0306], [0424]), the second prediction category indicates that the prediction is based on one uni-prediction vector (Kawai: e.g. see encoding information include a picture type (I, P, B), paragraphs [0306], [0424]), and the third prediction category indicates that the prediction is based on bi-prediction vectors (Kawai: e.g. see encoding information include a picture type (I, P, B), paragraphs [0306], [0424]). The motivation above in the rejection of claim 1 applies here.
Regarding claim 14, although Zhao further discloses wherein a class index is signaled to indicate the identified class (e.g. see index value signaled, paragraph [0060]), it is noted Zhao differs from the present invention in that it fails to particularly disclose the prediction category. Kawai however, teaches the prediction category (e.g. see encoding information include a picture type (I, P, B), paragraphs [0306], [0424], [0444]). The motivation above in the rejection of claim 1 applies here.
Regarding claim 15, Zhao in view of Kawai further teaches wherein the identified class is a first identified class (Kawai: e.g. see encoding information of the target pixel used to perform classification, paragraphs [0374]-[0379], and see each pixel is classified into more classes than classes of the ALF, paragraphs [0506]-[0509], [0524]-[0526]), the method further comprising classifying the current sample by identifying a second class from a plurality of classes based on pixel values of the current sample and of its spatial neighbors, wherein the filter is selected based on the first identified class and the second identified class (Kawai: e.g. see classification can be performed by, for example, using both the image feature value and the encoding information, paragraphs [0374]-[0379], [0506]-[0509], [0524]-[0526]). The motivation above in the rejection of claim 1 applies here.
Regarding claim 16, Zhao in view of Kawai further teaches wherein selecting the filter based on the identified class comprises identifying a first class and a second class, wherein the first identified class is used to select a class-to-filter mapping that maps the second identified class to the filter to be used (Kawai: e.g. see classification can be performed by, for example, using both the image feature value and the encoding information, paragraphs [0374]-[0379], [0506]-[0509], [0524]-[0526]). The motivation above in the rejection of claim 1 applies here.
Regarding claim 17, Zhao further discloses wherein the filter is an adaptive loop filter (ALF) (e.g. see adaptive loop filter (ALF), paragraphs [0038]-[0039], [0073]-[0079], [0082]-[0083]).
Regarding claims 18-20, the claims recite analogous limitations to the claims above and are therefore rejected on the same premise.
Allowable Subject Matter
Claims 2-8 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.
US 2025/0337900 A1 Chernyak et al., Non-uniform classification for adaptive loop filter classifier
US 2026/0025529 A1, Zhang et al., Video encoding and decoding
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/Francis Geroleo/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 3619
