Prior art

Based on the patent documentation for US 10,778,989, the following prior art references were cited by the USPTO during prosecution.

Analysis of Cited Prior Art

The following patent documents were considered by the examiner in determining the patentability of the '989 patent's claims. An analysis of their potential to anticipate the independent claims under 35 U.S.C. § 102 is provided. For a reference to anticipate a claim, it must disclose, either explicitly or inherently, every single element and limitation of that claim.

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1. U.S. Patent Application Publication No. US 2010/0111175 A1

• Full Citation: US 2010/0111175 A1, "Reference data buffer for intra-prediction of digital video"
• Inventor: Wen-Shan Wang
• Publication Date: May 6, 2010 (Filed March 31, 2005)
• Brief Description: This patent application describes a method for managing reference data used in intra-prediction for video coding. It proposes a dedicated reference data buffer to store reconstructed reference pixels from neighboring blocks (i.e., the row above and the column to the left of the current block). This buffer allows for efficient access to the reference data needed to generate a prediction for the current block, and it can be updated as new blocks are reconstructed. The focus is on the efficient storage and retrieval of reference pixels from adjacent, previously coded blocks.
• Anticipation Analysis:
  • This reference does not appear to anticipate the independent claims (1, 8, 10, 17) of the '989 patent. The core inventive concept of the '989 patent is the "rolling" prediction method, where predicted pixels from the current block are used as inputs to predict other pixels within the same block.
  • Wang, in contrast, describes a conventional intra-prediction data flow. The prediction for the entire current block is based on a static set of reference samples that are drawn exclusively from neighboring, previously reconstructed blocks. There is no disclosure of a mechanism where a predicted pixel value is immediately turned around and used as a reference for a subsequent pixel prediction within the same block's prediction-generation process.
  • Therefore, Wang is missing the key claim element: "determining at least some other of the predicted pixels based on the prediction function... with the at least some of the predicted pixels as inputs" (Claim 1).

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2. U.S. Patent Application Publication No. US 2007/0053433 A1 & European Patent Application No. EP 1761063 A2

These two documents belong to the same patent family and disclose the same invention.

• Full Citation: US 2007/0053433 A1, "Method and apparatus for video intraprediction encoding and decoding"
• Assignee: Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd.
• Publication Date: March 8, 2007 (Filed September 6, 2005)
• Brief Description: This Samsung application details an intra-prediction method where a prediction block is generated by extrapolating pixel values from reference samples in adjacent blocks. The method involves selecting one of several available intra-prediction modes. For each pixel in the current block, a prediction value is generated based on one or more of the reference samples from the neighboring blocks, according to the direction specified by the selected mode. The disclosure also mentions using adaptive filtering on the reference samples to improve prediction quality.
• Anticipation Analysis:
  • This reference does not appear to anticipate the independent claims of the '989 patent for reasons similar to the Wang reference. The methodology described by Samsung follows the established intra-prediction paradigm where the entire predicted block is generated using reference samples located outside of that block (i.e., from previously reconstructed neighboring blocks).
  • The claims of the '989 patent require a recursive or "rolling" process where the set of available reference samples dynamically grows to include the very pixels being predicted within the current block. Samsung's disclosure does not describe this. It teaches generating a prediction for each pixel in the current block based solely on the external, pre-existing reference samples.
  • Thus, Samsung is also missing the crucial claim element of using predicted pixels from the current block as inputs for determining other predicted pixels in the same block.

Conclusion

The prior art cited by the USPTO examiner establishes the technological context for intra-prediction in video coding as of the '989 patent's priority date. Both the Wang and Samsung references disclose systems that create predicted blocks using reference samples from adjacent, already-coded blocks. However, neither reference discloses the specific, novel technique claimed in US 10,778,989: constructing the predicted block in a "rolling" fashion where the prediction process uses its own output (predicted pixels) as input to continue generating the remainder of the predicted block. This missing element is central to all independent claims of the '989 patent, and therefore, these references do not anticipate the claims under 35 U.S.C. § 102.