OpenRaiser/Intern-Atlas huggingface dataset:
Analytical Insight of Earth: A Cloud-Platform of Intelligent Computing for Geospatial Big Data
Venue: arXiv cs.DC 2023
Year: 2023

The rapid accumulation of Earth observation data presents a formidable challenge for the processing capabilities of traditional remote sensing desktop software, particularly when it comes to analyzing expansive geographical areas and prolonged temporal sequences. Cloud computing has emerged as a transformative solution, surmounting the barriers traditionally associated with the management and computation of voluminous datasets. This paper introduces the Analytical Insight of Earth (AI Earth), an innovative remote sensing intelligent computing cloud platform, powered by the robust Alibaba Cloud infrastructure. AI Earth provides an extensive collection of publicly available remote sensing datasets, along with a suite of computational tools powered by a high-performance computing engine. Furthermore, it provides a variety of classic deep learning (DL) models and a novel remote sensing large vision segmentation model tailored to different recognition tasks. The platform enables users to upload their unique samples for model training and to deploy third-party models, thereby increasing the accessibility and openness of DL applications. This platform will facilitate researchers in leveraging remote sensing data for large-scale applied research in areas such as resources, environment, ecology, and climate.
Toward Spatial Temporal Consistency of Joint Visual Tactile Perception in VR Applications
Venue: arXiv cs.RO 2023
Year: 2023

With the development of VR technology, especially the emergence of the metaverse concept, the integration of visual and tactile perception has become an expected experience in human-machine interaction. Therefore, achieving spatial-temporal consistency of visual and tactile information in VR applications has become a necessary factor for realizing this experience. The state-of-the-art vibrotactile datasets generally contain temporal-level vibrotactile information collected by randomly sliding on the surface of an object, along with the corresponding image of the material/texture. However, they lack the position/spatial information that corresponds to the signal acquisition, making it difficult to achieve spatiotemporal alignment of visual-tactile data. Therefore, we develop a new data acquisition system in this paper which can collect visual and vibrotactile signals of different textures/materials with spatial and temporal consistency. In addition, we develop a VR-based application call "V-Touching" by leveraging the dataset generated by the new acquisition system, which can provide pixel-to-taxel joint visual-tactile perception when sliding over the surface of objects in the virtual environment with distinct vibrotactile feedback of different textures/materials.
Natural Adversarial Patch Generation Method Based on Latent Diffusion Model
Venue: arXiv cs.CV 2023
Year: 2023

Recently, some research show that deep neural networks are vulnerable to the adversarial attacks, the well-trainned samples or patches could be used to trick the neural network detector or human visual perception. However, these adversarial patches, with their conspicuous and unusual patterns, lack camouflage and can easily raise suspicion in the real world. To solve this problem, this paper proposed a novel adversarial patch method called the Latent Diffusion Patch (LDP), in which, a pretrained encoder is first designed to compress the natural images into a feature space with key characteristics. Then trains the diffusion model using the above feature space. Finally, explore the latent space of the pretrained diffusion model using the image denoising technology. It polishes the patches and images through the powerful natural abilities of diffusion models, making them more acceptable to the human visual system. Experimental results, both digital and physical worlds, show that LDPs achieve a visual subjectivity score of 87.3%, while still maintaining effective attack capabilities.
GAD-PVI: A General Accelerated Dynamic-Weight Particle-Based Variational Inference Framework
Venue: arXiv cs.LG 2023
Year: 2023

Particle-based Variational Inference (ParVI) methods approximate the target distribution by iteratively evolving finite weighted particle systems. Recent advances of ParVI methods reveal the benefits of accelerated position update strategies and dynamic weight adjustment approaches. In this paper, we propose the first ParVI framework that possesses both accelerated position update and dynamical weight adjustment simultaneously, named the General Accelerated Dynamic-Weight Particle-based Variational Inference (GAD-PVI) framework. Generally, GAD-PVI simulates the semi-Hamiltonian gradient flow on a novel Information-Fisher-Rao space, which yields an additional decrease on the local functional dissipation. GAD-PVI is compatible with different dissimilarity functionals and associated smoothing approaches under three information metrics. Experiments on both synthetic and real-world data demonstrate the faster convergence and reduced approximation error of GAD-PVI methods over the state-of-the-art.
Permissive-Nominal Logic (journal version)
Venue: arXiv cs.LO 2023
Year: 2023

Permissive-Nominal Logic (PNL) is an extension of first-order predicate logic in which term-formers can bind names in their arguments. This allows for direct axiomatisations with binders, such as of the lambda-binder of the lambda-calculus or the forall-binder of first-order logic. It also allows us to finitely axiomatise arithmetic, and similarly to axiomatise 'nominal' datatypes-with-binding. Just like first- and higher-order logic, equality reasoning is not necessary to alpha-rename. This gives PNL much of the expressive power of higher-order logic, but models and derivations of PNL are first-order in character, and the logic seems to strike a good balance between expressivity and simplicity.
Mapping bibliographic metadata collections: the case of OpenCitations Meta and OpenAlex
Venue: arXiv cs.DL 2023
Year: 2023

This study describes the methodology and analyses the results of the process of mapping entities between two large open bibliographic metadata collections, OpenCitations Meta and OpenAlex. The primary objective of this mapping is to integrate OpenAlex internal identifiers into the existing metadata of bibliographic resources in OpenCitations Meta, thereby interlinking and aligning these collections. Furthermore, analysing the output of the mapping provides a unique perspective on the consistency and accuracy of bibliographic metadata, offering a valuable tool for identifying potential inconsistencies in the processed data.
Diagnosis of Small-world Bias in Random Graphs
Venue: arXiv cs.SI 2023
Year: 2023

Background: Imagine a paper with n nodes on it where each pair undergoes a coin toss experiment; if heads we connect the pair with an undirected link, while tails maintain the disconnection. This procedure yields a random graph. Now consider duplicating this network onto another paper with a slight bias-a fraction of its links (approximately 1/10) undergo rearrangement. If we shuffle the two papers, how can we distinguish the pure random graph from the biased one? Results: In response to this challenge, we propose a novel metric called Randomness Index (RI). The closer the metric to zero is, the higher degree of randomness in the graph. The RI can distinguish between dense small-world networks and dense random graphs; a distinction which is impossible by conventional small-world properties like clustering coefficient and average path length. To validate its effectiveness, we apply the RI to temporal correlation networks of stock indices. Our findings reveal a reduction in randomness during global economic recession periods. Conclusion: The RI emerges as a powerful metric capable of characterizing small-world topology, especially in scenarios where other network measures fail. Beyond its utility in network analysis, the RI is promising for change-point (anomaly) detection in dynamical systems studied by means of multivariate time series.
Autonomous Docking Method via Non-linear Model Predictive Control
Venue: arXiv cs.RO 2023
Year: 2023

This paper presents a proposed method of autonomous control for docking tasks of a single-seat personal mobility vehicle. We proposed a non-linear model predictive control (NMPC) based visual servoing to achieves the desired autonomous docking task. The proposed method is implemented on a four-wheel electric wheelchair platform, with two independent rear driving wheels and two front castor wheels. The NMPC-based visual servoing technique leverages the information extracted from a visual sensor as a real-time feedback for the NMPC to control the motion of the vehicle achieving the desired autonomous docking task. To evaluate the performance of the proposed controller method, a number of experiments both in simulation and in the actual setting. The controller performance is then evaluated based on the controller design requirement. The simulation results on autonomous docking experiments show that the proposed controller has been successfully achieve the desired controller design requirement to generate realtime trajectory for the vehicle performing autonomous docking tasks in several different scenarios.
Participatory prompting: a user-centric research method for eliciting AI assistance opportunities in knowledge workflows
Venue: arXiv cs.HC 2023
Year: 2023

Generative AI, such as image generation models and large language models, stands to provide tremendous value to end-user programmers in creative and knowledge workflows. Current research methods struggle to engage end-users in a realistic conversation that balances the actually existing capabilities of generative AI with the open-ended nature of user workflows and the many opportunities for the application of this technology. In this work-in-progress paper, we introduce participatory prompting, a method for eliciting opportunities for generative AI in end-user workflows. The participatory prompting method combines a contextual inquiry and a researcher-mediated interaction with a generative model, which helps study participants interact with a generative model without having to develop prompting strategies of their own. We discuss the ongoing development of a study whose aim will be to identify end-user programming opportunities for generative AI in data analysis workflows.
LIP-Loc: LiDAR Image Pretraining for Cross-Modal Localization
Venue: arXiv cs.RO 2023
Year: 2023

Global visual localization in LiDAR-maps, crucial for autonomous driving applications, remains largely unexplored due to the challenging issue of bridging the cross-modal heterogeneity gap. Popular multi-modal learning approach Contrastive Language-Image Pre-Training (CLIP) has popularized contrastive symmetric loss using batch construction technique by applying it to multi-modal domains of text and image. We apply this approach to the domains of 2D image and 3D LiDAR points on the task of cross-modal localization. Our method is explained as follows: A batch of N (image, LiDAR) pairs is constructed so as to predict what is the right match between N X N possible pairings across the batch by jointly training an image encoder and LiDAR encoder to learn a multi-modal embedding space. In this way, the cosine similarity between N positive pairings is maximized, whereas that between the remaining negative pairings is minimized. Finally, over the obtained similarity scores, a symmetric cross-entropy loss is optimized. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first work to apply batched loss approach to a cross-modal setting of image & LiDAR data and also to show Zero-shot transfer in a visual localization setting. We conduct extensive analyses on standard autonomous driving datasets such as KITTI and KITTI-360 datasets. Our method outperforms state-of-the-art recall@1 accuracy on the KITTI-360 dataset by 22.4%, using only perspective images, in contrast to the state-of-the-art approach, which utilizes the more informative fisheye images. Additionally, this superior performance is achieved without resorting to complex architectures. Moreover, we demonstrate the zero-shot capabilities of our model and we beat SOTA by 8% without even training on it. Furthermore, we establish the first benchmark for cross-modal localization on the KITTI dataset.
FairCompass: Operationalising Fairness in Machine Learning
Venue: arXiv cs.LG 2023
Year: 2023

As artificial intelligence (AI) increasingly becomes an integral part of our societal and individual activities, there is a growing imperative to develop responsible AI solutions. Despite a diverse assortment of machine learning fairness solutions is proposed in the literature, there is reportedly a lack of practical implementation of these tools in real-world applications. Industry experts have participated in thorough discussions on the challenges associated with operationalising fairness in the development of machine learning-empowered solutions, in which a shift toward human-centred approaches is promptly advocated to mitigate the limitations of existing techniques. In this work, we propose a human-in-the-loop approach for fairness auditing, presenting a mixed visual analytical system (hereafter referred to as 'FairCompass'), which integrates both subgroup discovery technique and the decision tree-based schema for end users. Moreover, we innovatively integrate an Exploration, Guidance and Informed Analysis loop, to facilitate the use of the Knowledge Generation Model for Visual Analytics in FairCompass. We evaluate the effectiveness of FairCompass for fairness auditing in a real-world scenario, and the findings demonstrate the system's potential for real-world deployability. We anticipate this work will address the current gaps in research for fairness and facilitate the operationalisation of fairness in machine learning systems.
Bin-picking of novel objects through category-agnostic-segmentation: RGB matters
Venue: arXiv cs.RO 2023
Year: 2023

This paper addresses category-agnostic instance segmentation for robotic manipulation, focusing on segmenting objects independent of their class to enable versatile applications like bin-picking in dynamic environments. Existing methods often lack generalizability and object-specific information, leading to grasp failures. We present a novel approach leveraging object-centric instance segmentation and simulation-based training for effective transfer to real-world scenarios. Notably, our strategy overcomes challenges posed by noisy depth sensors, enhancing the reliability of learning. Our solution accommodates transparent and semi-transparent objects which are historically difficult for depth-based grasping methods. Contributions include domain randomization for successful transfer, our collected dataset for warehouse applications, and an integrated framework for efficient bin-picking. Our trained instance segmentation model achieves state-of-the-art performance over WISDOM public benchmark [1] and also over the custom-created dataset. In a real-world challenging bin-picking setup our bin-picking framework method achieves 98% accuracy for opaque objects and 97% accuracy for non-opaque objects, outperforming the state-of-the-art baselines with a greater margin.
Mitigating Degree Biases in Message Passing Mechanism by Utilizing Community Structures
Venue: arXiv cs.LG 2023
Year: 2023

This study utilizes community structures to address node degree biases in message-passing (MP) via learnable graph augmentations and novel graph transformers. Recent augmentation-based methods showed that MP neural networks often perform poorly on low-degree nodes, leading to degree biases due to a lack of messages reaching low-degree nodes. Despite their success, most methods use heuristic or uniform random augmentations, which are non-differentiable and may not always generate valuable edges for learning representations. In this paper, we propose Community-aware Graph Transformers, namely CGT, to learn degree-unbiased representations based on learnable augmentations and graph transformers by extracting within community structures. We first design a learnable graph augmentation to generate more within-community edges connecting low-degree nodes through edge perturbation. Second, we propose an improved self-attention to learn underlying proximity and the roles of nodes within the community. Third, we propose a self-supervised learning task that could learn the representations to preserve the global graph structure and regularize the graph augmentations. Extensive experiments on various benchmark datasets showed CGT outperforms state-of-the-art baselines and significantly improves the node degree biases. The source code is available at https://github.com/NSLab-CUK/Community-aware-Graph-Transformer.
RL-LOGO: Deep Reinforcement Learning Localization for Logo Recognition
Venue: arXiv cs.CV 2023
Year: 2023

This paper proposes a novel logo image recognition approach incorporating a localization technique based on reinforcement learning. Logo recognition is an image classification task identifying a brand in an image. As the size and position of a logo vary widely from image to image, it is necessary to determine its position for accurate recognition. However, because there is no annotation for the position coordinates, it is impossible to train and infer the location of the logo in the image. Therefore, we propose a deep reinforcement learning localization method for logo recognition (RL-LOGO). It utilizes deep reinforcement learning to identify a logo region in images without annotations of the positions, thereby improving classification accuracy. We demonstrated a significant improvement in accuracy compared with existing methods in several published benchmarks. Specifically, we achieved an 18-point accuracy improvement over competitive methods on the complex dataset Logo-2K+. This demonstrates that the proposed method is a promising approach to logo recognition in real-world applications.
Multi-Prompts Learning with Cross-Modal Alignment for Attribute-based Person Re-Identification
Venue: arXiv cs.CV 2023
Year: 2023

The fine-grained attribute descriptions can significantly supplement the valuable semantic information for person image, which is vital to the success of person re-identification (ReID) task. However, current ReID algorithms typically failed to effectively leverage the rich contextual information available, primarily due to their reliance on simplistic and coarse utilization of image attributes. Recent advances in artificial intelligence generated content have made it possible to automatically generate plentiful fine-grained attribute descriptions and make full use of them. Thereby, this paper explores the potential of using the generated multiple person attributes as prompts in ReID tasks with off-the-shelf (large) models for more accurate retrieval results. To this end, we present a new framework called Multi-Prompts ReID (MP-ReID), based on prompt learning and language models, to fully dip fine attributes to assist ReID task. Specifically, MP-ReID first learns to hallucinate diverse, informative, and promptable sentences for describing the query images. This procedure includes (i) explicit prompts of which attributes a person has and furthermore (ii) implicit learnable prompts for adjusting/conditioning the criteria used towards this person identity matching. Explicit prompts are obtained by ensembling generation models, such as ChatGPT and VQA models. Moreover, an alignment module is designed to fuse multi-prompts (i.e., explicit and implicit ones) progressively and mitigate the cross-modal gap. Extensive experiments on the existing attribute-involved ReID datasets, namely, Market1501 and DukeMTMC-reID, demonstrate the effectiveness and rationality of the proposed MP-ReID solution.
SR-LIVO: LiDAR-Inertial-Visual Odometry and Mapping with Sweep Reconstruction
Venue: arXiv cs.CV 2023
Year: 2023

Existing LiDAR-inertial-visual odometry and mapping (LIV-SLAM) systems mainly utilize the LiDAR-inertial odometry (LIO) module for structure reconstruction and the visual-inertial odometry (VIO) module for color rendering. However, the accuracy of VIO is often compromised by photometric changes, weak textures and motion blur, unlike the more robust LIO. This paper introduces SR-LIVO, an advanced and novel LIV-SLAM system employing sweep reconstruction to align reconstructed sweeps with image timestamps. This allows the LIO module to accurately determine states at all imaging moments, enhancing pose accuracy and processing efficiency. Experimental results on two public datasets demonstrate that: 1) our SRLIVO outperforms existing state-of-the-art LIV-SLAM systems in both pose accuracy and time efficiency; 2) our LIO-based pose estimation prove more accurate than VIO-based ones in several mainstream LIV-SLAM systems (including ours). We have released our source code to contribute to the community development in this field.
Layer Attack Unlearning: Fast and Accurate Machine Unlearning via Layer Level Attack and Knowledge Distillation
Venue: arXiv cs.LG 2023
Year: 2023

Recently, serious concerns have been raised about the privacy issues related to training datasets in machine learning algorithms when including personal data. Various regulations in different countries, including the GDPR grant individuals to have personal data erased, known as 'the right to be forgotten' or 'the right to erasure'. However, there has been less research on effectively and practically deleting the requested personal data from the training set while not jeopardizing the overall machine learning performance. In this work, we propose a fast and novel machine unlearning paradigm at the layer level called layer attack unlearning, which is highly accurate and fast compared to existing machine unlearning algorithms. We introduce the Partial-PGD algorithm to locate the samples to forget efficiently. In addition, we only use the last layer of the model inspired by the Forward-Forward algorithm for unlearning process. Lastly, we use Knowledge Distillation (KD) to reliably learn the decision boundaries from the teacher using soft label information to improve accuracy performance. We conducted extensive experiments with SOTA machine unlearning models and demonstrated the effectiveness of our approach for accuracy and end-to-end unlearning performance.
METER: A Dynamic Concept Adaptation Framework for Online Anomaly Detection
Venue: arXiv cs.LG 2023
Year: 2023

Real-time analytics and decision-making require online anomaly detection (OAD) to handle drifts in data streams efficiently and effectively. Unfortunately, existing approaches are often constrained by their limited detection capacity and slow adaptation to evolving data streams, inhibiting their efficacy and efficiency in handling concept drift, which is a major challenge in evolving data streams. In this paper, we introduce METER, a novel dynamic concept adaptation framework that introduces a new paradigm for OAD. METER addresses concept drift by first training a base detection model on historical data to capture recurring central concepts, and then learning to dynamically adapt to new concepts in data streams upon detecting concept drift. Particularly, METER employs a novel dynamic concept adaptation technique that leverages a hypernetwork to dynamically generate the parameter shift of the base detection model, providing a more effective and efficient solution than conventional retraining or fine-tuning approaches. Further, METER incorporates a lightweight drift detection controller, underpinned by evidential deep learning, to support robust and interpretable concept drift detection. We conduct an extensive experimental evaluation, and the results show that METER significantly outperforms existing OAD approaches in various application scenarios.