OpenRaiser/Intern-Atlas huggingface dataset:
A real-time and unsupervised face Re-Identification system for Human-Robot Interaction
Venue: arXiv cs.CV 2022
Year: 2022

In the context of Human-Robot Interaction (HRI), face Re-Identification (face Re-ID) aims to verify if certain detected faces have already been observed by robots. The ability of distinguishing between different users is crucial in social robots as it will enable the robot to tailor the interaction strategy toward the users' individual preferences. So far face recognition research has achieved great success, however little attention has been paid to the realistic applications of Face Re-ID in social robots. In this paper, we present an effective and unsupervised face Re-ID system which simultaneously re-identifies multiple faces for HRI. This Re-ID system employs Deep Convolutional Neural Networks to extract features, and an online clustering algorithm to determine the face's ID. Its performance is evaluated on two datasets: the TERESA video dataset collected by the TERESA robot, and the YouTube Face Dataset (YTF Dataset). We demonstrate that the optimised combination of techniques achieves an overall 93.55% accuracy on TERESA dataset and an overall 90.41% accuracy on YTF dataset. We have implemented the proposed method into a software module in the HCI^2 Framework for it to be further integrated into the TERESA robot, and has achieved real-time performance at 10~26 Frames per second.
Analyzing Use of High Privileges on Android: An Empirical Case Study of Screenshot and Screen Recording Applications
Venue: arXiv cs.CR 2022
Year: 2022

The number of Android smartphone and tablet users has experienced a rapid growth in the past few years and it raises users' awareness on the privacy and security of their mobile devices. The features of openness and extensibility make Android unique, attractive and competitive but meanwhile vulnerable to malicious attack. There are lots of users rooting their Android devices for some useful functions, which are not originally provided to developers and users, such as backup and taking screenshot. However, after observing the danger of rooting devices, the developers begin to look for other non-root alternatives to implement those functions. ADB workaround is one of the best known non-root alternatives to help app gain higher privilege on Android. It used to be considered as a secure practice until some cases of ADB privilege leakage have been found. In this project, we design an approach and implement a couple of tools to detect the privilege leakage in Android apps. We apply them to analyse three real-world apps with millions of users, and successfully identify three ADB privilege leaks from them. Moreover, we also conduct an exploitation of the ADB privilege in one app, and therefore we prove the existence of vulnerabilities in ADB workaround. Based on out study, we propose some suggestion to help developers create their apps that could not only satisfy users' needs but also protect users' privacy from similar attacks in future.
Block Mean Approximation for Efficient Second Order Optimization
Venue: arXiv cs.LG 2022
Year: 2022

Advanced optimization algorithms such as Newton method and AdaGrad benefit from second order derivative or second order statistics to achieve better descent directions and faster convergence rates. At their heart, such algorithms need to compute the inverse or inverse square root of a matrix whose size is quadratic of the dimensionality of the search space. For high dimensional search spaces, the matrix inversion or inversion of square root becomes overwhelming which in turn demands for approximate methods. In this work, we propose a new matrix approximation method which divides a matrix into blocks and represents each block by one or two numbers. The method allows efficient computation of matrix inverse and inverse square root. We apply our method to AdaGrad in training deep neural networks. Experiments show encouraging results compared to the diagonal approximation.
Semi-Supervised Co-Analysis of 3D Shape Styles from Projected Lines
Venue: arXiv cs.GR 2022
Year: 2022

We present a semi-supervised co-analysis method for learning 3D shape styles from projected feature lines, achieving style patch localization with only weak supervision. Given a collection of 3D shapes spanning multiple object categories and styles, we perform style co-analysis over projected feature lines of each 3D shape and then backproject the learned style features onto the 3D shapes. Our core analysis pipeline starts with mid-level patch sampling and pre-selection of candidate style patches. Projective features are then encoded via patch convolution. Multi-view feature integration and style clustering are carried out under the framework of partially shared latent factor (PSLF) learning, a multi-view feature learning scheme. PSLF achieves effective multi-view feature fusion by distilling and exploiting consistent and complementary feature information from multiple views, while also selecting style patches from the candidates. Our style analysis approach supports both unsupervised and semi-supervised analysis. For the latter, our method accepts both user-specified shape labels and style-ranked triplets as clustering constraints.We demonstrate results from 3D shape style analysis and patch localization as well as improvements over state-of-the-art methods. We also present several applications enabled by our style analysis.
Deep Dynamic Boosted Forest
Venue: arXiv cs.LG 2022
Year: 2022

Random forest is widely exploited as an ensemble learning method. In many practical applications, however, there is still a significant challenge to learn from imbalanced data. To alleviate this limitation, we propose a deep dynamic boosted forest (DDBF), a novel ensemble algorithm that incorporates the notion of hard example mining into random forest. Specically, we propose to measure the quality of each leaf node of every decision tree in the random forest to determine hard examples. By iteratively training and then removing easy examples from training data, we evolve the random forest to focus on hard examples dynamically so as to balance the proportion of samples and learn decision boundaries better. Data can be cascaded through these random forests learned in each iteration in sequence to generate more accurate predictions. Our DDBF outperforms random forest on 5 UCI datasets, MNIST and SATIMAGE, and achieved state-of-the-art results compared to other deep models. Moreover, we show that DDBF is also a new way of sampling and can be very useful and efficient when learning from imbalanced data.
Infrared and visible image fusion using Latent Low-Rank Representation
Venue: arXiv cs.CV 2022
Year: 2022

Infrared and visible image fusion is an important problem in the field of image fusion which has been applied widely in many fields. To better preserve the useful information from source images, in this paper, we propose a novel image fusion method based on latent low-rank representation(LatLRR) which is simple and effective. Firstly, the source images are decomposed into low-rank parts(global structure) and salient parts(local structure) by LatLRR. Then, the low-rank parts are fused by weighted-average strategy to preserve more contour information. Then, the salient parts are simply fused by sum strategy which is a efficient operation in this fusion framework. Finally, the fused image is obtained by combining the fused low-rank part and the fused salient part. Compared with other fusion methods experimentally, the proposed method has better fusion performance than state-of-the-art fusion methods in both subjective and objective evaluation. The Code of our fusion method is available at https://github.com/hli1221/imagefusion\_Infrared\_visible\_latlrr
Designing a cost-time-quality-efficient grinding process using MODM methods
Venue: arXiv cs.OH 2022
Year: 2022

In this paper a multi-objective mathematical model has been used to optimize grinding parameters include workpiece speed, depth of cut and wheel speed which highly affect the final surface quality. The mathematical model of the optimization problem consists of three conflict objective functions subject to wheel wear and production rate constraints. Exact methods can solve the NLP model in few seconds, therefore using Meta-heuristic algorithms which provide near optimal solutions in not suitable. Considering this, five Multi-Objective Decision Making methods have been used to solve the multi-objective mathematical model using GAMS software to achieve the optimal parameters of the grinding process. The Multi-Objective Decision Making methods provide different effective solutions where the decision maker can choose each solution in different situations. Different criteria have been considered to evaluate the performance of the five Multi-Objective Decision Making methods. Also, Technique for Order of Preference by Similarity to Ideal Solution method has been used to obtain the priority of each method and determine which Multi-Objective Decision Making method performs better considering all criteria simultaneously. The results indicated that Weighted Sum Method and Goal programming method are the best Multi-Objective Decision Making methods. The Weighted Sum Method and Goal programming provided solutions which are competitive to each other. In addition, these methods obtained solutions which have minimum grinding time, cost and surface roughness among other Multi-Objective Decision Making methods.
Learning to Optimize Contextually Constrained Problems for Real-Time Decision-Generation
Venue: arXiv cs.LG 2022
Year: 2022

The topic of learning to solve optimization problems has received interest from both the operations research and machine learning communities. In this work, we combine techniques from both fields to address the problem of learning to generate decisions to instances of continuous optimization problems where the feasible set varies with contextual features. We propose a novel framework for training a generative model to estimate optimal decisions by combining interior point methods and adversarial learning, which we further embed within an data generation algorithm. Decisions generated by our model satisfy in-sample and out-of-sample optimality guarantees. Finally, we investigate case studies in portfolio optimization and personalized treatment design, demonstrating that our approach yields advantages over predict-then-optimize and supervised deep learning techniques, respectively.
Possibility results for graph clustering: A novel consistency axiom
Venue: arXiv cs.LG 2022
Year: 2022

Kleinberg introduced three natural clustering properties, or axioms, and showed they cannot be simultaneously satisfied by any clustering algorithm. We present a new clustering property, Monotonic Consistency, which avoids the well-known problematic behaviour of Kleinberg's Consistency axiom, and the impossibility result. Namely, we describe a clustering algorithm, Morse Clustering, inspired by Morse Theory in Differential Topology, which satisfies Kleinberg's original axioms with Consistency replaced by Monotonic Consistency. Morse clustering uncovers the underlying flow structure on a set or graph and returns a partition into trees representing basins of attraction of critical vertices. We also generalise Kleinberg's axiomatic approach to sparse graphs, showing an impossibility result for Consistency, and a possibility result for Monotonic Consistency and Morse clustering.
Grassmannian Discriminant Maps (GDM) for Manifold Dimensionality Reduction with Application to Image Set Classification
Venue: arXiv cs.CV 2022
Year: 2022

In image set classification, a considerable progress has been made by representing original image sets on Grassmann manifolds. In order to extend the advantages of the Euclidean based dimensionality reduction methods to the Grassmann Manifold, several methods have been suggested recently which jointly perform dimensionality reduction and metric learning on Grassmann manifold to improve performance. Nevertheless, when applied to complex datasets, the learned features do not exhibit enough discriminatory power. To overcome this problem, we propose a new method named Grassmannian Discriminant Maps (GDM) for manifold dimensionality reduction problems. The core of the method is a new discriminant function for metric learning and dimensionality reduction. For comparison and better understanding, we also study a simple variations to GDM. The key difference between them is the discriminant function. We experiment on data sets corresponding to three tasks: face recognition, object categorization, and hand gesture recognition to evaluate the proposed method and its simple extensions. Compared with the state of the art, the results achieved show the effectiveness of the proposed algorithm.
Variational Bayesian Reinforcement Learning with Regret Bounds
Venue: arXiv cs.LG 2022
Year: 2022

In reinforcement learning the Q-values summarize the expected future rewards that the agent will attain. However, they cannot capture the epistemic uncertainty about those rewards. In this work we derive a new Bellman operator with associated fixed point we call the `knowledge values'. These K-values compress both the expected future rewards and the epistemic uncertainty into a single value, so that high uncertainty, high reward, or both, can yield high K-values. The key principle is to endow the agent with a risk-seeking utility function that is carefully tuned to balance exploration and exploitation. When the agent follows a Boltzmann policy over the K-values it yields a Bayes regret bound of $\tilde O(L \sqrt{S A T})$, where $L$ is the time horizon, $S$ is the total number of states, $A$ is the number of actions, and $T$ is the number of elapsed timesteps. We show deep connections of this approach to the soft-max and maximum-entropy strands of research in reinforcement learning.
Deep Learning Methods and Applications for Region of Interest Detection in Dermoscopic Images
Venue: arXiv cs.CV 2022
Year: 2022

Rapid growth in the development of medical imaging analysis technology has been propelled by the great interest in improving computer-aided diagnosis and detection (CAD) systems for three popular image visualization tasks: classification, segmentation, and Region of Interest (ROI) detection. However, a limited number of datasets with ground truth annotations are available for developing segmentation and ROI detection of lesions, as expert annotations are laborious and expensive. Detecting the ROI is vital to locate lesions accurately. In this paper, we propose the use of two deep object detection meta-architectures (Faster R-CNN Inception-V2 and SSD Inception-V2) to develop robust ROI detection of skin lesions in dermoscopic datasets (2017 ISIC Challenge, PH2, and HAM10000), and compared the performance with state-of-the-art segmentation algorithm (DeeplabV3+). To further demonstrate the potential of our work, we built a smartphone application for real-time automated detection of skin lesions based on this methodology. In addition, we developed an automated natural data-augmentation method from ROI detection to produce augmented copies of dermoscopic images, as a pre-processing step in the segmentation of skin lesions to further improve the performance of the current state-of-the-art deep learning algorithm. Our proposed ROI detection has the potential to more appropriately streamline dermatology referrals and reduce unnecessary biopsies in the diagnosis of skin cancer.
Analysis of the Threshold for Energy Consumption in Displacement of Random Sensors
Venue: arXiv cs.NI 2022
Year: 2022

The fundamental problem of energy-efficient reallocation of mobile random sensors to provide full coverage without interference is addressed in this paper. We consider $n$ mobile sensors with identical sensing range placed randomly on the unit interval and on the unit square. The main contribution is summarized as follows: If the sensors are placed on the unit interval we explain the sharp increase around the sensing radius equal to $\frac{1}{2n}$ and the interference distance equal to $\frac{1}{n}$ for the expected minimal $a$-total displacement, If the sensors are placed on the unit square we explain the sharp increase around the square sensing radius equal to $\frac{1}{2 \sqrt{n}}$ and the interference distance equal to $\frac{1}{\sqrt{n}}$ for the expected minimal $a$-total displacement.
Principles of perceptual grouping: implications for image-guided surgery
Venue: arXiv cs.HC 2022
Year: 2022

Gestalt theory has provided perceptual science with a conceptual framework which has inspired researchers ever since, taking the field of perceptual organization into the 21st century. This opinion article discusses the importance of rules of perceptual organization for the testing and design of visual interface technology. It is argued that major Gestalt principles, such as the law of good continuation or the principle of Praegnanz (suggested translation: salience), taken as examples here, are important to our understanding of visual image processing by a human observer. Perceptual integration of contrast information across collinear space, and the organization of objects in the 2D image plane into figure and ground are of a particular importance here. Visual interfaces for image-guided surgery illustrate the criticality of these two types of perceptual processes for reliable decision making and action. It is concluded that Gestalt theory continues to generate powerful concepts and insights for perceptual science placed within the context of major technological challenges of today.
Proximal boosting: aggregating weak learners to minimize non-differentiable losses
Venue: arXiv cs.LG 2022
Year: 2022

Gradient boosting is a prediction method that iteratively combines weak learners to produce a complex and accurate model. From an optimization point of view, the learning procedure of gradient boosting mimics a gradient descent on a functional variable. This paper proposes to build upon the proximal point algorithm, when the empirical risk to minimize is not differentiable, in order to introduce a novel boosting approach, called proximal boosting. It comes with a companion algorithm inspired by [1] and called residual proximal boosting, which is aimed at better controlling the approximation error. Theoretical convergence is proved for these two procedures under different hypotheses on the empirical risk and advantages of leveraging proximal methods for boosting are illustrated by numerical experiments on simulated and real-world data. In particular, we exhibit a favorable comparison over gradient boosting regarding convergence rate and prediction accuracy.
Question Answering by Reasoning Across Documents with Graph Convolutional Networks
Venue: arXiv cs.CL 2022
Year: 2022

Most research in reading comprehension has focused on answering questions based on individual documents or even single paragraphs. We introduce a neural model which integrates and reasons relying on information spread within documents and across multiple documents. We frame it as an inference problem on a graph. Mentions of entities are nodes of this graph while edges encode relations between different mentions (e.g., within- and cross-document co-reference). Graph convolutional networks (GCNs) are applied to these graphs and trained to perform multi-step reasoning. Our Entity-GCN method is scalable and compact, and it achieves state-of-the-art results on a multi-document question answering dataset, WikiHop (Welbl et al., 2018).
Semantic Information G Theory and Logical Bayesian Inference for Machine Learning
Venue: arXiv cs.AI 2022
Year: 2022

An important problem with machine learning is that when label number n>2, it is very difficult to construct and optimize a group of learning functions, and we wish that optimized learning functions are still useful when prior distribution P(x) (where x is an instance) is changed. To resolve this problem, the semantic information G theory, Logical Bayesian Inference (LBI), and a group of Channel Matching (CM) algorithms together form a systematic solution. A semantic channel in the G theory consists of a group of truth functions or membership functions. In comparison with likelihood functions, Bayesian posteriors, and Logistic functions used by popular methods, membership functions can be more conveniently used as learning functions without the above problem. In Logical Bayesian Inference (LBI), every label's learning is independent. For Multilabel learning, we can directly obtain a group of optimized membership functions from a big enough sample with labels, without preparing different samples for different labels. A group of Channel Matching (CM) algorithms is developed for machine learning. For the Maximum Mutual Information (MMI) classification of three classes with Gaussian distributions on a two-dimensional feature space, 2-3 iterations can make mutual information between three classes and three labels surpass 99% of the MMI for most initial partitions. For mixture models, the Expectation-Maximization (EM) algorithm is improved and becomes the CM-EM algorithm, which can outperform the EM algorithm when mixture ratios are imbalanced, or local convergence exists. The CM iteration algorithm needs to combine neural networks for MMI classifications on high-dimensional feature spaces. LBI needs further studies for the unification of statistics and logic.
Latency Reduction for Mobile Edge Computing in HetNets by Uplink and Downlink Decoupled Access
Venue: arXiv cs.NI 2022
Year: 2022

Achieving an end-to-end low-latency for computations offloading, in Mobile Edge Computing (MEC) systems, is still a critical design problem. This is because the offloading of computational tasks via the MEC servers entails the use of uplink (UL) and downlink (DL) radio links that are usually assumed to be coupled to a single base station (BS). However, for heterogeneous networks, a new architectural paradigm whereby UL and DL are not associated with the same BS is proposed and seen to provide gains in network throughput due to the improved UL performance. Motivated by such gains, and by using typical results from stochastic geometry, we formulate the offloading latency for the MEC-based scheme with decoupled UL/DL association, or decoupled access, and compare its performance to the conventional coupled access scheme. Despite the backhaul delay necessary for the communication between the two serving BSs in UL and DL, the offloading scheme with decoupled access is still capable of providing a fairly lower offloading latency compared to the conventional offloading scheme with coupled access.
Categorical Representations of Continuous Domains and Continuous L-Domains Based on Closure Spaces
Venue: arXiv cs.LO 2022
Year: 2022

Closure space has proven to be a useful tool to restructure lattices and various order structures.This paper aims to provide a novel approach to characterizing some important kinds of continuous domains by means of closure spaces. By introducing an additional map into a given closure space, the notion of F-augmented generalized closure space is presented. It is shown that F-augmented generalized closure spaces generate exactly continuous domains. Moreover, the notion of approximable mapping is identified to represent Scott-continuous functions between continuous domains. These results produce a category equivalent to that of continuous domains with Scottcontinuous functions. At the same time, two subclasses of F-augmented generalized closure spaces are considered which are representations of continuous L-domains and continuous bounded complete domains, respectively.