OpenRaiser/Intern-Atlas huggingface dataset:
Trusted Video Inpainting Localization via Deep Attentive Noise Learning
Venue: arXiv cs.CV 2024
Year: 2024

Digital video inpainting techniques have been substantially improved with deep learning in recent years. Although inpainting is originally designed to repair damaged areas, it can also be used as malicious manipulation to remove important objects for creating false scenes and facts. As such it is significant to identify inpainted regions blindly. In this paper, we present a Trusted Video Inpainting Localization network (TruVIL) with excellent robustness and generalization ability. Observing that high-frequency noise can effectively unveil the inpainted regions, we design deep attentive noise learning in multiple stages to capture the inpainting traces. Firstly, a multi-scale noise extraction module based on 3D High Pass (HP3D) layers is used to create the noise modality from input RGB frames. Then the correlation between such two complementary modalities are explored by a cross-modality attentive fusion module to facilitate mutual feature learning. Lastly, spatial details are selectively enhanced by an attentive noise decoding module to boost the localization performance of the network. To prepare enough training samples, we also build a frame-level video object segmentation dataset of 2500 videos with pixel-level annotation for all frames. Extensive experimental results validate the superiority of TruVIL compared with the state-of-the-arts. In particular, both quantitative and qualitative evaluations on various inpainted videos verify the remarkable robustness and generalization ability of our proposed TruVIL. Code and dataset will be available at https://github.com/multimediaFor/TruVIL.
Enhancing Distractor Generation for Multiple-Choice Questions with Retrieval Augmented Pretraining and Knowledge Graph Integration
Venue: arXiv cs.CL 2024
Year: 2024

In this paper, we tackle the task of distractor generation (DG) for multiple-choice questions. Our study introduces two key designs. First, we propose \textit{retrieval augmented pretraining}, which involves refining the language model pretraining to align it more closely with the downstream task of DG. Second, we explore the integration of knowledge graphs to enhance the performance of DG. Through experiments with benchmarking datasets, we show that our models significantly outperform the state-of-the-art results. Our best-performing model advances the F1@3 score from 14.80 to 16.47 in MCQ dataset and from 15.92 to 16.50 in Sciq dataset.
GraphKAN: Enhancing Feature Extraction with Graph Kolmogorov Arnold Networks
Venue: arXiv cs.LG 2024
Year: 2024

Massive number of applications involve data with underlying relationships embedded in non-Euclidean space. Graph neural networks (GNNs) are utilized to extract features by capturing the dependencies within graphs. Despite groundbreaking performances, we argue that Multi-layer perceptrons (MLPs) and fixed activation functions impede the feature extraction due to information loss. Inspired by Kolmogorov Arnold Networks (KANs), we make the first attempt to GNNs with KANs. We discard MLPs and activation functions, and instead used KANs for feature extraction. Experiments demonstrate the effectiveness of GraphKAN, emphasizing the potential of KANs as a powerful tool. Code is available at https://github.com/Ryanfzhang/GraphKan.
Tactical Game-theoretic Decision-making with Homotopy Class Constraints
Venue: arXiv cs.MA 2024
Year: 2024

We propose a tactical homotopy-aware decision-making framework for game-theoretic motion planning in urban environments. We model urban driving as a generalized Nash equilibrium problem and employ a mixed-integer approach to tame the combinatorial aspect of motion planning. More specifically, by utilizing homotopy classes, we partition the high-dimensional solution space into finite, well-defined subregions. Each subregion (homotopy) corresponds to a high-level tactical decision, such as the passing order between pairs of players. The proposed formulation allows to find global optimal Nash equilibria in a computationally tractable manner by solving a mixed-integer quadratic program. Each homotopy decision is represented by a binary variable that activates different sets of linear collision avoidance constraints. This extra homotopic constraint allows to find solutions in a more efficient way (on a roundabout scenario on average 5-times faster). We experimentally validate the proposed approach on scenarios taken from the rounD dataset. Simulation-based testing in receding horizon fashion demonstrates the capability of the framework in achieving globally optimal solutions while yielding a 78% average decrease in the computational time with respect to an implementation without the homotopic constraints.
Leveraging Large Language Models for Patient Engagement: The Power of Conversational AI in Digital Health
Venue: arXiv cs.AI 2024
Year: 2024

The rapid advancements in large language models (LLMs) have opened up new opportunities for transforming patient engagement in healthcare through conversational AI. This paper presents an overview of the current landscape of LLMs in healthcare, specifically focusing on their applications in analyzing and generating conversations for improved patient engagement. We showcase the power of LLMs in handling unstructured conversational data through four case studies: (1) analyzing mental health discussions on Reddit, (2) developing a personalized chatbot for cognitive engagement in seniors, (3) summarizing medical conversation datasets, and (4) designing an AI-powered patient engagement system. These case studies demonstrate how LLMs can effectively extract insights and summarizations from unstructured dialogues and engage patients in guided, goal-oriented conversations. Leveraging LLMs for conversational analysis and generation opens new doors for many patient-centered outcomes research opportunities. However, integrating LLMs into healthcare raises important ethical considerations regarding data privacy, bias, transparency, and regulatory compliance. We discuss best practices and guidelines for the responsible development and deployment of LLMs in healthcare settings. Realizing the full potential of LLMs in digital health will require close collaboration between the AI and healthcare professionals communities to address technical challenges and ensure these powerful tools' safety, efficacy, and equity.
Challenges in Binary Classification
Venue: arXiv cs.LG 2024
Year: 2024

Binary Classification plays an important role in machine learning. For linear classification, SVM is the optimal binary classification method. For nonlinear classification, the SVM algorithm needs to complete the classification task by using the kernel function. Although the SVM algorithm with kernel function is very effective, the selection of kernel function is empirical, which means that the kernel function may not be optimal. Therefore, it is worth studying how to obtain an optimal binary classifier. In this paper, the problem of finding the optimal binary classifier is considered as a variational problem. We design the objective function of this variational problem through the max-min problem of the (Euclidean) distance between two classes. For linear classification, it can be deduced that SVM is a special case of this variational problem framework. For Euclidean distance, it is proved that the proposed variational problem has some limitations for nonlinear classification. Therefore, how to design a more appropriate objective function to find the optimal binary classifier is still an open problem. Further, it's discussed some challenges and problems in finding the optimal classifier.
An Embedded Intelligent System for Attendance Monitoring
Venue: arXiv cs.AI 2024
Year: 2024

In this paper, we propose an intelligent embedded system for monitoring class attendance and sending the attendance list to a remote computer. The proposed system consists of two parts : an embedded device (Raspberry with PI camera) for facial recognition and a web application for attendance management. The proposed solution take into account the different challenges: the limited resources of the Raspberry Pi, the need to adapt the facial recognition model and achieving acceptable performance using images provided by the Raspberry Pi camera.
Convex-hull Estimation using XPSNR for Versatile Video Coding
Venue: arXiv cs.MM 2024
Year: 2024

As adaptive streaming becomes crucial for delivering high-quality video content across diverse network conditions, accurate metrics to assess perceptual quality are essential. This paper explores using the eXtended Peak Signal-to-Noise Ratio (XPSNR) metric as an alternative to the popular Video Multimethod Assessment Fusion (VMAF) metric for determining optimized bitrate-resolution pairs in the context of Versatile Video Coding (VVC). Our study is rooted in the observation that XPSNR shows a superior correlation with subjective quality scores for VVC-coded Ultra-High Definition (UHD) content compared to VMAF. We predict the average XPSNR of VVC-coded bitstreams using spatiotemporal complexity features of the video and the target encoding configuration and then determine the convex-hull online. On average, the proposed convex-hull using XPSNR (VEXUS) achieves an overall quality improvement of 5.84 dB PSNR and 0.62 dB XPSNR while maintaining the same bitrate, compared to the default UHD encoding using the VVenC encoder, accompanied by an encoding time reduction of 44.43% and a decoding time reduction of 65.46%. This shift towards XPSNR as a guiding metric shall enhance the effectiveness of adaptive streaming algorithms, ensuring an optimal balance between bitrate efficiency and perceptual fidelity with advanced video coding standards.
Converging Dimensions: Information Extraction and Summarization through Multisource, Multimodal, and Multilingual Fusion
Venue: arXiv cs.AI 2024
Year: 2024

Recent advances in large language models (LLMs) have led to new summarization strategies, offering an extensive toolkit for extracting important information. However, these approaches are frequently limited by their reliance on isolated sources of data. The amount of information that can be gathered is limited and covers a smaller range of themes, which introduces the possibility of falsified content and limited support for multilingual and multimodal data. The paper proposes a novel approach to summarization that tackles such challenges by utilizing the strength of multiple sources to deliver a more exhaustive and informative understanding of intricate topics. The research progresses beyond conventional, unimodal sources such as text documents and integrates a more diverse range of data, including YouTube playlists, pre-prints, and Wikipedia pages. The aforementioned varied sources are then converted into a unified textual representation, enabling a more holistic analysis. This multifaceted approach to summary generation empowers us to extract pertinent information from a wider array of sources. The primary tenet of this approach is to maximize information gain while minimizing information overlap and maintaining a high level of informativeness, which encourages the generation of highly coherent summaries.
GUI Action Narrator: Where and When Did That Action Take Place?
Venue: arXiv cs.CV 2024
Year: 2024

The advent of Multimodal LLMs has significantly enhanced image OCR recognition capabilities, making GUI automation a viable reality for increasing efficiency in digital tasks. One fundamental aspect of developing a GUI automation system is understanding primitive GUI actions. This comprehension is crucial as it enables agents to learn from user demonstrations, an essential element of automation. To rigorously evaluate such capabilities, we developed a video captioning benchmark for GUI actions, comprising 4,189 diverse video captioning samples. This task presents unique challenges compared to natural scene video captioning: 1) GUI screenshots typically contain denser information than natural scenes, and 2) events within GUIs are subtler and occur more rapidly, requiring precise attention to the appropriate time span and spatial region for accurate understanding. To address these challenges, we introduce our GUI action dataset \textbf{Act2Cap} as well as a simple yet effective framework, \textbf{GUI Narrator}, for GUI video captioning that utilizes the cursor as a visual prompt to enhance the interpretation of high-resolution screenshots. Specifically, a cursor detector is trained on our dataset, and a multimodal LLM model with mechanisms for selecting keyframes and key regions generates the captions. Experimental results indicate that even for today's most advanced multimodal models, such as GPT-4o, the task remains highly challenging. Additionally, our evaluations show that our strategy effectively enhances model performance, whether integrated into the fine-tuning of open-source models or employed as a prompting strategy in closed-source models.
Concept Drift Visualization of SVM with Shifting Window
Venue: arXiv cs.LG 2024
Year: 2024

In machine learning, concept drift is an evolution of information that invalidates the current data model. It happens when the statistical properties of the input data change over time in unforeseen ways. Concept drift detection is crucial when dealing with dynamically changing data. Its visualization can bring valuable insight into the data dynamics, especially for multidimensional data, and is related to visual knowledge discovery. We propose a novel visualization model based on parallel coordinates, denoted as parallel histograms through time. Our model represents histograms of feature distributions for successive time-shifted windows. The drift is shown as variations of these histograms, obtained by connecting the means of the distribution for successive time windows. We show how these diagrams can be used to explain the decision made by the machine learning model in choosing the drift point. By isolating the drift at the edges of successive time windows, there will be none (or reduced) drift within the adjacent windows. We illustrate this concept on both synthetic and real datasets. In our experiments, we use an incremental/decremental SVM with shifting window, introduced by us in previous work. With our proposed technique, in addition to detect the presence of concept drift, we can also depict it. This information can be further used to explain the change. mental results, opening the possibility for further investigations.
Can LLMs Reason in the Wild with Programs?
Venue: arXiv cs.CL 2024
Year: 2024

Large Language Models (LLMs) have shown superior capability to solve reasoning problems with programs. While being a promising direction, most of such frameworks are trained and evaluated in settings with a prior knowledge of task requirements. However, as LLMs become more capable, it is necessary to assess their reasoning abilities in more realistic scenarios where many real-world problems are open-ended with ambiguous scope, and often require multiple formalisms to solve. To investigate this, we introduce the task of reasoning in the wild, where an LLM is tasked to solve a reasoning problem of unknown type by identifying the subproblems and their corresponding formalisms, and writing a program to solve each subproblem, guided by a tactic. We create a large tactic-guided trajectory dataset containing detailed solutions to a diverse set of reasoning problems, ranging from well-defined single-form reasoning (e.g., math, logic), to ambiguous and hybrid ones (e.g., commonsense, combined math and logic). This allows us to test various aspects of LLMs reasoning at the fine-grained level such as the selection and execution of tactics, and the tendency to take undesired shortcuts. In experiments, we highlight that existing LLMs fail significantly on problems with ambiguous and mixed scope, revealing critical limitations and overfitting issues (e.g. accuracy on GSM8K drops by at least 50\%). We further show the potential of finetuning a local LLM on the tactic-guided trajectories in achieving better performance. Project repo is available at github.com/gblackout/Reason-in-the-Wild
Elliptical Attention
Venue: arXiv cs.LG 2024
Year: 2024

Pairwise dot-product self-attention is key to the success of transformers that achieve state-of-the-art performance across a variety of applications in language and vision. This dot-product self-attention computes attention weights among the input tokens using Euclidean distance, which makes the model prone to representation collapse and vulnerable to contaminated samples. In this paper, we propose using a Mahalanobis distance metric for computing the attention weights to stretch the underlying feature space in directions of high contextual relevance. In particular, we define a hyper-ellipsoidal neighborhood around each query to increase the attention weights of the tokens lying in the contextually important directions. We term this novel class of attention Elliptical Attention. Our Elliptical Attention provides two benefits: 1) reducing representation collapse and 2) enhancing the model's robustness as Elliptical Attention pays more attention to contextually relevant information rather than focusing on some small subset of informative features. We empirically demonstrate the advantages of Elliptical Attention over the baseline dot-product attention and state-of-the-art attention methods on various practical tasks, including object classification, image segmentation, and language modeling across different data modalities.
Towards Holistic Language-video Representation: the language model-enhanced MSR-Video to Text Dataset
Venue: arXiv cs.MM 2024
Year: 2024

A more robust and holistic language-video representation is the key to pushing video understanding forward. Despite the improvement in training strategies, the quality of the language-video dataset is less attention to. The current plain and simple text descriptions and the visual-only focus for the language-video tasks result in a limited capacity in real-world natural language video retrieval tasks where queries are much more complex. This paper introduces a method to automatically enhance video-language datasets, making them more modality and context-aware for more sophisticated representation learning needs, hence helping all downstream tasks. Our multifaceted video captioning method captures entities, actions, speech transcripts, aesthetics, and emotional cues, providing detailed and correlating information from the text side to the video side for training. We also develop an agent-like strategy using language models to generate high-quality, factual textual descriptions, reducing human intervention and enabling scalability. The method's effectiveness in improving language-video representation is evaluated through text-video retrieval using the MSR-VTT dataset and several multi-modal retrieval models.
Optimizing Wireless Discontinuous Reception via MAC Signaling Learning
Venue: arXiv cs.IT 2024
Year: 2024

We present a Reinforcement Learning (RL) approach to the problem of controlling the Discontinuous Reception (DRX) policy from a Base Transceiver Station (BTS) in a cellular network. We do so by means of optimally timing the transmission of fast Layer-2 signaling messages (a.k.a. Medium Access Layer (MAC) Control Elements (CEs) as specified in 5G New Radio). Unlike more conventional approaches to DRX optimization, which rely on fine-tuning the values of DRX timers, we assess the gains that can be obtained solely by means of this MAC CE signalling. For the simulation part, we concentrate on traffic types typically encountered in Extended Reality (XR) applications, where the need for battery drain minimization and overheating mitigation are particularly pressing. Both 3GPP 5G New Radio (5G NR) compliant and non-compliant ("beyond 5G") MAC CEs are considered. Our simulation results show that our proposed technique strikes an improved trade-off between latency and energy savings as compared to conventional timer-based approaches that are characteristic of most current implementations. Specifically, our RL-based policy can nearly halve the active time for a single User Equipment (UE) with respect to a naïve MAC CE transmission policy, and still achieve near 20% active time reduction for 9 simultaneously served UEs.
Advancing Blockchain Scalability: An Introduction to Layer 1 and Layer 2 Solutions
Venue: arXiv cs.CR 2024
Year: 2024

Bitcoin rise has put blockchain technology into the mainstream, amplifying its potential and broad utility. While Bitcoin has become incredibly famous, its transaction rate has not match such a corresponding increase. It still takes approximately 10 minutes to mine a block and add it to the chain. This limitation highlights the importance of seeking scale-up solutions that solve the low throughput transaction rates. Blockchain's consensus mechanisms make peer-to-peer transactions becomes feasible and effectively eliminate the need for centralized control. However, the decentralized systems also causes a lower speed and throughput compared to centralized networks as we mentioned Bitcoin's block creation rates. Two mainstreams scale-up solutions, Layer 1 scale-up and Layer 2 scale-up have been implemented to address these issues. Layer 1 level scalability enhancements happen at where traditional blockchain operates. This paper provides a deep examination of the components of the Layer 1 protocol and the scale-up methods that directly improve the lower level blockchain. We also address that Layer 1 solutions encounter inherent limitations although improvements were applied due to layer 1 storage costs and latency are high. In addition, we discuss layer 2 protocols, advanced scalability techniques, that elevate blockchain performance by handling transactions off the mainnet. Our findings indicate that Layer 2 protocols, with their various implementations such as rollups and channels, significantly outperform Layer 1 solutions in terms of transaction throughput and efficiency. This paper discusses these Layer 2 scaling methods in detail, aiming to provide readers with a comprehensive understanding of these protocols and the underlying logic that drives their effectiveness.
Liveness Detection in Computer Vision: Transformer-based Self-Supervised Learning for Face Anti-Spoofing
Venue: arXiv cs.CV 2024
Year: 2024

Face recognition systems are increasingly used in biometric security for convenience and effectiveness. However, they remain vulnerable to spoofing attacks, where attackers use photos, videos, or masks to impersonate legitimate users. This research addresses these vulnerabilities by exploring the Vision Transformer (ViT) architecture, fine-tuned with the DINO framework. The DINO framework facilitates self-supervised learning, enabling the model to learn distinguishing features from unlabeled data. We compared the performance of the proposed fine-tuned ViT model using the DINO framework against a traditional CNN model, EfficientNet b2, on the face anti-spoofing task. Numerous tests on standard datasets show that the ViT model performs better than the CNN model in terms of accuracy and resistance to different spoofing methods. Additionally, we collected our own dataset from a biometric application to validate our findings further. This study highlights the superior performance of transformer-based architecture in identifying complex spoofing cues, leading to significant advancements in biometric security.