OpenRaiser/Intern-Atlas huggingface dataset:
Cinderella's shoe won't fit Soundarya: An audit of facial processing tools on Indian faces
Venue: arXiv cs.CV 2021
Year: 2021

The increasing adoption of facial processing systems in India is fraught with concerns of privacy, transparency, accountability, and missing procedural safeguards. At the same time, we also know very little about how these technologies perform on the diverse features, characteristics, and skin tones of India's 1.34 billion-plus population. In this paper, we test the face detection and facial analysis functions of four commercial facial processing tools on a dataset of Indian faces. The tools display varying error rates in the face detection and gender and age classification functions. The gender classification error rate for Indian female faces is consistently higher compared to that of males -- the highest female error rate being 14.68%. In some cases, this error rate is much higher than that shown by previous studies for females of other nationalities. Age classification errors are also high. Despite taking into account an acceptable error margin of plus or minus 10 years from a person's actual age, age prediction failures are in the range of 14.3% to 42.2%. These findings point to the limited accuracy of facial processing tools, particularly for certain demographic groups, and the need for more critical thinking before adopting such systems.
Incentivizing Collaboration in Machine Learning via Synthetic Data Rewards
Venue: arXiv cs.LG 2021
Year: 2021

This paper presents a novel collaborative generative modeling (CGM) framework that incentivizes collaboration among self-interested parties to contribute data to a pool for training a generative model (e.g., GAN), from which synthetic data are drawn and distributed to the parties as rewards commensurate to their contributions. Distributing synthetic data as rewards (instead of trained models or money) offers task- and model-agnostic benefits for downstream learning tasks and is less likely to violate data privacy regulation. To realize the framework, we firstly propose a data valuation function using maximum mean discrepancy (MMD) that values data based on its quantity and quality in terms of its closeness to the true data distribution and provide theoretical results guiding the kernel choice in our MMD-based data valuation function. Then, we formulate the reward scheme as a linear optimization problem that when solved, guarantees certain incentives such as fairness in the CGM framework. We devise a weighted sampling algorithm for generating synthetic data to be distributed to each party as reward such that the value of its data and the synthetic data combined matches its assigned reward value by the reward scheme. We empirically show using simulated and real-world datasets that the parties' synthetic data rewards are commensurate to their contributions.
Node Failure Localisation Problem for Load Balancing Dynamic Networks
Venue: arXiv cs.NI 2021
Year: 2021

Network tomography has been used as an approach to the Node Failure Localisation problem, whereby misbehaving subsets of nodes in a network are to be determined. Typically approaches in the literature assume a statically routed network, permitting linear algebraic arguments. In this work, a load balancing, dynamically routed network is studied, necessitating a stochastic representation of network dynamics. A network model was developed, permitting a novel application of Markov Chain Monte Carlo (MCMC) inference to the Node Failure Localisation (NFL) problem, and the assessment of monitor placement choices. Two nuanced monitor placement algorithms, including one designed for the NFL problem by Ma et al. 2014 were tested, with the published algorithm performing significantly better.
Improving evidential deep learning via multi-task learning
Venue: arXiv cs.LG 2021
Year: 2021

The Evidential regression network (ENet) estimates a continuous target and its predictive uncertainty without costly Bayesian model averaging. However, it is possible that the target is inaccurately predicted due to the gradient shrinkage problem of the original loss function of the ENet, the negative log marginal likelihood (NLL) loss. In this paper, the objective is to improve the prediction accuracy of the ENet while maintaining its efficient uncertainty estimation by resolving the gradient shrinkage problem. A multi-task learning (MTL) framework, referred to as MT-ENet, is proposed to accomplish this aim. In the MTL, we define the Lipschitz modified mean squared error (MSE) loss function as another loss and add it to the existing NLL loss. The Lipschitz modified MSE loss is designed to mitigate the gradient conflict with the NLL loss by dynamically adjusting its Lipschitz constant. By doing so, the Lipschitz MSE loss does not disturb the uncertainty estimation of the NLL loss. The MT-ENet enhances the predictive accuracy of the ENet without losing uncertainty estimation capability on the synthetic dataset and real-world benchmarks, including drug-target affinity (DTA) regression. Furthermore, the MT-ENet shows remarkable calibration and out-of-distribution detection capability on the DTA benchmarks.
Generalized LRS Estimator for Min-entropy Estimation
Venue: arXiv cs.IT 2021
Year: 2021

The min-entropy is a widely used metric to quantify the randomness of generated random numbers, which measures the difficulty of guessing the most likely output. It is difficult to accurately estimate the min-entropy of a non-independent and identically distributed (non-IID) source. Hence, NIST Special Publication (SP) 800-90B adopts ten different min-entropy estimators and then conservatively selects the minimum value among ten min-entropy estimates. Among these estimators, the longest repeated substring (LRS) estimator estimates the collision entropy instead of the min-entropy by counting the number of repeated substrings. Since the collision entropy is an upper bound on the min-entropy, the LRS estimator inherently provides \emph{overestimated} outputs. In this paper, we propose two techniques to estimate the min-entropy of a non-IID source accurately. The first technique resolves the overestimation problem by translating the collision entropy into the min-entropy. Next, we generalize the LRS estimator by adopting the general R{é}nyi entropy instead of the collision entropy (i.e., R{é}nyi entropy of order two). We show that adopting a higher order can reduce the variance of min-entropy estimates. By integrating these techniques, we propose a generalized LRS estimator that effectively resolves the overestimation problem and provides stable min-entropy estimates. Theoretical analysis and empirical results support that the proposed generalized LRS estimator improves the estimation accuracy significantly, which makes it an appealing alternative to the LRS estimator.
Feature extraction and classification algorithm, which one is more essential? An experimental study on a specific task of vibration signal diagnosis
Venue: arXiv cs.LG 2021
Year: 2021

With the development of machine learning, a data-driven model has been widely used in vibration signal fault diagnosis. Most data-driven machine learning algorithms are built based on well-designed features, but feature extraction is usually required to be completed in advance. In the deep learning era, feature extraction and classifier learning are conducted simultaneously, which will lead to an end-to-end learning system. This paper explores which one of the two key factors, i.e., feature extraction and classification algorithm, is more essential for a specific task of vibration signal diagnosis during a learning system is generated. Feature extractions from vibration signal based on both well-known Gaussian model and statistical characteristics are discussed, respectively. And several classification algorithms are selected to experimentally validate the comparative impact of both feature extraction and classification algorithm on prediction performance.
Towards Intelligent Context-Aware 6G Security
Venue: arXiv cs.CR 2021
Year: 2021

Imagine interconnected objects with embedded artificial intelligence (AI), empowered to sense the environment, see it, hear it, touch it, interact with it, and move. As future networks of intelligent objects come to life, tremendous new challenges arise for security, but also new opportunities, allowing to address current, as well as future, pressing needs. In this paper we put forward a roadmap towards the realization of a new security paradigm that we articulate as intelligent context-aware security. The premise of this roadmap is that sensing and advanced AI will enable context awareness, which in turn can drive intelligent security mechanisms, such as adaptation and automation of security controls. This concept not only provides immediate answers to burning open questions, in particular with respect to non-functional requirements, such as energy or latency constraints, heterogeneity of radio frequency (RF) technologies and long life span of deployed devices, but also, more importantly, offers a viable answer to scalability by allowing such constraints to be met even in massive connectivity regimes. Furthermore, the proposed roadmap has to be designed ethically, by explicitly placing privacy concerns at its core. The path towards this vision and some of the challenges along the way are discussed in this contribution.
Product Information Browsing Support System Using Analytic Hierarchy Process
Venue: arXiv cs.IR 2021
Year: 2021

Large-scale e-commerce sites can collect and analyze a large number of user preferences and behaviors, and thus can recommend highly trusted products to users. However, it is very difficult for individuals or non-corporate groups to obtain large-scale user data. Therefore, we consider whether knowledge of the decision-making domain can be used to obtain user preferences and combine it with content-based filtering to design an information retrieval system. This study describes the process of building a product information browsing support system with high satisfaction based on product similarity and multiple other perspectives about products on the Internet. We present the architecture of the proposed system and explain the working principle of its constituent modules. Finally, we demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed system through an evaluation experiment and a questionnaire.
ML Supported Predictions for SAT Solvers Performance
Venue: arXiv cs.AI 2021
Year: 2021

In order to classify the indeterministic termination behavior of the open source SAT solver CryptoMiniSat in multi-threading mode while processing hard to solve boolean satisfiability problem instances, internal solver runtime parameters have been collected and analyzed. A subset of these parameters has been selected and employed as features vector to successfully create a machine learning model for the binary classification of the solver's termination behavior with any single new solving run of a not yet solved instance. The model can be used for the early estimation of a solving attempt as belonging or not belonging to the class of candidates with good chances for a fast termination. In this context a combination of active profiles of runtime characteristics appear to mirror the influence of the solver's momentary heuristics on the immediate quality of the solver's resolution process. Because runtime parameters of already the first two solving iterations are enough to forecast termination of the attempt with good success scores, the results of the present work deliver a promising basis which can be further developed in order to enrich CryptoMiniSat or generally any modern SAT solver with AI abilities.
A controller for reaching and unveiling a partially occluded object of interest with an eye-in-hand robot
Venue: arXiv cs.RO 2021
Year: 2021

In this work, a control scheme for approaching and unveiling a partially occluded object of interest is proposed.The control scheme is based only on the classified point cloud obtained by the in-hand camera attached to the robot's end effector. It is shown that the proposed controller reaches in the vicinity of the object progressively unveiling the neighborhood of each visible point of the object of interest. It can therefore potentially achieve the complete unveiling of the object. The proposed control scheme is evaluated through simulations and experiments with a UR5e robot with an in-hand RealSense camera on a mock-up vine setup for unveiling the stem of a grape.
Stability Verification in Stochastic Control Systems via Neural Network Supermartingales
Venue: arXiv cs.LG 2021
Year: 2021

We consider the problem of formally verifying almost-sure (a.s.) asymptotic stability in discrete-time nonlinear stochastic control systems. While verifying stability in deterministic control systems is extensively studied in the literature, verifying stability in stochastic control systems is an open problem. The few existing works on this topic either consider only specialized forms of stochasticity or make restrictive assumptions on the system, rendering them inapplicable to learning algorithms with neural network policies. In this work, we present an approach for general nonlinear stochastic control problems with two novel aspects: (a) instead of classical stochastic extensions of Lyapunov functions, we use ranking supermartingales (RSMs) to certify a.s.~asymptotic stability, and (b) we present a method for learning neural network RSMs. We prove that our approach guarantees a.s.~asymptotic stability of the system and provides the first method to obtain bounds on the stabilization time, which stochastic Lyapunov functions do not. Finally, we validate our approach experimentally on a set of nonlinear stochastic reinforcement learning environments with neural network policies.
Mitigating inefficient task mappings with an Adaptive Resource-Moldable Scheduler (ARMS)
Venue: arXiv cs.DC 2021
Year: 2021

Efficient runtime task scheduling on complex memory hierarchy becomes increasingly important as modern and future High-Performance Computing (HPC) systems are progressively composed of multisocket and multi-chiplet nodes with nonuniform memory access latencies. Existing locality-aware scheduling schemes either require control of the data placement policy for memory-bound tasks or maximize locality for all classes of computations, resulting in a loss of potential performance. While such approaches are viable, an adaptive scheduling strategy is preferred to enhance locality and resource sharing efficiency using a portable programming scheme. In this paper, we propose the Adaptive Resource-Moldable Scheduler (ARMS) that dynamically maps a task at runtime to a partition spanning one or more threads, based on the task and DAG requirements. The scheduler builds an online platform-independent model for the local and non-local scheduling costs for each tuple consisting of task type (function) and task topology (task location within DAG). We evaluate ARMS using task-parallel versions of SparseLU, 2D Stencil, FMM, and MatMul as examples. Compared to previous approaches, ARMS achieves up to 3.5x performance gain over state-of-the-art locality-aware scheduling schemes.
Online Classroom Evaluation System Based on Multi-Reaction Estimation
Venue: arXiv cs.CY 2021
Year: 2021

Compared with traditional face-to-face teaching, online learning is more convenient. However, during online classes, it is more difficult for teachers to observe all student reactions at the same time. Our system is designed to help teachers to adjust the speed of their lessons by detecting student reactions. In this study, we estimate student head pose, hand poses, and expressions through the camera, all these poses will be used as criteria for judging the student participation. After estimating, we proposed a method to evaluate classroom participation based on student head pose, hand poses, and facial expression recognition. The estimated result divides the class quality into positive, neutral, and negative, then, under the help of the system, teachers can rearrange the content of the class.
LTB curves with Lipschitz turn are par-regular
Venue: arXiv cs.CG 2021
Year: 2021

Preserving the topology during a digitization process is a requirement of first importance. To this end, it is classical in Digital Geometry to assume the shape borders to be par-regular. Par-regularity was proved to be equivalent to having positive reach or to belong to the class C 1,1 of curves with Lipschitz derivative. Recently, we proposed to use a larger class that encompasses polygons with obtuse angles, the locally turn-bounded curves. The aim of this technical report is to define the class of par-regular curves inside the class of locally turn-bounded curves using only the notion of turn, that is of integral curvature. To be more precise, in a previous article, we have already proved that par-regular curves are locally turn-bounded. Incidentally this proof lead us to show that the turn of par-regular curves is a Lipschitz function of their length. We call the class of curves verifying this latter property the curves with Lipschitz turn. In this technical report, we prove the converse assertion : locally turn-bounded curves with Lipschitz turn are par-regular. The equivalence is stated in Theorem 3.1 and the converse assertion is proved in Lemma 3.2. In section 1, we recall the definition of par-regularity and equivalently of sets with positive reach. In section 2, we present the notions of curves locally turn-bounded and of curves with Lipschitz turn. Throughout this latter section, some of intermediate steps (Lemmas 2.3 and 2.11) are proved just after the introduction of their related notions. The last section (section 3) is dedicated to the proof of the equivalence of the notions.
Align and Prompt: Video-and-Language Pre-training with Entity Prompts
Venue: arXiv cs.CV 2021
Year: 2021

Video-and-language pre-training has shown promising improvements on various downstream tasks. Most previous methods capture cross-modal interactions with a transformer-based multimodal encoder, not fully addressing the misalignment between unimodal video and text features. Besides, learning fine-grained visual-language alignment usually requires off-the-shelf object detectors to provide object information, which is bottlenecked by the detector's limited vocabulary and expensive computation cost. We propose Align and Prompt: an efficient and effective video-and-language pre-training framework with better cross-modal alignment. First, we introduce a video-text contrastive (VTC) loss to align unimodal video-text features at the instance level, which eases the modeling of cross-modal interactions. Then, we propose a new visually-grounded pre-training task, prompting entity modeling (PEM), which aims to learn fine-grained region-entity alignment. To achieve this, we first introduce an entity prompter module, which is trained with VTC to produce the similarity between a video crop and text prompts instantiated with entity names. The PEM task then asks the model to predict the entity pseudo-labels (i.e~normalized similarity scores) for randomly-selected video crops. The resulting pre-trained model achieves state-of-the-art performance on both text-video retrieval and videoQA, outperforming prior work by a substantial margin. Our code and pre-trained models are available at https://github.com/salesforce/ALPRO.
Reciprocity, community detection, and link prediction in dynamic networks
Venue: arXiv cs.SI 2021
Year: 2021

Many complex systems change their structure over time, in these cases dynamic networks can provide a richer representation of such phenomena. As a consequence, many inference methods have been generalized to the dynamic case with the aim to model dynamic interactions. Particular interest has been devoted to extend the stochastic block model and its variant, to capture community structure as the network changes in time. While these models assume that edge formation depends only on the community memberships, recent work for static networks show the importance to include additional parameters capturing structural properties, as reciprocity for instance. Remarkably, these models are capable of generating more realistic network representations than those that only consider community membership. To this aim, we present a probabilistic generative model with hidden variables that integrates reciprocity and communities as structural information of networks that evolve in time. The model assumes a fundamental order in observing reciprocal data, that is an edge is observed, conditional on its reciprocated edge in the past. We deploy a Markovian approach to construct the network's transition matrix between time steps and parameters' inference is performed with an Expectation-Maximization algorithm that leads to high computational efficiency because it exploits the sparsity of the dataset. We test the performance of the model on synthetic dynamical networks, as well as on real networks of citations and email datasets. We show that our model captures the reciprocity of real networks better than standard models with only community structure, while performing well at link prediction tasks.
Sparsifying Sparse Representations for Passage Retrieval by Top-$k$ Masking
Venue: arXiv cs.IR 2021
Year: 2021

Sparse lexical representation learning has demonstrated much progress in improving passage retrieval effectiveness in recent models such as DeepImpact, uniCOIL, and SPLADE. This paper describes a straightforward yet effective approach for sparsifying lexical representations for passage retrieval, building on SPLADE by introducing a top-$k$ masking scheme to control sparsity and a self-learning method to coax masked representations to mimic unmasked representations. A basic implementation of our model is competitive with more sophisticated approaches and achieves a good balance between effectiveness and efficiency. The simplicity of our methods opens the door for future explorations in lexical representation learning for passage retrieval.
Scalar Spatiotemporal Blue Noise Masks
Venue: arXiv cs.GR 2021
Year: 2021

Blue noise error patterns are well suited to human perception, and when applied to stochastic rendering techniques, blue noise masks (blue noise textures) minimize unwanted low-frequency noise in the final image. Current methods of applying blue noise masks at each frame independently produce white noise frequency spectra temporally. This white noise results in slower integration convergence over time and unstable results when filtered temporally. Unfortunately, achieving temporally stable blue noise distributions is non-trivial since 3D blue noise does not exhibit the desired 2D blue noise properties, and alternative approaches degrade the spatial blue noise qualities. We propose novel blue noise patterns that, when animated, produce values at a pixel that are well distributed over time, converge rapidly for Monte Carlo integration, and are more stable under TAA, while still retaining spatial blue noise properties. To do so, we propose an extension to the well-known void and cluster algorithm that reformulates the underlying energy function to produce spatiotemporal blue noise masks. These masks exhibit blue noise frequency spectra in both the spatial and temporal domains, resulting in visually pleasing error patterns, rapid convergence speeds, and increased stability when filtered temporally. We demonstrate these improvements on a variety of applications, including dithering, stochastic transparency, ambient occlusion, and volumetric rendering. By extending spatial blue noise to spatiotemporal blue noise, we overcome the convergence limitations of prior blue noise works, enabling new applications for blue noise distributions.