OpenRaiser/Intern-Atlas huggingface dataset:
Sneak Path Interference-Aware Adaptive Detection and Decoding for Resistive Memory Arrays
Venue: arXiv cs.IT 2024
Year: 2024

Resistive random-access memory (ReRAM) is an emerging non-volatile memory technology for high-density and high-speed data storage. However, the sneak path interference (SPI) occurred in the ReRAM crossbar array seriously affects its data recovery performance. In this letter, we first propose a quantized channel model of ReRAM, based on which we design both the one-bit and multi-bit channel quantizers by maximizing the mutual information of the channel. A key channel parameter that affects the quantizer design is the sneak path occurrence probability (SPOP) of the memory cell. We first use the average SPOP calculated statistically to design the quantizer, which leads to the same channel detector for different memory arrays. We then adopt the SPOP estimated separately for each memory array for the quantizer design, which is generated by an effective channel estimator and through an iterative detection and decoding scheme for the ReRAM channel. This results in an array-level SPI-aware adaptive detection and decoding approach. Moreover, since there is a strong correlation of the SPI that affects memory cells in the same rows/columns than that affecting cells in different rows/columns, we further derive a column-level scheme which outperforms the array-level scheme. We also propose a channel decomposition method that enables effective ways for theoretically analyzing the ReRAM channel. Simulation results show that the proposed SPI-aware adaptive detection and decoding schemes can approach the ideal performance with three quantization bits, with only one decoding iteration.
Abstract Hardware Grounding towards the Automated Design of Automation Systems
Venue: arXiv cs.RO 2024
Year: 2024

Crafting automation systems tailored for specific domains requires aligning the space of human experts' semantics with the space of robot executable actions, and scheduling the required resources and system layout accordingly. Regrettably, there are three major gaps, fine-grained domain-specific knowledge injection, heterogeneity between human knowledge and robot instructions, and diversity of users' preferences, resulting automation system design a case-by-case and labour-intensive effort, thus hindering the democratization of automation. We refer to this challenging alignment as the abstract hardware grounding problem, where we firstly regard the procedural operations in humans' semantics space as the abstraction of hardware requirements, then we ground such abstractions to instantiated hardware devices, subject to constraints and preferences in the real world -- optimizing this problem is essentially standardizing and automating the design of automation systems. On this basis, we develop an automated design framework in a hybrid data-driven and principle-derived fashion. Results on designing self-driving laboratories for enhancing experiment-driven scientific discovery suggest our framework's potential to produce compact systems that fully satisfy domain-specific and user-customized requirements with no redundancy.
Edge-Cloud Collaborative Satellite Image Analysis for Efficient Man-Made Structure Recognition
Venue: arXiv cs.CV 2024
Year: 2024

The increasing availability of high-resolution satellite imagery has created immense opportunities for various applications. However, processing and analyzing such vast amounts of data in a timely and accurate manner poses significant challenges. The paper presents a new satellite image processing architecture combining edge and cloud computing to better identify man-made structures against natural landscapes. By employing lightweight models at the edge, the system initially identifies potential man-made structures from satellite imagery. These identified images are then transmitted to the cloud, where a more complex model refines the classification, determining specific types of structures. The primary focus is on the trade-off between latency and accuracy, as efficient models often sacrifice accuracy. We compare this hybrid edge-cloud approach against traditional "bent-pipe" method in virtual environment experiments as well as introduce a practical model and compare its performance with existing lightweight models for edge deployment, focusing on accuracy and latency. The results demonstrate that the edge-cloud collaborative model not only reduces overall latency due to minimized data transmission but also maintains high accuracy, offering substantial improvements over traditional approaches under this scenario.
Diversity and Inclusion Index with Networks and Similarity: Analysis and its Application
Venue: arXiv cs.SI 2024
Year: 2024

In recent years, the concepts of ``diversity'' and ``inclusion'' have attracted considerable attention across a range of fields, encompassing both social and biological disciplines. To fully understand these concepts, it is critical to not only examine the number of categories but also the similarities and relationships among them. In this study, I introduce a novel index for diversity and inclusion that considers similarities and network connections. I analyzed the properties of these indices and investigated their mathematical relationships using established measures of diversity and networks. Moreover, I developed a methodology for estimating similarities based on the utility of diversity. I also created a method for visualizing proportions, similarities, and network connections. Finally, I evaluated the correlation with external metrics using real-world data, confirming that both the proposed indices and our index can be effectively utilized. This study contributes to a more nuanced understanding of diversity and inclusion analysis.
Guided Self-attention: Find the Generalized Necessarily Distinct Vectors for Grain Size Grading
Venue: arXiv cs.CV 2024
Year: 2024

With the development of steel materials, metallographic analysis has become increasingly important. Unfortunately, grain size analysis is a manual process that requires experts to evaluate metallographic photographs, which is unreliable and time-consuming. To resolve this problem, we propose a novel classifi-cation method based on deep learning, namely GSNets, a family of hybrid models which can effectively introduce guided self-attention for classifying grain size. Concretely, we build our models from three insights:(1) Introducing our novel guided self-attention module can assist the model in finding the generalized necessarily distinct vectors capable of retaining intricate rela-tional connections and rich local feature information; (2) By improving the pixel-wise linear independence of the feature map, the highly condensed semantic representation will be captured by the model; (3) Our novel triple-stream merging module can significantly improve the generalization capability and efficiency of the model. Experiments show that our GSNet yields a classifi-cation accuracy of 90.1%, surpassing the state-of-the-art Swin Transformer V2 by 1.9% on the steel grain size dataset, which comprises 3,599 images with 14 grain size levels. Furthermore, we intuitively believe our approach is applicable to broader ap-plications like object detection and semantic segmentation.
Grounding is All You Need? Dual Temporal Grounding for Video Dialog
Venue: arXiv cs.CV 2024
Year: 2024

In the realm of video dialog response generation, the understanding of video content and the temporal nuances of conversation history are paramount. While a segment of current research leans heavily on large-scale pretrained visual-language models and often overlooks temporal dynamics, another delves deep into spatial-temporal relationships within videos but demands intricate object trajectory pre-extractions and sidelines dialog temporal dynamics. This paper introduces the Dual Temporal Grounding-enhanced Video Dialog model (DTGVD), strategically designed to merge the strengths of both dominant approaches. It emphasizes dual temporal relationships by predicting dialog turn-specific temporal regions, filtering video content accordingly, and grounding responses in both video and dialog contexts. One standout feature of DTGVD is its heightened attention to chronological interplay. By recognizing and acting upon the dependencies between different dialog turns, it captures more nuanced conversational dynamics. To further bolster the alignment between video and dialog temporal dynamics, we've implemented a list-wise contrastive learning strategy. Within this framework, accurately grounded turn-clip pairings are designated as positive samples, while less precise pairings are categorized as negative. This refined classification is then funneled into our holistic end-to-end response generation mechanism. Evaluations using AVSD@DSTC-7 and AVSD@DSTC-8 datasets underscore the superiority of our methodology.
Comparative Analysis of Novel View Synthesis and Photogrammetry for 3D Forest Stand Reconstruction and extraction of individual tree parameters
Venue: arXiv cs.CV 2024
Year: 2024

Accurate and efficient 3D reconstruction of trees is crucial for forest resource assessments and management. Close-Range Photogrammetry (CRP) is commonly used for reconstructing forest scenes but faces challenges like low efficiency and poor quality. Recently, Novel View Synthesis (NVS) technologies, including Neural Radiance Fields (NeRF) and 3D Gaussian Splatting (3DGS), have shown promise for 3D plant reconstruction with limited images. However, existing research mainly focuses on small plants in orchards or individual trees, leaving uncertainty regarding their application in larger, complex forest stands. In this study, we collected sequential images of forest plots with varying complexity and performed dense reconstruction using NeRF and 3DGS. The resulting point clouds were compared with those from photogrammetry and laser scanning. Results indicate that NVS methods significantly enhance reconstruction efficiency. Photogrammetry struggles with complex stands, leading to point clouds with excessive canopy noise and incorrectly reconstructed trees, such as duplicated trunks. NeRF, while better for canopy regions, may produce errors in ground areas with limited views. The 3DGS method generates sparser point clouds, particularly in trunk areas, affecting diameter at breast height (DBH) accuracy. All three methods can extract tree height information, with NeRF yielding the highest accuracy; however, photogrammetry remains superior for DBH accuracy. These findings suggest that NVS methods have significant potential for 3D reconstruction of forest stands, offering valuable support for complex forest resource inventory and visualization tasks.
Core Tokensets for Data-efficient Sequential Training of Transformers
Venue: arXiv cs.CV 2024
Year: 2024

Deep networks are frequently tuned to novel tasks and continue learning from ongoing data streams. Such sequential training requires consolidation of new and past information, a challenge predominantly addressed by retaining the most important data points - formally known as coresets. Traditionally, these coresets consist of entire samples, such as images or sentences. However, recent transformer architectures operate on tokens, leading to the famous assertion that an image is worth 16x16 words. Intuitively, not all of these tokens are equally informative or memorable. Going beyond coresets, we thus propose to construct a deeper-level data summary on the level of tokens. Our respectively named core tokensets both select the most informative data points and leverage feature attribution to store only their most relevant features. We demonstrate that core tokensets yield significant performance retention in incremental image classification, open-ended visual question answering, and continual image captioning with significantly reduced memory. In fact, we empirically find that a core tokenset of 1\% of the data performs comparably to at least a twice as large and up to 10 times larger coreset.
A GPT-based Decision Transformer for Multi-Vehicle Coordination at Unsignalized Intersections
Venue: arXiv cs.RO 2024
Year: 2024

In this paper, we explore the application of the Decision Transformer, a decision-making algorithm based on the Generative Pre-trained Transformer (GPT) architecture, to multi-vehicle coordination at unsignalized intersections. We formulate the coordination problem so as to find the optimal trajectories for multiple vehicles at intersections, modeling it as a sequence prediction task to fully leverage the power of GPTs as a sequence model. Through extensive experiments, we compare our approach to a reservation-based intersection management system. Our results show that the Decision Transformer can outperform the training data in terms of total travel time and can be generalized effectively to various scenarios, including noise-induced velocity variations, continuous interaction environments, and different vehicle numbers and road configurations.
Brain-inspired continual pre-trained learner via silent synaptic consolidation
Venue: arXiv cs.LG 2024
Year: 2024

Pre-trained models have demonstrated impressive generalization capabilities, yet they remain vulnerable to catastrophic forgetting when incrementally trained on new tasks. Existing architecture-based strategies encounter two primary challenges: 1) Integrating a pre-trained network with a trainable sub-network complicates the delicate balance between learning plasticity and memory stability across evolving tasks during learning. 2) The absence of robust interconnections between pre-trained networks and various sub-networks limits the effective retrieval of pertinent information during inference. In this study, we introduce the Artsy, inspired by the activation mechanisms of silent synapses via spike-timing-dependent plasticity observed in mature brains, to enhance the continual learning capabilities of pre-trained models. The Artsy integrates two key components: During training, the Artsy mimics mature brain dynamics by maintaining memory stability for previously learned knowledge within the pre-trained network while simultaneously promoting learning plasticity in task-specific sub-networks. During inference, artificial silent and functional synapses are utilized to establish precise connections between the pre-synaptic neurons in the pre-trained network and the post-synaptic neurons in the sub-networks, facilitated through synaptic consolidation, thereby enabling effective extraction of relevant information from test samples. Comprehensive experimental evaluations reveal that our model significantly outperforms conventional methods on class-incremental learning tasks, while also providing enhanced biological interpretability for architecture-based approaches. Moreover, we propose that the Artsy offers a promising avenue for simulating biological synaptic mechanisms, potentially advancing our understanding of neural plasticity in both artificial and biological systems.
Mini-Batch Kernel $k$-means
Venue: arXiv cs.LG 2024
Year: 2024

We present the first mini-batch kernel $k$-means algorithm, offering an order of magnitude improvement in running time compared to the full batch algorithm. A single iteration of our algorithm takes $\widetilde{O}(kb^2)$ time, significantly faster than the $O(n^2)$ time required by the full batch kernel $k$-means, where $n$ is the dataset size and $b$ is the batch size. Extensive experiments demonstrate that our algorithm consistently achieves a 10-100x speedup with minimal loss in quality, addressing the slow runtime that has limited kernel $k$-means adoption in practice. We further complement these results with a theoretical analysis under an early stopping condition, proving that with a batch size of $\widetildeΩ(\max \{γ^{4}, γ^{2}\} \cdot ε^{-2})$, the algorithm terminates in $O(γ^2/ε)$ iterations with high probability, where $γ$ bounds the norm of points in feature space and $ε$ is a termination threshold. Our analysis holds for any reasonable center initialization, and when using $k$-means++ initialization, the algorithm achieves an approximation ratio of $O(\log k)$ in expectation. For normalized kernels, such as Gaussian or Laplacian it holds that $γ=1$. Taking $ε= O(1)$ and $b=Θ(\log n)$, the algorithm terminates in $O(1)$ iterations, with each iteration running in $\widetilde{O}(k)$ time.
MedUniSeg: 2D and 3D Medical Image Segmentation via a Prompt-driven Universal Model
Venue: arXiv cs.CV 2024
Year: 2024

Universal segmentation models offer significant potential in addressing a wide range of tasks by effectively leveraging discrete annotations. As the scope of tasks and modalities expands, it becomes increasingly important to generate and strategically position task- and modal-specific priors within the universal model. However, existing universal models often overlook the correlations between different priors, and the optimal placement and frequency of these priors remain underexplored. In this paper, we introduce MedUniSeg, a prompt-driven universal segmentation model designed for 2D and 3D multi-task segmentation across diverse modalities and domains. MedUniSeg employs multiple modal-specific prompts alongside a universal task prompt to accurately characterize the modalities and tasks. To generate the related priors, we propose the modal map (MMap) and the fusion and selection (FUSE) modules, which transform modal and task prompts into corresponding priors. These modal and task priors are systematically introduced at the start and end of the encoding process. We evaluate MedUniSeg on a comprehensive multi-modal upstream dataset consisting of 17 sub-datasets. The results demonstrate that MedUniSeg achieves superior multi-task segmentation performance, attaining a 1.2% improvement in the mean Dice score across the 17 upstream tasks compared to nnUNet baselines, while using less than 1/10 of the parameters. For tasks that underperform during the initial multi-task joint training, we freeze MedUniSeg and introduce new modules to re-learn these tasks. This approach yields an enhanced version, MedUniSeg*, which consistently outperforms MedUniSeg across all tasks. Moreover, MedUniSeg surpasses advanced self-supervised and supervised pre-trained models on six downstream tasks, establishing itself as a high-quality, highly generalizable pre-trained segmentation model.
Fortify Your Foundations: Practical Privacy and Security for Foundation Model Deployments In The Cloud
Venue: arXiv cs.CR 2024
Year: 2024

Foundation Models (FMs) display exceptional performance in tasks such as natural language processing and are being applied across a growing range of disciplines. Although typically trained on large public datasets, FMs are often fine-tuned or integrated into Retrieval-Augmented Generation (RAG) systems, which rely on private data. This access, along with their size and costly training, heightens the risk of intellectual property theft. Moreover, multimodal FMs may expose sensitive information. In this work, we examine the FM threat model and discuss the practicality and comprehensiveness of various approaches for securing against them, such as ML-based methods and trusted execution environments (TEEs). We demonstrate that TEEs offer an effective balance between strong security properties, usability, and performance. Specifically, we present a solution achieving less than 10\% overhead versus bare metal for the full Llama2 7B and 13B inference pipelines running inside \intel\ SGX and \intel\ TDX. We also share our configuration files and insights from our implementation. To our knowledge, our work is the first to show the practicality of TEEs for securing FMs.
Komet: A Serverless Platform for Low-Earth Orbit Edge Services
Venue: arXiv cs.DC 2024
Year: 2024

Low-Earth orbit satellite networks can provide global broadband Internet access using constellations of thousands of satellites. Integrating edge computing resources in such networks can enable global low-latency access to compute services, supporting end users in rural areas, remote industrial applications, or the IoT. To achieve this, resources must be carefully allocated to various services from multiple tenants. Moreover, applications must navigate the dynamic nature of satellite networks, where orbital mechanics necessitate frequent client hand-offs. Therefore, managing applications on the low-Earth orbit edge will require the right platform abstractions. We introduce Komet, a serverless platform for low-Earth orbit edge computing. Komet integrates Function-as-a-Service compute with data replication, enabling on-demand elastic edge resource allocation and frequent service migration against satellite orbital trajectories to keep services deployed in the same geographic region. We implement Komet as a proof-of-concept prototype and demonstrate how its abstractions can be used to build low-Earth orbit edge applications with high availability despite constant mobility. Further, we propose simple heuristics for service migration scheduling in different application scenarios and evaluate them in simulation based on our experiment traces, showing the trade-off between selecting an optimal satellite server at every instance and minimizing service migration frequency.
Jet Expansions of Residual Computation
Venue: arXiv cs.LG 2024
Year: 2024

We introduce a framework for expanding residual computational graphs using jets, operators that generalize truncated Taylor series. Our method provides a systematic approach to disentangle contributions of different computational paths to model predictions. In contrast to existing techniques such as distillation, probing, or early decoding, our expansions rely solely on the model itself and requires no data, training, or sampling from the model. We demonstrate how our framework grounds and subsumes logit lens, reveals a (super-)exponential path structure in the recursive residual depth and opens up several applications. These include sketching a transformer large language model with $n$-gram statistics extracted from its computations, and indexing the models' levels of toxicity knowledge. Our approach enables data-free analysis of residual computation for model interpretability, development, and evaluation.
Block Induced Signature Generative Adversarial Network (BISGAN): Signature Spoofing Using GANs and Their Evaluation
Venue: arXiv cs.CV 2024
Year: 2024

Deep learning is actively being used in biometrics to develop efficient identification and verification systems. Handwritten signatures are a common subset of biometric data for authentication purposes. Generative adversarial networks (GANs) learn from original and forged signatures to generate forged signatures. While most GAN techniques create a strong signature verifier, which is the discriminator, there is a need to focus more on the quality of forgeries generated by the generator model. This work focuses on creating a generator that produces forged samples that achieve a benchmark in spoofing signature verification systems. We use CycleGANs infused with Inception model-like blocks with attention heads as the generator and a variation of the SigCNN model as the base Discriminator. We train our model with a new technique that results in 80% to 100% success in signature spoofing. Additionally, we create a custom evaluation technique to act as a goodness measure of the generated forgeries. Our work advocates generator-focused GAN architectures for spoofing data quality that aid in a better understanding of biometric data generation and evaluation.