Clifford Algebraic Calculus for Geometric Reasoning with Application to Computer Vision
In this paper we report on our recent study of Clifford algebra for geometric reasoning and its application to problems in computer vision. A general framework is presented for construction and representation of geometric objects with selected rewrite rules for simplification. It provides a mechanism suitable for devising methods and software tools for geometric reasoning and computation. The feasibility and efficiency of the approach are demonstrated by our preliminary experiments on automated theorem proving in plane Euclidean geometry. We also explain how non-commutative Grobner bases can be applied to geometric theorem proving. In addition to several well-known geometric theorems, two application examples from computer vision are given to illustrate the practical value of our approach.

title: Reasoning about Surfaces Using Differential Zero and Ideal Decomposition
abstract: This paper presents methods for zero and ideal decomposition of partial differential polynomial systems and the application of these methods and their implementations to deal with problems from the local theory of surfaces. We show how to prove known geometric theorems and to derive unknown relations automatically. In particular, an algebraic relation between the first and the second fundamental coefficients in a very compact form has been derived, which is more general and has smaller degree than a relation discovered previously by Z. Li. Moreover, we provide symmetric expressions for Li's relation and clarify his statement. Some examples of theorem proving and computational difficulties encountered in our experiments are also discussed.

title: A Strategy for Speeding-up the Computation of Characteristic Sets
abstract: In this note a strategy is presented that speeds up the computation of characteristic sets several times in many cases. We test the possibility of success for this strategy in the quasi-sense by 50 examples, where the strategy succeeds in 58 and fails in 23 of the 81 completed cases. The speed-up of the strategy, while successful, ranges from a few to hundred times, whereas in the failure case the computation may be slightly slowed down (not less than 0.6 times).

title: GEOTHER: A Geometry Theorem Prover

title: On Wu's Method for Proving Constructive Geometric Theorems
abstract: In 1977 Wu Wen-tsiin discovered an efficient method for mechanical theorem proving. This method has been applied to prove and discover theorems in various kinds of geometries. Based on an extension of one of Wu's algorithmic procedures, the author implemented a prover CPS for proving so-called constructive geometric theorems, as well as a general theorem prover PS. Using this prover we proved more than one hundred non-trivial theorems and discovered also a number of interesting ones. This paper is a summarization of our early work, as a abbreviation of the chapter 2 from my Chinese doctoral dissertation.

title: A simple method for implicitizing rational curves and surfaces
abstract: This paper presents a simple method for converting rational parametric equations of curves and surfaces into implicit equations. The method proceeds via writing out the implicit polynomial F of estimated degree with indeterminate coefficients u i , substituting the rational expressions for the given parametric curve or surface into F to yield a rational expression g / h in the parameter s (or s and t ), equating the coefficients of g in terms of s (and t ) to 0 to generate a sparse, partially triangular system of linear equations in u i with constant coefficients, and finally solving the linear system for u i . If a nontrivial solution is found, then an implicit polynomial is obtained; otherwise, one repeats the same process, increasing the degree of F . Our experiments show that this simple method is efficient. It performs particularly well in the presence of base points and may detect the dependency of parameters incidentally.

title: On avoidable and unavoidable claws
abstract: A claw of degree k is a directed tree consisting of k paths emerging from a common root. We prove that every claw of order n with degree less than 19 50 n appears in every n -vertex tournament. We also construct avoidable claws with degree approaching 11 23 n . Thus for large n , the maximum λ such that every claw with degree λn appears in every n -vertex tournament satisfies λ ⩽ 11 23 . This improves earlier bounds.

title: Automated Abstraction Refinement for Model Checking Large State Spaces Using SAT Based Conflict Analysis
abstract: We introduce a SAT based automatic abstraction refinement framework for model checking systems with several thousand state variables in the cone of influence of the specification. The abstract model is constructed by designating a large number of state variables as invisible. In contrast to previous work where invisible variables were treated as free inputs we describe a computationally more advantageous approach in which the abstract transition relation is approximated by pre-quantifying invisible variables during image computation. The abstract counterexamples obtained from model-checking the abstract model are symbolically simulated on the concrete system using a state-of-the-art SAT checker. If no concrete counterexample is found, a subset of the invisible variables is reintroduced into the system and the process is repeated. The main contribution of this paper are two new algorithms for identifying the relevant variables to be reintroduced. These algorithms monitor the SAT checking phase in order to analyze the impact of individual variables. Our method is complete for safety properties (AGp) in the sense that - performance permitting - a property is either verified or disproved by a concrete counterexample. Experimental results are given to demonstrate the power of our method on real-world designs.

title: Support Vector Clustering for Brain Activation Detection
abstract: In this paper, we propose a new approach to detect activated time series in functional MRI using support vector clustering (SVC). We extract Fourier coefficients as the features of fMRI time series and cluster these features by SVC. In SVC, these features are mapped from their original feature space to a very high dimensional kernel space. By finding a compact sphere that encloses the mapped features in the kernel space, one achieves a set of cluster boundaries in the feature space. The SVC is an effective and robust fMRI activation detection method because of its advantages in (1) better discovery of real data structure since there is no cluster shape restriction, (2) high quality detection results without explicitly specifying the number of clusters, (3) the stronger robustness due to the mechanism in outlier elimination. Experimental results on simulated and real fMRI data demonstrate the effectiveness of SVC.

title: Synchrony and Desynchrony in Neural Oscillator Networks
abstract: An novel class of locally excitatory, globally inhibitory oscillator networks is proposed. The model of each oscillator corresponds to a standard relaxation oscillator with two time scales. The network exhibits a mechanism of selective gating, whereby an oscillator jumping up to its active phase rapidly recruits the oscillators stimulated by the same pattern, while preventing others from jumping up. We show analytically that with the selective gating mechanism the network rapidly achieves both synchronization within blocks of oscillators that are stimulated by connected regions and desynchronization between different blocks. Computer simulations demonstrate the network's promising ability for segmenting multiple input patterns in real time. This model lays a physical foundation for the oscillatory correlation theory of feature binding, and may provide an effective computational framework for scene segmentation and figure/ground segregation.

title: Trading off between Misclassification, Recognition and Generalization in Data Mining with Continuous Features
abstract: This paper aims at developing a data mining approach for classification rule representation and automated acquisition from numerical data with continuous attributes. The classification rules are crisp and described by ellipsoidal regions with different attributes for each individual rule. A regularization model trading off misclassification rate, recognition rate and generalization ability is presented and applied to rule refinement. A regularizing data mining algorithm is given, which includes self-organizing map network based clustering techniques, feature selection using breakpoint technique, rule initialization and optimization, classifier structure and usage. An Illustrative example demonstrates the applicability and potential of the proposed techniques for domains with continuous attributes.