A two-stage algorithm for one-microphone reverberant speech enhancement
Under noise-free conditions, the quality of reverberant speech is dependent on two distinct perceptual components: coloration and long-term reverberation. They correspond to two physical variables: signal-to-reverberant energy ratio (SRR) and reverberation time, respectively. Inspired by this observation, we propose a two-stage reverberant speech enhancement algorithm using one microphone. In the first stage, an inverse filter is estimated to reduce coloration effects or increase SRR. The second stage employs spectral subtraction to minimize the influence of long-term reverberation. The proposed algorithm significantly improves the quality of reverberant speech. A comparison with a recent enhancement algorithm is made on a corpus of speech utterances in a number of reverberant conditions, and the results show that our algorithm performs substantially better.

title: On Connectedness: A Solution Based on Oscillatory Correlation
abstract: A long-standing problem in neural computation has been the problem of connectedness, first identified by Minsky and Papert (1969). This problem served as the cornerstone for them to establish analytically that perceptrons are fundamentally limited in computing geometrical (topological) properties. A solution to this problem is offered by a different class of neural networks: oscillator networks. To solve the problem, the representation of oscillatory correlation is employed, whereby one pattern is represented as a synchronized block of oscillators and different patterns are represented by distinct blocks that desynchronize from each other. Oscillatory correlation emerges from LEGION (locally excitatory globally inhibitory oscillator network), whose architecture consists of local excitation and global inhibition among neural oscillators. It is further shown that these oscillator networks exhibit sensitivity to topological structure, which may lay a neurocomputational foundation for explaining the psychophysical phenomenon of topological perception.

title: Intrinsic generalization analysis of low dimensional representations
abstract: Low dimensional representations of images impose equivalence relations in the image space; the induced equivalence class of an image is named as its intrinsic generalization. The intrinsic generalization of a representation provides a novel way to measure its generalization and leads to more fundamental insights than the commonly used recognition performance, which is heavily influenced by the choice of training and test data. We demonstrate the limitations of linear subspace representations by sampling their intrinsic generalization, and propose a nonlinear representation that overcomes these limitations. The proposed representation projects images nonlinearly into the marginal densities of their filter responses, followed by linear projections of the marginals. We use experiments on large datasets to show that the representations that have better intrinsic generalization also lead to better recognition performance.

title: Image Segmentation Based on Oscillatory Correlation
abstract: We study image segmentation on the basis of locally excitatory, globally inhibitory oscillator networks (LEGION), whereby the phases of oscillators encode the binding of pixels. We introduce a lateral potential for each oscillator so that only oscillators with strong connections from their neighborhood can develop high potentials. Based on the concept of the lateral potential, a solution to remove noisy regions in an image is proposed for LEGION, so that it suppresses the oscillators corresponding to noisy regions but without affecting those corresponding to major regions. We show that the resulting oscillator network separates an image into several major regions, plus a background consisting of all noisy regions, and we illustrate network properties by computer simulation. The network exhibits a natural capacity in segmenting images. The oscillatory dynamics leads to a computer algorithm, which is applied successfully to segmenting real gray-level images. A number of issues regarding biological plausibility and perceptual organization are discussed. We argue that LEGION provides a novel and effective framework for image segmentation and figure-ground segregation.

title: Texture classification using spectral histograms
abstract: Based on a local spatial/frequency representation,we employ a spectral histogram as a feature statistic for texture classification. The spectral histogram consists of marginal distributions of responses of a bank of filters and encodes implicitly the local structure of images through the filtering stage and the global appearance through the histogram stage. The distance between two spectral histograms is measured using chi(2)-statistic. The spectral histogram with the associated distance measure exhibits several properties that are necessary for texture classification. A filter selection algorithm is proposed to maximize classification performance of a given dataset. Our classification experiments using natural texture images reveal that the spectral histogram representation provides a robust feature statistic for textures and generalizes well. Comparisons show that our method produces a marked improvement in classification performance. Finally we point out the relationships between existing texture features and the spectral histogram, suggesting that the latter may provide a unified texture feature.

title: A schema-based model for phonemic restoration
abstract: Phonemic restoration is the perceptual synthesis of phonemes when masked by appropriate replacement sounds by utilizing linguistic context. Current models attempting to accomplish acoustic restoration of phonemes, however, use only temporal continuity and produce poor restoration of unvoiced phonemes, and are also limited in their ability to restore voiced phonemes. We present a schema-based model for phonemic restoration. The model employs a missing data speech recognition system to decode speech based on intact portions and activates word templates corresponding to the words containing the masked phonemes. An activated template is dynamically time warped to the noisy word and is then used to restore the speech frames corresponding to the masked phoneme, thereby synthesizing it. The model is able to restore both voiced and unvoiced phonemes with a high degree of naturalness. Systematic testing shows that this model outperforms a Kalman-filter based model.

title: On the bounded domination number of tournaments
abstract: In a simple digraph, a star of degree t is a union of t edges with a common tail. The k -domination number γ k (G) of digraph G is the minimum number of stars of degree at most k needed to cover the vertex set. We prove that γ k (T)=⌈n/(k+1)⌉ when T is a tournament with n⩾14k lg k vertices. This improves a result of Chen, Lu and West. We also give a short direct proof of the result of E. Szekeres and G. Szekeres that every n -vertex tournament is dominated by at most lg n− lg lg n+2 vertices.

title: Computing Triangular Systems and Regular Systems
abstract: A previous algorithm of computing simple systems is modified and extended to compute triangular systems and regular systems from any given polynomial system. The resulting algorithms, based on the computation of subresultant regular subchains, have a simple structure and are efficient in practice. Preliminary experiments indicate that they perform at least as well as some of the known algorithms. Several properties about regular systems are also proved.

title: An Edge-Preserving Image Reconstruction Using Neural Network
abstract: This paper presents an image restoration model based on the implicit function theorem and edge-preserving regularization. We then apply the model on the subband-coded images using the artificial neural network. The edge information is extracted from the source image as a priori nowledge to recover the details and reduce the ringing artifact of the subband-coded image. The multilayer perceptron model is employed to implement the restoration process. The main merit of the presented approach is that the neural network model is massively parallel with strong robustness for the transmission noise and parameter or structure perturbation, and it can be realized by VLSI technologies for real-time applications. To evaluate the performance of the proposed approach, a comparative study with the set partitioning in hierarchical tree (SPIHT) has been made by using a set of gray-scale digital images. The experimental results showed that the proposed approach could result in compatible performances compared with SPIHT on both objective and subjective quality for lower compression ratio subband coded image.

title: Semantics modeling based image retrieval system using neural networks
abstract: Semantics based image retrieval techniques show a promising direction to the development of CBIR systems. To design such systems, semantics modeling is one of the most difficult tasks. This paper aims to develop a semantics modeling approach using neural networks. In our work, a neural network is utilized to memorize the semantic patterns within the images. An intelligent image retrieval system is designed based on this model. User's relevance feedback is used for enhancing the retrieval performance. Experimental results from the prototype system demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed approach.

title: Wavelet transform-based frequency tuning ILC
abstract: A discrete wavelet transform-based cutoff frequency tuning method is proposed and experimental investigation is reported. In the method, discrete wavelet packet algorithm, as a time-frequency analysis tool, is employed to decompose the tracking error into different frequency regions so that the maximal error component can be identified at any time step. At each time step, the passband of the filter is from zero to the upper limit of frequency region where the maximal error component resides. Hence, the filter is a function of time as well as index of cycle. The experimental results show that this method can suppress higher frequency error components at proper time steps. While at the time steps where the major tracking error falls into lower frequency range, the cutoff frequency of the filter is set lower to reduce the influence of noises and uncertainties. This way, learning transient and long-term stability can be improved.