ppxscal/embedding_network huggingface dataset:
State-of-the-art of 3D facial reconstruction methods for face recognition based on a single 2D training image per person
Authors: Martin D. Levine, Yingfeng (Chris) Yu
Venue: Pattern Recognition Letters (2009)

3D facial reconstruction systems attempt to reconstruct 3D facial models of individuals from their 2D photographic images or video sequences. Currently published face recognition systems, which exhibit well-known deficiencies, are largely based on 2D facial images, although 3D image capture systems can better encapsulate the 3D geometry of the human face. Accordingly, face recognition research is gradually shifting from the legacy 2D domain to the more sophisticated 2D to 3D or 2D/3D hybrid domain. Currently there exist four methods for 3D facial reconstruction. These are: Stochastic Newton Optimization method (SNO) [Blanz, V., Vetter, T., 1999. A morphable model for the synthesis of 3D faces. In: Proc. 26th Annu. Conf. on Computer Graphics and Interactive Techniques, SIGGRAPH. pp. 187-194; Blanz, V., Vetter, T., 2003. Face recognition based on fitting a 3D morphable model. IEEE Trans. Pattern Anal. Machine Intell. 25(9), 1063-1074; Blanz, V., 2001. Automatische Rekonstruction der Dreidimensionalen Form von Gesichtern aus einem Einzelbild. Ph.D. Thesis, Universitat Tubingen, Germany] inverse compositional image alignment algorithm (ICIA) [Romdhani, S., Vetter, T., 2003. Efficient, robust and accurate fitting of a 3D morphable model. In: IEEE Int. Conf. on Computer Vision, vol. 2, no. 1. pp. 59-66], linear shape and texture fitting algorithm (LiST) [Romdhani, S., Blanz, V., Vetter, T., 2002. Face identification by fitting a 3D morphable model using linear shape and texture error functions. In: Proc. ECCV, vol. 4. pp. 3-19], and shape alignment and interpolation method correction (SAIMC) [Jiang, D., Hu, Y., Yan, S., Zhang, L., Zhang, H., Gao, W., 2005. Efficient 3D reconstruction for face recognition. Pattern Recogn. 38(6), 787-798]. The first three, SNO, ICIA+3DMM, and LiST can be classified as ''analysis-by-synthesis'' techniques and SAIMC can be separately classified as a ''3D supported 2D model''. In this paper, we introduce, discuss and analyze the difference between these two frameworks. We begin by presenting the 3D morphable model (3DMM; Blanz and Vetter, 1999), which forms the foundation of all four of the reconstruction techniques described here. This is followed by a review of the basic ''analysis-by-synthesis'' framework and a comparison of the three methods that employ this approach. We next review the ''3D supported 2D model'' framework and introduce the SAIMC method, comparing it to the other three. The characteristics of all four methods are summarized in a table that should facilitate further research on this topic.
Vendors Draw up a New Graphics-Hardware Approach
Authors: Steven J. Vaughn-Nichols
Venue: Computer (2009)

Vendors are now working on a new approach to graphics hardware that could radically change the marketplace: placing graphics circuitry on the CPU itself.
A graph based cache system for efficient querying in distributed triplestores
Authors: Randall Bramley
Venue:  (2008)

Predefining structures for data preclude the ability to describe certain details effectively, as data is dynamically structured by nature and can be highly diverse and multifaceted. Conventional datastores, such as relational databases, do not conveniently accommodate dynamically varying structures, as frequently modifying database schemas is not feasible. Although, XML databases have been proposed as suitable for such dynamic structured data, these databases suffer from update anomalies. RDF triplestores offer a flexible solution for handling such data, where any property about an entity can be described by a triple consisting of a subject, a predicate, and an object. Data is inherently distributed due to origination points, ownership, and many other reasons. In this dissertation, we develop a distributed triplestore while investigating different approaches for improving the efficiency of query processing. We implement several index structures at a Mediator where each index structure helps to minimize unproductive communications. We show how the addition of each index structure reduces the query response time. We make use of graph-based caches at the Mediator and at individual triplestores to store triples that correspond to the most frequent set of queries. The Mediator cache enables the Mediator to respond to certain queries, while the triplestore caches avoid the need to perform joins between partial results from different triplestores. Sub-graph isomorphism is used to determine whether a cache has sufficient triples to answer a given query. We show how these caches significantly improve querying efficiency.
Virtual Easter Egg Hunting: A Thought-Experiment in Embodied Social Learning, Cognitive Process Integration, and the Dynamic Emergence of the Self
Authors: Ben Goertzel
Venue: Proceeding of the 2007 conference on Advances in Artificial General Intelligence: Concepts, Architectures and Algorithms: Proceedings of the AGI Workshop 2006 (2007)

The Novamente Cognition Engine (NCE) architecture for Artificial General Intelligence is briefly reviewed, with a focus on exploring how the various cognitive processes involved in the architecture are intended to cooperate in carrying out moderately complex tasks involving controlling an agent embodied in the AGI-Sim 3D simulation world. A handful of previous conference papers have reviewed the overall architecture of the NCE, and discussed some accomplishments of the current, as yet incomplete version of the system; this paper is more speculative and focuses on the intended behaviors of the NCE once the implementation of all its major cognitive processes is complete. The “iterated Easter Egg Hunt” scenario is introduced and used as a running example throughout, due to its combination of perceptual, physical-action, social and self-modeling aspects. To aid in explaining the intended behavior of the NCE, a systematic typology of NCE cognitive processes is introduced. Cognitive processes are typologized as global, operational or focused; and, the focused processes are more specifically categorized as either forward-synthesis or backward-synthesis processes. The typical dynamics of focused cognition is then modeled as an ongoing oscillation between forward and backward synthesis processes, with critical emergent structures such as self and consciousness arising as attractors of this oscillatory dynamic. The emergence of models of self and others from this oscillatory dynamic is reviewed, along with other aspects of cognitive-process integration in the NCE, in the context of the iterated Easter Egg Hunt scenario.
Bit error probability approximation for short-time Fourier transform based nonstationary interference excision in DS-SS systems
Authors: Slobodan Djukanović, Miloš Daković, Ljubiša Stanković
Venue: Signal Processing (2009)

The problem addressed in this paper is bit error probability (BEP) approximation in direct sequence spread-spectrum (DS-SS) systems that implement the short-time Fourier transform (STFT) as a means of nonstationary jammer excision. The jammer, previously concentrated in the time-frequency (t-f) plane, it is suppressed by removing its t-f signature via a binary mask. The applied binary mask gives rise to odd higher-order central moments of the decision variable d, i.e., introduces a deviation in the probability density function of d, f"d(x), from a Gaussian law. Two analytical approximations to f"d(x) are proposed, Gaussian approximation (GA) and Hermite-Gaussian approximation (HGA). The HGA takes advantage of the Hermite polynomials and central moments of d thus reducing the approximation error introduced by the GA. Analytical expressions for the mean, variance and third central moment of d, when the STFT of the received signal is modified by an arbitrary two-dimensional function, are derived and numerically confirmed. The HGA outperforms the GA for various types of monocomponent and multicomponent jammers, which was verified by simulations.
An approach for stream ciphers design based on joint computing over random and secret data
Authors: Miodrag J. Mihaljevi&#x0107;, Hideki Imai
Venue: Computing (2009)

This paper proposes and analyzes an approach for design of stream ciphers based on joint computing over random and secret data. Feasibility of encryption/ decryption computation when the ciphertext involve pure random data is shown. The core element of the proposed approach for stream ciphering is a pseudo-random embedding of the random bits into the ciphertext and this embedding plays role of a homophonic encoding. The initial ciphertext with the embedded random bits is further on intentionally degraded by its exposure to a moderate noise which can be modelled as the binary symmetric channel effect. A security evaluation of the proposed approach implies that its security appears as a consequence of hardness of the LPN problem, as well. The developed design has potential of providing that complexity of recovering the secret key in the known plaintext attack scenario is close to the complexity of recovering the secret key via the exhaustive search, i.e. close to the maximal possible one for the given size of the secret key. The proposed approach can be considered as a trade-off between the increased security and decreased communications efficiency which in a number of scenarios appears as a suitable one.
A click-search interface for web browsing using cellular phones
Authors: Daijiro Komaki, Kenji Ohnishi, Yuki Arase, Takahiro Hara, Gen Hattori, Shojiro Nishio
Venue: Proceedings of the 4th Annual International Conference on Wireless Internet (2008)

Cellular phones are widely used to access the Web, and it has become common to search for information on the Web using cellular phones. However, since cellular phones only have numerical keys for inputting characters, users have to conduct laborious operations to input a keyword for Web search. In our previous work, we assumed information appliances equipped with pointing devices and proposed a Click-Search method that enables users to perform a keyword search simply by pointing and clicking the target word on a Web page. This approach might be effective for Web searches using cellular phones. However, since many cellular phones only have a, direction pad as a pointing device, users still have to conduct laborious operations using the pad to move a pointer and point to a word. To solve this problem, we propose a Click-Search interface for cellular phone users that uses an expanding circle to select a word for search. Using this interface, users can specify a keyword simply by pushing a few button.
Formalizing interoperability for test case generation purpose
Authors: Alexandra Desmoulin, C&#x00e9;sar Viho
Venue: International Journal on Software Tools for Technology Transfer (STTT) (2009)

This study deals with interoperability testing of protocol implementations. The objective is to define a method for automatic test derivation based on formal definitions. First, the notion of interoperability criteria is introduced. They formally describes the conditions that two implementations must verify in order to be considered interoperable. Then, based on the equivalence of two of the defined interoperability criteria, we propose a method to derive automatically interoperability test cases that avoids the state-space explosion problem.
Approximation Schemes for Node-Weighted Geometric Steiner Tree Problems
Authors: Jan Remy, Angelika Steger
Venue: Algorithmica (2009)

In this paper we introduce a new technique for approximation schemes for geometrical optimization problems. As an example problem, we consider the following variant of the geometric Steiner tree problem. Every point u which is not included in the tree costs a penalty of &#x03c0;(u) units. Furthermore, every Steiner point that we use costs c S units. The goal is to minimize the total length of the tree plus the penalties. Our technique yields a polynomial time approximation scheme for the problem, if the points lie in the plane.
A Polytomous Computerized-Adaptive Testing that Rewards Partial Knowledge
Authors: Yung-Chin Yen, Rong-Guey Ho, Li-Ju Chen
Venue: Proceeding of the 2006 conference on Learning by Effective Utilization of Technologies: Facilitating Intercultural Understanding (2006)

Partial knowledge is one of the main factors to take into account when dealing with the improvement of administration of Multiple Choice Questions. Various strategies have been proposed for this factor in traditional testing environment. However, few researches were designed to investigate the impact of partial knowledge on computerized-adaptive testing (CAT). This study proposed a CAT which fits confidence-weighting scheme into graded response model (GRM). The results show the polytomous method is able to assess partial knowledge of examinees with fewer items and higher predictive validity. Besides, the estimated ability is not as likely to be affected by guessing and therefore more consisted with examinee's true ability.
Towards unified design guidelines for new interfaces for musical expression
Authors: Garth Paine
Venue: Organised Sound (2009)

The use of a laptop computer for musical performance has become widespread in the electronic music community. It brings with it many issues pertaining to the communication of musical intent. Critics argue that performances of this nature fail to engage audiences because many performers use the mouse and/or computer keyboard to control their musical works, leaving no visual cues to guide the audience as to the correlation between performance gestures and musical outcomes. The author will argue that interfaces need to communicate something of their task and that cognitive affordances (Gibson 1979) associated with the performance interface become paramount if the musical outcomes are to be perceived as clearly tied to real-time performance gestures – in other words, that the audience are witnessing the creation of the music in that moment as distinct to the manipulation of pre-recorded or pre-sequenced events. Interfaces of his kind lend themselves particularly to electroacoustic and computer music performance where timbre, texture and morphology may be paramount.
Plenary lecture 4: introduction of an Hamiltonian function and a canonical representation aimed at a possible driving of the evolution of a cells colony
Authors: Joseph Quartieri
Venue: Proceedings of the 10th WSEAS international conference on Mathematics and computers in biology and chemistry (2009)

A new method to approach the problem of solving PDEs by means of Lie series expansion has been deeply investigated by the author (in cooperation with Professor S. Steri) in several papers and the application to biomathematical topics has been performed. The treatment of a cells colony and its evolution has been modelled with a non linear Cauchy problem (evolutionary PDE) and solved by Lie series. The conditions that ensure the existence and the uniqueness of the solution have been presented. Then the control of a drug has been introduced and described by a time dependent parameter. In our recent studies we are dealing with the following problem: how to introduce the Hamiltonian function in an analytic nonlinear evolutionary process and how to gain a canonical representation of the process by a double series of equations, similarly to what is done in Physics and in finite optimal processes theory. By this way, we are conducted to introduce adjoint variables, namely generalized momenta, to be considered together with the positional variables. In this work we present a remarkable illustration of the procedure to be followed, developing in details the task for the biological problem above described, the study of a controlled birth and death stochastic process, in which generalized momenta have a clear interpretation. In fact the meaning and the role of new adjoint functions is here suitably discussed. In the end, the possibility to perform an optimum control on the drug action is mentioned, with a particular interest to the application of a minimum principle a la Pontryagin.
Scaling content-based services using p2p technology
Authors: Purvi Shah
Venue:  (2008)

Peer-to-Peer (P2P) technology overcomes many limitations of traditional client-server architectures by letting clients serve each other. As a result, it has been widely used to build inexpensive self-scalable distributed systems that can serve very large populations of end-users. In our research we address the challenges in P2P systems to implement services difficult to deploy at the network (IP) level. We first analyzed P2P systems for the distribution of large videos. We observed that P2P systems scale much better than standard client-server architectures, and can potentially significantly decrease the cost of distributing videos to many peers simultaneously. We observed the behavior of the BitTorrent (BT) system, and showed that the downloading time scales logarithmically in the number of peers. We proposed a modified solution to BT based distribution mechanism that focuses on locality awareness and includes the ability to manage the bandwidth usage over expensive or constrained links. Next, we focus on the two main limitations of existing BT system, namely, their vulnerability to malicious and selfish attacks, and their very poor performance in streaming applications. The proposed solutions include a new data chunk selection and distribution policy, a new neighbor selection policy and a partially decentralized trust management policy. We also examined the performance of other P2P streaming systems namely, a directed mesh letting peers dynamically replace poorly performing parents. Finally, we present a content delivery infrastructure for distributing and maintaining software packages in a large organization. Our work is based on a trace-based analysis of an existing software delivery system that we conducted to find general principles and properties that could be used to devise a better solution. Our proposal consists of supplementing a conventional server with volunteer nodes that expand its scalability. Our design is unique in that it combines the concept of volunteering with the P2P technology. We rely on P2P technology to speed up content synchronization among the volunteer nodes while maintaining a conventional client/server interface for the service customers. Our system includes a novel load balancing mechanism that considers both the synchronization workload and the customer-generated workload of the volunteer nodes.
A simple, non-generational genetic algorithm based on moving averages for multiobjective optimization
Authors: Josí A. Ramírez-Ruíz, Luis M. Fernéndez-Carrasco, Manuel Valenzuela-Rendón, Eduardo Uresti-Charre
Venue: Proceedings of the 10th WSEAS international conference on evolutionary computing (2009)

This paper proposes a new non-generational genetic algorithm for multiobjective optimization. The novelty in this approach is the use of a moving average to evaluate two things: the number of dominated individuals and the sharing function. Moreover, the proposed solution does less number of comparisons when compared with similar techniques and approaches. This solution has been evaluated on three different problems that are found in the literature and compared to other approaches to tackle them. The results that one sees point to the idea that the proposed algorithm is a feasible and simpler way to deal with multiobjective problems.
A Study of Implementing Web-Based Learning Systems to Enhance Learning for the Supply Chain Management (SCM) Course in Higher Education
Authors: I-Fan Liu, Shelley S. -C. Young
Venue: Proceeding of the 2006 conference on Learning by Effective Utilization of Technologies: Facilitating Intercultural Understanding (2006)

This study explores how to adequately utilize the Information technology to enhance learning for a course entitled “Supply Chain Management” in a higher education setting in Taiwan. The preliminary data indicate that most of the students who have taken the design and utility of this web-base learning system were positive to the SCM. Finally, this paper discusses the related issues and also makes suggestions for future study.
The two-stage recombination operator and its application to the multiobjective 0/1 knapsack problem: A comparative study
Authors: Brahim Aghezzaf, Mohamed Naimi
Venue: Computers and Operations Research (2009)

In this paper, we first propose a new recombination operator called the two-stage recombination and then we test its performance in the context of the multiobjective 0/1 knapsack problem (MOKP). The proposed recombination operator generates only one offspring solution from a selected pair of parents according to the following two stages. In the first stage, called genetic shared-information stage or similarity-preserving stage, the generated offspring inherits all parent similar genes (i.e., genes or decision variables having the same positions and the same values in both parents). In the second stage, called problem fitness-information stage, the parent non-similar genes (i.e., genes or decision variables having the same positions but different values regarding the two parents) are selected from one of the two parents using some fitness information. Initially, we propose two different approaches for the second stage: the general version and the restricted version. However, the application of the restricted version to the MOKP leads to an improved version which is more specific to this problem. The general and the MOKP-specific versions of the two-stage recombination are compared against three traditional crossovers using two well-known multiobjective evolutionary algorithms. Promising results are obtained. We also provide a comparison between the general version and the MOKP-specific version.
Silicon Heterostructure Devices, 1st edition
Authors: John D. Cressler
Venue:  (2007)

SiGe HBTs are the most mature of the Si heterostructure devices and not surprisingly the most completely researched and discussed in the technical literature. However, new effects and nuances of device operation are uncovered year-after-year as transistor scaling advances and application targets march steadily upward in frequency and sophistication. Providing a comprehensive treatment of SiGe HBTs, Silicon Heterostructure Devices covers an amazingly diverse set of topics, ranging from basic transistor physics to noise, radiation effects, reliability, and TCAD simulation. Drawn from the comprehensive and well-reviewed Silicon Heterostructure Handbook, this text explores SiGe heterojunction bipolar transistors (HBTs), heterostructure FETs, various other heterostructure devices, as well as optoelectronic components. The book provides an overview, characteristics, and derivative applications for each device covered. It discusses device physics, broadband noise, performance limits, reliability, engineered substrates, and self-assembling nanostructures. Coverage of optoelectronic devices includes Si/SiGe LEDs, near-infrared detectors, photonic transistors for integrated optoelectronics, and quantum cascade emitters. In addition to this substantial collection of material, the book concludes with a look at the ultimate limits of SiGe HBTs scaling. It contains easy-to-reference appendices on topics including the properties of silicon and germanium, the generalized Moll-Ross relations, and the integral charge-control model, and sample SiGe HBT compact model parameters. The ACM Portal is published by the Association for Computing Machinery. Copyright © 2010 ACM, Inc. Terms of Usage Privacy Policy Code of Ethics Contact Us Useful downloads: Adobe Acrobat QuickTime Windows Media Player Real Player