A globally convergent matricial algorithm for multivariate spectral estimation

In this paper, we first describe a matricial Newton-type algorithm designed to solve the multivariable spectrum approximation problem. We then prove its global convergence. Finally, we apply this approximation procedure to multivariate spectral estimation, and test its effectiveness through simulation. Simulation shows that, in the case of short observation records, this method may provide a valid alternative to standard multivariable identification techniques such as MATLAB's PEM and MATLAB's N4SID

Online Learning for Time Series Prediction

In this paper we address the problem of predicting a time series using the ARMA (autoregressive moving average) model, under minimal assumptions on the noise terms. Using regret minimization techniques, we develop effective online learning algorithms for the prediction problem, without assuming that the noise terms are Gaussian, identically distributed or even independent. Furthermore, we show that our algorithm's performances asymptotically approaches the performance of the best ARMA model in hindsight.Comment: 17 pages, 6 figure

Extrinsic Methods for Coding and Dictionary Learning on Grassmann Manifolds

Sparsity-based representations have recently led to notable results in various visual recognition tasks. In a separate line of research, Riemannian manifolds have been shown useful for dealing with features and models that do not lie in Euclidean spaces. With the aim of building a bridge between the two realms, we address the problem of sparse coding and dictionary learning over the space of linear subspaces, which form Riemannian structures known as Grassmann manifolds. To this end, we propose to embed Grassmann manifolds into the space of symmetric matrices by an isometric mapping. This in turn enables us to extend two sparse coding schemes to Grassmann manifolds. Furthermore, we propose closed-form solutions for learning a Grassmann dictionary, atom by atom. Lastly, to handle non-linearity in data, we extend the proposed Grassmann sparse coding and dictionary learning algorithms through embedding into Hilbert spaces. Experiments on several classification tasks (gender recognition, gesture classification, scene analysis, face recognition, action recognition and dynamic texture classification) show that the proposed approaches achieve considerable improvements in discrimination accuracy, in comparison to state-of-the-art methods such as kernelized Affine Hull Method and graph-embedding Grassmann discriminant analysis.Comment: Appearing in International Journal of Computer Visio

A new family of high-resolution multivariate spectral estimators

In this paper, we extend the Beta divergence family to multivariate power spectral densities. Similarly to the scalar case, we show that it smoothly connects the multivariate Kullback-Leibler divergence with the multivariate Itakura-Saito distance. We successively study a spectrum approximation problem, based on the Beta divergence family, which is related to a multivariate extension of the THREE spectral estimation technique. It is then possible to characterize a family of solutions to the problem. An upper bound on the complexity of these solutions will also be provided. Simulations suggest that the most suitable solution of this family depends on the specific features required from the estimation problem

Statistical and Computational Tradeoff in Genetic Algorithm-Based Estimation

When a Genetic Algorithm (GA), or a stochastic algorithm in general, is employed in a statistical problem, the obtained result is affected by both variability due to sampling, that refers to the fact that only a sample is observed, and variability due to the stochastic elements of the algorithm. This topic can be easily set in a framework of statistical and computational tradeoff question, crucial in recent problems, for which statisticians must carefully set statistical and computational part of the analysis, taking account of some resource or time constraints. In the present work we analyze estimation problems tackled by GAs, for which variability of estimates can be decomposed in the two sources of variability, considering some constraints in the form of cost functions, related to both data acquisition and runtime of the algorithm. Simulation studies will be presented to discuss the statistical and computational tradeoff question.Comment: 17 pages, 5 figure