Visual complexity modelling based on image features fusion of multiple kernels

[Abstract] Humans’ perception of visual complexity is often regarded as one of the key principles of aesthetic order, and is intimately related to the physiological, neurological and, possibly, psychological characteristics of the human mind. For these reasons, creating accurate computational models of visual complexity is a demanding task. Building upon on previous work in the field (Forsythe et al., 2011; Machado et al., 2015) we explore the use of Machine Learning techniques to create computational models of visual complexity. For that purpose, we use a dataset composed of 800 visual stimuli divided into five categories, describing each stimulus by 329 features based on edge detection, compression error and Zipf’s law. In an initial stage, a comparative analysis of representative state-of-the-art Machine Learning approaches is performed. Subsequently, we conduct an exhaustive outlier analysis. We analyze the impact of removing the extreme outliers, concluding that Feature Selection Multiple Kernel Learning obtains the best results, yielding an average correlation to humans’ perception of complexity of 0.71 with only twenty-two features. These results outperform the current state-of-the-art, showing the potential of this technique for regression.Xunta de Galicia; GRC2014/049Portuguese Foundation for Science and Technology; SBIRC; PTDC/EIA EIA/115667/2009Xunta de Galicia; Ref. XUGA-PGIDIT-10TIC105008-PRMinisterio de Ciencia y Tecnología; TIN2008-06562/TINMinisterio de Ecnomía y Competitividad; FJCI-2015-2607

Artificial Immune Systems - Models, algorithms and applications

Copyright © 2010 Academic Research Publishing Agency.This article has been made available through the Brunel Open Access Publishing Fund.Artificial Immune Systems (AIS) are computational paradigms that belong to the computational intelligence family and are inspired by the biological immune system. During the past decade, they have attracted a lot of interest from researchers aiming to develop immune-based models and techniques to solve complex computational or engineering problems. This work presents a survey of existing AIS models and algorithms with a focus on the last five years.This article is available through the Brunel Open Access Publishing Fun

The Data Big Bang and the Expanding Digital Universe: High-Dimensional, Complex and Massive Data Sets in an Inflationary Epoch

Recent and forthcoming advances in instrumentation, and giant new surveys, are creating astronomical data sets that are not amenable to the methods of analysis familiar to astronomers. Traditional methods are often inadequate not merely because of the size in bytes of the data sets, but also because of the complexity of modern data sets. Mathematical limitations of familiar algorithms and techniques in dealing with such data sets create a critical need for new paradigms for the representation, analysis and scientific visualization (as opposed to illustrative visualization) of heterogeneous, multiresolution data across application domains. Some of the problems presented by the new data sets have been addressed by other disciplines such as applied mathematics, statistics and machine learning and have been utilized by other sciences such as space-based geosciences. Unfortunately, valuable results pertaining to these problems are mostly to be found only in publications outside of astronomy. Here we offer brief overviews of a number of concepts, techniques and developments, some "old" and some new. These are generally unknown to most of the astronomical community, but are vital to the analysis and visualization of complex datasets and images. In order for astronomers to take advantage of the richness and complexity of the new era of data, and to be able to identify, adopt, and apply new solutions, the astronomical community needs a certain degree of awareness and understanding of the new concepts. One of the goals of this paper is to help bridge the gap between applied mathematics, artificial intelligence and computer science on the one side and astronomy on the other.Comment: 24 pages, 8 Figures, 1 Table. Accepted for publication: "Advances in Astronomy, special issue "Robotic Astronomy

Data comparison schemes for Pattern Recognition in Digital Images using Fractals

Pattern recognition in digital images is a common problem with application in remote sensing, electron microscopy, medical imaging, seismic imaging and astrophysics for example. Although this subject has been researched for over twenty years there is still no general solution which can be compared with the human cognitive system in which a pattern can be recognised subject to arbitrary orientation and scale. The application of Artificial Neural Networks can in principle provide a very general solution providing suitable training schemes are implemented. However, this approach raises some major issues in practice. First, the CPU time required to train an ANN for a grey level or colour image can be very large especially if the object has a complex structure with no clear geometrical features such as those that arise in remote sensing applications. Secondly, both the core and file space memory required to represent large images and their associated data tasks leads to a number of problems in which the use of virtual memory is paramount. The primary goal of this research has been to assess methods of image data compression for pattern recognition using a range of different compression methods. In particular, this research has resulted in the design and implementation of a new algorithm for general pattern recognition based on the use of fractal image compression. This approach has for the first time allowed the pattern recognition problem to be solved in a way that is invariant of rotation and scale. It allows both ANNs and correlation to be used subject to appropriate pre-and post-processing techniques for digital image processing on aspect for which a dedicated programmer's work bench has been developed using X-Designer

An efficient color image compression technique

We present a new image compression method to improve visual perception of the decompressed images and achieve higher image compression ratio. This method balances between the compression rate and image quality by compressing the essential parts of the image-edges. The key subject/edge is of more significance than background/non-edge image. Taking into consideration the value of image components and the effect of smoothness in image compression, this method classifies the image components as edge or non-edge. Low-quality lossy compression is applied to non-edge components whereas high-quality lossy compression is applied to edge components. Outcomes show that our suggested method is efficient in terms of compression ratio, bits per-pixel and peak signal to noise ratio