141,230 research outputs found
Robust Minutiae Extractor: Integrating Deep Networks and Fingerprint Domain Knowledge
We propose a fully automatic minutiae extractor, called MinutiaeNet, based on
deep neural networks with compact feature representation for fast comparison of
minutiae sets. Specifically, first a network, called CoarseNet, estimates the
minutiae score map and minutiae orientation based on convolutional neural
network and fingerprint domain knowledge (enhanced image, orientation field,
and segmentation map). Subsequently, another network, called FineNet, refines
the candidate minutiae locations based on score map. We demonstrate the
effectiveness of using the fingerprint domain knowledge together with the deep
networks. Experimental results on both latent (NIST SD27) and plain (FVC 2004)
public domain fingerprint datasets provide comprehensive empirical support for
the merits of our method. Further, our method finds minutiae sets that are
better in terms of precision and recall in comparison with state-of-the-art on
these two datasets. Given the lack of annotated fingerprint datasets with
minutiae ground truth, the proposed approach to robust minutiae detection will
be useful to train network-based fingerprint matching algorithms as well as for
evaluating fingerprint individuality at scale. MinutiaeNet is implemented in
Tensorflow: https://github.com/luannd/MinutiaeNetComment: Accepted to International Conference on Biometrics (ICB 2018
Recurrent Pixel Embedding for Instance Grouping
We introduce a differentiable, end-to-end trainable framework for solving
pixel-level grouping problems such as instance segmentation consisting of two
novel components. First, we regress pixels into a hyper-spherical embedding
space so that pixels from the same group have high cosine similarity while
those from different groups have similarity below a specified margin. We
analyze the choice of embedding dimension and margin, relating them to
theoretical results on the problem of distributing points uniformly on the
sphere. Second, to group instances, we utilize a variant of mean-shift
clustering, implemented as a recurrent neural network parameterized by kernel
bandwidth. This recurrent grouping module is differentiable, enjoys convergent
dynamics and probabilistic interpretability. Backpropagating the group-weighted
loss through this module allows learning to focus on only correcting embedding
errors that won't be resolved during subsequent clustering. Our framework,
while conceptually simple and theoretically abundant, is also practically
effective and computationally efficient. We demonstrate substantial
improvements over state-of-the-art instance segmentation for object proposal
generation, as well as demonstrating the benefits of grouping loss for
classification tasks such as boundary detection and semantic segmentation
Synchronisation effects on the behavioural performance and information dynamics of a simulated minimally cognitive robotic agent
Oscillatory activity is ubiquitous in nervous systems, with solid evidence that synchronisation mechanisms underpin cognitive processes. Nevertheless, its informational content and relationship with behaviour are still to be fully understood. In addition, cognitive systems cannot be properly appreciated without taking into account brainābodyā environment interactions. In this paper, we developed a model based on the Kuramoto Model of coupled phase oscillators to explore the role of neural synchronisation in the performance of a simulated robotic agent in two different minimally cognitive tasks. We show that there is a statistically significant difference in performance and evolvability depending on the synchronisation regime of the network. In both tasks, a combination of information flow and dynamical analyses show that networks with a definite, but not too strong, propensity for synchronisation are more able to reconfigure, to organise themselves functionally and to adapt to different behavioural conditions. The results highlight the asymmetry of information flow and its behavioural correspondence. Importantly, it also shows that neural synchronisation dynamics, when suitably flexible and reconfigurable, can generate minimally cognitive embodied behaviour
DeLight-Net: Decomposing Reflectance Maps into Specular Materials and Natural Illumination
In this paper we are extracting surface reflectance and natural environmental
illumination from a reflectance map, i.e. from a single 2D image of a sphere of
one material under one illumination. This is a notoriously difficult problem,
yet key to various re-rendering applications. With the recent advances in
estimating reflectance maps from 2D images their further decomposition has
become increasingly relevant.
To this end, we propose a Convolutional Neural Network (CNN) architecture to
reconstruct both material parameters (i.e. Phong) as well as illumination (i.e.
high-resolution spherical illumination maps), that is solely trained on
synthetic data. We demonstrate that decomposition of synthetic as well as real
photographs of reflectance maps, both in High Dynamic Range (HDR), and, for the
first time, on Low Dynamic Range (LDR) as well. Results are compared to
previous approaches quantitatively as well as qualitatively in terms of
re-renderings where illumination, material, view or shape are changed.Comment: Stamatios Georgoulis and Konstantinos Rematas contributed equally to
this wor
A model of assessment of collateral damage on power grids based on complex network theory
As power grids are gradually adjusted to fit into a smart grid paradigm, a common problem is to identify locations where it is most beneficial to introduce distributed generation. In order to assist in such a decision, we work on a graph model of a regional power grid, and propose a method to assess collateral damage to the network resulting from a localized failure. We perform complex network analysis on multiple instances of the network, looking for correlations between estimated damages and betweenness centrality indices, attempting to determine which model is best suited to predict features of our network
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