11,853 research outputs found
Vector Quantization Video Encoder Using Hierarchical Cache Memory Scheme
A system compresses image blocks via successive hierarchical stages and motion encoders which employ caches updated by stack replacement algorithms. Initially, a background detector compares the present image block with a corresponding previously encoded image block and if similar, the background detector terminates the encoding procedure by setting a flag bit. Otherwise, the image block is decomposed into smaller present image subblocks. The smaller present image subblocks are each compared with a corresponding previously encoded image subblock of comparable size within the present image block. When a present image subblock is similar to a corresponding previously encoded image subblock, then the procedure is terminated by setting a flag bit. Alternatively, the present image subblock is forwarded to a motion encoder where it is compared with displaced image subblocks, which are formed by displacing previously encoded image subblocks by motion vectors that are stored in a cache, to derive a first distortion vector. When the first distortion vector is below a first threshold TM, the procedure is terminated and the present image subblock is encoded by setting flag bit and a cache index corresponding to the first distortion vector. Alternatively, the present image subblock is passed to a block matching encoder where it is compared with other previously encoded image subblocks to derive a second distortion vector. When the second distortion vector is below a second threshold Tm, the procedure is terminated by setting a flag bit, by generating the second distortion vector, and by updating the cache.Georgia Tech Research Corporatio
Low Power Depth Estimation of Rigid Objects for Time-of-Flight Imaging
Depth sensing is useful in a variety of applications that range from
augmented reality to robotics. Time-of-flight (TOF) cameras are appealing
because they obtain dense depth measurements with minimal latency. However, for
many battery-powered devices, the illumination source of a TOF camera is power
hungry and can limit the battery life of the device. To address this issue, we
present an algorithm that lowers the power for depth sensing by reducing the
usage of the TOF camera and estimating depth maps using concurrently collected
images. Our technique also adaptively controls the TOF camera and enables it
when an accurate depth map cannot be estimated. To ensure that the overall
system power for depth sensing is reduced, we design our algorithm to run on a
low power embedded platform, where it outputs 640x480 depth maps at 30 frames
per second. We evaluate our approach on several RGB-D datasets, where it
produces depth maps with an overall mean relative error of 0.96% and reduces
the usage of the TOF camera by 85%. When used with commercial TOF cameras, we
estimate that our algorithm can lower the total power for depth sensing by up
to 73%
Live Prefetching for Mobile Computation Offloading
The conventional designs of mobile computation offloading fetch user-specific
data to the cloud prior to computing, called offline prefetching. However, this
approach can potentially result in excessive fetching of large volumes of data
and cause heavy loads on radio-access networks. To solve this problem, the
novel technique of live prefetching is proposed in this paper that seamlessly
integrates the task-level computation prediction and prefetching within the
cloud-computing process of a large program with numerous tasks. The technique
avoids excessive fetching but retains the feature of leveraging prediction to
reduce the program runtime and mobile transmission energy. By modeling the
tasks in an offloaded program as a stochastic sequence, stochastic optimization
is applied to design fetching policies to minimize mobile energy consumption
under a deadline constraint. The policies enable real-time control of the
prefetched-data sizes of candidates for future tasks. For slow fading, the
optimal policy is derived and shown to have a threshold-based structure,
selecting candidate tasks for prefetching and controlling their prefetched data
based on their likelihoods. The result is extended to design close-to-optimal
prefetching policies to fast fading channels. Compared with fetching without
prediction, live prefetching is shown theoretically to always achieve reduction
on mobile energy consumption.Comment: To appear in IEEE Trans. on Wireless Communicatio
An MDL framework for sparse coding and dictionary learning
The power of sparse signal modeling with learned over-complete dictionaries
has been demonstrated in a variety of applications and fields, from signal
processing to statistical inference and machine learning. However, the
statistical properties of these models, such as under-fitting or over-fitting
given sets of data, are still not well characterized in the literature. As a
result, the success of sparse modeling depends on hand-tuning critical
parameters for each data and application. This work aims at addressing this by
providing a practical and objective characterization of sparse models by means
of the Minimum Description Length (MDL) principle -- a well established
information-theoretic approach to model selection in statistical inference. The
resulting framework derives a family of efficient sparse coding and dictionary
learning algorithms which, by virtue of the MDL principle, are completely
parameter free. Furthermore, such framework allows to incorporate additional
prior information to existing models, such as Markovian dependencies, or to
define completely new problem formulations, including in the matrix analysis
area, in a natural way. These virtues will be demonstrated with parameter-free
algorithms for the classic image denoising and classification problems, and for
low-rank matrix recovery in video applications
SuperSpike: Supervised learning in multi-layer spiking neural networks
A vast majority of computation in the brain is performed by spiking neural
networks. Despite the ubiquity of such spiking, we currently lack an
understanding of how biological spiking neural circuits learn and compute
in-vivo, as well as how we can instantiate such capabilities in artificial
spiking circuits in-silico. Here we revisit the problem of supervised learning
in temporally coding multi-layer spiking neural networks. First, by using a
surrogate gradient approach, we derive SuperSpike, a nonlinear voltage-based
three factor learning rule capable of training multi-layer networks of
deterministic integrate-and-fire neurons to perform nonlinear computations on
spatiotemporal spike patterns. Second, inspired by recent results on feedback
alignment, we compare the performance of our learning rule under different
credit assignment strategies for propagating output errors to hidden units.
Specifically, we test uniform, symmetric and random feedback, finding that
simpler tasks can be solved with any type of feedback, while more complex tasks
require symmetric feedback. In summary, our results open the door to obtaining
a better scientific understanding of learning and computation in spiking neural
networks by advancing our ability to train them to solve nonlinear problems
involving transformations between different spatiotemporal spike-time patterns
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