62,927 research outputs found
Complexity of Discrete Energy Minimization Problems
Discrete energy minimization is widely-used in computer vision and machine
learning for problems such as MAP inference in graphical models. The problem,
in general, is notoriously intractable, and finding the global optimal solution
is known to be NP-hard. However, is it possible to approximate this problem
with a reasonable ratio bound on the solution quality in polynomial time? We
show in this paper that the answer is no. Specifically, we show that general
energy minimization, even in the 2-label pairwise case, and planar energy
minimization with three or more labels are exp-APX-complete. This finding rules
out the existence of any approximation algorithm with a sub-exponential
approximation ratio in the input size for these two problems, including
constant factor approximations. Moreover, we collect and review the
computational complexity of several subclass problems and arrange them on a
complexity scale consisting of three major complexity classes -- PO, APX, and
exp-APX, corresponding to problems that are solvable, approximable, and
inapproximable in polynomial time. Problems in the first two complexity classes
can serve as alternative tractable formulations to the inapproximable ones.
This paper can help vision researchers to select an appropriate model for an
application or guide them in designing new algorithms.Comment: ECCV'16 accepte
NP-hardness of the cluster minimization problem revisited
The computational complexity of the "cluster minimization problem" is
revisited [L. T. Wille and J. Vennik, J. Phys. A 18, L419 (1985)]. It is argued
that the original NP-hardness proof does not apply to pairwise potentials of
physical interest, such as those that depend on the geometric distance between
the particles. A geometric analog of the original problem is formulated, and a
new proof for such potentials is provided by polynomial time transformation
from the independent set problem for unit disk graphs. Limitations of this
formulation are pointed out, and new subproblems that bear more direct
consequences to the numerical study of clusters are suggested.Comment: 8 pages, 2 figures, accepted to J. Phys. A: Math. and Ge
Jump-sparse and sparse recovery using Potts functionals
We recover jump-sparse and sparse signals from blurred incomplete data
corrupted by (possibly non-Gaussian) noise using inverse Potts energy
functionals. We obtain analytical results (existence of minimizers, complexity)
on inverse Potts functionals and provide relations to sparsity problems. We
then propose a new optimization method for these functionals which is based on
dynamic programming and the alternating direction method of multipliers (ADMM).
A series of experiments shows that the proposed method yields very satisfactory
jump-sparse and sparse reconstructions, respectively. We highlight the
capability of the method by comparing it with classical and recent approaches
such as TV minimization (jump-sparse signals), orthogonal matching pursuit,
iterative hard thresholding, and iteratively reweighted minimization
(sparse signals)
Reflection methods for user-friendly submodular optimization
Recently, it has become evident that submodularity naturally captures widely
occurring concepts in machine learning, signal processing and computer vision.
Consequently, there is need for efficient optimization procedures for
submodular functions, especially for minimization problems. While general
submodular minimization is challenging, we propose a new method that exploits
existing decomposability of submodular functions. In contrast to previous
approaches, our method is neither approximate, nor impractical, nor does it
need any cumbersome parameter tuning. Moreover, it is easy to implement and
parallelize. A key component of our method is a formulation of the discrete
submodular minimization problem as a continuous best approximation problem that
is solved through a sequence of reflections, and its solution can be easily
thresholded to obtain an optimal discrete solution. This method solves both the
continuous and discrete formulations of the problem, and therefore has
applications in learning, inference, and reconstruction. In our experiments, we
illustrate the benefits of our method on two image segmentation tasks.Comment: Neural Information Processing Systems (NIPS), \'Etats-Unis (2013
An Energy-Minimization Finite-Element Approach for the Frank-Oseen Model of Nematic Liquid Crystals: Continuum and Discrete Analysis
This paper outlines an energy-minimization finite-element approach to the
computational modeling of equilibrium configurations for nematic liquid
crystals under free elastic effects. The method targets minimization of the
system free energy based on the Frank-Oseen free-energy model. Solutions to the
intermediate discretized free elastic linearizations are shown to exist
generally and are unique under certain assumptions. This requires proving
continuity, coercivity, and weak coercivity for the accompanying appropriate
bilinear forms within a mixed finite-element framework. Error analysis
demonstrates that the method constitutes a convergent scheme. Numerical
experiments are performed for problems with a range of physical parameters as
well as simple and patterned boundary conditions. The resulting algorithm
accurately handles heterogeneous constant coefficients and effectively resolves
configurations resulting from complicated boundary conditions relevant in
ongoing research.Comment: 31 pages, 3 figures, 3 table
Multiclass Data Segmentation using Diffuse Interface Methods on Graphs
We present two graph-based algorithms for multiclass segmentation of
high-dimensional data. The algorithms use a diffuse interface model based on
the Ginzburg-Landau functional, related to total variation compressed sensing
and image processing. A multiclass extension is introduced using the Gibbs
simplex, with the functional's double-well potential modified to handle the
multiclass case. The first algorithm minimizes the functional using a convex
splitting numerical scheme. The second algorithm is a uses a graph adaptation
of the classical numerical Merriman-Bence-Osher (MBO) scheme, which alternates
between diffusion and thresholding. We demonstrate the performance of both
algorithms experimentally on synthetic data, grayscale and color images, and
several benchmark data sets such as MNIST, COIL and WebKB. We also make use of
fast numerical solvers for finding the eigenvectors and eigenvalues of the
graph Laplacian, and take advantage of the sparsity of the matrix. Experiments
indicate that the results are competitive with or better than the current
state-of-the-art multiclass segmentation algorithms.Comment: 14 page
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