Estimating Depth from RGB and Sparse Sensing

We present a deep model that can accurately produce dense depth maps given an RGB image with known depth at a very sparse set of pixels. The model works simultaneously for both indoor/outdoor scenes and produces state-of-the-art dense depth maps at nearly real-time speeds on both the NYUv2 and KITTI datasets. We surpass the state-of-the-art for monocular depth estimation even with depth values for only 1 out of every ~10000 image pixels, and we outperform other sparse-to-dense depth methods at all sparsity levels. With depth values for 1/256 of the image pixels, we achieve a mean absolute error of less than 1% of actual depth on indoor scenes, comparable to the performance of consumer-grade depth sensor hardware. Our experiments demonstrate that it would indeed be possible to efficiently transform sparse depth measurements obtained using e.g. lower-power depth sensors or SLAM systems into high-quality dense depth maps.Comment: European Conference on Computer Vision (ECCV) 2018. Updated to camera-ready version with additional experiment

Collaborative Spectrum Sensing from Sparse Observations in Cognitive Radio Networks

Spectrum sensing, which aims at detecting spectrum holes, is the precondition for the implementation of cognitive radio (CR). Collaborative spectrum sensing among the cognitive radio nodes is expected to improve the ability of checking complete spectrum usage. Due to hardware limitations, each cognitive radio node can only sense a relatively narrow band of radio spectrum. Consequently, the available channel sensing information is far from being sufficient for precisely recognizing the wide range of unoccupied channels. Aiming at breaking this bottleneck, we propose to apply matrix completion and joint sparsity recovery to reduce sensing and transmitting requirements and improve sensing results. Specifically, equipped with a frequency selective filter, each cognitive radio node senses linear combinations of multiple channel information and reports them to the fusion center, where occupied channels are then decoded from the reports by using novel matrix completion and joint sparsity recovery algorithms. As a result, the number of reports sent from the CRs to the fusion center is significantly reduced. We propose two decoding approaches, one based on matrix completion and the other based on joint sparsity recovery, both of which allow exact recovery from incomplete reports. The numerical results validate the effectiveness and robustness of our approaches. In particular, in small-scale networks, the matrix completion approach achieves exact channel detection with a number of samples no more than 50% of the number of channels in the network, while joint sparsity recovery achieves similar performance in large-scale networks.Comment: 12 pages, 11 figure

Consistent Sensor, Relay, and Link Selection in Wireless Sensor Networks

In wireless sensor networks, where energy is scarce, it is inefficient to have all nodes active because they consume a non-negligible amount of battery. In this paper we consider the problem of jointly selecting sensors, relays and links in a wireless sensor network where the active sensors need to communicate their measurements to one or multiple access points. Information messages are routed stochastically in order to capture the inherent reliability of the broadcast links via multiple hops, where the nodes may be acting as sensors or as relays. We aim at finding optimal sparse solutions where both, the consistency between the selected subset of sensors, relays and links, and the graph connectivity in the selected subnetwork are guaranteed. Furthermore, active nodes should ensure a network performance in a parameter estimation scenario. Two problems are studied: sensor and link selection; and sensor, relay and link selection. To solve such problems, we present tractable optimization formulations and propose two algorithms that satisfy the previous network requirements. We also explore an extension scenario: only link selection. Simulation results show the performance of the algorithms and illustrate how they provide a sparse solution, which not only saves energy but also guarantees the network requirements.Comment: 27 pages, 17 figure

Towards Energy Neutrality in Energy Harvesting Wireless Sensor Networks: A Case for Distributed Compressive Sensing?

This paper advocates the use of the emerging distributed compressive sensing (DCS) paradigm in order to deploy energy harvesting (EH) wireless sensor networks (WSN) with practical network lifetime and data gathering rates that are substantially higher than the state-of-the-art. In particular, we argue that there are two fundamental mechanisms in an EH WSN: i) the energy diversity associated with the EH process that entails that the harvested energy can vary from sensor node to sensor node, and ii) the sensing diversity associated with the DCS process that entails that the energy consumption can also vary across the sensor nodes without compromising data recovery. We also argue that such mechanisms offer the means to match closely the energy demand to the energy supply in order to unlock the possibility for energy-neutral WSNs that leverage EH capability. A number of analytic and simulation results are presented in order to illustrate the potential of the approach.Comment: 6 pages. This work will be presented at the 2013 IEEE Global Communications Conference (GLOBECOM), Atlanta, US, December 201

A Comprehensive Survey of Deep Learning in Remote Sensing: Theories, Tools and Challenges for the Community

In recent years, deep learning (DL), a re-branding of neural networks (NNs), has risen to the top in numerous areas, namely computer vision (CV), speech recognition, natural language processing, etc. Whereas remote sensing (RS) possesses a number of unique challenges, primarily related to sensors and applications, inevitably RS draws from many of the same theories as CV; e.g., statistics, fusion, and machine learning, to name a few. This means that the RS community should be aware of, if not at the leading edge of, of advancements like DL. Herein, we provide the most comprehensive survey of state-of-the-art RS DL research. We also review recent new developments in the DL field that can be used in DL for RS. Namely, we focus on theories, tools and challenges for the RS community. Specifically, we focus on unsolved challenges and opportunities as it relates to (i) inadequate data sets, (ii) human-understandable solutions for modelling physical phenomena, (iii) Big Data, (iv) non-traditional heterogeneous data sources, (v) DL architectures and learning algorithms for spectral, spatial and temporal data, (vi) transfer learning, (vii) an improved theoretical understanding of DL systems, (viii) high barriers to entry, and (ix) training and optimizing the DL.Comment: 64 pages, 411 references. To appear in Journal of Applied Remote Sensin