Strategies for Searching Video Content with Text Queries or Video Examples

The large number of user-generated videos uploaded on to the Internet everyday has led to many commercial video search engines, which mainly rely on text metadata for search. However, metadata is often lacking for user-generated videos, thus these videos are unsearchable by current search engines. Therefore, content-based video retrieval (CBVR) tackles this metadata-scarcity problem by directly analyzing the visual and audio streams of each video. CBVR encompasses multiple research topics, including low-level feature design, feature fusion, semantic detector training and video search/reranking. We present novel strategies in these topics to enhance CBVR in both accuracy and speed under different query inputs, including pure textual queries and query by video examples. Our proposed strategies have been incorporated into our submission for the TRECVID 2014 Multimedia Event Detection evaluation, where our system outperformed other submissions in both text queries and video example queries, thus demonstrating the effectiveness of our proposed approaches

Large-scale Data Analysis and Deep Learning Using Distributed Cyberinfrastructures and High Performance Computing

Data in many research fields continues to grow in both size and complexity. For instance, recent technological advances have caused an increased throughput in data in various biological-related endeavors, such as DNA sequencing, molecular simulations, and medical imaging. In addition, the variance in the types of data (textual, signal, image, etc.) adds an additional complexity in analyzing the data. As such, there is a need for uniquely developed applications that cater towards the type of data. Several considerations must be made when attempting to create a tool for a particular dataset. First, we must consider the type of algorithm required for analyzing the data. Next, since the size and complexity of the data imposes high computation and memory requirements, it is important to select a proper hardware environment on which to build the application. By carefully both developing the algorithm and selecting the hardware, we can provide an effective environment in which to analyze huge amounts of highly complex data in a large-scale manner. In this dissertation, I go into detail regarding my applications using big data and deep learning techniques to analyze complex and large data. I investigate how big data frameworks, such as Hadoop, can be applied to problems such as large-scale molecular dynamics simulations. Following this, many popular deep learning frameworks are evaluated and compared to find those that suit certain hardware setups and deep learning models. Then, we explore an application of deep learning to a biomedical problem, namely ADHD diagnosis from fMRI data. Lastly, I demonstrate a framework for real-time and fine-grained vehicle detection and classification. With each of these works in this dissertation, a unique large-scale analysis algorithm or deep learning model is implemented that caters towards the problem and leverages specialized computing resources

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