42,372 research outputs found
Platonic model of mind as an approximation to neurodynamics
Hierarchy of approximations involved in simplification of microscopic theories, from sub-cellural to the whole brain level, is presented. A new approximation to neural dynamics is described, leading to a Platonic-like model of mind based on psychological spaces. Objects and events in these spaces correspond to quasi-stable states of brain dynamics and may be interpreted from psychological point of view. Platonic model bridges the gap between neurosciences and psychological sciences. Static and dynamic versions of this model are outlined and Feature Space Mapping, a neurofuzzy realization of the static version of Platonic model, described. Categorization experiments with human subjects are analyzed from the neurodynamical and Platonic model points of view
A Model of the Ventral Visual System Based on Temporal Stability and Local Memory
The cerebral cortex is a remarkably homogeneous structure suggesting a rather generic computational machinery. Indeed, under a variety of conditions, functions attributed to specialized areas can be supported by other regions. However, a host of studies have laid out an ever more detailed map of functional cortical areas. This leaves us with the puzzle of whether different cortical areas are intrinsically specialized, or whether they differ mostly by their position in the processing hierarchy and their inputs but apply the same computational principles. Here we show that the computational principle of optimal stability of sensory representations combined with local memory gives rise to a hierarchy of processing stages resembling the ventral visual pathway when it is exposed to continuous natural stimuli. Early processing stages show receptive fields similar to those observed in the primary visual cortex. Subsequent stages are selective for increasingly complex configurations of local features, as observed in higher visual areas. The last stage of the model displays place fields as observed in entorhinal cortex and hippocampus. The results suggest that functionally heterogeneous cortical areas can be generated by only a few computational principles and highlight the importance of the variability of the input signals in forming functional specialization
A semantic and language-based representation of an environmental scene
The modeling of a landscape environment is a cognitive activity that requires appropriate spatial representations. The research presented in this paper introduces a structural and semantic categorization of a landscape view based on panoramic photographs that act as a substitute of a given natural environment. Verbal descriptions of a landscape scene provide themodeling input of our approach. This structure-based model identifies the spatial, relational, and semantic constructs that emerge from these descriptions. Concepts in the environment are qualified according to a semantic classification, their proximity and direction to the observer, and the spatial relations that qualify them. The resulting model is represented in a way that constitutes a modeling support for the study of environmental scenes, and a contribution for further research oriented to the mapping of a verbal description onto a geographical information system-based representation
ImageSpirit: Verbal Guided Image Parsing
Humans describe images in terms of nouns and adjectives while algorithms
operate on images represented as sets of pixels. Bridging this gap between how
humans would like to access images versus their typical representation is the
goal of image parsing, which involves assigning object and attribute labels to
pixel. In this paper we propose treating nouns as object labels and adjectives
as visual attribute labels. This allows us to formulate the image parsing
problem as one of jointly estimating per-pixel object and attribute labels from
a set of training images. We propose an efficient (interactive time) solution.
Using the extracted labels as handles, our system empowers a user to verbally
refine the results. This enables hands-free parsing of an image into pixel-wise
object/attribute labels that correspond to human semantics. Verbally selecting
objects of interests enables a novel and natural interaction modality that can
possibly be used to interact with new generation devices (e.g. smart phones,
Google Glass, living room devices). We demonstrate our system on a large number
of real-world images with varying complexity. To help understand the tradeoffs
compared to traditional mouse based interactions, results are reported for both
a large scale quantitative evaluation and a user study.Comment: http://mmcheng.net/imagespirit
A mathematical theory of semantic development in deep neural networks
An extensive body of empirical research has revealed remarkable regularities
in the acquisition, organization, deployment, and neural representation of
human semantic knowledge, thereby raising a fundamental conceptual question:
what are the theoretical principles governing the ability of neural networks to
acquire, organize, and deploy abstract knowledge by integrating across many
individual experiences? We address this question by mathematically analyzing
the nonlinear dynamics of learning in deep linear networks. We find exact
solutions to this learning dynamics that yield a conceptual explanation for the
prevalence of many disparate phenomena in semantic cognition, including the
hierarchical differentiation of concepts through rapid developmental
transitions, the ubiquity of semantic illusions between such transitions, the
emergence of item typicality and category coherence as factors controlling the
speed of semantic processing, changing patterns of inductive projection over
development, and the conservation of semantic similarity in neural
representations across species. Thus, surprisingly, our simple neural model
qualitatively recapitulates many diverse regularities underlying semantic
development, while providing analytic insight into how the statistical
structure of an environment can interact with nonlinear deep learning dynamics
to give rise to these regularities
Visual Concepts and Compositional Voting
It is very attractive to formulate vision in terms of pattern theory
\cite{Mumford2010pattern}, where patterns are defined hierarchically by
compositions of elementary building blocks. But applying pattern theory to real
world images is currently less successful than discriminative methods such as
deep networks. Deep networks, however, are black-boxes which are hard to
interpret and can easily be fooled by adding occluding objects. It is natural
to wonder whether by better understanding deep networks we can extract building
blocks which can be used to develop pattern theoretic models. This motivates us
to study the internal representations of a deep network using vehicle images
from the PASCAL3D+ dataset. We use clustering algorithms to study the
population activities of the features and extract a set of visual concepts
which we show are visually tight and correspond to semantic parts of vehicles.
To analyze this we annotate these vehicles by their semantic parts to create a
new dataset, VehicleSemanticParts, and evaluate visual concepts as unsupervised
part detectors. We show that visual concepts perform fairly well but are
outperformed by supervised discriminative methods such as Support Vector
Machines (SVM). We next give a more detailed analysis of visual concepts and
how they relate to semantic parts. Following this, we use the visual concepts
as building blocks for a simple pattern theoretical model, which we call
compositional voting. In this model several visual concepts combine to detect
semantic parts. We show that this approach is significantly better than
discriminative methods like SVM and deep networks trained specifically for
semantic part detection. Finally, we return to studying occlusion by creating
an annotated dataset with occlusion, called VehicleOcclusion, and show that
compositional voting outperforms even deep networks when the amount of
occlusion becomes large.Comment: It is accepted by Annals of Mathematical Sciences and Application
Techniques and potential capabilities of multi-resolutional information (knowledge) processing
A concept of nested hierarchical (multi-resolutional, pyramidal) information (knowledge) processing is introduced for a variety of systems including data and/or knowledge bases, vision, control, and manufacturing systems, industrial automated robots, and (self-programmed) autonomous intelligent machines. A set of practical recommendations is presented using a case study of a multiresolutional object representation. It is demonstrated here that any intelligent module transforms (sometimes, irreversibly) the knowledge it deals with, and this tranformation affects the subsequent computation processes, e.g., those of decision and control. Several types of knowledge transformation are reviewed. Definite conditions are analyzed, satisfaction of which is required for organization and processing of redundant information (knowledge) in the multi-resolutional systems. Providing a definite degree of redundancy is one of these conditions
- …