Biologically Inspired Approaches to Automated Feature Extraction and Target Recognition

Ongoing research at Boston University has produced computational models of biological vision and learning that embody a growing corpus of scientific data and predictions. Vision models perform long-range grouping and figure/ground segmentation, and memory models create attentionally controlled recognition codes that intrinsically cornbine botton-up activation and top-down learned expectations. These two streams of research form the foundation of novel dynamically integrated systems for image understanding. Simulations using multispectral images illustrate road completion across occlusions in a cluttered scene and information fusion from incorrect labels that are simultaneously inconsistent and correct. The CNS Vision and Technology Labs (cns.bu.edulvisionlab and cns.bu.edu/techlab) are further integrating science and technology through analysis, testing, and development of cognitive and neural models for large-scale applications, complemented by software specification and code distribution.Air Force Office of Scientific Research (F40620-01-1-0423); National Geographic-Intelligence Agency (NMA 201-001-1-2016); National Science Foundation (SBE-0354378; BCS-0235298); Office of Naval Research (N00014-01-1-0624); National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency and the National Society of Siegfried Martens (NMA 501-03-1-2030, DGE-0221680); Department of Homeland Security graduate fellowshi

Information Fusion and Hierarchical Knowledge Discovery by ARTMAP Neural Networks

Mapping novel terrain from sparse, complex data often requires the resolution of conflicting information from sensors working at different times, locations, and scales, and from experts with different goals and situations. Information fusion methods help resolve inconsistencies in order to distinguish correct from incorrect answers, as when evidence variously suggests that an object's class is car, truck, or airplane. The methods developed here consider a complementary problem, supposing that information from sensors and experts is reliable though inconsistent, as when evidence suggests that an objects class is car, vehicle, or man-made. Underlying relationships among objects are assumed to be unknown to the automated system of the human user. The ARTMAP information fusion system uses distributed code representations that exploit the neural network's capacity for one-to-many learning in order to produce self-organizing expert systems that discover hierarchial knowledge structures. The system infers multi-level relationships among groups of output classes, without any supervised labeling of these relationships. The procedure is illustrated with two image examples.Air Force Office of Scientific Research (F49620-01-1-0397, F49620-01-1-0423); Office of Naval Research (N00014-01-1-0624

ARTMAP Neural Networks for Information Fusion and Data Mining: Map Production and Target Recognition Methodologies

The Sensor Exploitation Group of MIT Lincoln Laboratory incorporated an early version of the ARTMAP neural network as the recognition engine of a hierarchical system for fusion and data mining of registered geospatial images. The Lincoln Lab system has been successfully fielded, but is limited to target I non-target identifications and does not produce whole maps. Procedures defined here extend these capabilities by means of a mapping method that learns to identify and distribute arbitrarily many target classes. This new spatial data mining system is designed particularly to cope with the highly skewed class distributions of typical mapping problems. Specification of canonical algorithms and a benchmark testbed has enabled the evaluation of candidate recognition networks as well as pre- and post-processing and feature selection options. The resulting mapping methodology sets a standard for a variety of spatial data mining tasks. In particular, training pixels are drawn from a region that is spatially distinct from the mapped region, which could feature an output class mix that is substantially different from that of the training set. The system recognition component, default ARTMAP, with its fully specified set of canonical parameter values, has become the a priori system of choice among this family of neural networks for a wide variety of applications.Air Force Office of Scientific Research (F49620-01-1-0397, F49620-01-1-0423); Office of Naval Research (N00014-01-1-0624

Landsat Satellite Image Segmentation Using the Fuzzy ARTMAP Neural Network

This application illustrates how the fuzzy ARTMAP neural network can be used to monitor environmental changes. A benchmark problem seeks to classify regions of a Landsat image into six soil and crop classes based on images from four spectral sensors. Simulations show that fuzzy ARTMAP outperforms fourteen other neural network and machine learning algorithms. Only the k-Nearest-Neighbor algorithm shows better performance (91% vs. 89%) but without any code compression, while fuzzy ARTMAP achieves a code compression ratio of 6:1. Even with a code compression ratio of 50:1 fuzzy ARTMAP still maintains good performance (83%). This example shows how fuzzy ARTMAP can combine accuracy and code compression in real-world applications.Office of Naval Research (N00014-92-J-401J, N00014-91-J-4100, N00014-92-J-4015); National Science Foundation (IRI 90-00530

ARTMAP-FTR: A Neural Network For Fusion Target Recognition, With Application To Sonar Classification

ART (Adaptive Resonance Theory) neural networks for fast, stable learning and prediction have been applied in a variety of areas. Applications include automatic mapping from satellite remote sensing data, machine tool monitoring, medical prediction, digital circuit design, chemical analysis, and robot vision. Supervised ART architectures, called ARTMAP systems, feature internal control mechanisms that create stable recognition categories of optimal size by maximizing code compression while minimizing predictive error in an on-line setting. Special-purpose requirements of various application domains have led to a number of ARTMAP variants, including fuzzy ARTMAP, ART-EMAP, ARTMAP-IC, Gaussian ARTMAP, and distributed ARTMAP. A new ARTMAP variant, called ARTMAP-FTR (fusion target recognition), has been developed for the problem of multi-ping sonar target classification. The development data set, which lists sonar returns from underwater objects, was provided by the Naval Surface Warfare Center (NSWC) Coastal Systems Station (CSS), Dahlgren Division. The ARTMAP-FTR network has proven to be an effective tool for classifying objects from sonar returns. The system also provides a procedure for solving more general sensor fusion problems.Office of Naval Research (N00014-95-I-0409, N00014-95-I-0657

ARTMAP-FTR: A Neural Network for Object Recognition Through Sonar on a Mobile Robot

ART (Adaptive Resonance Theory) neural networks for fast, stable learning and prediction have been applied in a variety of areas. Applications include automatic mapping from satellite remote sensing data, machine tool monitoring, medical prediction, digital circuit design, chemical analysis, and robot vision. Supervised ART architectures, called ARTMAP systems, feature internal control mechanisms that create stable recognition categories of optimal size by maximizing code compression while minimizing predictive error in an on-line setting. Special-purpose requirements of various application domains have led to a number of ARTMAP variants, including fuzzy ARTMAP, ART-EMAP, ARTMAP-IC, Gaussian ARTMAP, and distributed ARTMAP. A new ARTMAP variant, called ARTMAP-FTR (fusion target recognition), has been developed for the problem of multi-ping sonar target classification. The development data set, which lists sonar returns from underwater objects, was provided by the Naval Surface Warfare Center (NSWC) Coastal Systems Station (CSS), Dahlgren Division. The ARTMAP-FTR network has proven to be an effective tool for classifying objects from sonar returns. The system also provides a procedure for solving more general sensor fusion problems.Office of Naval Research (N00014-95-I-0409, N00014-95-I-0657