Research in interactive scene analysis

Cooperative (man-machine) scene analysis techniques were developed whereby humans can provide a computer with guidance when completely automated processing is infeasible. An interactive approach promises significant near-term payoffs in analyzing various types of high volume satellite imagery, as well as vehicle-based imagery used in robot planetary exploration. This report summarizes the work accomplished over the duration of the project and describes in detail three major accomplishments: (1) the interactive design of texture classifiers; (2) a new approach for integrating the segmentation and interpretation phases of scene analysis; and (3) the application of interactive scene analysis techniques to cartography

Implementation of boolean neural networks on parallel computers

This paper analyses the parallel implementation using networks of transputers of a neural structure belonging to a particular class of neural architectures known as GSN neural networks. These architectures, belonging to the general clasa of RAM-based networks and composed 01 digitally specified processing nodes, have been implemented using different processing topologies, and performance in relatíon to both training and testing efficiency in a practical pattern recognition task has been evaluated.Eje: Redes Neuronales. Algoritmos genéticosRed de Universidades con Carreras en Informática (RedUNCI

Implementation of boolean neural networks on parallel computers

This paper analyses the parallel implementation using networks of transputers of a neural structure belonging to a particular class of neural architectures known as GSN neural networks. These architectures, belonging to the general clasa of RAM-based networks and composed 01 digitally specified processing nodes, have been implemented using different processing topologies, and performance in relatíon to both training and testing efficiency in a practical pattern recognition task has been evaluated.Eje: Redes Neuronales. Algoritmos genéticosRed de Universidades con Carreras en Informática (RedUNCI

The interaction between task goals and the representation of choice options in decision-making

Most decision-making studies will focus on the value and uncertainty of each choice option but do not focus on the importance of the representation of the choice option itself. This thesis presents the effects that task goals have on creating the appropriate cognitive representation to achieve those goals and how these representations are dependent on the informational input within a given task. The overall hypothesis for this work is that cognitive representations reveal a trade-off between accommodating task goals and the format of the information sampled from the environment of the task. For example, ordering books in a stand in alphabetical order, to facilitate the task of retrieving a relevant one when necessary, reveals a material implication of such cognitive representations. As in many situations, the internal representations constructed by the agent embody the remaining degrees of freedom that map the input to successful task completion. The first two chapters in this work present how uncertain beliefs about ourselves and our preferences are either integrated or compared to fixed information about other agent’s beliefs. The third chapter presents the direct manipulation of representations of choice options by changing both the stimuli and controlling for the decision strategy used by the decision-makers. The fourth chapter presents how choice options themselves are represented in the human brain. The findings related to 1) the adaptation of personal preferences and beliefs to the (fixed) preferences and beliefs of other agents, 2) observed reduction in decision strategy compliance contingent on stimulus format, and 3) the task-contingent results for similarities between brain states of choice options, support the general trade-off hypothesis. The conclusion that can be drawn is that the study of choice option representations is underdetermined unless both informational input and task goals are accounted for

Salattujen komento- ja ohjauskanavien havaitseminen verkkosormenjälkien avulla

The threat landscape of the Internet has evolved drastically into an environment where malware are increasingly developed by financially motivated cybercriminal groups who mirror legitimate businesses in their structure and processes. These groups develop sophisticated malware with the aim of transforming persistent control over large numbers of infected machines into profit. Recent developments have shown that malware authors seek to hide their Command and Control channels by implementing custom application layer protocols and using custom encryption algorithms. This technique effectively thwarts conventional pattern-based detection mechanisms. This thesis presents network fingerprints, a novel way of performing network-based detection of encrypted Command and Control channels. The goal of the work was to produce a proof of concept system that is able to generate accurate and reliable network signatures for this purpose. The thesis presents and explains the individual phases of an analysis pipeline that was built to process and analyze malware network traffic and to produce network fingerprint signatures. The analysis system was used to generate network fingerprints that were deployed to an intrusion detection system in real-world networks for a test period of 17 days. The experimental phase produced 71 true positive detections and 9 false positive detections, and therefore proved that the established technique is capable of performing detection of targeted encrypted Command and Control channels. Furthermore, the effects on the performance of the underlying intrusion detection system were measured. These results showed that network fingerprints induce an increase of 2-9% to the packet loss and a small increase to the overall computational load of the intrusion detection system.Internetin uhkaympäristön radikaalin kehittymisen myötä edistyksellisiä haittaohjelmia kehittävät kyberrikollisryhmät ovat muuttuneet järjestäytyneiksi ja taloudellista voittoa tavoitteleviksi organisaatioiksi. Nämä rakenteiltaan ja prosesseiltaan laillisia yrityksiä muistuttavat organisaatiot pyrkivät saastuttamaan suuria määriä tietokoneita ja saavuttamaan yhtämittaisen hallintakyvyn. Tutkimukset ovat osoittaneet, että tuntemattomien salausmenetelmien ja uusien sovellustason protokollien käyttö haittaohjelmien komento- ja hallintakanavien piilottamiseksi tietoverkoissa ovat kasvussa. Tämän kaltaiset tekniikat vaikeuttavat oleellisesti perinteisiä toistuviin kuvioihin perustuvia havaitsemismenetelmiä. Tämä työ esittelee salattujen komento- ja hallintakanavien havaitsemiseen suunnitellun uuden konseptin, verkkosormenjäljet. Työn tavoitteena oli toteuttaa prototyyppijärjestelmä, joka analysoi ja prosessoi haittaohjelmaliikennettä, sekä kykenee tuottamaan tarkkoja ja tehokkaita haittaohjelmakohtaisia verkkosormenjälkitunnisteita. Työ selittää verkkosormenjälkien teorian ja käy yksityiskohtaisesti läpi kehitetyn järjestelmän eri osiot ja vaiheet. Järjestelmästä tuotetut verkkosormenjäljet asennettiin 17 päiväksi oikeisiin tietoverkkoihin osaksi tunkeilijan havaitsemisjärjestelmää. Testijakso tuotti yhteensä 71 oikeaa haittaohjelmahavaintoa sekä 9 väärää havaintoa. Menetelmän käyttöönoton vaikutukset tunkeilijan havaitsemisjärjestelmän suorituskykyyn olivat 2 – 9 % kasvu pakettihäviössä ja pieni nousu laskennallisessa kokonaiskuormituksessa. Tulokset osoittavat, että kehitetty järjestelmä kykenee onnistuneesti analysoimaan haittaohjelmaliikennettä sekä tuottamaan salattuja komento- ja hallintakanavia havaitsevia verkkosormenjälkiä

Towards explanatory pluralism in cognitive science

This thesis seeks to shed light on the intricate relationships holding between the various explanatory frameworks currently used within cognitive science. The driving question of this philosophical investigation concerns the nature and structure of cognitive explanation. More specifically, I attempt to clarify whether the sort of scientific explanations proposed for various cognitive phenomena at different levels of analysis or abstraction differ in significant ways from the explanations offered in other areas of scientific inquiry, such as biology, chemistry, or even physics. Thus, what I will call the problem of cognitive explanation, asks whether there is a distinctive feature that characterises cognitive explanations and distinguishes them from the explanatory schemas utilised in other scientific domains. I argue that the explanatory pluralism encountered within the daily practice of cognitive scientists has an essential normative dimension. The task of this thesis is to demonstrate that pluralism is an appropriate standard for the general explanatory project associated with cognitive science, which further implies defending and promoting the development of multiple explanatory schemas in the empirical study of cognitive phenomena

EG-ICE 2021 Workshop on Intelligent Computing in Engineering

The 28th EG-ICE International Workshop 2021 brings together international experts working at the interface between advanced computing and modern engineering challenges. Many engineering tasks require open-world resolutions to support multi-actor collaboration, coping with approximate models, providing effective engineer-computer interaction, search in multi-dimensional solution spaces, accommodating uncertainty, including specialist domain knowledge, performing sensor-data interpretation and dealing with incomplete knowledge. While results from computer science provide much initial support for resolution, adaptation is unavoidable and most importantly, feedback from addressing engineering challenges drives fundamental computer-science research. Competence and knowledge transfer goes both ways