Automatic skin segmentation for gesture recognition combining region and support vector machine active learning

Skin segmentation is the cornerstone of many applications such as gesture recognition, face detection, and objectionable image filtering. In this paper, we attempt to address the skin segmentation problem for gesture recognition. Initially, given a gesture video sequence, a generic skin model is applied to the first couple of frames to automatically collect the training data. Then, an SVM classifier based on active learning is used to identify the skin pixels. Finally, the results are improved by incorporating region segmentation. The proposed algorithm is fully automatic and adaptive to different signers. We have tested our approach on the ECHO database. Comparing with other existing algorithms, our method could achieve better performance

Reconstructive Sparse Code Transfer for Contour Detection and Semantic Labeling

We frame the task of predicting a semantic labeling as a sparse reconstruction procedure that applies a target-specific learned transfer function to a generic deep sparse code representation of an image. This strategy partitions training into two distinct stages. First, in an unsupervised manner, we learn a set of generic dictionaries optimized for sparse coding of image patches. We train a multilayer representation via recursive sparse dictionary learning on pooled codes output by earlier layers. Second, we encode all training images with the generic dictionaries and learn a transfer function that optimizes reconstruction of patches extracted from annotated ground-truth given the sparse codes of their corresponding image patches. At test time, we encode a novel image using the generic dictionaries and then reconstruct using the transfer function. The output reconstruction is a semantic labeling of the test image. Applying this strategy to the task of contour detection, we demonstrate performance competitive with state-of-the-art systems. Unlike almost all prior work, our approach obviates the need for any form of hand-designed features or filters. To illustrate general applicability, we also show initial results on semantic part labeling of human faces. The effectiveness of our approach opens new avenues for research on deep sparse representations. Our classifiers utilize this representation in a novel manner. Rather than acting on nodes in the deepest layer, they attach to nodes along a slice through multiple layers of the network in order to make predictions about local patches. Our flexible combination of a generatively learned sparse representation with discriminatively trained transfer classifiers extends the notion of sparse reconstruction to encompass arbitrary semantic labeling tasks.Comment: to appear in Asian Conference on Computer Vision (ACCV), 201

SkinNet: A Deep Learning Framework for Skin Lesion Segmentation

There has been a steady increase in the incidence of skin cancer worldwide, with a high rate of mortality. Early detection and segmentation of skin lesions are crucial for timely diagnosis and treatment, necessary to improve the survival rate of patients. However, skin lesion segmentation is a challenging task due to the low contrast of lesions and their high similarity in terms of appearance, to healthy tissue. This underlines the need for an accurate and automatic approach for skin lesion segmentation. To tackle this issue, we propose a convolutional neural network (CNN) called SkinNet. The proposed CNN is a modified version of U-Net. We compared the performance of our approach with other state-of-the-art techniques, using the ISBI 2017 challenge dataset. Our approach outperformed the others in terms of the Dice coefficient, Jaccard index and sensitivity, evaluated on the held-out challenge test data set, across 5-fold cross validation experiments. SkinNet achieved an average value of 85.10, 76.67 and 93.0%, for the DC, JI, and SE, respectively.Comment: 2 pages, submitted to NSS/MIC 201

Cancer diagnosis using deep learning: A bibliographic review

In this paper, we first describe the basics of the field of cancer diagnosis, which includes steps of cancer diagnosis followed by the typical classification methods used by doctors, providing a historical idea of cancer classification techniques to the readers. These methods include Asymmetry, Border, Color and Diameter (ABCD) method, seven-point detection method, Menzies method, and pattern analysis. They are used regularly by doctors for cancer diagnosis, although they are not considered very efficient for obtaining better performance. Moreover, considering all types of audience, the basic evaluation criteria are also discussed. The criteria include the receiver operating characteristic curve (ROC curve), Area under the ROC curve (AUC), F1 score, accuracy, specificity, sensitivity, precision, dice-coefficient, average accuracy, and Jaccard index. Previously used methods are considered inefficient, asking for better and smarter methods for cancer diagnosis. Artificial intelligence and cancer diagnosis are gaining attention as a way to define better diagnostic tools. In particular, deep neural networks can be successfully used for intelligent image analysis. The basic framework of how this machine learning works on medical imaging is provided in this study, i.e., pre-processing, image segmentation and post-processing. The second part of this manuscript describes the different deep learning techniques, such as convolutional neural networks (CNNs), generative adversarial models (GANs), deep autoencoders (DANs), restricted Boltzmann’s machine (RBM), stacked autoencoders (SAE), convolutional autoencoders (CAE), recurrent neural networks (RNNs), long short-term memory (LTSM), multi-scale convolutional neural network (M-CNN), multi-instance learning convolutional neural network (MIL-CNN). For each technique, we provide Python codes, to allow interested readers to experiment with the cited algorithms on their own diagnostic problems. The third part of this manuscript compiles the successfully applied deep learning models for different types of cancers. Considering the length of the manuscript, we restrict ourselves to the discussion of breast cancer, lung cancer, brain cancer, and skin cancer. The purpose of this bibliographic review is to provide researchers opting to work in implementing deep learning and artificial neural networks for cancer diagnosis a knowledge from scratch of the state-of-the-art achievements