A Comprehensive Performance Evaluation of Deformable Face Tracking "In-the-Wild"

Recently, technologies such as face detection, facial landmark localisation and face recognition and verification have matured enough to provide effective and efficient solutions for imagery captured under arbitrary conditions (referred to as "in-the-wild"). This is partially attributed to the fact that comprehensive "in-the-wild" benchmarks have been developed for face detection, landmark localisation and recognition/verification. A very important technology that has not been thoroughly evaluated yet is deformable face tracking "in-the-wild". Until now, the performance has mainly been assessed qualitatively by visually assessing the result of a deformable face tracking technology on short videos. In this paper, we perform the first, to the best of our knowledge, thorough evaluation of state-of-the-art deformable face tracking pipelines using the recently introduced 300VW benchmark. We evaluate many different architectures focusing mainly on the task of on-line deformable face tracking. In particular, we compare the following general strategies: (a) generic face detection plus generic facial landmark localisation, (b) generic model free tracking plus generic facial landmark localisation, as well as (c) hybrid approaches using state-of-the-art face detection, model free tracking and facial landmark localisation technologies. Our evaluation reveals future avenues for further research on the topic.Comment: E. Antonakos and P. Snape contributed equally and have joint second authorshi

Social touch gesture recognition using random forest and boosting on distinct feature sets

Touch is a primary nonverbal communication channel used to communicate emotions or other social messages. Despite its importance, this channel is still very little explored in the affective computing field, as much more focus has been placed on visual and aural channels. In this paper, we investigate the possibility to automatically discriminate between different social touch types. We propose five distinct feature sets for describing touch behaviours captured by a grid of pressure sensors. These features are then combined together by using the Random Forest and Boosting methods for categorizing the touch gesture type. The proposed methods were evaluated on both the HAART (7 gesture types over different surfaces) and the CoST (14 gesture types over the same surface) datasets made available by the Social Touch Gesture Challenge 2015. Well above chance level performances were achieved with a 67% accuracy for the HAART and 59% for the CoST testing datasets respectively

Deploying Machine Learning Models to Ahead-of-Time Runtime on Edge Using MicroTVM

In the past few years, more and more AI applications have been applied to edge devices. However, models trained by data scientists with machine learning frameworks, such as PyTorch or TensorFlow, can not be seamlessly executed on edge. In this paper, we develop an end-to-end code generator parsing a pre-trained model to C source libraries for the backend using MicroTVM, a machine learning compiler framework extension addressing inference on bare metal devices. An analysis shows that specific compute-intensive operators can be easily offloaded to the dedicated accelerator with a Universal Modular Accelerator (UMA) interface, while others are processed in the CPU cores. By using the automatically generated ahead-of-time C runtime, we conduct a hand gesture recognition experiment on an ARM Cortex M4F core.Comment: CODAI 2022 Workshop - Embedded System Week (ESWeek

Service sector reform: a roadmap for community and human services reform

This paper examines strategies to improve the way that government and community services work together to address the needs of vulnerable community members.Introduction In late 2012 I was appointed to lead the Service Sector Reform project. The goal was to explore how government and non-government service providers can work together to improve outcomes for Victorians. I was asked to lead a process that engaged all stakeholders in a discussion about community and human services and in particular, to examine how support for Victoria’s most vulnerable people could be delivered in a more integrated way.An intensive five-month consultation process took place between February and July 2013. During this period my project principal, Dr Bronte Adams, and I listened to the views of people in the community sector, public administration and the private sector. Consultation included public forums, individual meetings, focus groups and a submission process. We talked to ministers and departmental secretaries as well as frontline staff, case managers and community workers. We also heard from service users.This report is a summarised account of many hours of discussions and more than a hundred submissions. The report represents my findings, although it is clear it also seeks to capture the voice of the community

Comparative Analysis of Plagiarism Detection Systems

This article compares plagiarism detection systems according to the list of criteria, compiled from the most challenging and important features for users in Ukrainian higher educational institutions. In addition it describes types of text-based plagiarism and provides an overview of the most common and serious forms of plagiarism around the world and in Ukraine in particular. The authors carried out a comparative analysis of three plagiarism detection systems − Turnitin, Unicheck, eTXT − and highlighted advantages and disadvantages of each one for the use in Ukraine. However, in further studies there might be a need for revising and expanding the list of criteria depending on the subject and the aim of using plagiarism checkers

Deepening the China-Africa Cultural Understanding: Difference Between Chinese and African Martial Arts Conceptions

China and Africa have become culturally closer as the relationship and economic endowment between both sides are growing in leaps and bounds. The martial arts culture can provide a new outlook to deepen the China-Africa cultural understanding as well as to open new windows for other cultures to better connect with Chinese and African people. In this regard, this paper looks into the African and Chinese conceptions of martial arts cultures from historical and traditional perspectives. In fact, the trinity made of“Combat+Spirituality+Dance” that constitutes the core values of African Martial Arts is investigated. In addition, some explanatory examples such as Engolo，Dambe，Laamb，Donga, Zulu Stick Fighting etc., still practiced in Africa today and that show the uniqueness of the African martial arts culture are displayed. Moreover, the Chinese concept of Wushu which has its own unique core philosophy rooted in Taoism, Confucianism and Buddhism is examined. These cultural complexes of knowledge, beliefs and practices created by the histories of China and Africa have set up avenues for new possibilities to boost the China-Africa cultural exchange agenda and deepen the mutual understanding between both sides. Keywords: African Martial Arts; Chinese Wushu; Cultural Understanding; Martial Arts Culture;