Graph Signal Processing: Overview, Challenges and Applications

Research in Graph Signal Processing (GSP) aims to develop tools for processing data defined on irregular graph domains. In this paper we first provide an overview of core ideas in GSP and their connection to conventional digital signal processing. We then summarize recent developments in developing basic GSP tools, including methods for sampling, filtering or graph learning. Next, we review progress in several application areas using GSP, including processing and analysis of sensor network data, biological data, and applications to image processing and machine learning. We finish by providing a brief historical perspective to highlight how concepts recently developed in GSP build on top of prior research in other areas.Comment: To appear, Proceedings of the IEE

Graph-based Semi-supervised Learning: Algorithms and Applications.

114 p.Graph-based semi-supervised learning have attracted large numbers of researchers and it is an important part of semi-supervised learning. Graph construction and semi-supervised embedding are two main steps in graph-based semi-supervised learning algorithms. In this thesis, we proposed two graph construction algorithms and two semi-supervised embedding algorithms. The main work of this thesis is summarized as follows:1. A new graph construction algorithm named Graph construction based on self-representativeness and Laplacian smoothness (SRLS) and several variants are proposed. Researches show that the coefficients obtained by data representation algorithms reflect the similarity between data samples and can be considered as a measurement of the similarity. This kind of measurement can be used for the weights of the edges between data samples in graph construction. Each column of the coefficient matrix obtained by data self-representation algorithms can be regarded as a new representation of original data. The new representations should have common features as the original data samples. Thus, if two data samples are close to each other in the original space, the corresponding representations should be highly similar. This constraint is called Laplacian smoothness.SRLS graph is based on l2-norm minimized data self-representation and Laplacian smoothness. Since the representation matrix obtained by l2 minimization is dense, a two phrase SRLS method (TPSRLS) is proposed to increase the sparsity of graph matrix. By extending the linear space to Hilbert space, two kernelized versions of SRLS are proposed. Besides, a direct solution to kernelized SRLS algorithm is also introduced.2. A new sparse graph construction algorithm named Sparse graph with Laplacian smoothness (SGLS) and several variants are proposed. SGLS graph algorithm is based on sparse representation and use Laplacian smoothness as a constraint (SGLS). A kernelized version of the SGLS algorithm and a direct solution to kernelized SGLS algorithm are also proposed. 3. SPP is a successful unsupervised learning method. To extend SPP to a semi-supervised embedding method, we introduce the idea of in-class constraints in CGE into SPP and propose a new semi-supervised method for data embedding named Constrained Sparsity Preserving Embedding (CSPE).4. The weakness of CSPE is that it cannot handle the new coming samples which means a cascade regression should be performed after the non-linear mapping is obtained by CSPE over the whole training samples. Inspired by FME, we add a regression term in the objective function to obtain an approximate linear projection simultaneously when non-linear embedding is estimated and proposed Flexible Constrained Sparsity Preserving Embedding (FCSPE).Extensive experiments on several datasets (including facial images, handwriting digits images and objects images) prove that the proposed algorithms can improve the state-of-the-art results

Graph-based Semi-supervised Learning: Algorithms and Applications.

114 p.Graph-based semi-supervised learning have attracted large numbers of researchers and it is an important part of semi-supervised learning. Graph construction and semi-supervised embedding are two main steps in graph-based semi-supervised learning algorithms. In this thesis, we proposed two graph construction algorithms and two semi-supervised embedding algorithms. The main work of this thesis is summarized as follows:1. A new graph construction algorithm named Graph construction based on self-representativeness and Laplacian smoothness (SRLS) and several variants are proposed. Researches show that the coefficients obtained by data representation algorithms reflect the similarity between data samples and can be considered as a measurement of the similarity. This kind of measurement can be used for the weights of the edges between data samples in graph construction. Each column of the coefficient matrix obtained by data self-representation algorithms can be regarded as a new representation of original data. The new representations should have common features as the original data samples. Thus, if two data samples are close to each other in the original space, the corresponding representations should be highly similar. This constraint is called Laplacian smoothness.SRLS graph is based on l2-norm minimized data self-representation and Laplacian smoothness. Since the representation matrix obtained by l2 minimization is dense, a two phrase SRLS method (TPSRLS) is proposed to increase the sparsity of graph matrix. By extending the linear space to Hilbert space, two kernelized versions of SRLS are proposed. Besides, a direct solution to kernelized SRLS algorithm is also introduced.2. A new sparse graph construction algorithm named Sparse graph with Laplacian smoothness (SGLS) and several variants are proposed. SGLS graph algorithm is based on sparse representation and use Laplacian smoothness as a constraint (SGLS). A kernelized version of the SGLS algorithm and a direct solution to kernelized SGLS algorithm are also proposed. 3. SPP is a successful unsupervised learning method. To extend SPP to a semi-supervised embedding method, we introduce the idea of in-class constraints in CGE into SPP and propose a new semi-supervised method for data embedding named Constrained Sparsity Preserving Embedding (CSPE).4. The weakness of CSPE is that it cannot handle the new coming samples which means a cascade regression should be performed after the non-linear mapping is obtained by CSPE over the whole training samples. Inspired by FME, we add a regression term in the objective function to obtain an approximate linear projection simultaneously when non-linear embedding is estimated and proposed Flexible Constrained Sparsity Preserving Embedding (FCSPE).Extensive experiments on several datasets (including facial images, handwriting digits images and objects images) prove that the proposed algorithms can improve the state-of-the-art results

Taming Wild Faces: Web-Scale, Open-Universe Face Identification in Still and Video Imagery

With the increasing pervasiveness of digital cameras, the Internet, and social networking, there is a growing need to catalog and analyze large collections of photos and videos. In this dissertation, we explore unconstrained still-image and video-based face recognition in real-world scenarios, e.g. social photo sharing and movie trailers, where people of interest are recognized and all others are ignored. In such a scenario, we must obtain high precision in recognizing the known identities, while accurately rejecting those of no interest. Recent advancements in face recognition research has seen Sparse Representation-based Classification (SRC) advance to the forefront of competing methods. However, its drawbacks, slow speed and sensitivity to variations in pose, illumination, and occlusion, have hindered its wide-spread applicability. The contributions of this dissertation are three-fold: 1. For still-image data, we propose a novel Linearly Approximated Sparse Representation-based Classification (LASRC) algorithm that uses linear regression to perform sample selection for l1-minimization, thus harnessing the speed of least-squares and the robustness of SRC. On our large dataset collected from Facebook, LASRC performs equally to standard SRC with a speedup of 100-250x. 2. For video, applying the popular l1-minimization for face recognition on a frame-by-frame basis is prohibitively expensive computationally, so we propose a new algorithm Mean Sequence SRC (MSSRC) that performs video face recognition using a joint optimization leveraging all of the available video data and employing the knowledge that the face track frames belong to the same individual. Employing MSSRC results in a speedup of 5x on average over SRC on a frame-by-frame basis. 3. Finally, we make the observation that MSSRC sometimes assigns inconsistent identities to the same individual in a scene that could be corrected based on their visual similarity. Therefore, we construct a probabilistic affinity graph combining appearance and co-occurrence similarities to model the relationship between face tracks in a video. Using this relationship graph, we employ random walk analysis to propagate strong class predictions among similar face tracks, while dampening weak predictions. Our method results in a performance gain of 15.8% in average precision over using MSSRC alone