Scale and Orientation-invariant Scene Similarity Metrics for Image Queries

In this paper we extend our previous work on shape-based queries to support queries on configurations of image objects. Here we consider spatial reasoning, especially directional and metric object relationships. Existing models for spatial reasoning tend to rely on pre-identified cardinal directions and minimal scale variations, assumption that cannot be considered as given in our image applications, where orientations and scale may vary substantially, and are often unknown. Accordingly, we have developed the method of varying baselines to identify similarities in direction and distance relations. Our method allows us to evaluate directional similarities without a priori knowledge of cardinal directions, and to compare distance relations even when query scene and database content differ in scale by unknown amounts. We use our method to evaluate similarity between a user-defined query scene and object configurations. Here we present this new method, and discuss its role within a broader image retrieval framework

A Hybrid Reasoning Model for “Whole and Part” Cardinal Direction Relations

We have shown how the nine tiles in the projection-based model for cardinal directions can be partitioned into sets based on horizontal and vertical constraints (called Horizontal and Vertical Constraints Model) in our previous papers (Kor and Bennett, 2003 and 2010). In order to come up with an expressive hybrid model for direction relations between two-dimensional single-piece regions (without holes), we integrate the well-known RCC-8 model with the above-mentioned model. From this expressive hybrid model, we derive 8 basic binary relations and 13 feasible as well as jointly exhaustive relations for the x- and y-directions, respectively. Based on these basic binary relations, we derive two separate composition tables for both the expressive and weak direction relations. We introduce a formula that can be used for the computation of the composition of expressive and weak direction relations between “whole or part” regions. Lastly, we also show how the expressive hybrid model can be used to make several existential inferences that are not possible for existing models

Content Recarving as Subject Matter Restriction

In this article I offer an explicating interpretation of the procedure of content recarving as described by Frege in §64 of the Foundations of Arithmetic. I argue that the procedure of content recarving may be interpreted as an operation that while restricting the subject matter of a sentence, performs a generalization on what the sentence says about its subject matter. The characterization of the recarving operation is given in the setting of Yablo’s theory of subject matter and it is based on the relation of determination between properties. The main advantage of the proposal is its generality, for it is applicable not just to the case of abstraction principle

Handwriting styles: benchmarks and evaluation metrics

Evaluating the style of handwriting generation is a challenging problem, since it is not well defined. It is a key component in order to develop in developing systems with more personalized experiences with humans. In this paper, we propose baseline benchmarks, in order to set anchors to estimate the relative quality of different handwriting style methods. This will be done using deep learning techniques, which have shown remarkable results in different machine learning tasks, learning classification, regression, and most relevant to our work, generating temporal sequences. We discuss the challenges associated with evaluating our methods, which is related to evaluation of generative models in general. We then propose evaluation metrics, which we find relevant to this problem, and we discuss how we evaluate the evaluation metrics. In this study, we use IRON-OFF dataset. To the best of our knowledge, there is no work done before in generating handwriting (either in terms of methodology or the performance metrics), our in exploring styles using this dataset.Comment: Submitted to IEEE International Workshop on Deep and Transfer Learning (DTL 2018

Spatiotemporal dynamics of feature-based attention spread: evidence from combined electroencephalographic and magnetoencephalographic recordings

Attentional selection on the basis of nonspatial stimulus features induces a sensory gain enhancement by increasing the firing-rate of individual neurons tuned to the attended feature, while responses of neurons tuned to opposite feature-values are suppressed. Here we recorded event-related potentials (ERPs) and magnetic fields (ERMFs) in human observers to investigate the underlying neural correlates of feature-based attention at the population level. During the task subjects attended to a moving transparent surface presented in the left visual field, while task-irrelevant probe stimuli executing brief movements into varying directions were presented in the opposite visual field. ERP and ERMF amplitudes elicited by the unattended task-irrelevant probes were modulated as a function of the similarity between their movement direction and the task-relevant movement direction in the attended visual field. These activity modulations reflecting globally enhanced processing of the attended feature were observed to start not before 200 ms poststimulus and were localized to the motion-sensitive area hMT. The current results indicate that feature-based attention operates in a global manner but needs time to spread and provide strong support for the feature-similarity gain model

Field Report on the Excavation of Indian Villages in the Vicinity of the Spiro Mounds, Leflore County, Oklahoma

A wealth of strikingly unusual and beautiful objects of Indian manufacture were excavated from the burials of the Spiro Mound, Leflore (sic.) County, Oklahoma during 1936-37. Engraved Gulf Coast conch shells, shell beads of a dozen types, river pearls, effigy pipes, long delicately chipped flint blades, feather and textile cloths and precisely incised pottery vessels were excavated in quantities. So unusual was this material that, at the time, the archaeological science was unable to answer a host of questions which immediately arose concerning the identity of the tribe who had made the artifacts and who were buried with them. How long ago had they occupied the region? From where had they come, and where did they go? The chronological relationship of the Spiro Mound Culture to the known cultures of the United States was of particular concern to the investigators. How and where did this tribe fit into the picture of America\u27s past