2,041 research outputs found
Privacy-Preserving Action Recognition via Motion Difference Quantization
The widespread use of smart computer vision systems in our personal spaces
has led to an increased consciousness about the privacy and security risks that
these systems pose. On the one hand, we want these systems to assist in our
daily lives by understanding their surroundings, but on the other hand, we want
them to do so without capturing any sensitive information. Towards this
direction, this paper proposes a simple, yet robust privacy-preserving encoder
called BDQ for the task of privacy-preserving human action recognition that is
composed of three modules: Blur, Difference, and Quantization. First, the input
scene is passed to the Blur module to smoothen the edges. This is followed by
the Difference module to apply a pixel-wise intensity subtraction between
consecutive frames to highlight motion features and suppress obvious high-level
privacy attributes. Finally, the Quantization module is applied to the motion
difference frames to remove the low-level privacy attributes. The BDQ
parameters are optimized in an end-to-end fashion via adversarial training such
that it learns to allow action recognition attributes while inhibiting privacy
attributes. Our experiments on three benchmark datasets show that the proposed
encoder design can achieve state-of-the-art trade-off when compared with
previous works. Furthermore, we show that the trade-off achieved is at par with
the DVS sensor-based event cameras. Code available at:
https://github.com/suakaw/BDQ_PrivacyAR.Comment: ECCV 202
A review on visual privacy preservation techniques for active and assisted living
This paper reviews the state of the art in visual privacy protection techniques, with particular attention paid to techniques applicable to the field of Active and Assisted Living (AAL). A novel taxonomy with which state-of-the-art visual privacy protection methods can be classified is introduced. Perceptual obfuscation methods, a category in this taxonomy, is highlighted. These are a category of visual privacy preservation techniques, particularly relevant when considering scenarios that come under video-based AAL monitoring. Obfuscation against machine learning models is also explored. A high-level classification scheme of privacy by design, as defined by experts in privacy and data protection law, is connected to the proposed taxonomy of visual privacy preservation techniques. Finally, we note open questions that exist in the field and introduce the reader to some exciting avenues for future research in the area of visual privacy.Open Access funding provided thanks to the CRUE-CSIC agreement with Springer Nature. This work is part of the visuAAL project on Privacy-Aware and Acceptable Video-Based Technologies and Services for Active and Assisted Living (https://www.visuaal-itn.eu/). This project has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under the Marie Skłodowska-Curie grant agreement No 861091. The authors would also like to acknowledge the contribution of COST Action CA19121 - GoodBrother, Network on Privacy-Aware Audio- and Video-Based Applications for Active and Assisted Living (https://goodbrother.eu/), supported by COST (European Cooperation in Science and Technology) (https://www.cost.eu/)
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Generative Adversarial Networks for Multi-Objective Synthetic Data Generation
Synthetic data has become increasingly accessible due to remarkable advancements in machine learning. This data is extremely useful to researchers due to its wide range of applications. Synthetic data may be used to robust populations that are under-sampled, or to create permutations of some existing data, generating combinations not seen in the original data. Synthetic data may also be used in place of the original data completely when sensitive aspects limit the distribution.Previously, research in synthetic data generation has been primarily focused on generating data that is maximally realistic. Significantly less attention has been paid to assurances of other components of the data, such as privacy concerns or data diversity. This has left a gap in the field of synthetic data generation. We address this through the investigation of multi-agent synthetic data generation.In this dissertation, we expand the scope of data generation by introducing agents that optimize various facets of synthetic data, such as privacy, class diversity, and training utility. We propose a novel, multi-objective synthetic generation framework to allow all of these objectives to be optimized. We finally demonstrate this framework can generate high quality data across multiple domains for an arbitrary number of objectives
Deep into the Eyes: Applying Machine Learning to improve Eye-Tracking
Eye-tracking has been an active research area with applications in personal and behav- ioral studies, medical diagnosis, virtual reality, and mixed reality applications. Improving the robustness, generalizability, accuracy, and precision of eye-trackers while maintaining privacy is crucial. Unfortunately, many existing low-cost portable commercial eye trackers suffer from signal artifacts and a low signal-to-noise ratio. These trackers are highly depen- dent on low-level features such as pupil edges or diffused bright spots in order to precisely localize the pupil and corneal reflection. As a result, they are not reliable for studying eye movements that require high precision, such as microsaccades, smooth pursuit, and ver- gence. Additionally, these methods suffer from reflective artifacts, occlusion of the pupil boundary by the eyelid and often require a manual update of person-dependent parame- ters to identify the pupil region. In this dissertation, I demonstrate (I) a new method to improve precision while maintaining the accuracy of head-fixed eye trackers by combin- ing velocity information from iris textures across frames with position information, (II) a generalized semantic segmentation framework for identifying eye regions with a further extension to identify ellipse fits on the pupil and iris, (III) a data-driven rendering pipeline to generate a temporally contiguous synthetic dataset for use in many eye-tracking ap- plications, and (IV) a novel strategy to preserve privacy in eye videos captured as part of the eye-tracking process. My work also provides the foundation for future research by addressing critical questions like the suitability of using synthetic datasets to improve eye-tracking performance in real-world applications, and ways to improve the precision of future commercial eye trackers with improved camera specifications
Privacy-Preserving Data in IoT-based Cloud Systems: A Comprehensive Survey with AI Integration
As the integration of Internet of Things devices with cloud computing
proliferates, the paramount importance of privacy preservation comes to the
forefront. This survey paper meticulously explores the landscape of privacy
issues in the dynamic intersection of IoT and cloud systems. The comprehensive
literature review synthesizes existing research, illuminating key challenges
and discerning emerging trends in privacy preserving techniques. The
categorization of diverse approaches unveils a nuanced understanding of
encryption techniques, anonymization strategies, access control mechanisms, and
the burgeoning integration of artificial intelligence. Notable trends include
the infusion of machine learning for dynamic anonymization, homomorphic
encryption for secure computation, and AI-driven access control systems. The
culmination of this survey contributes a holistic view, laying the groundwork
for understanding the multifaceted strategies employed in securing sensitive
data within IoT-based cloud environments. The insights garnered from this
survey provide a valuable resource for researchers, practitioners, and
policymakers navigating the complex terrain of privacy preservation in the
evolving landscape of IoT and cloud computingComment: 33 page
Practical and Rich User Digitization
A long-standing vision in computer science has been to evolve computing
devices into proactive assistants that enhance our productivity, health and
wellness, and many other facets of our lives. User digitization is crucial in
achieving this vision as it allows computers to intimately understand their
users, capturing activity, pose, routine, and behavior. Today's consumer
devices - like smartphones and smartwatches provide a glimpse of this
potential, offering coarse digital representations of users with metrics such
as step count, heart rate, and a handful of human activities like running and
biking. Even these very low-dimensional representations are already bringing
value to millions of people's lives, but there is significant potential for
improvement. On the other end, professional, high-fidelity comprehensive user
digitization systems exist. For example, motion capture suits and multi-camera
rigs that digitize our full body and appearance, and scanning machines such as
MRI capture our detailed anatomy. However, these carry significant user
practicality burdens, such as financial, privacy, ergonomic, aesthetic, and
instrumentation considerations, that preclude consumer use. In general, the
higher the fidelity of capture, the lower the user's practicality. Most
conventional approaches strike a balance between user practicality and
digitization fidelity.
My research aims to break this trend, developing sensing systems that
increase user digitization fidelity to create new and powerful computing
experiences while retaining or even improving user practicality and
accessibility, allowing such technologies to have a societal impact. Armed with
such knowledge, our future devices could offer longitudinal health tracking,
more productive work environments, full body avatars in extended reality, and
embodied telepresence experiences, to name just a few domains.Comment: PhD thesi
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