Smart Query Answering for Marine Sensor Data

We review existing query answering systems for sensor data. We then propose an extended query answering approach termed smart query, specifically for marine sensor data. The smart query answering system integrates pattern queries and continuous queries. The proposed smart query system considers both streaming data and historical data from marine sensor networks. The smart query also uses query relaxation technique and semantics from domain knowledge as a recommender system. The proposed smart query benefits in building data and information systems for marine sensor networks

Multimodal Visual Concept Learning with Weakly Supervised Techniques

Despite the availability of a huge amount of video data accompanied by descriptive texts, it is not always easy to exploit the information contained in natural language in order to automatically recognize video concepts. Towards this goal, in this paper we use textual cues as means of supervision, introducing two weakly supervised techniques that extend the Multiple Instance Learning (MIL) framework: the Fuzzy Sets Multiple Instance Learning (FSMIL) and the Probabilistic Labels Multiple Instance Learning (PLMIL). The former encodes the spatio-temporal imprecision of the linguistic descriptions with Fuzzy Sets, while the latter models different interpretations of each description's semantics with Probabilistic Labels, both formulated through a convex optimization algorithm. In addition, we provide a novel technique to extract weak labels in the presence of complex semantics, that consists of semantic similarity computations. We evaluate our methods on two distinct problems, namely face and action recognition, in the challenging and realistic setting of movies accompanied by their screenplays, contained in the COGNIMUSE database. We show that, on both tasks, our method considerably outperforms a state-of-the-art weakly supervised approach, as well as other baselines.Comment: CVPR 201

Spoken content retrieval: A survey of techniques and technologies

Speech media, that is, digital audio and video containing spoken content, has blossomed in recent years. Large collections are accruing on the Internet as well as in private and enterprise settings. This growth has motivated extensive research on techniques and technologies that facilitate reliable indexing and retrieval. Spoken content retrieval (SCR) requires the combination of audio and speech processing technologies with methods from information retrieval (IR). SCR research initially investigated planned speech structured in document-like units, but has subsequently shifted focus to more informal spoken content produced spontaneously, outside of the studio and in conversational settings. This survey provides an overview of the field of SCR encompassing component technologies, the relationship of SCR to text IR and automatic speech recognition and user interaction issues. It is aimed at researchers with backgrounds in speech technology or IR who are seeking deeper insight on how these fields are integrated to support research and development, thus addressing the core challenges of SCR

Reasoning and querying bounds on differences with layered preferences

Artificial intelligence largely relies on bounds on differences (BoDs) to model binary constraints regarding different dimensions, such as time, space, costs, and calories. Recently, some approaches have extended the BoDs framework in a fuzzy, \u201cnoncrisp\u201d direction, considering probabilities or preferences. While previous approaches have mainly aimed at providing an optimal solution to the set of constraints, we propose an innovative class of approaches in which constraint propagation algorithms aim at identifying the \u201cspace of solutions\u201d (i.e., the minimal network) with their preferences, and query answering mechanisms are provided to explore the space of solutions as required, for example, in decision support tasks. Aiming at generality, we propose a class of approaches parametrized over user\u2010defined scales of qualitative preferences (e.g., Low, Medium, High, and Very High), utilizing the resume and extension operations to combine preferences, and considering different formalisms to associate preferences with BoDs. We consider both \u201cgeneral\u201d preferences and a form of layered preferences that we call \u201cpyramid\u201d preferences. The properties of the class of approaches are also analyzed. In particular, we show that, when the resume and extension operations are defined such that they constitute a closed semiring, a more efficient constraint propagation algorithm can be used. Finally, we provide a preliminary implementation of the constraint propagation algorithms

Update of time-invalid information in Knowledge Bases through Mobile Agents

In this paper, we investigate the use of a mobile, autonomous agent to update knowledge bases containing statements that lose validity with time. This constitutes a key issue in terms of knowledge acquisition and representation, because dynamic data need to be constantly re-evaluated to allow reasoning. We focus on the way to represent the time- validity of statements in a knowledge base, and on the use of a mobile agent to update time-invalid statements while planning for “information freshness” as the main objective. We propose to use Semantic Web standards, namely the RDF model and the SPARQL query language, to represent time-validity of information and decide how long this will be considered valid. Using such a representation, a plan is created for the agent to update the knowledge, focusing mostly on guaranteeing the time-validity of the information collected. To show the feasibility of our approach and discuss its limitations, we test its implementation on scenarios in the working environment of our research lab, where an autonomous robot is used to sense temperature, humidity, wifi signal and number of people on demand, updating the knowledge base with time- valid information