Multi modal multi-semantic image retrieval

PhDThe rapid growth in the volume of visual information, e.g. image, and video can overwhelm users’ ability to find and access the specific visual information of interest to them. In recent years, ontology knowledge-based (KB) image information retrieval techniques have been adopted into in order to attempt to extract knowledge from these images, enhancing the retrieval performance. A KB framework is presented to promote semi-automatic annotation and semantic image retrieval using multimodal cues (visual features and text captions). In addition, a hierarchical structure for the KB allows metadata to be shared that supports multi-semantics (polysemy) for concepts. The framework builds up an effective knowledge base pertaining to a domain specific image collection, e.g. sports, and is able to disambiguate and assign high level semantics to ‘unannotated’ images. Local feature analysis of visual content, namely using Scale Invariant Feature Transform (SIFT) descriptors, have been deployed in the ‘Bag of Visual Words’ model (BVW) as an effective method to represent visual content information and to enhance its classification and retrieval. Local features are more useful than global features, e.g. colour, shape or texture, as they are invariant to image scale, orientation and camera angle. An innovative approach is proposed for the representation, annotation and retrieval of visual content using a hybrid technique based upon the use of an unstructured visual word and upon a (structured) hierarchical ontology KB model. The structural model facilitates the disambiguation of unstructured visual words and a more effective classification of visual content, compared to a vector space model, through exploiting local conceptual structures and their relationships. The key contributions of this framework in using local features for image representation include: first, a method to generate visual words using the semantic local adaptive clustering (SLAC) algorithm which takes term weight and spatial locations of keypoints into account. Consequently, the semantic information is preserved. Second a technique is used to detect the domain specific ‘non-informative visual words’ which are ineffective at representing the content of visual data and degrade its categorisation ability. Third, a method to combine an ontology model with xi a visual word model to resolve synonym (visual heterogeneity) and polysemy problems, is proposed. The experimental results show that this approach can discover semantically meaningful visual content descriptions and recognise specific events, e.g., sports events, depicted in images efficiently. Since discovering the semantics of an image is an extremely challenging problem, one promising approach to enhance visual content interpretation is to use any associated textual information that accompanies an image, as a cue to predict the meaning of an image, by transforming this textual information into a structured annotation for an image e.g. using XML, RDF, OWL or MPEG-7. Although, text and image are distinct types of information representation and modality, there are some strong, invariant, implicit, connections between images and any accompanying text information. Semantic analysis of image captions can be used by image retrieval systems to retrieve selected images more precisely. To do this, a Natural Language Processing (NLP) is exploited firstly in order to extract concepts from image captions. Next, an ontology-based knowledge model is deployed in order to resolve natural language ambiguities. To deal with the accompanying text information, two methods to extract knowledge from textual information have been proposed. First, metadata can be extracted automatically from text captions and restructured with respect to a semantic model. Second, the use of LSI in relation to a domain-specific ontology-based knowledge model enables the combined framework to tolerate ambiguities and variations (incompleteness) of metadata. The use of the ontology-based knowledge model allows the system to find indirectly relevant concepts in image captions and thus leverage these to represent the semantics of images at a higher level. Experimental results show that the proposed framework significantly enhances image retrieval and leads to narrowing of the semantic gap between lower level machinederived and higher level human-understandable conceptualisation

Natural language processing

Beginning with the basic issues of NLP, this chapter aims to chart the major research activities in this area since the last ARIST Chapter in 1996 (Haas, 1996), including: (i) natural language text processing systems - text summarization, information extraction, information retrieval, etc., including domain-specific applications; (ii) natural language interfaces; (iii) NLP in the context of www and digital libraries ; and (iv) evaluation of NLP systems

Ontologies on the semantic web

As an informational technology, the World Wide Web has enjoyed spectacular success. In just ten years it has transformed the way information is produced, stored, and shared in arenas as diverse as shopping, family photo albums, and high-level academic research. The “Semantic Web” was touted by its developers as equally revolutionary but has not yet achieved anything like the Web’s exponential uptake. This 17 000 word survey article explores why this might be so, from a perspective that bridges both philosophy and IT

Mining Social Media and Structured Data in Urban Environmental Management to Develop Smart Cities

This research presented the deployment of data mining on social media and structured data in urban studies. We analyzed urban relocation, air quality and traffic parameters on multicity data as early work. We applied the data mining techniques of association rules, clustering and classification on urban legislative history. Results showed that data mining could produce meaningful knowledge to support urban management. We treated ordinances (local laws) and the tweets about them as indicators to assess urban policy and public opinion. Hence, we conducted ordinance and tweet mining including sentiment analysis of tweets. This part of the study focused on NYC with a goal of assessing how well it heads towards a smart city. We built domain-specific knowledge bases according to widely accepted smart city characteristics, incorporating commonsense knowledge sources for ordinance-tweet mapping. We developed decision support tools on multiple platforms using the knowledge discovered to guide urban management. Our research is a concrete step in harnessing the power of data mining in urban studies to enhance smart city development

Commonsense Knowledge in Sentiment Analysis of Ordinance Reactions for Smart Governance

Smart Governance is an emerging research area which has attracted scientific as well as policy interests, and aims to improve collaboration between government and citizens, as well as other stakeholders. Our project aims to enable lawmakers to incorporate data driven decision making in enacting ordinances. Our first objective is to create a mechanism for mapping ordinances (local laws) and tweets to Smart City Characteristics (SCC). The use of SCC has allowed us to create a mapping between a huge number of ordinances and tweets, and the use of Commonsense Knowledge (CSK) has allowed us to utilize human judgment in mapping. We have then enhanced the mapping technique to link multiple tweets to SCC. In order to promote transparency in government through increased public participation, we have conducted sentiment analysis of tweets in order to evaluate the opinion of the public with respect to ordinances passed in a particular region. Our final objective is to develop a mapping algorithm in order to directly relate ordinances to tweets. In order to fulfill this objective, we have developed a mapping technique known as TOLCS (Tweets Ordinance Linkage by Commonsense and Semantics). This technique uses pragmatic aspects in Commonsense Knowledge as well as semantic aspects by domain knowledge. By reducing the sample space of big data to be processed, this method represents an efficient way to accomplish this task. The ultimate goal of the project is to see how closely a given region is heading towards the concept of Smart City

DEBWrite: Free Customizable Web-based Dictionary Writing System

Today, lexicographers can avail themselves of several commercial and freely distributed dictionary writing systems (DWS). Nevertheless, there is still a group of users whose requirements are not satisfied by existing DWSs. In various lexicographic forums, there is a growing demand for freely available DWS that allows customization of the dictionary microstructure. In accordance with such requests, a new project was developed as part of the DEB (Dictionary Editor and Browser) platform. DEBWrite is implemented as a multi-platform web application based on open standards. It allows users to create and share a new dictionary without any difficult configuration or advanced technical skills. According to a defined entry structure, the editing form and the public dictionary browser are generated automatically. DEBWrite supports small and larger team cooperation when working on the dictionary content. Access rights management for the created dictionary involves three levels of user roles: a manager, an editor, and a reader. It is possible to publish the resulting dictionary in various formats, both for human readers, and for external applications (e.g. NLP-related applications that need to work with lexicographic data). The dictionary may be published in an online form, or in formats suitable for print preparation

QUERAI – A Smart Quiz Generator

QUERAI is a website powered by an Artificial Intelligence Question & Answer quiz generator model aiming to enhance students\u27 learning experience and improve teachers\u27 qualitative work by giving them more time to deal with other activities such as assignment correction, general grading, and class preparation

Web 3.0 and Crowdservicing

The World Wide Web (WWW) has undergone significant evolution in the past decade. The emerging web 3.0 is characterized by the vision of achieving a balanced integration of services provided by machines and human agents. This is also the logic of ‘crowdservicing’ which has led to the creation of platforms on which new applications and even enterprises can be created, and complex, web-scale problem solving endeavors undertaken by flexibly connecting billions of loosely coupled computational agents or web services as well as human, service provider agents. In this paper, we build on research and development in the growing area of crowdsourcing to develop the concept of crowdservicing. We also present a novel crowdservicing application prototype, OntoAssist, to facilitate ontology evolution as an illustration of the concept. OntoAssist integrates the computational features of an existing search engine with the human computation provided by the crowd of users to find desirable search results