Local Low-light Image Enhancement via Region-Aware Normalization

In the realm of Low-Light Image Enhancement (LLIE), existing research primarily focuses on enhancing images globally. However, many applications require local LLIE, where users are allowed to illuminate specific regions using an input mask, such as creating a protagonist stage or spotlight effect. However, this task has received limited attention currently. This paper aims to systematically define the requirements of local LLIE and proposes a novel strategy to convert current existing global LLIE methods into local versions. The image space is divided into three regions: Masked Area A be enlightened to achieve the desired lighting effects; Transition Area B is a smooth transition from the enlightened area (Area A) to the unchanged region (Area C). To achieve the task of local LLIE, we introduce Region-Aware Normalization for Local Enhancement, dubbed as RANLEN. RANLEN uses a dynamically designed mask-based normalization operation, which enhances an image in a spatially varying manner, ensuring that the enhancement results are consistent with the requirements specified by the input mask. Additionally, a set of region-aware loss terms is formulated to facilitate the learning of the local LLIE framework. Our strategy can be applied to existing global LLIE networks with varying structures. Extensive experiments demonstrate that our approach can produce the desired lighting effects compared to global LLIE, all the while offering controllable local enhancement with various mask shapes

Transferable Adversarial Attacks on Vision Transformers with Token Gradient Regularization

Vision transformers (ViTs) have been successfully deployed in a variety of computer vision tasks, but they are still vulnerable to adversarial samples. Transfer-based attacks use a local model to generate adversarial samples and directly transfer them to attack a target black-box model. The high efficiency of transfer-based attacks makes it a severe security threat to ViT-based applications. Therefore, it is vital to design effective transfer-based attacks to identify the deficiencies of ViTs beforehand in security-sensitive scenarios. Existing efforts generally focus on regularizing the input gradients to stabilize the updated direction of adversarial samples. However, the variance of the back-propagated gradients in intermediate blocks of ViTs may still be large, which may make the generated adversarial samples focus on some model-specific features and get stuck in poor local optima. To overcome the shortcomings of existing approaches, we propose the Token Gradient Regularization (TGR) method. According to the structural characteristics of ViTs, TGR reduces the variance of the back-propagated gradient in each internal block of ViTs in a token-wise manner and utilizes the regularized gradient to generate adversarial samples. Extensive experiments on attacking both ViTs and CNNs confirm the superiority of our approach. Notably, compared to the state-of-the-art transfer-based attacks, our TGR offers a performance improvement of 8.8% on average.Comment: CVPR 202

Do Not Give Away My Secrets: Uncovering the Privacy Issue of Neural Code Completion Tools

Neural Code Completion Tools (NCCTs) have reshaped the field of software development, which accurately suggest contextually-relevant code snippets benefiting from language modeling techniques. However, language models may emit the training data verbatim during inference with appropriate prompts. This memorization property raises privacy concerns of commercial NCCTs about the hard-coded credential leakage, leading to unauthorized access to systems. Therefore, to answer whether NCCTs will inadvertently emit the hard-coded credential, we propose an evaluation tool called Hard-coded Credential Revealer (HCR). HCR effectively constructs test prompts from GitHub code files with credentials to trigger memorization phenomenon of commercial NCCTs. Then, HCR extracts credentials with pre-defined format from the responses by four designed filters. We apply HCR to evaluate two representative commercial NCCTs: GitHub Copilot and Amazon CodeWhisperer and successfully extracted 2,702 hard-coded credentials from Copilot and 129 secrets from CodeWhisper under the black-box setting, among which at least 3.6% and 5.4% secrets are real strings from GitHub repositories. Moreover, two operational credentials were identified. The experimental results raise the severe privacy concern of the potential leakage of hard-coded credentials in the training data of commercial NCCTs

Neural Network Eye Tracking:Determining Nine-Grid Regions & Application

As technology advances, the development of mobile platforms has nearly reached saturation. AR/MR (Augmented or Mixed Reality) eyewear is anticipated to be the new type of product leading technological advancements in the next 5-10 years. Some AR/MR glasses on the market with specialized functions have already become lightweight and convenient to use. Combining AR/MR glasses with eye-tracking technology implies that the latest technological advancements will significantly impact the daily life interactions and communications of users who are unable to use conventional interaction modes. Compared to the existing eye-tracking technology in AR/MR glasses, such as infrared eye-tracking, employing machine learning will make this technology more robust and adaptive to different environments, as well as providing better compatibility during calibration and setup. This thesis will demonstrate the use of cameras combined with neural networks for eye-tracking analysis and application scenarios, and hypothesize on applying this technology to future AR/MR devices that will be compatible with this technology

Strength Matching Method of Face Gear Pair Considering Service Space Limitation to Improve Strength Performance

To further improve maneuverability and passability, new heavy-duty vehicles place higher demands on the service space and strength performance of transmission systems. The new surface gear transmission stands out for its unique technical advantages, but how to reduce the volume as much as possible under the premise of meeting the strength performance remains difficult to research. In the past, the method of improving the strength performance of the face gear pair has usually been by increasing the parameters and optimizing the tooth profile. These methods are not suitable for use considering space constraints and guaranteeing center-to-center distances. To overcome the contradiction between small volume and large load, this work proposes a strength matching method to improve the face gear pair’s strength performance in limited service space. First, according to the meshing principle of the face gear pair, the displacement coefficient is considered in the configuration process of the face gear pair, and the mathematical model of the face gear pair is established. Second, to ensure the effective contact area of the face gear pair, a mathematical model of the reverse contact trace avoiding the undercutting and pointing area is established. The proposed method is validated by electrolytic machining and transmission performance tests. This research solves application problems, such as the strength mismatch of the face gear transmission system, and lays the foundation for the engineering application of face gear

An Innovative Flexible-Honing Method with Dampers for Long-Life, Mass-Machining of Face Gears

To further exert the technical advantages of face gears, high-end equipment puts forward the need for the long-life mass-machining of face gears. However, the commonly used technique of hard honing is more sensitive to installation errors and impact loads, and soft honing has insufficient removal ability to the margin, so the quality of the gear’s life is difficult to guarantee. To solve this contradiction, this paper introduces a damper to honing and proposes a flexible honing method for face gears. First, to reveal the flexible honing mechanism, the tooth-surface model of face-gear honing is derived, and the mathematical model for face-gear flexible honing is established. Second, to clarify the influence of flexible honing parameters on the quality of the tooth surface, a roughness model of the honing surface is established, and the influence of flexible honing parameters on roughness is analyzed. Third, by analyzing the influence of roughness under the action of honing parameters on the stress of the tooth surface, the parameters for flexible honing are determined. Finally, the effectiveness of the method is verified by flexible honing machining and testing

Urban subsidence in Rapid Economic Development: The Case of Luoyang city, Henan Province

ABSTRACTRapid urban development has led to severe land subsidence in Luoyang, Henan Province in the past few years. The current research on subsidence in urban areas of Luoyang is relatively few and early, and cannot reflect the current status of land subsidence in Luoyang. To grasp the current status of land subsidence in Luoyang and prevent the harm caused by subsidence. We used 57 Sentinel-1A Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) images covering Luoyang to obtain the land subsidence from April 2017 to December 2021 by using the small baseline subset interferometric SAR technique. The results show that there are several areas of land subsidence in Luoyang City, and the most serious area of subsidence is located near the highway in Jianxi District, with a cumulative subsidence of 130 mm. Land subsidence exists to varying degrees near transportation facilities (Expressway roads, railway, metro), key urban facilities (airports, high-speed railway stations) and ancient sites in Luoyang. A number of small-scale local subsidence in Luoyang is mainly related to high-intensity urban construction, and urban highway and building construction are the main causes of local land subsidence. Industrial activities are also an important factor in land subsidence in Luoyang. Groundwater and rainfall can impact land subsidence, and large amounts of rainfall during the flood season can replenish groundwater resources and slow down the rate of land subsidence. Loess foundations and large amounts of artificial fill in the city may also induce land subsidence

Analysis of the Spatial and Temporal Evolution of Land Subsidence in Wuhan, China from 2017 to 2021

Land subsidence is a common geological hazard. Rapid urban expansion has led to different degrees of ground subsidence within Wuhan in the past few years. The novel coronavirus outbreak in 2020 has seriously impacted urban construction and people’s lives in Wuhan. Land subsidence in Wuhan has changed greatly with the resumption of work and production. We used 80 Sentinel-1A Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) images covering Wuhan to obtain the land subsidence change information of Wuhan from July 2017 to September 2021 by using the small baseline subset interferometric SAR technique. Results show that the subsidence in Wuhan is uneven and concentrated in a few areas, and the maximum subsidence rate reached 57 mm/yr during the study period. Compared with land deformation before 2017, the land subsidence in Wuhan is more obvious after 2020. The most severe area of subsidence is located near Qingling in Hongshan District, with a maximum accumulated subsidence of 90 mm, and obvious subsidence funnels are observed in Qiaokou, Jiangan, Wuchang and Qingshan Districts. The location of subsidence centers in Wuhan is associated with building intensity, and most of the subsidence funnels are formed in connection with urban subway construction and building construction. Carbonate belt and soft ground cover areas are more likely to lead to karst collapse and land subsidence phenomena. Seasonal changes are observed in the land subsidence in Wuhan. A large amount of rainfall can replenish groundwater resources and reduce the rate of land subsidence. The change in water level in the Yangtze River has a certain impact on the land subsidence along the rivers in Wuhan, but the overall impact is small. An obvious uplift is observed in Caidian District in the south of Wuhan, and the reason may be related to the physical and chemical expansion effects of the expansive clay