C3AE: Exploring the Limits of Compact Model for Age Estimation

Age estimation is a classic learning problem in computer vision. Many larger and deeper CNNs have been proposed with promising performance, such as AlexNet, VggNet, GoogLeNet and ResNet. However, these models are not practical for the embedded/mobile devices. Recently, MobileNets and ShuffleNets have been proposed to reduce the number of parameters, yielding lightweight models. However, their representation has been weakened because of the adoption of depth-wise separable convolution. In this work, we investigate the limits of compact model for small-scale image and propose an extremely Compact yet efficient Cascade Context-based Age Estimation model(C3AE). This model possesses only 1/9 and 1/2000 parameters compared with MobileNets/ShuffleNets and VggNet, while achieves competitive performance. In particular, we re-define age estimation problem by two-points representation, which is implemented by a cascade model. Moreover, to fully utilize the facial context information, multi-branch CNN network is proposed to aggregate multi-scale context. Experiments are carried out on three age estimation datasets. The state-of-the-art performance on compact model has been achieved with a relatively large margin.Comment: accepted by cvpr201

Entangled state engineering of vibrational modes in a multi-membrane optomechanical system

We propose a method to generate entangled states of the vibrational modes of N membranes which are coupled to a cavity mode via the radiation pressure. Using sideband excitations, we show that arbitrary entangled states of vibrational modes of different membranes can be produced in principle by sequentially applying a series of classical pulses with desired frequencies, phases and durations. As examples, we show how to synthesize several typical entangled states, for example, Bell states, NOON states, GHZ states and W states. The environmental effect, information leakage, and experimental feasibility are briefly discussed. Our proposal can also be applied to other experimental setups of optomechanical systems, in which many mechanical resonators are coupled to a common sing-mode cavity field via the radiation pressure.Comment: 15 pages, 10 figure

Phononic Josephson oscillation and self-trapping with two-phonon exchange interaction

We propose a bosonic Josephson junction (BJJ) in two nonlinear mechanical resonator coupled through two-phonon exchange interaction induced by quadratic optomechanical couplings. The nonlinear dynamic equations and effective Hamiltonian are derived to describe behaviors of the BJJ. We show that the BJJ can work in two different dynamical regimes: Josephson oscillation and macroscopic self-trapping. The system can transfer from one regime to the other one when the self-interaction and asymmetric parameters exceed their critical values. We predict that a transition from Josephson oscillation to macroscopic self-trapping can be induced by the phonon damping in the asymmetric BJJs. Our results opens up a way to demonstrate BJJ with two-phonon exchange interaction and can be applied to other systems, such as the optical and microwave systems.Comment: 7 pages, 7 figure

Engineering of nonclassical motional states in optomechanical systems

We propose to synthesize arbitrary nonclassical motional states in optomechanical systems by using sideband excitations and photon blockade. We first demonstrate that the Hamiltonian of the optomechanical systems can be reduced, in the strong single-photon optomechanical coupling regime when the photon blockade occurs, to one describing the interaction between a driven two-level trapped ion and the vibrating modes, and then show a method to generate target states by using a series of classical pulses with desired frequencies, phases, and durations. We further analyze the effect of the photon leakage, due to small anharmonicity, on the fidelity of the expected motional state, and study environment induced decoherence. Moreover, we also discuss the experimental feasibility and provide operational parameters using the possible experimental data.Comment: 11 pages, 4 figure

From blockade to transparency: controllable photon transmission through a circuit QED system

A strong photon-photon nonlinear interaction is a necessary condition for photon blockade. Moreover, this nonlinearity can also result a bistable behavior in the cavity field. We analyze the relation between detecting field and photon blockade in a superconducting circuit QED system, and show that photon blockade cannot occur when the detecting field is in the bistable regime. This photon blockade is the microwave-photonics analog of the Coulomb blockade. We further demonstrate that the photon transmission through such system can be controlled (from photon blockade to transparency) by the detecting field. Numerical calculations show that our proposal is experimentally realizable with current technology.Comment: 7 papes, 5 figure

Image Ordinal Classification and Understanding: Grid Dropout with Masking Label

Image ordinal classification refers to predicting a discrete target value which carries ordering correlation among image categories. The limited size of labeled ordinal data renders modern deep learning approaches easy to overfit. To tackle this issue, neuron dropout and data augmentation were proposed which, however, still suffer from over-parameterization and breaking spatial structure, respectively. To address the issues, we first propose a grid dropout method that randomly dropout/blackout some areas of the raining image. Then we combine the objective of predicting the blackout patches with classification to take advantage of the spatial information. Finally we demonstrate the effectiveness of both approaches by visualizing the Class Activation Map (CAM) and discover that grid dropout is more aware of the whole facial areas and more robust than neuron dropout for small training dataset. Experiments are conducted on a challenging age estimation dataset - Adience dataset with very competitive results compared with state-of-the-art methods.Comment: IEEE International Conference on Multimedia Expo (ICME Oral Presentation

The origin of the Redshift Spikes in the reflection spectrum of a Few-cycle Pulse in a Dense Medium

We give a detailed description about the reflected spectrum of a few-cycle pulse propagating through a resonant dense medium. An unexpected low-frequency spike appeared in the red edge of the spectrum. To figure out the origin of this redshift spike, we analysis the mechanisms responsible for the redshift of the reflected field. So far, the redshift has not been well studied for few-cycle pulses except a brief explanation made by the previous study [Kaloshan et al., Phys. Rev. Lett. 83 544 (1999).], which attributed the origin of the redshift to the so-called intrapulse four-wave mixing. However, we demonstrate numerically that the redshift consists of two separated spikes is actually produced by the Doppler effect of backpropagation waves, which is an analogue effect of dynamic nonlinear optical skin effect. Our study elucidates the underlying physics of the dynamic nonlinear optical effects responsible for the redshift spikes. Moreover, the dependency of the their frequency on the laser and medium parameters, such as medium density and input pulse area are also discussed

Mechanical PT symmetry in coupled optomechanical systems

We propose to realize mechanical parity-time PT symmetry in two coupled optomechanical systems. To provide gain to one mechanical resonator and the same amount of damping to the other, the two optical cavities should be driven by blue- and red-detuned laser fields, respectively. After adiabatically eliminating the degrees of freedom of the cavity modes, we derive a formula to describe the PT symmetry of two coupled mechanical resonators. Mechanical PT-symmetric phase transition is demonstrated by the dynamical behavior of the mechanical resonators. Moreover, we study the effect of the quantum noises on the dynamical behavior of the mechanical resonators when the system is in the quantum regime.Comment: 12 pages, 11 figure

Single-photon nonreciprocal transport in one-dimensional coupled-resonator waveguides

We study the transport of a single photon in two coupled one-dimensional semi-infinite coupled-resonator waveguides (CRWs), in which both end sides are coupled to a dissipative cavity. We demonstrate that a single photon can transfer from one semi-infinite CRW to the other nonreciprocally. Based on such nonreciprocity, we further construct a three-port single-photon circulator by a T-shaped waveguide, in which three semi-infinite CRWs are pairwise mutually coupled to each other. The single-photon nonreciprocal transport is induced by the breaking of the time-reversal symmetry and the optimal conditions for these phenomena are obtained analytically. The CRWs with broken time-reversal symmetry will open up a kind of quantum devices with versatile applications in quantum networks.Comment: 10 pages, 6 figure

Nonreciprocal conversion between microwave and optical photons in electro-optomechanical systems

We propose to demonstrate nonreciprocal conversion between microwave and optical photons in an electro-optomechanical system where a microwave mode and an optical mode are coupled indirectly via two non-degenerate mechanical modes. The nonreciprocal conversion is obtained in the broken time-reversal symmetry regime, where the conversion of photons from one frequency to the other is enhanced for constructive quantum interference while the conversion in the reversal direction is suppressed due to destructive quantum interference. It is interesting that the nonreciprocal response between the microwave and optical modes in the electro-optomechanical system appears at two different frequencies with opposite directions. The proposal can be used to realize nonreciprocal conversion between photons of any two distinctive modes with different frequencies. Moreover, the electro-optomechanical system can also be used to construct a three-port circulator for three optical modes with distinctively different frequencies by adding an auxiliary optical mode coupled to one of the mechanical modes.Comment: 10 pages, 4 figure