76 research outputs found
Adapting Computer Vision Models To Limitations On Input Dimensionality And Model Complexity
When considering instances of distributed systems where visual sensors communicate with remote predictive models, data traffic is limited to the capacity of communication channels, and hardware limits the processing of collected data prior to transmission. We study novel methods of adapting visual inference to limitations on complexity and data availability at test time, wherever the aforementioned limitations exist. Our contributions detailed in this thesis consider both task-specific and task-generic approaches to reducing the data requirement for inference, and evaluate our proposed methods on a wide range of computer vision tasks. This thesis makes four distinct contributions: (i) We investigate multi-class action classification via two-stream convolutional neural networks that directly ingest information extracted from compressed video bitstreams. We show that selective access to macroblock motion vector information provides a good low-dimensional approximation of the underlying optical flow in visual sequences. (ii) We devise a bitstream cropping method by which AVC/H.264 and H.265 bitstreams are reduced to the minimum amount of necessary elements for optical flow extraction, while maintaining compliance with codec standards. We additionally study the effect of codec rate-quality control on the sparsity and noise incurred on optical flow derived from resulting bitstreams, and do so for multiple coding standards. (iii) We demonstrate degrees of variability in the amount of data required for action classification, and leverage this to reduce the dimensionality of input volumes by inferring the required temporal extent for accurate classification prior to processing via learnable machines. (iv) We extend the Mixtures-of-Experts (MoE) paradigm to adapt the data cost of inference for any set of constituent experts. We postulate that the minimum acceptable data cost of inference varies for different input space partitions, and consider mixtures where each expert is designed to meet a different set of constraints on input dimensionality. To take advantage of the flexibility of such mixtures in processing different input representations and modalities, we train biased gating functions such that experts requiring less information to make their inferences are favoured to others. We finally note that, our proposed data utility optimization solutions include a learnable component which considers specified priorities on the amount of information to be used prior to inference, and can be realized for any combination of tasks, modalities, and constraints on available data
Video Classification With CNNs: Using The Codec As A Spatio-Temporal Activity Sensor
We investigate video classification via a two-stream convolutional neural
network (CNN) design that directly ingests information extracted from
compressed video bitstreams. Our approach begins with the observation that all
modern video codecs divide the input frames into macroblocks (MBs). We
demonstrate that selective access to MB motion vector (MV) information within
compressed video bitstreams can also provide for selective, motion-adaptive, MB
pixel decoding (a.k.a., MB texture decoding). This in turn allows for the
derivation of spatio-temporal video activity regions at extremely high speed in
comparison to conventional full-frame decoding followed by optical flow
estimation. In order to evaluate the accuracy of a video classification
framework based on such activity data, we independently train two CNN
architectures on MB texture and MV correspondences and then fuse their scores
to derive the final classification of each test video. Evaluation on two
standard datasets shows that the proposed approach is competitive to the best
two-stream video classification approaches found in the literature. At the same
time: (i) a CPU-based realization of our MV extraction is over 977 times faster
than GPU-based optical flow methods; (ii) selective decoding is up to 12 times
faster than full-frame decoding; (iii) our proposed spatial and temporal CNNs
perform inference at 5 to 49 times lower cloud computing cost than the fastest
methods from the literature.Comment: Accepted in IEEE Transactions on Circuits and Systems for Video
Technology. Extension of ICIP 2017 conference pape
Vectors of Locally Aggregated Centers for Compact Video Representation
We propose a novel vector aggregation technique for compact video
representation, with application in accurate similarity detection within large
video datasets. The current state-of-the-art in visual search is formed by the
vector of locally aggregated descriptors (VLAD) of Jegou et. al. VLAD generates
compact video representations based on scale-invariant feature transform (SIFT)
vectors (extracted per frame) and local feature centers computed over a
training set. With the aim to increase robustness to visual distortions, we
propose a new approach that operates at a coarser level in the feature
representation. We create vectors of locally aggregated centers (VLAC) by first
clustering SIFT features to obtain local feature centers (LFCs) and then
encoding the latter with respect to given centers of local feature centers
(CLFCs), extracted from a training set. The sum-of-differences between the LFCs
and the CLFCs are aggregated to generate an extremely-compact video description
used for accurate video segment similarity detection. Experimentation using a
video dataset, comprising more than 1000 minutes of content from the Open Video
Project, shows that VLAC obtains substantial gains in terms of mean Average
Precision (mAP) against VLAD and the hyper-pooling method of Douze et. al.,
under the same compaction factor and the same set of distortions.Comment: Proc. IEEE International Conference on Multimedia and Expo, ICME
2015, Torino, Ital
Rate-Accuracy Trade-Off In Video Classification With Deep Convolutional Neural Networks
Advanced video classification systems decode video frames to derive the
necessary texture and motion representations for ingestion and analysis by
spatio-temporal deep convolutional neural networks (CNNs). However, when
considering visual Internet-of-Things applications, surveillance systems and
semantic crawlers of large video repositories, the video capture and the
CNN-based semantic analysis parts do not tend to be co-located. This
necessitates the transport of compressed video over networks and incurs
significant overhead in bandwidth and energy consumption, thereby significantly
undermining the deployment potential of such systems. In this paper, we
investigate the trade-off between the encoding bitrate and the achievable
accuracy of CNN-based video classification models that directly ingest
AVC/H.264 and HEVC encoded videos. Instead of retaining entire compressed video
bitstreams and applying complex optical flow calculations prior to CNN
processing, we only retain motion vector and select texture information at
significantly-reduced bitrates and apply no additional processing prior to CNN
ingestion. Based on three CNN architectures and two action recognition
datasets, we achieve 11%-94% saving in bitrate with marginal effect on
classification accuracy. A model-based selection between multiple CNNs
increases these savings further, to the point where, if up to 7% loss of
accuracy can be tolerated, video classification can take place with as little
as 3 kbps for the transport of the required compressed video information to the
system implementing the CNN models
Biased Mixtures Of Experts: Enabling Computer Vision Inference Under Data Transfer Limitations
We propose a novel mixture-of-experts class to optimize computer vision
models in accordance with data transfer limitations at test time. Our approach
postulates that the minimum acceptable amount of data allowing for
highly-accurate results can vary for different input space partitions.
Therefore, we consider mixtures where experts require different amounts of
data, and train a sparse gating function to divide the input space for each
expert. By appropriate hyperparameter selection, our approach is able to bias
mixtures of experts towards selecting specific experts over others. In this
way, we show that the data transfer optimization between visual sensing and
processing can be solved as a convex optimization problem.To demonstrate the
relation between data availability and performance, we evaluate biased mixtures
on a range of mainstream computer vision problems, namely: (i) single shot
detection, (ii) image super resolution, and (iii) realtime video action
classification. For all cases, and when experts constitute modified baselines
to meet different limits on allowed data utility, biased mixtures significantly
outperform previous work optimized to meet the same constraints on available
data
PAC-Bayesian Bounds on Rate-Efficient Classifiers
We derive analytic bounds on the noise invariance of majority vote classifiers operating on compressed inputs. Specifically, starting from recent
bounds on the true risk of majority vote classifiers,
we extend the applicability of PAC-Bayesian theory to quantify the resilience of majority votes to
input noise stemming from compression. The derived bounds are intuitive in binary classification
settings, where they can be measured as expressions of voter differentials and voter pair agreement. By combining measures of input distortion
with analytic guarantees on noise invariance, we
prescribe rate-efficient machines to compress inputs without affecting subsequent classification.
Our validation shows how bounding noise invariance can inform the compression stage for any
majority vote classifier such that worst-case implications of bad input reconstructions are known,
and inputs can be compressed to the minimum
amount of information needed prior to inference
Graph-Based Spatio-Temporal Feature Learning for Neuromorphic Vision Sensing
Neuromorphic vision sensing (NVS) devices represent visual information as sequences of asynchronous discrete events (a.k.a., “spikes”) in response to changes in scene reflectance. Unlike conventional active pixel sensing (APS), NVS allows for significantly higher event sampling rates at substantially increased energy efficiency and robustness to illumination changes. However, feature representation for NVS is far behind its APS-based counterparts, resulting in lower performance in high-level computer vision tasks. To fully utilize its sparse and asynchronous nature, we propose a compact graph representation for NVS, which allows for end-to-end learning with graph convolution neural networks. We couple this with a novel end-to-end feature learning framework that accommodates both appearance-based and motion-based tasks. The core of our framework comprises a spatial feature learning module, which utilizes residual-graph convolutional neural networks (RG-CNN), for end-to-end learning of appearance-based features directly from graphs. We extend this with our proposed Graph2Grid block and temporal feature learning module for efficiently modelling temporal dependencies over multiple graphs and a long temporal extent. We show how our framework can be configured for object classification, action recognition and action similarity labeling. Importantly, our approach preserves the spatial and temporal coherence of spike events, while requiring less computation and memory. The experimental validation shows that our proposed framework outperforms all recent methods on standard datasets. Finally, to address the absence of large real-world NVS datasets for complex recognition tasks, we introduce, evaluate and make available the American Sign Language letters (ASL-DVS), as well as human action dataset (UCF101-DVS, HMDB51-DVS and ASLAN-DVS)
Graph-based Spatial-temporal Feature Learning for Neuromorphic Vision Sensing
Neuromorphic vision sensing (NVS)\ devices represent visual information as
sequences of asynchronous discrete events (a.k.a., "spikes") in response to
changes in scene reflectance. Unlike conventional active pixel sensing (APS),
NVS allows for significantly higher event sampling rates at substantially
increased energy efficiency and robustness to illumination changes. However,
feature representation for NVS is far behind its APS-based counterparts,
resulting in lower performance in high-level computer vision tasks. To fully
utilize its sparse and asynchronous nature, we propose a compact graph
representation for NVS, which allows for end-to-end learning with graph
convolution neural networks. We couple this with a novel end-to-end feature
learning framework that accommodates both appearance-based and motion-based
tasks. The core of our framework comprises a spatial feature learning module,
which utilizes residual-graph convolutional neural networks (RG-CNN), for
end-to-end learning of appearance-based features directly from graphs. We
extend this with our proposed Graph2Grid block and temporal feature learning
module for efficiently modelling temporal dependencies over multiple graphs and
a long temporal extent. We show how our framework can be configured for object
classification, action recognition and action similarity labeling. Importantly,
our approach preserves the spatial and temporal coherence of spike events,
while requiring less computation and memory. The experimental validation shows
that our proposed framework outperforms all recent methods on standard
datasets. Finally, to address the absence of large real-world NVS datasets for
complex recognition tasks, we introduce, evaluate and make available the
American Sign Language letters (ASL-DVS), as well as human action dataset
(UCF101-DVS, HMDB51-DVS and ASLAN-DVS).Comment: 16 pages, 5 figures. This work is a journal extension of our ICCV'19
paper arXiv:1908.0664
Global burden of 369 diseases and injuries in 204 countries and territories, 1990–2019 : a systematic analysis for the Global Burden of Disease Study 2019
Background In an era of shifting global agendas and expanded emphasis on non-communicable diseases and injuries along with communicable diseases, sound evidence on trends by cause at the national level is essential. The Global Burden of Diseases, Injuries, and Risk Factors Study (GBD) provides a systematic scientific assessment of published, publicly available, and contributed data on incidence, prevalence, and mortality for a mutually exclusive and collectively exhaustive list of diseases and injuries.
Methods GBD estimates incidence, prevalence, mortality, years of life lost (YLLs), years lived with disability (YLDs), and disability-adjusted life-years (DALYs) due to 369 diseases and injuries, for two sexes, and for 204 countries and territories. Input data were extracted from censuses, household surveys, civil registration and vital statistics, disease registries, health service use, air pollution monitors, satellite imaging, disease notifications, and other sources. Cause-specific death rates and cause fractions were calculated using the Cause of Death Ensemble model and spatiotemporal Gaussian process regression. Cause-specific deaths were adjusted to match the total all-cause deaths calculated as part of the GBD population, fertility, and mortality estimates. Deaths were multiplied by standard life expectancy at each age to calculate YLLs. A Bayesian meta-regression modelling tool, DisMod-MR 2.1, was used to ensure consistency between incidence, prevalence, remission, excess mortality, and cause-specific mortality for most causes. Prevalence estimates were multiplied by disability weights for mutually exclusive sequelae of diseases and injuries to calculate YLDs. We considered results in the context of the Socio-demographic Index (SDI), a composite indicator of income per capita, years of schooling, and fertility rate in females younger than 25 years. Uncertainty intervals (UIs) were generated for every metric using the 25th and 975th ordered 1000 draw values of the posterior distribution.
Findings Global health has steadily improved over the past 30 years as measured by age-standardised DALY rates. After taking into account population growth and ageing, the absolute number of DALYs has remained stable. Since 2010, the pace of decline in global age-standardised DALY rates has accelerated in age groups younger than 50 years compared with the 1990-2010 time period, with the greatest annualised rate of decline occurring in the 0-9-year age group. Six infectious diseases were among the top ten causes of DALYs in children younger than 10 years in 2019: lower respiratory infections (ranked second), diarrhoeal diseases (third), malaria (fifth), meningitis (sixth), whooping cough (ninth), and sexually transmitted infections (which, in this age group, is fully accounted for by congenital syphilis; ranked tenth). In adolescents aged 10-24 years, three injury causes were among the top causes of DALYs: road injuries (ranked first), self-harm (third), and interpersonal violence (fifth). Five of the causes that were in the top ten for ages 10-24 years were also in the top ten in the 25-49-year age group: road injuries (ranked first), HIV/AIDS (second), low back pain (fourth), headache disorders (fifth), and depressive disorders (sixth). In 2019, ischaemic heart disease and stroke were the top-ranked causes of DALYs in both the 50-74-year and 75-years-and-older age groups. Since 1990, there has been a marked shift towards a greater proportion of burden due to YLDs from non-communicable diseases and injuries. In 2019, there were 11 countries where non-communicable disease and injury YLDs constituted more than half of all disease burden. Decreases in age-standardised DALY rates have accelerated over the past decade in countries at the lower end of the SDI range, while improvements have started to stagnate or even reverse in countries with higher SDI.
Interpretation As disability becomes an increasingly large component of disease burden and a larger component of health expenditure, greater research and development investment is needed to identify new, more effective intervention strategies. With a rapidly ageing global population, the demands on health services to deal with disabling outcomes, which increase with age, will require policy makers to anticipate these changes. The mix of universal and more geographically specific influences on health reinforces the need for regular reporting on population health in detail and by underlying cause to help decision makers to identify success stories of disease control to emulate, as well as opportunities to improve
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