Metric Learning for Temporal Sequence Alignment

In this paper, we propose to learn a Mahalanobis distance to perform alignment of multivariate time series. The learning examples for this task are time series for which the true alignment is known. We cast the alignment problem as a structured prediction task, and propose realistic losses between alignments for which the optimization is tractable. We provide experiments on real data in the audio to audio context, where we show that the learning of a similarity measure leads to improvements in the performance of the alignment task. We also propose to use this metric learning framework to perform feature selection and, from basic audio features, build a combination of these with better performance for the alignment

Weakly-Supervised Alignment of Video With Text

Suppose that we are given a set of videos, along with natural language descriptions in the form of multiple sentences (e.g., manual annotations, movie scripts, sport summaries etc.), and that these sentences appear in the same temporal order as their visual counterparts. We propose in this paper a method for aligning the two modalities, i.e., automatically providing a time stamp for every sentence. Given vectorial features for both video and text, we propose to cast this task as a temporal assignment problem, with an implicit linear mapping between the two feature modalities. We formulate this problem as an integer quadratic program, and solve its continuous convex relaxation using an efficient conditional gradient algorithm. Several rounding procedures are proposed to construct the final integer solution. After demonstrating significant improvements over the state of the art on the related task of aligning video with symbolic labels [7], we evaluate our method on a challenging dataset of videos with associated textual descriptions [36], using both bag-of-words and continuous representations for text.Comment: ICCV 2015 - IEEE International Conference on Computer Vision, Dec 2015, Santiago, Chil

Large-Margin Metric Learning for Constrained Partitioning Problems

International audienceWe consider unsupervised partitioning problems based explicitly or implicitly on the minimization of Euclidean distortions, such as clustering, image or video segmentation, and other change-point detection problems. We emphasize on cases with specific structure, which include many practical situations ranging from meanbasedchange-point detection to image segmentation problems. We aim at learning a Mahalanobis metric for these unsupervised problems, leading to feature weighting and/or selection. This is done in a supervised way by assuming the availability of several (partially) labeled datasets that share the same metric. We cast the metric learning problem as a large-margin structured prediction problem, with proper definition of regularizers and losses, leading to a convex optimization problem which can be solved efficiently. Our experiments show how learning the metric can significantlyimprove performance on bioinformatics, video or image segmentation problems

Instance-level video segmentation from object tracks

International audienceWe address the problem of segmenting multiple object instances in complex videos. Our method does not require manual pixel-level annotation for training, and relies instead on readily-available object detectors or visual object tracking only. Given object bounding boxes at input, we cast video segmentation as a weakly-supervised learning problem. Our proposed objective combines (a) a discrim-inative clustering term for background segmentation, (b) a spectral clustering one for grouping pixels of same object instances, and (c) linear constraints enabling instance-level segmentation. We propose a convex relaxation of this problem and solve it efficiently using the Frank-Wolfe algorithm. We report results and compare our method to several base-lines on a new video dataset for multi-instance person seg-mentation

A weakly-supervised discriminative model for audio-to-score alignment

International audienceIn this paper, we consider a new discriminative approach to the problem of audio-to-score alignment. We consider the two distinct informations provided by the music scores: (i) an exact ordered list of musical events and (ii) an approximate prior information about relative duration of events. We extend the basic dynamic time warping algorithm to a convex problem that learns optimal classifiers for all events while jointly aligning files, using this weak supervision only. We show that the relative duration between events can be easily used as a penalization of our cost function and allows us to drastically improve performances of our approach. We demonstrate the validity of our approach on a large and realistic dataset

Prédiction structurée pour l’analyse de données séquentielles

In this manuscript, we consider structured machine learning problems and consider more precisely the ones involving sequential structure. In a first part, we consider the problem of similarity measure learning for two tasks where sequential structure is at stake: (i) the multivariate change-point detection and (ii) the time warping of pairs of time series. The methods generally used to solve these tasks rely on a similarity measure to compare timestamps. We propose to learn a similarity measure from fully labelled data, i.e., signals already segmented or pairs of signals for which the optimal time warping is known. Using standard structured prediction methods, we present algorithmically efficient ways for learning. We propose to use loss functions specifically designed for the tasks. We validate our approach on real-world data. In a second part, we focus on the problem of weak supervision, in which sequential data are not totally labeled. We focus on the problem of aligning an audio recording with its score. We consider the score as a symbolic representation giving: (i) a complete information about the order of events or notes played and (ii) an approximate idea about the expected shape of the alignment. We propose to learn a classifier for each note using this information. Our learning problem is based onthe optimization of a convex function that takes advantage of the weak supervision and of the sequential structure of data. Our approach is validated through experiments on the task of audio-to-score on real musical data.Dans cette thèse nous nous intéressons à des problèmes d’apprentissage automatique dans le cadre de sorties structurées avec une structure séquentielle. D’une part, nous considérons le problème de l’apprentissage de mesure de similarité pour deux tâches : (i) la détection de rupture dans des signaux multivariés et (ii) le problème de déformation temporelle entre paires de signaux. Les méthodes généralement utilisées pour résoudre ces deux problèmes dépendent fortement d’une mesure de similarité. Nous apprenons une mesure de similarité à partir de données totalement étiquetées. Nous présentons des algorithmes usuels de prédiction structuré, efficaces pour effectuer l’apprentissage. Nous validons notre approche sur des données réelles venant de divers domaines. D’autre part, nous nous intéressons au problème de la faible supervision pour la tâche d’alignement d’un enregistrement audio sur la partition jouée. Nous considérons la partition comme une représentation symbolique donnant (i) une information complète sur l’ordre des symboles et (ii) une information approximative sur la forme de l’alignement attendu. Nous apprenons un classifieur pour chaque symbole avec ces informations. Nous développons une méthode d’apprentissage fondée sur l’optimisation d’une fonction convexe. Nous démontrons la validité de l’approche sur des données musicales

Structured prediction for sequential data

Dans cette thèse nous nous intéressons à des problèmes d’apprentissage automatique dans le cadre de sorties structurées avec une structure séquentielle. D’une part, nous considérons le problème de l’apprentissage de mesure de similarité pour deux tâches : (i) la détection de rupture dans des signaux multivariés et (ii) le problème de déformation temporelle entre paires de signaux. Les méthodes généralement utilisées pour résoudre ces deux problèmes dépendent fortement d’une mesure de similarité. Nous apprenons une mesure de similarité à partir de données totalement étiquetées. Nous présentons des algorithmes usuels de prédiction structuré, efficaces pour effectuer l’apprentissage. Nous validons notre approche sur des données réelles venant de divers domaines. D’autre part, nous nous intéressons au problème de la faible supervision pour la tâche d’alignement d’un enregistrement audio sur la partition jouée. Nous considérons la partition comme une représentation symbolique donnant (i) une information complète sur l’ordre des symboles et (ii) une information approximative sur la forme de l’alignement attendu. Nous apprenons un classifieur pour chaque symbole avec ces informations. Nous développons une méthode d’apprentissage fondée sur l’optimisation d’une fonction convexe. Nous démontrons la validité de l’approche sur des données musicales.In this manuscript, we consider structured machine learning problems and consider more precisely the ones involving sequential structure. In a first part, we consider the problem of similarity measure learning for two tasks where sequential structure is at stake: (i) the multivariate change-point detection and (ii) the time warping of pairs of time series. The methods generally used to solve these tasks rely on a similarity measure to compare timestamps. We propose to learn a similarity measure from fully labelled data, i.e., signals already segmented or pairs of signals for which the optimal time warping is known. Using standard structured prediction methods, we present algorithmically efficient ways for learning. We propose to use loss functions specifically designed for the tasks. We validate our approach on real-world data. In a second part, we focus on the problem of weak supervision, in which sequential data are not totally labeled. We focus on the problem of aligning an audio recording with its score. We consider the score as a symbolic representation giving: (i) a complete information about the order of events or notes played and (ii) an approximate idea about the expected shape of the alignment. We propose to learn a classifier for each note using this information. Our learning problem is based onthe optimization of a convex function that takes advantage of the weak supervision and of the sequential structure of data. Our approach is validated through experiments on the task of audio-to-score on real musical data

Prédiction structurée pour l’analyse de données séquentielles

In this manuscript, we consider structured machine learning problems and consider more precisely the ones involving sequential structure. In a first part, we consider the problem of similarity measure learning for two tasks where sequential structure is at stake: (i) the multivariate change-point detection and (ii) the time warping of pairs of time series. The methods generally used to solve these tasks rely on a similarity measure to compare timestamps. We propose to learn a similarity measure from fully labelled data, i.e., signals already segmented or pairs of signals for which the optimal time warping is known. Using standard structured prediction methods, we present algorithmically efficient ways for learning. We propose to use loss functions specifically designed for the tasks. We validate our approach on real-world data. In a second part, we focus on the problem of weak supervision, in which sequential data are not totally labeled. We focus on the problem of aligning an audio recording with its score. We consider the score as a symbolic representation giving: (i) a complete information about the order of events or notes played and (ii) an approximate idea about the expected shape of the alignment. We propose to learn a classifier for each note using this information. Our learning problem is based onthe optimization of a convex function that takes advantage of the weak supervision and of the sequential structure of data. Our approach is validated through experiments on the task of audio-to-score on real musical data.Dans cette thèse nous nous intéressons à des problèmes d’apprentissage automatique dans le cadre de sorties structurées avec une structure séquentielle. D’une part, nous considérons le problème de l’apprentissage de mesure de similarité pour deux tâches : (i) la détection de rupture dans des signaux multivariés et (ii) le problème de déformation temporelle entre paires de signaux. Les méthodes généralement utilisées pour résoudre ces deux problèmes dépendent fortement d’une mesure de similarité. Nous apprenons une mesure de similarité à partir de données totalement étiquetées. Nous présentons des algorithmes usuels de prédiction structuré, efficaces pour effectuer l’apprentissage. Nous validons notre approche sur des données réelles venant de divers domaines. D’autre part, nous nous intéressons au problème de la faible supervision pour la tâche d’alignement d’un enregistrement audio sur la partition jouée. Nous considérons la partition comme une représentation symbolique donnant (i) une information complète sur l’ordre des symboles et (ii) une information approximative sur la forme de l’alignement attendu. Nous apprenons un classifieur pour chaque symbole avec ces informations. Nous développons une méthode d’apprentissage fondée sur l’optimisation d’une fonction convexe. Nous démontrons la validité de l’approche sur des données musicales

Semidefinite and Spectral Relaxations for Multi-Label Classification

In this paper, we address the problem of multi-label classification. We consider linear classifiers and propose to learn a prior over the space of labels to directly leverage the performance of such methods. This prior takes the form of a quadratic function of the labels and permits to encode both attractive and repulsive relations between labels. We cast this problem as a structured prediction one aiming at optimizing either the accuracies of the predictors or the F 1-score. This leads to an optimization problem closely related to the max-cut problem, which naturally leads to semidefinite and spectral relaxations. We show on standard datasets how such a general prior can improve the performances of multi-label techniques