Showing papers by "Arvind Ganesh published in 2010"

RASL: Robust alignment by sparse and low-rank decomposition for linearly correlated images

Abstract: This paper studies the problem of simultaneously aligning a batch of linearly correlated images despite gross corruption (such as occlusion). Our method seeks an optimal set of image domain transformations such that the matrix of transformed images can be decomposed as the sum of a sparse matrix of errors and a low-rank matrix of recovered aligned images. We reduce this extremely challenging optimization problem to a sequence of convex programs that minimize the sum of l1-norm and nuclear norm of the two component matrices, which can be efficiently solved by scalable convex optimization techniques with guaranteed fast convergence. We verify the efficacy of the proposed robust alignment algorithm with extensive experiments with both controlled and uncontrolled real data, demonstrating higher accuracy and efficiency than existing methods over a wide range of realistic misalignments and corruptions.

Fast ℓ 1 -minimization algorithms and an application in robust face recognition: A review

Abstract: We provide a comprehensive review of five representative l 1 -minimization methods, i.e., gradient projection, homotopy, iterative shrinkage-thresholding, proximal gradient, and augmented Lagrange multiplier. The repository is intended to fill in a gap in the existing literature to systematically benchmark the performance of these algorithms using a consistent experimental setting. The experiment will be focused on the application of face recognition, where a sparse representation framework has recently been developed to recover human identities from facial images that may be affected by illumination change, occlusion, and facial disguise. The paper also provides useful guidelines to practitioners working in similar fields.

Robust photometric stereo via low-rank matrix completion and recovery

Abstract: We present a new approach to robustly solve photometric stereo problems. We cast the problem of recovering surface normals from multiple lighting conditions as a problem of recovering a low-rank matrix with both missing entries and corrupted entries, which model all types of non-Lambertian effects such as shadows and specularities. Unlike previous approaches that use Least-Squares or heuristic robust techniques, our method uses advanced convex optimization techniques that are guaranteed to find the correct low-rank matrix by simultaneously fixing its missing and erroneous entries. Extensive experimental results demonstrate that our method achieves unprecedentedly accurate estimates of surface normals in the presence of significant amount of shadows and specularities. The new technique can be used to improve virtually any photometric stereo method including uncalibrated photometric stereo.

TILT: Transform Invariant Low-rank Textures

Abstract: In this paper, we show how to efficiently and effectively extract a class of "low-rank textures" in a 3D scene from 2D images despite significant corruptions and warping. The low-rank textures capture geometrically meaningful structures in an image, which encompass conventional local features such as edges and corners as well as all kinds of regular, symmetric patterns ubiquitous in urban environments and man-made objects. Our approach to finding these low-rank textures leverages the recent breakthroughs in convex optimization that enable robust recovery of a high-dimensional low-rank matrix despite gross sparse errors. In the case of planar regions with significant affine or projective deformation, our method can accurately recover both the intrinsic low-rank texture and the precise domain transformation, and hence the 3D geometry and appearance of the planar regions. Extensive experimental results demonstrate that this new technique works effectively for many regular and near-regular patterns or objects that are approximately low-rank, such as symmetrical patterns, building facades, printed texts, and human faces.

TILT: transform invariant low-rank textures

Abstract: In this paper, we show how to efficiently and effectively extract a rich class of low-rank textures in a 3D scene from 2D images despite significant distortion and warping. The low-rank textures capture geometrically meaningful structures in an image, which encompass conventional local features such as edges and corners as well as all kinds of regular, symmetric patterns ubiquitous in urban environments and manmade objects. Our approach to finding these low-rank textures leverages the recent breakthroughs in convex optimization that enable robust recovery of a high-dimensional low-rank matrix despite gross sparse errors. In the case of planar regions with significant projective deformation, our method can accurately recover both the intrinsic low-rank texture and the precise domain transformation. Extensive experimental results demonstrate that this new technique works effectively for many nearregular patterns or objects that are approximately low-rank, such as human faces and text.

Fast L1-Minimization Algorithms For Robust Face Recognition

Abstract: L1-minimization refers to finding the minimum L1-norm solution to an underdetermined linear system b=Ax. Under certain conditions as described in compressive sensing theory, the minimum L1-norm solution is also the sparsest solution. In this paper, our study addresses the speed and scalability of its algorithms. In particular, we focus on the numerical implementation of a sparsity-based classification framework in robust face recognition, where sparse representation is sought to recover human identities from very high-dimensional facial images that may be corrupted by illumination, facial disguise, and pose variation. Although the underlying numerical problem is a linear program, traditional algorithms are known to suffer poor scalability for large-scale applications. We investigate a new solution based on a classical convex optimization framework, known as Augmented Lagrangian Methods (ALM). The new convex solvers provide a viable solution to real-world, time-critical applications such as face recognition. We conduct extensive experiments to validate and compare the performance of the ALM algorithms against several popular L1-minimization solvers, including interior-point method, Homotopy, FISTA, SESOP-PCD, approximate message passing (AMP) and TFOCS. To aid peer evaluation, the code for all the algorithms has been made publicly available.

Dense error correction for low-rank matrices via Principal Component Pursuit

Abstract: We consider the problem of recovering a low-rank matrix when some of its entries, whose locations are not known a priori, are corrupted by errors of arbitrarily large magnitude. It has recently been shown that this problem can be solved efficiently and effectively by a convex program named Principal Component Pursuit (PCP), provided that the fraction of corrupted entries and the rank of the matrix are both sufficiently small. In this paper, we extend that result to show that the same convex program, with a slightly improved weighting parameter, exactly recovers the low-rank matrix even if “almost all” of its entries are arbitrarily corrupted, provided the signs of the errors are random. We corroborate our result with simulations on randomly generated matrices and errors.

Dense Error Correction for Low-Rank Matrices via Principal Component Pursuit

Abstract: We consider the problem of recovering a low-rank matrix when some of its entries, whose locations are not known a priori, are corrupted by errors of arbitrarily large magnitude. It has recently been shown that this problem can be solved efficiently and effectively by a convex program named Principal Component Pursuit (PCP), provided that the fraction of corrupted entries and the rank of the matrix are both sufficiently small. In this paper, we extend that result to show that the same convex program, with a slightly improved weighting parameter, exactly recovers the low-rank matrix even if "almost all" of its entries are arbitrarily corrupted, provided the signs of the errors are random. We corroborate our result with simulations on randomly generated matrices and errors.