Probability Distributions.- Linear Models for Regression.- Linear Models for Classification.- Neural Networks.- Kernel Methods.- Sparse Kernel Machines.- Graphical Models.- Mixture Models and EM.- Approximate Inference.- Sampling Methods.- Continuous Latent Variables.- Sequential Data.- Combining Models.

Pattern Recognition and Machine Learning

Anomaly detection is an important problem that has been researched within diverse research areas and application domains. Many anomaly detection techniques have been specifically developed for certain application domains, while others are more generic. This survey tries to provide a structured and comprehensive overview of the research on anomaly detection. We have grouped existing techniques into different categories based on the underlying approach adopted by each technique. For each category we have identified key assumptions, which are used by the techniques to differentiate between normal and anomalous behavior. When applying a given technique to a particular domain, these assumptions can be used as guidelines to assess the effectiveness of the technique in that domain. For each category, we provide a basic anomaly detection technique, and then show how the different existing techniques in that category are variants of the basic technique. This template provides an easier and more succinct understanding of the techniques belonging to each category. Further, for each category, we identify the advantages and disadvantages of the techniques in that category. We also provide a discussion on the computational complexity of the techniques since it is an important issue in real application domains. We hope that this survey will provide a better understanding of the different directions in which research has been done on this topic, and how techniques developed in one area can be applied in domains for which they were not intended to begin with.

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Anomaly detection: A survey

Many underlying relationships among data in several areas of science and engineering, e.g., computer vision, molecular chemistry, molecular biology, pattern recognition, and data mining, can be represented in terms of graphs. In this paper, we propose a new neural network model, called graph neural network (GNN) model, that extends existing neural network methods for processing the data represented in graph domains. This GNN model, which can directly process most of the practically useful types of graphs, e.g., acyclic, cyclic, directed, and undirected, implements a function tau(G,n) isin IRm that maps a graph G and one of its nodes n into an m-dimensional Euclidean space. A supervised learning algorithm is derived to estimate the parameters of the proposed GNN model. The computational cost of the proposed algorithm is also considered. Some experimental results are shown to validate the proposed learning algorithm, and to demonstrate its generalization capabilities.

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The Graph Neural Network Model

An overview of the self-organizing map algorithm, on which the papers in this issue are based, is presented in this article.

The Self-Organizing Map

Handwriting has continued to persist as a means of communication and recording information in day-to-day life even with the introduction of new technologies. Given its ubiquity in human transactions, machine recognition of handwriting has practical significance, as in reading handwritten notes in a PDA, in postal addresses on envelopes, in amounts in bank checks, in handwritten fields in forms, etc. This overview describes the nature of handwritten language, how it is transduced into electronic data, and the basic concepts behind written language recognition algorithms. Both the online case (which pertains to the availability of trajectory data during writing) and the off-line case (which pertains to scanned images) are considered. Algorithms for preprocessing, character and word recognition, and performance with practical systems are indicated. Other fields of application, like signature verification, writer authentification, handwriting learning tools are also considered.

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Online and off-line handwriting recognition: a comprehensive survey

A recent paper posed the question: "Graph Matching: What are we really talking about?". Far from providing a definite answer to that question, in this paper we will try to characterize the role that graphs play within the Pattern Recognition field. To this aim two taxonomies are presented and discussed. The first includes almost all the graph matching algorithms proposed from the late seventies, and describes the different classes of algorithms. The second taxonomy considers the types of common applications of graph-based techniques in the Pattern Recognition and Machine Vision field.

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Thirty years of graph matching in pattern recognition

We present an algorithm for graph isomorphism and subgraph isomorphism suited for dealing with large graphs. A first version of the algorithm has been presented in a previous paper, where we examined its performance for the isomorphism of small and medium size graphs. The algorithm is improved here to reduce its spatial complexity and to achieve a better performance on large graphs; its features are analyzed in detail with special reference to time and memory requirements. The results of a testing performed on a publicly available database of synthetically generated graphs and on graphs relative to a real application dealing with technical drawings are presented, confirming the effectiveness of the approach, especially when working with large graphs.

A (sub)graph isomorphism algorithm for matching large graphs

We explore the use of convolutional neural networks for the semantic classification of remote sensing scenes. Two recently proposed architectures, CaffeNet and GoogLeNet, are adopted, with three different learning modalities. Besides conventional training from scratch, we resort to pre-trained networks that are only fine-tuned on the target data, so as to avoid overfitting problems and reduce design time. Experiments on two remote sensing datasets, with markedly different characteristics, testify on the effectiveness and wide applicability of the proposed solution, which guarantees a significant performance improvement over all state-of-the-art references.

Land Use Classification in Remote Sensing Images by Convolutional Neural Networks

In this paper an improved version of a graph matching algorithm is presented, which is able to efficiently solve the graph isomorphism and graph-subgraph isomorphism problems on Attributed Relational Graphs. This version is particularly suited to work with very large graphs, since its memory requirements are quite smaller than those of other algorithms of the same kind. After a detailed description of the algorithm, an experimental comparison is made against both the previous version (developed by the same authors) and the Ullmann’s algorithm.

http://www.engr.uconn.edu/~vkk06001/GraphIsomorphism/Papers/vf-algorithm.pdf

An Improved Algorithm for Matching Large Graphs

The paper discusses the performance of a graph matching algorithm tailored for dealing with large graphs in computer vision without using information about the topology of the graphs to be matched. The algorithm, presented in more detail in other papers (and publicly available on the WWW as VF), is now discussed with reference to its computational complexity and memory requirements. The performance analysis is carried out by theoretically characterizing the matching time and the required memory in the best and worst cases. The theoretical analysis is completed by tests on a database of graphs randomly generated. The algorithm is compared with the one proposed by Ullmann (1976): experimental results confirmed the theoretical expectations, highlighting the overall efficiency of the algorithm. Some results obtained by researchers who recently used the algorithm in application domains requiring a massive use of graph matching techniques are finally reported.

Carlo Sansone

Papers

Thirty years of graph matching in pattern recognition

A (sub)graph isomorphism algorithm for matching large graphs

Land Use Classification in Remote Sensing Images by Convolutional Neural Networks

An Improved Algorithm for Matching Large Graphs

Performance evaluation of the VF graph matching algorithm