Jun-Bao Li

Abstract: In the recent years, the pattern recognition community paid more attention to a new kind of feature extraction method, the manifold learning methods, which attempt to project the original data into a lower dimensional feature space by preserving the local neighborhood structure. Among them, locality preserving projection (LPP) is one of the most promising feature extraction techniques. However, when LPP is applied to the classification tasks, it shows some limitations, such as the ignorance of the label information. In this paper, we propose a novel local structure based feature extraction method, called class-wise locality preserving projection (CLPP). CLPP utilizes class information to guide the procedure of feature extraction. In CLPP, the local structure of the original data is constructed according to a certain kind of similarity between data points, which takes special consideration of both the local information and the class information. The kernelized (nonlinear) counterpart of this linear feature extractor is also established in the paper. Moreover, a kernel version of CLPP namely Kernel CLPP (KCLPP) is developed through applying the kernel trick to CLPP to increase its performance on nonlinear feature extraction. Experiments on ORL face database and YALE face database are performed to test and evaluate the proposed algorithm.

Abstract: Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) data collection is influenced by SNR, hardware, image time, and other factors. The super-resolution analysis is a critical way to improve the imaging quality. This work presents a framework of super-resolution MRI via sparse reconstruction, and this method is promising to solve the data collection limitations. A novel dictionary training method for sparse reconstruction for enhancing the similarity of sparse representations between the low resolution and high resolution MRI block pairs through simultaneous training two dictionaries. Low resolution MRI blocks generate the high resolution MRI blocks with proposed sparse representation (SR) coefficients. Comprehensive evaluations are implemented to test the feasibility and performance of the SR–MRI method on the real database.

Abstract: When localizing the position of an unknown node for wireless sensor networks, the received signal strength indicator (RSSI) value is usually considered to fit a fixed attenuation model with a corresponding communication distance. However, due to some negative factors, the relationship is not valid in the actual localization environment, which leads to a considerable localization error. Therefore, we present a method for improved RSSI-based localization through uncertain data mapping. Starting from an advanced RSSI measurement, the distributions of the RSSI data tuples are determined and expressed in terms of interval data. Then, a data tuple pattern matching strategy is applied to the RSSI data vector during the localization procedure. Experimental results in three representative wireless environments show the feasibility and effectiveness of the proposed approach.

Abstract: For mobile communication traffic series, an accurate multistep prediction result plays an important role in network management, capacity planning, traffic congestion control, channel equalization, etc. A novel time series forecasting based on echo state networks and multiplicative seasonal ARIMA model are proposed for this multiperiodic, nonstationary, mobile communication traffic series. Motivated by the fact that the real traffic series exhibits periodicities at the cycle of 6, 12, and 24 h, as well as 1 week, we isolate most of mentioned above features for each cell and integrate all the wavelet multiresolution sublayers into two parts for consideration of alleviating the accumulated error. On seasonal characters, multiplicative seasonal ARIMA model is to predict the seasonal part, and echo state networks are to deal with the smooth part because of its prominent approximation capabilities and convenience. Experimental results on real traffic dataset show that proposed method performs well on the prediction accuracy.

Abstract: Kernel discriminant analysis (KDA) is effective to extract nonlinear discriminative features of input samples using the kernel trick. However, the conventional KDA algorithm endures the kernel selection which has significant impact on the performances of KDA. In order to overcome this limitation, a novel nonlinear feature extraction method called adaptive quasiconformal kernel discriminant analysis (AQKDA) is proposed in this paper. AQKDA maps the data from the original input space to the high dimensional kernel space using a quasiconformal kernel. The adaptive parameters of the quasiconformal kernel are automatically calculated through optimizing an objective function designed for measuring the class separability of data in the feature space. Consequently, the nonlinear features extracted by AQKDA have the larger class separability compared with KDA. Experimental results on the two real-world datasets demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed method.

Abstract: 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.

Abstract: Reinforcement learning offers to robotics a framework and set of tools for the design of sophisticated and hard-to-engineer behaviors. Conversely, the challenges of robotic problems provide both inspiration, impact, and validation for developments in reinforcement learning. The relationship between disciplines has sufficient promise to be likened to that between physics and mathematics. In this article, we attempt to strengthen the links between the two research communities by providing a survey of work in reinforcement learning for behavior generation in robots. We highlight both key challenges in robot reinforcement learning as well as notable successes. We discuss how contributions tamed the complexity of the domain and study the role of algorithms, representations, and prior knowledge in achieving these successes. As a result, a particular focus of our paper lies on the choice between model-based and model-free as well as between value-function-based and policy-search methods. By analyzing a simple problem in some detail we demonstrate how reinforcement learning approaches may be profitably applied, and we note throughout open questions and the tremendous potential for future research.

Abstract: Reinforcement learning offers to robotics a framework and set of tools for the design of sophisticated and hard-to-engineer behaviors. Conversely, the challenges of robotic problems provide both inspiration, impact, and validation for developments in reinforcement learning. The relationship between disciplines has sufficient promise to be likened to that between physics and mathematics. In this article, we attempt to strengthen the links between the two research communities by providing a survey of work in reinforcement learning for behavior generation in robots. We highlight both key challenges in robot reinforcement learning as well as notable successes. We discuss how contributions tamed the complexity of the domain and study the role of algorithms, representations, and prior knowledge in achieving these successes. As a result, a particular focus of our paper lies on the choice between model-based and model-free as well as between value-function-based and policy-search methods. By analyzing a simple problem in some detail we demonstrate how reinforcement learning approaches may be profitably applied, and we note throughout open questions and the tremendous potential for future research.

Abstract: We develop a novel maximum neighborhood margin discriminant projection (MNMDP) technique for dimensionality reduction of high-dimensional data. It utilizes both the local information and class information to model the intraclass and interclass neighborhood scatters. By maximizing the margin between intraclass and interclass neighborhoods of all points, MNMDP cannot only detect the true intrinsic manifold structure of the data but also strengthen the pattern discrimination among different classes. To verify the classification performance of the proposed MNMDP, it is applied to the PolyU HRF and FKP databases, the AR face database, and the UCI Musk database, in comparison with the competing methods such as PCA and LDA. The experimental results demonstrate the effectiveness of our MNMDP in pattern classification.

Abstract: One of the major challenges encountered by current face recognition techniques lies in the difficulties of handling varying poses, i.e., recognition of faces in arbitrary in-depth rotations. The face image differences caused by rotations are often larger than the inter-person differences used in distinguishing identities. Face recognition across pose, on the other hand, has great potentials in many applications dealing with uncooperative subjects, in which the full power of face recognition being a passive biometric technique can be implemented and utilised. Extensive efforts have been put into the research toward pose-invariant face recognition in recent years and many prominent approaches have been proposed. However, several issues in face recognition across pose still remain open, such as lack of understanding about subspaces of pose variant images, problem intractability in 3D face modelling, complex face surface reflection mechanism, etc. This paper provides a critical survey of researches on image-based face recognition across pose. The existing techniques are comprehensively reviewed and discussed. They are classified into different categories according to their methodologies in handling pose variations. Their strategies, advantages/disadvantages and performances are elaborated. By generalising different tactics in handling pose variations and evaluating their performances, several promising directions for future research have been suggested.