Effrosyni Kokiopoulou

Polynomial Filtering for Fast Convergence in Distributed Consensus

In the past few years, the problem of distributed consensus has received a lot of attention, particularly in the framework of ad hoc sensor networks. Most methods proposed in the literature address the consensus averaging problem by distributed linear iterative algorithms, with asymptotic convergence of the consensus solution. The convergence rate of such distributed algorithms typically depends on the network topology and the weights given to the edges between neighboring sensors, as described by the network matrix. In this paper, we propose to accelerate the convergence rate for given network matrices by the use of polynomial filtering algorithms. The main idea of the proposed methodology is to apply a polynomial filter on the network matrix that will shape its spectrum in order to increase the convergence rate. Such an algorithm is equivalent to periodic updates in each of the sensors by aggregating a few of its previous estimates. We formulate the computation of the coefficients of the optimal polynomial as a semidefinite program that can be efficiently and globally solved for both static and dynamic network topologies. We finally provide simulation results that demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed solutions in accelerating the convergence of distributed consensus averaging problems.

Mobile museum guide based on fast SIFT recognition

This article explores the feasibility of a market-ready, mobile pattern recognition system based on the latest findings in the field of object recognition and currently available hardware and network technology. More precisely, an innovative, mobile museum guide system is presented, which enables camera phones to recognize paintings in art galleries. After careful examination, the algorithms Scale-Invariant Feature Transform (SIFT) and Speeded Up Robust Features (SURF) were found most promising for this goal. Consequently, both have been integrated in a fully implemented prototype system and their performance has been thoroughly evaluated under realistic conditions. In order to speed up the matching process for finding the corresponding sample in the feature database, an approximation to Nearest Neighbor Search was investigated. The k-means based clustering approach was found to significantly improve the computational time.

3D face recognition using sparse spherical representations

This paper addresses the problem of 3D face recognition using spherical sparse representations. We first propose a fully automated registration process that permits to align the 3D face point clouds. These point clouds are then represented as signals on the 2D sphere, in order to take benefit of the geometry information. Simultaneous sparse approximations implement a dimensionality reduction process by subspace projection. Each face is typically represented by a few spherical basis functions that are able to capture the salient facial characteristics. The dimensionality reduction step preserves the discriminant facial information and eventually permits an effective matching in the reduced space, where it can further be combined with LDA for improved recognition performance. We evaluate the 3D face recognition algorithm on the FRGC v.1.0 data set, where it outperforms classical state-of-the-art solutions based on PCA or LDA on depth face images.

Semantic Coding by Supervised Dimensionality Reduction

This paper addresses the problem of representing multimedia information under a compressed form that permits efficient classification. The semantic coding problem starts from a subspace method where dimensionality reduction is formulated as a matrix factorization problem. Data samples are jointly represented in a common subspace extracted from a redundant dictionary of basis functions. We first build on greedy pursuit algorithms for simultaneous sparse approximations to solve the dimensionality reduction problem. The method is extended into a supervised algorithm, which further encourages the class separability in the extraction of the most relevant features. The resulting supervised dimensionality reduction scheme provides an interesting tradeoff between approximation (or compression) and discriminant feature extraction (or classification). The algorithm provides a compressed signal representation that can directly be used for multimedia data mining. The application of the proposed algorithm to image recognition problems further demonstrates classification performances that are competitive with state-of-the-art solutions in handwritten digit or face recognition. Semantic coding certainly represents an interesting solution to the challenging problem of processing huge volumes of multidimensional data in modern multimedia systems, where compressed data have to be processed and analyzed with limited computational complexity.

Minimum Distance between Pattern Transformation Manifolds: Algorithm and Applications

Transformation invariance is an important property in pattern recognition, where different observations of the same object typically receive the same label. This paper focuses on a transformation-invariant distance measure that represents the minimum distance between the transformation manifolds spanned by patterns of interest. Since these manifolds are typically nonlinear, the computation of the manifold distance (MD) becomes a nonconvex optimization problem. We propose representing a pattern of interest as a linear combination of a few geometric functions extracted from a structured and redundant basis. Transforming the pattern results in the transformation of its constituent parts. We show that, when the transformation is restricted to a synthesis of translations, rotations, and isotropic scalings, such a pattern representation results in a closed-form expression of the manifold equation with respect to the transformation parameters. The MD computation can then be formulated as a minimization problem whose objective function is expressed as the difference of convex functions (DC). This interesting property permits optimally solving the optimization problem with DC programming solvers that are globally convergent. We present experimental evidence which shows that our method is able to find the globally optimal solution, outperforming existing methods that yield suboptimal solutions.

Graph-based classification of multiple observation sets

We consider the problem of classification of an object given multiple observations that possibly include different transformations. The possible transformations of the object generally span a low-dimensional manifold in the original signal space. We propose to take advantage of this manifold structure for the effective classification of the object represented by the observation set. In particular, we design a low complexity solution that is able to exploit the properties of the data manifolds with a graph-based algorithm. Hence, we formulate the computation of the unknown label matrix as a smoothing process on the manifold under the constraint that all observations represent an object of one single class. It results into a discrete optimization problem, which can be solved by an efficient and simple, yet effective, algorithm. We demonstrate the performance of the proposed graph-based algorithm in the classification of sets of multiple images. Moreover, we show its high potential in video-based face recognition, where it outperforms state-of-the-art solutions that fall short of exploiting the manifold structure of the face image data sets.

On the computation of structured singular values and pseudospectra

Structured singular values and pseudospectra play an important role in assessing the properties of a linear system under structured perturbations. This paper discusses computational aspects of structured pseudospectra for structures that admit an eigenvalue minimization characterization, including the classes of real, skew-symmetric, Hermitian, and Hamiltonian perturbations. For all these structures we develop algorithms that require O (n2) operations per grid point, combining the Schur decomposition with a Lanczos method. These algorithms form the basis of a graphical Matlab interface for plotting structured pseudospectra.

3D face recognition with sparse spherical representations

This paper addresses the problem of 3D face recognition using simultaneous sparse approximations on the sphere. The 3D face point clouds are first aligned with a fully automated registration process. They are then represented as signals on the 2-sphere in order to preserve depth and geometry information. Next, we implement a dimensionality reduction process with simultaneous sparse approximations and subspace projection. It permits to represent each 3D face by only a few spherical functions that are able to capture the salient facial characteristics, and hence to preserve the discriminant facial information. We eventually perform recognition by effective matching in the reduced space, where linear discriminant analysis can be further activated for improved recognition performance. The 3D face recognition algorithm is evaluated on the FRGC v.1.0 data set, where it is shown to outperform classical state-of-the-art solutions that work with depth images.

Accelerating Distributed Consensus Using Extrapolation

In the past few years, the problem of distributed consensus has received a lot of attention, particularly in the framework of ad hoc sensor networks. Most methods proposed in the literature attack this problem by distributed linear iterative algorithms, with asymptotic convergence of the consensus solution. In this letter, we propose the use of extrapolation methods in order to accelerate distributed linear iterations. The extrapolation methods are guaranteed to converge in a finite number of steps, upper bounded by the number of sensors. In particular, we show that the Scalar Epsilon Algorithm (SEA) can accelerate vector sequences produced by distributed linear iterations, with no communication overhead and without knowledge of the full network topology. We provide simulation results that demonstrate the validity and effectiveness of the proposed scheme.

Fusion of digital elevation models using sparse representations

Nowadays, different sensors and processing techniques provide Digital Elevation Models (DEMs) for the same site, which differ significantly with regard to their geometric characteristics and accuracy. Each DEM contains intrinsic errors due to the primary data acquisition technology, the processing chain, and the characteristics of the terrain. DEM fusion aims at overcoming the limitations of different DEMs by merging them in an intelligent way. In this paper we present a generic algorithmic approach for fusing two arbitrary DEMs, using the framework of sparse representations. We conduct extensive experiments with real DEMs from different earth observation satellites to validate the proposed approach. Our evaluation shows that, together with adequately chosen fusion weights, the proposed algorithm yields consistently better DEMs.