Shivkumar Chandrasekaran

An eigenspace update algorithm for image analysis

During the past few years several interesting applications of eigenspace representation of images have been proposed. These include face recognition, video coding, and pose estimation. However, the vision research community has largely overlooked parallel developments in signal processing and numerical linear algebra concerning efficient eigenspace updating algorithms. These new developments are significant for two reasons: Adopting them will make some of the current vision algorithms more robust and efficient. More important is the fact that incremental updating of eigenspace representations will open up new and interesting research applications in vision such as active recognition and learning. The main objective of this paper is to put these in perspective and discuss a new updating scheme for low numerical rank matrices that can be shown to be numerically stable and fast. A comparison with a nonadaptive SVD scheme shows that our algorithm achieves similar accuracy levels for image reconstruction and recognition at a significantly lower computational cost. We also illustrate applications to adaptive view selection for 3D object representation from projections.

Parameter Estimation in the Presence of Bounded Data Uncertainties

We formulate and solve a new parameter estimation problem in the presence of data uncertainties. The new method is suitable when a priori bounds on the uncertain data are available, and its solution leads to more meaningful results, especially when compared with other methods such as total least-squares and robust estimation. Its superior performance is due to the fact that the new method guarantees that the effect of the uncertainties will never be unnecessarily over-estimated, beyond what is reasonably assumed by the a priori bounds. A geometric interpretation of the solution is provided, along with a closed form expression for it. We also consider the case in which only selected columns of the coefficient matrix are subject to perturbations.

Robust image-adaptive data hiding using erasure and error correction

Information-theoretic analyses for data hiding prescribe embedding the hidden data in the choice of quantizer for the host data. We propose practical realizations of this prescription for data hiding in images, with a view to hiding large volumes of data with low perceptual degradation. The hidden data can be recovered reliably under attacks, such as compression and limited amounts of image tampering and image resizing. The three main findings are as follows. 1) In order to limit perceivable distortion while hiding large amounts of data, hiding schemes must use image-adaptive criteria in addition to statistical criteria based on information theory. 2) The use of local criteria to choose where to hide data can potentially cause desynchronization of the encoder and decoder. This synchronization problem is solved by the use of powerful, but simple-to-implement, erasures and errors correcting codes, which also provide robustness against a variety of attacks. 3) For simplicity, scalar quantization-based hiding is employed, even though information-theoretic guidelines prescribe vector quantization-based methods. However, an information-theoretic analysis for an idealized model is provided to show that scalar quantization-based hiding incurs approximately only a 2-dB penalty in terms of resilience to attack.

Superfast Multifrontal Method for Large Structured Linear Systems of Equations

In this paper we develop a fast direct solver for large discretized linear systems using the supernodal multifrontal method together with low-rank approximations. For linear systems arising from certain partial differential equations such as elliptic equations, during the Gaussian elimination of the matrices with proper ordering, the fill-in has a low-rank property: all off-diagonal blocks have small numerical ranks with proper definition of off-diagonal blocks. Matrices with this low-rank property can be efficiently approximated with semiseparable structures called hierarchically semiseparable (HSS) representations. We reveal the above low-rank property by ordering the variables with nested dissection and eliminating them with the multifrontal method. All matrix operations in the multifrontal method are performed in HSS forms. We present efficient ways to organize the HSS structured operations along the elimination. Some fast HSS matrix operations using tree structures are proposed. This new structured multifrontal method has nearly linear complexity and a linear storage requirement. Thus, we call it a superfast multifrontal method. It is especially suitable for large sparse problems and also has natural adaptability to parallel computations and great potential to provide effective preconditioners. Numerical results demonstrate the efficiency.

Fast algorithms for hierarchically semiseparable matrices

Semiseparable matrices and many other rank-structured matrices have been widely used in developing new fast matrix algorithms. In this paper, we generalize the hierarchically semiseparable (HSS) matrix representations and propose some fast algorithms for HSS matrices. We represent HSS matrices in terms of general binary HSS trees and use simplified postordering notation for HSS forms. Fast HSS algorithms including new HSS structure generation and HSS form Cholesky factorization are developed. Moreover, we provide a new linear complexity explicit ULV factorization algorithm for symmetric positive definite HSS matrices with a low-rank property. The corresponding factors can be used to solve the HSS systems also in linear complexity. Numerical examples demonstrate the efficiency of the algorithms. All these algorithms have nice data locality. They are useful in developing fast-structured numerical methods for large discretized PDEs (such as elliptic equations), integral equations, eigenvalue problems, etc. Some applications are shown. Copyright q 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

`Print and Scan' Resilient Data Hiding in Images

Print-scan resilient data hiding finds important applications in document security and image copyright protection. This paper proposes methods to hide information into images that achieve robustness against printing and scanning with blind decoding. The selective embedding in low frequencies scheme hides information in the magnitude of selected low-frequency discrete Fourier transform coefficients. The differential quantization index modulation scheme embeds information in the phase spectrum of images by quantizing the difference in phase of adjacent frequency locations. A significant contribution of this paper is analytical and experimental modeling of the print-scan process, which forms the basis of the proposed embedding schemes. A novel approach for estimating the rotation undergone by the image during the scanning process is also proposed, which specifically exploits the knowledge of the digital halftoning scheme employed by the printer. Using the proposed methods, several hundred information bits can be embedded into images with perfect recovery against the print-scan operation. Moreover, the hidden images also survive several other attacks, such as Gaussian or median filtering, scaling or aspect ratio change, heavy JPEG compression, and rows and/or columns removal

Some Fast Algorithms for Sequentially Semiseparable Representations

An extended sequentially semiseparable (SSS) representation derived from time-varying system theory is used to capture, on the one hand, the low-rank of the off-diagonal blocks of a matrix for the purposes of efficient computations and, on the other, to provide for sufficient descriptive richness to allow for backward stability in the computations. We present (i) a fast algorithm (linear in the number of equations) to solve least squares problems in which the coefficient matrix is in SSS form, (ii) a fast algorithm to find the SSS form of X such that AX=B, where A and B are in SSS form, and (iii) a fast model reduction technique to improve the SSS form.

Fast Stable Solver for Sequentially Semi-separable Linear Systems of Equations

In this paper we will present a fast backward stable algorithm for the solution of certain structured matrices which can be either sparse or dense. It essentially combines the fast solution techniques for banded plus semi-separable linear systems of equations of Chandrasekaran and Gu [4] with similar techniques of Dewilde and van der Veen for time-varying systems [12].

Provably Secure Steganography: Achieving Zero K-L Divergence using Statistical Restoration

In this paper, we present a framework for the design of steganographic schemes that can provide provable security by achieving zero Kullback-Leibler divergence between the cover and the stego signal distributions, while hiding at high rates. The approach is to reserve a number of host symbols for statistical restoration: host statistics perturbed by data embedding are restored by suitably modifying the symbols from the reserved set. A dynamic embedding approach is proposed, which avoids hiding in low probability regions of the host distribution. The framework is applied to design practical schemes for image steganography, which are evaluated using supervised learning on a set of about 1000 natural images. For the presented JPEG steganography scheme, it is seen that the detector is indeed reduced to random guessing.

Subset selection for active object recognition

This paper presents an algorithm for constructing object representations suitable for recognition. The system automatically selects a representative subset of the views of the object while constructing the eigenspace basis. These views are actively located for object identification and pose determination. All processing is performed on-line. The camera is actively positioned during both representation and recognition. When tested with 240 views for each of seven objects, the system achieves 100% accurate object recognition and pose determination. These results are shown to degrade gracefully as conditions deteriorate.