Yinghui Gao

NEQR: a novel enhanced quantum representation of digital images

Quantum computation is becoming an important and effective tool to overcome the high real-time computational requirements of classical digital image processing. In this paper, based on analysis of existing quantum image representations, a novel enhanced quantum representation (NEQR) for digital images is proposed, which improves the latest flexible representation of quantum images (FRQI). The newly proposed quantum image representation uses the basis state of a qubit sequence to store the gray-scale value of each pixel in the image for the first time, instead of the probability amplitude of a qubit, as in FRQI. Because different basis states of qubit sequence are orthogonal, different gray scales in the NEQR quantum image can be distinguished. Performance comparisons with FRQI reveal that NEQR can achieve a quadratic speedup in quantum image preparation, increase the compression ratio of quantum images by approximately 1.5X, and retrieve digital images from quantum images accurately. Meanwhile, more quantum image operations related to gray-scale information in the image can be performed conveniently based on NEQR, for example partial color operations and statistical color operations. Therefore, the proposed NEQR quantum image model is more flexible and better suited for quantum image representation than other models in the literature.

A novel quantum representation for log-polar images

The power of quantum mechanics has been extensively exploited to meet the high computational requirement of classical image processing. However, existing quantum image models can only represent the images sampled in Cartesian coordinates. In this paper, quantum log-polar image (QUALPI), a novel quantum image representation is proposed for the storage and processing of images sampled in log-polar coordinates. In QUALPI, all the pixels of a QUALPI are stored in a normalized superposition and can be operated on simultaneously. A QUALPI can be constructed from a classical image via a preparation whose complexity is approximately linear in the image size. Some common geometric transformations, such as symmetry transformation, rotation, etc., can be performed conveniently with QUALPI. Based on these geometric transformations, a fast rotation-invariant quantum image registration algorithm is designed for log-polar images. Performance comparison with classical brute-force image registration method reveals that our quantum algorithm can achieve a quartic speedup.

Local feature point extraction for quantum images

Quantum image processing has been a hot issue in the last decade. However, the lack of the quantum feature extraction method leads to the limitation of quantum image understanding. In this paper, a quantum feature extraction framework is proposed based on the novel enhanced quantum representation of digital images. Based on the design of quantum image addition and subtraction operations and some quantum image transformations, the feature points could be extracted by comparing and thresholding the gradients of the pixels. Different methods of computing the pixel gradient and different thresholds can be realized under this quantum framework. The feature points extracted from quantum image can be used to construct quantum graph. Our work bridges the gap between quantum image processing and graph analysis based on quantum mechanics.

QSobel: A novel quantum image edge extraction algorithm

Edge extraction is an indispensable task in digital image processing. With the sharp increase in the image data, real-time problem has become a limitation of the state of the art of edge extraction algorithms. In this paper, QSobel, a novel quantum image edge extraction algorithm is designed based on the flexible representation of quantum image (FRQI) and the famous edge extraction algorithm Sobel. Because FRQI utilizes the superposition state of qubit sequence to store all the pixels of an image, QSobel can calculate the Sobel gradients of the image intensity of all the pixels simultaneously. It is the main reason that QSobel can extract edges quite fast. Through designing and analyzing the quantum circuit of QSobel, we demonstrate that QSobel can extract edges in the computational complexity of O(n2) for a FRQI quantum image with a size of 2n × 2n. Compared with all the classical edge extraction algorithms and the existing quantum edge extraction algorithms, QSobel can utilize quantum parallel computation to reach a significant and exponential speedup. Hence, QSobel would resolve the real-time problem of image edge extraction.

Iaso: an autonomous fault-tolerant management system for supercomputers

With the increase of system scale, the inherent reliability of supercomputers becomes lower and lower. The cost of fault handling and task recovery increases so rapidly that the reliability issue will soon harm the usability of supercomputers. This issue is referred to as the “reliability wall”, which is regarded as a critical problem for current and future supercomputers. To address this problem, we propose an autonomous fault-tolerant system, named Iaso, in MilkyWay-2 system. Iaso introduces the concept of autonomous management in supercomputers. By autonomous management, the computer itself, rather than manpower, takes charge of the fault management work. Iaso automatically manage the whole lifecycle of faults, including fault detection, fault diagnosis, fault isolation, and task recovery. Iaso endows the autonomous features with MilkyWay-2 system, such as self-awareness, self-diagnosis, self-healing, and self-protection. With the help of Iaso, the cost of fault handling in supercomputers reduces from several hours to a few seconds. Iaso greatly improves the usability and reliability of MilkyWay-2 system.

Approximate Maximum Common Sub-graph Isomorphism Based on Discrete-Time Quantum Walk

Maximum common sub-graph isomorphism (MCS) is a famous NP-hard problem in graph processing. The problem has found application in many areas where the similarity of graphs is important, for example in scene matching, video indexing, chemical similarity and shape analysis. In this paper, a novel algorithm Qwalk is proposed for approximate MCS, utilizing the discrete-time quantum walk. Based on the new observation that isomorphic neighborhood group matches can be detected quickly and conveniently by the destructive interference of a quantum walk, the new algorithm locates an approximate solution via merging neighborhood groups. Experiments show that Qwalk has better accuracy, universality and robustness compared with the state-of-the-art approximate MCS methods. Meanwhile, Qwalk is a general algorithm to solve the MCS problem approximately while having modest time complexity.

Analysis of image thresholding segmentation algorithms based on swarm intelligence

Swarm intelligence-based image thresholding segmentation algorithms are playing an important role in the research field of image segmentation. In this paper, we briefly introduce the theories of four existing image segmentation algorithms based on swarm intelligence including fish swarm algorithm, artificial bee colony, bacteria foraging algorithm and particle swarm optimization. Then some image benchmarks are tested in order to show the differences of the segmentation accuracy, time consumption, convergence and robustness for Salt&Pepper noise and Gaussian noise of these four algorithms. Through these comparisons, this paper gives qualitative analyses for the performance variance of the four algorithms. The conclusions in this paper would give a significant guide for the actual image segmentation.