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70 results (View BibTeX file of all listed publications)

2017

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Robotic Motion Learning Framework to Promote Social Engagement

Burns, R.

The George Washington University, August 2017 (mastersthesis)

Abstract
This paper discusses a novel framework designed to increase human-robot interaction through robotic imitation of the user's gestures. The set up consists of a humanoid robotic agent that socializes with and play games with the user. For the experimental group, the robot also imitates one of the user's novel gestures during a play session. We hypothesize that the robot's use of imitation will increase the user's openness towards engaging with the robot. Preliminary results from a pilot study of 12 subjects are promising in that post-imitation, experimental subjects displayed a more positive emotional state, had higher instances of mood contagion towards the robot, and interpreted the robot to have a higher level of autonomy than their control group counterparts. These results point to an increased user interest in engagement fueled by personalized imitation during interaction.

hi

link (url) [BibTex]

2017

hi Burns, R. Robotic Motion Learning Framework to Promote Social Engagement The George Washington University, August 2017 (mastersthesis)

link (url) [BibTex]

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Asymptotic Normality of the Median Heuristic

Garreau, Damien

July 2017, preprint (unpublished)

link (url) [BibTex]

Garreau, Damien Asymptotic Normality of the Median Heuristic July 2017, preprint (unpublished)

link (url) [BibTex]

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Human Shape Estimation using Statistical Body Models

Loper, M. M.

University of Tübingen, May 2017 (thesis)

Abstract
Human body estimation methods transform real-world observations into predictions about human body state. These estimation methods benefit a variety of health, entertainment, clothing, and ergonomics applications. State may include pose, overall body shape, and appearance. Body state estimation is underconstrained by observations; ambiguity presents itself both in the form of missing data within observations, and also in the form of unknown correspondences between observations. We address this challenge with the use of a statistical body model: a data-driven virtual human. This helps resolve ambiguity in two ways. First, it fills in missing data, meaning that incomplete observations still result in complete shape estimates. Second, the model provides a statistically-motivated penalty for unlikely states, which enables more plausible body shape estimates. Body state inference requires more than a body model; we therefore build obser- vation models whose output is compared with real observations. In this thesis, body state is estimated from three types of observations: 3D motion capture markers, depth and color images, and high-resolution 3D scans. In each case, a forward process is proposed which simulates observations. By comparing observations to the results of the forward process, state can be adjusted to minimize the difference between simulated and observed data. We use gradient-based methods because they are critical to the precise estimation of state with a large number of parameters. The contributions of this work include three parts. First, we propose a method for the estimation of body shape, nonrigid deformation, and pose from 3D markers. Second, we present a concise approach to differentiating through the rendering process, with application to body shape estimation. And finally, we present a statistical body model trained from human body scans, with state-of-the-art fidelity, good runtime performance, and compatibility with existing animation packages.

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Official Version [BibTex]

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Chapter 8 - Micro- and nanorobots in Newtonian and biological viscoelastic fluids

Palagi, S., (Walker) Schamel, D., Qiu, T., Fischer, P.

In Microbiorobotics, pages: 133 - 162, 8, Micro and Nano Technologies, Second edition, Elsevier, Boston, March 2017 (incollection)

Abstract
Swimming microorganisms are a source of inspiration for small scale robots that are intended to operate in fluidic environments including complex biomedical fluids. Nature has devised swimming strategies that are effective at small scales and at low Reynolds number. These include the rotary corkscrew motion that, for instance, propels a flagellated bacterial cell, as well as the asymmetric beat of appendages that sperm cells or ciliated protozoa use to move through fluids. These mechanisms can overcome the reciprocity that governs the hydrodynamics at small scale. The complex molecular structure of biologically important fluids presents an additional challenge for the effective propulsion of microrobots. In this chapter it is shown how physical and chemical approaches are essential in realizing engineered abiotic micro- and nanorobots that can move in biomedically important environments. Interestingly, we also describe a microswimmer that is effective in biological viscoelastic fluids that does not have a natural analogue.

pf

link (url) DOI [BibTex]

pf Palagi, S., (Walker) Schamel, D., Qiu, T., Fischer, P. Chapter 8 - Micro- and nanorobots in Newtonian and biological viscoelastic fluids In Microbiorobotics, pages: 133 - 162, 8, Micro and Nano Technologies, Second edition, Elsevier, Boston, March 2017 (incollection)

link (url) DOI [BibTex]

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Appealing Avatars from 3D Body Scans: Perceptual Effects of Stylization

Fleming, R., Mohler, B. J., Romero, J., Black, M. J., Breidt, M.

In Computer Vision, Imaging and Computer Graphics Theory and Applications: 11th International Joint Conference, VISIGRAPP 2016, Rome, Italy, February 27 – 29, 2016, Revised Selected Papers, pages: 175-196, Springer International Publishing, 2017 (inbook)

Abstract
Using styles derived from existing popular character designs, we present a novel automatic stylization technique for body shape and colour information based on a statistical 3D model of human bodies. We investigate whether such stylized body shapes result in increased perceived appeal with two different experiments: One focuses on body shape alone, the other investigates the additional role of surface colour and lighting. Our results consistently show that the most appealing avatar is a partially stylized one. Importantly, avatars with high stylization or no stylization at all were rated to have the least appeal. The inclusion of colour information and improvements to render quality had no significant effect on the overall perceived appeal of the avatars, and we observe that the body shape primarily drives the change in appeal ratings. For body scans with colour information, we found that a partially stylized avatar was perceived as most appealing.

ps

publisher site pdf DOI [BibTex]

ps Fleming, R., Mohler, B. J., Romero, J., Black, M. J., Breidt, M. Appealing Avatars from 3D Body Scans: Perceptual Effects of Stylization In Computer Vision, Imaging and Computer Graphics Theory and Applications: 11th International Joint Conference, VISIGRAPP 2016, Rome, Italy, February 27 – 29, 2016, Revised Selected Papers, pages: 175-196, Springer International Publishing, 2017 (inbook)

publisher site pdf DOI [BibTex]

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Change-point Detection and Kernels Methods

Garreau, D.

Ecole Normale Supérieure / PSL Research University, 2017 (thesis)

link (url) [BibTex]

Garreau, D. Change-point Detection and Kernels Methods Ecole Normale Supérieure / PSL Research University, 2017 (thesis)

link (url) [BibTex]

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Robot Learning

Peters, J., Lee, D., Kober, J., Nguyen-Tuong, D., Bagnell, J., Schaal, S.

In Springer Handbook of Robotics, pages: 357-394, 15, 2nd, (Editors: Siciliano, Bruno and Khatib, Oussama), Springer International Publishing, 2017 (inbook)

am ei

Project Page [BibTex]

am ei Peters, J., Lee, D., Kober, J., Nguyen-Tuong, D., Bagnell, J., Schaal, S. Robot Learning In Springer Handbook of Robotics, pages: 357-394, 15, 2nd, (Editors: Siciliano, Bruno and Khatib, Oussama), Springer International Publishing, 2017 (inbook)

Project Page [BibTex]

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Learning to Filter Object Detections

Prokudin, S., Kappler, D., Nowozin, S., Gehler, P.

In Pattern Recognition: 39th German Conference, GCPR 2017, Basel, Switzerland, September 12–15, 2017, Proceedings, pages: 52-62, Springer International Publishing, Cham, 2017 (inbook)

Abstract
Most object detection systems consist of three stages. First, a set of individual hypotheses for object locations is generated using a proposal generating algorithm. Second, a classifier scores every generated hypothesis independently to obtain a multi-class prediction. Finally, all scored hypotheses are filtered via a non-differentiable and decoupled non-maximum suppression (NMS) post-processing step. In this paper, we propose a filtering network (FNet), a method which replaces NMS with a differentiable neural network that allows joint reasoning and re-scoring of the generated set of hypotheses per image. This formulation enables end-to-end training of the full object detection pipeline. First, we demonstrate that FNet, a feed-forward network architecture, is able to mimic NMS decisions, despite the sequential nature of NMS. We further analyze NMS failures and propose a loss formulation that is better aligned with the mean average precision (mAP) evaluation metric. We evaluate FNet on several standard detection datasets. Results surpass standard NMS on highly occluded settings of a synthetic overlapping MNIST dataset and show competitive behavior on PascalVOC2007 and KITTI detection benchmarks.

ps

Paper link (url) DOI Project Page [BibTex]

ps Prokudin, S., Kappler, D., Nowozin, S., Gehler, P. Learning to Filter Object Detections In Pattern Recognition: 39th German Conference, GCPR 2017, Basel, Switzerland, September 12–15, 2017, Proceedings, pages: 52-62, Springer International Publishing, Cham, 2017 (inbook)

Paper link (url) DOI Project Page [BibTex]

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Policy Gradient Methods

Peters, J., Bagnell, J.

In Encyclopedia of Machine Learning and Data Mining, pages: 982-985, 2nd, (Editors: Sammut, Claude and Webb, Geoffrey I.), Springer US, 2017 (inbook)

ei

link (url) Project Page [BibTex]

ei Peters, J., Bagnell, J. Policy Gradient Methods In Encyclopedia of Machine Learning and Data Mining, pages: 982-985, 2nd, (Editors: Sammut, Claude and Webb, Geoffrey I.), Springer US, 2017 (inbook)

link (url) Project Page [BibTex]

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Unsupervised clustering of EOG as a viable substitute for optical eye-tracking

Flad, N., Fomina, T., Bülthoff, H. H., Chuang, L. L.

In First Workshop on Eye Tracking and Visualization (ETVIS 2015), pages: 151-167, Mathematics and Visualization, (Editors: Burch, M., Chuang, L., Fisher, B., Schmidt, A., and Weiskopf, D.), Springer, 2017 (inbook)

ei

DOI [BibTex]

ei Flad, N., Fomina, T., Bülthoff, H. H., Chuang, L. L. Unsupervised clustering of EOG as a viable substitute for optical eye-tracking In First Workshop on Eye Tracking and Visualization (ETVIS 2015), pages: 151-167, Mathematics and Visualization, (Editors: Burch, M., Chuang, L., Fisher, B., Schmidt, A., and Weiskopf, D.), Springer, 2017 (inbook)

DOI [BibTex]

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Learning Inference Models for Computer Vision

Jampani, V.

MPI for Intelligent Systems and University of Tübingen, 2017 (phdthesis)

Abstract
Computer vision can be understood as the ability to perform 'inference' on image data. Breakthroughs in computer vision technology are often marked by advances in inference techniques, as even the model design is often dictated by the complexity of inference in them. This thesis proposes learning based inference schemes and demonstrates applications in computer vision. We propose techniques for inference in both generative and discriminative computer vision models. Despite their intuitive appeal, the use of generative models in vision is hampered by the difficulty of posterior inference, which is often too complex or too slow to be practical. We propose techniques for improving inference in two widely used techniques: Markov Chain Monte Carlo (MCMC) sampling and message-passing inference. Our inference strategy is to learn separate discriminative models that assist Bayesian inference in a generative model. Experiments on a range of generative vision models show that the proposed techniques accelerate the inference process and/or converge to better solutions. A main complication in the design of discriminative models is the inclusion of prior knowledge in a principled way. For better inference in discriminative models, we propose techniques that modify the original model itself, as inference is simple evaluation of the model. We concentrate on convolutional neural network (CNN) models and propose a generalization of standard spatial convolutions, which are the basic building blocks of CNN architectures, to bilateral convolutions. First, we generalize the existing use of bilateral filters and then propose new neural network architectures with learnable bilateral filters, which we call `Bilateral Neural Networks'. We show how the bilateral filtering modules can be used for modifying existing CNN architectures for better image segmentation and propose a neural network approach for temporal information propagation in videos. Experiments demonstrate the potential of the proposed bilateral networks on a wide range of vision tasks and datasets. In summary, we propose learning based techniques for better inference in several computer vision models ranging from inverse graphics to freely parameterized neural networks. In generative vision models, our inference techniques alleviate some of the crucial hurdles in Bayesian posterior inference, paving new ways for the use of model based machine learning in vision. In discriminative CNN models, the proposed filter generalizations aid in the design of new neural network architectures that can handle sparse high-dimensional data as well as provide a way for incorporating prior knowledge into CNNs.

ps

pdf [BibTex]

ps Jampani, V. Learning Inference Models for Computer Vision MPI for Intelligent Systems and University of Tübingen, 2017 (phdthesis)

pdf [BibTex]

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Statistical Asymmetries Between Cause and Effect

Janzing, D.

In Time in Physics, pages: 129-139, Tutorials, Schools, and Workshops in the Mathematical Sciences, (Editors: Renner, Renato and Stupar, Sandra), Springer International Publishing, Cham, 2017 (inbook)

ei

link (url) DOI [BibTex]

ei Janzing, D. Statistical Asymmetries Between Cause and Effect In Time in Physics, pages: 129-139, Tutorials, Schools, and Workshops in the Mathematical Sciences, (Editors: Renner, Renato and Stupar, Sandra), Springer International Publishing, Cham, 2017 (inbook)

link (url) DOI [BibTex]

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Robot Learning

Peters, J., Tedrake, R., Roy, N., Morimoto, J.

In Encyclopedia of Machine Learning and Data Mining, pages: 1106-1109, 2nd, (Editors: Sammut, Claude and Webb, Geoffrey I.), Springer US, 2017 (inbook)

ei

DOI Project Page [BibTex]

ei Peters, J., Tedrake, R., Roy, N., Morimoto, J. Robot Learning In Encyclopedia of Machine Learning and Data Mining, pages: 1106-1109, 2nd, (Editors: Sammut, Claude and Webb, Geoffrey I.), Springer US, 2017 (inbook)

DOI Project Page [BibTex]

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Development and Evaluation of a Portable BCI System for Remote Data Acquisition

Emde, T.

Graduate School of Neural Information Processing, Eberhard Karls Universität Tübingen, Germany, 2017 (mastersthesis)

ei

[BibTex]

ei Emde, T. Development and Evaluation of a Portable BCI System for Remote Data Acquisition Graduate School of Neural Information Processing, Eberhard Karls Universität Tübingen, Germany, 2017 (mastersthesis)

[BibTex]

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Brain-Computer Interfaces for patients with Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis

Fomina, T.

Eberhard Karls Universität Tübingen, Germany, 2017 (phdthesis)

ei

[BibTex]

ei Fomina, T. Brain-Computer Interfaces for patients with Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis Eberhard Karls Universität Tübingen, Germany, 2017 (phdthesis)

[BibTex]

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Design of a visualization scheme for functional connectivity data of Human Brain

Bramlage, L.

Hochschule Osnabrück - University of Applied Sciences, 2017 (thesis)

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Bramlage_BSc_2017.pdf [BibTex]

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Decentralized Simultaneous Multi-target Exploration using a Connected Network of Multiple Robots

Nestmeyer, T., Robuffo Giordano, P., Bülthoff, H. H., Franchi, A.

In pages: 989-1011, Autonomous Robots, 2017 (incollection)

ps

[BibTex]

ps Nestmeyer, T., Robuffo Giordano, P., Bülthoff, H. H., Franchi, A. Decentralized Simultaneous Multi-target Exploration using a Connected Network of Multiple Robots In pages: 989-1011, Autonomous Robots, 2017 (incollection)

[BibTex]

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Causal models for decision making via integrative inference

Geiger, P.

University of Stuttgart, Germany, 2017 (phdthesis)

ei

[BibTex]

ei Geiger, P. Causal models for decision making via integrative inference University of Stuttgart, Germany, 2017 (phdthesis)

[BibTex]

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Capturing Hand-Object Interaction and Reconstruction of Manipulated Objects

Tzionas, D.

University of Bonn, 2017 (phdthesis)

Abstract
Hand motion capture with an RGB-D sensor gained recently a lot of research attention, however, even most recent approaches focus on the case of a single isolated hand. We focus instead on hands that interact with other hands or with a rigid or articulated object. Our framework successfully captures motion in such scenarios by combining a generative model with discriminatively trained salient points, collision detection and physics simulation to achieve a low tracking error with physically plausible poses. All components are unified in a single objective function that can be optimized with standard optimization techniques. We initially assume a-priori knowledge of the object's shape and skeleton. In case of unknown object shape there are existing 3d reconstruction methods that capitalize on distinctive geometric or texture features. These methods though fail for textureless and highly symmetric objects like household articles, mechanical parts or toys. We show that extracting 3d hand motion for in-hand scanning effectively facilitates the reconstruction of such objects and we fuse the rich additional information of hands into a 3d reconstruction pipeline. Finally, although shape reconstruction is enough for rigid objects, there is a lack of tools that build rigged models of articulated objects that deform realistically using RGB-D data. We propose a method that creates a fully rigged model consisting of a watertight mesh, embedded skeleton and skinning weights by employing a combination of deformable mesh tracking, motion segmentation based on spectral clustering and skeletonization based on mean curvature flow.

ps

Thesis link (url) Project Page [BibTex]

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Evaluation of the passive dynamics of compliant legs with inertia

Györfi, B.

University of Applied Science Pforzheim, Germany, 2017 (mastersthesis)

dlg

[BibTex]

dlg Györfi, B. Evaluation of the passive dynamics of compliant legs with inertia University of Applied Science Pforzheim, Germany, 2017 (mastersthesis)

[BibTex]

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Learning Optimal Configurations for Modeling Frowning by Transcranial Electrical Stimulation

Sücker, K.

Graduate School of Neural Information Processing, Eberhard Karls Universität Tübingen, Germany, 2017 (mastersthesis)

ei

[BibTex]

ei Sücker, K. Learning Optimal Configurations for Modeling Frowning by Transcranial Electrical Stimulation Graduate School of Neural Information Processing, Eberhard Karls Universität Tübingen, Germany, 2017 (mastersthesis)

[BibTex]

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Momentum-Centered Control of Contact Interactions

Righetti, L., Herzog, A.

In Geometric and Numerical Foundations of Movements, 117, pages: 339-359, Springer Tracts in Advanced Robotics, Springer, Cham, 2017 (incollection)

mg

link (url) [BibTex]

mg Righetti, L., Herzog, A. Momentum-Centered Control of Contact Interactions In Geometric and Numerical Foundations of Movements, 117, pages: 339-359, Springer Tracts in Advanced Robotics, Springer, Cham, 2017 (incollection)

link (url) [BibTex]

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Understanding FORC using synthetic micro-structured systems with variable coupling- and coercivefield distributions

Groß, Felix

Universität Stuttgart, Stuttgart, 2017 (mastersthesis)

mms

[BibTex]

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Adsorption von Wasserstoffmolekülen in nanoporösen Gerüststrukturen

Kotzur, Nadine

Universität Stuttgart, Stuttgart, 2017 (mastersthesis)

mms

[BibTex]

mms Kotzur, Nadine Adsorption von Wasserstoffmolekülen in nanoporösen Gerüststrukturen Universität Stuttgart, Stuttgart, 2017 (mastersthesis)

[BibTex]

2009

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Learning an Interactive Segmentation System

Nickisch, H., Kohli, P., Rother, C.

Max Planck Institute for Biological Cybernetics, December 2009 (techreport)

Abstract
Many successful applications of computer vision to image or video manipulation are interactive by nature. However, parameters of such systems are often trained neglecting the user. Traditionally, interactive systems have been treated in the same manner as their fully automatic counterparts. Their performance is evaluated by computing the accuracy of their solutions under some fixed set of user interactions. This paper proposes a new evaluation and learning method which brings the user in the loop. It is based on the use of an active robot user - a simulated model of a human user. We show how this approach can be used to evaluate and learn parameters of state-of-the-art interactive segmentation systems. We also show how simulated user models can be integrated into the popular max-margin method for parameter learning and propose an algorithm to solve the resulting optimisation problem.

ei

Web [BibTex]

2009

ei Nickisch, H., Kohli, P., Rother, C. Learning an Interactive Segmentation System Max Planck Institute for Biological Cybernetics, December 2009 (techreport)

Web [BibTex]

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Detection of objects in noisy images and site percolation on square lattices

Langovoy, M., Wittich, O.

(2009-035), EURANDOM, Technische Universiteit Eindhoven, November 2009 (techreport)

Abstract
We propose a novel probabilistic method for detection of objects in noisy images. The method uses results from percolation and random graph theories. We present an algorithm that allows to detect objects of unknown shapes in the presence of random noise. Our procedure substantially differs from wavelets-based algorithms. The algorithm has linear complexity and exponential accuracy and is appropriate for real-time systems. We prove results on consistency and algorithmic complexity of our procedure.

ei

PDF [BibTex]

ei Langovoy, M., Wittich, O. Detection of objects in noisy images and site percolation on square lattices (2009-035), EURANDOM, Technische Universiteit Eindhoven, November 2009 (techreport)

PDF [BibTex]

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An Incremental GEM Framework for Multiframe Blind Deconvolution, Super-Resolution, and Saturation Correction

Harmeling, S., Sra, S., Hirsch, M., Schölkopf, B.

(187), Max Planck Institute for Biological Cybernetics, Tübingen, Germany, November 2009 (techreport)

Abstract
We develop an incremental generalized expectation maximization (GEM) framework to model the multiframe blind deconvolution problem. A simplistic version of this problem was recently studied by Harmeling etal~cite{harmeling09}. We solve a more realistic version of this problem which includes the following major features: (i) super-resolution ability emph{despite} noise and unknown blurring; (ii) saturation-correction, i.e., handling of overexposed pixels that can otherwise confound the image processing; and (iii) simultaneous handling of color channels. These features are seamlessly integrated into our incremental GEM framework to yield simple but efficient multiframe blind deconvolution algorithms. We present technical details concerning critical steps of our algorithms, especially to highlight how all operations can be written using matrix-vector multiplications. We apply our algorithm to real-world images from astronomy and super resolution tasks. Our experimental results show that our methods yield improve d resolution and deconvolution at the same time.

ei

PDF [BibTex]

ei Harmeling, S., Sra, S., Hirsch, M., Schölkopf, B. An Incremental GEM Framework for Multiframe Blind Deconvolution, Super-Resolution, and Saturation Correction (187), Max Planck Institute for Biological Cybernetics, Tübingen, Germany, November 2009 (techreport)

PDF [BibTex]

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Efficient Filter Flow for Space-Variant Multiframe Blind Deconvolution

Hirsch, M., Sra, S., Schölkopf, B., Harmeling, S.

(188), Max Planck Institute for Biological Cybernetics, Tübingen, Germany, November 2009 (techreport)

Abstract
Ultimately being motivated by facilitating space-variant blind deconvolution, we present a class of linear transformations, that are expressive enough for space-variant filters, but at the same time especially designed for efficient matrix-vector-multiplications. Successful results on astronomical imaging through atmospheric turbulences and on noisy magnetic resonance images of constantly moving objects demonstrate the practical significance of our approach.

ei

PDF [BibTex]

ei Hirsch, M., Sra, S., Schölkopf, B., Harmeling, S. Efficient Filter Flow for Space-Variant Multiframe Blind Deconvolution (188), Max Planck Institute for Biological Cybernetics, Tübingen, Germany, November 2009 (techreport)

PDF [BibTex]

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Algebraic polynomials and moments of stochastic integrals

Langovoy, M.

(2009-031), EURANDOM, Technische Universiteit Eindhoven, October 2009 (techreport)

ei

PDF [BibTex]

ei Langovoy, M. Algebraic polynomials and moments of stochastic integrals (2009-031), EURANDOM, Technische Universiteit Eindhoven, October 2009 (techreport)

PDF [BibTex]

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Toward a Theory of Consciousness

Tononi, G., Balduzzi, D.

In The Cognitive Neurosciences, pages: 1201-1220, (Editors: Gazzaniga, M.S.), MIT Press, Cambridge, MA, USA, October 2009 (inbook)

ei

Web [BibTex]

ei Tononi, G., Balduzzi, D. Toward a Theory of Consciousness In The Cognitive Neurosciences, pages: 1201-1220, (Editors: Gazzaniga, M.S.), MIT Press, Cambridge, MA, USA, October 2009 (inbook)

Web [BibTex]

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Kernel Learning Approaches for Image Classification

Gehler, PV.

Biologische Kybernetik, Universität des Saarlandes, Saarbrücken, Germany, October 2009 (phdthesis)

Abstract
This thesis extends the use of kernel learning techniques to specific problems of image classification. Kernel learning is a paradigm in the field of machine learning that generalizes the use of inner products to compute similarities between arbitrary objects. In image classification one aims to separate images based on their visual content. We address two important problems that arise in this context: learning with weak label information and combination of heterogeneous data sources. The contributions we report on are not unique to image classification, and apply to a more general class of problems. We study the problem of learning with label ambiguity in the multiple instance learning framework. We discuss several different image classification scenarios that arise in this context and argue that the standard multiple instance learning requires a more detailed disambiguation. Finally we review kernel learning approaches proposed for this problem and derive a more efficient algorithm to solve them. The multiple kernel learning framework is an approach to automatically select kernel parameters. We extend it to its infinite limit and present an algorithm to solve the resulting problem. This result is then applied in two directions. We show how to learn kernels that adapt to the special structure of images. Finally we compare different ways of combining image features for object classification and present significant improvements compared to previous methods.

ei

PDF [BibTex]

ei Gehler, PV. Kernel Learning Approaches for Image Classification Biologische Kybernetik, Universität des Saarlandes, Saarbrücken, Germany, October 2009 (phdthesis)

PDF [BibTex]

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A PAC-Bayesian Approach to Structure Learning

Seldin, Y.

Biologische Kybernetik, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Israel, September 2009 (phdthesis)

ei

PDF [BibTex]

ei Seldin, Y. A PAC-Bayesian Approach to Structure Learning Biologische Kybernetik, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Israel, September 2009 (phdthesis)

PDF [BibTex]

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Expectation Propagation on the Maximum of Correlated Normal Variables

Hennig, P.

Cavendish Laboratory: University of Cambridge, July 2009 (techreport)

Abstract
Many inference problems involving questions of optimality ask for the maximum or the minimum of a finite set of unknown quantities. This technical report derives the first two posterior moments of the maximum of two correlated Gaussian variables and the first two posterior moments of the two generating variables (corresponding to Gaussian approximations minimizing relative entropy). It is shown how this can be used to build a heuristic approximation to the maximum relationship over a finite set of Gaussian variables, allowing approximate inference by Expectation Propagation on such quantities.

ei pn

Web [BibTex]

ei pn Hennig, P. Expectation Propagation on the Maximum of Correlated Normal Variables Cavendish Laboratory: University of Cambridge, July 2009 (techreport)

Web [BibTex]

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Consistent Nonparametric Tests of Independence

Gretton, A., Györfi, L.

(172), Max Planck Institute for Biological Cybernetics, Tübingen, Germany, July 2009 (techreport)

Abstract
Three simple and explicit procedures for testing the independence of two multi-dimensional random variables are described. Two of the associated test statistics (L1, log-likelihood) are defined when the empirical distribution of the variables is restricted to finite partitions. A third test statistic is defined as a kernel-based independence measure. Two kinds of tests are provided. Distribution-free strong consistent tests are derived on the basis of large deviation bounds on the test statistcs: these tests make almost surely no Type I or Type II error after a random sample size. Asymptotically alpha-level tests are obtained from the limiting distribution of the test statistics. For the latter tests, the Type I error converges to a fixed non-zero value alpha, and the Type II error drops to zero, for increasing sample size. All tests reject the null hypothesis of independence if the test statistics become large. The performance of the tests is evaluated experimentally on benchmark data.

ei

PDF [BibTex]

ei Gretton, A., Györfi, L. Consistent Nonparametric Tests of Independence (172), Max Planck Institute for Biological Cybernetics, Tübingen, Germany, July 2009 (techreport)

PDF [BibTex]

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ISocRob-MSL 2009 Team Description Paper for Middle Sized League

Lima, P., Santos, J., Estilita, J., Barbosa, M., Ahmad, A., Carreira, J.

13th Annual RoboCup International Symposium 2009, July 2009 (techreport)

Abstract
This paper describes the status of the ISocRob MSL roboticsoccer team as required by the RoboCup 2009 qualification procedures.Since its previous participation in RoboCup, the ISocRob team has car-ried out significant developments in various topics, the most relevantof which are presented here. These include self-localization, 3D objecttracking and cooperative object localization, motion control and rela-tional behaviors. A brief description of the hardware of the ISocRobrobots and of the software architecture adopted by the team is also in-cluded.

ps

[BibTex]

ps Lima, P., Santos, J., Estilita, J., Barbosa, M., Ahmad, A., Carreira, J. ISocRob-MSL 2009 Team Description Paper for Middle Sized League 13th Annual RoboCup International Symposium 2009, July 2009 (techreport)

[BibTex]

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Text Clustering with Mixture of von Mises-Fisher Distributions

Sra, S., Banerjee, A., Ghosh, J., Dhillon, I.

In Text mining: classification, clustering, and applications, pages: 121-161, Chapman & Hall/CRC data mining and knowledge discovery series, (Editors: Srivastava, A. N. and Sahami, M.), CRC Press, Boca Raton, FL, USA, June 2009 (inbook)

ei

Web DOI [BibTex]

ei Sra, S., Banerjee, A., Ghosh, J., Dhillon, I. Text Clustering with Mixture of von Mises-Fisher Distributions In Text mining: classification, clustering, and applications, pages: 121-161, Chapman & Hall/CRC data mining and knowledge discovery series, (Editors: Srivastava, A. N. and Sahami, M.), CRC Press, Boca Raton, FL, USA, June 2009 (inbook)

Web DOI [BibTex]

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Semi-supervised subspace analysis of human functional magnetic resonance imaging data

Shelton, J., Blaschko, M., Bartels, A.

(185), Max Planck Institute for Biological Cybernetics, Tübingen, Germany, May 2009 (techreport)

Abstract
Kernel Canonical Correlation Analysis is a very general technique for subspace learning that incorporates PCA and LDA as special cases. Functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) acquired data is naturally amenable to these techniques as data are well aligned. fMRI data of the human brain is a particularly interesting candidate. In this study we implemented various supervised and semi-supervised versions of KCCA on human fMRI data, with regression to single- and multi-variate labels (corresponding to video content subjects viewed during the image acquisition). In each variate condition, the semi-supervised variants of KCCA performed better than the supervised variants, including a supervised variant with Laplacian regularization. We additionally analyze the weights learned by the regression in order to infer brain regions that are important to different types of visual processing.

ei

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ei Shelton, J., Blaschko, M., Bartels, A. Semi-supervised subspace analysis of human functional magnetic resonance imaging data (185), Max Planck Institute for Biological Cybernetics, Tübingen, Germany, May 2009 (techreport)

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Data Mining for Biologists

Tsuda, K.

In Biological Data Mining in Protein Interaction Networks, pages: 14-27, (Editors: Li, X. and Ng, S.-K.), Medical Information Science Reference, Hershey, PA, USA, May 2009 (inbook)

Abstract
In this tutorial chapter, we review basics about frequent pattern mining algorithms, including itemset mining, association rule mining and graph mining. These algorithms can find frequently appearing substructures in discrete data. They can discover structural motifs, for example, from mutation data, protein structures and chemical compounds. As they have been primarily used for business data, biological applications are not so common yet, but their potential impact would be large. Recent advances in computers including multicore machines and ever increasing memory capacity support the application of such methods to larger datasets. We explain technical aspects of the algorithms, but do not go into details. Current biological applications are summarized and possible future directions are given.

ei

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ei Tsuda, K. Data Mining for Biologists In Biological Data Mining in Protein Interaction Networks, pages: 14-27, (Editors: Li, X. and Ng, S.-K.), Medical Information Science Reference, Hershey, PA, USA, May 2009 (inbook)

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Kernel Methods in Computer Vision:Object Localization, Clustering,and Taxonomy Discovery

Blaschko, MB.

Biologische Kybernetik, Technische Universität Berlin, Berlin, Germany, March 2009 (phdthesis)

ei

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ei Blaschko, MB. Kernel Methods in Computer Vision:Object Localization, Clustering,and Taxonomy Discovery Biologische Kybernetik, Technische Universität Berlin, Berlin, Germany, March 2009 (phdthesis)

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Model selection, large deviations and consistency of data-driven tests

Langovoy, M.

(2009-007), EURANDOM, Technische Universiteit Eindhoven, March 2009 (techreport)

Abstract
We consider three general classes of data-driven statistical tests. Neyman's smooth tests, data-driven score tests and data-driven score tests for statistical inverse problems serve as important special examples for the classes of tests under consideration. Our tests are additionally incorporated with model selection rules. The rules are based on the penalization idea. Most of the optimal penalties, derived in statistical literature, can be used in our tests. We prove general consistency theorems for the tests from those classes. Our proofs make use of large deviations inequalities for deterministic and random quadratic forms. The paper shows that the tests can be applied for simple and composite parametric, semi- and nonparametric hypotheses. Applications to testing in statistical inverse problems and statistics for stochastic processes are also presented..

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ei Langovoy, M. Model selection, large deviations and consistency of data-driven tests (2009-007), EURANDOM, Technische Universiteit Eindhoven, March 2009 (techreport)

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Large Margin Methods for Part of Speech Tagging

Altun, Y.

In Automatic Speech and Speaker Recognition: Large Margin and Kernel Methods, pages: 141-160, (Editors: Keshet, J. and Bengio, S.), Wiley, Hoboken, NJ, USA, January 2009 (inbook)

ei

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ei Altun, Y. Large Margin Methods for Part of Speech Tagging In Automatic Speech and Speaker Recognition: Large Margin and Kernel Methods, pages: 141-160, (Editors: Keshet, J. and Bengio, S.), Wiley, Hoboken, NJ, USA, January 2009 (inbook)

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Motor Control and Learning in Table Tennis

Mülling, K.

Eberhard Karls Universität Tübingen, Gerrmany, 2009 (diplomathesis)

ei

[BibTex]

ei Mülling, K. Motor Control and Learning in Table Tennis Eberhard Karls Universität Tübingen, Gerrmany, 2009 (diplomathesis)

[BibTex]

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Hierarchical Clustering and Density Estimation Based on k-nearest-neighbor graphs

Drewe, P.

Eberhard Karls Universität Tübingen, Germany, 2009 (diplomathesis)

ei

[BibTex]

ei Drewe, P. Hierarchical Clustering and Density Estimation Based on k-nearest-neighbor graphs Eberhard Karls Universität Tübingen, Germany, 2009 (diplomathesis)

[BibTex]

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Learning with Structured Data: Applications to Computer Vision

Nowozin, S.

Technische Universität Berlin, Germany, 2009 (phdthesis)

ei

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ei Nowozin, S. Learning with Structured Data: Applications to Computer Vision Technische Universität Berlin, Germany, 2009 (phdthesis)

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Covariate shift and local learning by distribution matching

Gretton, A., Smola, A., Huang, J., Schmittfull, M., Borgwardt, K., Schölkopf, B.

In Dataset Shift in Machine Learning, pages: 131-160, (Editors: Quiñonero-Candela, J., Sugiyama, M., Schwaighofer, A. and Lawrence, N. D.), MIT Press, Cambridge, MA, USA, 2009 (inbook)

Abstract
Given sets of observations of training and test data, we consider the problem of re-weighting the training data such that its distribution more closely matches that of the test data. We achieve this goal by matching covariate distributions between training and test sets in a high dimensional feature space (specifically, a reproducing kernel Hilbert space). This approach does not require distribution estimation. Instead, the sample weights are obtained by a simple quadratic programming procedure. We provide a uniform convergence bound on the distance between the reweighted training feature mean and the test feature mean, a transductive bound on the expected loss of an algorithm trained on the reweighted data, and a connection to single class SVMs. While our method is designed to deal with the case of simple covariate shift (in the sense of Chapter ??), we have also found benefits for sample selection bias on the labels. Our correction procedure yields its greatest and most consistent advantages when the learning algorithm returns a classifier/regressor that is simpler" than the data might suggest.

ei

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ei Gretton, A., Smola, A., Huang, J., Schmittfull, M., Borgwardt, K., Schölkopf, B. Covariate shift and local learning by distribution matching In Dataset Shift in Machine Learning, pages: 131-160, (Editors: Quiñonero-Candela, J., Sugiyama, M., Schwaighofer, A. and Lawrence, N. D.), MIT Press, Cambridge, MA, USA, 2009 (inbook)

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