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77 results (View BibTeX file of all listed publications)

2022

Reconstructing Expressive {3D} Humans from {RGB} Images
Reconstructing Expressive 3D Humans from RGB Images

Choutas, V.

ETH Zurich, Max Planck Institute for Intelligent Systems and ETH Zurich, December 2022 (thesis)

Abstract
To interact with our environment, we need to adapt our body posture and grasp objects with our hands. During a conversation our facial expressions and hand gestures convey important non-verbal cues about our emotional state and intentions towards our fellow speakers. Thus, modeling and capturing 3D full-body shape and pose, hand articulation and facial expressions are necessary to create realistic human avatars for augmented and virtual reality. This is a complex task, due to the large number of degrees of freedom for articulation, body shape variance, occlusions from objects and self-occlusions from body parts, e.g. crossing our hands, and subject appearance. The community has thus far relied on expensive and cumbersome equipment, such as multi-view cameras or motion capture markers, to capture the 3D human body. While this approach is effective, it is limited to a small number of subjects and indoor scenarios. Using monocular RGB cameras would greatly simplify the avatar creation process, thanks to their lower cost and ease of use. These advantages come at a price though, since RGB capture methods need to deal with occlusions, perspective ambiguity and large variations in subject appearance, in addition to all the challenges posed by full-body capture. In an attempt to simplify the problem, researchers generally adopt a divide-and-conquer strategy, estimating the body, face and hands with distinct methods using part-specific datasets and benchmarks. However, the hands and face constrain the body and vice-versa, e.g. the position of the wrist depends on the elbow, shoulder, etc.; the divide-and-conquer approach can not utilize this constraint. In this thesis, we aim to reconstruct the full 3D human body, using only readily accessible monocular RGB images. In a first step, we introduce a parametric 3D body model, called SMPL-X, that can represent full-body shape and pose, hand articulation and facial expression. Next, we present an iterative optimization method, named SMPLify-X, that fits SMPL-X to 2D image keypoints. While SMPLify-X can produce plausible results if the 2D observations are sufficiently reliable, it is slow and susceptible to initialization. To overcome these limitations, we introduce ExPose, a neural network regressor, that predicts SMPL-X parameters from an image using body-driven attention, i.e. by zooming in on the hands and face, after predicting the body. From the zoomed-in part images, dedicated part networks predict the hand and face parameters. ExPose combines the independent body, hand, and face estimates by trusting them equally. This approach though does not fully exploit the correlation between parts and fails in the presence of challenges such as occlusion or motion blur. Thus, we need a better mechanism to aggregate information from the full body and part images. PIXIE uses neural networks called moderators that learn to fuse information from these two image sets before predicting the final part parameters. Overall, the addition of the hands and face leads to noticeably more natural and expressive reconstructions. Creating high fidelity avatars from RGB images requires accurate estimation of 3D body shape. Although existing methods are effective at predicting body pose, they struggle with body shape. We identify the lack of proper training data as the cause. To overcome this obstacle, we propose to collect internet images from fashion models websites, together with anthropometric measurements. At the same time, we ask human annotators to rate images and meshes according to a pre-defined set of linguistic attributes. We then define mappings between measurements, linguistic shape attributes and 3D body shape. Equipped with these mappings, we train a neural network regressor, SHAPY, that predicts accurate 3D body shapes from a single RGB image. We observe that existing 3D shape benchmarks lack subject variety and/or ground-truth shape. Thus, we introduce a new benchmark, Human Bodies in the Wild (HBW), which contains images of humans and their corresponding 3D ground-truth body shape. SHAPY shows how we can overcome the lack of in-the-wild images with 3D shape annotations through easy-to-obtain anthropometric measurements and linguistic shape attributes. Regressors that estimate 3D model parameters are robust and accurate, but often fail to tightly fit the observations. Optimization-based approaches tightly fit the data, by minimizing an energy function composed of a data term that penalizes deviations from the observations and priors that encode our knowledge of the problem. Finding the balance between these terms and implementing a performant version of the solver is a time-consuming and non-trivial task. Machine-learned continuous optimizers combine the benefits of both regression and optimization approaches. They learn the priors directly from data, avoiding the need for hand-crafted heuristics and loss term balancing, and benefit from optimized neural network frameworks for fast inference. Inspired from the classic Levenberg-Marquardt algorithm, we propose a neural optimizer that outperforms classic optimization, regression and hybrid optimization-regression approaches. Our proposed update rule uses a weighted combination of gradient descent and a network-predicted update. To show the versatility of the proposed method, we apply it on three other problems, namely full body estimation from (i) 2D keypoints, (ii) head and hand location from a head-mounted device and (iii) face tracking from dense 2D landmarks. Our method can easily be applied to new model fitting problems and offers a competitive alternative to well-tuned traditional model fitting pipelines, both in terms of accuracy and speed. To summarize, we propose a new and richer representation of the human body, SMPL-X, that is able to jointly model the 3D human body pose and shape, facial expressions and hand articulation. We propose methods, SMPLify-X, ExPose and PIXIE that estimate SMPL-X parameters from monocular RGB images, progressively improving the accuracy and realism of the predictions. To further improve reconstruction fidelity, we demonstrate how we can use easy-to-collect internet data and human annotations to overcome the lack of 3D shape data and train a model, SHAPY, that predicts accurate 3D body shape from a single RGB image. Finally, we propose a flexible learnable update rule for parametric human model fitting that outperforms both classic optimization and neural network approaches. This approach is easily applicable to a variety of problems, unlocking new applications in AR/VR scenarios.

ps

pdf [BibTex]

2022

ps Choutas, V. Reconstructing Expressive 3D Humans from RGB Images ETH Zurich, Max Planck Institute for Intelligent Systems and ETH Zurich, December 2022 (thesis)

pdf [BibTex]

2021

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Reinforcement Learning Algorithms: Analysis and Applications

Belousov, B., H., A., Klink, P., Parisi, S., Peters, J.

883, Studies in Computational Intelligence, Springer International Publishing, 2021 (book)

ei

DOI [BibTex]

2021

ei Belousov, B., H., A., Klink, P., Parisi, S., Peters, J. Reinforcement Learning Algorithms: Analysis and Applications 883, Studies in Computational Intelligence, Springer International Publishing, 2021 (book)

DOI [BibTex]

2020

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Voltage dependent interfacial magnetism in multilayer systems

Nacke, R.

Universität Stuttgart, Stuttgart, December 2020 (thesis)

mms

[BibTex]

2020

mms Nacke, R. Voltage dependent interfacial magnetism in multilayer systems Universität Stuttgart, Stuttgart, December 2020 (thesis)

[BibTex]

Computer Vision for Autonomous Vehicles: Problems, Datasets and State-of-the-Art
Computer Vision for Autonomous Vehicles: Problems, Datasets and State-of-the-Art

Janai, J., Güney, F., Behl, A., Geiger, A.

Arxiv, Foundations and Trends in Computer Graphics and Vision, 2020 (book)

Abstract
Recent years have witnessed enormous progress in AI-related fields such as computer vision, machine learning, and autonomous vehicles. As with any rapidly growing field, it becomes increasingly difficult to stay up-to-date or enter the field as a beginner. While several survey papers on particular sub-problems have appeared, no comprehensive survey on problems, datasets, and methods in computer vision for autonomous vehicles has been published. This monograph attempts to narrow this gap by providing a survey on the state-of-the-art datasets and techniques. Our survey includes both the historically most relevant literature as well as the current state of the art on several specific topics, including recognition, reconstruction, motion estimation, tracking, scene understanding, and end-to-end learning for autonomous driving. Towards this goal, we analyze the performance of the state of the art on several challenging benchmarking datasets, including KITTI, MOT, and Cityscapes. Besides, we discuss open problems and current research challenges. To ease accessibility and accommodate missing references, we also provide a website that allows navigating topics as well as methods and provides additional information.

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pdf Project Page link Project Page [BibTex]

2019

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Prototyping Micro- and Nano-Optics with Focused Ion Beam Lithography

Keskinbora, K.

SL48, pages: 46, SPIE.Spotlight, SPIE Press, Bellingham, WA, 2019 (book)

mms

DOI [BibTex]

2019

mms Keskinbora, K. Prototyping Micro- and Nano-Optics with Focused Ion Beam Lithography SL48, pages: 46, SPIE.Spotlight, SPIE Press, Bellingham, WA, 2019 (book)

DOI [BibTex]

2017

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Elements of Causal Inference - Foundations and Learning Algorithms

Peters, J., Janzing, D., Schölkopf, B.

Adaptive Computation and Machine Learning Series, The MIT Press, Cambridge, MA, USA, 2017 (book)

ei

PDF [BibTex]

2017

ei Peters, J., Janzing, D., Schölkopf, B. Elements of Causal Inference - Foundations and Learning Algorithms Adaptive Computation and Machine Learning Series, The MIT Press, Cambridge, MA, USA, 2017 (book)

PDF [BibTex]

Mobile Microrobotics
Mobile Microrobotics

Sitti, M.

Mobile Microrobotics, The MIT Press, Cambridge, MA, 2017 (book)

Abstract
Progress in micro- and nano-scale science and technology has created a demand for new microsystems for high-impact applications in healthcare, biotechnology, manufacturing, and mobile sensor networks. The new robotics field of microrobotics has emerged to extend our interactions and explorations to sub-millimeter scales. This is the first textbook on micron-scale mobile robotics, introducing the fundamentals of design, analysis, fabrication, and control, and drawing on case studies of existing approaches. The book covers the scaling laws that can be used to determine the dominant forces and effects at the micron scale; models forces acting on microrobots, including surface forces, friction, and viscous drag; and describes such possible microfabrication techniques as photo-lithography, bulk micromachining, and deep reactive ion etching. It presents on-board and remote sensing methods, noting that remote sensors are currently more feasible; studies possible on-board microactuators; discusses self-propulsion methods that use self-generated local gradients and fields or biological cells in liquid environments; and describes remote microrobot actuation methods for use in limited spaces such as inside the human body. It covers possible on-board powering methods, indispensable in future medical and other applications; locomotion methods for robots on surfaces, in liquids, in air, and on fluid-air interfaces; and the challenges of microrobot localization and control, in particular multi-robot control methods for magnetic microrobots. Finally, the book addresses current and future applications, including noninvasive medical diagnosis and treatment, environmental remediation, and scientific tools.

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Mobile Microrobotics By Metin Sitti - Chapter 1 (PDF) link (url) [BibTex]

pi Sitti, M. Mobile Microrobotics Mobile Microrobotics, The MIT Press, Cambridge, MA, 2017 (book)

Mobile Microrobotics By Metin Sitti - Chapter 1 (PDF) link (url) [BibTex]

2015

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Policy Search for Imitation Learning

Doerr, A.

University of Stuttgart, January 2015 (thesis)

am ics

link (url) Project Page [BibTex]

2015

am ics Doerr, A. Policy Search for Imitation Learning University of Stuttgart, January 2015 (thesis)

link (url) Project Page [BibTex]

2014

Advanced Structured Prediction
Advanced Structured Prediction

Nowozin, S., Gehler, P. V., Jancsary, J., Lampert, C. H.

Advanced Structured Prediction, pages: 432, Neural Information Processing Series, MIT Press, November 2014 (book)

Abstract
The goal of structured prediction is to build machine learning models that predict relational information that itself has structure, such as being composed of multiple interrelated parts. These models, which reflect prior knowledge, task-specific relations, and constraints, are used in fields including computer vision, speech recognition, natural language processing, and computational biology. They can carry out such tasks as predicting a natural language sentence, or segmenting an image into meaningful components. These models are expressive and powerful, but exact computation is often intractable. A broad research effort in recent years has aimed at designing structured prediction models and approximate inference and learning procedures that are computationally efficient. This volume offers an overview of this recent research in order to make the work accessible to a broader research community. The chapters, by leading researchers in the field, cover a range of topics, including research trends, the linear programming relaxation approach, innovations in probabilistic modeling, recent theoretical progress, and resource-aware learning.

ps

publisher link (url) [BibTex]

2014

ps Nowozin, S., Gehler, P. V., Jancsary, J., Lampert, C. H. Advanced Structured Prediction Advanced Structured Prediction, pages: 432, Neural Information Processing Series, MIT Press, November 2014 (book)

publisher link (url) [BibTex]

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Learning Motor Skills: From Algorithms to Robot Experiments

Kober, J., Peters, J.

97, pages: 191, Springer Tracts in Advanced Robotics, Springer, 2014 (book)

ei

DOI [BibTex]

ei Kober, J., Peters, J. Learning Motor Skills: From Algorithms to Robot Experiments 97, pages: 191, Springer Tracts in Advanced Robotics, Springer, 2014 (book)

DOI [BibTex]

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Computational Diffusion MRI and Brain Connectivity

Schultz, T., Nedjati-Gilani, G., Venkataraman, A., O’Donnell, L., Panagiotaki, E.

pages: 255, Mathematics and Visualization, Springer, 2014 (book)

ei

Web [BibTex]

ei Schultz, T., Nedjati-Gilani, G., Venkataraman, A., O’Donnell, L., Panagiotaki, E. Computational Diffusion MRI and Brain Connectivity pages: 255, Mathematics and Visualization, Springer, 2014 (book)

Web [BibTex]

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Development of advanced methods for improving astronomical images

Schmeißer, N.

Eberhard Karls Universität Tübingen, Germany, Eberhard Karls Universität Tübingen, Germany, 2014 (diplomathesis)

ei

[BibTex]

ei Schmeißer, N. Development of advanced methods for improving astronomical images Eberhard Karls Universität Tübingen, Germany, Eberhard Karls Universität Tübingen, Germany, 2014 (diplomathesis)

[BibTex]

Human Pose Estimation from Video and Inertial Sensors
Human Pose Estimation from Video and Inertial Sensors

Pons-Moll, G.

Ph.D Thesis, -, 2014 (book)

Abstract
The analysis and understanding of human movement is central to many applications such as sports science, medical diagnosis and movie production. The ability to automatically monitor human activity in security sensitive areas such as airports, lobbies or borders is of great practical importance. Furthermore, automatic pose estimation from images leverages the processing and understanding of massive digital libraries available on the Internet. We build upon a model based approach where the human shape is modelled with a surface mesh and the motion is parametrized by a kinematic chain. We then seek for the pose of the model that best explains the available observations coming from different sensors. In a first scenario, we consider a calibrated mult-iview setup in an indoor studio. To obtain very accurate results, we propose a novel tracker that combines information coming from video and a small set of Inertial Measurement Units (IMUs). We do so by locally optimizing a joint energy consisting of a term that measures the likelihood of the video data and a term for the IMU data. This is the first work to successfully combine video and IMUs information for full body pose estimation. When compared to commercial marker based systems the proposed solution is more cost efficient and less intrusive for the user. In a second scenario, we relax the assumption of an indoor studio and we tackle outdoor scenes with background clutter, illumination changes, large recording volumes and difficult motions of people interacting with objects. Again, we combine information from video and IMUs. Here we employ a particle based optimization approach that allows us to be more robust to tracking failures. To satisfy the orientation constraints imposed by the IMUs, we derive an analytic Inverse Kinematics (IK) procedure to sample from the manifold of valid poses. The generated hypothesis come from a lower dimensional manifold and therefore the computational cost can be reduced. Experiments on challenging sequences suggest the proposed tracker can be applied to capture in outdoor scenarios. Furthermore, the proposed IK sampling procedure can be used to integrate any kind of constraints derived from the environment. Finally, we consider the most challenging possible scenario: pose estimation of monocular images. Here, we argue that estimating the pose to the degree of accuracy as in an engineered environment is too ambitious with the current technology. Therefore, we propose to extract meaningful semantic information about the pose directly from image features in a discriminative fashion. In particular, we introduce posebits which are semantic pose descriptors about the geometric relationships between parts in the body. The experiments show that the intermediate step of inferring posebits from images can improve pose estimation from monocular imagery. Furthermore, posebits can be very useful as input feature for many computer vision algorithms.

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pdf [BibTex]

2013

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Camera-specific Image Denoising

Schober, M.

Eberhard Karls Universität Tübingen, Germany, October 2013 (diplomathesis)

ei pn

PDF [BibTex]

2013

ei pn Schober, M. Camera-specific Image Denoising Eberhard Karls Universität Tübingen, Germany, October 2013 (diplomathesis)

PDF [BibTex]

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The Playful Machine - Theoretical Foundation and Practical Realization of Self-Organizing Robots

Der, R., Martius, G.

Springer, Berlin Heidelberg, 2012 (book)

Abstract
Autonomous robots may become our closest companions in the near future. While the technology for physically building such machines is already available today, a problem lies in the generation of the behavior for such complex machines. Nature proposes a solution: young children and higher animals learn to master their complex brain-body systems by playing. Can this be an option for robots? How can a machine be playful? The book provides answers by developing a general principle---homeokinesis, the dynamical symbiosis between brain, body, and environment---that is shown to drive robots to self-determined, individual development in a playful and obviously embodiment-related way: a dog-like robot starts playing with a barrier, eventually jumping or climbing over it; a snakebot develops coiling and jumping modes; humanoids develop climbing behaviors when fallen into a pit, or engage in wrestling-like scenarios when encountering an opponent. The book also develops guided self-organization, a new method that helps to make the playful machines fit for fulfilling tasks in the real world.

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link (url) [BibTex]

Consumer Depth Cameras for Computer Vision - Research Topics and Applications
Consumer Depth Cameras for Computer Vision - Research Topics and Applications

Fossati, A., Gall, J., Grabner, H., Ren, X., Konolige, K.

Advances in Computer Vision and Pattern Recognition, Springer, 2012 (book)

ps

workshop publisher's site [BibTex]

ps Fossati, A., Gall, J., Grabner, H., Ren, X., Konolige, K. Consumer Depth Cameras for Computer Vision - Research Topics and Applications Advances in Computer Vision and Pattern Recognition, Springer, 2012 (book)

workshop publisher's site [BibTex]

2011

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Optimization for Machine Learning

Sra, S., Nowozin, S., Wright, S.

pages: 494, Neural information processing series, MIT Press, Cambridge, MA, USA, December 2011 (book)

Abstract
The interplay between optimization and machine learning is one of the most important developments in modern computational science. Optimization formulations and methods are proving to be vital in designing algorithms to extract essential knowledge from huge volumes of data. Machine learning, however, is not simply a consumer of optimization technology but a rapidly evolving field that is itself generating new optimization ideas. This book captures the state of the art of the interaction between optimization and machine learning in a way that is accessible to researchers in both fields. Optimization approaches have enjoyed prominence in machine learning because of their wide applicability and attractive theoretical properties. The increasing complexity, size, and variety of today's machine learning models call for the reassessment of existing assumptions. This book starts the process of reassessment. It describes the resurgence in novel contexts of established frameworks such as first-order methods, stochastic approximations, convex relaxations, interior-point methods, and proximal methods. It also devotes attention to newer themes such as regularized optimization, robust optimization, gradient and subgradient methods, splitting techniques, and second-order methods. Many of these techniques draw inspiration from other fields, including operations research, theoretical computer science, and subfields of optimization. The book will enrich the ongoing cross-fertilization between the machine learning community and these other fields, and within the broader optimization community.

ei

Web [BibTex]

2011

ei Sra, S., Nowozin, S., Wright, S. Optimization for Machine Learning pages: 494, Neural information processing series, MIT Press, Cambridge, MA, USA, December 2011 (book)

Web [BibTex]

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Bayesian Time Series Models

Barber, D., Cemgil, A., Chiappa, S.

pages: 432, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, UK, August 2011 (book)

ei

[BibTex]

ei Barber, D., Cemgil, A., Chiappa, S. Bayesian Time Series Models pages: 432, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, UK, August 2011 (book)

[BibTex]

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Handbook of Statistical Bioinformatics

Lu, H., Schölkopf, B., Zhao, H.

pages: 627, Springer Handbooks of Computational Statistics, Springer, Berlin, Germany, 2011 (book)

ei

Web DOI [BibTex]

ei Lu, H., Schölkopf, B., Zhao, H. Handbook of Statistical Bioinformatics pages: 627, Springer Handbooks of Computational Statistics, Springer, Berlin, Germany, 2011 (book)

Web DOI [BibTex]

2010

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Inferring High-Dimensional Causal Relations using Free Probability Theory

Zscheischler, J.

Humboldt Universität Berlin, Germany, August 2010 (diplomathesis)

ei

PDF [BibTex]

2010

ei Zscheischler, J. Inferring High-Dimensional Causal Relations using Free Probability Theory Humboldt Universität Berlin, Germany, August 2010 (diplomathesis)

PDF [BibTex]

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Semi-supervised Subspace Learning and Application to Human Functional Magnetic Brain Resonance Imaging Data

Shelton, J.

Biologische Kybernetik, Eberhard Karls Universität, Tübingen, Germany, July 2010 (diplomathesis)

ei

PDF [BibTex]

ei Shelton, J. Semi-supervised Subspace Learning and Application to Human Functional Magnetic Brain Resonance Imaging Data Biologische Kybernetik, Eberhard Karls Universität, Tübingen, Germany, July 2010 (diplomathesis)

PDF [BibTex]

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Quantitative Evaluation of MR-based Attenuation Correction for Positron Emission Tomography (PET)

Mantlik, F.

Biologische Kybernetik, Universität Mannheim, Germany, March 2010 (diplomathesis)

ei

[BibTex]

ei Mantlik, F. Quantitative Evaluation of MR-based Attenuation Correction for Positron Emission Tomography (PET) Biologische Kybernetik, Universität Mannheim, Germany, March 2010 (diplomathesis)

[BibTex]

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From Motor Learning to Interaction Learning in Robots

Sigaud, O., Peters, J.

pages: 538, Studies in Computational Intelligence ; 264, (Editors: O Sigaud, J Peters), Springer, Berlin, Germany, January 2010 (book)

Abstract
From an engineering standpoint, the increasing complexity of robotic systems and the increasing demand for more autonomously learning robots, has become essential. This book is largely based on the successful workshop "From motor to interaction learning in robots" held at the IEEE/RSJ International Conference on Intelligent Robot Systems. The major aim of the book is to give students interested the topics described above a chance to get started faster and researchers a helpful compandium.

ei

Web DOI [BibTex]

ei Sigaud, O., Peters, J. From Motor Learning to Interaction Learning in Robots pages: 538, Studies in Computational Intelligence ; 264, (Editors: O Sigaud, J Peters), Springer, Berlin, Germany, January 2010 (book)

Web DOI [BibTex]

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Finding Gene-Gene Interactions using Support Vector Machines

Rakitsch, B.

Eberhard Karls Universität Tübingen, Germany, 2010 (diplomathesis)

ei

[BibTex]

ei Rakitsch, B. Finding Gene-Gene Interactions using Support Vector Machines Eberhard Karls Universität Tübingen, Germany, 2010 (diplomathesis)

[BibTex]

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Detecting the mincut in sparse random graphs

Köhler, R.

Eberhard Karls Universität Tübingen, Germany, 2010 (diplomathesis)

ei

[BibTex]

ei Köhler, R. Detecting the mincut in sparse random graphs Eberhard Karls Universität Tübingen, Germany, 2010 (diplomathesis)

[BibTex]

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Handbook of Hydrogen Storage

Hirscher, M.

pages: 353 p., Wiley-VCH, Weinheim, 2010 (book)

mms

[BibTex]

mms Hirscher, M. Handbook of Hydrogen Storage pages: 353 p., Wiley-VCH, Weinheim, 2010 (book)

[BibTex]

2009

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Motor Control and Learning in Table Tennis

Mülling, K.

Eberhard Karls Universität Tübingen, Gerrmany, 2009 (diplomathesis)

ei

[BibTex]

2009

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]

2008

GNU Octave Manual Version 3
GNU Octave Manual Version 3

John W. Eaton, David Bateman, Soren Hauberg

Network Theory Ltd., October 2008 (book)

ps

Publishers site GNU Octave [BibTex]

2008

ps John W. Eaton, David Bateman, Soren Hauberg GNU Octave Manual Version 3 Network Theory Ltd., October 2008 (book)

Publishers site GNU Octave [BibTex]

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Reinforcement Learning for Motor Primitives

Kober, J.

Biologische Kybernetik, University of Stuttgart, Stuttgart, Germany, August 2008 (diplomathesis)

ei

PDF [BibTex]

ei Kober, J. Reinforcement Learning for Motor Primitives Biologische Kybernetik, University of Stuttgart, Stuttgart, Germany, August 2008 (diplomathesis)

PDF [BibTex]

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Asymmetries of Time Series under Inverting their Direction

Peters, J.

Biologische Kybernetik, University of Heidelberg, August 2008 (diplomathesis)

ei

PDF [BibTex]

ei Peters, J. Asymmetries of Time Series under Inverting their Direction Biologische Kybernetik, University of Heidelberg, August 2008 (diplomathesis)

PDF [BibTex]

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Machine Learning for Robotics: Learning Methods for Robot Motor Skills

Peters, J.

pages: 107 , (Editors: J Peters), VDM-Verlag, Saarbrücken, Germany, May 2008 (book)

Abstract
Autonomous robots have been a vision of robotics, artificial intelligence, and cognitive sciences. An important step towards this goal is to create robots that can learn to accomplish amultitude of different tasks triggered by environmental context and higher-level instruction. Early approaches to this goal during the heydays of artificial intelligence research in the late 1980s showed that handcrafted approaches do not suffice and that machine learning is needed. However, off the shelf learning techniques often do not scale into real-time or to the high-dimensional domains of manipulator and humanoid robotics. In this book, we investigate the foundations for a general approach to motor skilllearning that employs domain-specific machine learning methods. A theoretically well-founded general approach to representing the required control structures for task representation and executionis presented along with novel learning algorithms that can be applied in this setting. The resulting framework is shown to work well both in simulation and on real robots.

ei

Web [BibTex]

ei Peters, J. Machine Learning for Robotics: Learning Methods for Robot Motor Skills pages: 107 , (Editors: J Peters), VDM-Verlag, Saarbrücken, Germany, May 2008 (book)

Web [BibTex]

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Pairwise Correlations and Multineuronal Firing Patterns in Primary Visual Cortex

Berens, P.

Biologische Kybernetik, Eberhard Karls Universität Tübingen, Tübingen, Germany, April 2008 (diplomathesis)

ei

[BibTex]

ei Berens, P. Pairwise Correlations and Multineuronal Firing Patterns in Primary Visual Cortex Biologische Kybernetik, Eberhard Karls Universität Tübingen, Tübingen, Germany, April 2008 (diplomathesis)

[BibTex]

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Development and Application of a Python Scripting Framework for BCI2000

Schreiner, T.

Biologische Kybernetik, Eberhard-Karls-Universität Tübingen, Tübingen, Germany, January 2008 (diplomathesis)

ei

[BibTex]

ei Schreiner, T. Development and Application of a Python Scripting Framework for BCI2000 Biologische Kybernetik, Eberhard-Karls-Universität Tübingen, Tübingen, Germany, January 2008 (diplomathesis)

[BibTex]

2007

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Statistical Learning Theory Approaches to Clustering

Jegelka, S.

Biologische Kybernetik, Eberhard-Karls-Universität Tübingen, Tübingen, Germany, November 2007 (diplomathesis)

ei

PDF [BibTex]

2007

ei Jegelka, S. Statistical Learning Theory Approaches to Clustering Biologische Kybernetik, Eberhard-Karls-Universität Tübingen, Tübingen, Germany, November 2007 (diplomathesis)

PDF [BibTex]

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Predicting Structured Data

Bakir, G., Hofmann, T., Schölkopf, B., Smola, A., Taskar, B., Vishwanathan, S.

pages: 360, Advances in neural information processing systems, MIT Press, Cambridge, MA, USA, September 2007 (book)

Abstract
Machine learning develops intelligent computer systems that are able to generalize from previously seen examples. A new domain of machine learning, in which the prediction must satisfy the additional constraints found in structured data, poses one of machine learning’s greatest challenges: learning functional dependencies between arbitrary input and output domains. This volume presents and analyzes the state of the art in machine learning algorithms and theory in this novel field. The contributors discuss applications as diverse as machine translation, document markup, computational biology, and information extraction, among others, providing a timely overview of an exciting field.

ei

Web [BibTex]

ei Bakir, G., Hofmann, T., Schölkopf, B., Smola, A., Taskar, B., Vishwanathan, S. Predicting Structured Data pages: 360, Advances in neural information processing systems, MIT Press, Cambridge, MA, USA, September 2007 (book)

Web [BibTex]

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Large-Scale Kernel Machines

Bottou, L., Chapelle, O., DeCoste, D., Weston, J.

pages: 416, Neural Information Processing Series, MIT Press, Cambridge, MA, USA, September 2007 (book)

Abstract
Pervasive and networked computers have dramatically reduced the cost of collecting and distributing large datasets. In this context, machine learning algorithms that scale poorly could simply become irrelevant. We need learning algorithms that scale linearly with the volume of the data while maintaining enough statistical efficiency to outperform algorithms that simply process a random subset of the data. This volume offers researchers and engineers practical solutions for learning from large scale datasets, with detailed descriptions of algorithms and experiments carried out on realistically large datasets. At the same time it offers researchers information that can address the relative lack of theoretical grounding for many useful algorithms. After a detailed description of state-of-the-art support vector machine technology, an introduction of the essential concepts discussed in the volume, and a comparison of primal and dual optimization techniques, the book progresses from well-understood techniques to more novel and controversial approaches. Many contributors have made their code and data available online for further experimentation. Topics covered include fast implementations of known algorithms, approximations that are amenable to theoretical guarantees, and algorithms that perform well in practice but are difficult to analyze theoretically.

ei

Web [BibTex]

ei Bottou, L., Chapelle, O., DeCoste, D., Weston, J. Large-Scale Kernel Machines pages: 416, Neural Information Processing Series, MIT Press, Cambridge, MA, USA, September 2007 (book)

Web [BibTex]

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Error Correcting Codes for the P300 Visual Speller

Biessmann, F.

Biologische Kybernetik, Eberhard-Karls-Universität Tübingen, Tübingen, Germany, July 2007 (diplomathesis)

Abstract
The aim of brain-computer interface (BCI) research is to establish a communication system based on intentional modulation of brain activity. This is accomplished by classifying patterns of brain ac- tivity, volitionally induced by the user. The BCI presented in this study is based on a classical paradigm as proposed by (Farwell and Donchin, 1988), the P300 visual speller. Recording electroencephalo- grams (EEG) from the scalp while presenting letters successively to the user, the speller can infer from the brain signal which letter the user was focussing on. Since EEG recordings are noisy, usually many repetitions are needed to detect the correct letter. The focus of this study was to improve the accuracy of the visual speller applying some basic principles from information theory: Stimulus sequences of the speller have been modified into error-correcting codes. Additionally a language model was incorporated into the probabilistic letter de- coder. Classification of single EEG epochs was less accurate using error correcting codes. However, the novel code could compensate for that such that overall, letter accuracies were as high as or even higher than for classical stimulus codes. In particular at high noise levels, error-correcting decoding achieved higher letter accuracies.

ei

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ei Biessmann, F. Error Correcting Codes for the P300 Visual Speller Biologische Kybernetik, Eberhard-Karls-Universität Tübingen, Tübingen, Germany, July 2007 (diplomathesis)

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A priori Knowledge from Non-Examples

Sinz, FH.

Biologische Kybernetik, Eberhard-Karls-Universität Tübingen, Tübingen, Germany, March 2007 (diplomathesis)

ei

PDF Web [BibTex]

ei Sinz, FH. A priori Knowledge from Non-Examples Biologische Kybernetik, Eberhard-Karls-Universität Tübingen, Tübingen, Germany, March 2007 (diplomathesis)

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Development of a Brain-Computer Interface Approach Based on Covert Attention to Tactile Stimuli

Raths, C.

University of Tübingen, Germany, University of Tübingen, Germany, January 2007 (diplomathesis)

ei

[BibTex]

ei Raths, C. Development of a Brain-Computer Interface Approach Based on Covert Attention to Tactile Stimuli University of Tübingen, Germany, University of Tübingen, Germany, January 2007 (diplomathesis)

[BibTex]

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A Machine Learning Approach for Estimating the Attenuation Map for a Combined PET/MR Scanner

Hofmann, M.

Biologische Kybernetik, Max-Planck Institute for Biological Cybernetics, Tübingen, Germany, 2007 (diplomathesis)

ei

[BibTex]

ei Hofmann, M. A Machine Learning Approach for Estimating the Attenuation Map for a Combined PET/MR Scanner Biologische Kybernetik, Max-Planck Institute for Biological Cybernetics, Tübingen, Germany, 2007 (diplomathesis)

[BibTex]

2006

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Extraction of visual features from natural video data using Slow Feature Analysis

Nickisch, H.

Biologische Kybernetik, Technische Universität Berlin, Berlin, Germany, September 2006 (diplomathesis)

Abstract
Das Forschungsprojekt NeuRoBot hat das un{\"u}berwachte Erlernen einer neuronal inspirierten Steuerungsarchitektur zum Ziel, und zwar unter den Randbedingungen biologischer Plausibilit{\"a}t und der Benutzung einer Kamera als einzigen Sensor. Visuelle Merkmale, die ein angemessenes Abbild der Umgebung liefern, sind unerl{\"a}sslich, um das Ziel kollisionsfreier Navigation zu erreichen. Zeitliche Koh{\"a}renz ist ein neues Lernprinzip, das in der Lage ist, Erkenntnisse aus der Biologie des Sehens zu reproduzieren. Es wird durch die Beobachtung motiviert, dass die “Sensoren” der Retina auf deutlich k{\"u}rzeren Zeitskalen variieren als eine abstrakte Beschreibung. Zeitliche Langsamkeitsanalyse l{\"o}st das Problem, indem sie zeitlich langsam ver{\"a}nderliche Signale aus schnell ver{\"a}nderlichen Eingabesignalen extrahiert. Eine Verallgemeinerung auf Signale, die nichtlinear von den Eingaben abh{\"a}ngen, ist durch die Anwendung des Kernel-Tricks m{\"o}glich. Das einzig benutzte Vorwissen ist die zeitliche Glattheit der gewonnenen Signale. In der vorliegenden Diplomarbeit wird Langsamkeitsanalyse auf Bildausschnitte von Videos einer Roboterkamera und einer Simulationsumgebung angewendet. Zuallererst werden mittels Parameterexploration und Kreuzvalidierung die langsamst m{\"o}glichen Funktionen bestimmt. Anschließend werden die Merkmalsfunktionen analysiert und einige Ansatzpunkte f{\"u}r ihre Interpretation angegeben. Aufgrund der sehr großen Datens{\"a}tze und der umfangreichen Berechnungen behandelt ein Großteil dieser Arbeit auch Aufwandsbetrachtungen und Fragen der effizienten Berechnung. Kantendetektoren in verschiedenen Phasen und mit haupts{\"a}chlich horizontaler Orientierung stellen die wichtigsten aus der Analyse hervorgehenden Funktionen dar. Eine Anwendung auf konkrete Navigationsaufgaben des Roboters konnte bisher nicht erreicht werden. Eine visuelle Interpretation der erlernten Merkmale ist jedoch durchaus gegeben.

ei

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2006

ei Nickisch, H. Extraction of visual features from natural video data using Slow Feature Analysis Biologische Kybernetik, Technische Universität Berlin, Berlin, Germany, September 2006 (diplomathesis)

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Semi-Supervised Learning

Chapelle, O., Schölkopf, B., Zien, A.

pages: 508, Adaptive computation and machine learning, MIT Press, Cambridge, MA, USA, September 2006 (book)

Abstract
In the field of machine learning, semi-supervised learning (SSL) occupies the middle ground, between supervised learning (in which all training examples are labeled) and unsupervised learning (in which no label data are given). Interest in SSL has increased in recent years, particularly because of application domains in which unlabeled data are plentiful, such as images, text, and bioinformatics. This first comprehensive overview of SSL presents state-of-the-art algorithms, a taxonomy of the field, selected applications, benchmark experiments, and perspectives on ongoing and future research. Semi-Supervised Learning first presents the key assumptions and ideas underlying the field: smoothness, cluster or low-density separation, manifold structure, and transduction. The core of the book is the presentation of SSL methods, organized according to algorithmic strategies. After an examination of generative models, the book describes algorithms that implement the low-density separation assumption, graph-based methods, and algorithms that perform two-step learning. The book then discusses SSL applications and offers guidelines for SSL practitioners by analyzing the results of extensive benchmark experiments. Finally, the book looks at interesting directions for SSL research. The book closes with a discussion of the relationship between semi-supervised learning and transduction.

ei

Web [BibTex]

ei Chapelle, O., Schölkopf, B., Zien, A. Semi-Supervised Learning pages: 508, Adaptive computation and machine learning, MIT Press, Cambridge, MA, USA, September 2006 (book)

Web [BibTex]

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An Online-Computation Approach to Optimal Finite-Horizon State-Feedback Control of Nonlinear Stochastic Systems

Deisenroth, MP.

Biologische Kybernetik, Universität Karlsruhe (TH), Karlsruhe, Germany, August 2006 (diplomathesis)

ei

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ei Deisenroth, MP. An Online-Computation Approach to Optimal Finite-Horizon State-Feedback Control of Nonlinear Stochastic Systems Biologische Kybernetik, Universität Karlsruhe (TH), Karlsruhe, Germany, August 2006 (diplomathesis)

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Object Classification using Local Image Features

Nowozin, S.

Biologische Kybernetik, Technical University of Berlin, Berlin, Germany, May 2006 (diplomathesis)

Abstract
Object classification in digital images remains one of the most challenging tasks in computer vision. Advances in the last decade have produced methods to repeatably extract and describe characteristic local features in natural images. In order to apply machine learning techniques in computer vision systems, a representation based on these features is needed. A set of local features is the most popular representation and often used in conjunction with Support Vector Machines for classification problems. In this work, we examine current approaches based on set representations and identify their shortcomings. To overcome these shortcomings, we argue for extending the set representation into a graph representation, encoding more relevant information. Attributes associated with the edges of the graph encode the geometric relationships between individual features by making use of the meta data of each feature, such as the position, scale, orientation and shape of the feature region. At the same time all invariances provided by the original feature extraction method are retained. To validate the novel approach, we use a standard subset of the ETH-80 classification benchmark.

ei

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ei Nowozin, S. Object Classification using Local Image Features Biologische Kybernetik, Technical University of Berlin, Berlin, Germany, May 2006 (diplomathesis)

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Kernel PCA for Image Compression

Huhle, B.

Biologische Kybernetik, Eberhard-Karls-Universität, Tübingen, Germany, April 2006 (diplomathesis)

ei

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ei Huhle, B. Kernel PCA for Image Compression Biologische Kybernetik, Eberhard-Karls-Universität, Tübingen, Germany, April 2006 (diplomathesis)

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Gaussian Processes for Machine Learning

Rasmussen, CE., Williams, CKI.

pages: 248, Adaptive Computation and Machine Learning, MIT Press, Cambridge, MA, USA, January 2006 (book)

Abstract
Gaussian processes (GPs) provide a principled, practical, probabilistic approach to learning in kernel machines. GPs have received increased attention in the machine-learning community over the past decade, and this book provides a long-needed systematic and unified treatment of theoretical and practical aspects of GPs in machine learning. The treatment is comprehensive and self-contained, targeted at researchers and students in machine learning and applied statistics. The book deals with the supervised-learning problem for both regression and classification, and includes detailed algorithms. A wide variety of covariance (kernel) functions are presented and their properties discussed. Model selection is discussed both from a Bayesian and a classical perspective. Many connections to other well-known techniques from machine learning and statistics are discussed, including support-vector machines, neural networks, splines, regularization networks, relevance vector machines and others. Theoretical issues including learning curves and the PAC-Bayesian framework are treated, and several approximation methods for learning with large datasets are discussed. The book contains illustrative examples and exercises, and code and datasets are available on the Web. Appendixes provide mathematical background and a discussion of Gaussian Markov processes.

ei

Web [BibTex]

ei Rasmussen, CE., Williams, CKI. Gaussian Processes for Machine Learning pages: 248, Adaptive Computation and Machine Learning, MIT Press, Cambridge, MA, USA, January 2006 (book)

Web [BibTex]