A Tradeoff Between Accuracy and Speed for K-Means Seed Determination

With a sharp increase in the information volume, analyzing and retrieving this vast data volume is much more essential than ever. One of the main techniques that would be beneficial in this regard is called the Clustering method. Clustering aims to classify objects so that all objects within a cluster have similar features while other objects in different clusters are as distinct as possible. One of the most widely used clustering algorithms with the well and approved performance in different applications is the k-means algorithm. The main problem of the k-means algorithm is its performance which can be directly affected by the selection in the primary clusters. Lack of attention to this crucial issue has consequences such as creating empty clusters and decreasing the convergence time. Besides, the selection of appropriate initial seeds can reduce the cluster’s inconsistency. In this paper, we present a new method to determine the initial seeds of the k-mean algorithm to improve the accuracy and decrease the number of iterations of the algorithm. For this purpose, a new method is proposed considering the average distance between objects to determine the initial seeds. Our method attempts to provide a proper tradeoff between the accuracy and speed of the clustering algorithm. The experimental results showed that our proposed approach outperforms the Chithra with 1.7% and 2.1% in terms of clustering accuracy for Wine and Abalone detection data, respectively. Furthermore, achieved results indicate that comparing with the Reverse Nearest Neighbor (RNN) search approach, the proposed method has a higher convergence speed.     

变分自编码器模型综述

变分自编码器（VAE）作为深度隐空间生成模型的一种，近年来其表现性能取得了极大的成功，尤其是在图像生成方面。变分自编码器模型作为无监督式特征学习的重要工具之一，可以通过学习隐编码空间与数据生成空间的特征映射，进而在输出端重构生成输入数据。梳理了传统变分自编码器模型及其衍生变体模型的发展与研究现状，并就此做了总结和对比，最后分析了变分自编码器模型存在的问题与挑战，并就可能的发展趋势做了展望。     

Learning a Deep Predictive Coding Network for a Semi-Supervised 3D-Hand Pose Estimation

In this paper we present a CNN based approach for a real time 3D-hand pose estimation from the depth sequence. Prior discriminative approaches have achieved remarkable success but are facing two main challenges: Firstly, the methods are fully supervised hence require large numbers of annotated training data to extract the dynamic information from a hand representation. Secondly, unreliable hand detectors based on strong assumptions or a weak detector which often fail in several situations like complex environment and multiple hands. In contrast to these methods, this paper presents an approach that can be considered as semi-supervised by performing predictive coding of image sequences of hand poses in order to capture latent features underlying a given image without supervision. The hand is modelled using a novel latent tree dependency model (LDTM) which transforms internal joint location to an explicit representation. Then the modeled hand topology is integrated with the pose estimator using data dependent method to jointly learn latent variables of the posterior pose appearance and the pose configuration respectively. Finally, an unsupervised error term which is a part of the recurrent architecture ensures smooth estimations of the final pose. Experiments on three challenging public datasets, ICVL, MSRA, and NYU demonstrate the significant performance of the proposed method which is comparable or better than state-of-the-art approaches.      

The Spatial LASSO With Applications to Unmixing Hyperspectral Biomedical Images

Hyperspectral imaging (HSI) is a spectroscopic method that uses densely sampled measurements along the electromagnetic spectrum to identify the unique molecular composition of an object. Traditionally HSI has been associated with remote sensing-type applications, but recently has found increased use in biomedicine, from investigations at the cellular to the tissue level. One of the main challenges in the analysis of HSI is estimating the proportions, also called abundance fractions of each of the molecular signatures. While there is great promise for HSI in the area of biomedicine, large variability in the measurements and artifacts related to the instrumentation has slow adoption into more widespread practice. In this article, we propose a novel regularization and variable selection method called the spatial LASSO (SPLASSO). The SPLASSO incorporates spatial information via a graph Laplacian-based penalty to help improve the model estimation process for multivariate response data. We show the strong performance of this approach on a benchmark HSI dataset with considerable improvement in predictive accuracy over the standard LASSO. Supplementary materials for this article are available online.     

Subspace Clustering for Situation Assessment in Aquatic Drones: A Sensitivity Analysis for State-Model Improvement

Abstract

In this paper, we propose the use of subspace clustering to detect the states of dynamical systems from sequences of observations. In particular, we generate sparse and interpretable models that relate the states of aquatic drones involved in autonomous water monitoring to the properties (e.g., statistical distribution) of data collected by drone sensors. The subspace clustering algorithm used is called SubCMedians. A quantitative experimental analysis is performed to investigate the connections between i) learning parameters and performance, ii) noise in the data and performance. The clustering obtained with this analysis outperforms those generated by previous approaches.     

An unsupervised approach for fault diagnosis of power transformers

Electrical utilities apply condition monitoring on power transformers (PTs) to prevent unplanned outages and detect incipient faults. This monitoring is often done using dissolved gas analysis (DGA) coupled with engineering methods to interpret the data, however the obtained results lack accuracy and reproducibility. In order to improve accuracy, various advanced analytical methods have been proposed in the literature. Nonetheless, these methods are often hard to interpret by the decision-maker and require a substantial amount of failure records to be trained. In the context of the PTs, failure data quality is recurrently questionable, and failure records are scarce when compared to nonfailure records. This work tackles these challenges by proposing a novel unsupervised methodology for diagnosing PT condition. Differently from the supervised approaches in the literature, our method does not require the labeling of DGA records and incorporates a visual representation of the results in a 2D scatter plot to assist in interpretation. A modified clustering technique is used to classify the condition of different PTs using historical DGA data. Finally, well-known engineering methods are applied to interpret each of the obtained clusters. The approach was validated using data from two different real-world data sets provided by a generation company and a distribution system operator. The results highlight the advantages of the proposed approach and outperformed engineering methods (from IEC and IEEE standards) and companies legacy method. The approach was also validated on the public IEC TC10 database, showing the capability to achieve comparable accuracy with supervised learning methods from the literature. As a result of the methodology performance, both companies are currently using it in their daily DGA diagnosis.     

Quantitative FRET measurement using emission‐spectral unmixing with independent excitation crosstalk correction

Quantification of fluorescence resonance energy transfer (FRET) needs at least two external samples, an acceptor‐only reference and a linked FRET reference, to calibrate fluorescence signal. Furthermore, all measurements for references and FRET samples must be performed under the same instrumental conditions. Based on a novel notion to predetermine the molar extinction coefficient ratio (R_C) of acceptor‐to‐donor for the correction of acceptor excitation crosstalk, we present here a robust and independent emission‐spectral unmixing FRET methodology, Iem‐spFRET, which can simultaneously measure the E and R_C of FRET sample without any external references, such that Iem‐spFRET circumvents the rigorous restriction of keeping the same imaging conditions for all FRET experiments and thus can be used for the direct measurement of FRET sample. We validate Iem‐spFRET by measuring the absolute E and R_C values of standard constructs with different acceptor‐to‐donor stoichiometry expressed in living cells. Our results demonstrate that Iem‐spFRET is a simple and powerful tool for real‐time monitoring the dynamic intermolecular interaction within single living cells.     

System for augmented human–robot interaction through mixed reality and robot training by non-experts in customer service environments

Human–robot interaction during general service tasks in home or retail environment has been proven challenging, partly because (1) robots lack high-level context-based cognition and (2) humans cannot intuit the perception state of robots as they can for other humans. To solve these two problems, we present a complete robot system that has been given the highest evaluation score at the Customer Interaction Task of the Future Convenience Store Challenge at the World Robot Summit 2018, which implements several key technologies: (1) a hierarchical spatial concepts formation for general robot task planning and (2) a mixed reality interface to enable users to intuitively visualize the current state of the robot perception and naturally interact with it. The results obtained during the competition indicate that the proposed system allows both non-expert operators and end users to achieve human–robot interactions in customer service environments. Furthermore, we describe a detailed scenario including employee operation and customer interaction which serves as a set of requirements for service robots and a road map for development. The system integration and task scenario described in this paper should be helpful for groups facing customer interaction challenges and looking for a successfully deployed base to build on.     

Unsupervised adaptation of electroencephalogram signal processing based on fuzzy C‐means algorithm

This paper studies an unsupervised approach for online adaptation of electroencephalogram (EEG) based brain–computer interface (BCI). The approach is based on the fuzzy C‐means (FCM) algorithm. It can be used to improve the adaptability of BCIs to the change in brain states by online updating the linear discriminant analysis classifier. In order to evaluate the performance of the proposed approach, we applied it to a set of simulation data and compared with other unsupervised adaptation algorithms. The results show that the FCM‐based algorithm can achieve a desirable capability in adapting to changes and discovering class information from unlabeled data. The algorithm has also been tested by the real EEG data recorded in experiments in our laboratory and the data from other sources (set IIb of the BCI Competition IV). The results of real data are consistent with that of simulation data. Copyright © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.