Adaptive Langevin sampler for separation of t-distribution modelled astrophysical maps.

We propose to model the image differentials of astrophysical source maps by Student's t-distribution and to use them in the Bayesian source separation method as priors. We introduce an efficient Markov Chain Monte Carlo (MCMC) sampling scheme to unmix the astrophysical sources and describe the derivation details. In this scheme, we use the Langevin stochastic equation for transitions, which enables parallel drawing of random samples from the posterior, and reduces the computation time significantly (by two orders of magnitude). In addition, Student's t-distribution parameters are updated throughout the iterations. The results on astrophysical source separation are assessed with two performance criteria defined in the pixel and the frequency domains.

Bayesian separation of images modeled with MRFs using MCMC.

We investigate the source separation problem of random fields within a Bayesian framework. The Bayesian formulation enables the incorporation of prior image models in the estimation of sources. Due to the intractability of the analytical solution, we resort to numerical methods for the joint maximization of the a posteriori distribution of the unknown variables and parameters. We construct the prior densities of pixels using Markov random fields based on a statistical model of the gradient image, and we use a fully Bayesian method with modified-Gibbs sampling. We contrast our work to approximate Bayesian solutions such as Iterated Conditional Modes (ICM) and to non-Bayesian solutions of ICA variety. The performance of the method is tested on synthetic mixtures of texture images and astrophysical images under various noise scenarios. The proposed method is shown to outperform significantly both its approximate Bayesian and non-Bayesian competitors.

3D model retrieval using probability density-based shape descriptors.

We address content-based retrieval of complete 3D object models by a probabilistic generative description of local shape properties. The proposed shape description framework characterizes a 3D object with sampled multivariate probability density functions of its local surface features. This density-based descriptor can be efficiently computed via kernel density estimation (KDE) coupled with fast Gauss transform. The non-parametric KDE technique allows reliable characterization of a diverse set of shapes and yields descriptors which remain relatively insensitive to small shape perturbations and mesh resolution. Density-based characterization also induces a permutation property which can be used to guarantee invariance at the shape matching stage. As proven by extensive retrieval experiments on several 3D databases, our framework provides state-of-the-art discrimination over a broad and heterogeneous set of shape categories.

Multilevel statistical inference from functional near-infrared spectroscopy data during stroop interference.

Functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS) is an emerging technique for monitoring the concentration changes of oxy- and deoxy-hemoglobin (oxy-Hb and deoxy-Hb) in the brain. An important consideration in fNIRS-based neuroimaging modality is to conduct group-level analysis from a set of time series measured from a group of subjects. We investigate the feasibility of multilevel statistical inference for fNIRS. As a case study, we search for hemodynamic activations in the prefrontal cortex during Stroop interference. Hierarchical general linear model (GLM) is used for making this multilevel analysis. Activation patterns both at the subject and group level are investigated on a comparative basis using various classical and Bayesian inference methods. All methods showed consistent left lateral prefrontal cortex activation for oxy-Hb during interference condition, while the effects were much less pronounced for deoxy-Hb. Our analysis showed that mixed effects or Bayesian models are more convenient for faithful analysis of fNIRS data. We arrived at two important conclusions. First, fNIRS has the capability to identify activations at the group level, and second, the mixed effects or Bayesian model is the appropriate mechanism to pass from subject to group-level inference.

Constraining the general linear model for sensible hemodynamic response function waveforms.

We propose a method to do constrained parameter estimation and inference from neuroimaging data using general linear model (GLM). Constrained approach precludes unrealistic hemodynamic response function (HRF) estimates to appear at the outcome of the GLM analysis. The permissible ranges of waveform parameters were determined from the study of a repertoire of plausible waveforms. These parameter intervals played the role of prior distributions in the subsequent Bayesian analysis of the GLM, and Gibbs sampling was used to derive posterior distributions. The method was applied to artificial null data and near infrared spectroscopy (NIRS) data. The results show that constraining the GLM eliminates unrealistic HRF waveforms and decreases false activations, without affecting the inference for "realistic" activations, which satisfy the constraints.

Representation plurality and fusion for 3-D face recognition.

In this paper, we present an extensive study of 3-D face recognition algorithms and examine the benefits of various score-, rank-, and decision-level fusion rules. We investigate face recognizers from two perspectives: the data representation techniques used and the feature extraction algorithms that match best each representation type. We also consider novel applications of various feature extraction techniques such as discrete Fourier transform, discrete cosine transform, nonnegative matrix factorization, and principal curvature directions to the shape modality. We discuss and compare various classifier combination methods such as fixed rules voting- and rank-based fusion schemes. We also present a dynamic confidence estimation algorithm to boost fusion performance. In identification experiments performed on FRGC v1.0 and FRGC v2.0 face databases, we tried to find the answers to the following questions: 1) the relative importance of the face representation technique vis-à-vis the types of features extracted; 2) the impact of the gallery size; 3) the conditions, under which subspace methods are preferable, and the compression factor; 4) the most advantageous fusion level and fusion methods; 5) the role confidence votes in improving fusion and the style of selecting experts in the fusion; and 6) the consistency of the conclusions across different databases.

Extraction of cognitive activity-related waveforms from functional near-infrared spectroscopy signals.

We address the problem of prototypical waveform extraction in cognitive experiments using functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS) signals. These waveform responses are evoked with visual stimuli provided in an oddball type experimental protocol. As the statistical signal-processing tool, we consider the linear signal space representation paradigm and use independent component analysis (ICA). The assumptions underlying ICA is discussed in the light of the signal measurement and generation mechanisms in the brain. The ICA-based waveform extraction is validated based both on its conformance to the parametric brain hemodynamic response (BHR) model and to the coherent averaging technique. We assess the intra-subject and inter-subject waveform and parameter variability.

Shape-based hand recognition.

The problem of person recognition and verification based on their hand images has been addressed. The system is based on the images of the right hands of the subjects, captured by a flatbed scanner in an unconstrained pose at 45 dpi. In a pre-processing stage of the algorithm, the silhouettes of hand images are registered to a fixed pose, which involves both rotation and translation of the hand and, separately, of the individual fingers. Two feature sets have been comparatively assessed, Hausdorff distance of the hand contours and independent component features of the hand silhouette images. Both the classification and the verification performances are found to be very satisfactory as it was shown that, at least for groups of about five hundred subjects, hand-based recognition is a viable secure access control scheme.

Spectral analysis of event-related hemodynamic responses in functional near infrared spectroscopy.

The goal of this paper is to design experiments that confirm the evidence of cognitive responses in functional near infrared spectroscopy and to establish relevant spectral subbands. Hemodynamic responses of brain during single-event trials in an odd-ball experiment are measured by functional near infrared spectroscopy method. The frequency axis is partitioned into subbands by clustering the time-frequency power spectrum profiles of the brain responses. The predominant subbands are observed to confine the 0-30 mHz, 30-60 mHz, and 60-330 mHz ranges. We identify the group of subbands that shows strong evidence of protocol-induced periodicity as well as the bands where good correlation with an assumed hemodynamic response models is found.

Two-stage classification of respiratory sound patterns.

The classification problem of respiratory sound signals has been addressed by taking into account their cyclic nature, and a novel hierarchical decision fusion scheme based on the cooperation of classifiers has been developed. Respiratory signals from three different classes are partitioned into segments, which are later joined to form six different phases of the respiration cycle. Multilayer perceptron classifiers classify the parameterized segments from each phase and decision vectors obtained from different phases are combined using a nonlinear decision combination function to form a final decision on each subject. Furthermore a new regularization scheme is applied to the data to stabilize training and consultation.

Performance measures for video object segmentation and tracking.

We propose measures to evaluate quantitatively the performance of video object segmentation and tracking methods without ground-truth (GT) segmentation maps. The proposed measures are based on spatial differences of color and motion along the boundary of the estimated video object plane and temporal differences between the color histogram of the current object plane and its predecessors. They can be used to localize (spatially and/or temporally) regions where segmentation results are good or bad; and/or they can be combined to yield a single numerical measure to indicate the goodness of the boundary segmentation and tracking results over a sequence. The validity of the proposed performance measures without GT have been demonstrated by canonical correlation analysis with another set of measures with GT on a set of sequences (where GT information is available). Experimental results are presented to evaluate the segmentation maps obtained from various sequences using different segmentation approaches.

Steganalysis using image quality metrics.

We present techniques for steganalysis of images that have been potentially subjected to steganographic algorithms, both within the passive warden and active warden frameworks. Our hypothesis is that steganographic schemes leave statistical evidence that can be exploited for detection with the aid of image quality features and multivariate regression analysis. To this effect image quality metrics have been identified based on the analysis of variance (ANOVA) technique as feature sets to distinguish between cover-images and stego-images. The classifier between cover and stego-images is built using multivariate regression on the selected quality metrics and is trained based on an estimate of the original image. Simulation results with the chosen feature set and well-known watermarking and steganographic techniques indicate that our approach is able with reasonable accuracy to distinguish between cover and stego images.